Larry Ochs, Joan Jeanrenaud, Miya Masaoka

For his debut recording with former Kronos Quartet cellist Joan Jeanrenaud and koto master Miya Masaoka, Rova Saxophone Quartet's Larry Ochs composed four extended works for improvisation that compel the players to be both quick-thinking and full-feeling. On the album's title track and on "Mystery Street," Ochs set up structures to tell his bandmates how and when -- but not always precisely what -- to play: The ambience (if not often the exact notes) is established in advance. This gives the tunes their distinctive characters while allowing the musicians enough freedom to interact spontaneously. As a result, both tracks cohere with a sophisticated musical logic yet develop lush, emotional cores -- woeful, haunted cello, hallucinatory koto (which at times sounds like an ethereal harp from the Magic Kingdom), and variously soulful or attitudinal sax.

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• Larry Ochs
• Miya Masaoka
• Joan Jeanrenaud

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The 23-minute centerpiece, "Heart of the Matter," uses a more complicated system that combines traditional notation and so-called graphic scores -- pictographs that, according to Ochs' liner notes, instruct the players to create "simple" or "complex" musical phrases at calculated points throughout the piece. This dynamic compositional technique adds an extra element of strategic silences, which function almost as a fourth bandmate, off which the other instrumentalists take their cues. The effect is a heady mix of deep breathing and breathlessness, a kind of restive serenity.

The CD's closing track, "It Happened One Night," also employs a variety of guidelines for improvisation that the musicians are instructed to work through at their own pace. Because each instrumentalist can choose to play a certain section for any length of time, some striking contrasts emerge, say, between the horn's pointillistic tones and the strings' intensely layered drones, as the musicians navigate labyrinthine cerebral passages while listening to each other and responding empathetically. In the end, Fly Fly Fly's organic integration of head and heart creates a rare beauty that's as smart as it is poignant.