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Peter Brötzmann's recordings are so numerous, and in their various formats -- duo, trio, tentet, bands with electric bass, etc. -- oftentimes so similar that it's easy to overlook any number of them, especially if they're pricy imports. What's more, though I am an enormous admirer of Brötzmann's work, I will confess to wishing him to show more often the multidimensionality he clearly possesses: a little less face-flaying, a broader range of emotion. (This is not to suggest he never displays a wider emotional palette; only that he doesn't do so often enough.) Both of these considerations lead me to endorse this particular release, which features enough screaming sax and tarogato to please the Brötzmann-as-human-cheese-grater connoisseur, but also a good deal of subtlety, refinement, and gentleness. Brötzmann deserves some of the credit for this, and not only insofar as he knows how to lay out. But what's great about *Volda*, for me, is the versatility of Michiyo's koto work (both the 21-string koto that provides moments of real lyrical beauty and the 17-string "bass" koto that gives this recording a surprising amount of bottom end, particularly as the third piece builds toward its final, and remarkable, climax) and her interplay with Paal Nilssen-Love, who must surely be numbered among the best living drummers by now. Brötzmann is, at times, his overpowering self -- as well he should be! -- but he is also clearly listening to Michiyo and Nilssen-Love, and he gives them ample room to develop intricate interplay between their strange-bedfellow instruments. The result is a deeply satisfying record that balances ferocity with lyricism.Jazz is full of hybrid forms these days; indeed, it was from its nineteenth-century inception an assimilative and hybrid medium. But this records smacks not at all of the soppy blandness sometimes connoted by the phrase(s )"[one] world music." Here one really must give Brötzmann's indelible musical identity its due: even as he pursues musical interactions with musicians from all over the world, who play any number of instruments, he never compromises his own utterly distinctive voice. My claims about the subtle interactions the koto and drums should not be mistaken for allegations that this recording does not bear the stamp of Brötzmann's sui generis brand of European free jazz (or whatever one might choose to call it). He is an assimilator, not a chameleon, and this record's distinctive qualities could never lead anyone to mistake it for any other musician's work. *Volda* is as purely Brötzmann's as "India" was Coltrane's.That said: Michiyo Yagi's solo record for John Zorn's Tzadik label -- Shizuku -- is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys the (relatively) softer moments that make *Volda* a subtle and attractive recording.