Since its debut release, 2007's We Are All from Somewhere Else, Exploding Star Orchestra's ever-shifting personnel has mostly hovered around 15 members, providing a grand canvas for composer and conceptualist Mazurek to explore cosmic themes. This latest outing slims the ensemble down to a core group of just eight players, but remains characteristically ambitious.

Opening track, ‘Future Shaman’ is a clipped funk vamp with squelchy synth bass, and Parker's electric guitar navigating obliquely unpredictable chord progressions that seem to unfold with a weirdly implacable logic. ‘Dream Sleeper’ embraces a more nebulous abstraction with Mazurek's trumpet (replacing his customary cornet) unleashing rapid squalls into a dense, electronic cloud. ‘Shape Shifter’ feels remarkably like a 21st century update on Miles’ ‘The Sorcerer’ with the trumpet erecting architectural intricacies over tumbling polyrhythms and gritty synth bass.

For the rest of the album, the camera pulls back to reveal a more panoramic view. The 14-minute ‘Black River’ is a huge, billowing collage of percussive crashes, trumpet cries and electronic treatments that also includes samples of a 12-piece iteration of the band recorded live in Paris in 2022.

Throughout the album, Damon Locks’ spoken poetic sloganeering adds a mysterious urgency and depth. It's a serious business.