Phil Minton
With, Without
Phil Minton is a jazz/free-improvising vocalist and trumpeter. He is a highly dramatic baritone who tends to specialize in literary texts: he has sung lyrics by William Blake with Mike Westbrook's group, Daniil Kharms and Joseph Brodsky with Simon Nabatov, and extracts from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake with his own ensemble. Minton is perhaps best known, however, for his completely free-form work, which involves "extended techniques" that can be as unsettling as they can be mesmerising. His voca…
Taking the Dog for a Walk
After Sunny’s time now, his authoritative portrait of the American Free jazz drumming legend Sunny Murray, Luxembourg filmmaker Antoine Prum turns his attention to the British Free Improvised Music scene in this new feature-length music documentary. Branching out from a three-day festival in Berlin conceived and organised for the purpose of the film, Taking the Dog for a Walk maps the scene of British Improvisers, past and present, retracing the road that led from its emergence and emancipation …
Advent
Recorded live by Michal Kupicz in Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Warsaw on 13th December 2014 during the Playback Play #7: Adwent. Curated by Michał Libera and Michał Borkiewicz. Cover Design by Kama Sokolnicka. Mix by Gerard Lebik, David Maranha. Mastering by Joe Talia. Phil Minton - voiceDavid Maranha - organGerard Lebik - generators
Ways For an Orchestra
Following three beautiful studio albums, Minton and Weston are back with an outstanding program of orchestral arrangements. The music flows with great pathos through renditions of their own most memorable compositions alongside pieces by Eric Dolphy, Luc Ex, Lindsay Cooper, Jacques Brel and others. Music by Phil Minton, Veryan Weston, Eric Dolphy, Arthur Sullivan, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Lindsay Cooper, Luc Ex, Jacques Brel
Léandre - Minton
Joëlle Léandre : doublebass, voice. Phil Minton : voice. Recorded by Jean-Marc Foussat in Paris on October 2016. Incredible concert of these two great improvisers!
A Doughnut's End
** restocked** At times barely more than breathing, at others breaking into full-throated song, A Doughnut's End is a highly concentrated sequence of solo improvisations that captures the full range of Phil Minton's vocal powers."Many of the sounds on the album’s 15 short tracks are unpleasant, but they’re all the more powerful for it. This work is in no way deprived of wonder, and you have to marvel at the breadth of what Minton can do. “Breaking News” bleeds from high pitched warbling to m…
A Duo(s)
In case you weren't there, Bocian present documentation of a pretty unhinged Cafe Oto session between gifted improvisers, Mats Gustafsson (reeds), John Russell (guitar) & Phil Minton (voice). Just imagine stumbling in on this one unprepared - a trio of blokes bleating, parping and yanking like Reeves & Mortimer after three days on the sauce. Of course, that description does a disservice to their well-honed extended technique and dexterity, but we'd defy anyone to keep a totally straight face at …
Two
Axel Dörner (trumpet), Thomas Lehn (analogue synthesiser) and Phil Minton (voice). two extended improvisations by three of Europe's most accomplished improvising musicians, taken from live performances in Austria (2005) and Germany (2008).
No Doughnuts in Hand
The third of Minton's doughnut reduction series features 37 solo vocal improvisations. This showcase for his remarkable vocal talents follows on from A Doughnut In Both Hands (Emanem 4025) and A Doughnut In One Hand (FMP 91), his previous solo outings. 52 minutes.
Slur
"Phil Minton is virtually alone in blazing a trail for the male vocalist in freely improvised music and this is one of his very infrequent outings as a group leader. In his notes for the accompanying booklet he refers to having toyed with the idea of singing words on this disc. The fact that he could apparently see no point in doing so might just be the thing that makes this music so successful, as the intrusion of words might only have rendered earthbound music that occupies a far more nebulous…
A doughnut in both hands
Solo singing. The variety of sounds that this man can make with his voice and mouth is totally unbelievable. Reissue of Rift 3 with extra material from the same and slightly later sessions. 56 minutes.