Michael Wollny/Eva Kruse/Eric Schaefer
[em] 3
ACT
By George W. Harris

Pianist Michael Wollny, bassist Eva Druse and drummer Eric Schaefer,
collectively known as the German group EM, have issued their third
release as a unit, creating music inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, no
small feat in itself! The music, similar in fragility and starry
spaciousness to Bobo Stenson, is filled with intricate interplay and
percussive conversations between the three introspective and symbiotic
artists. Wollny has a Schubertian romance and tactile approach to his
ivories, amply demonstrated in the nocturnal "Monsters:Symmetriads."
Likewise, "Love of her Life" has a genteel dissonance to its grey
pastoral setting that is both embracing and icy. Schaefer's cymbal work
on this piece is quite mysterious and alluring. The communication
between the three during the enter recording is articulate, adroit and
intuitive. Subtle and sensitive, this disc shows that ECM does not
corner the market on new sounds from the Old Country.