Let's level. Majakka is a record that you will not only desire and need to own you will want to live in. Like an auteur Jean-Marie Machado paints pictures that are less travelogue more fodder for the roaming imagination. Recorded at Gérard de Haro's Provençal studio La Buissonne, famed for Ahmad Jamal classic Saturday Morning, and issued on the studio's in-house label, the pianist injects a Levantine feel via his use of prepared piano in a sweeping style that carries you along. The shape of his compositions aided particularly by Keyvan Chemirani's use of the zarb goblet drum provide a piquant flavour to paint a large canvas rather than steal away to fragments. The tunes are simply gorgeous rolling in and out in their tidal command. Reedist Jean-Charles Richard when on soprano saxophone especially reminds me of Tim Garland: His panoramic vision as an improviser is aesthetic and as compelling. Vincent Ségal on cello adds an elegiac elixir. So, a very beautiful record, an edifice – for the ages. SG. Out now on La Buissonne