Best known as a bracing (and absorbing) post-Coltrane player (he was actually one of the first), Dave Liebman upturns expectations with a well-conceived and thoughtfully executed album that completes a quartet of titles programmatically themed on the four elements of nature – earth, air, fire and water. Although unified by concept, each album celebrates a distinct and different approach. On Earth, Liebman is primarily concerned with textures generated by a mix of acoustic and electronic instruments, with Matt Vashlishan putting in sterling work with ambient sweeps and atmospheric electronic colouring. The standout tracks are ‘Sahara’, that incorporates major and minor seconds suggestive of a desert heat haze and ‘Concrete Jungle’ that uses fifths and fourths to depict the jagged Manhattan skyline. Throughout, Liebman craftily exploits the binary opposition of dissonance and consonance within the overall context of the composition that ultimately leads to resolution, such as ‘Grand Canyon/Mt. Everest’ or ‘Volcano/Avalanche’. Although he has consciously placed himself in unfamiliar sonic territory, throughout Liebman’s soprano sax effortlessly seems to modulate the ebb and flow of this haunting music.