Abrams’ legend status as a founder of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) has possibly reduced the spotlight on his own brilliant body of work. Even more so his forays into electronics, which were a source of controversy among black musicians in Chicago, to the extent that some of his non-acoustic material was tucked away on the B-sides of his records. This important compilation, charting almost 30 years of work, starting in the late 1960s, shows just how ahead of the curve Abrams was. For a start, the immensely wide range of sounds he draws from the synthesisers he used is quite astounding, as the deeply expressive touch he had on acoustic piano, coupled with his sometimes austere yet always charged sense of harmony, produces a timbral palette that is futuristically orchestral. Yet as much Abrams excels as a techno-warrior (albeit one who applies an improviser’s unpredictability to his time and pulse) he is also majestic as a composer and arranger. The input of other AACM icons, from Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell to George Lewis and Amina Claudine Myers, is excellent, and the highpoint of group chemistry is ‘The Bird Song’, an absolutely mind-blowing 22-minute opus in which the combination of David Moore’s poetry, reeds, rhythm section and Leroy Jenkins’ violin is not so much avian aria as a gilded concerto for Mother Nature.