Pianist and composer Angelica Sanchez has played with Leo Wadada Smith, Paul Motian, Ralph Alessi, and many others; she’s also led a number of fine bands. 2012’s Wires & Moss features her quintet, which includes guitarist Marc Ducret, saxophonist Tony Malaby, bassist Drew Gress, and drummer Tom Rainey. Sanchez’s compositions and piano playing are compelling; both bring to mind contemporary classical music as well as jazz. All the pieces here are originals, and the melodies are striking even when they're embedded in harmonic and rhythmic thickets. The album starts with the longest track, “Loomed.” The first section rivets with its subtle skitterings. Later, Ducret unleashes an inventive solo, followed by Malaby’s burning tenor sax and Sanchez’s closing piano statement, an unaccompanied gem. “Dare” starts with a jagged theme before a sort of groove forms, which in turn gives way to a tangle of intriguing sounds. Gress displays a lovely tone during his introductory solo on “Bushido”: an intense, bracing cut that also finds Rainey rumbling and tumbling in explosive ways.