This 1999 OKKA Disk begins so quietly that you do not know that there is any sound recorded. I - VII takes shape even in its sparseness. The most economic, yet expressive, sound for Joe McPhee can only be achieved here through skillful control of the cornet or saxophone, or valved trombone. Jeb Bishop's trombone often fluidly follows the spare notes of Joe's instruments. The instruments purposefully change sound slots and join texturally to swath the delicate, nearly restrained, space.
Contrapuntal dialog begins to electrify the instrumentalists.
By the time Section IV is reached, a truly audible conversation takes place where the sound qualities and characteristics of each instrument are revealed more openly and freely. Section V offers up a melodious rocking rhythm with Joe in the lead on valved trombone that often branches off into mini-explorations of the brass fabric by the two players but comes back on another level of symphony. Section VI deconstructs any rhythmic cohesion as the two play bubbled groups of notes that even include the projection of a voice out the bell of one of the horns. In Section VII, the two pull together in a hum, an interplay of dotted and fluid mixtures, and tests of circular breathing in the playing of single note melodies on both trombones, one maintaining a low pitch, the other a slightly higher echo-like one. It is a solo that examines an upper register of the horn with clarity.