Jazz /
Mise En Abîme
2014 release ** "On his second octet release, Mise en Abime, Lehman continues his pioneering amalgamation of spectral harmony and jazz improvisation. Lehman’s music is that rare thing: experimental and avant-garde but also accessible. There’s a lot of academic information which flows beneath Lehman’s musical productions, but in simplified form, he composes microtonal music with ample harmonic movement. This is a unique kind of fusion, where a chord based on a harmonic spectrum can be easily modu…
Today, This Moment
1994 release ** The Mosaic Sextet is Dave Douglas on trumpet, Michael Jefry Stevens on piano, Mark Feldman on violin, Michael Rabinowitz on bassoon, Joe Fonda on bass, and Harvey Sorgen on drums.
Actual Music
1996 release ** "Actual Music Now is the first recording in eighteen years by Dave Pavkovic and Tatsu Aoki. Their partnership is rooted in the myriad possibilities of a particular time and place, but there’s nothing rehashed about it. Between 1994 and 2004, they often worked together in Chicago’s jazz, post-rock, and theater scenes. The grave vibes, considered interplay, and elemental rhythms conjured here are spontaneous expressions of an encounter lived fully in the moment. While both men are …
Herbstimprovisationen
1995 release (RARE) ** Swiss Volksmusik band from region Appenzell, performing a crossover of folklore music and jazz improvisation.
We Are Not At The Opera
1998 release ** "Whoa. Look out. When you look at the cover you know the sh*t is gonna hit the fan when this old master of the vanguard drumming tradition hooks up with the "gentle giant" of the alto, the tenor, and the flute. Sabir Mateen may not be as well-known as Sunny Murray is, but he's every bit as effective and iconoclastic. The title of the album is funny; they aren't even in the same country that opera comes from -- even though Murray lives near there. So what have you got? Drums, drum…
The Neon Truth
2002 release ** "Inspired by Asian and African forms, Larry Ochs calls his sax and double-drum trio "Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core," and the minimal and unusual instrumentation is an effective vehicle for his intense improvisations. Known for his riveting work as a member of the avant-garde jazz group What We Live and the saxophone quartet Rova, Ochs' thick tone, overblowing, and forceful delivery evidence a relentless search for a sort of transcendental ecstasy fueled by the powerful strains o…
Percussion Music; Improvised
2004 release ** "In 2003 Milo Fine joined forces with his father and percussion teacher, the legendary Elliot Fine and the great mystic drummer Davu Seru. Percussion Music; Improvised, a mammoth double CD grew out of this iconic clash of drummers. Exploring the possibility of creating monumental, pulseless music made up of great blocks of seemingly static, but subtly changing, textures whose components parts flowed seamlessly in and out of each other. Right through the endless-sounding “Impressi…
Return To Street Level
1994 release ** Featuring as guest Elliot Sharp, Christian Marclay, Tom Cora, Nick Didkovsky and Paul Hoskin.
The Copenhagen Tapes
2002 release ** "When you give birth to a free jazz record label by the name of Ayler Records, you must be dreaming of putting out an album of long-forgotten sessions by the great saxophonist Albert Ayler. It took a while (then again, not that long), but producer Jan Ström managed to get hold of two important sessions recorded in Copenhagen. The suitably titled Copenhagen Tapes contain 45 minutes of a performance at Club Montmartre, September 3, 1964, and another 20 minutes recorded in the studi…
I Love Noise
Biiig Tip! Edition of 300. Paal Nilssen-Love and Joe McPhee started playing together when Paal was 25. Now he’s 50, so this musical dialogue has been going on for the quarter of a century. It has taken many forms, first with The Thing, then The Thing/Cato Salsa Experience big-band, on to the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, with several one-off collaborations on the way (some previously released on PNL) – but throughout the years the duo format has been the best way to hear these two voices. It’s…
Vignes
2009 release ** This is an amazing live record by a fabulous trio of outstanding guitar players. Vignes, unreleased live album by the Acoustic Guitar Trio. The Acoustic Guitar Trio was a beautiful improvising trio. They were guitar masters Nels Cline, Jim McAuley and the late Rod Poole. Rod Poole, an unsung and sadly quite unknown guitar player suddenly died last year under tragic circumstances. Nels Cline said about Rod: “He was a true artist, probably a genius. He had an amazing capacity as bo…
Maamme Laulu
2005 release ** "Braspyreet is a Helsinki-based improv/free jazz band. “Aquatic visions of spacetime bending, this quartet chants its way through the fanciful forested heavens of the north. Bathed in blankets of shimmering white snow, Braspyreet’s manic compositions will melt the surrounding ice into a swimming hole. So many things find their way into the collective psyche, but Braspyreet will destroy them all and send you off in a jewel-encrusted golden gondola to the pastures beyond.”"
Icaros
1992 release ** "Icaros was a project of the last line-up of Saxioma. A longplayer was planned but this was never realised. This recording of Icaros is based on a tape from a show in Waregem, April 1987. The variations (tracks 7 & 8) are probably recordings of rehearsals for the textile fair Made in Belgium, October 1987 (as maybe also track 9). The 'Sketchbook' are small pieces from Frits De Cauter meant as basis for compositions. The last track 'N.V. Verdriet' is the last part of an Aroma di A…
Souffles
1998 release ** "Percussionist Pierre Favre's Singing Drums is a band that has at its root a charmingly -- and perhaps confoundingly -- simple presumption at its core: that rhythm, well-placed and woven rather than placed on top of or underneath any mix of instruments, will be compulsively attractive for almost any listener. On Souffles, he proves that point over and over again. Singing Drums is a quartet with Favre, fellow percussionist Lucas Niggli, saxophonist Roberto Ottaviano, and tuba play…
Ritual
2001 release ** "This is a reissue of the Finnish lp-only first release by this great rock/avant/fusion guitarist and his band, and includes two bonus tracks. The record features a unique blend of heavy guitarwork combined with dual, wailing Coleman and Ayler-influenced saxes and a rhythm section of bass/electric bass and two drummers. The music is quite original, but has certain musical ties to the harmolodic school ala The Decoding Society and Prime Time."
Con Anima / Concerto Grosso
2001 release (RARE) ** Limited edition 750 copies. The first two studio recordings of The Ganelin Trio Recorded in Vilnius, 1976 and 1978.
Vyacheslav Ganelin - piano, campanelli, guitar, tromboneVladimir Chekasin - saxophones, flutes, okarina, bass clarinet, violinVladimir Tarasov - drums, trumpet, rabob