This CD documents the live collaborations between Tom Greenwood (Jackie-O Motherfucker), Maurizio & Roberto Opalio (My Cat Is An Alien) and their friend/ close collaborator Ramona Ponzini who is also a member of Praxinoscope (her duo with Roberto Opalio) and Painting Petals On Planet Ghost (whose first LP has just been reissued on CD by Time-Lag).

It collects four 20-minute pieces which were recorded as they toured Europe as JOMF in May/ June 2005. Still, the band quickly realized that they would eventually have to find a new name for this particular project as it soon became clear to them that the music that was growing out of these performances was totally unique.

The tracks have thus been carefully selected as to present an overview of the (black) magic that happened as soon as those four people hit the stage. Consequently, every piece offers a different perspective on the way the music is being built, thus reinforcing the feeling of pure joy & exhilaration that one can get from it.

One of the things that struck me when I first played this CD was how the music could maintain a particularly high level of intensity while always remaining very subtle and delicate ? a combination which is quite unlike anything you?ve heard before!

The first track is a case in point. You are immediately taken away in a boiling whirl of sounds. Percussions are sparsely hit with a great sense of dynamics while strings of organ notes keep fluttering through space. Ramona?s voice is heard whispering the same words in Japanese, her delivery acquiring a mantra-like quality.

The music has only just begun that it is already changing as it now enters an archway full of echoing sounds. Tom Greenwood reacts with the swiftest agility, using snippets of vinyl samples in a way that recalls a painter's dripping technique.

The Opalio brothers take these invitations into account and launch a propulsive rhythmic pattern that gives the music an even more hypnotic configuration, thus allowing ample room for Greenwood?s samples to bounce against the surfaces of this sonic wormhole.

If I were to use some vivid imagery, I would say that the band's collective approach tends to work like some sort of sound-projecting device whose lenses are able to turn each sound into a multitude of shape-shifting fireworks! Black Magic Disco, all right!

As the music begins to dissolve in a series of expanding echoes, isolated (heart) beats are being heard... It all feels like this entire organism is now left to sing as one as all kinds of electric sound fragments keep on answering one another in the quietest way.
As the piece reaches its end, you realize that a mini-xylophone had been playing two lonely notes for a while without your even noticing them. This is simply captivating... and there?s nothing quite like it, really. To think this was also the very first thing that these guys had performed on stage without having ever done any rehearsal before?

The second track has an even wilder beginning than the first one. Free rhythmic patterns form the backbone of the ensuing improvisation. Meanwhile, Tom Greenwood summons the ghosts of some distant voodoo tribes through his turntable witchery. Soon the space toys delineate a highly-charged drone, the saturated textures of which are warm enough so as to INVITE the other performers into this dance. As the music becomes slightly quieter, Greenwood lets out a few of his trademark guitar arpeggios.

Ramona?s voice is then being heard once again, almost ghost-like, reciting a Japanese poem in the distance punctuated by a series of dislocated, half-muted beats. More vinyl samples follow. They are always used very sparingly and now enter a sort of call-and-response pattern with Ramona. After a while, it is hard to tell what comes from Greenwood?s sound library from what the Opalio brothers are doing as space echoes and other rhythmic shards keep answering one another. The piece ends on a mysterious, open-ended note once again.

The third track may well be the wildest of them all. And this is partly due to the intensity that is to be found in Ramona?s vocal performance. As soon as the piece begins, Ramona places her vocals on a rather indeterminate plane, between reciting and screaming. The impact is literally breathtaking...

The guys soon create a storming wall of sound behind her that almost instantly turns into yet another fascinating sonic experiment, full of quiet tensions. Space toys are heard in addition to a wide array of electric sounds + vinyl samples and decaying loops. Something is lurching in the background, but you can?t tell what it is exactly... Again, the music seems to react, to move like an entire organism, as it is saying something that simply lies beyond our grasp.

As the piece seems to fade, the overall sound actually becomes all the richer with space toy drones and Greenwood?s sparse psych-guitar lines leading the way. The music has a suspended sense of drama that is just magical to experience?

The last track may be the ?quietest? of them all. Yet, it displays the same kind of energy. Wind chimes fill out the space (courtesy of Ramona) while Tom Greenwood?s guitar moves into more abstract territories. A lonely voice is heard in the background?

Ramona recites another Japanese poem, her delivery being in perfect accordance with the poetic breath needed for such an act. The Opalios react accordingly and pave the way for a new sonic path, full of glistening noises. Greenwood?s vinyl samples become more abstract too, with all kinds of found sounds engaging in a mysterious conversation with the more alien guitar sounds. As we reach the end of the piece, Greenwood graces us once again with some of his cascading electric guitar notes, yet again taking the roots of this very music back to its "cosmic" source.

This is a music that grows out of the faith each performer puts in whatever they may come up with ? by the simple act of listening & reacting to one another in the most profound and dedicated way. Again, one of its greatest achievements lies in the fact that it is able to sustain a body of sound that is as intense as it is delicate; something which, in my opinion, is truly unique.

Accordingly, this is not just a testimony to the talents of the aforementioned musicians, but also one of the most passionate love letters MUSIC has received in quite some time. How can THIS not be essential? 10/10 -- Francois Hubert (14 November, 2007)