"Keith Rowe has the chops to bury any and all guitarists out there, mainstream or not. What makes him a first-class free improviser is the fact that he passed beyond the performance aspect of music decades ago. Years of acute listening and tempered interacting with avant-garde musicians have empowered him with an acute artistic sense. And that's what Grain is all about: listening, interacting, leaving room for the other player, which, in this case, is German percussionist Burkhard Beins. Less is more on this record. The guitarist creates scratchy, delicate, but unstable textures while Beins bows cymbals, applies pressure on skins, moves objects on field drums. His approach and technique are similar to Lê Quan Ninh or Günter Müller's "selected percussions." This album was recorded in two sessions. A live concert in June 2000, the duo's first performance (although both musicians had played together in other groupings) yielded the 28-minute "Grain 3 (Live)." A studio date five months later provided two more improvs to bring the CD duration up to 60 minutes. Most of the music belongs to free improv of the highest standard, but it requires attentive listening: gestures are sparse, interactions subtle. There is one exception: the last part of "Grain 2," where only a faint electronic high-pitched tone remains, lingers on for way too long. Otherwise, Grain constitutes a thought-provoking and highly recommendable record. It also provides extra proof of Beins' (underrated) talent."-Francois Couture, All Music