Jazz /
Neuschnee
The five tracks on neuschnee form an ambitious meta-song suite, with the various lyrics and musical styles combining to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The design is again from Berlin designer Marion Gerth, previously responsible for The Magic ID-till my breath gives out on ErstPop. The front cover juxtaposes a satellite picture of snow with the Mao Zedong poem 'Snow', which the musicians discovered in a book bought while on tour in Beijing. "After a long phase of experimental…
Otinku
The Modern Sound Quintet were formed in Stockholm by Trinidadian steel drum master Rudy Smith. On Otinku, Smith wails out on his set of 'pans' (as I believe the vernacular goes) in an improbably slick bebop mode, accompanied by a rhythm section capable of keeping it free and swinging one moment, and then within an instant locking down a groove. While pieces like the title track and 'Bye Bye Blackbird' flow effortlessly, 'Mercy, Mercy, Mercy' and 'Memphis Underground' lay down a solid bedrock of …
Al voltant d'un para.lel
2008 release ** Ferran Fages: electric guitar. Recorded live by Pablo Rega, january 19th 2007 at Almazen, Barcelona. Some tracks are versions or new approaches of pieces released before in the album 'a cavall entre dos cavalls'. 'Al voltant d«un paral.lel ' brings to light a tension, which matches that of the previous two guitar albums of Ferran Fages. It's probably because a parallel could also be thought of as the lanes of a horse race, as a permanent conflict, or as a trait of one's character…
The Hilversum Session
Originally recorded in 1964. Featured artists: Albert Ayler (tenor saxophone); Sunny Murray (percussion); Gary Peacock (bass); Don Cherry (cornet). The legendary recording, digitally remastered with new artwork, and liners by Russ Musto. Includes free 9.5 x 9.5 pullout poster!
Two
Trio improvisations recorded at festivals in Esslingen, Germany (2005) and Klagenfurt, Austria (2008). Axel Dörner (trumpet), Thomas Lehn (analogue synthesiser) and Phil Minton (voice) - TOOT's second album, following One on Sofa Records. Two extended collective improvisations finding three masters of European improvisation in absolutely fine form.
Dörner brings his trumpet deconstructions - brassy hisses, burred growls, sputtered flurries. Lehn provides warm analogue synth grit and oscillations…
Karma
Although introduced as a protégé of John Coltrane and touted by many as his heir apparent, reedman Pharoah Sanders quickly proved his own man. His shared interest in the "cosmic" music of Coltrane's final period belies the fact that Sanders frequently plays with an unhurried sense of peace and satisfaction rarely found in his mentor's music. His use of space, African and Asian motifs and instruments, and simple, repetitive melodies also pointed the way for jazz, rock, and new age musicians in th…
That Mysterious Forest Below London Bridge
2007 release (light storage wear) ** Card sleeve. Interlace/Ongaku presented this live show at the Shunt Lounge in the labyrinth under the London Bridge station in November of 2006. Three groups performed: the e-a improv quartet of Tom Chant, Ross Lambert, Sebastian Lexer and Matt Milton; the trumpet/Indian harmonium duo of Jamie Coleman and Mark Wastell; and the AMM duo of Eddie Prevost and John Tilbury.
Trio In Concert
Amazing music by one of the French piano legend Georges Arvanitas, in the company of George's fantastic rhythm duo of Charles Saudrais on drums and Jacky Samson on bass
...de la piedras
Trio improvisations recorded at the Eremita de la Anunciada, Urueña, Spain, August 2007. Esteban Algora (accordion), Alessandra Rombolá (flute and tiles installation) and Ingar Zach (percussion) - three Madrid-based improvisers creating music where the room became a fourth member of the group. An entirely acoustic affair. The title, taken from a poem by Pablo Neruda, suggests the use of the space where the recording was made - an old stone church where the instruments amplify and extend the pote…
Polka Dots & Laser Beams
1992 release ** Guy Klucevsek plays music by Steve Elson, Tom Cora, Guy Klucevsek, Joseph Kasinskas, Anthony Coleman, Daniel Goode, Nicolas Collins, Guy De Bievre, Robin Holcomb, Duke Ellington, Peter Garland, William Duckworth, Bobby Previte, Carl Finch. "Accordionist Guy Klucevsek was listening to a radio interview with Charles Mingus one day in the '70s. The interviewer asked Mingus about the racial divide in jazz and whether or not whites could create great, innovative jazz music. "Let the w…
?Who Stole The Polka?
1991 release ** Guy Klucevsek plays music by William Obrecht, David Garland, John King, Fred Frith, Peter Zummo, Bill Ruyle, Lois V. Vierk, Phillip Johnston, Thomas Albert, Carl Stone, Mary Jane Leach, David Mahler, Elliott Sharp, A. Leroy. ?Who Stole the Polka? is the second volume of pieces that accordionist Guy Klucevsek commissioned from composers ranging widely over the contemporary new music scene in the mid-'80s. For pure wicked fun, it probably exceeds its companion, Polka Dots and Laser…
3ree
2007 release ** "Tanake is unexpected music, hearth lungs sweat (even brain but kept in a hidden place), is music mentally physic, is music physically mental, is twilight at dawn, bitter honey, fresh decomposition, joy in crying. tanake is music generated by her 3ree sweethearts... In the early days [by the way: in the first album "tsu.zu.ku" (2000) tanake meant to reach structure by means of improvisation, but time left the songwriter soul all alone, and tanake's been surrounded by the never en…
Light Upon Light
Trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, improviser and theoretician, Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most important composers of our time. An original member of Chicago's AACM, his exciting pieces blending composition and mprovisation have been performed by many of the world's most important ensembles and soloists. Featuring an exotic composition for chamber ensemble and gamelan quartet, a beautiful solo piece for viola, a bass concerto written for virtuoso Bert Turetzky and two electronic pieces featu…
The New York Composers Orchestra: First Program in Standard Time
Acoustic jazz recording featuring Holcomb's eleven-minute title-track, Lenny Pickett's ten-minute Dance Music for Composer Orchestra, Elliott Sharp's eight-minute Skew and Horvitz's nine-minute Paper Money and an eleven-minute composition by Anthony Braxton.
Metz
Recorded on 25 May 2003 in Metz.
#2
2006 release ** Packaged in oversize cardboard sleeve. "DeK (Die Entartene Kunst, i.e. Degenerate Art) is a group of ""contemporary improvisation"", understood as Instant Composition, in the best European and non-European radical tradition (from Nuova Consonanza to AMM, to Buthc Morris). The ensemble, open, hosts numerous musicians, who alternate from time to time. The core group is made up of Massimo Daolio, Margaret Leitgeb, Davide Negrini, Andrea Bini, Paolo Boschi, Alessandro Verdecchia. In …
Kunststoff
Recorded between th 31th July and 1st August 2003 at Tonstudio by Hrólfur Vagnsson.
do
A groundbreaking release from two youngish Japanese improvisers. Sachiko M plays sample-less sampler, and Nakamura uses the no-input mixing board--both instruments which conceptually produce no sound, yet these two conjure it out, somehow."Do" was recorded live in Europe and Tokyo last summer, and features three improvisations varying in length from just over two minutes to slightly under 40. While the shorter tracks are worthwhile and hold moments of greatness, it is the first, very long track …
Points and Slashes
Over the past decade, Swiss-based Günter Müller has collaborated with many of the most prominent Tokyo-based musicians, recording CDs with Otomo Yoshihide, Taku Sugimoto, Sachiko M, Masahiko Okura, and Toshimaru Nakamura. Points and Slashes is the latest of these, a duo collaboration with guitar wizard Tetuzi Akiyama.It's impossible to pin down Akiyama, a musician of diverse interests and activities, with a brief description. He has been playing electric guitar since he was 13, and formed his fi…
Ointment
Tania Chen: objects, toys, violin, piano ; Steve Beresford: objects, electronics, toys, trumpet, water. Pieces beginning with 'C' recorded by Tim Fletcher at The Bonnington, Vauxhall, London on December 18 2002. Event organised by Adam and Jonathan Bohman. All other pieces recorded by Steve Beresford in west London - pieces beginning with 'L' on August 7 2003 and the rest on June 12 2003. All pieces composed by Tania Chen and Steve Beresford. Edited by Steve Beresford in March 2004. Not to rub i…