The Prism Quartet’s ongoing exploration of the boundaries between classical music and jazz continues with this spicy blend of formal composition and jazz improvisation. The quartet’s arrangements themselves blend contemporary and modernist classical music with jazz to deliver sonorities pitched neatly between the controlled harmonics of classical music and the sonic breadth of the World Saxophone Quartet.

Multi-instrumentalists Joe Lovano, Chris Potter and Ravi Coltrane in various combinations then flesh out, intertwine and improvise freely on the Prism Quartet’s exemplary written score. The result is a rich and satisfying feast of saxophone sonics that range from the symphonic to snappy rhythm pieces fuelled by a baritone riff. The album was recorded in two sessions, two years apart, and each guest saxophonist contributed a score.

The album opens with the unfolding soundscapes of 'Forbidden Drive', a 13-minute showcase for Lovano’s tenor sax composed by the Prism Quartet’s Mathew Levy, and recorded in 2017. Lovano’s seven-part 'Super Sonix' is from the same session. The densely-detailed collaboration ranges from the abstract to the sublime and presents Lovano on saxes, gongs and drums.

The Coltrane/Potter session dates from 2015. Here the two saxophonists combine their multi-instrumental skills in a series of collaborative events ranging from the riff-fuelled snippets, extravaganzas and chases of Potter’s nine 'Improvisations' to Coltrane’s elegiac ‘Tones for M’, a duet with a sheen of saxophone support.