Worst album ever
Manu Katche was known to me as one of the grooviest drummers on the planet. So why would you put your name to a band that doesn't reflect your own personal style and display those fantastic groves that you are famous for? Surely I am not the only drummer who has bought this album on the strength of your reputation as an innovative drummer.

This album could have redeemed itself had the compositions been of a standard worthy of such a musician. The horn section seriously is enough to put you to sleep.

This album is beautifully recorded, it's just a pity the musical content doesn't match the standard of the recording.

Manfred Eicher...what are you doing?!

This is the first ECM record that I have bought in the last 20 years and I think it'll probably be another 20 years before I revisit your label.

Big future for Manu Katche
This is the first time I hear of Manu Katche. Am I surpised? Yes; as a second release for this young drummer, he fits well among the great Jazz drummer composers, like Cobham, Williams and Roach. His music is by far different yet it is simply; beautiful.
Would I recommend this album? You bet, if you are a Hardcore Jazz listener, you will find this album extremely fresh, tight and well arranged.
Playground

Playground
Playground

This is a haunting piece of Euro Jazz that somehow fits the times in which we live. Manu Katche's compositions and the technical ability of the musicians playing with him use their instruments to speak of the world-weariness so many of us feel and to the quest for spiritual connection we seek with each other and with the universe in which we live. I especially liked the trumpet solos by Mathias Eick. Katche's drumming is steady, inventive, yet never overpowering.

Reincarnation of the cool
I eagerly awaited this CD, as I heard the quintet live in Amsterdam, a couple of months after they had been recording this in New York. I am happy to say the same atmosphere of the concert pervades this record. The brilliant rhythm section I already knew from Neighbourhood, and recent Tomasz Stanko recordings, creates an exciting and beautiful soundscape. The Norwegian horn line up was a revelation, however. Clearly from the school of Jan Garbarek, these Vikings show mastery and a fine sense of style. Although playing generally in service of the collective, it is clearly Katche who is responsible for the restraint that these players exercise. It is the enormous reserve you are hearing behind the deceptively simple lines, that makes you want to listen to this group again and again. It the same secret that Miles Davis but also somebody like James Brown used to great success. I hope these guys keep touring and recording for some more, as an advertisment for how European jazz has come into its own.
Why not 5 stars? It's a matter of taste. In addition to the composure and style, I would have liked to hear one track where they would really have gone wild, cuffs off, messing things up. Like Stanko said in an interview, next to a little bit of mess, you appreciate beauty even more fully...

Manu starting to come of age as a leader
So, what's changed since Neighbourhood? Well, the tunes are generally better (some even "swing" with very good changes of tempo & dynamic), Manu's playing is less busy & more supportive, we don't have the huge expectations of great Trumpet & Saxophone artistry (because Stanko & Garbarek have been replaced by the relatively unknown & generally excellent Matthias Eick & Trygve Seim) & both the arrangements & playing "breathe" a lot more. What's the same? Well, Wasilewski's piano playing is still a highlight & the music overall is still best classed as "mellow jazz" (in fact the opener "Lo", beautiful as it is, sounds like a Neighbourhood offcut) so we can't quite say the handcuffs are completely off but this is a definite improvement. Tracks best highlighting the improvement/"change" in direction are "So Groovy", "Snapshot" & "Inside Game".