O'Keefe/Stanyek/Walton/Whitehead continue their sonic explorations with their second CD, Tunnel. Recorded in the summer of 1999, this set of improvisations highlights the ensemble's textural dexterity, and their amazingly refined sense of timbral development, both individually and collectively. Tunnel captures O/S/W/W at a crucial point in their journey, when extended temporal structures were of utmost concern. Often soft and slow, yet never static, this disc bears influences from AMM and Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble to Feldman and Ligeti, while always retaining O/S/W/W's unique sense of group identity.
.These four improvisors have created a liberatory set of pieces, drawing upon their individual personalities and experiences, their development of group understanding, and their omnivorous, yet mindful enunciation of sonic sharing.
-George Lewis
It's always exciting and rare to hear a group of new musicians who are working at developing their own musical language, but it's more exciting still when they demonstrate (these) levels of individuality and collective vision and accomplishment.
-Stuart Broomer, Cadence
This quartet's beautiful brand of chamber improv deserves its quirky endorsement from Wadada Leo Smith. A richly rewarding disc that repays repeated listening.
-Andy Hamilton The Wire, Jan. 2004