Atmosphere and emotions are key words for the European Union Quartet and its CD The dark peak. A quartet that is really European with its combination of a Dutch, a German, a Slovak and an English jazzmusician. The title piece (by bassplayer Gavin Barras) has a nearly picturesque quality: one hears a landscape growing in the sheer suggestive lines of sax and guitar. Adventurous music making is what these nine, own compositions have in common. It can be in subtle musings, with a dreamlike feel, like in the beautiful soundscape of House by the lake. Or in the way the quartet grows together towards a structure in Reddish Vale. All four instruments are equally important in their improvisations and strikingly together in emotionality. Saxplayer Iman Spaargarens composition Zieleroersel is all about emotions and it is a joy to hear how suggestive and controlled the band explores form and sound. The European Union Quartet plays a modern jazz that looks for the inside of things. With great emotional and melodic qualities