[on 10/03 performances at New York City's St. Mark's Performance Space] "Excellent music lived throughout, courtesy of Robin Cox up in the loft with his Ensemble ...compelling strings and mallets. Cox's chops ...make him a catch of a composer and performer." -Tom Patrick, The Dance Insider

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"Charging the intimate space with the kind of immediacy only live music can deliver" -Elizabeth Schwyzer, Santa Barbara Independent

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"The Robin Cox Ensemble may very well be predisposed to monopolize the esoteric niche of string and percussion quartets, and judging from their new CD Level 7, why shouldn’t they? Owing in part to a nicely taut performance by the ensemble, Joseph Koykkar’s Music for Mallets and Strings showcases the surprisingly homogeneous qualities shared by the disparate instrumentation. In the case of Evan Ziporyn’s What She Saw There, the solo cello often cuts against the ostinatos established by the marimbas, creating a congenial tension. The most unique handling of the group appears in Quickly Casual, a spunky piece full of odd motifs and evocative instrumental color. Pieces by the ensemble’s founder and violinist—yes, Robin Cox—as well as Leslie Hogan complete this enjoyable collection."
-Randy Nordschow, NewMusicBox

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"Local heroes" -Alan Rich, of the Los Angeles Weekly

"The sonic terrain resulting from the group instrumentation is mined in several interesting ways. In Volt, Cox uses a reverse idiom approach, writing percussively for violin and cello, thus avoiding role playing, as he terms it, in which those instruments are given sweeping string gestures. It is not surprising that all the works are scored for mallet-keyboard instruments (either marimba with vibraphone or two marimbas) in a variety of settings, from Cox's secco, staccato writing for vibraphone and marimba in “Escher,” or the lurching accompaniment provided by two marimbas in “What She Saw There” that provides an interesting assault on time by keeping the marimbas out of phase both with each other and the solo cello until all parts reconcile in a unison rhythmic statement at the very end, to the spirited, rhythmically driven perpetuum mobile in “Music for Mallets and Strings” that affords one of the disc’s most enjoyable moments. Marimbas are used subtly but effectively in “Thirty-Five” to establish a light, relaxed mood in this “music for cruising.” And, in “Quickly Casual,” ostinatos played by marimba are utilized as a major compositional device. For percussionists, perhaps the most encouraging aspect of this disc is that it identifies “music for strings and percussion” as a genre in its own right that justifies an ensemble specifically dedicated to its performance, one that invites the creation of new music involving percussion performance."
-John R. Raush, Percussive Notes Journal