Featuring Jason Kao Hwang on violin, viola & compositions, Ken Filiano on contrabass and Andrew Drury on drums. It seems that Downtown string wizard, Jason Kao Hwang takes his time in between releases in which he is the leader, having around a half dozen discs under his own name in the past several decades. This is aside from his work with Anthony Braxton, William Hooker, Butch Morris and Joe Daley. Mr. Hwang has been using the rhythm team for several of his discs as a leader (around 15 years), bassist Ken Filiano and drummer, Andrew Drury. This disc begins with “Words Asleep Spoken Awake, Parts 1 & 2”. The trio jumps into a great groove right from the opening tag, repeating that festive line over & over with Mr. Hwang soon taking an inspired and intense solo. I can tell that this trio has been together for a long while as they soar tightly together and consistently maintain a jubilant, festive spirit. On the second part of the opening piece, the tempo increases to boiling point and it sounds as if the trio is about to fly apart, jeez, too much! Midway through this piece there is an incredible bowed bass solo from Mr. Filiano, one of Downtown finest and most in demand contrabass masters. Things slow down for the next piece, “Conscious Concave Concrete”, which is more stripped down and has Mr. Hwang playing most of the song on just plucked strings in a rather bluesy swagger. There is an epic piece here called, “Battle for the Indelible Truth”, is consistently explosive and moves in short tight bursts with some brilliant violin which is on the verge of going too far at times but keeps coming back, eventually mellowing out in the second half for a more calm conclusion. The last piece, “Defiance” bristles with a more restrained sort of defiant vibe, as if it is trying to both push us and hold back whatever is bottled up at the same time. One can fill in what they want as far as how they feel about the skeletal way that things unfold here. This disc was completed during Covid-19 pandemic and is dedicated to the doctors, nurses and other frontline workers who are doing their best to save lives. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery Newsletter  Read at Downtown Music Gallery