I don't know what the Frenchman's inspiration for the title of this recording was – Rouge (Red) – but there's a fair bit of intergalactic shimmering going on in clarinetist/saxophonist Sclavis's ECM debut from 1991. And, of course, ECM is very good at capturing this sort of soundscape. ‘Nacht’ features barbed edges and sly expressionist shadows, while ‘Les Bouteilles’ has a pastoral feel in its opening stages thanks to Sclavis's searching clarinet part but then develops splashy dancing feet with the charged entry of Christian Ville's motorised drumming and François Raulin's great synth sequence. ‘Kali La Nuit’ has a more mythopoeic quality, while on ‘Reeves’ Dominique Pifarély and his violin take celestial centre stage. The semi-title track (in full it's ‘Rouge/Pourquoi Une Valse’, or ‘Why A Waltz’) is madcap stuff, before ‘Yes Love’ brings proceedings to a more poised and thoughtful close. It's a heady brew, pitched somewhere between avant-garde jazz and chamber music.