Roots Magic – Long Old Road (Clean Feed, 2023)

By Guido Montegrandi

Roots Magic is Alberto Popolla, clarinets, electric bass, banjo; Errico De Fabritiis, alto and baritone saxophones; Eugenio Colombo, flutes, soprano saxophone; Francesco Lo Cascio, vibraphone, percussion; Gianfranco Tedeschi, double bass; and Fabrizio Spera, drums, percussion, zither. They started as a quartet in 2013 and now, since August ‘21 when Eugenio Colombo and Francesco Lo Cascio joined in, they have been established as a sextet. This is their fourth album and the first with the enlarged set up. Their creative path, on the other way, has confirmed its direction “somewhere between deep Blues and creative Jazz” (Roots Magic site) joining the blues of the origin with the creative black music of the 60s and the 70s also including references to black literature and culture as indicated by the quoting of Toni Morrison (track 2), Benjamin Zephaniah (track 3) and Z.Z. Packer (track 8).

In November 2020, interviewed by Musica Jazz Magazine, the musicians declared that they had grown up listening to this music (delta blues and creative music) and that they recognize its strong influence so as to feel rooted into its tradition. Their first record - Hoodoo Blue - Roots Magic also included a quote by Evan Parker “my roots are in my record player” to mark their belonging to this cultural heritage.

Long Old Road is made of 9 tracks: five are Roots Magic originals and four are renditions of creative Black music.

In the opening track - When The Elephant Walks (by Kahil El'Zabar) - the reeds develop a rhythmic groove supported by a bass ostinato from which the solos emerge; this feature will return many times in the whole album like in Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (Quoting Z.Z. Packer) and Run As Slow As You Can (Quoting Benjamin Zephaniah) in which the spellbinding theme phrase drives the soloes to follow the same direction meandering around it to be finally carried away by the hypnotic rhythm.

Other pieces like Sula (Quoting Toni Morrison) and Blue Lines (For Muhal Richard Abrams) are more in the tradition of Chicagoan creative music with open sections and incisive drumming.

The title track Long Old Road (by Bessie Smith) is characterized by a bass and horns ostinato that allows the clarinet to design the melody then everything thins out becoming more abstract with shreds of melodies and a pervasive bass groove, a good example of the way Roots Magic approaches the blues tradition.

All of the music is carefully structured and organized in a way that gives melodic elements the possibility to emerge; the enlarged line up offers many possibilities and the sound is rich and varied (Frank Zappa Grand Wazoo is just behind the corner). The pieces are developed with love and respect for the original but with a personal approach that the group has developed during the years and the result is an enjoyable album for your ear and much food for your thoughts about the place Blues and Black music in have in the contemporary culture.

When we finish listening to this record a good exercise will be to go back to the original songs to have a perspective view of the long old road that has been traveled; for example listen to the closing Things Have Got To Change (by Cal Massey) and then go back to Archie Shepp 1971 record… love and respect as they say.

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Julius Amber – Close Up (Veto records, 2023)

By  Fotis Nikolakopoulos

The duo of Julius Amber is a paraphrase of Elio Amberg on the tenor saxophone and Julian Sartorius on the drums. Close Up is the amalgamation of their vision for music, one that certainly goes beyond jazz, even jazz based musics. I would dare make a comparison that along XT, the duo of Seymour Wright and Paul Abbott, Amberg and Sartorius breathe totally fresh air in improvisational music relieving the classic sax-drums duo from the burden of tradition.

The music in all ten tracks of Close Up finds both musicians willingly reconceptualizing the idea and notion of the duo. It is almost impossible to distinguish their unique voices (and noises…) and that is exactly what they are trying to achieve. The sounds: gargles, percussion cracks, small phrases on the sax, cymbals crashing in miniscule scale and so much more, are made on the spot with precision. Their small scale –sometimes less than three minutes long- improvisations go deep into a struggle of getting rid the individual voice, leaving zero space for the mythologized, in jazz, solo player. Starting with the opening track which clocks on fourteen minutes and definitely is a state of intent, up to the short, under two minutes, passages, the aforementioned remark is the core of Close Up.

Their use of electronics, not to mention the electronic rhythm sequencer they follow as they go along, makes this album (yes! It’s on vinyl) more anti-jazz than anything else that comes out nowadays under the moniker free improvisation. But this is not an “electronic” album by no means and the rhythm sequences they follow are not a fixed tenure on what you are about to listen to on both sides of the record.

Their sound, so personal indeed, is flexible, energetic and playful. They do not feel any burden, from any history or tradition, on their shoulders. Again I would dare to comment that their gaze towards the material feels a bit radical. Strong word, I know, but Close Up is music that shouldn’t be missed. Be it from the best of 2023 lists or, more importantly, from those who want to listen to something new and like to get out of their comfort zone.

After last year’s trio of Christoph Erb, Magda Mayas and Gerry Hemingway that made it in this site’s top ten list for 2022, Veto Records pas produced another great one. In fewer words, listen and buy it here: 

@koultouranafigo

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Okay Temiz’s Oriental Wind – Live at Montreux Jazz Festival 1982 (CazPlak, 2023)

By Nick Ostrum

Turkish percussionist Okay Temiz is a legend, whose influence reaches far beyond the avant-garde as usually covered on FJB. That said, he certainly made his mark on free jazz, as well. He was quite active in the Scandinavian scene in the 1970s and appeared on some important albums coming out of it: a bunch with post-Ornette Don Cherry, including Organic Music Society , a handful with Johnny Dyani and Mongezi Feza including Music for Xaba and the archival Free Jam. The rest of his catalog is also impressive, though I am unfamiliar with most of the artists on his 80+ (and likely many more) releases. That branching, playing in different scenes internationally that practiced different styles is part of what makes Temiz so great. Unlike some, who find a sound, double- and triple-down on it and carve out their niche, Temiz goes wide.

One hears that on Live at Montreux Jazz Festival 1982, which has just been released for the first time on CazPlak. With Palle Danielsson on bass, Bobo Stenson on keys, Lennart Åberg on sax , Thomas Ostergen on guitar and Temiz on percussion, Live at Montreuxis a Middle Eastern-inflected, free jazz fusion scorcher. The liner notes explain the group integrates “more liberated versions of known Anatolia structures such as 9/8 rhythm sections” into jazz and rock vernaculars. Maybe that is what makes this so infectious: the complexity of the rhythms (Danielsson and Temiz make an immaculate pair) and Åberg’s and Ostergens aggressively snaking scales. Then again, I am not sure the effect is so reducible. Temiz has a fluidity that works in so many settings. He plays music that merges Egyptian, Scandinavian, American, British and other influences without exposing the seams and also without turning it into some smoothed and shiny mush. This music retains its edges and its drive. It gyres and spikes and glides. It is imminently danceable, but I am not sure what, exactly, such an intricate dance would look like. Too much goes on around the melody and, especially, the rhythm. It is a ball of energy, consisting of rotating strings of melodic fire that pulse around Temiz’s glowing polyrhythmic core. And, ultimately, it is a real archival treasure.

And if you are not convinced yet, check out this film recording of the entire set:

Apparently the vinyl (European, Japanese and Turkish editions) is sold out, but you can still pick this one up as a download on Bandcamp:

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Andre Carvalho - Lost in Translation Vol II (Clean Feed, 2023)

By Sean McCarthy

Lost in Translation Vol II is the second outing from New York City based Portuguese bassist Andre Carvalho and his trio with saxophonist José Soares and guitarist André Matos. Continuing where their previous release Lost in Translation (Outside In Music, 2021) left off, the trio is back exploring a brand new set of untranslatable words, which Carvalho calls “an inexhaustible source of inspiration”. The group creates a meditative and atmospheric sound world contrasting Soares’ warm and angular saxophone lines with Matos’ crystalline and often reverb drenched guitar and underpinned Carvalho’s typically unaffected pizzicato and arco upright bass. The opening track “Mencolek” runs the gamut of sonic offerings from the most textural and contemplative soundscapes to fuzzed out bass and distorted guitar intersecting overblown chromaticism from Soares. In one track Carvalho and crew lay their cards on the table showing the listener exactly the parameters of this dynamic chamber ensemble.

Carvalho’s experience scoring films certainly permeates the compositional character of the record as each piece combines clever melodic hooks with long sections of slowly evolving atmospheres, texture with interplay take precedence over harmonic or melodic gravitas.

One could put this album on in the background and enjoy it purely as sonic texture, however this record rewards a close and thorough listening as each piece offers a fertile ground for interweaving improvisations, satisfying counterpunctual interactions and deep explorations of instrumental timbre and combinations.

The trio briefly ventures into the realm of a more conventional jazz ensemble on the fifth track “Gurfa” as the Carvalho settles into a broken walking bass feel under Soares with Matos offering chordal interjections between phrases. This selection manages to add some variety without taking away from the overarching feeling of the recording and, coming in just after the halfway point, provides a breath of fresh air as the group returns to the more meandering approach of the first half of the record.

Lost in Translation Vol II is a worthy successor to Carvalho and companies’ previous effort, bringing the idea and feeling of untranslatable words into the sonic realm with witty and contemplative pieces that are both open yet satisfyingly self-contained. If you’re a fan of the first volume of Lost in Translation or enjoy music that doesn’t rush and rewards close, repeated listens then you won’t want to miss this one.

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Ken Vandermark and Paul Lytton - Distant Cousins (Audiographic, 2023)

 

By Paul Acquaro

The reed doubler Ken Vandermark is always juggling many projects of varying sizes and shapes, but one configuration that is always a joy to hear him in is the duo, especially the sax and drums combination. Famously, he has two long standing duos with Paal Nilssen-Love and Tim Daisy, and also just released an album with Hamid Drake. On Distant Cousins, however, he is joined by another long-time collaborator, the legendary British free jazz drummer Paul Lytton, who brings along his expansive technique and rhythmic drive as compliment to Vandermark's unique sonic vocabulary and dynamic energy. 

Recorded live in concert at Elastic Arts in Chicago in early March 2020, Distant Cousins is one 35-minute track documenting the duo engaged in a purposeful play that run from the exploratory to full throttle free improvisation in thrilling ebbing and flowing waves.

The recording begins with a quick blast of sax and an introductory patter of drums. The exchange quickly escalates as Vandermark begins blowing longer, powerful tones and Lytton fills in the space with rapid fills and propulsive bass drum kicks. As quick as they were to start, they then seemingly telepathically pull it back not two minutes later. One instantly comprehends the impact of their now 24 year-rapport, and the results are as thrilling as one may imagine.

About 11 minutes into the track, Vandermark switches to clarinet and the interaction between the two of them slips beyond a dialog. It's more a layered interaction, cause and effect tacitly prompted, rooted perhaps more in sensing rather than hearing, and in the end, co-creating a single sound. At first, the clarinet work is gentle, probing, as is the complimenting percussion accompanying it. Vandermark speeds up, so does Lytton. Vandermark is now mixing squalls of notes with more melodic passages and Lytton leans into the textural aspects of the drums, percussive friction and clatter matching the woodwind's scalar flights and extended range transgressions. Fast forwarding ahead to about the 20-minute mark, Vandermark has now switched to baritone sax and all musical hell breaks loose - just like you would want it to. Starting with a few low bleats, Vandermark is soon widening known sonic dimensions with powerful and searing blasts. Of course, fierce energy alone wears out its welcome and the duo does not allow this to happen, rather they push and pull all the levers: tempo, texture, timber and tone to bring the set to its pinnacle and to a final effusive conclusion.

An essential recording to add to the already essential series of - in particular - sax and drum duos from Ken Vandermark and his brilliant collaborators.

 

 

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Ivo Perelman and James Emery - The Whisperers (Mahakala, 2023)

By Sammy Stein

Ivo Perelman and James Emery need little in the way of introduction. Perelman is a well-respected improvising musician, with classical roots and a musical compulsion to seek out collaborations with fellow musicians that offer challenges and ways to express music in different ways. Emery is a guitarist who has been an integral part of the String Trio of New York, which celebrates 45 years since its conception this year. He has recorded Anthony Braxton, Wadado Leo Smith, Joe Lovano, and many others. Perelman so far has made well over 100 recordings, and still, on this album with Emery, he finds yet another aspect to his lifelong walk with his beloved tenor saxophone, as he continues to explore improvised music in many formats and with different musicians.

On this album, Perelman is at his intuitive best, his reactions honed as the guitar leads but it is down to Emery that Perelman is set challenges, as he creates masterful guitar music, its changing voice creating variety, from plucked, strummed, and flicked strings, their volume and delicacy forcing Perelman to respond at times with quicksilver reactions.

Typical of Perelman collaborations, the tracks are simply numbered one to fourteen (no track eight).

Although it was a recording based on spontaneous music making, the album feels like a mix of composition and improvised music. This is probably due to Emery’s classical grounding, which reveals itself in many places, and the fact that Perelman himself began as a classical musician and understands the minutiae of both composed and improvised music. He can, and does, discuss the close liaison between classical music and improvisation, at length given the chance, and sees freely improvised music as the classical music of the future. Listening to another collaboration and hearing the classical and improvised elements spontaneously emerging at the behest of two musicians with feet in classical music and free jazz camps, this is an understandable and logical conclusion.

The guitar and saxophone create distinctive lines, yet effortlessly flow together to create music that at once encourages the listener to follow the individual instruments, yet there is a connection and togetherness in this recording that is almost tangible.

Track One sees the guitar dictate a minimalistic styling that Perelman follows. He makes use of a succession of repeated phrases as well as rising solos, while Emery counteracts with fiery string work and the contrast between Perelman on sustain and Emery’s fast-fingered fury in one section is joyous.

On Track Two sweet, uplifting sounds emanate from Perelman and Emery as they take and relinquish the lead, the guitar proving equal to the sax in terms of traversing octaves and changing intonation.

Track Three is glorious – a musical conversation between two players at ease with their instruments and each other and on Track Four there is a joyful conversation between guitar and sax again with Perelman’s trademark altissimo extremes and his ease at flipping back to lower register making the saxophone speak in delicate tones one moment and offer fiery, forceful responses in others.

On Track Five the guitar enters with warping chords, over which Perelman adds the voice of altissimo, weaving intricate sound patterns and alternating between deep rasping low register notes and altissimo. Perelman’s explosive lines are matched proportionally by the guitar as it responds, and Emery challenges the melodic flow by introducing rhythm changes.

On Track Six, the guitar is to the fore, with Perelman meandering between registers, inserting repeated rivulets of sound and on Track Seven there are moments of pure classical style from the guitar but not from Perelman who injects fire and brimstone into the number. Track Nine is a more contemplative track until the final third when both players become increasingly forceful and powerfully drive their ideas home.

Track Ten is interesting and there are different sonic experiences, from Western-esque wah-wahs to warped strings and drumming on the guitar body while Perelman once again trips between altissimo and lower register. There are pops, paps, squeaks, and contrasting gentler episodes – it feels like everything but the kitchen sink in terms of technique is inserted here.

Track Eleven starts with a breathy tenor introduction from Perelman with an elegant response from Emery’s guitar before he alters the rhythm pattern. Perelman follows, taking the altissimo technique to another level, chasing snatches of minor arpeggios across the registers.

On Track Twelve Perelman sets up percussive rhythms using tongued technique and Emery responds with his own patterns, the body of the guitar resonating under the strings. He sets up a repeated rhythmic line, under which Perelman sets his saxophone meandering but under his control. Glorious.

Track thirteen is a gentler track with the saxophone introducing forceful melodic phrases under chords from Emery in the first third. Then it evolves and develops into a free-flowing exchange of musical ideas.

Track Fourteen is beautiful, with classical elements evident from both Emery and Perelman and a great track to encapsulate both players’ styles.

This recording is interesting and engaging. There is such dynamism between the players and the essence of a track changes with a motif, or a whimsical phrase from either player, the other intuitively changing course in response. Perelman once again proves himself a magician of both improvised music and the tenor saxophone but mostly here for his choice of guitar player to record with. 

"The Whisperers" is scheduled to be released on June 30th.

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Jachna, Mazurkiewicz & Buhl - [...] (Audio Cave, 2023)

By Stef Gijssels

This is the third album by the trio of Wojciech Jachna on trumpet and cornet, Jacek Mazurkiewicz on double bass and electronics, and Jacek Buhl on drums and percussion. Somehow we got it too late for our recent "Trumpet Trios" update, which allows us to give it some more dedicated attention. 

The trio's music is adventurous and welcoming at the same time. Even if fully improvised, some forms emerge, possibly due to the long-standing collaboration of the trio, and possibly snippets of sound that remain from long rehearsals and collaborations. Jachna's tone is warm and clear, and Mazurkiewicz electronics add a distinct colouring to the sound without being too obtrusive, although I prefer his work on the double bass. Buhl's percussion work is loose, supple and inventive. Some pieces, such as the third one - "O" - start with a clear and recognisable theme that quickly dissolves into further improvisation. 

The single letters that are used as the titles of the five tracks of the album form the word "emotions" when read in sequence, an indication of what their music is all about. 

In the liner notes, Jacek Mazurkiewicz explains that the band had more material that they recorded over the years, but they threw it away because they were not too satisfied with it. They went back into the studio for two days with this album as the result. 

As listeners we can only appreciate their sense of self-criticism, which obviously also increased the quality of the album itself. 

Fans of small ensembles with trumpet, bass and drums will surely fully appreciate this album. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Watch a video of the first track "E". 

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Thermal - Ice in a Hot World (Unsounds Records, 2023)

By Martin Schray

John Butcher is unique even in the very free universe of the improv scene. Like no other, he is both at home in the world of European free jazz, which is obvious in his trio with bassist Wilbert DeJoode and drummer Martin Blume (Low Yellow, Jazzwerkstatt, 2018), and in the world of sound exploration. For the latter he chooses special places that act like a fellow musician for his sonic excursions. This can be heard ideally on his album Resonant Spaces (Confront, 2008), which presents Butcher playing sets at obscure sites in Scotland – including an old military fuel tank on the Orkneys with a 15-second echo, as well as an abandoned reservoir, a sea cave, and a mausoleum. Butcher chose them for their specific, idiosyncratic acoustic properties.

Thermal, in contrast to his solo efforts, is a trio with The Ex-guitarist Andy Moor and German analogue synthesizer wizard Thomas Lehn that has existed since 2001. Butcher says that he enjoys their different backgrounds (especially Moor’s). For him the band doesn’t set out to play “improvised music“, although they are improvising. He says that the musicians “construct the music against a background where they have different ways of hearing (or contextualising) what they are actually doing“. The result is that the three complement each other quite exquisitely, which can be heard best on “Autumn Fireflies“, the second and longest track on Ice in a Hot World. The piece is divided into several parts, at the beginning Lehn’s synthesizer bleeps through the room as if he was lost in thought, while Moor works the corpus of his guitar and sounds like a gloomy bell. Butcher contributes click sounds very sparingly. Part two is a solo by Moor, atonal but airy, as if he was listening intensely into the depths of his instrument. After 5:20 minutes there is a break and Butcher takes over, also for a solo. Structurally, one can definitely detect a closeness to Evan Parker, the free-jazz-Butcher shows off in all his beauty for two minutes. It seems that the sounds are thrown back at the musicians in long echoes. Actually however, the room is not especially reverberant - but Lehn’s synth has a built-in mechanical spring echo which makes the music sound more reverberant overall. Here, it’s a feast for the sonic explorers in the musicians. Additonally, what seems like an incoherent jigsaw first, flows together very delicately and cautiously in the end. Everything is relaxed but also very intense, concentrated and focused. The further the piece progresses, the more condensed the sounds become, the tempo is increased, and it gets apparent how much the three musicians are also at home in improvised music. It sounds as if your ear is in a beehive. And at the end, the music gently floats out. Even formally it’s a perfectly rounded track - it seems that it follows a song-like structure, probably “due to Andy’s approach“, as Butcher suggests.

Ice in a Hot World is a very beautiful album, it shows real masters at work. Listeners who like to discover small, fine details, can’t go wrong here.

Thermal’s Ice in a Hot World is available as a CD and as a download.

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Devin Gray - Most Definitely (Rataplan, 2023)

 

 

By Paul Acquaro

Something that is striking, though subtle, about Devin Gray's latest recording, a solo drum with electronics outing, is the attention to visual detail. With few exceptions, from the digital music perspective, artwork has gotten the short end of the stick, but here, each track has a different piece of imagery associated with it. Some are abstract, some figurative, while others remix elements and shapes in different permutations, each seems as purposefully chosen and precise as each track's sonic detail.*

That's kind of the thing right? A solo drum record really benefits from absorbing itself in details. Feel, of course is one part,  but more maybe so is how the patterns arranged and played. Now, add the pre-programmed digital elements and the patterns grow more complex, the details in how they interlock with the acoustic elements even more important. Gray has obviously thought hard about how the two elements interact and in the end has created an intriguing and visceral blend.

The album begins with a few short tracks. 'Hunker Down' kicks off with a quiet but urgent clatter of cymbals and a low frequency rumble. Here, one can hear the layers but by the second track, "Pull to Refresh," they have merged, Gray's acoustic hits and rolls enveloped in the electronics. "Bad WiFi" continues the trend, this time with intentional interruptions that suggest a bad connection indeed. The title track is built around a polyrhythm with the electronics adding a depth and sometimes a blur to the sound. Now, listen closely to hear how extended percussive techniques blend with slight effects (track 12, the delightfully named 'Doom Scrolling'), or none at all, like the follow up 'Only the Poets (for Daniel Levine) in which an austere drum roll grows more complex, underscored with a simple bass drums (Levine was a musician and collaborator of Gray's who tragically passed away last year).

Most of the tracks are short, one to two minutes, but two towards the later half of the recording clock in at around the 20 minutes mark. The first, "Solider On, Milford," starts with a bit of clatter but builds quickly in structure and momentum. Gray covers the drum kit, bringing the energy to a peak at about the halfway minute mark and then continues to builds the tension through a brief scrape with exploratory sounds to an ever higher level. The other epic, "Tough Love," takes a more textured approach, and over the span of the track, Gray frames his extended, effected cymbal work with fine textured cushion of space.

In the liner notes, Gray writes, "listening is the most important form of communication we have, its effects are greater than speaking. You will learn more by allowing yourself to be truly open, focused, and by challenging your everyday listening beyond what your ears and mind are capable of comprehending"

This is absolutely spot on. A solo percussion album can be a hard sell, but Gray hits all the right notes here, giving us something to listen to that goes beyond expectations of a solo percussion. Weaving his precise drumming deftly with an assortment of effects and live electronics to craft a modern, well, balanced, personal and engaging album.

* Though the focus here is on the digital version, Most Definitely is also available on CD and LP - which also feature the same attention to details, booklets, color vinyl - and are in quite limited editions of 50 each.

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Elsa Bergaman - Playon Crayon (Bergman Inspelningar, 2023)

By Eyal Hareuveni

Swedish double bass player-composer-improviser Elsa Bergman encountered graphic scores in Anna Högberg’s Attack! And in her trio with pianist Lisa Ullén and drummer Anna Lund, and with Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra’s Actions (adapting graphic scores by Krzysztof Penderecki) and Echoes as well as with Per-Åke Holmlander’s Carliot—It’s Never Too Late Orchestra and Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra. During these experiences, Bergman realized that she always visualized music, especially when she was improvising, and even more so after she gave birth to her daughter.

And, indeed, there is a child-like simplicity to the graphic scores of Playon Crayon that attempt to liberate Bergamn’s natural tendency for playing with time in more fluid ways. Bergman composed these scores in order to find new directions for her music, while still maintaining the feel of freedom and improvisation. She chose like-minded comrades to realize this adventurous experience - Norwegian percussionist Matilda Rolfsson, whom Bergman befriended while studying in Trondheim; Portuguese trumpeter Susanna Santos Silva who worked with Bergman in the Fire! Orchestra and Holmlander and Braxton’s projects; American ex-pat violinist Katt Hernandez and guitarist David Stackenäs, to whom Bergman has listened to since she was in high school and with whom she finally had the chance to work.

The quintet recorded Bergamn’s new compositions in a first-time gathering at Fylkingen in Stockholm in August 2021. Bergman envisioned the music as a circular journey illustrated by the overlapping, patterned spheres of the “Kaleidoscope”. Each musician was assigned a specific color-coded part—red for Silva, yellow for Stackenäs, green for Hernandez, purple for Rolfsson, and blue for Bergman. But apart from briefly explaining her ideas and providing some loose directions, the musicians were asked to bring their own imaginations to the performances.

The chamber music of Playon Crayon is indeed kaleidoscopic and cyclical with overlapping patterns, often subversive and fragmented. The music avoids common genre conventions or familiar compositional strategies but operates with its own inner logic, and sounds fresh, urgent and engaging. Bergman used hybrid notation on “Rosemarie,” led by the inspired guitar playing of Stackenäs and her double bass playing, and composed as an homage to a friend. The colorful and often geometric graphic scores - included in the booklet - demand a highly playful kind of imagination that highlights the strong individual voices of this ensemble. All the pieces are performed with intriguing, poetic sensibility. And as Peter Margasak writes in his insightful liner notes, “A sharp listener can deduce the relationships and perhaps create a graphic score of their own to map out the sounds”. We can ask for more from this excellent ensemble as it dives deeper into Bergman’s adventurous musical vision.

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