Jazz /
Caisson
Second outing for this powerful Anglo-Czech electronics-led trio (Jez Riley French, field recordings, zither, contact mics, electronics. Daniel Jones, turntable & electronics. Ivan Palack , amplified knitting machine). Recorded live in Hull, November 2010. 'With the Caisson CD, I think we all feel that this meeting between intuitive composition, sound & improvisation has a language of its own. The aspect of listening is constantly shifting in a forward motion. Moments are at the core of wh…
Ceremonies to breathe upon
Two contrabass players here, Andrew Lafkas, of whom I not really heard I think and Michael T. Bullock, of whom I did hear before, and know as someone who likes his improvised playing to be minimal - to say the least. I think Bullock at times also uses electronics, but I am not if he uses any of that here. Its not mentioned on the cover, nor the fact that this is perhaps a live concert. I do however think this is a live recording, however one with no audience, but a direct-to-track recording of t…
Horsky Park
Two instruments with totally different histories come together and look for a connection across two great sets from 2006 & 2010. "What counts is who you are performing with....in the end that is more important than the actual instrument"-Thomas Lehn
Unknown skies
...Every trio without a piano, or without a drums, or as in this case without a double bass, gains in incline what it loses in “balance”. It only takes a little sometimes. Everyone plays at ease across. Everyone can split themselves. There are no more solos as solos but phases, circles of influence and predominance which do not last. The duos bind and unbind more clearly, the contrasts stand out better. The theme is no longer material to develop but, as in Unknown Skies, a lyrical and volatile s…
The source
“A 4000 year old rock band" W. S. Burroughs. Recognised internationally, Jajouka goes back up to the late Rolling Stone Brian Jones, across his collaboration of 1968, but also to Paul Bowles, Brion Gysin, and William S.Burroughs which had already established their residences for some years together with these musicians of the mountains of Rif. "The Source" is the new record of The "true" Master Musicians of Jajouka and it goes back to the origins of their sacred music. Bachir Attar, last …
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 …
Dying sun
The third album by the established and highly respected Greek/Swedish/Norwegian trio Looper: Nikos Veliotis (cello), Martin Küchen (saxophone) and Ingar Zach (percussion). Recorded at GMEA auditorium in Albi, France, by Benjamin Maumus, January 2010. Music by Looper. Edited, mixed by Nikos Veliotis. Mastered by Coti K. Co-release Cathnor recordings.
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…
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
Mathias Forge, trombone. Olivier Toulemonde, acoustic objects. 'Two more relative unknowns deserving of greater attention: Mathias Forge is a young but virtuosic French-based trombonist, and Olivier Toulemonde is a Brussels-based electroacoustic composer-turned improviser who has now developed an extraordinary instrumental set-up which has moved on from electronics altogether. Their duo - recorded with and without audience during a tour of the UK in early 2010 - immediately creates a uniqu…
Giles U.
The tuba's bass sounds are in complete contrast to the higher pitches of the spinet, bringing to mind cartoon images of an elephant and a mouse. But none of that concerned Hübsch and Schiller when they first played together in 2008-09; they felt a strong connection in their playing - it remains obvious here. Both have modified their instruments, in the process getting rid of the seeming disparity. Schiller's spinet has become a semi-percussive instrument, amply illustrated by this CD's opening s…
AD
Angharad Davies, violin. Axel Dörner, trumpet. 'Neither player should need much introduction, as both are widely acknowledged as leading improvisers on their respective instruments. These domestic recordings mark their first meeting as a duo, and - in the words of another early reviewer, David Grundy - create 'the atmosphere of surprise - of magic - that great improvisation is still so uniquely capable of providing'.'
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…
The cat from Cat Hill
Loris is Patrick Farmer playing natural objects/E bow snare/tapes/wood, Sarah Hughes on chorded zither/piano/E bow and Daniel Jones supplying turntable/E bow/piezo discs and electronics. Their music is constructed of minimal gestures that seem at times borrowed directly from nature — witness the fuzzy crackling and odd insectile sounds at the start of the first track, "A Heron and a Terrapin", which has a very natural sounding sway, from quiet activity to near silence and back. The electric hums…