Chi’s Cakewalk is daring: not only is it Jason Noble’s first solo release, but the clarinettist chose to fill it with works by living Australian composers.

After a short but grooving title track by Gerard Brophy, we hear Corrina Bonshek’s As Small Birds Play, which couples bird sounds with Noble’s spirited tone. Nature progresses through Andrew Schultz’s Night Birds I & II. Pianist Scott Davie joins Noble in Stuart Greenbaum’s Composition with Yellow Lines – a serene but provocative musical landscape – after which comes Brophy’s energetic and bassy NRG. Introspection by Kim Cunio and Noble is a force of texture; from chimes and clangs of Tibetan singing bowls through to the airy interjections of bass clarinet. The unexpected instrumentation feels laced with tension.