..."There is no single point reference, the centre is everywhere. With their huge arsenal of instruments, they touch on many traditions and genres." This is pianist Chick Lyall and percussionist David Garrett’s second offering as Green Room since the departure of original '3rd Green-Roomer' David Baird , & since that original trio's highly acclaimed 1990's releases on LEO Records' highly prestigious & pioneering 'LEO Lab' label - "Hidden Music' & (Live) Trajectories'. (5-star ratings in the Penguin Book of Modern Jazz). This new album continues their own personal exploration in the jazz and electronics idiom with style and plenty of substance. 'Tin Man' is the rapid follow-up to their recent debut release 'Undertow', in which the pair take their contemporary jazz roots through improvised and electronic soundscapes. But this recording is perhaps different in the sense of being more introvert, more subtle and with new directions and musical tangents. TIN MAN: - Chick Lyall : acoustic piano, multi timbral modules, sound synthesis, computer programming, sound samples, flute - David Garrett : percussion, prepared piano frame, prepared dulcimer, thumb piano, sound sampling Reviews: From a recent review of 'Tin Man' & 'Undertow' by Green Room by Martin Longley (Jazz Review, UK) : "... Lyall is also a composer of modern classical orchestral pieces and a longtime purveyor of electro-acoustic sounds. Less is known about David Garrett but both Scots are dedicated to the transmogrification of acoustic trad instruments by digital processing means. ... Both players are clearly experienced as post-jazz improvisers, but can also enjoy an avant garde classical rigour. There are also strong elements of folkloric exotica, principally from the Far East, and more precisely, the Indonesian gamelan vocabulary of gongs , bells and metallophone shimmers. Often these effects are arrived at by software-jiggling means..." ..."The packaging for both discs is emphatically scientific, but their soundscapes are very organic, caught inside a hugely cavernous space, magnified and enhanced into granular detail. Mostly abstraction is taken all the way ... it's extremely evocative ... Garrett uses a full kit more openly on 'Undertow', whilst Lyall retains a good amount of purist piano, in the Cecil Taylor-style ... ultimately I'd really recommend that both (these albums) are consumed in tandem, for the complete ambient effect." From a Green Room Review by Chris Kelsey (All Music Guide) : "... their music falls into that loosest of categories, "electro-acoustic," but aside from that faint appellation, the group is impossible to classify. Suffice it to say that they create formidable music. Green Room utilizes a variety of sound sources, including tape, prepared piano and dulcimer, digital (and perhaps analogue) synthesis, bamboo flute, and something called a rotalodien. The members display a familiarity with 20th century classical forms, including serialism and the electronic experiments of composers such as Stockhausen and Cage. One suspects a free jazz influence, but it's not particularly obvious; Green Room's wholly improvised music is ultimately non-idiomatic. The band has apparently been around a while, and the musicians do indeed exhibit a focus and shared vision that bespeaks a long-term creative commitment to one another. The improvisations are mostly direct and to the point; there's little aimless rambling." " ... really, to single out any one of them for praise is silly; this is the consummate group enterprise. Certainly, working in Glasgow has done little to make them a more visible presence on the world's soapbox-sized free improv stage. Perhaps they should be more famous, but that can be said of hundreds if not thousands of artists. They make compelling art for art's sake, and that's something everyone should appreciate." Also available on CD Baby: GREEN ROOM (Chick Lyall~David Garrett) ~ 'UNDERTOW' CHICK LYALL ~ with JOAKIM MILDER, MIKE DUNNING & TOM BANCROFT ~ 'BROKEN POEMS' ROB HALL & CHICK LYALL ~ 'THE BEATEN PATH'