Cuneiform: Cosmologic – Eyes In The Back Of My Head / Dieses Wochenende für Five

“More than impressive” – Brian Morton, The Wire // “…a gem of crisp ensemble-playing and finely calibrated improvisations…” – San Diego Union Tribune // “The most exhilarating band performance of the entire five days [of the Guelph Jazz Festival]… “ – Musicworks

Cosmologic was founded as a collective quartet in 1999 and had the same four members during their entire lifetime. By the time we worked with them on their fourth and final album, they had been together for 9 years and were a well tuned-in ensemble!

I don’t know what led them to disband less than two years later, but having seen them on their only East Coast tour in 2009, and listening here, it certainly was not due to flagging inspiration!

The group initially incorporated interpretations of music by Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane and others into their performances, but quickly moved towards playing only original compositions. Central to the group’s sound is a commitment to developing challenging and original compositions. With nearly a decade of experience together, Cosmologic continues to extend their repertoire of original music, in an ongoing search for new ideas. The result is a band that pushes the envelope while remaining accessible.

This is the fourth album – but the first with wide distribution – by this amazingly assured and swinging ‘free-bop’ quartet, who have been developing their unique take on modern jazz for a decade and will strongly appeal to fans of: Anthony Braxton’s ‘70s/’80s quartets, John Carter-Bobby Bradford, Ornette Coleman, Steve Lacy-Roswell Rudd Quartet, Vandermark 5.