Showcase for Hultgren's playing, amid pre-recorded tapes. On the whole I think Id prefer the cello alone. The first piece, Vivian Adelburg Rudows 'With Love' uses tapes of voices, with which the cellist is supposed to have a dialogue. Words very often detract from music for me, so the whole thing, although often humorous, often touching, left me feeling put upon. As though my emotions were being manipulated. (I suppose though that all music tends toward this state).

A few of the other pieces sound more like a good improvising ensemble. Hard to tell where a lot of these sounds originate. As the disc seems to have been damaged (or maybe my players being finnicky), I'm not hearing all of some of the pieces. It doesn't seem to alter the listening experience. More unexpected sonic happenings.

I like Hultgrens playing a lot, and as Ive mentioned before in these pages, I cannot judge compositions, so Ill say that these often dont sound like written music. Maybe a cellist and a computer. Id love to hear Craig play with a real-time sound processor.

                                           jeph jerman