Bassist, bandleader and composer Orlando le Fleming continues to make music that crosses genres as readily as he crosses the Atlantic. After 20 years in New York City, he's back in his native UK, forging new pathways and renewing old partnerships.

His love for the acoustic tradition continues unabated alongside his deep affection for the robust, muscular electric fusion that emerged in the 1980s. The Romantic Funk project was born in New York's legendary 55 Bar to explore that legacy: now the new album Wandering Talk builds on the acclaim generated by 2020's The Unfamiliar, building on the framework with a set of collaborators that brings together London and New York, past and present, acoustic and electric, and merges it all into a spectacular whole. Following the same principles that served the project in NYC, le Fleming booked four Friday nights at London's renowned Vortex Club to workshop the music that would become the album, with a rotating cast of players which he honed down into the final line-up. Old London friends Tom Cawley (piano/keys) and James Maddren (drums) completed the rhythm section: new acquaintance Nathaniel Facey was picked from the ranks of the UK's brightest young saxophone players: NYC stalwart Philip Dizack flew in from the US to play trumpet.

As before, the music combines fusion's fash and fre with a contemporary sensibility: this time, Orlando's questing spirit sends his superb band forward to investigate fresh areas of creativity in dynamic and texture.

Finally a surprise - Orlando's old schoolfriend Chris Martin contributes a starkly sincere vocal performance, singing words from a poem by Persian poet Rumi, in unison with Orlando's daughter Nadia. It's a complete contrast that somehow provides a perfect coda, a closing scene for the musical drama that unfolds across the album. This latest incarnation of Romantic Funk dazzles with its unashamed virtuosity but there's a new depth of dynamic and meaning that pulls the listener into Orlando le Fleming's continuously evolving sound world and the Wandering Talk that inspires it.