The tracklisting of “Boustrophedon” (its title meaning something like ‘an ox plowing’) includes an Ouverture, a Finale and six “Furrows” in between. Each of these pieces includes concrete and detailed scores for the players, specific performance instructions and areas of freedom. And then there is a clear harmonic concept behind the release, as Evan Parker points out: “I wanted to use some of the big chords that Slonimsky talks about: all these very big all-interval structures”, with the results sounding like “East European folk music with a pedal tone and a variety of scales based on that tone.”

The structure of “Boustrophedon”, recorded live in Munich, implies the juxtaposing of composed passages and some intense soloing, as well as various dialogues between different instruments from the line-up – which is doubled in many sections, including two drum sets, two violas, several saxophones and a double double bass section.

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