★Astral Spirits
Live at Static Age Records
Recorded at Static Age Records in Asheville, NC, June 10, 2018 by Dylan Jordan. Performed by Tatsuya Nakatani - percussion, Shane Parish - nylon string guitar, Zach Rowden - double bass. Mixed by Tatsuya Nakatani in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, Summer 2019.
Lost and Found
Formed in 2017, J Pavone String Ensemble features Jessica Pavone and Abby Swidler on violas, and Erica Dicker and Angela Morris on violins. The group's latest release, Lost And Found, combines both traditional notation and improvisation, with a focus on sustained collaborative playing and the application of ideas exploring the healing potential of sonic vibrations. It was recorded at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, Connecticut.
Speaking with The Wire's Philip Clark in November 2019, Pavone describes …
Hellraiser
Icepick is the super-power trio of some of the busiest musicians on this planet – American, Brooklyn-based trumpeter Nate Wooley, Norwegian, Austin-based bass player Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and American, Upstate New York-based drummer Chris Corsano. «Hellraiser» is already the third album of this trio and was recorded live in February 2018, on the occasion of a gathering supporting the Option series at Experimental Sound Studios (ESS) in Chicago. Originally, this performance was slated for anoth…
Luke Stewart Exposure Quintet
"Back in 2018, I was invited by Dave Rempis to participate in the Exposure Series at Elastic Arts in Chicago. The Series was for me a shining example of artist-lead organizing of different yet connected communities around the Music. From my standpoint, it is yet another in the continuum of such actions, specifically in Chicago, and has been a major inspiration for my work as an artist and for the material on this recording.
The ensemble was assembled by Mr. Rempis, and was the first time the gro…
The Reinvention of Romance
“The Reinvention of Romance,” a new work for percussion and cello that examines the care and empathy that emerge when two lives share space. Over the course of 90 minutes, a series of repeating patterns creates a peculiar kind of harmony in which two musicians are rarely “playing together” but are nonetheless intimately bonded. The Knoxville-based duo Two-Way Street (Ashlee Booth and Adam Lion) commissioned Hennies to compose “a very long piece;” for this recording they step into its two intertw…
Apura!
It is intended with the utmost respect that this album is entitled Apura!, which in the Filipino language Tagalog translates to “Very Urgent” (the name of an epochal record by the Blue Notes, the pioneering South African jazz sextet of which drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo was the heartbeat). The musicians of Louis and Trevor Watts’s generation cast a tremendous shadow over the legacy of improvised music. It’s not difficult to romanticize the era in which these musicians first made their marks, exer…
Exultations
If Brandon Seabrook’s previous trio album, Convulsionaries, was quietly pummeled by a modified chamber jazz vibe, Exultations, featuring the ever-versatile drummer Gerald Cleaver and the inimitable Cooper-Moore on diddley-bow, leaves no holds barred. A makeover doesn’t even begin to describe what has happened to Seabrook with the shift in personnel, now a vehicle in full flight; while the faint of heart had better clear out, everyone else should buckle up!
For those unfamiliar with Cooper-Moore’…
Hearts and Minds
“Sometimes it’s dumb fun to think up impossible supergroups. Maybe they help you imagine a sound you’ve never considered, a combination of histories and vectors that contradicts those that might be steered by normal forces, such as geography or genre or circle of colleagues. A parlor game designed to transcend time and place.Here’s one: John Carter, Bernard Parmegiani, Mike Ratledge and Tony Williams. Think of the possibilities, Ratledge offers fudgy bass keyboards, circa 1970, Soft Machine’s Th…
No Place To Fall
**First pressing of 175 copies with red cassette shells** The longer one works as an artist, the more secure one’s own identity becomes — whether visual, sonic, textual, or otherwise, the goal is to be clearly oneself. It may seem overly simple to cut the fat and center on creation and individuality, but considering those who have gone before and died for their art, the gambit seems far from easy. Saxophonist and photographer Rodrigo Amado (b. 1964, Lisbon) has worked in two different but relate…
Days and Other Days
Majkowski returns to Astral Spirits, after his brilliant "Neighbouring Objects" tape that came out in 2015! "Days and Other Days" is Majkowski's 7th proper solo release following on the heels of the equally magnificent releases "Bright Astonishment of the Night" on Bocian Records and "Swimming in Light" on Entr'acte Records.
Quite possibly the most astounding and darkest (in a good way) album we've heard from Majkowski yet! He continues to explore the intersection between acoustic instruments an…
From The Land of the Wicked King
**175 copies** "A joint release between Noel Meek's New Zealand label Called God In The Music and Astral Spirits, the trio of Meek himself on electronics, Arrington de Dionyso on saxophone and Rodrigo Rico on drums are caught live at Gallery 1412 in Seattle, WA in 2017 for a freely improvised album of controlled chaos among intensely wicked and mischievous electroacoustic improv." - SquidCo
Kobra Quartet
**175 copies** "Quietly lurking as it prepares to attack, this Kobra is the free improvising quaret of Aurora Nealand on accordion, alto saxophone, voice and objects, Steve Marquette on acoustic and electric guitars, Anton Hatwich on bass, and Paul Thibodeaux on drums, captured live at Chicago's Hungry Brain during the Instigation Festival for a mysterious 2-part New Omens and some Telly Attire." - SquidCo
Long Day
**75 copies** Long Day documents a live performance by Daniel Wyche (guitars), Patrick Shiroishi (saxophones) and Ted Byrnes (percussion). The performance took place in Los Angeles in August 2019 and was recorded by Jared Rodriguez. The album was mixed by Daniel Wyche and mastered by Brian J. Sulpizio in Chicago, IL.
Voice Games
**75 copies** Primarily voice improvisations from the duo of Muyassar Kurdi and Ka Baird, also performing on piano, bells, gong, flute and spike fiddle. Recorded at Pineapple Reality and Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, NY, between 2017 and 2018, their work focused on typically delicate interweaving of their voices and instruments, with a sense of suspense, humor and joyful mystery.
Ascua
**200 copies** Layered lowercase electroacoustic improv from the US / Mexico City / German trio of Chris Cogburn on percussion and electronics, Juan Garcia on double bass, and Ignaz Schick on turntables, sampler and electronics, eclectically informed by concrete sources and abstract electronics over Garcia's bass work and Cogburn's threshold-crossing acoustics & electronic percussion.
Recorded by Ignaz Schick at Ausland in Berlin on August 7, 2018.Mixed & Mastered by Werner Dafeldecker in Berlin…
Good Days
On May 13, 2000 the Chicago Underground Quartet played one of the most searing and transcendent sets of music I’ve ever witnessed, as part of the Empty Bottle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music. Cornetist Rob Mazurek, guitarist Jeff Parker, drummer Chad Taylor, and bassist Noel Kupersmith performed with a fiery singularity of purpose, ripping through its set like a bulldozer, albeit a machine marked by nuance and soulfulness. The following year the same line-up—which had previously made two alb…
Balancing Tear
"A glorious re-match for Chicago’s superb free-rock trio, Mako Sica, and the jazz world’s percussionist of choice, Hamid Drake. Their last collaboration, Ronda, was a glorious, open-ended studio conversation spread across two LPs. Balancing Tear is a mix of studio and live recordings, awash with calmly oceanic passages, interspersed with compressed and feverish form-blurts.As with Ronda, the heft of the material is dynamically advanced. The album begins with passages worthy of Morricone’s wester…
Specifically the Water
Astral Spirits presents the debut duo recording from Alex Cunningham (violin) and Claire Rousay (percussion) entitled Specifically the Water.Alex Cunningham is a violinist, improviser, and visual artist based in St. Louis, MO. His work explores free improvisation, drone, noise, and minimalist composition. Cunningham has recently performed with Mark Shippy, Sandy Ewen, Damon Smith, Stefan Gonzalez, and Lisa Cameron and has ongoing collaborations with Chris Trull (under the Apathist! moniker), Kev…
Anáhuac
**CD version** Layered lowercase electroacoustic improv from the US / Mexico City / German trio of Chris Cogburn on percussion and electronics, Juan Garcia on double bass, and Ignaz Schick on turntables, sampler and electronics, eclectically informed by concrete sources and abstract electronics over Garcia's bass work and Cogburn's threshold-crossing acoustics & electronic percussion.Recorded by Ignaz Schick at Anáhuac 33 in Mexico City on May 22, 2016.Mixed & Mastered by Werner Dafeldecker in B…
Laniakea
**150 copies** "Astral Spirits describes prolific Russian, Saint-Petersburg-based sax player Ilia Belorukov and Portuguese-Catalan, Barcelona-based drummer Vasco Trilla as “two under-sung heroes of free improv”. Both Belorukov and Trilla like to experiment with different objects and sounds in order to reinvent and enhance the sonic range and imagination of their respective instruments - the alto sax, fluteophone, Belorukov's electronics and Trilla's assorted percussion instruments. Laniakea was …