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More and lengthier stuff on the concerts we saw on Saturday, Second day, 9th of July, Saturday: Dave Holland Big Band (Dakterras), about thirty minutes of Krakatau (Carel Willink Zaal), and Vijay Iyer Quartet (billed as Vijay Iyer Quartet featuring Rudresh Mahanthappa) (Carel Willink Zaal). Dave Holland Big Band - We were dismayed to see, going in at about 17.45 - an hour before the scheduled time of the concert, that the roof terrace was already more than half full. This, as we were expecting to find seats in the front rows or at least in the middle batch of seats. In the end we got decent seats, a bit too far from the stage for my liking and to the left. The point is that I was expecting the concert to be popular but not this popular. So we sat there for an hour (luckily, I had with me Michel Houellebecq's Platform, plus some rather talkative people behind us so time went by pretty quickly). As far as I could tell the band was the usual line-up but with Mark Turner instead of Chris Potter. Actually now that I check the line-up, it was indeed Mark Tuner who was announced. This was my first time seeing any of Dave Holland's recent ensembles, Quintet or the Big Band, live and compared to many, Dave turned out to be quite talkative on stage - he introduced the players right after the numbers where they soloed, at times along with some short praising commentary, and also went through the names of each again at the end. He also seemed pleasantly surprised by the amount of interest for the early set. They played compositions from both of their records. When Holland announced Razor's Edge near the end of the concert, there was quite a holler from a bunch of guys (I like that one too but they sounded truly exulted and shouted as if they'd just won the national lottery) - Dave was amused and said something like "Thank you, mother." As for the music, I think I caught them on an off night - and this refers to the solos only. I was looking forward to Alex Sipiagin's and Robin Eubanks's solos but the former turned out to be pretty ordinary and Robin took his solo, first one he might have taken a shorter solo later, on a tune that had quite a bit ensemble work going on behind him and he was mixed low so I could really only hear the forte passages, which weren't many. Antonio Hart took a pretty conventional and unhurried - milking, savoring each note with his round tone and vibrato, yet well played, blues solo. Pretty much everone took at least a solo each but the only two I found out of the ordinary were Holland's solo introduction to one of the tunes, the man still plays very comfortably and I do like his linear conception, and almost all of Steve Nelson's solos. Now, Nelson I thought had made almost the weakest contribution to Extended Play, the quintet's live album, but he was on fire this very night. I should have taken notes, really, but he took a very non-conventional spare, chordal solo on a blues - where both the chords and the timing were as removed from a "blues" feel as possible. On his next solo, different tune, he started the solo by playing an oblique phrase and went on to invert and elaborate it ina multitude of ways and he followed this nice feat by unleashing a barrage of nicely constructed and lengthy double-timed lines - and to my surprise, I could actually hear him play, though less so when he was playing the marimba, luckily he took most/all? of his solos on the vibraphone. The one thing I don't like about North Sea Jazz is that they schedule concerts for 75 minutes and oftentimes, even if I like the music, it is simply too long for me and I start to lose interest. This was a case in point, and all said, I would've preferred to see the quintet. I'm glad to have seen the big band live but I have What Goes Around on ECM and, at least for now, I won't be picking up Overtime. Krakatau - This was an Indonesian ensemble of seven. One drumkit player, an electric bassist, a vocalist, one pianist/keyboard player, someone playing bamboo flute and "tarompet" - but also joining in on percussion every now and then, and the remaining two were playing percussion full time. We were there for the last half an hour only (the intention was to secure good seats for the following concert, see below) but then regretted not having walked in even earlier as it turned out to be a pretty enjoyable thirty minutes - except for the first few minutes where we witnessed an ok, but certainly overlong bass solo. So they built nice grooves through the use of the traditional percussion instruments and the wind soloist had some fun playing an unaccompanied solo on the tarompet, I think it was, where he gradually deconstructed the instrument, at the end playing with what was only a tiny part of the mouthpiece - duck calls, baybee. The vocalist, Nyak Ina Raseuki, had a very strong voice she could project really well - being Turkish, I'm used to hearing such open and strong voices but it was still a nice change, as - you might guess - the style of singing, with lots of yelps and hollers, is also different from what you encounter in most other music you hear at jazz festivals. So the last piece, somewhat predictably though not all that worse for it, built to an exhilirating percussion climax and rose the audience to their feet. There was a standing ovation demanding an encore. The announcer actually had to make an announcement that the concert was over and apologize and say they needed to clear the stage and get ready for the next concert, if they were to start on time. More than sporadic booing followed for a while but died as you could see staff coming on to the stage. Anyway this was good, and now that I think of it perhaps the whole concert wouldn't have provided as much excitement but I could surely have done with another fifteen minutes. My favorite bits were the percussion duos/duels over the driving foundation provided by the drummer and, iirc, the bassist. And also, we secured very good second row, middle, seats for the next concert. Vijay Iyer Quartet - So this was the next concert and I had nothing better to do so I sat through the soundcheck - what stood out even as they were soundchecking and basically farting about was that Mahanthappa plays what he plays really as if it were second nature, it just flows so naturally and the control he has over the dynamics is also pretty impressive. Anyway, there was only a mild cheer after the announcer introduced the band, and actually throughout the concert attendance fluctuated around sixty percent, as far as I could tell. Iyer, tongue-in-cheek, said "Hi North Sea, did you miss us?" as he had played as a duo, as Raw Materials, with Mahanthappa in 2004 - I was there and that was one hell of a concert I thought at the time, had to pick my jaw up from the floor after every tune - but I don't know whether they had ever played before that. Anyway, they played Because of Guns (Hey Joe Redux) from Blood Sutra, as the last tune, and as far as I could tell, all the remaining compositions were from the new release, Reimagining - I remember for sure that they played Revolutions, Inertia, Song for Midwood, and The Big Almost. This was the first time I saw Stephan Crump live and I'm not familiar with his work apart from that with Iyer but I really liked the way he played behind Iyer and Mahanthappa, I think his playing resonates well with Iyer's conception - sidenote: he's one of those bassists who tends to sing, hum, along which doesn't distract me in the least but I guess it wasn't even audible further down the hall. The last tune, Because of Guns, was the only one with an easily recognizable structure and meter and most of the rest I had difficulty counting the basic meter let alone the choruses. But they did a good job of going through the compositions with no major screw-ups (not a minor feat to pull this off live, you'll know if you've listened to Reimagining). Marcus Gilmore took one pretty long but nicely built up solo and in general he did a good job of holding things together - with some help from Iyer and Crump, Crump also had a number of features and while he plays fine either way but I prefer his accompaniment. As for Rudresh and Vijay, they did their stuff and it was certainly good enough for me - I won't try to describe it but I hope that you're familiar with their music or get familiar soon. You can tell when certain things click and the band or the frontmen just push beyond their usual limits or routines and this happened very clearly on the one tune they played as a trio, without Rudresh, and Iyer took a long solo which had some of the best playing I've ever heard from him - mostly long lines which went on and on and on with many twists and turns. If I remember well, Rudresh, too, looked impressed for a while. Even though this was the first time I heard the material from the new disc and I might have enjoyed the concert a little more if I had been familiar with the compositions in advance, this was one of the highpoints of the festival for me. Really the thing is this is music that one better appreciates with repeated hearing as there's a lot of interaction behind the solos which are worthy of themselves. Vijay announced after the concert that they had discs with them not available in Europe - and he sold a bunch, but no more. Anyway Rudresh had Mother Tongue with him and even though I had that and the earlier album, Black Water, I got hold of him to say that I really enjoyed the concert and very much dig both of his albums and so on. Asked him about what else is in the pipeline and he told me about a project with the Carnatic saxophone player Kadri Gopalanth (anyone herad them live?) and also said that he'd really like to put out a duo album with Vijay Iyer, Raw Materials, as they've been playing together for about 10 years with no documentation. I picked up Reimagining from Vijay and chatted a little more with them about just general stuff - and felt bad after a while that I was keeping Rudresh from selling his discs! Next time, I'd really like to see Mahanthappa bring his quartet and play his own compositions - and told him so, hope it happens in the near future. As it happened, I had already spent too much time after the concert since by the time we got to Van Gogh Zaal to see Richard Galliano New York trio, the hall was already packed and they had the doors closed - so you had to wait for people to leave before getting in. We decided to not wait, and I feel lucky to have escaped the wrath of my girlfriend as this was the one concert, along with Ibrahim Ferrer, which she was interested in after seeing the program. And no big deal really as all the fun we had at Matthew Herbert's Plat du Jour, Masada, and Steven Bernstein's Sex Mob concerts on Sunday probably made up for it. Some more on those three and Hermeto Pascoal soon, hopefully.

So been through this a few times. In general, I like this format - blowing trio/quartet without chord instrument - and I like it better when the frontmen can generate enough momentum and interest without the added input from a guitar/piano/vibes player. I think Walden and Jimmy Greene are both more than able to thrive in this format and sustain interest, yet here it happens on certain tracks rather than frequently enough to characterize the whole album. Anyway, this is still good and tracks 6 and 7 contain some killer stuff - great solos and trades. On the other hand, I think they really chose the wrong track to open the album - or they should have done another take. The lowpoint for me was the sax/drums duo passage on the 3rd track, 3 up 4 down, as it contains some of the least authoritative and directionless playing on the album, imho. As others have noted, it's refreshing to hear players who are not mere-near-copycats (though that's not to say they don't repeat themselves a bit too much every now and then - which is a different issue), and this is even truer of Walden's playing. I will be going back to this after another week or so to see if I feel differently. And I guess I was too hung up on trying to decide what I think of the frontmen to give the rhythm team a critical ear. edit: JSngry, agreed about the similarity to Garrett in conception, though, as you imply, in what we end up hearing, there's little resemblance - it's most obvious on track 6, Like I See It.

Thank you, indigo

Here's what I thought, not sure it's worth the effort as my writing tends to be way too long-winded. First day, 8th of July, Friday: Ibrahim Ferrer (PWA Zaal), ICP Orchestra (Mondrian Zaal), Henry Threagill's Zooid (Mondrian Zaal), Brad Mehldau solo (Rembrandtzaal) As a result of late making up of our minds and late booking, we stayed at not the nice little hotel by the sea, as I did the last time, but at a chain-style hotel. The nice thing about this hotel was its location, it was within 15 minutes' walk of the congress center, where the festival is held. Not only that but you walk through a really nice area, which includes the street that houses most of the embassies. The festival is moving to Rotterdam as of next year so it's a shame that more people won't have the chance to walk through the nice parts of The Hague not to mention Scheveningen. The music, then: Ibrahim Ferrer "Mi Sueno - a Bolero Songbook" - So I hadn't had high hopes for this seeing that it was Ferrer's band and the only other name in the band familiar to me was bass player Cachaito Lopez (it was a nine piece band augmented by, if I got that correctly, a Dutch string quartet), but my girlfriend really wanted to see it and I thought, well, it'll probably be fun if nothing more. The short it is that I had a very good time and the piano player, Roverto Fonseca, was the star among the instrumentalists - yes, he does tend towards the stock-Cuban-flash-licks and does play to the crowd but even then I think he has good taste, imagination, and technique to pull most of the stuff off with flair. The other soloists, horn section, I could have done without as soloists, really, especially Javier Zalba when he played the soprano saxophone. But, again, when they were playing the charts and with the drummer, a percussionist, and backing vocalist Idania joining in with a hand-held percussion every now and then, all kicking in it was very good butt-shaking fun. Most of the material was mid-tempo and not straining Ferrer's voice, in terms of range, and I think it was good judgment on his part to do it this way - I think he only played one ballad and Dos Gardenias, as a quasi-ballad, as an encore. All in all, I'm very glad we went. ICP Orchestra - They started with the string trio, of Mary Oliver on violin, Tristan Honsinger on cello and Ernst Gleurm on bass, improvising which was joined very shortly afterwards with Michael Moore, on clarinet, and they went on improvising around some framework for a while before sliding into a tune, at which point the rest of the horn section joined them - Wolter Wierbos on trombone, Thomas Heberer on trumpet and Ab Baars and Tobias Delius on reeds (the band is rounded up by Han Bennink on drums and the mastermind Misha Mengelberg on piano). Let's see what I can remember - Mary Oliver conducted and improvisation, which was fine but not more, they played Rollo II, and some new material, from what I could tell. Now the mixing wasn't particularly good and you know with Han it's always going to be a problem so as little as he played anyway, it was difficult to hear Misha in the ensemble passages. So, most of the playing served to confirm my overall impressions of the players while on the whole the music left me disappointed: Honsinger is still coaxing the same licks, Glerum is solid and holding the stuff together, Ab Baars took a long and raucous solo which did absolutely nothing for me and for me he's the least interesting soloist in the band. One of the two highlights was a Wierbos/Delius improvised duo section, during which Wierbos deconstructed/reconstructed his trombone and Delius matched him blow-for-blow and more on tenor - Delius has a nice tone and so much control over the horn, plus it really is a hoot to watch him play. The other highlight was Moore's ballad feature, forgot the tune - was a standard iirc, actually all his solos were good. Michael Moore has a heavenly tone both on alto and clarinet and he too has lots of control over and freedom with his phrasing. He played both the melody and soloed gorgeously. Heberer took one solo during which he played rather characteristically, bebop and pre-bop vocabularly imbued with his steely and pinched tone and behind the beat playing - it was ok but nothing special. During the few minutes in total that I could make out his playing, Misha was interesting and searching and Han made sure to play a few loud and fast solos - the notable thing is he can still pull them off pretty effectively. Henry Threadgill's Zooid - This must've been the most disappointing concert of the festival, but it had more to do with the sound than the playing. Still, it's the second time I can remember when I walked out of a concert due to frustration (the first was Jonas Kulhammar Quartet at last year's Kongsberg Jazz Festival). Zooid is Threadgill on alto sax and flute, Jose Davila on tuba and trombone, Dana Leong on cello and trombone, Liberty Ellman on acoustic guitar, Tarik Benbrahim on oud, and Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums. They all did quite a bit of reading, following the sheet music, throughout but I felt sorry for the oud player in particular, who barely took his eyes of the sheet music - though he still checkout out Ellman for cues every now and then. My first problem was the immense, disturbing, bass in and harshness of the overall sound - the cello was hurting my ears and so was the trombone, not to mention Ellman's guitar which was borderline bearable, and I'd never heard a flute sound so aggresive. Perhaps such a sound was Threadgill's preference, though I doubt it, but it sure demanded an immense motivation to overlook these and focus on the music. As for the music, Threadgill had the band play the multi-layered grooves way too long for my taste and most of the soloists didn't sound all that comfortable while navigating Threadgill's compositions. Each song was preceded by an unaccompanied solo by one of the members, my favorite was Dana Leong's cello introduction, and later on in that piece he also took a memorable trombone solo, was my favorite moment during the concert, I think. I will still check out the band's album through e-music but I must say that the sound sucked big time, and they didn't sound all that together, and I had the impressions that only rarely were the soloists able to play with the level of abandon that leads to full expression or more interesting, developmental, solos. Still, Kavee and that cello/trombone player I'll be watching closely. Brad Mehldau Solo - So what happened was that Mehldau was scheduled to play two short - North Sea Jazz allocated 75 minutes to each act and Brad's were 45 minutes each - solo sets early on in the day and since we had opted for Ferrer, we would have missed our chance of seeing him play. Well, while watching the announcement screens right Zooid, I noticed that they were announcing another Mehldau set at Rembrandtzaal at 12.00 - just before Perico Sambeat Group, which was featuring Brad and Kurt Rosenwinkel. Perhaps this was a last minute call and Brad had agreed to play yet another set or perhaps he played only one set earlier, I don't know. The hall was totally packed, to full capacity in terms of standing, seated, and sitting on the floor crowd. Brad played a number of songs of the recent Live in Tokyo album, which I don't have, Knives Out, Paris from his Places - in a medley with a Jobim song, River Man, Countdown, and perhaps another tune or two. Most of you, I assume, know how Brad approaches playing solo - to me it's fresh and interesting to hear him play the same tunes in different performances because he always seems to build up on different aspects of the composition, yes he'll mostly build from the melody and elaborate and place it in a different background, what he's doing with his right hand mostly, in many different ways but he also builds from the rhythm or he harmony of the tune. So he's at least trying to do something substantially different each time. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but at least this particular night he had the good taste to keep it short when it wasn't really working, or when he hadn't more to say. All in all, this is another concert I was very happy to have seen. Even though it could have been better, I was happy to see Mehldau taking chances to do something different and setting up challenges for himself. We had intended to go see Tomatito for the last slot but went with Mehldau. However, since Mehldau's set was short we still had about half an hour to go see the Tomatito Sextet. Alas, we were informed that the Dakterras was already full so much so that they wouldn't let anyone else in - and this is a large hall with plenty of standing space, so I'm guessing it was a good show. Didn't have much time to do browsing through the disc stalls the ones there don't have much of interest to me anyway, i.e., they mostly have the major labels which I can find pretty much anywhere, and the prices are not all that cheap either. Still, I meticulously worked my way through a 5 euros sales rack and came away with Greg Osby's Further Ado and Ben Allison's Peace Pipe. Oh, and I also picked up Wayne Shorter's Footprints Live! (counting on you Pete C) and Bobby Hutcherson's Oblique (if Micael Schaumann's even half-right, I should be quite happy with this) - for 10 euros each. More, second and third day reports, to follow soon.

Thanks everyone. Well, I've decided to keep this and will unwrap it tomorrow and give it a first spin. I will let you know how I like it.

pm sent

Just out on Fresh Sound New Talent. A quartet disc playing an eight track program of all originals by Walden, Myron Walden - Alto Sax Jimmy Greene - Tenor Sax Vicente Archer - Bass E.J. Strickland - Drums Seeing that Fnac finally has new FSNT releases at more humane prices, I picked this up even though I haven't heard anything by Waldon, or Greene for that matter, as a leader (might have heard them as sidemen but if so I can't remember those at the moment). This one's still wrapped so I can take it back for exchange, so I'd like to know whether someone here has heard it and would comment a little. Thanks.

The two above are still up for grabs.

Geoff - I like that Bandwagon disc when they actually play but the bits with the spoken words (not the one where they build up the composition based on the words of the Turkish woman but others) I usually skip, or they bother me if I forget to. I saw the band live too and enjoyed the show, it's certainly exhilirating when they kick up the energy - though either Jason or Nasheet can do that singly as well. Friday the 13th is not a solo Tippett I have, I have all the Mujicians so I'm also missing the Une Croix..., but assuming it's similar to the Mujicians, I'd think very highly of that (and actually if you happen not to like it, drop me a pm for a sale or trade).

PLM - I am really interested in this, especially after hearing about how well it was recorded, so when you have more to say on the music, please share them here (or PM me if you prefer). Sasha - The Trio & Sainkho disc is a 20th anniversary disc, Leo says the first disc after a considerable interval so it was recorded very recently, I guess.

So, for my first batch of three from Emanem, I've already decided on the following: Frode Gjerstad/John Stevens/Derek Bailey - "Hello Goodbye" (1992) Steve Lacy - Weal & Woe (1972-3) Now, please help me tie-brake between, Riley/Guy/Oxley - Synopsis (1973) Riley/Guy/Oxley - Overground (1974-5) Thanks.

Good news; sound samples - from this and other Lehman releases, and most are long enough to give you an idea of the music - here. D.D. - did you get my pm (sent yesterday)?

Will try to do the same (but then I can't come to Mulhouse, but I may not be able to afford that anyway, will have to do some calculations...) ← No, ubu, listen: You come to Mulhouse and we'll take care about the music you'd like to hear in one way or another. Hear that, if there's the slightest chance, come to Mulhouse and let's meet (and though I don't know how this would relate to you, i.e., whether you'd have the time, but we're determined to spend a few days in Switzerland afterwards with my girlfriend).

Thanks for your comments, PLM, I will look into those you deem essential or masterpieces.

I see, Claude, well yes, I will give this a few further spins soon - perhaps was one of those days where no music I hear satisfies me.

Amir - Thanks for the information. I already have enough very good albums Ganelin put out on Leo, but was still hyped when I saw this so picked it up without thinking twice. It's a good set but not on the level of their best albums on Leo, I think. Anyway, $12 is not much so let me keep it for the time being, might actually grow on me. edit: Oops, Claude I think we posted almost simultaneously, thank you, too, for sharing that bit of info. How do you like the set?

I have a copy of this (hatART CD 6059, 1990 - has Ancara da Capo I and II, recorded in 1980 and Non Troppo I and II, with slight editing to make everything fit on a disc, recorded in 1982) and was wondering how much it'd be worth, but couldn't find much info online. The disc itself is in pretty good shape whereas the booklet shows its wear and has a slight tear in one of the corners. Would this be of interest to anyone?

About some Nate hasn't commented on: I've read many good things about Hello, Goodbye and Optic so will probably get those (along with Improvisations are Forever Now). Anyone have more to say on the following (or for any other on the list to get/avoid): MARKUS EICHENBERGER "Domino Concept for Orchestra" (2001) PAUL RUTHERFORD "Chicago 2002" ISKRA 1903 "Frankfurt 1991" I have Rogues, The First Full Turn (RottoR), The Gentle Harm of the Bourgeoisie, and Fixations (14). Difficult to recommend any of these without knowing your tastes. Though I enjoy all of them, I would recommend Fixations (14) first, then The Gentle Harm of the Bourgeoisie, I guess, and then the other two.

In case anyone's interested, I'll take 3 cd's for this (or 2 if they're harder to find and the like), if you have a list please pm me. Thanks.

With nothing to compare them to, aside from my late 80's/early 90's initial cd releases of the same, and a very low end set up, I am also very happy with the (US) Bluebird First Edition reissues - the ones I have are Two of a Mind (where the bonus material is very much welcome) and The Bridge.

ubu - Bailey/Leandre is a good one, even though I was hoping to like that even more based on what I'd read. I'm somewhat familiar with the output of each of these musicians and I think it's fair to say this is what you would expect, though if we have to, I'd say Leandre defers more often to Bailey (unlike, say, Lacy on the Lacy/Bailey Potlatch disc). I haven't heard the one you note but have been consistently impressed by what Zingaro I've heard. Butcher/Charles/Dorner is very good, highly recommended. As is the Rives disc. I do not know how I would describe the music on these two but they're both closer to eai aesthetics, with the second one even more so while the first one also has traces of British/SME free-improv, if only for the spontaneous and very active interaction. Bailey/Lacy - I remember enjoying a fair bit too, though I think I might be in the minority on that. It's not what you would call a natural fit as both guys do their thing but, if I remember correctly, Lacy does secure some overt melodic playing and near-comping by Bailey. Anyway, I'd been meaning to go back to it for quite a time, I'll try doing just that tomorrow. I have not heard the other on your list, though let me note that the Parker/Rowe is generally quite highly regarded and I've been meaning to get myself for a rather long time now.

I know the seller of that set. He is a really good guy. (if you read Signal to Noise, Dusted or One Final Note you have most likely read some of his reviews.) ← Yes, I thought the ebey username was transparent enough but from what I've seen of/dealt with Jason, he is a very nice person. Some more on music: I recently got the new Barry Guy New Orchestra disc, Oort-Entropy (same lineup as on Inscape-Tableux but with Agusti Fernandez in Crispell's place, upon the latter's recommendation), consists of three long-ish sections with many of Guy's by now signature music making components/tools and I understand from the liner notes that parts of each section draw from compositions that appear on the two discs by the Guy/Crispell/Lytton trio. Each section is preambled, I believe that was the very word Guy uses in describing them, by bass/reed duets - first with Koch, then Parker, and finally with Gustafsson. I've only given the disc two cursory spins so far but (1) it's very nicely though a little too closely recorded for my taste, the engineer is neither Pfister nor Pearson - don't have the disc handy, sorry, (2) overall, the immediate impressions are somewhere in between, some great moments here and there though. Anyway will try to say more about how I like the music after another spin. Meanwhile I suggest you all spin Fizzles (on Maya) for some amazing solo Guy.

So I'm pretty sure they were mentioned and recommended here before but if you feel like listening to some very strong small ensemble free jazz (though beware that the music is based around compositions - and pretty intricate ones at that) seek out Kollaps (Red Toucan) and Spectral Reflections (Leo) by Frank Gratkowski Quartet. I haven't yet heard their most recent, Facio (also on Leo), but will do so soon. Though I recommend both of these strong discs, in excellent sound to boot, Spectral Reflections is decidedly the better of the two. One Final Note review of Kollaps, by Jason Bivins Nate Dorward's review of Kollaps Kollaps at Gratkowski's homepage - some samples and excerpts of praises by Cadence and AMG The Penguin Guide, 7th edition, gives Kollaps 4 stars. Dusted Magazine's review of Spectral Reflections, by Jason Bivins Walter Horn raved about Spectral Reflections in his Cadence/Paris Transatlantic review. The Penguin Guide, 7th edition, gave 3,5 stars to Spectral Reflections. The AMG awards 4 stars, the review is by Francois Couture. Finally, Andy Hamilton gave Spectral Reflections a full thumbs up, near rave, in his review (2003 July, the Wire).

In case someone's interested, there's a Brotzmann Octet/Tentet Okka 3 disc set up at ebay - ends in two days. ubu - Glad to see that the Austrian Songs disc's found a more appreciative home.

Well I'll say what you were expecting, perhaps, but still: Most of it, the orchestral back/fore-ground, sounds dense but not forbidding and indeed enthralling, and the solos by turns aggressive, piercing, and monumentally structural. This comes highly recommended, I'd say pretty much each of the different "communications" alone would've been worth the price of admission. Tangentially related, I also like the pictures (and other content of the booklet).