Written as music to accompany the choreography of Molissa Fenley, Anthony Davis followed the huge artistic (if not commercial) success of his albums Episteme and Variations in Dreamtime with yet another wonderful recording along similar lines. Using many of the same musicians and, in fact, recycling some of the same thematic material (as he was to do often in his career), Davis once again finds enormous richness and power in a territory straddling advanced jazz and contemporary minimalism, here even enjoining the services of Steve Reich's violinist of choice, Shem Guibbory. The compositions combine propulsive, oddly metered rhythms with fascinating and often gorgeous melodies including, especially his bitterly beautiful "A Walk in the Shadows," here given arguably its finest, most intense performance with Guibbory doing gut-wrenching work…

The adventurous playing and writing on this reissue hint at both avant-garde jazz and 20th century classical music. Pianist/composer Anthony Davis (who wrote all of the music for the set) is joined by violinist Leroy Jenkins, cellist Abdul Wadud, and drummer Pheeroan akLaff on the three-part "Suite for Another World" and "Estraven," while taking "Of Blues and Dreams" as a solo piano feature. The music is episodic and somewhat cinematic, with some intriguing interplay among the musicians.