These discs are a showcase for the remarkable versatility of Andy Findon, a long-standing member of the Michael Nyman Band and one of our busiest and most respected session players. He is unusual among 'doublers'-a woefully inadequate term in his case- being first and foremost a flute-player, which makes these discs of special interest to student readers of this magazine who might hope one day to emulate his success, always assuming there are enough sessions left to go round.

One track on each disc features Andy playing the flute either alone or with piano. The rest of the time he multi-tracks himself, with a little help from members of his family and a few friends. And when I say multi-tracks, he doesn't stop at two or three: one of the numbers on the later disc is a version of a Tallis Motet, all forty parts of which you can hear him play on flutes from C concert to contrabass. Together with the saxes, clarinets and assorted ethnic pipes, there is enormous variety of colour and style. You can take for granted a high level of professionalism in the playing on both discs. Although all the arrangements are interesting, there seem to me to be some notable successes and the occasional disappointment. On Tracked I was particularly struck by Gabrieli's Sonata Pian'e Forte on recorders and pan pipes, a Malcolm Arnold Scottish Dance with its chewy baritone sax, a Gershwin Prelude where the sinuous accompaniment is dominated by three contrabass flutes, the Rachmaninov Vocalise with some sensuous playing on a wooden Yamaha flute (also heard to advantage in Angela Morley's delightful Valse Bleue ), and Marc Findon's Serpent Dance with its sure sense of instrumental colour. But I was in two minds about Debussy's Clair De Lune arranged for five baritone and two alto saxes, which, though intriguing, failed to conjure up much of the moonlight suggested by its title. A slightly tremulous performance of the Barber Adagio for flute choir conveyed only some of the restrained, noble passion of the original. The clear, rather forward sound is a touch less effective than on the later disc in disguising its studio roots.

The second disc begins with several samples of Andy's film, television and commercial work in some deft arrangements. Here the sound profits from an extra warmth and clarity. The title track, When The Boat Comes in, an expanded version of a TV jingle, has real atmosphere, while Chris Gunning's Poirot Theme catches the period feeling perfectly. I was amazed how well the first movement of Debussy's String Quartet worked on four pitches of flutes: although it lacked the expressive range of the string original, it was surprisingly convincing in this format. There is another interesting piece by his son Marc for the startling combination of multi- tracked horns and Wagner tubas with piccolos and saxes. I wasn't wholly convinced by the realization (it's much more than a straight arrangement) of Mahler's Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony, but a cool, straight rendering of Syrinx in its original form (not a wooden flute this time?) provided exactly the aural respite needed at this stage of the disc. In fact, the whole production is slicker and more adventurous, a definite advance over the already good earlier disc.