Joe Armon-Jones combines free-flowing, dynamic energy with a bigger vision. A prodigious, head-turning keys player, debut album Starting Today is a showcase for his ludicrous chops on the piano and the like-minded, equally talented bandmates who join him on the record. But there’s a clear, tangible thread which runs through it too: from hip-hop to dub, a wide spectrum of sounds is refracted through a shared, dedicated approach to playing.

Starting Today follows the Idiom EP released with Maxwell Owin in 2017. Picked by The Vinyl Factory as one of 2017’s best EPs, it led to live shows at Boiler Room and Jazz Cafe.

Be it in different venues across London or touring abroad, those live shows – under his own name, with Ezra Collective, or with musical peers Nubya Garcia and Oscar Jerome – have been an important rehearsal ground, helping to form relationships and foment ideas. He’s also toured with the likes of Ata Kak and Pharoahe Monch, connecting with artists outside his immediate circles.

The album also shows the touch of a studio perfectionist. In spare hours between rehearsals and shows, plenty of time is dedicated to honing tracks to perfection. Taking cues from dub-minded studio production, it’s an approach that meshes together his different influences. Soulful brass arrangements are coloured with carefully-tuned atmospherics, and individual flashes of brilliance are bound into the album’s bigger picture.

A many-sided musical education has led him to where he is now. His parents are both musicians, and learning the piano started at a young age. Important early discoveries were Chick Corea and Weather Report. Later, discovering hip-hop would put those discoveries in a bigger context: colliding virtuoso playing with beat-splicing methodology, it’s a clash of cultures that remains influential.

It’s made for a record with an unmistakable depth. In the title track, Asheber’s vocals lead a lush, joyous celebration to open the album’s proceedings. ‘Mollison Dub’, likewise, is bright-spirited and luminous; except this time, it’s the bassline – a simple, softly-played earworm – that carries the track from beginning to end. Both speak to a celebratory kind of feel, paired with a musical dexterity that combines different traditions.

It’s a spirit which runs through the whole album, drawing together the different ideas and bandmates which have created it. From the low-slung, gently anthemic ‘Almost Went Too Far’, to ‘London’s Face’, which breaks up stepping, insistent rhythms with big brass breakdowns, setting out distinct moods across its nine minutes. Through all of it, he draws on deep musical understanding to make music which feels like a warm embrace.