Hi-Res Downloads

88.2kHz/24-bit, FLAC; ACT Music ACT 9035-2 (supplied by www.highresaudio.com)

Jazz/classical crossovers are nothing new, but this set by Norwegian saxophonist and composer Marius Neset pulls off the trick better than many: there’s not any sign of the usual car-crash or shoehorning here, but rather a fine combination of the jazz ensemble and the London Sinfonietta’s instruments. The music itself is by turns slow and lyrical and hard-driving, making use of everything from the Sinfonietta’s woodwinds to the crisp pizzicato strings, and the ‘band’ is clearly up for the challenge’s of Neset’s dense, busy writing. If there’s a criticism it’s that there often seems to be too much going on, and ideas tumble out and are replaced almost before they can be established, let alone developed – but a masterful recording makes the most of everything from lush strings to the taut, jerky rhythms. Here’s a crossover well worth closer inspection. AE

Sound Quality: 85%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

Recorded at London’s AIR studios and subsequently mastered in Stockholm, there’s some low-level spuriae at 22kHz-24kHz but this 88.2kHz rendering is otherwise clean and particularly revealing of Neset’s sax’s harmonics. PM