Artist: Hans Reichel Album: Yuxo Label: a|l|l (an imprint of FMP) A month or more back I asked if anyone had any info regarding the new release by Hans Reichel, his second daxophone operetta entitled "Yuxo". While it does not appear listed on the FMP site, http://www.free-music-production.de/ , you can order it from that site. I did and my copy has already arrived from overseas in my mailbox. The catalog number is a|l|l 003 and the cost is the same as that posted for the other two releases on a|l|l. (I forget the exact amount of euros.) It's been 10 years since the first daxophone operetta on FMP, "Shanghaied on Tor Road", came out but this second release is well worth the wait. It was one of those things I had been waiting so long to hear that, once I had the cd in my hands, it took no effort to wait another few hours until all the business of the day was done and it was time to go to bed and I had turned out all the lights and turned the stereo up loud and played tracks 1 & 2 in the dark. I stopped there because the first two tracks were so good, there wasn't any need to hear any more right away. Tonight, I think I will get to track 3. Anyway, the point is that this cd is the natural extension of where "Shanghaied..." was headed. The music on the cd is beautiful and, despite lack of fanfare, available now. If you consider yourself a fan of FMP and you haven't heard one of these daxophone releases, shame on you. If you liked "Shanghaied...", you will like this one more. If you don't know what the daxophone is, then...The daxophone, a wooden instrument of Reichel's creation, can span the gamut of conventional instruments sounds (ranging from tuba to clarinet to percussion to violin--you have to hear it to believe it) but it also has a unique voice of its own. As Reichel says in the liner notes that accompany Yuxo, the first daxophone cd demonstrated the capabilities of the instrument, but this new one is really nothing less than a piece of beautiful music that could have been played on nothing but the daxophone. David p.s. On a related note, the musical highlights of Total Music Meeting 2001 (a|l|l 002) contains a track from a trio going by the name MANUELA whose members include Hans Reichel, Rüdiger Carl, & Carlos Zingaro. Any talk of a full length release by this unit?