« A wonderfully eccentric grab-bag of duos and trios focuses on the versatile pairing of pianist Marilyn Lerner and Lori Freedman on clarinets (they’re the Mabs)…It’s music of angles and astringency, at times austere, and others excitingly emphatic…Moods shift but there’s obvious empathy between principals, who mix cat-and-mouse games with serious musical conversation that’s open and provocative. »

– Geoff Chapman, Toronto Star

« They [Lerner & Freedman] have a remarkable symbiosis, with Lerner’s quite elegant lines sometimes giving this disc the sound of what it might have been like if Eric Dolphy had ever played with Cecil Taylor. Lerner’s powerful phrasing also seems to owe something to Stravinsky. Of the huests, vocalist Fides Krucker makes the most lasting impression with sometimes caterwauling, sometimes cooing lines recalling Lauren Newton, Maggie Nichols, and Julie Tippets. This is at times a forbidding disc, but it is ultimately quite spectacularly rewarding: Lerner and Freedman never repeat themselves, never lapse into cliches, and always keep the listener reveling in the sounds of surprise. »

– Robert Spencer, Cadence

1. Oh

2. Quartet

3. Close

4. Knot

5. Tikes

6. The Cave Dwellers

7. Victory

8. Nameless