Jazz /
Where Future Unfolds
Where Future Unfolds is a new work spirited by Chicago-based sound & visual artist Damon Locks. Starting as a solo sound collage piece (where Locks pulled samples from Civil Rights era speeches and recordings to create an improvisational pallet for performance on his drum machine), over 4 years the project has blossomed into his 15-piece Black Monument Ensemble – featuring musicians (including Angel Bat Dawid on clarinets and Dana Hall on drums), singers (alumni of the Chicago Children's Choir),…
Food for Thought
**Edition of 200** Texts by Joshua Abrams, Paal Nilssen-Love, Jim Sauter, Mike Watt, Guy Peters, Mette Rasmussen, Dave Rempis, Bruce Ackley, Sandrine Verstraete, Laurens Smet, Ken Vandermark, Koen Vandenhoudt. The idea for this publication started with a request made by photographer, reviewer and overall music enthusiast Hans van der Linden to document the Oorstof series behind the scenes for a whole year. In addition to his unique photographic impressions, we asked graphic designer Marijke Looz…
The Swiftest Traveler
**CD version** An exciting new international trio initiated by Scandinavian saxophonist Torben Snekkestad, accompanied by two esteemed international players in the field of improvised music – the Spanish pianist Agusti Fernández and the British double bass player Barry Guy. The music they create together is situated somewhere between free improvisation, free jazz, and contemporary classical music and executed with lightning fast interaction and explorative, innovative sounds and textures. Record…
Gowanus Sessions II
Gowanus Session II was seven years in the planning. Thollem McDonas, Nels Cline, and William Parker convened at Peter Karl Studios in Brooklyn on January 3rd, 2012 and recorded two complete albums. The first was Gowanus Session I, released by Porter Records in April of 2012. GS II was put aside to eventually complete the five-album palindromic cycle of trio albums Nels and Thollem ambitiously set out to realize. The albums in between include Radical Empathy with Michael Wimberly (Relative Pitch,…
Threnody, At The Gates
This trio is on to something extraordinary; full on furor brushed w thin melodic lines or rage contained in a certain kind of drunken beauty and bliss - all stumbling on towards the heard and the unheard - in a whisper, in a shriek, forces joined and disjoined....This trio is the whole in the never ending audible crack Johan Berthling: double bass; Martin Küchen: tenor and soprano saxophones, retardophone, flute; Steve Noble: drums and percussion. Recorded by David Carlsson at Gula Studion, Malm…
Oriental Jazz
Born in 1938, and raised in Glendale, California, Lloyd Miller has had one of the most unusual careers in all of jazz. By age 12 he had declared an intent to make his living as a jazz musician, and by high school he had already begun to experiment, shunning swing music's mechanical perfection, and chafing at his parents' desire for him to nurture his talents with formal training. This tumultous relationship with his parents would eventually lead to a stint in a psychatric hospital, before reunit…
Battle Pieces
Battle Pieces uses trumpeter Nate Wooley's "social music" system, where each piece is constructed for a soloist who improvises with no score while the remaining player choose at will from over 75 compositions over which the soloist must find their path; here at Roulette in NYC with Nate Wooley, Sylvie Courvoisier (piano), Ingrid Laubrock (saxophone), and Matt Moran (vibraphone).
Felis Catus and Silence
Felis Catus and Silence is a breakthrough release for Tokyo composer-guitarist Leo Takami, following the milestone albums Children’s Song (2012) and Tree of Life (2017). Takami counterpoints the soothing aesthetics of prime-era Windham Hill New Age guitar-heroism with meditative, intellectual compositions comprised of ambitious, process-oriented arrangements. While Takami largely wears his genre influences on his sleeve -- jazz, classical, Japanese gagaku -- the influence of ambient music is a t…
L'homme à la Caméra / La Glace à Trois Faces
"Un Drame Musical Instantané were founded in 1976, featuring Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé. Their aim was to promote collective musical creation, co-signing their albums, which they consider as artworks in themselves, or their live shows which they tried to renew every time they played. Their sound was created with many influences: they borrowed their sources from rock (synthesizer player Birgé and guitarist Gorgé, both authors of the album, Défense de); jazz (trumpeter Vit…
Nonzigo
Anma Ott is excited to announce the debut LP of Spemakh, a six-piece surprisemusic-group from across Germany (Saarbrücken, Nürnberg, Berlin, Bonn). Drawing from all corners of the compositional sphere, from free-jazz to serialism and concrète, and using a wide range of homemade and custombuilt wind and percussion instruments, as well as viola, doublebass, voice-noise, guitar, objects and miniature electronics, the band is aiming for a radical play with uncertainty, involving humour, gesture an…
Largest Afternoon
One day in the studio, something ridiculously great happened. It was deep Chicago winter, cold as shit. Four musicians assembled for a round-robin set of improvisations -- duets, trios, a few quartets. Approached casually, the late morning bloomed into Largest Afternoon, 15 crackling encounters between guitarist Arto Lindsay, saxophonists Joe McPhee, and Ken Vandermark, and drummer Phil Sudderberg. No expectations -- open minds and creative intent. Lindsay, a brilliant singer and songwriter and …
The Underflow
An übertrio drawn from distinct parts of the creative music spectrum, The Underflow was recorded during a sizzling two-night stand in May 2019. In a series of duets and trios, guitarist David Grubbs, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, and trumpeter Rob Mazurek met headlong for the first time, converging not only their acoustic and electric instruments, but at times submerging themselves in a tangle of electronics, then emerging into shamanic bell-shaking chant or chest-rattling howl. Ranging from extr…
The Shithole Country & Boogie Band
In 2018, Mats Gustafsson provided raw saxophonic material for the elusive Wendy Gondeln, who sometimes applied a scalpel, sometimes a pneumatic drill, to rework, remix, reimagine all the Swede's squeaks, pops, blats, and tones. In some places, Gondeln adds violent violin to thicken the roux, making Ornette's fiddling seem like Yehudi Menuhin. Uncommon bedfellows: disjunct techno and improvised music. But the Shitholes make it work brilliantly, even inviting minimal techno pioneer and co-founder …
Pour Alto Seul
Pour Alto Seul is Johan Arrias’ first solo work. It came about as a result of a work period early 2018 and does not claim to provide a comprehensive picture of the artist, but is an exploration of more specific ideas. In eight tracks with strong musical identities Arrias explores the saxophone as a sole voice and sound source and, to some extent, his own identity.The recordings create an atmosphere of being alone among ruins; a desolate environment, a harsh but promising and exiting place full o…
Live in Lesotho
* Brand new extended and remastered version of the original LP from 1981. Gatefold with new photography and liner notes * Slickest Afro-jazz-funk swerve from legendary South African cornet player and anti-apartheid figure Hugh Masakela, recorded at the Maseru Holiday Inn before a small audience during days surrounding his defiant 1981 performance in Lesotho while banned from performing just over the border in SA proper. Newly remastered and recut from the original single LP over a 2LP pressing."…
El Corazon
The trumpeter sketches a succession of melodies and moods around and over the rich textural detail and earthy solidity of Mr Blackwell’s drumming,” noted Robert Palmer in The New York Times. “The melodies come from Spain, Africa, Jamaica and the modern jazz compositions of Thelonious Monk, but Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell transform them into a personal music that is as urbane and international as they are. Together, they make El Corazón one of the most impressive duet albums of recent years.” Thi…
Goshu Ondo Suite
"Eri Yamamoto transcended jazz, classical and folk forms in creating her new work for jazz trio and 50-member choir. She has seamlessly melded biography, group improvisation and far-ranging compositional vocabularies in a momentous seven-part suite, featuring her longstanding trio in collaboration with New York-based Choral Chameleon, directed by its award-winning founder, Vince Peterson. The suite is based off of the Goshu Ondo, a traditional circle dance song from Shiga, Japan, where it was su…
Relight
Polish label Not Two presents a new release by a classic trio comprised of Uwe Oberg, Joe Fonda and Lucía Martínez, recorded live at the Just Music Festival, Wiesboden, Germany on February 23, 2019.Featured tracks include:1. Their Cheeks Glowed 10:312. Lighter Than Before 09:403. Almost Two 05:214. The Sharp Side of It 15:345. Relight Years 05:266. Triple Relish 03:57Lineup:Uwe Oberg – pianoJoe Fonda – bassLucía Martínez – drums
The Best of Gabor Szabo
**Red vinyl, gatefold sleeve** Exotic jazz guitar mastery! Gabor Szabo’s singular style and authentic sound is on full display across a set of originals and choice covers highlighted by unusual instrumentation and ingenious arrangements. From the sitar-starring adaptation of Paint It Black to the Latin rhythms and bossa nova beats, Szabo’s savvy jazz guitar innovations shine throughout."Gabor Szabo was one of the most original guitarists to emerge in the 1960s; mixing his Hungarian folk music he…
Interpersonal Subjectivities
The trio of guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama, saxophonist Gregor Vidic, and drummer Nicolas Field introduces Akiyama to Vidic and Field’s standing duo. The result is a magnificent set of exploratory improvisation. Vidic and Field’s playing has a rich, textural quality, developed through their use of timbre and dynamics. In this way, Akiyama’s multiphonic approach to guitar, and his innovative use of effects, offset’s Vidic brilliantly. Over the course of 45 minutes, Akiyama, Vidic, and Field generate a …