Getting the word out, part 2

The May 2007 issue of Paris Transatlantic has a long review by Nate Dorward on the Braxton Iridium box:

The nine CDs in this collection document everything played during the four nights of performances, and come with a 56-page booklet containing a thoughtful overview by Braxtonologist Jonathan Piper as well as commentaries by many of the musicians (one misses the assiduous bookkeeping of a Graham Lock, though: some guidance as to the subsidiary compositions involved in these dense collages would have been helpful, and not hard to assemble, given that the backstage footage shows the musicians keeping score of composition numbers on a tally-sheet). The cherry on top is the tenth disc, a DVD with a documentary feature mingling clips from the performances and excerpts from a talk by Braxton; it also includes a video of the entire performance of Composition 358. The sum total is, needless to say, a luxury item that will set off waves of covetousness in the heart of any Braxton follower – and perhaps a certain amount of hesitancy as well, since, aside from the price tag, the prospect of listening to and absorbing ten hours' worth of this endlessly demanding music is daunting in the extreme.
***
It's obviously too early to offer anything approaching a definitive judgment on this set. Committed Braxtonites will already have purchased it and been duly delighted. Those less committed but sympathetic – in which camp I'd put myself – will find it by turns fascinating, baffling, exasperating and exciting. As often with Braxton's more ambitious projects, question-marks remain over how well the music's potential is actually realized – despite the evident enthusiasm of the 12+1tet and their immersion in his music and vision, the results are sometimes ragged and out-of-focus. But anyone seriously interested in his music should give it a listen, even if only in the form of individual downloads of a few CDs.