2 of 2

Featuring an international cast of Scandinavians, and renowned British bassist Barry Guy assisting on two pieces, this release consists of one studio remix by America’s Jim O’Rourke amid these four pieces. However, the free-form approach sheds multihued colors throughout this curiously interesting endeavor. As the ensemble pursues an organic sound, marked by inconsequential sounds and interleaving dialogue. Essentially, the musicians stay busy sans any train wrecks or meaningless exchanges. On track “2,” Barry Guy adds a limber bottom end to a work, enhanced by O’Rourke’s subtle yet somewhat odd studio processing-based manipulations. Here, the musicians apply a sense of distortion in concert with subliminally enacted themes and quiet, microtonal passages. Where the music takes on liquefying characteristics amid eerie backdrops, although the reeds/guitar/percussion trio becomes a bit more rambunctious on track “3.” Sure, it’s all about free improv. Nonetheless, the ensemble elicits notions of horizontal planes to coincide with moments spanning temperate musings and climactic opuses, garnished with textural mosaics of sound. Overall, the instrumentalists pursue a nouveau attitude, that ages convincingly well, upon repeated spins. Recommended…

Glenn Astarita