All improvisations by Henry Kaiser (BMI), Mari Kimura (BMI), Jim O´Rourke (BMI) and John Oswald (SOCAN)

Recorded on August 8, 1993 by Olivier Dicicco @ Studio Moebius, San Francisco
Editing: John Oswald (Mystery Lab, Toronto)
Layout: François Bienvenue
Photo: Paul Hostetter
Liner Notes: John Corbett
Produced by Michel Levasseur
© Les Disques Victo / Les Éditions VICTORIAVILLE (Canada)

This release pairs the two guitarists with Canadian reed player John Oswald and Japanese violonist Mari Kimura for a series of quartets, trios, and duets. The music here consists entirely of open, collective improvisations ranging from just over one minute to 12 minutes in length. For this recording, the guitarists leave behind their usual amplification and array of electronics for, as the title alludes to, a totally acoustic session. The four come from a variety of backgrounds: Kaiser, a true eclectic whose career jumps from free improvisation to globe-trotting forays with Malagasy folk musicians; industrial noise-trance rocker O´Rourke; Kimura, a classically trained violonist specializing in contemporary composition and electronics; and Oswald, whose work ranges from improvisation to sardonic electronic sampling. Each of the four displays a technical mastery, and the acoustic setting and clean recording places each of the players evenly in the mix.
This is often a music of contrasting colours, with the stark, steely articulation of the guitars countered by the rich wooden arco and scratching harmonics of violin and the breathy urgency of alto sax. The underlying structure for each of the improvisations arise from both the combination of instruments and the choice of tone colours as the titles seem to imply. Each piece is an intricate web of intertwined details, yet ultimately, there seems to be a certain emotional distance to the music. (…)

Michael Rosenstein, in: Cadence, December 1994