Peter Margasak, Nowhere Street: "This fall the Belgian duo Poor Issa (which features guitarists Frederik Leroux and Ruben Machtelinckx somewhat perversely limiting their arsenal to banjos and woodblocks) released a beguiling album in collaboration with both [Evan] Parker and the expansive Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach. Well before any of the guests arrive the core duo is creating sounds that left my head spinning on “Clearing,” which features both Leroux and Machtelinckx creating highly resonant, liquid harmonium-like tones produced on banjos triggered by e-bows. As Machtelinckx explained in an email to me, “Besides the e-bows we’re playing in our hands, we each have one on a stool next to us with two e-bows (per banjo) on the strings. With our feet we can activate one, two, three, or four e-bows to create chords on the spot.” Eventually Parker enters on tenor, playing a stunning, breathy solo that in conjunction with the fluid banjo tones evokes some kind of pre-dawn sequence in a 70s urban thriller flick. [...] The tenor contribution is a universe away from what he did alongside Nace, yet even when he returns to soprano on “Ply,” amid chime-like banjo chords and an array of clopping woodblock rhythms, his tightly-coiled improvisation also evokes yet another musical complexion: knotty, introspective, and mosaic-like. Over the rambling banjos and brush locomotion of “Two Way” Parker injects a riveting post-bop solo."