However, you don't attract collaborators of that calibre without being bloody good. Review, a 75-minute retrospective (1968-2005), is a startling reminder of just how inventive Mantler is, working confidently across contemporary composition, jazz, improv and progressive rock. Twenty, for example, features guitarist Mike Stern, Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason and the LSO strings.
The Sinking Spell has Robert Wyatt singing Edward Gorey's words. Mantler deploys his raw materials with poetic intensity, but without artifice or pretension. This collection is too brilliant to ignore.
