070531

Koenjihyakkei devote the first half of this recording to an extended improvisational jam. It's divided into six tracks, but those divisions are almost arbitrary; there are really only two gaps in the improvisation, so the divisions were probably done to give each track a similar running time. The improvisation is a bit more dissonant than most of the band's material, but it's surprisingly coherent for an improvisation and doesn't get boring to listen to.

The remaining material is mostly drawn from the band's two most recent albums ("Sunna Zarioki" comes from the début), and is frequently given extended workouts here with lengthier introductions and other flourishes not present on the studio versions. The performances are full of the usual virtuosity one would expect from these veterans, and many of these versions exceed the quality of the studio releases. The only caveat is the sound quality, as the audio was encoded as .ac3 and has a cutoff of high frequencies. Nonetheless, strongly recommended.