Jazz /
A Bright Nowhere
Matchless Recordings presents a live concert by Conditions recorded at Gateway Studios Kingston-upon-Thames Surrey England 16th November 2002 and 2nd March 2003.
The album includes six tracks performed by John Edwards - Double Bass, Eddie Prévost - Drums, Alex James - Piano, Nathaniel Catchpole - Tenor Saxophone, Jamie Coleman - Trumpet.
The geographers
"It's a generalisation, but Sylvia Hallett scrapes and Clive Bell blows. Bell specialises in reed or pipe instruments from exotic locations, principally South East Asia. Hallett bought a saw for £2.49, mounted a bicycle wheel on a spindle and also plays the more frequently-sighted viola. Bell studied the shakuhachi flute in Tokyo, then lived in Thailand, where he familiarised himself with the brittle vibrations of the khene reed-pipes. This was the beginning of his love for blown instruments tha…
Schnee live
ErstLive 003 is from the duo of Burkhard Stangl and Christof Kurzmann, titled 'schnee_live', the final show on the last night of AMPLIFY 2004: addition. Stangl and Kurzmann began working as a duo in late 1999, releasing Schnee in 2000, and playing numerous concerts over the past four years throughout Europe, the US, and Asia. schnee_live documents how much their duo has changed since the initial recording of Schnee, which was the first time they ever played together as a duo.
eh
One of the central aesthetics of the Erstwhile label is the counterpositioning of electronic and acoustic improvisers. Rarely has that been more starkly, and beautifully, achieved than on the opening and closing tracks of eh by guitarist Stangl and turntablist/electronicist Dieb13 (Dieter Kovacic). Stangl is one of a handful of contemporary free improv musicians who happily forays into tonal, even melodic spheres, conjuring up a reduced version of John Fahey, perhaps. On "eeeh", his delicate str…
Etwa
Early alto & soprano saxophone solo Recorded in 2004 inside two french chapels. "There are no tricks here, first and foremost ; Bertrand Gauguet has simply developed a weird array of techniques for his alto and soprano, which he exploits via close-miking. There are seven untitled tracks in 42-minutes, each one relentlessly exploring a different technical area : the restrained breath noises of the opening track, the superb low-end growl of the fourth, the chasm-like whooshing of the third, or the…
Alphea
Alphea was formed in Hamburg 1991. The duo has performed in jazz clubs, art galleries and on jazz and contemporary music festivals, playing music structured exclusively by their own concepts.Hannes Wienert (alto and soprano saxophones, trumpet) studied visual arts. Peter Niklas Wilson (double bass) has performed and recorded with John Tchicai, Marion Brown, Derek Bailey and Anthony Braxton.
Aso
Ami Yoshida and Christof Kurzmann are both well-respected artists within the international community, each performing in a wide range of contexts from abstract to pure pop. Both are best known for their long-running duos, Yoshida for Cosmos (with Sachiko M) and Kurzmann for schnee (with Burkhard Stangl). This project finds them in far less comfortable territory, and a s o is the outcome of two years of hard work.Ami Yoshida strives to create a pure sound, abstracting her voice until it becomes a…