by Thom JurekThis octet, fronted by reed and woodwind virtuoso Gebhard Ullmann, is a kind of culmination of his compositional research. It was created for seven reeds and woodwinds, with Hans Hassler on accordion as an atmospheric brain trust. Ullmann's composition style contains within it the sheer love of jazz's reverence for improvisation, humor, and harmony; the formalist love of strategy; and the classicist love of drama and dynamic. There are 17 selections here, ranging from the multi-layered, extended harmonic structuralism of "D.Nee No," to the tonally shifting architecture of "P.I.T.C.," to the multi-part intervallic stratagems employed in the systematically unsequenced, three-part "Reg Alien" and its twin, "Heaven 2.4." Ullmann is moving toward a harmony that undoes its functional self and comes together as a unit that identifies itself not in the body of the composition, but on its fringes, where the real music occurs. Composed this way, his pieces allow for a playful and delightfully perverse approach to tonal invention on the part of all the horn players, and for a soloing that takes into consideration these extrapolations of "theme." (For a stunning example of this, look no further than track four, "Die Moritat Vom Mackie Messer," a deconstructive read of the Brecht/Weill classic "Mack the Knife," with extended harmonies carrying the melody further into itself than it ever wanted to go and carrying out of it a harmonic response that adds to a "morning after" effect in the narrative aspect of the song.) For his part, Hassler is very fortunate and so key in his role that he leaps and lopes, stutters and hovers with great ease, winding his way throughout these compositions, painting the backdrops -- and in the case of the aforementioned tune, the foreground -- with a series of colored tonalities that reflect the wide directional paths in the compositions, offering the saxophonists room to spread out horizontally as well as vertically. In all, this recording is a joy of experimentation and stunning compositional skill. Free jazz fans might be put off by the amount of formal structure here, but will nonetheless delight in how it's all dissembled and put back together. Fans of progressive jazz will marvel at the writing and fans of European new music will delight in the sheer audacity of it all. Highly recommended.