IST - A More Attractive Way

"A More Attractive Way is a comprehensive study of live performances made by Ist between 1996 and 2000. "This five-CD set begins at the very outset of the group's career and features their debut concert at Club Orange in London and charts its way through further gigs in London, Billericay, Norwich and Cambridge. The 20-page booklet contains written contributions from Mark and Rhodri, Jo Fell, Simon Rose, Nick Smith, John Butcher, Phil Durrant, Graham Halliwell, and Chris Goode together with previously unpublished photographs. Ist are: Rhodri Davies - harp, preparations; Simon H. Fell - double bass, preparations; Mark Wastell - violoncello, preparations. ISt operate at such a pitch of invention they transcend the divide between art and science. Harp, upright bass and cello are played at the horizon of known technique. Simultaneously lush and abrasive, the trio push string sounds into new zones of strange beauty. Barbed bouquets explode before the ear, aural events that leave the imagination ransacked." --HIFI News & Record Review" - Confront Recordings .