2002 release ** "This album features the Swiss three-quarters of the Swiss-French electro-acoustic improv group poire_z. It consists of live recordings from Budapest and Rome in late 2000. There are three "buda" tracks, each one lasting over ten minutes, and four "roma" tracks of three minutes and under -- the latter have also been remixed by Günter Müller and Norbert Möslang to serve as bridges between the main pieces. Müller has been performing with Voice Crack (Möslang and Andy Guhl) since 1995. Previous albums had featured extra players: Erik M in poire_z, Jim O'Rourke. This one documents the trio for the first time. Understandably, the music remains very close to poire_z's: Voice Crack provides revolving backgrounds made of beeps and glitches hijacked from "cracked everyday electronics," while Müller weaves in economical gestures on selected percussion instruments (usually one or two devices only) that are treated in real time with lo-fi electronics. Somewhere between post-AMM free improvisation and ambient electronic experiments gone wrong, buda_rom takes listeners on a comfortable yet challenging ride. In this paradox lies the power of these musicians' work. Although difficult, noise-based, atonal -- in short, cutting-edge -- the music can be surprisingly comfy, hypnotic, and even warm once the listener surrenders to it willingly. Only in "buda_three" do things escalate for a moment toward threatening levels of noise. This album is beautifully produced and, in terms of listening experience, succeeds better than poire_z's previous two CDs. Highly recommended."