"Attias is one of the more exciting instrumentalists within this
wide-ranging idiom."
Glenn Astarita ALLABOUT JAZZ.COM

" .... one of downtown's best saxists and composers."
Bruce Lee Gallanter DMG NEWSLETTER

" knottily vibrant compositions"
-K. Leander Williams TIME OUT

" perpetually shifting tunes, richness of timbre, and a singular
personality. You can almost see this music expanding and contracting."
-Jim Macnie VILLAGE VOICE

" plays with great authority and passion."
David Adler ALL ABOUT JAZZ-NY

„ ... a significant new voice on the alto saxophone."
Michael McCaw ALL ABOUT JAZZ.COM
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RENKU (Playscape Recordings 2005) REVIEWS

Andrey Henkin, ALL ABOUT JAZZ-NEW YORK
BEST OF 2005 TOP TEN LIST!
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Nate Dorward CODA
There are plenty of sax/bass/drums trios around these days, but saxophonist Michael Attias and his trio Renku have a sound all their own, a distinctive mixture of sweet-and-sour lyricism and off-kilter stomp. Attias plays soprano and baritone, but for most of the album hefls on alto, with a lyrical but rather slippery approach that floats upwards near-weightlessly into the high registers, like an improbably cross between Lee Konitz and Marty Ehrlich. Indeed, you could mistake this at times for a an Ehrlich album, except that the rhythm is altogether more fractured: bassist John Hebert and drummer Satoshi Takeishi work with oddly but meticulously dispersed rhythms, like a hip-hop inflected version of Braxton's pulse-track structures; they don't merely subdivide the beat, they pounce on it.

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Jay Collins SIGNAL TO NOISE
...twelve succinct pieces, arguably in line with Thomas Chapin's trio work, that center on Attias's ability to relinquish melodic fragments that flow over the top of his elastic rhythm team...... this trio links their talents to provide a narrative about the diversity of ideas, moods and emotion running through their shared spirits. Like a colorful Renku, the trio recites many well-balanced verses that show the depth, creativity and raw talents of the participants.
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Bruce Gallanter, DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY NEWSLETTER
http://www.downtownmusicgallery.com
Superb debut disc from another of downtown's undiscovered saxists and composers. Michael's tone on alto sax is consistently enchanting and often warm, yet robust. His tunes remind me of occasionally of those by the Thomas Chapin Trio: tasty, tricky, inventive, elegant and, at times, bittersweet. This is a wonderful trio, well balanced, both melodic and exciting, tight-knit and constantly shifting in their dynamics. Both Michael's and John's writing is intriguing throughout, putting the trio through their changes and navigating the rapids with seeming ease. A most impressive debut from a triumphant trio of Brooklyn's best.
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Glenn Astarita ALL ABOUT JAZZ.COM
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19997
Multi-reedman Michael Attias benefits from an ace rhythm section. And while Attias's smooth tone and fluid lines generate an airy vibe, there's no shortage of power and determination here. Drummer Satoshi Takeishi rounds out the big picture with offbeat fills and pumping beats. Attias and bassist John Hebert harmonize the primary themes while the former improvises with a given melody line as he often blasts out razor sharp progressions. Complete with knotty arrangements, and upward movements, the trio makes it all seem so effortless.
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Scott Yanow, ALL MUSIC GUIDE
http://www.allmusic.com/cg
While technically avant-garde, Attias does not neglect melodic development, close interplay with his sidemen, and swinging in his own fashion. His originals contain their share of variety, particularly in setting moods, and his playing clearly inspires that of bassist John Hebert and drummer Satoshi Takeishi, and vice versa. Well worth exploring by modern jazz listeners.

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David Adler, ALL ABOUT JAZZ-NEW YORK, October 2005
Recommended New Release.
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John Kelman, Senior Editor, ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=18975
Sax/bass/drums trios often sound like a quartet missing a member, but Renku manages to come across as complete and self-contained. Throughout the recording, Attias demonstrates rare skill and depth on soprano, alto, and baritone saxophones. He's capable of extremes, but he tends to avoid the brashness so often associated with the kind of form-based free exchange in which the trio regularly engages...a collective sound on one hand spare, on the other surprisingly full demonstrating clear conception, even at its most liberal, and unequivocal focus.
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James Cervantes, KWVA (Eugene, OR)
This is fabulous.

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Nate Chinen, NEW YORK TIMES
...an emphatically cosmopolitan saxophonist and composer- an exhortatory new album.
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Michael McCaw, ALL ABOUT JAZZ.COM
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19021
...Renku stands as an original statement spurned on by consistent
Invention from the spatial free setting of "Snow" to the theme of the
album's odd-meter walking opener, "Dark Net," which dissolves and resurfaces throughout its three minute performance. Attias, Hebert, and Takeishi have forged a standout recording that marks the emergence of a significant new voice on the alto saxophone. It also marks another impressive release from Playscape Recordings.
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Troy Collins, ONEFINALNOTE.COM
http://www.onefinalnote.com/reviews/a/attias-michael/renku.asp
Renku is a signifier of a fresh new voice. With a dulcet tone and supple phrasing, Attias is a fluid and adroit improviser. The alto sax-driven title track, with its off kilter timing embodies the sort of jaunty rhythmic foundations found from M-Base-schooled musicians to Downtown avant-gardists. Takeishi and Hebert are a rock-solid pair and their sensitivity to dynamics make this album a prime example of excellent rhythm section interplay. Closing with Monk's "Work", Attias and company make their connection to tradition abundantly clear. Their re-imagining of this piece sounds perfectly in tune with the rest of the program. Renku is the first of a sign of more to come from Attias and company.
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Gilles Laheurte, JAZZ IMPROV, review of CD Release Concert
What we had that evening were three major voices on the NYC music scene, a stimulating multicolored trio with a bag full of improvisational surprises, cleverly structured compositions, and a return to the intimate and friendly Barbès where it all began two years ago for Renku. Good reasons to celebrate!
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MICHAEL ATTIAS'S CLINAMEN ORCHESTRA at Zebulon - (October 10, 2005)
Gilles Laheurte, JAZZ IMPROV, December 2005
If you have not seen this group yet, run to their next display of multiple space and time scales, hear them from septet to solo in all imaginable permutations, expanding and contracting harmonically or freely, like wind changing direction or waves swelling and shrinking in the open sea, releasing extraordinary amounts of colorful energies. Attias's choice of Clinamen Orchestra should intrigue any serious fan, the Clinamen being this spontaneous unpredictable deviation of atoms that initiates perturbation, as it reflects so well the nature of the music and the interventions of the players. The band's concept (3 wind and 3 rhythm instruments over a bass (solid base layer) envisions total freedom while keeping time.Appropriately, after the initial equilibrium of the first tune "Harmonium," the music was soon cleverly thrown into wonderful turbulences by all: Malaby's incantatory and smoky sounds, Attias's blazing zigzagging lines, Mark Taylor's fluid voluptuous tone on both French horn and mellophone (especially in his own "Rootless"), Matt Moran's  sparkling bubbly vibes, Satoshi Takeishi's ever poetic percussion work, and Tyshawn Sorey's rigorous time keeping machine, at times smothering with stormy explosions, full of intertwining counterpoints ("Theme Pataphysique"), very coherently spaced stop and go passages ("Not is Not"), picturesque squirts and flutters (Malaby's solo in "Eleven Aprils"), strong ensemble passages gliding into increasingly faster lines escaping into fabulous harmonics (Attias' very distinctive alto voice in "Tapstone") or dissolving into tender silence slowly filled with enormous bass sounds (Hebert's passionate, raging solo in " Slow Arrows"), the music well expressed the qualities of the four elements (air, fire, water and earth) as they affect each other and interact when the Clinamen strikes... As a bandleader, Attias's brilliant concept demonstrates what a great composer he is.
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CREDO (Clean Feed 2005) REVIEWS
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Troy Collins
ONE FINAL NOTE.COM
http://www.onefinalnote.com/reviews/a/attias-michael/credo.asp
30 January 2006
... And a stunning debut it is...This early effort is a truly wonderful
discovery. Attias has a crack group with him that is every bit as
adventurous as he is.Ably produced by Good and Evil in Brooklyn, the album also has a sonic punch to it that some acoustic jazz albums sorely lack. Full of hard charging rhythms and gorgeous melodies, this newly unearthed gem is essential listening for those with ears to the future.With numerous Mingus-inspired shifts in rhythm and tone, and rich multi-horn arrangements, Attias proves his mettle as a composer as well as an improviser.Opening strong with the title track, the full sextet blends a pseudo Caribbean rhythm with a snappy, staccato, Sephardic melody. Attias shows his hand right from the start with an intensely circuitous alto solo that spirals out into altissimo abandon. With a judiciously arranged front line, " Is" invokes a phantom big band charging headlong into a maze of turn-on-a-dime shifts in tempo and tone. The rhythm section drops out halfway through for a show-stopping a capella duet between Regev and Taylor that is as melodically engaging as it is exploratory. "Dream That Darn" features one of Regev's finest trombone solos, one that reveals a mastery of the instrument far beyond her mere 18 years at the time of this recording ... Attias knows when to let his sidemen shine. Mark Taylor's dulcet French horn gets a nice solo feature on "Mes Petites Amoureuses" and Sam Bardfeld's lyrical violin absolutely soars over the fleet rhythms of "Hot Mountain Song". Attias even breaks out his baritone for a short but rousing bit of rough-housing on the roiling "Labat". The album closes with "Berechit", an equitable merger of Eastern and Western concepts. Frenzied, intervallic horn lines weave in and out of a modal, African-ized polyrhythmic groove that is equal parts Gnawa-inspired drumming and sinewy, guimbiri like bass ostinato.Unflinchingly joyous and upbeat with excellent arrangements, adroit rhythmic interplay, and passionate improvisation, Credo is an early contender for one of the finest albums of 2006.
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Bruce Lee Gallanter
DMG NEWSLETTER 12/09/05
Michael Attias is one of downtown's best saxists and composers. This is his second release this year and it is again a triumphant one...'Credo' opens with the title track, which has an odd, complex theme, and then leaps into Hyper-drive with an incredible alto sax solo from Michael, a thoughtful solo from Reut on 'bone and intricate parts for the rest of the band to navigate.
The piece constantly shifts between tempos and sections, with Sam Bardfeld playing a fine, somewhat out violin solo. Many of these pieces shift between difficult sections that keep these players on their toes throughout. Igal Foni is very sharp and quite impressive, as he must play different patterns simultaneously connecting intricate sections of each piece. Another interesting idea that Michael likes to explore is the way he splits the sextet up into subsections. On "Hot Mountain Song", The sax, trombone and French horn play one part as the violin solos and plays against them with a counter-melody. Each piece provides a different challenge for the players as they balance shifting parts against inspired solos. Mr. Attias's writing remains intriguing throughout as he spins his web of interconnections and solos for himself and for all of the fine musicians he has gathered for this most successful work.

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Glenn Astarita
ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM January, 2006
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=20291
Alto/baritone saxophonist Michael Attias and his quartet raises some havoc during these complex and linearly designed compositions. Violinist Sam Bardfeld and French hornist Mark Taylor perform on selected tracks. Attias's rippling lines atop richly harmonic themes equate to a nicely balanced program consisting of hard-hitting modern jazz by way of an attainable presentation. Attias is one of the more exciting instrumentalists within this wide-ranging idiom.
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Clifford Allen
BAGATELLEN January 26, 2006
http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/reviews/001148.html
... volleys of muscularity and ebullience. There is so much life and joy in the composed fragments, a plum wine fueled village dance in which each soloist is given just a few minutes to jump on the table, an unabashed rarity among legions of blowing sessions.
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Francis Lo Kee
ALL ABOUT JAZZ-NY February 2006

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=20405
The music has a joyous positive energy from the opening title track. The written material is intelligent and sophisticated without being bloated and pretentious. Mark Taylor (French horn) solos first and leads it back perfectly to more written material and a tempo change. Attiasfl solo on alto sax is burning from note one with Igal Foni (drums) and Chris Lightcap (bass) urging him on, leading into some skillful yet gutsy call and response writing. Reut Regev (trombone) also turns in a great solo. Yet another tempo and groove change leads into Sam Bardfeld's violin solo... The title track is concise, which adds to its overall power; how many people know how to balance writing and improvisation? Not many. Attias is one." Dream That Darn" starts out like some twisted football fight song, then moves quickly to a slow, sultry swing-then double-time. Intelligent but not clever to the point of annoyance, the written material leads into another first-rate trombone solo by Regev and another wonderful solo by the leader, again on alto. On the short-ish "Labat", Attias switches from alto to baritone. It's a welcome change in orchestration and he certainly uses the full range of the instrument.
Though this is Attias's CD, the leader has the confidence to share the
music's solo space. The total sound and collective focus are the greatest strengths of Credo, a strong, original release which goes to show you that It's not always the big names who make the best music.