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 More...

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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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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...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...

...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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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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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 Staff Pick, July 2007 Read More...

...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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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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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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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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“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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“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 More...

Top Ten CDs of 2005, #7
(Live EP)
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“Really very beautiful!”
John Ziegler, Program Director Read More...

“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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