"So far, three releases with the music by Stephen Flinn were reviewed in Vital Weekly and all three were with others, Lauren Nagaryu Rubin, Jason Mears, Steve Beresford and Dave Tucker. This is the first solo release I hear from him. He calls himself a "postmodern percussionist, composer, performer and improviser". Interestingly, he "trained as a fighter in an east-LA boxing gym, to working as a Dublin-based radio disc jockey and newsreader, to living as a Buddhist forest monk in Thailand", but now as a trainer to use rhythms to teach positive communication. On the six pieces here he uses a bow quite a bit to strike cymbals and gong, creating low and high notes, while sometimes he uses a small object, styrofoam or such, to produce very small sounds. The results are great. While it is easy to see this work as part of the whole wide world of improvised music, I would at the same time there a lot of concentrated, repeated effort went into this; practising to create this and thinking what works best. This is hardly your usual free improvisation drum disc. There are not hectic notes, not big moves, no rattling and shaking of cages, but Flinn rolls out some majestic sounds here. Slow, with those bows on the cymbals and edges of drums, a strike on the gong and it all unfolds in great slowness and also some darkness, I think. I was reminded of the good ol' Organum records, but then sans the effects and such studio trickery. I think Flinn played all of this live and that there has not been much in terms of overdubs. A solemn, earnest work, and it works very well. I'd say if you love Christian Wolfarth's music, then you should also hear Stephen Flinn."-Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly

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