When The Shade Is Stretched
A split album is a marriage of autonomous partners. On each side of the vinyl, one artist presents a limited selection of music. Both sides relate to each other, but they do not intertwine. On Aspen’s first split, guitar brothers Ruben Machtelinckx and Frederik Leroux each contribute twenty minutes of solo performance. Both Machtelinckx and Leroux make use of the oating sounds of the banjo, but in a quite distinct way. While the former presents a determined and solid selection of music, the latt…
Evergreen
Belgian euphonium player Niels Van Heertum leads the acoustic quartet Veder. After the minimalism of his solo album JK's Kamer +50.92509° +03.84800° (on Smeraldina-Rima)—on which he also played tuba, trumpet & electronics—Van Heertum turns to the sort of chamber jazz played on his previous collaborations with guitarist Ruben Machtelinckx. Felt like old folk (Smeraldina Rima, 2015) and especially mono no aware (Aspen Edities, 2017) presented him as part of an acoustic, often improvisational ensem…
Mono No Aware
The first release on the new Belgian label Aspen, mono no aware is clearly the product of a carefully refined aesthetic. From the Cy Twombly-like cover art provided by Ante Timmermans to the peculiar lineup listed on the back — among other instruments listed are baritone guitar, banjo, alto clarinet, hardanger fiddle and euphonium — it is evident before one even hears the album that this is going to be a unique and thoughtful experience. Mono no aware (pronounced: moh-noh noh ah-wah-ray) is a …
Visceral Underskinnings
35 years after the release of their critically acclaimed 1981 album, Vibrant Stapler Obscures Characteristic Growth (SR 428LP), the British dadaist group Hastings Of Malawi release their second album, an epic sound poem entitled Visceral Underskinnings. It is a 40-minute film without light that reflects on the human condition, on modern society, on the nature of telephony and electricity and an attempt to make sense of the world in which we live that provides no answers. It is a sound collage of…
Distant Voices
Aguirre Records present a reissue of Distant Voices, Steve Lacy's rare Japanese collaboration album, originally released in 1976. Renowned for remarkable solo concerts that confirmed his mastery of the soprano horn and that carried its instrumental language into previously unexplored regions, Lacy also loved to collaborate with musicians who could inspire him to stretch the boundaries of his own artistry. During the summer of 1975 Lacy toured Japan, and on June 24th he entered a Nippon Columbia …
August 53rd
The Fossil Aerosol Mining project continues their post-industrial dialectics through their "songs of enhanced decay and faked resurrection." this cryptic ensemble from the american midwest has been quietly producing such works since the '80s, with a deep catalogue highlighting a uniform brilliance in the exquisite reconstruction of exhumed cassette tapes and moldering 35mm film stock.On august 53rd, fossil aerosol has collaged their reclamations of found sounds into an inquisitive, dynamic cinem…
Tender Music
Beautiful, insightful improvisation pieces by two master-musicians full of creativity and musical knowledge. Mastered by Jean-Marc Foussat. Liner notes by Ken Vandermark. Artwork by Lasse Marhaug.Personnel: Elisabeth Harnik - piano; Joëlle Léandre - double bass.
Fartwind - Complete Discography (1967-1979)2Cd
Novaks Kapelle were one of the most legendary bands of the Austrian underground, famous and feared for their wild live performances and strict anti-establishment/music-business/audience/everything attitude. They went from raw psychedelic rock in the late '60s to proto-punk to some kind of weird glam/hard rock at the end. 1978 saw later jazz-star guitarist and Gipsy Love member Harri Stojka joining. Beside some bootlegs available on the internet, many labels tried over the years to release …
A Distant Hand Lifted
Massimo Pupillo (heavy bass player of ZU) teams up with the mesmerizing voice of Cindytalk, Gordon Sharp. Recorded live at Cafe Oto, UK at their first meeting -- producing haunting music from another sphere. Dark, atmospheric, wondrous. Personnel: Massimo Pupillo - electric bass; Gordon Sharp - voice, computer.
Samara Lubelski/ Bill Nace
sold out at source, edition of 250 copies, few copies available. "Gorgeously psychedelic debut LP by this new guitar/violin duo, created by two of the form's great maestros. Samara Lubelski and Bill Nace are both veterans of the American sub-underground. Between them they have many projects under many names on many labels. Most recently, however, the two have been focused on string-based duo aktion, Samara in cahoots with Marcia Bassett, and Bill with Kim Gordon in Body/Head. These two ens…
Land of the Hermits
Improviser/composer Hiroyuki Ura, sculptor Kenichi Kanazawa, and classical pianist Satoko Inoue released two CDs on the Meenna label in 2017, and the three artists are united again in Hermits. The earlier CDs, Scores and Scores at Ftarri (both released in 2017), are made up of their live performances of a composition by Ura, which was based on a sculptural work by Kanazawa. The performance heard on Scores took place at The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, in October 2016; the performance on Scores a…
Stones, Air, Axioms Delme
**2xLP edition of 300 on white vinyl** A Fragment Factory release in association with centre d'art contemporain – la synagogue de Delme. Stones, Air, Axioms Delme is an ongoing art and research project by French sound artists Jean-Luc Guionnet and Thomas Tilly, dealing with the complex relationships between sound and architecture. Delme is the third phase within this venture. By virtue of its history and exceptional acoustics, Delme’s former synagogue is the ideal setting for a customised, on-s…
Dahl-Tah-Ghi
Okkyung Lee is a cellist, composer, and improviser who moves freely between of artistic disciples and contingencies. Since moving to New York in 2000 she has worked in disparate contexts as a solo artist and collaborator with creators in a wide range of disciplines. A native of South Korea, Lee has taken a broad array of inspirations—including noise, improvisation, jazz, western classical, and the traditional and popular music of her homeland—and used them to forge a highly distinctive app…
Chroma
Femme is the duo of Arno Bruil (Descendeur / France Sauvage) and Jo Tanzprocesz (Fusiller / Opera Mort).When it comes to head-scratchers, no one plows into the scalp like Bruit Direct. For their 24th release, they’ve ponied up this melange by the duo Femme, whose lp, Chroma, summons forth a soundscape of stellar post trance, electro magma. As dense as it is deft. The 10 gurgling innards effortlessly spewed out here rank it alongside other Moltenadelic CO-2 snuffers such as Ilitch’s ‘Perio…
Drum-machines
Drum-Machines, the 2nd recording made and produced under the label Percussions de Strasbourg, marks an important turning point in our approach, that of the 4th generation of our ensemble. At the junction between contemporary and electronic music, Drum-Machines was created following a process of dynamic composition: the performers first proposed sound materials on two research residencies and then eRikm ensured the composition, the music production and mixing. Commissioned by Percussions de …
Evoluzione Interiore
**CD edition** Juri Camisasca is one of the towering artists of Italy’s remarkable musical avant-garde. Evolving across the 1960’s, 70’s, 80’s, as it continues today, this movement suffered under a long-lasting, one sided isolation - unheard by the world beyond. Recently, under the care of labels like Black Sweat, it has begin to emerge from the shadows, gathering a momentum of marvel and praise. Over the years, beginning with 1974’s legendary La Finestra Dentro, Camisasca has released a slow tr…
Saluki
The jewel in the crown of Compendium Records’ brilliant back catalog is the eponymous album from the progressive jazz- funk band Saluki, released in 1977. Featuring members from the highly signi cant proggers Junipher Greene, Saluki is a much loved rare groove classic and a crate digger favourite.
The album consists of eight advanced and ambitious tracks showcasing Saluki’s blistering fusion of prog rock, jazz, west- coast harmonies and funk, as well as great songwriting abilities. Extreme…
Dian Long
Another unique document of Kink Gong's, aka Laurent Jeanneau, collection of surreal soundscapes of augmented field recordings, this time turning into his love/hate relationship with China into a mesmerizing soundscape of unclassifiable music. Jeanneau on Dian L: "Before becoming Kink Gong I had different names, one of my projects, designed by cultural circumstances in China at the beginning of the 21st century, was Dian Long ('electric dragon' in Chinese). I landed in Shanghai in 2000 in …
Death In Haiti: Funeral Brass Bands & Sounds from Port
15 dead, 15 funerals, 16 funeral processions, one procession with no dead, five churches, one cemetery, onewake. 15 hours of recorded sounds are condensed into a vivid sound portrait depicting the way funerals and burials are lived in Haiti. Recorded in Port au Prince by sound artist Félix Blume in early December 2016, this plunges the listener into a world of pain, loss, and solemn celebration as each funeral comprises its own live jazz band as well as a plethora of characters like the jok…
Wide Open Spaces
Originally released on CD in 2003. The hour-long performance on this disc was captured live on October 5th, 2002 when Wobbly, People Like Us, and Matmos circled their wagons in the lecture hall of the San Francisco Art Institute. Having mutually agreed upon a country and western theme, Vicki Bennett (People Like Us), Jon Leidecker (Wobbly), and Drew Daniel and M. C. Schmidt (Matmos) pored over their archives of honky tonk classics, chopping and dicing Nashville's finest almost beyond recogniti…