First time musical get togethers can be fraught with anticipation and danger, or simply endure as an exercise in compromise. This disc is a good example of people finding their way to a unified sound by sticking to their guns and pushing ahead. Roger Turner's playing should be known to anyone who's been keeping at least cursory tabs on the music over the past decade. Martin Kuchen's perhaps less so, and Ed Pettersen would seem to be a relative newbie whose previous record presented a band improvising to sounds recorded by NASA's Voyager spacecraft.

The opening salvo, "As Far as You Can Hear" sounds to me like people throwing out ideas to see where they land, looking for fertile ground. Pettersen's effects-altered lap steel drawling hazy circular motifs with an occasional metallic whack while Turner throws up a clattering commentary and Kuchen leaks melted melodic fragments into the bowl. Toward the end the whole gains weight as we catch a glimpse of the alchemical end game. "Voyager" is sparser, a kitchen dialogue while preparing a meal. Pettersen turns up the distortion and Kuchen deploys his sand-blaster, often sounding more like a shenai or some other double reed horn. Waves of orchestral strings rise up and things get positively lyrical for a bit. Sounds start to dovetail. The lap steel imitates the sax in places, harmonizes with the squall in others. Drums maintain a stop/start fusillade.

The beginning of "Far Out" is where things really start to mesh. Quiet thump and tinkle with very electronic sounding tones and sax sputter good naturedly sparring amidst the patter of rain on a tin roof. A fourth voice seems to enter at times, courtesy of Pettersen's effects. The title track finds Turner in constant clang mode after a slow warm up, and things get more insistent, like an argument becoming heated. At the 5 minute mark the hair on the back of your neck starts to rise. Rather than changing approaches and looking for compromise, these chaps stubbornly continue to mine their various claims more and more emphatically until it heats up and sparks fly.