"The music of Shackle is truely strong and varied. There are fast, raw passages and also very subdued parts where something new can be heard every time you listen. The power of the duo is that they evoke curiosity without becoming overly abstract.`Shackle` is a game for anyone who makes music including professionals and those who occasionally just like to play around with friends or on their own. The game is highly recommended for musicians who seek new territory. It can lead to a range of moments from brilliant inspiration to hilarious chaos."
Jan Nieuwenhuis for Gonzo (circus)

"This is some excellent improvisation, with La Berge’s flutes clearly the central point and Van Heumen processing of the flute, along whatever else he does come up within the space of his computer. He gives the music a great vibrant character, whereas La Berge’s playing brings a more introspective element to the table – at least at times – she can be nasty as well. This is, overall, a great imaginative work, of great music, great concept and wonderful execution."
Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly

"[...] the trio deliver lively and unpredictable digital high-energy bursts by working in a very dynamic and inter-active environment, where one’s merest gesture or thought is transformed instantly into powerful sweeps of crackly texturised beltage [...] Fine work which transcends many of the clichés and pitfalls of laptop music."
Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector

"[...] a difficult-to-approach yet ultimately galvanizing album [...] The brain reacts unpredictably to these absurdly morphing accumulations of quirky incidents, disconnected rhythms, subsonic throbs and hyper-distorted spirals – I actually fell asleep while listening, twice. With, I`m told, a smile on my face."
Massimo Ricci

"Freewheeling while managing to maintain some kind of control, they`re perhaps comparable to Lehn/Schmickler in approach when they have pedal to the floor. But also quite capable of reining things in as on the lengthy [thinner], a fine, low, rumbling series of quivers and rustles. Good, solid recording. [...]."
Brian Olewnick

"A trio of laptoppists that more than one review compares to rockstars, so well regarded are they.[...] make a kind of music most unlike a lot of laptop sound. The first and last improvisations here are rapid successions of sounds and textures that are difficult to process, memory being of no aid. The dizzying parade of howls, chatterring, warbling tones and grainy clicks can be quite jarring and very alien sounding. At the same time, things move so quickly that the chance of becoming bored is almost nil.[...] A mid-section of quiet beeping and gentle burble/crackle is particularly nice, even more so as it hangs around for a while. I was often reminded of recordings I`ve heard of sound from space, albeit a bit more unnatural sounding, no doubt due to the machines involved."
Jeph Jerman, The Squid`s Ear

"Van Heumen`s treatments are often raw, even vicious, but never rough and haphazard, and there`s a great feel for structure and timing to Abbatoir`s music. And if you only know one version of "Endless Summer" (Christian Fennesz`s of course), you owe it to yourself to check out Chen and van Heumen`s track of the same name without further ado."
Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic, Autumn 2009

"The acoustic strings and singing voice give a very human feeling to the CD, only to be undermined by Van Heuman`s live processing. In his hands, Chen`s voice might start to develop an artificial sustain and within seconds be swirling like water down a drain. Fragments of her cello playing seem to be preserved and regurgitated as blipping percussion. "
Kurt Gottschalk for All about Jazz

"Wow. What a mighty blast this is. [...] Heavy duty improvised music [...]. From the very first to the very last second things erupt like volcano. Sometimes we are on top of that volcano, watching the eruption, then we see hot lava running down, slow but hot and powerful."
Frans de Waard for Vital Weekly

"Devoted to not holding back when Chen performs, it was a pleasure to see her working so hard to match van Heumen’s often brutal digital transformations of her sound. There were several moments of pure psychedelia as van Heumen allowed untransposed, ungranulated repetitions of Chen’s voice to come through. I loved it when, halfway through the second of two extended pieces, he took Chen’s keening voice and filtered it in such a way that, for a moment, it seemed that George Martin, the revered Beatles producer, had entered the room."
Review by Keir Neuringer from a live concert at STEIM May 22, 2008

"[...] Van Heumen serves up strong electro-acoustic music out of the Raaijmakers and Koenig tradition. Strong work, happy to have `found` Mr. Van Heumen."
Brian Olewnick for just outside

"A noisy and exciting duo. As good as strong tea to wake me up this morning!"
Monsieur Délire

"The groundhog (whistle pig) reference isn`t incidental and helps point to a level of repetition and sonic revisitation that might initially be resisted by anyone committed to real-time, don`t-look-back improvisation. [...] the whole set is sensuous fun as well as intellectually stretching."
Brian Morton for The Wire

"Equal parts STEIM-y electro-acousticism and raunchy guitar noise, the latter sometimes reminding me of Kaiser in his Synclavier period. Itchier than ‘Stranger’, it might find more favor among post-Zorn enthusiasts."
Brian Olewnick for just outside

"Either there is nothing new - or there is endless novelty - `two cultures`?"
Jliat for Vital Weekly

"Multitudes of charmingly dignified timbres fit together without creating chaos, the sense of discipline is exceptionally developed, the whole sounding tight and controlled also when that’s probably not the case."
Massimo Ricci for TEMPORARY FAULT

"There is a palpable sense of purpose to RtG [...]. The results are unsettling, but paint some rather wonderful primary-coloured pictures on the inside of one`s head."
Nick Ilott for HAIR E

"Recording the Grain is proof that the world of free jazz and improvisation is still interesting."
Hans van der Linden for Kindamuzik

"Hectic, nervous, intense. Highly demanding and highly rewarding music."
Frans de Waard for Vitalweekly

"[...] the sextet Office-R(6) literally sculpt rather than play the music using acoustic instruments and computers yeilding a music that is sublty seismic and eminently contemporary [...]"
Musicreaction

"[...] this will feel like a familiar, but quality noise/avantgarde album, and if that is your thing, you`ll be satisfied. [...] caught my attention big time."
Killed in Casr

"[...] dynamic, ever changing, crackling, loud and soft, buzzing and hissing. Vibrant music this is, great music, moving away from the delicate structures of microsound into the land of noise based textures."
Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly

"[...] an intriguing effort, whose effect on the psyche is evident, exactly as the will of repeating the experience time and again to better comprehend the peculiar fascination of this unusual arrangement of events that doesn`t want to know of being memorized, instead offering further indications with each new listen."
Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes

"They share a language based in European improvisation and free jazz, but with a completely new and contemporary approach. Sound just runs, crashes, dives into a trouble sea. [...] one of the great Improv records of 2006.
Stabbed in the face

"Energy fragments in all directions in a capricious game piece between acoustic texture and skilled electronic interaction, imbuing the music with the joyful energetic velocity ... A highly palatable, invigoratlng and sophisticated appetizer of tradition and renewal, superbly performed and recorded."
Paris Transatlantic