Marius Neset (b1985) has now emerged among the leading jazz practitioners, and this release with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra is an intriguing extension of his multifaceted career.

Most ambitious is Manmade (2019), a concerto whose adept switching between modes and oblique allusion to earlier works confirm an ambition appropriate for music that deals with the pressing matters of past, present and future. After the pulsating anticipation of ‘Creation’, it moves from the rhythmic energy of ‘Edison’ to the intensifying emotion of ‘Apollo’; then from the cumulative rhythmic panache of ‘Nobel’ to the growing pathos of ‘A New Creation’ with its increasingly fervent evocation of utopia. On an altogether smaller scale, Windless (2017) attracts through its dextrous writing for harp, piano and woodwind that unfolds methodically if always insinuatingly to a soulful apex, before receding towards the silence whence it arose.

Saxophone is conspicuous by its absence in Every Little Step (2021), inspired by an extended period the composer spent with his infant daughter throughout lockdown. It’s understandable that this should take in the wide-eyed eloquence of ‘Recognize’ and scurrying animation of ‘Motion’, with its deft interplay of syncopated then undulating patterns (and several nods to The Beatles), on the way to the lively insouciance of ‘Higher and Higher’ with its resplendent culmination. From here to the evocation A Day in the Sparrow’s Life (2016) is but a small step; the catchy rhythmic groove begun by saxophone drawing a growing number of instruments to its cause, before more intimate gestures presage an evocative cadenza then rapidly crescendoing close.

The agility of Neset’s playing is abetted by the commitment of the BPO and Edward Gardner. Wide-ranging SACD sound, with extensive notes by Mervyn Cooke and the composer. Not a revelatory addition to the ongoing fusion of jazz and classical music but an appealing one even so.