I bought this CD when it first came out, intrigued to hear Music by someone whose work I hadn't previously encountered and I was completely bowled over by it: this is astonishing and powerful Music quite unlike anything else I'd heard. Lang takes elements from Jazz, Rock, "World" and contemporary "Classical" Musics and forges a vital, provocative and highly individual new language all his own. This is Music that explores the extremes of expression - definitely not "Easy Listening" - to present a portrait of the contemporary world: jagged, fractured, often violent, with moments of anxious stillness; a Music that screams its rage against the routine, against the labelling and exploitation of human beings.
The title means "Differences/Similarities" and this disc is a recording of the second (and, in my opinion, far away the best) of a sequence of works sharing this overall title. Phrases are repeated, not in the Minimalist manner of the American, British or Dutch composers associated with that movement, but, instead, to create expectations from which the Music struggles to break free - just as the listener is led to think that they know what will happen next, the Music moves on. It's often like a vinyl LP record trying to liberate itself from the scratch that causes the needle to repeat and repeat and repeat.
A fantastic CD that should attract lovers of Music as disperate as that of Richard Barrett, Anthony Braxton and/or The Mars Volta! Superbly recorded by KAIROS and performed with breathtaking precision and commitment by everyone involved.