Australian electro-acoustic composer Philip Samartzis teems up on this release with minimal composer Kozo Inada, a 20 minute layered track that plays with opposites, weaving them into a cohesive piece.

Electronic and environmental sounds are manipulated, at times flowing into one another, other times providing a jarring contrast. The trance produced is both meditative and playful, as if implying that any mix of source materials can be both united and broken apart, and still work as a sustained groove. Though obviously composed in sections, with some improvised links, this is a piece that needs to be swallowed whole, as it was ultimately constructed to be whole, despite its sonic dualism.

Ambient is everywhere today, silence is music, and found recordings are a new source of rhythm and structure. While this has made for a lot of redundant shit?malaise is not ambient?Samartzis, solo and in collaboration, has been one the best at using all sounds to create a new harmonic vocabulary. Here, his ideas work with and around those of Inada to create a rich, deep piece. 10/10 -- Mike Wood (18 September, 2006)