Izumi Kimura (piano), Isabelle O'Connell (piano), Paul Roe (clarinet), Simon Jermyn (guitar)Diatribe Records, 4 CD set (discs also available separately) ***
This set constitutes a conspectus of new music from three continents. O'Connell's Reservoir concentrates on Irish music, from the trad meets avant-garde of Seóirse Bodley's
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, to the madcap montage of Jennifer Walshe's becher, and the post-minimalist washes of Donnacha Dennehy's Reservoir. Kimura's
Asymmetryinterleaves works from Ireland and Japan; the Irish composers (Ronan Guilfoyle, Gerald Barry and Greg Caffrey) sound much edgier than the Japanese. Roe on clarinet and bass clarinet offers solos and duos with colleagues; the most effective performances, Wayne Siegel's Jackdaw and Ed Bennett's Monster, both with electronics, frame the collection. Jazz bass guitarist Simon Jermyn's
Hymniis at its best in its electronics-free moments of loose-limbed unpredictability. See diatribe.ie