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Following a rigorous compositional process, Recoder was designed to highlight the musicians of the François Houle 4's infectious virtuosity and to tackle ideas inspired by a wide range of influences, from Miroslav Vitous, Olivier Messiaen and Jimmy Giuffre to Anthony Braxton. Houle is also an accomplished and busy classical, new music and world music performer and a noted composer-performer of electroacoustic clarinet music. When he turns his focus to avant jazz, this unusually broad range of musical experience inevitably contributes to the music’s interest. "In Recoder, I wanted the ideas to be succinct and focused. I did more revisions and experiments than I would normally, in order to be convinced that the choices I made were indeed the most appropriate ones. Once in rehearsals, and at the studio, there was yet another level of probing in order to really squeeze out the full potential of an idea. The musicians were in some ways relentless in their pursuit of that. In their solo contributions and improvisations on this album, I felt that the they found some truly creative and imaginative ways to interpret the material, and to support each other in weaving a coherent canvas for self-expression.” - François Houle