Hess is a Danish pianist-composer in his mid-fifties who, among other things, teaches at the famous Rhythmic Conservatory and has been recording since 1996, in both Copenhagen and NYC. As far as I know, this may be the first time he has worked with a string quartet in such a close collaboration. The varied techniques used range from a slow series of chords held by the strings while Hess improvises on them, to a fast angular theme played in unison by strings, piano and bass stimulating further improvisation. Some of the wordplay titles are justified musically, such as the melodic augmentation of ‘Seven Ate Nine’ or the atonal funk of ‘Kontra Punk, while a couple of tracks (‘Tinir’ and ‘Celeste’) have clear echoes of Danish folk-music. There are also two non-strings items, called ‘Trio 1’ & ‘Trio 2, where drummer Hess (Nikolaj's brother) is more active than elsewhere, completing a programme that's hard to summarise. The longest track and the only non-original, ‘Ravel Reflections’, re-arranges material from that jazz-friendly composer, into a convincing suite that typifies the whole album.