A masters graduate from the elite Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance at UCLA, bassist Emiliano Lasansky - who hails from Iowa City - emerges here with his own compositions powered by a quartet flavoured most obviously by the alto saxophone playing of Devin Daniels. 'Alto Intro' which comes actually in the middle of the album acts as a pause and reset with in the second half of the album later on a slight shift to factor in vocals from Genevieve Artadi on three tracks, a feature of that part. 'L.P.'s Tune' earlier is a homage to Lasansky’s father.

'Motionless' begins in such dramatic fashion and has a certain authority to it heralded by anthemic alto. Notably Javier Santiago is in the spotlight on 'Piano Interlude' where he sounds like George Colligan a bit. But the pianist's best soloing in terms of sheer flow is on the title track. 'Love in Small Places' has a very understated and unmannered vocal from Artadi - known for her work with Louis Cole within the very hip squelchy electronica tinged maelstrom of Knower. The quartet is completed by drummer Benjamin Ring who adds a lot of heat eventually on 'Dependence.'

Grant Wood painting 'Young Corn' (1931) inspired the most affecting preternaturally still track of The Optimist - sung by Knower's Genevieve Artadi

Paragon days

Earlier work of Lasansky's, as part of a band called Paragon entitled Kin, was issued by Outside In Music in 2018.

'Fountain Of Youth' began with an assignment set by Herbie Hancock - encounter the absorbing video of the quartet in performance playing the piece.

And the most affecting track, subjectively to us, is the preternaturally still 'Young Corn' inspired by the Grant Wood painting that the visual arts inspired Lasansky saw exhibited in New York's Whitney Museum of American Art. Thoughtful music making where the clutter of bluster and ego statements are banished. But draw a line on the long road to you from Scott LaFaro to Charlie Haden and somewhere there along the way to the unknowable future you'll find in a lay-by - overlooking picturesque distant prairies, perhaps - the beating heart of what one-to-watch Lasansky is all about.