In a review for
AllMusic, Joslyn Layne stated that the album "brings together some of the greatest innovators in free jazz... who gel beautifully and energetically," and wrote: "There is structure; there is fire; there is passion; and there is supreme musicianship. There's also such a thing as 'unique voice,' and it's heard all over this box set. With excellent interplay and soloing from all of the musicians... Brotzmann's Tentet shoots sparks when they're low-key, and explodes into grande finale fireworks once they warm up." Lee Rice Epstein of
The Free Jazz Collective described the album as "a crucial release that broke ground for a major phase of Brötzmann's music," and remarked: "The lineup is mind-blowing, and the music completely knocked me sideways the first time I heard it... the range of Brötzmann's vision has, arguably, rarely reached the highs of this set." Author Todd S. Jenkins noted that the group "delves into the open-composed neighborhood of Cecil Taylor's large-band work," and praised Brötzmann's "Burning Spirit," which features "a marvelous section wherein various players snatch portions of Brötzmann's tenor solo and make their own variations on them while he continues to unravel his skein of ideas." Writing for
The Wire, Daniel Spicer stated: "this work contains an important kernel of Brötzmann's philosophical message: a proposed answer to the refusenik protestation of
Machine Gun in the form of a multinational experiment in practical democracy." ==Track listing==