Sound Journeys: Switzerland
Sound Journeys: Switzerland is the culmination of a series of diital EPs focusing on artists engaged in the Swiss experimental music scene, here presented as an 11-track compilation on CD and digital. Airplay so far has been on BBC Radio 3, Resonance FM, WFMU and more. It has been compiled by producer, broadcaster and Nonclassical A&R Nick Luscombe (BBC Radio, Late Junction) following a visit to the country and research into the current activities of Swiss academic music.Nick Luscombe says: "The…
Dyspnea (parts I-IX)
Limited edition of 100 copies. "Here are two new releases by Manuel Mota, our man on the guitar and as before, he presents one disc with the music of his own making and one in collaboration with another musician. In this case that is Giovanni di Domenico. He plays the Fender Rhodes. I believe he is from Brussels, which is also where this CD was recorded, at the Theatre La Balsamine. This was for me a good moment to look at what the Fender Rhodes is, having only a vague notion. I would have calle…
Wat Doen De Handen
"...and again I woke up. rendering Xenakis pale. shifting myself and stuff around in search of security. how to put it to make it to that?"
Pas Maar Op Want Deze Tas Is Van Zorro
**2022 stock** In their own contemporary version of ’L’ Histoire du Soldat’, Plan Kruutntoone and Reinier van Houdt roam the rough edges of holes in plaster, at home in a dangerous world. Sleeping in the flag, accepting their free daily buns. Gratefully learning from Igor S. and Sonic Y. while upholding the red flower. Together with Garshin they inspect the ward. And with Rosa; dear and beautiful retarded alto. And Chleb; singer with the wooden voice. And Zorro cares for all. Esc.rec. releases '…
Island On The Moon
Dirk Serries (worldwide renowned for his ambient alter-ego Vidna Obmana from 1984 till 2007) returns to this expansive sound universe with a new collaborative album that redefines the genre. Together with alto saxophonist Trösta the duo delivers a breathtaking album just in time to comfort, soothe and challenge in these darker times. Island On The Moon is a symphony of harmony, depth and nuance. A solace drenched in melancholy and light, made without the aid of computers but by the hands of two …
Chapel
"Sometimes I wonder why it takes years for something to find its way to a release, but in this case, you could think: wow, that's really fast. The concert that we find on these recordings dates from September 4. I must assume the CD went into production the day after the concert. I believe I had not yet the pleasure to hear music as part of a duo (in some bigger groups, yes), and he teams up with recent improvised music convert Dirk Serries. The latter is on guitar. I would think this CD covers …
Expeditions
Tip! "Since 2014 I’ve had the luck, possibility (and guts?) to dedicate my life to exploring some parts of the world, driven both by curiosity and needs. The chosen way (the only one possible, for me) has been to undertake long tours. Jumping on this adventure, with no idea of what to expect, requires open brain, ears and good adaptability. What I have found since, is an endless count of good and bad experiences (which would not have probably happened as much, if I’d stayed at home). The people …
Safe Crash
**Limited to 100 copies** "Evidence hints at the event. Parts of broken drumsticks, a sound recording, a photograph and a written approach. Traces, relics. The work „Safe Crash“ by visual artist Florian Bräunlich consists of porcelain drumsticks, plastic buckets, a wooden platform, varnish, cymbals, cymbal stands, a floor tom and a spotlight on which the second release of „dispari“ is based.A sound recording witnesses Sven-Åke Johansson’s performance of Florian Bräunlich’s “Safe Crash” at HFBK, …
Cure And Mound
“Thanks to Anton Mobin and his ‘prepared chamber’, a wooden box with strings, objects, and amplification. An instrument not unlike Tore H. Boe’s ‘acoustic laptop’. It is also an instrument for which we don’t know what it will sound like, unlike the piano, played by Martina Verhoeven, even when she plays the piano less traditionally; techniques that go back to John Cage and his prepared piano. Verhoeven divides her attention to both the keys and the inside of the piano. In the prepared chamber of…
Solo Acoustic Guitar Improvisations I
**Limited edition of 100 copies** “Following some forty CD releases on his imprint New Wave Of Jazz, Dirk Serries thinks the time is right to expand to the world of vinyl. Here he plays a 1957 Hoffner archtop guitar, and recorded with a single microphone, some 50 centimetres from the guitar and there has been no other audio processing. The liner notes, as always by Guy Peters, are on the front cover, and he uses the extra space the format allows him, to talk some more on the history of free jazz…
Rhythm Ace & Slingerland
Rhythm Ace & Slingerland, a co-production by Ni Vu Ni Connu and Galerie Max Hetzler, is one of numerous collaborations between longstanding friends Oehlen and Johansson, following from their 2003 album Shotgun Wedding, also featuring Mayo Thompson of Red Krayola. This album explores how art infuences music and vice versa – a question often explored in Oehlen’s work. The idea originated from Johansson’s visit to the artist’s studio in 2018. Oehlen showed the drummer his collection of rhythm machi…
Glints
"The three musicians seem to exchange and overlap tones, creating the feeling of a single and continuous arc extending, curving in space, a kind of bridge or thoroughfare outward." – Stuart Broomer (liner notes) Magda Mayas piano John Butcher tenor and soprano saxophones Tony Buck drums
Lamenti Dall'infinito
"If this quartet most resembles a jazz band among these Berlin recordings, it might be in its speculative assembly. [...] It’s akin to a novel, Julio Cortazar’s Hopscotch, designed with multiple reading sequences, or Nanni Balestrini’s Tristano, in which the order of paragraphs is different in every single copy." – Stuart Broomer (liner notes) Liz Allbee trumpet John Butcher tenor and soprano saxophones Ignaz Schick turntables, sampler, electronics Marta Zapparoli tapes, reel to reel tape machin…
Shaped & Chased
Tip! "Lehn and Robair are particularly well-matched. Lehn is a musician who came to electronics from the piano, while Robair’s resources include both electronics and percussion. Each matches readily with acoustics and circuitry and creates a remarkable bridge between the two with Butcher, whose saxophone playing can assume both percussion and oscillator-like characteristics." – Stuart Broomer (liner notes) John Butcher tenor and soprano saxophones Thomas Lehn analogue EMS Synthi AKS Gino Robair …
La Pierre Tachée
"… a kind of ideal duet, no imitation conversation but two simultaneous composers each repeatedly provoked and silenced, prodded and enchanted by the other…" – Stuart Broomer (liner notes) Sophie Agnel piano John Butcher tenor and soprano saxophones
Induction
"Improvised music at this level of concentration may touch the roots of human culture, the transformative power of the cave and the paintings of Lascaux and Altamira." – Stuart Broomer (liner notes) Burkhard Beins percussion John Butcher tenor and soprano saxophones Werner Dafeldecker double bass
Musical Education
Joke Lanz was born in Basel, Switzerland and is a well-know noise musician, performance artist and turntablist. He is also founding member and singer in the art rock group Sudden Infant, a meber of the legendary Schimpfluch group (alongside Rudolf Eb.er, Dave Phillips, Marc Zeier and Daniel Löwenbrück) and performs in many duos and and other forms in the improvisation scene. He also writes music for theatre and film, radio, installations and objects. Dieter Kovačič aka Dieb13 is an Austrian impr…
Solo Etudes I
"We begin with the flickering, fire-like erraticism of the first track. Despite bearing the title of “Snow”, I’m drawn to imagine the very opposite: an intense heat that billows and dwindles across the stereo frame, suddenly erupting from left to right as if devouring an oil slick, promptly receding through oxygen exhaustion. To what extent are these fizzing, crackling chords – presumably electronics, but ultimately too distorted to accurately identify – under Hahn’s control? To what extent does…
Suspicious Moon
A collection of Elvis Presley covers recorded by the duet David Fenech & Pierre Bastien
Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut / a lot of tiles (trivial scan)
XI Records is very pleased to announce the release of a 2 CD set of Michael Winter’s music organized by guitarist Elliot Simpson. Each CD features a single composition, demonstrating different sides of Winter’s work. The first, Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut, is a socially-engaged piece written for Simpson and in honor of George Floyd. The second, a lot of tiles (trivial scan), derives music from a set of mathematical tilings (often referred to as tessellations). The album art features r…