Trumpeter Michael Sarian leads his longstanding quartet Esquina into expansive electric territory on In This Desert, an 82-minute double album featuring Santiago Liebson on keyboards and Mini Moog, Marty Kenney on electric bass and effects, and Nathan Ellman-Bell on drums. Building on the quartet's earlier acoustic and electric explorations, the seven tracks embrace a psychedelic approach to jazz improvisation, drawing on the electric experiments of Miles Davis, the atmospheric possibilities of trip-hop, and the group's increasingly intuitive musical interplay.

The album opens with an extended suite that establishes its spacious, hypnotic character, allowing Sarian's processed trumpet to emerge from layers of analog keyboards, resonant electric bass, and loosely structured rhythmic patterns. Liebson's electronic textures provide a shifting harmonic environment, moving between sustained atmospheres and more assertive keyboard passages, while Kenney's effects-laden bass creates a deep, elastic foundation. Ellman-Bell approaches the drums with an emphasis on groove and texture, maintaining a fluid rhythmic pulse while leaving room for the music to develop in unexpected directions.

The quartet's approach recalls the atmospheric passages of Miles Davis's 1970s electric recordings, particularly the understated lyricism of Get Up With It, alongside the spacious production and darker electronic sensibilities associated with 1990s trip-hop. Rather than treating these influences as stylistic exercises, the musicians integrate them into a collective language in which melodic statements, electronic sounds, and rhythmic gestures continually reshape the music's direction.

Recorded together in the studio, In This Desert retains the immediacy of live ensemble interaction while exploring the possibilities of extended form, repetition, and gradual transformation. Sarian's lyrical trumpet remains a distinctive voice throughout, sometimes rising clearly above the ensemble, at other times dissolving into the surrounding textures. The result is a patient, immersive recording that favors atmosphere and collective development over conventional solo structures, revealing a quartet equally comfortable with melodic clarity, rhythmic propulsion, and open-ended experimentation.