Accessible art music, jazz based but a modern attitude and a European artsy-ness (Carrier is from Quebec). Pieces are improvised but carry the air of long, open, jazz-based works. Lengthy segments of group improv in a jazzy feel, with Carrier's sax and Mat Maneri's viola as the lead voices. Also some appearances by sitar, talking drum, and other "world" instruments, but they tend to be in the background. Intelligent stuff, recorded live with middling fidelity.

Track II.1 is the best ; Track I.3, at just 6 minutes, is the best one that's radio-friendly.

DISK ONE
1- 33-minute piece: Cautious, slow start, blossoms into a midtempo jam. Later, prominent sitar(!) and some intense moments. Carrier digs into a more "out-there" solo, and it all wraps up with quiet bells.
2- Slow, creeping. Cool bass solo. Builds into a strong second half, faster, with a meaty sax solo.
3- Fast-paced; includes a spritely, jazzy group section w/sax and violin criss-crossing.
4- Busy chamber music; overlapping sax and viola. Ends with applause.
5- Slow burbles (a 1-minute sound check)


DISK TWO -- Two half-hour pieces.

1- Relaxed and grooving, a pleasant and rewarding ride.
(First 15 minutes): Thumb-piano start: quietly rhythmic and VERY cool. After 5 mins or so, an equally cool bassline forms underneath. Violin joins in, equally restrained and melodic; then Carrier ups the volume/intensity a bit with sax, into nice group solo. A quieter segment includes some faint spoken word (from the dancers that participated in the show). Nice sax and violin solos with sparse backing. Thumpy beat emerges late but eases up for a relaxed ending.

2- Unacc. viola solo, into a questioning sax solo with some clapping and shouted words with shrieky attack viola.
Then, easygoing, wandering sax over bass; violin joins in for some interesting interplay that gets slowly intense.
Builds into one more aggressive burst before ending quietly.