Goat's Notes: Wild Nature Executives

Hailing from Moscow, Goat's Notes and four guest artists execute a liberating soundscape and sustain a great deal of interest, partly due to the conciseness of pieces averaging three-minutes in length. Featuring a whipped-up blend of improvisation, jazz, classical, and rock shaped into an avant-garde disposition, the artists integrate memorable melodies with dissonance, humor, and rambunctious breakdowns. It's a cyclical deconstruction effort, covering about every conceivable possibility imaginable. But it's surprisingly cohesive as they cluster a horde of mini-motifs into the overall schema.

The ensemble engages in numerous call and response dialogues and at times, spins a rock pulse into looping horn patterns and blues- tinted choruses. A prime example of the band's many faces is evidenced during "Shoe Factory," where pianist Grigory Sandomirsky tones it down amid yearning ostinato notes, propagating a pensive yet tuneful ballad. Moreover, trombonist Illya Vikov tops it off with gusty lines but as anticipated, the musicians turn the tide into a garrulous finale induced by Maria Logan's burgeoning drum patterns. Here, the message may intimate that sweet dreams can often become shattered.

Many pieces are festive by design. However, the continuum most always features unexpected paradigm shifts and variable flows. On the album's lengthiest composition "Wild Nature Executives," they impart a series of scrappy exchanges and infuse a suspenseful aura via twirling horns, simple progressions and open the floor with a subtle rock groove and catchy riffs.

The core ensemble signifies one in a long line of highly experimental Russian aggregations that could trace lineages back to the highly praised founding fathers the Ganelin Trio, who overcame insurmountable odds during the artistically clandestine Soviet era.