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Food

Molecular Gastronomy

Rune Grammofon RCD2069

This is Food's fifth album í they were formed at 1988's Molde Jazz Festival as a quartet comprised of UK saxophonist Iain Ballamy, Norwegians Arve Henriksen (trumpet), Mats Eilertsen (bass) and Thomas Strønen (drums) – and they're now a duo composed of Ballamy and Strønen, augmented by Fender Rhodes player Maria Kannegaard and Ashley Slater on electronics/keyboards.

The band's adventurous outlook is undimmed, however, and this album ranges easily between sopranoípercussion dialogues in which Ballamy floats ethereally over Strønen's scurrying, skittering drumming; pieces in which an emphatic rhythm is set up, over which Ballamy alternately soars and squiggles while keyboards or electronics provide textural variety; and the occasional more conventional outing in which repeated saxophone phrases are set against a regular rhythm, decorated as required by whirrs, light gong-like pings and pongs, and slurpy electronic beats.

If this makes the whole thing sound a little haphazard, it's misleading; there is a satisfying homogeneity to the album's overall sound – it's basically superior, highly imaginative and accomplished ambient music – and it's striking and contemporary enough to pass the acid test: it moved my 19-year-old son to enquire what it was, and subsequently to borrow and listen to it.