The Orchestrion project

"This live set was recorded without an audience during a world tour. It contains the suite of five pieces Metheny wrote for the Orchestrion studio album, plus some old favourites from his back catalogue.The specially written pieces are superficially similar to much of his output from the last decade. They are complex, intricately constructed but somehow undemanding fusions of Brazilian music, rock, jazz and minimalism ... The Orchestrion is impressive when seen in action. But Metheny's use of it here delivers a pale, expensive shadow of what a real band can achieve. The project doesn't feel like it has longevity, and this release is for the hardcore only".

Read review

"The re-sequencing of The Orchestrion Project's thirteen tunes makes this a completely different experience, with an altered emotional arc. "Unity Village," an enduring track from Metheny's first as a leader, 1976's Bright Size Life (ECM), opened the DVD but ends the CD, turning from an easy slip into, to a similarly smooth exit from the world of Metheny's Orchestrion. In between the narrative is also altered because of an unavoidable break between the two CDs. Orchestrion's title track acts just as successfully, here, as a conclusion to the first disc as it has traditionally been an album-opener, while "Soul Search" introduces the second CD with a dark-hued, quasi-bluesy and, ultimately, swinging-tone".

Read review