Echoes cover
Released

The sixth Fire! Orchestra release is their largest work to date, in every sense — sprawling across two CDs or three LPs and lasting nearly two hours, it’s performed by more than 40 musicians, mostly Scandinavian players as always but also including a guest appearance by American saxophonist Joe McPhee. The opening track, “I See Your Eye, Part 1,” features lush strings that could have come from an Isaac Hayes movie soundtrack, while “Forest Without Shadows” sets up an African-derived trance groove, and the closing “I See Your Eye, Part 2,” a reprise of the opener, McPhee delivers a poem about “the last of the late, great finger-wigglers” over Last Poets-style congas, with Fire! Orchestra leader Mats Gustafsson backing him on baritone sax. This is an epic musical journey, so settle in for the full two-hour ride.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
The Intangible Between cover

The Intangible Between

Captain Black Big Band, Orrin Evans
Cluster & Eno cover

Cluster & Eno

Cluster, Brian Eno
Poof cover

Poof

Henry Threadgill
Sweet Freedom, Now What? cover

Sweet Freedom, Now What?

Lisle Ellis, Paul Plimley, Joe McPhee
Dialectic Soul cover

Dialectic Soul

Asher Gamedze
People in Sorrow cover

People in Sorrow

Art Ensemble of Chicago
The Melodic Line cover

The Melodic Line

Vincent Courtois, Reverso, Frank Woeste, Ryan Keberle
Garden cover

Garden

Uncivilized