St. Francis Duo
Members: Stephen O'Malley, Steve Noble
Cylene
First time outing from two ardent explorers of peripheral sound tactics. Cylene is the first collaboration by François J. Bonnet (Kassel Jaeger) and Stephen O’Malley of Sunn O))). Laid bare we have a subtle and nuanced study of their individual practices forming a titanic whole. O’Malley’s guitar inscribes a void that patiently opens up a spacious universe for Bonnet to discreetly alter with perception re-orientating studio maneuvers. Cylene is infinitely rewarding for those that succumb to its …
North Sea Night
Simon Rose - baritone saxophone, Steve Noble - drums. Recorded 4th February 2018 at Jazz North East, Bridge Hotel, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. What an unbelievable night of free improvisation the audience were treated to at The Bridge on Sunday night. Two amazing instrumentalists combined to produce two sustained sets of riveting and uncompromising jazz. Individually, both musicians were absolutely superb - I have never heard a baritone sax played with such energy and range before. Steve Noble…
Fuck Fundamentalist Pigs
F*ck Fundamentalist Pigs is Stephen O’Malley’s crushing, personal and intensely emotive retort to the fascists and fundamentalists who undermine his and our sense of personal liberty and freedom, particularly in the wake of attacks suffered by Charlie Hebdo magazine and the residents of Paris during late 2015, and the countless poor souls who’ve suffered in the Middle East, Kenya and North Africa. The material itself is just staggering - appearing a mere couple of weeks after Sunn O)))’s Kannon …
End Ground
Second Edition Pressing of 250 copies only. Vinyl-only release, no digital, no CD. End Ground forms the third and final installment in a series of records documenting the solo prowess of Sunn 0)))’s Stephen O’Malley released on Sweden’s iDEAL Recordings. It was performed on electric guitar thru Sunn model T amps, and captured on a zoom H4 at Centre Cultural Suisse, Bad Bonn Carte Blanche, Paris, France, on 18th October 2013. In solo mode, stripped of his usual accomplices and collaborators, O’Ma…
Dread Live
Second Edition Pressing of 250 copies only. Vinyl-only release, no digital, no CD. Sunn O)))’s feedback architect Stephen O’Malley cranks the amps even louder on his solo vinyl LP Dread Live. This is an extended and extremely loud improvisation for solo guitar (though the colossal heaviness sounds like an army of guitarists). Relentless waves of heavy drones and squeals bombard the listener; the man has turned distortion into an artform.The minimalist electric guitar mantra Dread Live was perfor…
Reve Noir
Cross-continental tape exorcisms. Combining Anthony Pateras’ exploratory piano techniques with Stephen O’Malley’s harmonic ecstasies, this duo performed a one-off show at Instants Chavirés in 2011. Remixed and re-constructed here primarily using 1/4 inch tape machine, Rêve Noir presents a compelling landscape of fractured musique concrète, introspective meditations, buzzing electro-acoustic textures and straight up walls of monolithic guitar.A 20 page booklet interview with O’Malley is includ…
Front And Above
A new trio formed by John Chantler — best known for his solo synthesizer recordings and work with pipe organs — and two of the most instantly recognisable voices in the scene loosely associated with London’s Cafe OTO — drummer Steve Noble and saxophonist Seymour Wright. Their debut CD 'Front & Above' was released on Chantler's 1703 Skivbolaget label in October 2017.
"A terrific set that quietly opens a portal to a new world." — The Quietus
PEN
**500 copies** It is always a treat to see some major musical innovators in action. Especially in a mind-blowing line-up, at the top of their game and unrecorded until now on this impressive new Dropa Disc release.Evan Parker might be a member of some legendary trios – one with von Schlippenbach and Paul Lovens and one with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton – still this brilliant master of the saxophone and pioneer of free music managed to surprise us big time when he introduced his trio with John Edwar…
Peacemaker Assembly
LP version. Steve Noble: drums and percussion. Stephen O'Malley: guitars and amplifiers. Stephen O'Malley (cult-guitarist of SUNN O))), KTL) teams up with one of the leading UK drummers of the avant-garde scene, Steve Noble, to build hypnotic sound-sculptures and drones.
Whilst others still plough stylistically dead fields, these two are forging something vital and coolly life-affirming in Peacemaker Assembly, with Noble’s dextrous, diffused percussions picking out a pointillist cosmos of unq…
Muddy Ditch
Sebastian Lexer (piano+) and Steve Noble (drums and percussion) first played together in the winter of 2011 and what seemed like an unlikely, even oppositional, pairing quickly proved itself to be an extremely well-matched one. Noble\'s sharp vertical hits and Lexer's sustained horizontal textures echo, disrupt and enrich each other, producing music full of complex slants and intricate resonances. Sebastian Lexer : piano+. Steve Noble : drums and percussion. Recorded by Giovanni La Rovere at Ca…
Sunday afternoon (live at the Hundred Years Galley)
Live recording of Steve Noble, percussion with Daniel Thompson, acoustic guitar. Recorded in London in 2014. Repetitive accidents share space with manicured gestures and punctuation shocks to produce a pure abstract matter from the instrumental virtuosity.
Eternelle Idole
**second edition of 500 copies, white vinyl and duty cover with gloss varnish, with 16 pages 30 x 30 cm saddle stitched booklet** This double LP documents Stephen O'Malley's Eternelle Idole, his score for Paris-based choreographer Gisèle Vienne's artistic ice-skating piece of the same name. Comprising 47 minutes of music spread over three sides and enhanced by an elegant and chilling photoset by Estelle Hanania, the album features familiar O'Malley collaborators Steve Moore, Daniel O'Sullivan…
Night in Europe
Featuring Martin Kuchen on alto sax, Johan Berthling on bass and Steve Noble on drums. I haven't heard this yet but I must admit that Martin Kuchen is one the best, most creative, diverse and inspired saxists we've heard from Scandinavia in the past decade. Check out any discs from his bands: Angles, Exploding Customer, Trespass Trio or All Included and you will hear some of the best playing around! Bassist Johan Berhling is also a member of Angles, Fire! Orchestra and projects with Ken Va…
Fractions
Free work from a real power trio – one driven by the drums of Steve Noble, who also plays a lot of percussion, and the bass of Dominic Lash – while Stefan Keune lays out some very bold work on tenor and sopranino sax over the top! The trio have a great way of mixing intense passages with much more subtle, spacious ones – so much so that the sonic range of the record is really wonderful – as the dynamic energy of the group continues to keep things interesting. Titles include "Two Far", "Cuts", "A…
Gruides
The dark interpreter Stephen O'Malley ov Sunn O))) presents his towering orchestral composition Guidés, commissioned by French 35-piece improv orchestra ONCEIM -- l'Orchestre de Nouvelles Créations, Expérimentations et Improvisation Musicales -- and released thru Demdike Stare's DDS label. In early 2014 O'Malley was approached by pianist and composer Frédéric Blondy to write a work for the orchestra, which is made up of exceptional musicians from the fields of contemporary, jazz, experimental, i…
Shade Themes From Kairos
"Shade Themes from Kairos is a new iteration of the dream for all the guitar freaks out there, bringing together a couple of singular players together, just to see what happens. In this case, the players were old friends and collaborators Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O'Malley, playing in a space engineered and co-populated by Randall Dunn. From the top, Shade Themes from Kairos is resonant as a collective inquest in sound, with all the players deeply immersed within the panorama they are creating. …
Soulfood Available
For their 3rd album together, the trio of saxophonist Peter Brotzmann, bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble are caught live at the 2013 Ljubljana Jazz Festival for three blistering works of free improvisation. This is the second album by the Peter Brotzmann trio with John Edwards and Steve Noble, following “The Worse the Better” (they’re also together in a third one, “Mental Shake”, but with the addition of Jason Adasiewicz and his vibraphone). And just like that first opus, recorded …
The Founder Effect III
Excellent as the two quartet discs are, the trilogy saves its ace to the end, thus bringing it to a fitting climax. (Despite that, it is worth stressing that this trilogy should best be heard altogether, rather than one of its discs being cherry-picked.) The pairing of Pat Thomas's piano and Steve Noble's percussion—credited as "The Both"—is an ideal match. The two had recorded together before, on And (Rectangle, 1997) with Derek Bailey, but with Noble on turntables not drums—an encounter that g…
The Founder Effect II
With a generosity of spirit that is touching, the three tracks on this disc are titled after deceased (and much missed) improv heroes—drummer Tony Marsh, saxophonists Lol Coxhill and John Tchicai. (Coxhill never recorded for Treader but Marsh and Tchicai both did.) That gesture serves as a reminder of the close-knit nature of the improv community—a factor which is vital to its music. Although this CD features the same four musicians as the first one, Coxon here plays synthesiser instead of guita…
The Founder Effect I
You cannot judge a book by its cover. Maybe, but music fans somehow know that expression doesn't lend itself to album covers (in this case, CD covers). Look at the Blue Note Records covers from the 1960 sixties, Miles Davis' On The Corner (Columbia, 1972), or The Clash's London Calling (Columbia, 1979), and tell me you don't have a very good idea what you'll hear on those records. Covers matter, and more importantly they reveal essential information about the music found inside. Since 2004, the …