Mitchell's work over the past decade has been of a consistently high standard, but she excels herself on this new offering. An improviser with both attention to detail and flourish, Mitchell also has an ear for astute combinations of instruments and an understanding of myriad cultural traditions that allow her to fashion vocabulary well beyond genre confines. Halfway in to the set there is a startling passage of solo vocal testifying by Avery R. Young and it stands as a fine centrepiece, shoring up the essential gospel foundation of the album. Yet the route taken to this epiphany is utterly unforeseen, for the preceding arrangements are an intriguing composite of spectral Japanese and European classical music, industrial guitar rock and back-o-yard blues. Mitchell's scores are like shapeshifters that bring these disparate elements in and out of focus, but the backbone of the music has the requisite flexibility and clarity to make this possible. Wisely, there is percussion where one might expect a kit drum, and the additional space enables the many timbres to coalesce without any real clutter, much as they do in Afro-latin or indeed Middle Eastern music. Taut, often spare basslines only serve to centre the choral ornamentation. The net result is a real ensemble voice in which solos are contained rather than extended and the interplay of various woodwinds or strings – the overlapping of flute and shakuhachi or the weaving of guitar and cello – is very effective. Mitchell has crafted a structural canvas that is not top-heavy but has great depth, both sonically and emotionally. Mandorla, inspired by ‘the Great Mother’, is confirmation of a brilliant storyteller as well as composer-player in contemporary creative music.