Formed in 1998, the Anglo-Norwegian jazz electronica ensemble Food are one of the leading European exponents of post-clubland, experimental jazz electronica. They released their first ECM album Quiet Inlet in 2010 by which time they had already downsized from a quartet to a duo. The drummer/percussionist/electronic artist Thomas Strønen and saxophonist Iain Ballamy's new release This is Not a Miracle offers a different approach from the duo's typical way of working. By stripping the music down to its bare essentials in the studio by putting together edited versions of improvisations recorded in ‘real time’ from brief sketches Strønen brought into the studio, he has done something of a Teo Macero. The recording is as well notable for the contribution made by the engineer Ulf Holland, the first time he has worked with ECM since Nils Petter Molaevr's landmark Eurojazz electronica album Khmer. The guest musician, Austrian Christian Fennesz's ghostly yet stormy overdriven guitar, is coloured with Strønen's delicate nuances of electronica combined with a pulsating sonic texture of acoustic drums and crackling percussion. In a reversal of more familiar instrumental roles, Ballamy's minimalist long-tones on sax seem to aim at creating a backdrop for the chilled yet imaginatively penetrating rhythms and beats created by Strønen instead of the other way round. It will leave some listeners wondering when the action is going to begin and others intrigued by the recording's fascinating range of sonic detail and interaction.