Bill Bruford brought his quartet for its third visit to Brighton in as many years - although on a much larger stage.

The foursome rose to this challenge individually and collectively with the more open pieces recalling the free-flowing textures of Keith Jarrett's European quartet with Jan Garbarek.

Elsewhere, the intricate metres of Bruford's jazz-rock days have endured.

Mark Hodgson's driving double-bass riffs and Tim Garland's various reeds all impressed.

For his finale, Bruford introduced his first solo recording, the little gem that is Beelzebub.

Dating all the way back to 1977, the brilliantly quirky theme brought nifty bass clarinet from Garland in unison with Steve Hamilton's piano.

Stewart Copeland's affair filled the stage with the Matrix Ensemble chamber orchestra, Gene Pool and Ensemble Bash, who performed brilliantly on xylophone and marimba for Kaya.

Copeland provided the solid backbeat at the heart of many of his compositions, while embellishments came from the Matrix woodwind and brass, a well-used palette of orchestral colour.

The more exciting passages had echoes of the chunky systems music of Michael Nyman et al, with the overall sound favouring the bass attack of saxophones, bass clarinet and trombone.

Acoustically, the flute and string quartet were less happy in the mix when the Bash quartet switched to drumming.

A highlight was Copeland's Rumblefish score with its interweaving of Garland on electronic wind synthesiser and the Matrix soprano saxist.

Other pieces leaned towards the high-spirited stuff of cop show themes, epitomised by Copeland's score from the popular Edward Woodward show, The Equaliser.