Richard Barrett makes demands on the listener only proportionately less than on the performer, but his music is worth the attention of anyone who believes that sound is a living entity in itself rather than merely an expressive “given”. The brunt of this disc was first issued almost 15 years ago and its reappearance is more than welcome, confirming the consistency of Barrett’s thinking during the interim.

The shorter works demonstrate aspects of this approach. Ne songe plus à fuir (“Dream no more of fleeing”) ruthlessly yet methodically dissects the cello’s sound world, while EARTH sets up an abstract sequence of responses between trombone and percussion; one that Another Heavenly Day takes to a more rarefied level with its fugitive yet arresting interplay of clarinet, electric guitar and double bass. All three of these pieces also form part of larger series – a typical Barrett procedure conveyed in toto with the Negatives cycle. Its five interrelated components variously reflect and investigate each others’ sound worlds in a cumulative process that culminates with the implosion of the final piece – in which percussion assumes the foreground to a point where only piccolo and cello remain defiant.

Extended by the more recent Codex I, which takes improvisational strategies to an extreme without abandoning its conceptual focus, this disc is a persuasive and also representative way into Barrett’s music. The remastered sound, moreover, conveys more completely his concern to make the recording integral to the performance process rather than aiming for any unrealistic “live” perspective.