Here is another obscure recording by Leo Fegin of a Lithuanian saxophonist made in Vienna in the magic year of 1989. And why? Because that's what Leo Fegin does, that's why. In the case of Petras Vynsniauskas, this is a beautiful thing. To call this man's music avant-garde is an understatement, but it is also an injustice. Vynsniauskas is a formalist in the sense that his compositions are preconceived for tonal and timbral ideas. This means that his methodology is to know his place of departure and find his way back through whatever means are at his disposal, i.e., improvisation in collaboration with other like-minded musicians. He is accompanied here in two settings: trio and quartet. The quartet features the mighty Vyacheslav Ganelin on piano and synthesizer. Vynsniauskas has some serial ideas, and some taken from the early Art Ensemble of Chicago, but he also possesses, like other musicians from his region, a healthy sense of play and humor. Given the long modal study on Plunge (his hometown), the influence of John Coltrane is readily apparent in his soprano style, but his dynamic sensibilities suggest another player: Steve Lacy -- especially when the tune erupts and becomes a spectrum analysis of pitch and cross-tempo improvisation. In the quartet pieces where Vynsniauskas plays alto as well as soprano, his gaze is firmly fixed on Eric Dolphy. The interplay between he and Ganelin on Stalgenai is playful to the point of the absurd before they rework the harmony and turn it into a heartbreakingly beautiful rendering of Star Eyes and Strange Fruit before taking it back into the stratosphere for an explosive finish. This was the first recording by Vynsniauskas outside of Eastern Europe, and it remains one of his finest. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi

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