sound and image

Askill is Australia's finest percussionist and, as this selection from his huge body of work over 12 years shows, he is difficult to catagorise. Classical? World? Yes, both, but his finely honed compositions spread wider nets, catching elements and hues from a host of ethnic and folk traditions, as well as rock and jazz, ranging over elastic time frames, from ancient to ultra modern. He's performed with numerous orchestras, is a founding member of the contemporary ensemble, Synergy, which is now in its third decade, and has been performing his scores on the road with the Sydney Dance Company for several years.

This features mostly his own compositions, plus collaborations and pieces by Ross Edwards and Nigel Westlake, and it puts Askill's arsenal of hittable objects into wonderful collisions with Turkish instruments and voice drones (Omar Faruk Tekbilek), Riley Lee's Japanese flute, and David Hudson's didgeridoo. It's impossible to tell where the ink and paper score and improvisation begin or end, it's so seamless. It is intricate, carefully constructed music but always flowing, sometimes dreamy, and often volatile. Colour in the shape of ghostly melodic refrains and impressionist atmospheres swirl around a constantly shifting rhythmic core.

• Lesley Sly