Matt Davis, Matt Milton, Bechir Saade

Trio improvisations recorded at the Church of St. James the Great, Friern Barnet, north London, November 2007. Matt Davis (trumpet & field recordings), Matt Milton (violin) and Bechir Saade (bass clarinet & flute) - three improvisers following that strain of British improv interested in amplifying the quiet and concentrating on minute gestural nuance. An entirely acoustic affair meets electronics in reverberant sacred space.

The music opens with "a spectrum of Saade's bass clarinet multiphonics spooning against the muted hum of Davis's trumpet," as one reviewer observes. Davis does his best to cloak his instrumental identity, while Milton's violin acts as chameleon - "is that high register flicker a tremolo squeak from his instrument, or is Davis squeezing all the juice he can from his electronic sound sources?" Three longish cuts, each carving out "a wedge of space, sharply defined as to overall shape even as the elements making up the volume are sparely distributed." The label often emphasizes restrained, almost minimalistic approaches - music created from a kind of natural silence. As Alfio Castorina writes, "within this 'dun' landscape in which a dark blanket seems to cover everything up to the horizon just a soft breath can produce a spark of life."

The wind instruments of Saade and Davis embrace one another elegantly, mixing blasts and polyphonic screeches with warmer traditional sounds. Milton's violin provides the connective tissue. Brian Olewnick notes: "The latter half of the second track, all a-twitter, is especially beautiful. Really enjoyable, intelligent music."

The cover photo - mysterious and evocative, a lake covered in thick mist with something that appears to be a superimposed drawing of a human form - complements the music perfectly. Chamber-improv of high precision and drama.