Mwandishi – a sextet-turned-septet that floated three horns atop modal “free funk” rhythms and oceans of synths – disbanded after this album. Basically, the world wasn’t ready, because it’s one of Herbie Hancock’s true masterpieces, offering three long soundscapes that take the “atmosphere is composition” methodology of Miles Davis’s In A Silent Way and push it out into deep space.

– Phil Freeman