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Musik Für Zwei Kontrabässe, Elektrische Gitarre Und Schlagzeug
*2024 stock* "After discovering the unique hand-wringing style of guitarist Christy Doran on Red Twist & Tuned Arrow, I was excited to check out this seemingly neglected record, for which he was again joined by drummer Fredy Studer, only this time, intriguingly enough, with two bassists: Bobby Burri and Olivier Magnenat. Burri is a familiar name in the ECM circuit, having shared stages with Pierre Favre, Manfred Schoof, and Tim Berne, and of course as a member of OM (also with Doran and Studer).…
Zartir
The third album from Levon Eskenian’s remarkable ensemble is its most adventurous to date. As well as reclaiming the music of esoteric teacher G. I. Gurdjieff for folk instrumentation, Zartir situates Gurdjieff in a tradition of Armenian bards and troubadours including Ashugh Jivani, Baghdasar Tbir and the legendary Sayat-Nova. In parallel, an emphasis on pieces for sacred dance reaches its apex in The Great Prayer, an entrancing collaboration between the Gurdjieff Ensemble and the National Cham…
So Far
Bomb! **Remastered 180g LP, includes reproductions of the original nine art prints and insert** After the poor sales of their debut album, Faust's “So Far” , originally released in 1972, presents the more commercial and accessible side of the legendary German krautrock band without giving up their advanced and experimental personality. It is a perfect album to begin exploring the group's discography, featuring one of their most well-known songs, “It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl”, and is consider…
Tabula Rasa
*2024 stock* Original CD and all materials from the original booklet. Music scores of all four compositions of the album. Previously unreleased facsimile of Arvo Pärt’s autographs of “Tabula rasa” and “Cantus”. Introductory essay by Paul Grifftiths. Exclusive photographs from the ECM archive. All texts in English and German. In 1984, ECM brought a new sound into the musical world with the release of Arvo Pärt’s Tabula rasa, the first album on the label’s New Series imprint. Now, on the occasion …
Nice Guys
*2024 stock. Deluxe packaging* Nice Guys is an album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, recorded in May 1978 and released on ECM the following year—their debut for the label. The quintet features trumpeter Lester Bowie, saxophinists Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell and rhythm section Malachi Favors Maghostut and Famoudou Don Moye.
Miserere
*2024 stock. Deluxe packaging* For reasons perhaps too numerous to list here in full, Arvo Pärt’s Miserere remains my most cherished of the Estonian composer’s ever-growing book of masterworks. Suffice it to say that its magic lies in its stillness. For such an expansive piece—scored as it is for choir, soloists, organ, and ensemble—it is remarkably introspective. Its opening invocation of Psalm 51 fleshes out a corpus of spoken language made melody. A statement from the clarinet follows every w…
Alina
*2024 stock. Deluxe packaging* There have been other recordings of "Für Alina" and "Spiegel im Spiegel" but none like those on this disc, realized with the participation of the composer. Here Pärt, aided by exceptional interpreters, revisits those seminally important compositions which marked the birth of a new, "prismatic" period in his work, establishing a link between compositions embodying the fundamental traits of the "tintinnabuli style." Three interpretations of the duet ‘Spiegel im Spieg…
Litany
*2024 stock. Deluxe packaging* The starting point for Litany was a commission received from the Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene, US. For this reason, Pärt selected an English text as the basis for his composition.
Arvo Pärt: “The English language lacks plasticity which is brought to music with long words. Working with a text in English, I had to make new discoveries and use melodic constructions that I normally don’t use in my music, to extract material from words and sentences. The text for Lita…
Adobe
2003 release ** "This really might be the best sax-bass-drums trio of the last decade. It's that good. Tony Malaby is consistently engaging and adventurous, and Paul Motian is at his best. If I could write the Penguin Guide review of this, I just might give it a crown. At first I was really reminded of Joe Lovano (and this compares quite favorably to "Sounds of Joy", one of Joe's best), but now find Malaby a bit more nimble and adventurous. There are hints of avant, but this is totally straight,…
...de la piedras
2008 release ** Six very varied pieces by a fine trio of Spanish-based musicians, beautifully recorded in the stone-built Eremita de la Anunciada in Urueña. A music that appears to be located halfway between chamber-improv and contemporary classical music, and which is like no other.
L'Ultimo Ricatto
2012 release ** "L'Ultimo Ricatto (title in Italian, songs in English) is the work of a singer-songwriter devoted to the sacred word of folk in all its noblest forms, from English to American, from the 1970s to today. This began with the choice to achieve that warm, personal sound from the recordings, entrusted to the expert hands of the album's co-producer and recording engineer Raffaele Abbate, in his studio in the hills of Genoa, far from the city and its noise. He then decided to test his so…
Cosmic Debris V. 4
2008 release ** CD re-issue of the fourth volume in the ongoing "Cosmic Debris" series of split ART-LP releases set up by the Opalio brothers, aka My Cat Is An Alien (MCIAA), on their own Opax Records. This time the space improv duo from Torino, Italy, shares one side of the vinyl with Swedish radical saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, whose twenty-year career boasts collaborations that range widely over the contemporary improvised music world, from masters of the free jazz such as Peter Brotzmann, De…
Aura
Aura captures the unmatched synergy between two of AMM's core figures, percussionist Eddie Prévost and pianist John Tilbury, who also explores the harpsichord in this release. Recorded in the acoustically rich setting of The Sibelius Museum in Turku, Finland, this album offers a meditative, deeply intimate experience through extended improvisations that emphasize AMM's ethos of creating expansive, ambient soundscapes. With Prévost's textural percussive approach and Tilbury's subtle, evolving cho…
Unearthed
"Long-time collaborators and iconoclastic improvisers, drummer Eddie Prévost and saxophonist John Butcher, met at All Hallows Church, in High Laver, Essex in 2023, using the natural ambience of the space to capture these three improvisations, Prévost playing primarily on a drum kit and both in a more jazz-oriented sax and drum duo, extended by both players' exceptional technique." - squidco.com
The Cry Of A Dove Announcing Rain
"In 2022, Eddie Prévost celebrated his 80 th birthday with the series Towards a Bright Nowhere, a series of July concerts at Café Oto that appeared as both a series of four CDs and a documentary. These two CDs document later duo performances from October 2022 to June 2023 with French pianist Marjolaine Charbin, apparently a recent association, and saxophonist John Butcher, a longtime creative partner. Each emphasizes a different dimension of Prévost’s creativity. He’s credited with percussion on…
Painted Shadows
2009 release ** "The latest Plastic Crimewave Sound album 'Painted Shadows' (the title inspired by a practice used in german expressionist films) has a more cosmically devotional vibe than past LPs, touching on eastern folk-blues and elongated kraut-like soundscapes, with new elements of banjo, violin and female voice added to the stew. However, there is still some trademark PCWS rocking, as they still deliver blasts of motor city-type acid-punk, japanese-style skree, and waves of tension and re…
Testing
AMM collaborates with Sachiko M on Testing (Matchless Recordings), documenting sessions between the British collective and the Japanese sound artist. The work explores intersections of improvised acoustic techniques and sine wave electronics, presenting careful negotiations between established experimental practices and minimalist electronic intervention.
Happy Hands
2007 release (RARE) ** "The trio's first collective improvisation on Alexandre Pasquino's film "Walkin' LA" at Ramuntcho Matta's. The vibe is right, the playing is there, the atmosphere relaxed. Recordings of improvisation sessions with Simon's visits to Paris as an excuse. Making music for the pleasure of drifting on the edge of styles and forms. All recordings come from acoustic and electro-acoustic instruments (guitar, bass, sax, flute, spoon, vocals, traditional instruments, etc.). The group…
Astral Death
2008 release ** "What the acronym means is a mystery, I do know that R.Y.N. is from the UK and consists of Pete Burn (Marzuraan) and Lee Glaister (Romance). Astral Death is the first full album after a 7" on Drone Records. I also know that Astral Death is a collection of murky ambient drones. A metallic reverberating drone and an organ chord make up opening track Conscious Patient. The constant soundpressure is dazing. The Cleansing echoes ominously but is less numbing, it's surrounding you with…
Three Circuitous Paths
2002 release (RARE) ** Transfigured Wind III (1984) for flute, ensemble, and tape / Ambages (1965) for flute / Mistral (1985) for chamber ensemble. "Pierre Boulez was widely praised as an innovator for his Rèpons when he premiered it at IRCAM in 1981. This is a piece where a computer samples the live sound of a chamber ensemble, recalculates it to a programmed algorhythm and then scatters the sounds back out into the hall. Not to knock Boulez, but American composer Roger Reynolds had been workin…