***Chicago saxophonist DUSTIN LAURENZI, a touring member of Justin Vernon's BON IVER and one-third of the inventive Chicago improvising collective TWIN TALK, first encountered the music of Moondog a decade ago, while studying at Indiana University. "Initially, I liked the quirkiness of the music and the lore surrounding him," he says. "I had always thought that there was potential for the music to be reimagined in a more improvised context, but it took a long time for that to actually happen," explains Laurenzi. In fact, it wasn't until a couple of years ago that he formed a versatile octet designed to interpret and expand on those sounds. "I started listening to more of his music and I became really obsessed with it, especially a lot of the rounds on his 1971 record Moondog 2. That music is really meticulous contrapuntally and rhythmically, but also super catchy and groovy." Several of the pieces featured on that octet's riveting debut Snaketime: The Music of Moondog utilize rounds, or perpetual canons. Laurenzi assembled a dazzling group of Chicago improvisers for the group, and his inventive arrangements of the material created various paths for each musician to extrapolate on the source material.