Encompassing a range of moods and styles with a no-nonsense modernist tilt, this five-movement suite (Collier always worked best on a large canvas) draws some remarkable work from his soloists as it flows between energetic drive and abstract, almost capricious sections that nonetheless never lose sight of their own logic. Wonderful listening and an invaluable document.

Like the British climate itself, it's a work of constant evolution and change, moving from languid apprehensive ballads to stormy, propulsive guitar rock, deep pastoral melancholy, modal patterns of rich colour and heavy big-band prog.

Prior to this commission, all Collier’s recorded work had been with smaller ensembles and while the writing on occasion could sound like an expanded small group using fairly orthodox voicings and ensemble devices, there are also episodes of adventure that demand repeated listening.

Props to the folks at Gearbox Records for this remaster - taken from the original master tapes - the amount of clarity they’ve managed to squeeze out of these almost 50-year-old tapes is really something. I’d say it’s a crime that this suite wasn’t released sooner, but at the very least it’s great to see it get the treatment it deserves.

British Conversations is beautiful. It's touching and tender. There's a British noir aesthetic; a Geordie Gil Evans-Axelrod. It gets pretty damned heavy (special shout to Brolund on bass) but there's always a deft sensitivity. It's hip but focuses less on the material, less on the spectacle of hip and more on atmosphere and warm emotion.

Excellent session...Beckett and Speight's solos are superb and enhance a finely written suite that showcases the riches of a UK-EU fraternity.