"A year later, and the number 'two' still carries with it a tinge of horror in New York City. Two parallel lines, two events in succession, two become none. On his new CD, New York poet and frequent improv collaborator Steve Dalachinsky never even mentions the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. The cover is a photo of seagulls flying against a plane of blue, not a shot of destruction and devastation. But while the city's wound is healing, it's still tender. The title - the suggestion that the world ended twice - like the paranoiac strains within - don't need to spell out terror in order to explore it.

The thirty-minute suite is actually about vulnerability, albeit at a sensitive time. Dalachinsky has a good ear, and knows how to build a piece like a good jazz soloist, how to state the theme and when to return to it. But with a quiet percussion soundscape behind, the themes are not notes but rather words: "I know they're trying to rob my soul/they know the combination to my lock,""It's a good life if you don't kill it,""I placed a phone call to the future, but it didn't answer,""It's been nothing/nothing since the beginning of the game/I was ready to get out of here and then this happened." Like a good jazz solo, the sentiments are clear unless you think about them too much.

Dalachinsky is known for his work with the best of New York's jazz and creative improv community. His earlier Knitting Factory release included Susie Ibarra, Thurston Moore, Matthew Shipp, and Daniel Carter, among numerous others. Such projects work because the poet knows how to leave plenty of room for his collaborators. Drummer and electronicist Federico Ughi is a different kind of foil, however. Rather than a jazzy state-theme-solo-and-vamp construction, Ughi creates quiet but effective washes behind the poet's words, and puts occasional live effects to Dalachinsky's voice, adding to the drama without getting in the way. The result is two artists working on an even plane, creating a single, evocative work. Signal To Noise, Winter 2003, Kurt Gottschalk

New York-based poet Steve Dalachinsky (words) collaborates with Federico Ughi (d, vcl, live sampling) on I THOUGHT IT WAS THE END OF THE WORLD AND THEN THE END OF THE WORLD HAPPENED AGAIN (577 Records 577-3). It's a set of seven somber poems recorded live at the Knitting Factory. It's obvious that most of these poems are a response to the horror and the stupidity that happened on and since September 11, 2001. (The only exception would be "The Submarine Kyrsk" which is a meditation on the Russian submarine that sank in the Arctic earlier that year.)

Surprisingly they're read in a mostly calm voice - no hysterics. The poems inter-relate, with repeated phrases cropping up in various sections. But within this calm, his observations and feelings about the events and their aftermaths are conveyed with strength and passion. Ughi's accompaniment is equally subtle: lots of low rumbling drums with light cymbal taps and the occasional use of sampling (thankfully not overused). On the final version of the title track, Ughi comes to the fore with a lengthy solo passage consisting of drums, what sounds like an electronic drone, and his voice. It is one of the highlights of the disc. This not light listening; on the contrary, it is a strong document that shows how the relevance and power of the spoken word can convey the horror of the event far better that can any shallow documentary shown on television hosted by your favorite anchor person."-Cadence Magazine, April 2003, Robert Iannapollo