A wonderful pairing of sounds from these two giants of the New York downtown scene – John Zorn on alto and Bill Laswell on bass, both players who've really evolved a hell of a lot over the decades – and who come together here with a maturity that really marks the sound of the set! There's less in your face type energy going on here – as the tracks stretch out, and both players feel a sense of sonic freeplay more than overwrought improvisation – spinning out long, almost poetic tributes to three key musical inspirations – "Wayne Shorter", "Milford Graves", and "Pharoah Sanders". CD

John Zorn and Bill Laswell have crossed musical paths over over the years, and this set is certainly not the first time they've recorded together – yet there's also this wonderful sense of rebirth in the music, maybe the cleansing hinted at in the title – as things really go back to the basics of improvisation that began the career of the two artists, but with a sound that's very different than the past! Zorn is on alto and Laswell is on electric bass – and the tracks are all long improvisations that really take their time to find the right space – never over-conceived or forcing any sort of an agenda – just a natural, organic sonic progression in that hands of two improvisers who still have plenty of musical feathers left in their caps after all these years. Titles include "William Burroughs", "Brion Gysin", "Aleister Crowley", "Austin Osman Spare", and "Alejandro Jodorowsky". CD

A set that's even more searing and sonically intense than the debut of this genre-hopping group – served up in this bracing blend of electric and acoustic instrumentation that almost takes us back to the 90s experiments on Axiom Records from the Bill Laswell generation! there's plenty of guitar and bass here – the former from Javi Perez, the latter from Jamie Benzies – driven strongly by the fierce drum work of Tim Toyle, and topped with trumpet from Axel Kaner Lidstrom, tenor from James Mollison, keyboards and electronics from Tile Gichigi Lipere, and a mix of tenor, bass, clarinet, and flute from Rob Milne – all coming together with a very dark, textured, almost layered sort of sound – even though the performance here seems to be mostly live. Titles include "3301", "Fallacy", "The Cracks In The Bricks", "Ashen Faun", "Last Throes Of The Temporal Monolith", and "Crystalline Peaks". CD