By Steve Langendorf
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Critics' Picks 2006: Music
4. Eighth Blackbird | Strange Imaginary Animals | Cedille

The Eighth Blackbird sextet—piano, percussion (often marimba), violin, cello, flute, and clarinet—is best heard live, with its tremendous energy as well as its precision on display. Their repertoire, often written for them, is unusual, and while they may have performed and recorded some preferable compositions, they’ve never sounded better—it’s as if we’re overhearing a conversation in a language only they can speak.

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