A BREATHTAKINGLY SPOOKY ATMOSPHERIC emanates from the Elusion Quartet. By Michael Formanek on double bass with Tony Malaby, tenor and soprano saxophones, Kris Davis playing piano and Ches Smith on drums on this track zoning in Malaby sounds like a more brooding Julian Siegel while Davis, whose album Octopus with Craig Taborn scored right back at the beginning of the year is an ominous presence on ‘Down 8 Up 5.’ As for Ches Smith, who was on the fast selling Uncharted Territories, again a huge avant highlight of 2018, his role is a colourist in the way his cymbals foam and tide. For your initial satnav to locate Formanek think Henri Texier and then recalibrate but he shares that vast earthy perspective and can rattle the cage to ward off complacency just like the French master by opening the whole sound up to expose all the secrets inside. More than the sum of all those parts inch ever more Elusion-wards towards a heart cloaked in darkness. SG