Customer Reviews
EST - the last post - By: Michael Hill, 13 Oct 2008 
Just magnificent! A wonderful tribute to the work of a trio who pushed the boundaries of jazz. A wall of sound for the 21st century.
A new era stopped abruptly - By: D. Ntokatzis, 11 Oct 2008 And to think I was getting a bit worried after the repetition & creative stagnation of the more pop oriented "Viaticum" & "Tuesday Wonderland". Thank God , this is a brilliant work & was definately going to lead the most important piano trio , into new uncharted territory , where different styles ,various influences would blend the future with the bop tradition into a new language . A legacy indeed & one of the most important jazz records of our times.
A Masterpiece - By: Mr. John Heath, 23 Sep 2008 Sometimes it is necessary for musicians to push the boat out as on this album. Its radically different from anything est have done before & unfortunately & sadly will never be doing again. However, what a legacy. To me its a mixture of jazz & heavy rock with some abstract electronica throuwn in. The rhythms are powerful, dark & foreboding, yet the piano soars above the nocturnal bass & drums whether creating passages of melody or simple repetitive intonations. There are extraordinarily beautiful moments coupled with downright uncomfortable edgy passages. The overall effect is stunning & mindblowing but its not going to be to everyone's taste. People who like MoR jazz or pop are not going to dig this. But hey, without musicians willing to take risks there would be no progressin music asin anything else. A fitting epitaph for a maestro & a legend
Creative musicians at work....... - By: P. Brown, 22 Sep 2008 
How should we think of this album? It's clearly impossible for us now to see it outside the context of the band's last release before the untimely death of Esbjorn Svensson. However, it must also be clear that the band themselves weren't thinking of itin anything like that context when they recorded it. Is there anything here that we haven't heard them do before? My personal view is that I don't think so. It's just that there's more of some of the things they're good at & less of some of the others, so how you view the album will depend on how you view these different aspects of their creativity. If you're looking for their marvellous touch with a melody then you may end up dissatisfied but if you like the way they can mix electronics with a piano trio to make a real heavy-metal sound then you'll love it. And that's been a part of their playing for ages. This is them just getting together to play & recording what happens, & that seems to me to bein the best spirit of jazz - somewhere between the carefully-rehearsed studio recording & the spontaneity of a live performance. We don't get to know what the band could have given us to follow this album, but I for one am glad they gave us this.
Leucocyte - By: Nicholas Colley, 21 Sep 2008 
I am a thoroughgoing fan of e.s.t. but for me it stopped with Tuesday Wonderland.
Whatever happened to the melody? This is a very disappointing album, weighed down with SFX, & not very inspiring. It's relatively unimportant, however, as we are left with an overall superb legacy of material. You win some, you lose some.
