Jazz /
Soundtrack to the film: A nice old lady (1959)
2011 release (light storage wear) ** Limited edition of 150 copies. 'Carl Fredrik Reuterswrd is an artist known for his dadaistic works and Ulf Linde is not only an art professor, he was one of the leading Swedish jazzmen in the early 50s. Usually playing vibraharp. But together with Carl Fredrik on drums they played in small clubs for a while in the late 50s a kind of jazz that is free jazz before it was named that. It is an utterly rare example of free European jazz. Linde plays piano and Reut…
Black & Beautiful, Soul & Madness
2009 release ** The original 1968 studio recording of Black & Beautiful, Soul & Madness by Amiri Baraka & The Spirit House Movers is finally available. "After 40 years of constant chatter and occasionally a snippet heard by some radio DJ who had a copy, this record has for most people been something that they heard about but never heard. 'Beautiful Black Women' was both a love song and an anthem coming to us in the midst of the fire that was the '60s. 'Madness' was always my favorite because it …
Beneath tones floor
300 copies. Combining the beauty of art, poetry and music this beautiful package (available as compact disc or LP) makes for a fitting send off for the great bassist Sirone who passed away not long after this recording was completed. Along with Sirone’s deep and resonant bass, the musicians in this collective performance include Oluyemi Thomas on bass clarinet, flute, soprano, musette and percussion (he also composed the music) and Michael Wimberly on drums and percussion. Like the meditative po…
Dem Ol' Apple Pie Melodies
Determined to continue collaborating with revolutionary blitzkrieg musicians in perpetuity, Talibam! Matt Mottel and Kevin Shea were set up on a blind date with Alan Wilkinson by Bo' Weavil Recordings for a London basement show in May '08. Like a late '60's Sadean love-in ripe with Joycean epiphanies, Talibam! heard in Wilkinson's tone the strength and grit of a fine british pint served cool and fresh…a perfect energy to swing-bounce their rolly polly hieroglyphic dance mayhem. A second gig happ…
Journey
On Journey, violinist India Cooke and bassist Joelle Leandre improvise in that exalted state of grace that every improviser hopes to attain. It’s a state in which everything they play just works. It’s as if they can’t play a bad note or make a sound that doesn’t advance the music. In this state, the music unfolds without prior arrangement and at speeds too fast for conscious control, yet it’s development and intent is always clear. That deep communication between two or more people is exactly wh…
Disko
Drivan is a new band project from Norwegian electronica star and graphic designer, Kim Hiorthoy, featuring a line-up of pan-Scandinavian pals: Swedes Lisa Ostberg and Louise Peterhoff and Kristiina Viiala of Finland. The group met while working on a dance piece titled The Potato Country in 2007, and the three girls in the band all come from different corners of the performing arts spectrum, yet everyone involved in Drivan contributed lyrics and melodies for the album, working off the bac…
Pie and Mash
A duo improvisation between French trombonist Mathias Forge and Brussels-based improviser Olivier Toulemonde, recorded live in Sheffield in January 2010, with and without audience. Pie'n'mash – its title playfully referencing the traditional London working-class dish – documents the meeting of two remarkable musicians who were relative unknowns at the time but who have since been recognized as significant voices within post-reductionist improvisation.
Forge, a virtuosic young trombonist, demonst…
Giles U.
An improbable yet utterly compelling duo pairing tuba and spinet – two instruments rarely heard together in musical history, brought into dialogue by German tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and Swiss spinet player Christoph Schiller. Recorded in Cologne in November 2009, Giles U. documents seven pieces that explore the sonic possibilities of this unconventional combination, creating what one critic aptly described as "the kind of thing you might hear if a steampunk novel became sound."
Hübsch, a major…
AD
A duo encounter between two of the most distinctive voices in European improvised music: Welsh violinist Angharad Davies and German trumpeter Axel Dörner. Recorded in December 2008 at a West London house, A.D. documents an intimate meeting between two musicians who share a profound commitment to extended technique and sonic exploration, creating music that transcends the conventional boundaries of their instruments.
Dörner has long been recognized as one of the most consistently innovative trump…
Woodblock Prints
Awesome new LP, just arrived, Referencing the delicate artistic printing method, this nonet recording presented by Harris Eisenstadt on drums and compositions, Michael McGinnis on clarinet, Jason Mears on alto saxophone, Sara Schoenbeck on bassoon, Mark Taylor on french horn, Brian Drye on trombone, Jay Rozen on tuba, Jonathan Goldberger on electric guitar and Garth Stevenson on acoustic bass (with smaller groups frequently breaking out) is a model of artistic restraint. At times sounding like a…
Let's Go
A record that's every bit as great as you'd guess from the three artists billed on the cover -- raw guitar from Terrie Ex, offbeat alto sax from Brodie West, and some amazing percussion from the legendary Han Bennink! The record feels very free and improvised -- very much in the best spirit of other Ex/Bennink collaborations, but really taken to the next level with West's contributions -- played with a raw tone that really holds the whole thing together, and sends it back to almost ESP-l…
Earth's Orbit
William Hooker is an artistic whole, a vast circle of vision and execution. A body of uninterrupted work beginning in the mid-seventies defines him as one of the most important composers and players in jazz. As bandleader, Hooker has fielded ensembles in an incredibly diverse array of configurations. Each collaboration has brought a serious investigation of his compositional agenda and the science of the modern drum kit.
In this limited edition double vinyl he is joined by two groups of great co…
Solo in Vilnius
It was a magical Autumn day in Vilnius - Mr. Howard Riley was giving his rare solo performance at St. Catherine’s Church. The outcome is this two CD set of deep musical contemplation, freedom and lyricism. After the concert Howard Riley said that this was his best solo performance in many years.
From the Hip
The Bohman Brothers (Adam and Jonathan) team up with Leonard Aspen and Roger Boulding to form Ischio Romantico Ð the result is this album called From The Hip which is a combination of the Bohmans' amplified objects and raw electronics and the smooth hypnotic loops and turntable inventions of Aspen and Boulding (who have collaborated extensively with Xentos Jones and Lepke B of Die Trip Computer Die). Urbane Deserts vs Sylphides' is a ballet in four parts. Leonard's libretto (undisclosed) describ…
Received in Studio Dental, Gothenburg
For the recording, Henrik Rylander and Joachim Nordwall of drone operators The Skull Defekts got together with the performance and noise duo The Sons Of God - consisting of conceptual artist and self-proclaimed king of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland Leif Elggren and electro-acoustic sound artist Kent Tankred. The place for the meeting was Rylander's Studio Dental and the album was received in one night. the process developed immediately and there was no struggle to find a common idea of soun…
Direct Current
Again, ultralimet release on qbico, the original music was rec. @ the qbico u-nite XIII which took place @ Issue Project Room in NYC back in Feb. 2009. for sure the opening set by Atiba & Dave Nuss was one of the most original live set i had the pleasure to... see i remember talking with Dave, trying to set up this gig... he came out with this duo, saying that Atiba is the best well kept secret in the NYC... he spotted him playing in Harlem Clubs... nobody knows him, Andrew Barker or Steve... no…
Live at the Yippie
Live At The Yippie is part of a performance by tenor saxophonist Lorenzo Sanguedolce and bassist Michael Bisio, with two tracks clocking right under 20 minutes each, the regular time constraint of a vinyl LP. Sanguedolce is possibly best known, if at all, from his Sweetblood Quintet, a name which is the English translation of his Italian family name. The first piece, "'Stract (part 1), brings a lyrical, free boppish improvisation with bluesy inclinations, quite accessible overall, all within th…
Bit heads
* 300 copies * This adventurous new Lithuanian label presents us with what I think is the debut album of trombonist Daniel Blacksberg as a leader, accompanied by Jon Barrios on bass and Mike Szekely on drums. His approach is cautious, free and precise, in the sense that he does go beyond the beaten path, offering new possibilities for the instrument but without going into the wilder areas that George Lewis is known for. The end result is highly listenable avant jazz, with slow and bluesy inflect…
Transatlantic Visions
TRANSATLANTIC VISIONS is the live recording of the Vision Festival XIII concert (New-York, June 2008), which has been awarded "Best Performance of the Year" by the monthly magazine All About Jazz NY.
...was there to illuminate the night sky...
In the album notes to Trespass Trio's "...was there to illuminate the night sky...", saxophonist Martin Kÿchen provides a colorful yet somewhat fragmented essay, regarding the evisceration of society, partly tied into the Iraq war and the everlasting Israel-Palestine conflict. He sets the stage for a life force panorama, iterated through the power of music that casts a dour or ominous state of affairs. Recorded in Norway, the Scandinavian trio exercises some bloodletting here. The injustices of …