April and May of 2008 marked a very interesting period for Manfred Eicher's ECM label. There were three full-group recordings by Evan Parker and the Transatlantic Art Ensemble,Jacob Young's group, and the Marcin Wasilewski Trio, all of which were top-notch. This represents the norm for the imprint, but there was also a slew of small-group and solo releases -- by Marilyn Crispell,Marilyn Mazur,Jon Balke, and Ketil Bjørnstad with guitarist Terje Rypdal-- issued very close to one another, groups of them even on the same day. Misha Alperin's Her First Dance rounds out this latter group; it is the Ukrainian pianist's first recording for ECM in a decade -- his two offerings released previously in this century were recorded in 1998. This series of ten new pieces showcases solos, duos, and trios. His musical partners are German cellist Anja Lechner and Russian horn player Arkady Shilkloper, who has worked with Alperin for years. Alperin is a very unique pianist whose juxtaposition of classical music, jazz, and free improvisation creates a seamless and very poetic whole, whether the tempo is furious or languid and whether the content is dense or full of space. Both come to the fore in the album's opening track, "Vayan," the first of four solo pieces. It begins starkly, with the poignant, pronounced striking of single notes in the high register; separated by a single low one, they grow into clusters of furiously paced two-handed counterpoint exercises and large dissonant chords that evoke Bartók-- yet somehow also suggest the denser experiments of Lennie Tristano in places. The title track that follows is in marked contrast. With Alperin accompanied by Shilkloper, the piece is at once more spacious, lyrical, and mysterious, with the notion of memory being evoked by Shilkloper's horn lines. ...