Stuart Greenbaum has been on fire recently, with two other albums of his compositions making it into this column in the past 24 months. A Trillion Miles of Darkness is nothing like the other two (The Final Hour in 2020 and Electric Confession in 2021), and yet it is just as fresh, innovative, compelling and beautiful.

With a title like ‘A Trillion Miles of Darkness’, the eponymous opening sonata starts suitably low and dark in timbre. David Griffiths is on the murmuring clarinet accompanied by Timothy Young on piano, and their interplay is described as ‘soulful’ by ABC Classics – an assessment with which I completely agree. It only grows from there. ‘Life Cycles’ gives Griffiths a moment to shape soaring phrases, which then transitions to the beautiful opening of ‘Cloud Eight’, a piece that had me hooked from the start. Ken Murray is a delight on the guitar, and both he and Griffiths show their versatility in the jazz influenced ‘Going Home’. Listening to this, I was reminded how lucky we are to have such consummate musicians living in our city. If you’ve haven’t heard any of these musicians perform live, I urge you to attend the next concert in which any of them are featured.

Clarinet is a popular instrument for beginner students, and this album would be a wonderful gift for the budding musician in your life to show them what modern clarinet music can achieve.

Kate Rockstrom is a friend of Readings.