John Fordham – the Guardian ***
German saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock has some Lee Konitz connections in her soft tone, cliche-avoidance and tendency to ponder, but on soprano throughout here, she adds a squawkier edge that occasionally suggests the late Steve Lacy. It’s a duo album for Laubrock and highly talented local pianist Liam Noble, but its soundscape is broadened by producer and Polar Bear drummer Seb Rochford, who has remixed four of the tracks to add eerie piano echoes and sounds like guitar-harmonics or electric basslines played backwards. Laubrock’s long-lined fluency and Noble’s rhythmic bumpiness make an irresistable Alone Together; Noble’s two hands engagingly sound as if in grudging support of each other on the Monk title track, and Ellington’s Angelica has laidback Latin bounce. Lee Konitz’s Subconscious-Lee gets a fizzing visit, and the six originals are pretty compelling, too.