Even the most experienced chef knows attention must be paid when making a hollandaise/Béarnaise sauce, carefully combining ingredients and monitoring temperature lest a tasty emulsion turn into an unappetizing mess.

Who knows if drummer Gerry Hemingway can fry an egg, but he is Michelin-starred when it comes to assembling groups and allowing them to blend. He did so at this 2025 concert at the titular venue in Altbüron, Switzerland, the debut of a quartet with pianist Izumi Kimura, reed/wind player Frank Gratkowski and bassist Christian Weber. He had worked with all three separately in various formats while they themselves have had little interaction, at least that is documented. So the concert's format was a means by which all could be introduced: Hemingway in trio with Gratkowski and Weber for a long foray; then the drummer in a short duet with Kimura; the foursome finally coming together after hearing the possibilities for the last 55 percent of the show.

The trio's "Silvers" (credited to Hemingway) opens like a bunch of balls falling from a shelf, Gratkowski on bass clarinet. It zigzags and quiets to a melancholy excursion with alto, accompaniment from bass and drums algebraic. A segment of toms underpinning lugubrious arco bass and bass clarinet in tandem oozes like some Lovecraftian horror before lightening up a bit upon the alto's return, becoming almost straight-ahead jazz, Hemingway hitting all the accents. The duo "Third Story Variation" (presumably improvised), in contrast is quiet, with a slinking entrance but limned with a brightness, like a folk song in its parameters and length.

Joining all four instruments for the aptly titled Hemingway piece "Bau 4 Assembly" is not just adding, instead multiplication with overlapping textures and shared roles. What begins with slow bass and drums and piano and clarinet like arachnids climbing over uneven terrain soon becomes tumultuous as an earthquake hits and the ground starts shifting. There are graceful piano chords, world-weary bass clarinet, elfin flute lines and tonal fragmentation via extended techniques, a tasteful clatter turning into a percolating dance nearly spinning out of control. From that a methodical pulse emerges, inside piano trills and long tones from bass and horn, melting away to unaccompanied drums as an introduction to a pastoral section with clarinet and lovely piano, all instruments featured in turn, bass mimicking an airplane taking off to ignite a moody, swirling event with bitter alto at its center. The energy rises to a rolling boil, cresting repeatedly, until a distinct theme arrives and the band coalesces, ending on a dramatic five-note crescendo.