Henry Kaiser, Mari Kimura, Jim O'Rourke, John Oswald - Acoustics (1994)

This weird little album was made by a quartet of improvisers from all ends of the improvisational planet, who came together in 1993 for a recording date. Edited by Oswald in Toronto, the result can be found here. With two guitarists (Kaiser and O'Rourke), a violinist (Kimura), and a saxophonist (Oswald), the results could have been full of a quiet fire that left everything to chance, with all the messy stuff left in. No chance. Instead, the listener gets seamlessly edited bits and pieces of performances that include beautiful and sometimes telepathic musical interplay, but seem as hopelessly disconnected from one another as a recording comprised of 11 selections. It's not a "bad" disc per se but, given the lineup, expectations are naturally high. And given that these edits were done digitally, the entire recording has a sheeny sound and none of the instruments seem to have edges. None of the dialogue has rough spots; it all meanders around together in a blah-sounding soup. Very disappointing. - Thom Jurek, AMG