The fifth ECM disc from Evan Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble whose pioneering work has effectively established a model for a new kind of improvising chamber orchestra, creating fresh colours from the blending and contrasting of acoustic instruments and live electronics. The latest edition of the group adds some new members – two Americans, Ned Rothenberg and Peter Evans, both well-known to followers of improvised music, and a Japanese musician, Ko Ishikawa – and expands the horizons still further. With more acoustic instruments in the mix, the group now embraces both the ancient and the modern: Ko, for instance, plays exclusively the shō, the archaic bamboo mouth organ, which sounds thoroughly futuristic when processed by the Ensemble’s sonic scientists. Similarly, the borders between improvisation and composition are dissolved in this music: “The Moment’s Energy” features an extended new work commissioned by the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

1 The Moment's Energy I

2 The Moment's Energy II

3 The Moment's Energy III

4 The Moment's Energy IV

5 The Moment's Energy V

6 The Moment's Energy VI

7 The Moment's Energy VII

8 Incandescent Clouds