On the album, Abrams is joined by saxophonist and clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio, trumpeter Axel Dörner, and guitarist Jeff Parker.

"[6] Coda's Duck Baker commented: "These diverse performers produce music that ranges from very outside group blowing... to moments of quietly sustained dissonance... Cipher should definitely be heard by listeners who want to see ways that the free improvised approach can be effectively combined with other ideas.

"[7] Writing for the Chicago Reader, Peter Margasak noted that the group "displays chamberlike restraint in collective improvisations, a long-tone vehicle in which the players add overdubs without hearing the previous takes, and loosely swinging compositions that recast the multilinear jazz of Lennie Tristano's late-40s crew using a modern vocabulary.

"[8] In a separate Chicago Reader article, Bill Meyer remarked: "When musicians of discipline and intelligence get together, disparate elements can be fused into a marvelous equilibrium...

"[9] Ken Waxman of JazzWord acknowledged the musicians' "quirky mastery," and wrote: "Familiar with the ins-and-out of the improv tradition Abrams and crew are able to bring echoes of whatever they need to fit each tune.