***Jazzman (in French), July 2009 p.60
Les Fantastic Merlins ne viennent pas tout droit de la
cour du roi Arthur mais de Minneapolis, et tirent leur
nom d’un poeme de Garcia Lorca. Ce second album
temoigne d’une personnalite plutot originale dans le
jazz contemporain. A suivre. ***
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disques nato (in French)
C'est dans les lignes de "Poema de la Saeta" que les
Fantastic Merlins ont trouvé leur nom, sans rapport
apparent, dans un autre temps, une autre contrée. Ils
auraient donc pu s'appeler The dark archers, The
perfection of Dionysus, Orlando Furioso, Crinoline
Virgin ou the Green night. On sentira plutôt que le nom
semble s'être apposé à eux. C'est la force de la poésie
de se rejoindre partout où elle se trouve. Ainsi va
l'exigence de la vie. Read
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Albuquerque Journal, Apr 2, 2009
Audiences open to improv
will
love Fantastic Merlins
By David Steinberg
Journal Staff Writer
The music that the Fantastic Merlins play is
somewhere in that muddy territory between
avant-garde jazz and new music.
Nathan Hanson, the Merlins' tenor
saxophonist, said the band has found that
audiences with a limited jazz background are more
receptive to its music.
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love Fantastic Merlins
By David Steinberg
Journal Staff Writer
The music that the Fantastic Merlins play is
somewhere in that muddy territory between
avant-garde jazz and new music.
Nathan Hanson, the Merlins' tenor
saxophonist, said the band has found that
audiences with a limited jazz background are more
receptive to its music.
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Bass World, Mar. 2008
Have you been looking around for something a little
different to load into your iPod or keep you company as
you drive? Well, stop looking around and get
Look Around by the Fantastic
Merlins. With the many eyes covering the CD
package, this product may see you before you see
it! Read
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Ink 19
Very much akin to their
Midwest brethren that populate Chicago's Thrill Jockey
label, Fantastic Merlins are well-versed in
jazz-influenced trips into the avant-garde. Think more
Isotope 217's fractured fusion or Town and Country's
deft manipulation of drones instead of Tortoise's
overarching post-rock fascination. The disc's liner
notes draw a parallel between jazz and cinema as being
both "art-forms masquerading as entertainment" and it's
an interesting assertion since Look Around plays like a
long forgotten soundtrack from a very bizarre genre
film. Read
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ROKICT, April 6, 2009
A Handful of Earth-Fantastic Merlins, Independent, 2009
Hailing from the great state of Minnesota, this chamber
jazz outfit has delivered, in A Handful of Earth a
dense and deserving slab of intellectually stimulating
and emotionally stirring pieces. Read
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Cadence Magazine, Jan. 2008
Make no mistake about it:
The Fantastic Merlins' Look Around is a fantastic album
that stands aside from the pack in almost every way. It
is infused with a gorgeous milieu tempered by chamber
sounds although it is not chamber music, and it is
often thrilling, and worthy of making at least some
"top ten" lists for 07 releases. Read
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Massimo Ricci's Touching Extremes, Oct. 2007
This is a group that seems to be growing with each new
step. My second encounter with the quartet, “Look
around” doesn’t want to assail the senses with futile
rage or drooling melancholy, neither is strictly
classifiable in a category.
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Signal to Noise, Sept. 2007 issue, p.80

A whisper of brushed snares, two metallic taps, a snatch of the faintest human voice, and then strings open onto a vast plain of reverberant sound and slowly evolving drone. The opening moments of Look Around evoke multiple landscapes, layers of sonic possibility that are then realized throughout this superb and surprisingly adventurous disc.
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Minnesota Monthly, Sept. 2007, p.32
...listeners can't lose with this enjoyably innovative quartet. In Fantastic Merlins, cellist Jacqueline-Ferrier Ultan (Jelloslave) and bassist Brian Roessler lay down an abundance of low-end that's cinematic and spooky. Over that, saxophonist Nathan Hanson and percussionist Federico Ughi gently weave and moan. But throughout this smoldering 10-song program, the melodic instruments veer in and out of each other's tonal range for a bewildering exploration that's often solemn, and organically psychedelic. Read More...
Downtown Music Gallery
...each time I've played this disc, I've been blown
away, as have the half dozen customers who have grabbed
copies in the store. What is so fantastic about them?!?
This is not just another swell improv disc, you can
tell that a good deal of preparation and writing has
gone into this gem.
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Reveille Magazine
Fantastic Merlins don't consider themselves a jazz
group, exactly, but it's hard not to hear them as such,
mostly due to the cumulative effect of tenor saxophone,
upright bass and drums...Fantastic Merlins make music
imbued with one of jazz's greatest strengths: a complex
but naturally woven and interdependent improvisational
spirit.
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Foxy Digitalis
A band with vision that is literally part NYC, part
Minneapolis, and spiritually part free jazz and part
string quartet, the Merlins make magic with a power and
precision that is at times awesome, at other times
inspirational.
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Squidco
Squidco Staff Pick, July 2007 Read
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Exclaim! Canada’s Music Authority

...The resonant blend of tenor sax, cello and arco bass imbue the group’s sound with a meaty, full-bodied presence that rewards repeated listening.
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Touching Extremes
Debut EP for a quartet playing an exquisite assortment
of contemporary styles...these people know what they're
doing; desolate themes, vigorous lines and engaging
improvisations are intertwined with delicate
concentration and a masterful pacing of every section,
the tension/release ratio remaining at a constantly
balanced grade.
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Pulse Magazine Feature Aug 17, 2005
Fantastic Merlins make improvised music with the spirit
that’s the impetus behind the best jazz. They might not
have chord progressions, they may not “blow” the way
that Charlie Parker did, but they capture the
intensity, freedom and flat-out beauty of some of John
Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Albert Ayler.
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How was the show (howwastheshow.com)
All too often, music that even remotely resembles the
genre of “jazz” is lumped together, branded with an
all-purpose label, and written off in one fell swoop.
It’s refreshing when a band like the Fantastic Merlins
comes along and is able to truly push the limits of
jazz improvisation, pulling in a variety of
genre-bending elements while maintaining enough
familiarity and melodic substance to captivate the
listener.
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Minnesota Public Radio
“I also recommend hearing The Fantastic Merlins...They’re working on the fertile turbulent boundaries of many musical categories, setting their classical training and adventurous spirits on jazz bedrock--definitely a way to get the Paul Seal of Approval...you’d best get out and hear them in person!”
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Milwaukee Shepherd-Express
“Bringing together an unconventional mix of instruments
and a shared penchant for experimentation, New York and
Minneapolis based combo the Fantastic Merlins make
music that's unpredictable and steeped in emotion.
Alternately upbeat and meditative, the cello, bass, sax
and drum interplay make for a sound that's part
avant-garde jazz, part chamber music, part
boundary-breaking sonic journey.” Read
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Pulse Magazine
Top Ten CDs of 2005, #7
(Live EP)
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(Live EP)
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Violet Magazine
“Amidst the
ever-growing field of boundary-pushing groups forced by
default into the annoyingly broad category "jazz," The
Fantastic Merlins stand out...This is music for all
ears, performed by musicians who impress by way of the
heart.”
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