"Kattorna" (meaning "female cats" in Swedish)[1] is based on a motif from Komeda's soundtrack for a movie of the same name directed by Henning Carlsen.

[5] The music combines many disparate elements, including modal playing, free jazz-inspired improvisation, precise forms, tone clusters, aleatoric structures and avant-garde use of timbre and articulation, while imbuing them with individual expression and a sense of dramatic lyricism that's been compared to late Romantic music.

[1] Writing about the 2016 reissue, FACT Magazine author Mikey IQ Jones stated: "Komeda's compositions and arrangements are beautiful and complex, and it's the rare epochal album whose power is still potent from the first listen through to its thousandth".

[11] The compositions from Astigmatic have been repeatedly reinterpreted by Polish jazz musicians, including Urszula Dudziak, Michał Urbaniak and Tomasz Stańko.

[2] The title of the album Asthmatic by Polish free jazz band Miłość is an ironic reference to Astigmatic.