"Formed in 2009, the members live on two separate continents but have maintained the relationship through concerts, touring and recordings. Their first release Lucid (Splitrec CD 22) was recorded in 2011 and released in 2013. John Shand wrote: "If spiders have musical dreams while spinning webs, they might sound like the fragile wisps of sound created by Great Waitress." Their second, Flock (234 CD Creative sources) was recorded in 2013, released in 2014, Shand wrote again about dreams; "...the resultant music evolves like the soundtrack for a dream that is both enticing and disquieting." Their third release Hue (Another Dark Age LP Aoo6) was recorded in 2014, released in 2016. Bob Baker Fish in Cyclic Defrost wrote; "...really quite remarkable. It squeaks, rattles reverberates, shimmers, converges into a truly unique organism, one that feels not just far beyond the sum of its parts, but also, oddly enough quite untouched by human hands." This fourth release, recorded before the pandemic and lockdowns in 2018, has taken four years to get to production. A live set, back, before was beautifully recorded by Peter Farrar at the Annandale Creative Arts Centre, mixed and mastered by Joe Talia.

In the elegant liner notes, Chris Abrahams writes of Great Waitress transcending "...the individual contributions of Mayas, Altman and Brooks. It's an identity made from a multi-dimensional counterpoint - timbral, rhythmic, harmonic, melodic, emotional... - that results in an ever-evolving gestalt." He finishes with: "External sound phenomena are subsumed by a music that welcomes any wayward noise, clothing it instantly in its mystery and beauty. The musicians can't put a foot wrong, because the whole concept of 'wrong feet' is anathema to their ideology."

Great Waitress unfold soundscapes, and beyond their horizons there is nothing to be heard but other soundscapes, and still other horizons. But if we go the other way - forensically listen in to the minutiae - there is nothing inside the sounds but other smaller sounds. They do this inward/outward listening within each of their four amazing releases and they also do it across these releases. This listening is achieved because we never arrive at cliché, genre, or the entirely known or predictable - Great Waitress keep you suspended on a cusp between knowability and novelty.

They have unfolded a body of work, of which back, before is the latest stunning example, that speaks of a brilliant, patient, humble collectivity - one of the most important improvising ensembles of the last decade. We hope you discover Great Waitress's world."-SplitRec

" There's a relationship between a music performance and a written-word account of that performance. But words arrive well after the experience has been abstracted, verbalised and written down and, although words do achieve something, doing justice to the experience of listening to this Great Waitress recording with them is an uphill battle. A favoured criterion I've lately adopted as to what constitutes 'good' music is that it should affirm the need for humans to make it; I should be able to intuit from listening: 'this is why humans make and need music.' This is how I feel when I listen to 'back, before.'

"I believe there's a strong formal aspect to the trio format in music. It tends to allow for a complex autonomy of constituent parts yet still succeeds in creating a recognisable 'whole'. Great Waitress have a strong identity, one that transcends the individual contributions of Mayas, Altman and Brooks. It's an identity made from a multi-dimensional counterpoint-timbral, rhythmic, harmonic, melodic, emotional...-that results in an ever-evolving gestalt.

"It seems effortless the way Great Waitress's music plays out; the way the various strands intertwine to inhabit a particular sonic area, for just the right amount of time, before shifting apart to explore other combinations. The music moves as if left to its own devices. That's not to say there's no human decision making: sections end and new material is brought into play, consciously. I detect a loose episodic structure that is in no way premeditated or explained verbally prior to the performance. The decisions to shift are felt, in the moment, by each player and are dependent on a shared, non-verbal, understanding of the unfolding context. Here I run up against the difficulty of explaining with words a form of communication that takes place without them. Nonetheless, it's obvious that Great Waitress are able to make this extraordinary music in large part due to the trust Mayas, Altman and Brooks have in each other and the group as a whole.

"There is also a respect for the fundamentals of music making. Mayas has an impressive array of techniques, preparations and tools at her disposal. These she utilises with a strong formal syntax and a deep understanding of musical space. Often several elements are incorporated together in sustained passages; elements each with their own timbre, envelope, and amplitude, each with their own rhythmic and melodic phrasing or pitch variations. Some are recognisably pianistic, others orchestral, metallic or electronic sounding. Altman's clarinet playing is powerfully affecting. Sometimes I hear proto speechifying; sometimes there's avian-like phrasing; sometimes she plays long held notes that microtonally 'beat' against other sustained notes or arc across the developing strands of the sound world. Brooks' accordion playing is always understated and occupies a vital dimension. The long-held chords are like the stretched-out breath of the group, made all the more compelling by the seeming effortlessness of their making. The instrument's sound is more translucent than Altman's clarinet, it seems to disappear and reappear-diaphanous, a slow swaying curtain.

"The Annandale Creative Arts Centre, where these pieces were recorded, is an old church hall in the inner west of Sydney. I was in the audience that night. It's on a busy main street where cars pass by, their rumble barely filtered by the stained-glass windows. When I listen to this recording, I can hear the room. I hear its high ceilings when Mayas' percussive utterances fly off into the dark reverb. I hear audience footsteps and coughing. Even a Google map direction blurts from a forgotten mobile phone. Yet none of this seems like an interruption, nothing damages the performance's aura. External sound phenomena are subsumed by a music that welcomes any wayward noise, clothing it instantly in its mystery and beauty. The musicians can't put a foot wrong, because the whole concept of 'wrong feet' is anathema to their ideology." "-Chris Abrahams, October 2021