Jazz grip. Via Paris, the Florian Pellissier Quintet dropped their fifth long-player, Pacifiques Biches, in the waning days of last year, casting a subtle, if luminous, glow over the tinsel-lit holiday hustle. Echoing the reflective sophistication of 1970s European jazz, the album weaves atmospheric textures and interplay into a nuanced tapestry of understated restraint. Impressively, and this is no small feat, its nine tracks maintain a contemporary edge without slipping into the well-trodden traps of obvious pastiche.