For Albi Days, their second Potlatch recording, The Contest of Pleasures adopted a very different methodology to the first, reflecting some of the shifts that have taken place in improv in the five years between the releases. Whereas the first album was recorded live and released as a faithful record of the live event, as was the norm in improv since its infancy, Albi Days is the result of many hours of recording—using no electronics—in a variety of contexts around Albi, that were then subjected to varying degrees of post-production by the musicians and sound engineer Laurent Sassi (something that would have been considered anathema in improv circles a decade ago—but would barely have raised an eyebrow elsewhere). Butcher is responsible for two tracks (titled in English), the others one each. So the results are as much compositions as they are improvisations.