The East Side Oktett began life in 2005 as a string quartet formed by members of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. Five years later a performance of Schubert's Octet led to the larger formation, and the current disc couples the Schubert with Dunkle Lichter (Dark Lights), a work written specially for the disc by Mario Wiegand. Wiegand begins a million miles away from Schubert, with a shape-shifting overlay of lines, a kind of multi-way discussion out of which solo lines emerge and change the direction of the discourse. Schubert's Octet is played in a bright manner, the delivery sometimes clipped in the pursuit of precision. But the energy is mostly nicely judged, and the laidback approach to the slow movement works nicely as well. c2hamburg.de