As emotionally engaging as it is immaculately performed, this latest album from vocalist Viktoria Tolstoy scores highly for its striking juxtapositions and imaginative grasp of the music. There are exceptional covers of two beautiful Ida Sand songs, album opener ‘I Should Run’ plus ‘The Mind Is Free’, the latter a textbook example in the art of accompaniment. With its imagery of airports and leave-taking, the cryptic, disconsolate Stina Nordenstam/Guy Sigsworth-penned title track taps into the melancholic strand of Tolstoy’s aesthetic. Featuring new lyrics penned by her long-standing collaborator, Anna Alerstedt, Tolstoy’s take on Nils Eriksson’s ‘Land Of The Humble’ possesses an almost elegiac quality, while Sinne Eeg’s ‘The Streets Of Berlin’ finds the singer at her quietly dramatic best. Programmed back-to-back, two songs associated with the great Nancy Wilson – ‘The Old Country’ and ‘The Great City’ – showcase Tolstoy’s inventive way with a standard, as does the moving piano-vocal take on Shirley Horn’s signature song, ‘Here’s To Life’, which brings this unerringly fine collection to a close. As always, Tolstoy’s band is first class, with the all-important piano chair – previously occupied by the late Esbjörn Svensson and more recently by Jacob Karlzon – now filled by one of the rising stars of the Nordic jazz scene, Joel Lyssarides.