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

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