Whatever one thinks of the ECM aesthetic, one must concede that Manfred Eicher has come up with a dialectic � compression of ideas set in a distant, churchy acoustics � that draws you closer and rewards careful listening. Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier's two-CD Abaton set is a virtual symbol of that duality. The first disc is through-composed, four compositions of between four-and-a-half and twenty minutes in length. The second is a series of nineteen improvisations, none more than five minutes long and most considerably shorter than that. The extended pieces are intensely textural, and use silence to great (sometimes too great) effect. The improvisations, which according to the notes are completely spontaneous, are gestural. Even the title of the CD (also the name of the trio) is a perhaps unintended commentary on the ECM phenomenon (it refers to the sanctum sanctorum of the ancient Greek cult of Asclepius, a place that could only be entered if compelled by a revelation or vision).

How does it sound? Lovely. And a little lonely. The Swiss-born Courvoisier may cite Monk as her first influence and her use of intervals and musical space recalls him in a vague way, but this is sober � at times somber � music squarely in the European tradition. Of course, violinist Mark Feldman and cellist Erik Friedlander are comfortable in this tradition, too, and they play with technical assurance and fire. Feldman in particular is frequently breathtaking, making amazing register leaps and pouring out buckets of emotionally-charged tone. Friedlander is scarcely less astonishing and plays with improvisational daring on the first disc and classical command on the second. Courvoisier is crystalline and often thought-provoking, but there�s a certain emotional attenuation to her playing that the typically spacious ECM recording acoustic only exacerbates. Some of the compositions might be a bit long and the improvisations (full of sparkling ideas and fearlessly executed) too short, but it's the kind of music that rewards deep immersion.