Singer/composer Tess Hirst first came to national attention in her duo with bassist Daniel Casimir; their 2019 collaborative album These Days seemed to encapsulate the interactive, boundaries-down aesthetic of both the so-called young London jazz scene and the multi-media platform Jazz re:freshed, on whose label this rather wonderful 'jazz-not-jazz' solo debut is released.

Flanked by longtime friends and collaborators including Casimir, pianist Sarah Tandy and most notably, drummer Richard Spaven, whose fierce but delicate stings and shuffling, careening drum'n'bass offbeats lend an unsettling menace to the album's eight original tracks,

Hirst wraps her golden contralto around lyrics devoted to women and motherhood. These, then, are story-songs, as political and socially aware ('Disrupt the order!' she implores on 'Rules Based Order') as they are proud and celebratory (first single 'Magic' is a testament to women's robust capacity to rise to any challenge).

A new mother herself, Hirst has crafted urban folk tunes whose raw realism comes buoyed by beats and leavened by moments of beauty: sparkling, cascading notes from StringTing, the quartet of graduates from the Tomorrow's Warriors training programme, and spare, minimalist piano phrases from Tandy - one of the UK's most underrated jazz gunslingers. And throughout, Hirst's honeyed voice, as authentic as it is pitch perfect.