Clarinetist Francois Houle mixes moody moments of ebony rapture in duo and solo format with loose post bop compositions with his band of Mark Helias on bass and clarinet, drummer Gerry Hemingway and guitarist Gordon Grdina. The shorter tunes include a 37 and 38 second bookends of “Prelude” and “Postlude and can be as short as a 31 second “Interlude 1” or stretch to 1:37 “Interlude 2”, with each of these pieces having one or two reeds producing meditative musings. Houle’s clarinet pads beat out the rhythm on the intuitive title track,” while he swirls to Helias’ bass on the mood changing “The Black Bird” and trudges to Hemingway’s drum work on “Bowen”. Grdina leads into the post bopping “Big Time Felter” and the team gets angular on “Canyamel”. A stroll through thick reeds.