Collocutor – The Search review: ‘colourful and hypnotic’

Fronted by saxophonist/flautist Tamar Osborn, Collocutor are a horn-led collective in the vanguard of London’s thriving homegrown scene.

They're an outfit whose modal jazz draws influences from across the globe and beyond – Ethiopia, Nigeria, the interplanetary musings of Sun Ra – while still sounding like no one else.

This excellent sophomore album, conceived as a journey from darkness to hope, is a thrumming musical dialogue, with four deftly arranged originals taking in thick grooves, trancey moods and age-old cultural ideas-swapping, and three improvised Conversations featuring smaller configurations of the band: a heart-to-heart between trumpet player Simon Finch and leftfield Italian percussionist Mauricio Ravalico is a highlight.

Colourful, hypnotic stuff. Collocutor play the Jazz Café, NW1 on April 15.

(On the Corner Records)