The Blue Series Continuum, a kind of workshop portion of Thirsty Ear's Blue Series, is back with a CD dedicated to the music of pianist and project curator Matthew Shipp. On board this time around are some familiar Thirsty Ear performers: synth/programmer FLAM, drummer Gerald Cleaver, bassist William Parker and Shipp himself. Added to the mix on the Sorcerer Sessions, however, are two musicians with pedigrees in concert music, rather than jazz: violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (who also appeared on David S. Ware's Threads earlier this year) and clarinetist Evan Ziporyn (a Bang-on-a-Can member and academic composer who moonlights as a session musician).

"Pulsar" seems the most overtly classical of the pieces here, with Shipp playing fat, romantically Brahmsian chords and Roumain playing poised violin lines. Ziporyn injects a flurry of Coplandesque filigrees, with runs flying up and down the staff in busy fashion. The resultant melodies seem a bit hectic over the sturdy harmonic minor chaconne that Shipp repeats as a ground, but it is an interesting amalgam.

Nodding more to electronic experimentation is "Keystroke", which uses the tapping of a computer keyboard as a percussion instrument, accompanying Ziporyn's squall-laden solos, electronic ministrations from FLAM, and dissonant, angular playing from Shipp. This devolves into a chaotic avant-jazz blowfest near its conclusion. It's worth mentioning FLAM's tremendous growth in the Blue Series context; he seems surer of his role in this post-jazz environment, and his sounds and samples are more interesting than ever before.

"Urban Shadows" creates a haunting soundscape out of synthetic textures and electroacoustic modifications, abetted by Ziporyn's sepulchral bass clarinet. This track has the most "composed" (rather than improvised) feel out of all the Sorcerer Sessions pieces, and is also one of the disc's most affecting works.

"x6" gets the proceedings grooving again with spoken word and motorcycle samples, while Cleaver's funk-laced drumming sets down a formidable background for an almost berserkly intense solo from Roumain. Any doubts about a classical violinist's ability to tear it up will be solidly put to rest here! In another vein, Roumain also contributes a soulfully lyrical solo on "Invisible Steps" (accompanied by his own pizzicato overdubs).

Although Shipp's playing frequently shows an awareness of 20/21 concert music, he also gets to exhibit his jazz chops on pieces like "Invisible Steps". Here, Ziporyn's playing is a bit like a fish out of water -- he doesn't quite solo within the changes that Shipp and Parker lay down as much as around them. Shipp finally accommodates Ziporyn's post-tonal proclivities with thunderous clustered chords. It's an example of the minds not quite meeting, but it's entertaining anyway.

There's no getting around the tremendous diversity of playing styles present here: jazz, experimental, open improv, classical and electronica mix and mingle. Sometimes the soloists' eclecticism gets in the way of a unified vision, but on the album's best compositions, they create variegated musical structures of considerable interest -- Ivesian in their polystylism and forward-looking in their intentions.