"[4] One Final Note's Jay Collins stated that the music "splatters color, intertwines attuned thoughts, and spews a controlled intensity," and commented: "Full of audacity and charm, these masters show that while they might not wrestle as much as they did decades before, their art now has a refined sense of purpose, while maintaining the vigor, unpredictability, and fun after all these years.

"[5] Dan Warburton of Paris Transatlantic remarked: "Though neither can be said to have 'mellowed' with age, there's real depth and maturity in these superbly-recorded 2004 performances... and Bennink also brings a playfulness too often lacking in Brötzmann's vein-bursting blowouts, tapping out mad Morse code messages on a drumstick jammed into the inside of his cheek and humming a tune by his (and Brötz's) old pal Misha Mengelberg at the same time.

"[6] Writing for Coda, Stuart Broomer noted the "palpable humanity of the music," which illustrates "a consistent conversational intimacy between these two senior masters of free jazz, European chapter."

He stated: "Brötzmann plays clarinet on half of the six tracks, with a warm vocal sonority that leaps out of the grooves, while Bennink matches and feeds his impassioned discourse.

"[7] In an article for Arthur, Byron Coley and Thurston Moore commented: "the combination of reed explosion and drum explansion is as monumental as ever... Just brilliant all around.