{TABLE} Strange Fish (1994 revised 1995) ........... Stephen Gardner Esprit rude/Esprit doux (1984) ............. Elliot Carier Mambo (1982) ............................... Bent Lorenizen Trane (1996) (first performance) ........... Stephen Gardner {/TABLE} CONCORDE'S contribution to RTE's Music Now series at lunchtime on Friday brought together music from Ireland, America and Denmark, but national labels have so little meaning nowadays that one would not have known where the music originated had it not been for the programme.

Trane, for clarinet, violin, cello and piano, is named after and inspired by John Coltrane, the American saxophonist;

Mambo, for clarinet, cello and piano, is a recreation of Latin American sounds and rhythms; Esprit rude/Esprit doux, for flute and clarinet, has a structural complexity that seems to belong to the supranational world of mathematics. Strange Fish, for flute, violin, cello, piano and percussion, has an improvisatory feel, its various sections following each other with an air of surprise.

The rhapsodic nature of Strange Fish came across with greater fluency than the deliberately jazzy working out of Trane. Trane's bass clarinet, consisting of long, slow, deep notes was a welcome moment of rest between hectically rhythmic outer sections.

Lorentzen's Mambo was a shrill and unfeeling exploitation of rhythm. Its chief attraction was the use of such techniques as plucking the piano strings and semitonal slides on the cello. Of Latin American sensuousness there was none. Elliot Carter's duet was equally unemotional but more interesting to listen to Gardner's two works were the most pleasingly accessible in the recital.