The Present Devsirme lineup is Ronan Guilfoyle (bass), Karl Ronan (trombone), Michael Buckley (saxophones), Jonathan O'Donovan (guitar), and Conor Guilfoyle (drums). The group's repertoire is made up of Ronan Guilfoyle compositions.

Guilfoyle's music is hugely demanding, employing as it does constantly shifting timesignatures and unpredictable structures. The complexity seemed to be relished by the band, who were tight and assured in their playing.

Also, the music seemed to stimulate fine improvisations - there was no room for riffs and cliches in such unfamiliar musical landscapes. Many of the solos started tentatively then gradually took shape as the musicians were forced to think on their feet.

Particularly enjoyable was the combination of Karl Ronan and Michael Buckley, who regularly improvised in counterpoint. On the opening piece, Third Line, they swung between dissonant, Dixieland-gone-wrong duets and wild bebop solos.

Perhaps the most interesting piece of the evening was Skyline, one of several movements we heard from Guilfoyle's recently-composed Avian Suite. This featured a central section for bass and drums which became hopelessly obscure and seemed to leave Buckley in a quandary as his solo went around in circles. Then the saxophonist took off on an impassioned, melodic solo that transformed the whole piece.

The concert kept producing surprises like this, suggesting that the players were inspired by the sheer difficulty of negotiating Guilfoyle's music.