Ancient History ACT****

Verneri Pohjola's debut album, Aurora, was released last year to widespread acclaim. So the difficult second album was always going to be, well, difficult. But the young Finnish trumpeter has done it again on Ancient History, stripping back the lush, orchestral sweep of Auroraand going for a tighter quartet sound, using the musicians he has been playing with for years. With his clear, flat tone and wide open spaces, the leader's debt to Miles Davis is clear, but the fact that he is prepared to be so upfront about it suggests a self-confidence that comes through in his solos. Cheap Taxi Adventure, with its straight-eights groove and Fender Rhodes jabs, is straight out of Miles's late 1960s handbook, and all the better for it. The album's only cover, Björk's excellent Hyperballad, points in an entirely different direction, with Pohjola's tenderly desolate trumpet floating over a bed of industrial rhythms inspired by the song's words. verneripohjola.com