As part of their ongoing 50th birthday celebrations, German jazz label MPS asked Italian musician and crate digger Nicola Conte to trawl through their archives for spiritual gold. The result is “Cosmic Forest”, an eye-opening set of largely obscure and little known tracks originally recorded between 1965 and 75. There is much “straight-up” spiritual jazz to enjoy (Nathan Davis’ “Evolution” being a prime example), but it’s the cuts that draw on a wider palette of influences that really stand out. Check, for example, the Middle Eastern flourishes of George Gruntz’s “Djerbi”, the hippy-ish vocal bliss of The Third Wave’s “Maiden Voyage”, the meditative jazz raga that is “Yaad” by Motihar Trio, Schweizer Trio, Schoof & Wilen, and the tropical drums of “El Babaku” by El Babaku.