What The Press Is Saying About Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb's new CD, Solos

Somehow, always, they resist the postmodern temptation to be too smart and too cute: they're not trying to impress you with how much they can reference.  These 14 pieces - including a few free improvisations, a traditional, a standard, and a Wayne Shorter tune - are mostly contemplative originals; one in particular, Ms. Holcomb's long form piece, Before the Comet Comes, is staggeringly beautiful.
Ben Ratliff, New York Times

One of my favorite discs of 2004, Solos (Songlines), teems with solo piano pieces by Horvitz and Robin Holcomb that breathtakingly fuse the hermetic, astringent squiggles of Schoenberg's piano music with the lonesome sound of Shaker hymns.
Chris DeLaurenti, The Stranger (Seattle)

It's beautiful... The songs are deliberate thoughtful and patient.  But if you think this background music, repeated listening will convince you otherwise.
Carlo Wolff, Goldmine

Though you could drop this disc into your player and go about your evening routine, you might miss out on the subtleties that make it so charming.  Horvitz's playful interpretation of Frank Perkins's Stars Fell on Alabama is sure to encourage a smile, while Holcomb's 13-minute Before the Comet Comes or even the fractured swing tune Up Do reveal more layers on repeated listens.  Horvitz's own improvisation skills glisten in the slow-moving Interpretation #2 and fans of Wayne Shorter may also want to check out his take on Armageddon.
New Music Box

...tunes like "Tired," with its' bittersweet and subtly melancholic feeling, are particularly compelling because one can feel Holcomb's more skewed approach subtly infect Horvitz's playing, while its clearer roots in the blues distinguish it as a Horvitz piece.
John Kelman, All About Jazz.com

Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb - the legendary husband-and-wife team that has had such an impact on extemporaneous music since the early '80s - take turns improvising on this hour-long solo piano recording.... The music is generally sparse and contemplative, but not *too* sparse and contemplative.  It's a relaxed listen that touches on free jazz, polytonal hymnsong, traditional jazz (there's a nice version of Stars Fell On Alabama,) and postmodern classicism, without really being any of those.
Carl Lumma, Keyboard Magazine

Simplicity of means doesn’t mean simple-minded.  Married pianists/composers Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz shared a solo-piano album, Solos (Songlines), alternating tracks, mixing covers and originals, spontaneous improvisations and through-composed pieces, Holcomb favoring ambiguous tonalities and chord-cluster rumblings and Horvitz leaning toward blues and Wayne Shorter.  The complementary styles make for overall unity and perfect sequencing.
Boston Phoenix, December 24, 2004

...they play like composers, giving every stroke a clear intent, informed by the tension and release of subtle harmonic and dynamic shifts.
Jon Garelick, JAZZIZ, March 2005