“This Present Music commission [Portraits and Repetitions] yielded an engaging, comprehensible and strikingly original piece.
Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“The glowering overtones and stabbing riffs of Mincek’s lengthy, episodic postmodern concerto grosso [Viola] proposed a sort of common ground between Morton Feldman’s glacial gestures and the amplified swarms of Glenn Branca and Sonic Youth...The piece abruptly shuddered from near silence to cacophonous rumble; even at it’s gnarliest and most confrontational, the overall effect was intoxicating.”
Steve Smith, Night After Night
“In the excellent small orchestra piece Few From Many, Mincek manages to handle complex and disparate materials in such a way that various instrumental groups seem to be in their own orbits even as the entire ensemble works toward a common goal.”
Charlie Wilmoth, Dusted Magazine
*”Independent of the specific programmatic aspects of the composition [Umflut], the music gains tension from the contrasts of sonorities, which alternate quiet and lush harmonies with harsh dissonances, resulting in a musical image that rushes foreword...It is very interesting music which deserves thoughtful, repeated listening.”
Liane Bornholdt, Magdeburger Volkstimme(Germany)
“Karate’s respiratory calisthenics evoke the breathy chirping of Anthony Braxton and the raucous invention of Hal Russell.”
Marc Masters, The Wire(UK)
*“Alex Mincek created a very intense, concentrated atmosphere using repetitive structures in Novelty Repeats Itself.”
Alexander Keuk, Dresdener Neueste Nachrichten(Germany)
“…it was startling and invigorating to hear the sound of actual experimentation from the Orchestra of the SEM Ensemble…the program included a brand-new piece by Alex Mincek, a saxophone player in the orchestra. His Few From Many was an agglomeration of episodic sounds, examining and juxtaposing different timbres, sound effects and pitches.”
Anne Midgette, New York Times
“Alex’s playing mood is imbued with interesting shifts in ideas that are not filled with academic references or clichés. In other words, he improvises from his soul, which is probably the highest compliment I can give this young man.”
Rick Grant, First Coast Entertainer
*Translation by Reiko Fueting and Alex Mincek