“OUTSTANDING !”
(Eric Wagoner, visual artist)
Obsessions Octet’s fourth offering
Well into their second decade, the experiment known as Obsessions Octet shows serious staying power, proving that melding a string quartet to a jazz quartet was an inspired idea.
Their new fourth recording, Reverence on Bent River, expertly takes in a wide breadth of material that’s alternately sublime, suspenseful, pleasingly intricate, elegantly spare, and even danceable over eight tracks.
Obsession Octet recently released their fourth offering, Reverence on Bent River. Chief composer-arranger and reedman Kent Sangster delivers some of the jazziest tunes, but his opening Reverence and the Latin-infused Circling Back are true classical-jazz fusions, with the strings dutifully marking changes and ornamenting melodies, opening things up for Sangster’s expressive saxophones. (…)
(Roger Levesque, Edmonton Journal)
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