Normally the flute is one of the more distinctive sounding of the woodwind instruments, and really when it appears in compositions you can clearly define/ pick it out. Flutist Alessandra Rombolà is an improviser/ composer who very much like to push the flute out of its normal safe & distinct restraints, and with Out Of The Playground she offers up five pieces with four different collaborators- all pushing the flute down new & interesting sound paths.

The album appears as a CD on the always consistent/ intriguing Sofa Music label- which focuses on releasing the more creative & daring with in improv/ modern composition genre. The CD comes presented in a four-panel light green digipak- artwork wise this features cut-up collages of maps, weather systems, and people- with one of the inside panels featuring text discussing each of the tracks.

The album opens with  “Répétition II” which was composed by Martin Smodal, and finds Alessandra playing through an Addcoder- which is a recording device specially made for the flute. It turns the instrument into this rub band-like string pluck/ come billowing bubbles tone- and for the first half of the track, we get a focus on the mid-range tones, though later these warbling high-pitched tones start to swoon and drift over the other textures.

As we through the album we come to “Breathing Rust And Clouds” which was written by Daniela Terronva. Here the flute is somehow shifted into a mix of almost percussive picks, fiddles and darts- which are all overfed by wooshes & hisses. 

With the album plays out with the longest track here “Or Forbidden Land” which is by legendary Norse noise creator & label runner Lasse Marhaug. This just under twenty-six-minute track moves from warbling shifts ‘n’ fumbling wooshes, onto cluttering/ jittering electro-fed tones. Through to warming and simmering sonic clouds of ambience, and rapid fiddles/ swipes. All Very much creating a wonderful strange & alien soundworld- which slips between vibrancy & busyness 

Out Of The Playground is another excellent & worthwhile release from Sofa Music. And if you think you know the sonic limits and boundaries of the flute as an instrument- think again!. To check it out for yourself