Figure 8, Rova Saxophone Quartet

Pipe Dreams is the only recording of Figure 8, the eight-saxophone band built around the Rova Saxophone Quartet. To the four members of Rova, Bruce Ackley, Steve Adams, Larry Ochs and Jon Raskin, it added Tim Berne, Vinny Golia, Glenn Spearman and Dave Barrett. The repertoire was a commission from the Saalfelden Jazz Festival in Austria in 1993, written mostly by Ochs as structured improvisations. According to Ochs, the band played it a few times, recorded it for Black Saint and retired it in 1996 after a concert at Victoriaville, before reviving it in 2016.

The album was recorded at Bay Studios in Berkeley on January 9 and 10, 1994, engineered by Robert Shumaker with Myles Boisen as recording consultant, produced by Ochs and annotated by John Corbett. The range of horns is wide. Golia moves between baritone, soprano, bass and sopranino, Berne between baritone and alto, Barrett adds saxello, and Spearman stays on tenor. Each of Ochs's pieces carries a double dedication. Head Count is for Albert Ayler and Pete Townshend, LG-[S-DB-J]TV, also called Initials, for Ray Charles and Steve Lacy. The two long works take up most of the disc: Tracers, 27 minutes for Anthony Braxton and Morton Feldman, and Triceratops, 25 minutes for Iannis Xenakis and Roscoe Mitchell. Between them sits Drmeš, a short traditional Croatian song arranged by Adams. Rova was recording regularly for the label in these years: From the Bureau of Both had appeared in 1993, and in July and September 1994 the quartet went back to Bay Studios for The Works Volume 1.

This is the Black Saint CD 120167-2, the album's original 1994 release.