This great collaboration of Douglas R. Ewart on woodwinds/percussion and Stephen Goldstein on percussion rings strong with me. After years of accompanying Ewart as he played his compositions on handmade instruments, hearing this music places me in a continuum that I felt a part of immediately.

Douglas and I are related through our cultural

This great collaboration of Douglas R. Ewart on woodwinds/percussion and Stephen Goldstein on percussion rings strong with me. After years of accompanying Ewart as he played his compositions on handmade instruments, hearing this music places me in a continuum that I felt a part of immediately.

Douglas and I are related through our cultural families. I was a member of the St. Louis Black Artists Group, Douglas is a past president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in Chicago, still active there and in New York, where we started our close musical relationship since the late 1970s.

Douglas has built a tremendous body of work based on his skill as an instrument maker in bamboo and found objects: transverse and end-blown flutes, didjeridus, and many types of percussion, along with a wide array of musical sculpture and experimental instruments. Stephen's voice on his drums from around the world supports the texture they both manipulate throughout. Their imagery melds together in melodic flights of musical sound.

The music takes us on a journey through its flowing soundscape. The melodies and rhythms progress through moods that melt or slam directly forward, following the improvisational program of the work. Smooth melodic emotion and percussive insistence seem to be the purview of both artists on the individual instruments chosen throughout piece.

The quality of the performance and fidelity of the recording are exceptional, so bring your best listening game in order to be rewarded fully.

1. 1. Parran