Hanuman: Soundhousing

Hailing from Italy, The Hanuman Quartet's gospel professes a far- reaching and multicolored plane of concepts, including hummable themes, investigative dialogues and asymmetrical pulses that pose a slight realm of suspense on a per-track basis. Many of the semi-structured compositional attributes contain an open forum for improvisation amid nimble atmospherics, simmering free-jazz opuses and a little roughhousing along the way.

The band integrates numerous metrics into its manifesto. For instance on "Bhurma Dreams," bassist Stefano Solani's loping blues pattern offers a compact base for the hornist's abstract expressionism and splintered decomposition efforts. Here and throughout, the soloists manage to streamline these works with airy overtones, tendering a nice balance between conventional jazz articulations and the free-zone. Moreover, they strike a symmetrical perspective by fusing lighthearted choruses with scrappy and rambunctious rhythmic jaunts.

Clarinetist Fabio Martini tiptoes through dark passageways on "Carelian," while "Soundhousing" is designed with a staggered flow and features Martini's sweet-toned lines and saxophonist Marco Franceschetti's blurting and swirling contrapuntal maneuvers. And the frontline generates imagery of an involved conversation as drummer Danilo Sala instigates the exchanges via his peppery support amid a flirtatious sequence of events. Another twist to the saga surfaces on the final track "The Margin," which is a euphoric jaunt, composed of supple unison choruses and a breezy, mid-tempo swing vamp. Hence, the quartet imparts a ray of sunshine for the closeout. In sum, the 71- minute production is seeded within a multidirectional outline, gushing with the quartet's fluctuating subplots and ample infusions of good cheer.