New Arrivals
47°13' N 7°E
Another uncommon sonic wringer from Portuguese label Creative Sources has been signed by a couple of Switzerland-based (as you could easily surmise from the geographical coordinate, which point to a place the district of Franches-Montagnes in the canton of Jura in Switzerland, they used to name this release) musicians, Lea Danzeisen and Christoph Schiller, who decided to squeeze the spinet, the little brother of harpsichord and piano, whose sound got totally transfigured by meticulous mod…
Ecotono
“The word Ecotono is built from two roots. Eco (oikos/casa) and tono (tonos/ tensión). An ecotono, or ecotone, is a habitat created by the juxtaposition of distinctly different habitats; an edge habitat; or an ecological zone or boundary where two or more ecosystems meet. It is a transition area between two distinct habitats, where the ranges of the organisms in each bordering habitat overlap, and where there are organisms unique to the transition area. An ecotone region provides conditions of b…
Recurrence
The latest from microsound pioneer and LINE boss Richard Chartier is a re-imagining of probably his best-known work, 2000s ‘Series’, which incidentally was the inaugural LINE release. Since 2011 Chartier has worked on revisiting elements of ‘Series’ and reworking them into ‘Recurrence’, which was intended to be able to be performed in the live environment. One of the drawbacks of ‘Series’ was that its character left it almost ‘unperformable’, so this re-visitation of the source material was out …
It's You
Sydney, Australia's Holy Balm trio jack out a heat-warped LP of avant-dance songs for Not Not Fun. 'It's You' feels like dance music that's been made in a hot country. It's got a faded, sun-bleached quality and drunk-in-the-afternoon sloppiness that's entirely endearing to our tastes. Their synth melodies are always prone to slipping saltily off-key and the beats are basically functional - lumpy kicks and squirmy, acidic synth pop bass - ridden with alluring nonchalance by Anna John in a hybrid …
Costellazione Seconda
Constellazione Seconda is the follower of the Lombardi 1978 "Costellazione" a piano sound exploration based upon a map of sky constellation, planned as the first step of a large work focused on the exposition and 'performance' of constellations maps, planetaria and maps of the heavens. This new work breaks up into 21 short piano movements, concentrating on incredibly short staccato notes that sting violently between fractured harmonics leaving plenty of momentum-puncturing silences to really he…
Up and down the lion-revised
“The only existing recording by this legendary 1979 trio. Alexander von Schlippenbach and Sven-Åke Johansson was a working duo, when Peter Brötzmann joined them for a trio tour in Sweden in the fall of 1979. They were all three part of the strong growth of the free improvised music and free jazz in Europe. In 1979, though, the era of revolutions was already history. They had all played in groups that made any retreat impossible; not to mention their solo works. The music of the trio 1979 could r…
Phoenix & Phaedra Holding Patterns
Live composition for portable radios, FM transmitter, 4 corner speaker PA, found sound textures, & Shruti drone box. Sound is all around us. An ethereal tapestry of invisible radio waves and sound pressure waves fills our world. Live in concert, Phoenix and Phaedra plays with our sense of place and scale, by using a surround sound speaker system in combination with a short range FM transmitter which broadcasts to a collection of hand held radios located within the audience. The concert is perfor…
Rostbeständige Zeit
Axel Dörner, Nobuyoshi Ino, Kazuo Imai, Noritaka Tanaka. This is the masterpiece of 2CDs, splitting the music into improvisation (momentary composition) and / or composition. Disc 1 is the improvised music by Axel, Ino, Imai. Guitar sound of Imai is hot and tingling, Ino plays careful his choice pizzicato and arcoexquisitely, and Axel's original sound bring Ôout' into their music. Their atmosphere of music is special one, cannot be similar from every music. Disc 2 consists of all Axel's composi…
Dopesmoker
The story behind Dopesmoker, the final LP in the life of pioneering stoner sludge trio Sleep, is one of perseverance not usually associated with such dedicated grass aficionados. Intended to be the Cali band’s third record and first for major label London, the album took shape as a single 63-minute track entitled “Dopesmoker,” an ode to the joys of getting baked. After nearly two months of work, the band (guitarist Matt Pike, bassist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius) pronounced the opus…
Troubled, Shaken Etc
Another album of unclassifiable experimental songs from British band the Sian Alice Group, who blend elements of avant-rock, folk and dark, cinematic tones for a uniquely atmospheric, inter-disciplinary sound. A Stereolab-like mix of pop modernism and Terry Riley minimalism gets the album started ('Love That Moves The Sun'), before all momentum is dismantled in favour of fluid ambience on 'Airlock'. From here on the band continue to genre-hop before stumbling upon a rich vein of balladry on trac…
Rewound groves
Krampus used to be busy with St. Nicholas during December. But soon after St. Nicholas began to wear shiny red and white costume, he was no longer needed.He took long time to figure out why it happened, why he was abandoned. On the other hand, he could spend more time playing with old fellows in the mountains, and noticed what is most pleasant in his life.This album is released on 5th December - the day of Krampus. This edition is limited to 123 copies, wrapped in fur pocket (brunet or blond) an…
Hello
Takahiro Kawaguchi: tuning fork. Shinjiro Yamaguchi: guitar. Composed by Takahiro Kawaguchi. Edited by Shinjiro Yamaguchi. Recorded by Takahiro Kawaguchi at 102 Studio, Tokyo, November 9, 2008. Mastered by Taku Unami. Takahiro Kawaguchi began making field recordings and performing improvised music in 2000, and in recent years has attracted a great deal of attention as a sound artist. In January 2009 he released, on Taku Unami's label Hibari Music, the solo album, on which he uses several remodel…
Open Percussion
this CD is an amazing achievement. Kjos Sørensen is a brilliantly gifted performer, but clearly an imaginative and creative one too. A very special issue, continuing BIS’s tradition of opening our minds and our ears.
Wedding ceremony
In May 2007 the sextet of Lucio Capece, Julia Eckhardt, Christian Kesten, Radu Malfatti, Toshimaru Nakamura and Taku Sugimoto convened in Belgium to work together and play two concerts, one in Gent and one in Brussels. During their time together the group played a mixture of improvisation and their own compositions. A number of exciting tensions were present. The contrast between loud and quiet, activity and inactivity and indeed improvisation and composition. Wedding Ceremony ties together many…
Less Is More
The piano trio is probably one of the most common ensembles to be heard in jazz, and truth be told, I am a little weary of them, preferring the expressiveness of a horn section. Yet once in a while, a piano trio comes forward that has something new to tell. When I listened to WHO Trio's "The Current Underneath" (Leo Records) a couple of years ago, I was immediately enchanted by the sheer musicality of the project. This one, "Less Is More", is even better. The trio consists of Michel Wintsch on p…
In light
Four years after the release of their debut album Outflow, Japan’s Small Color, a duo comprised of Rie Yoshihara (aka Trico!) (accordion, voice, vintage keyboard instruments) and Yusuke Onishi (guitar, banjo, bass, programming and production) are back with the beautifully polished In Light. This album marks what some may consider a departure for 12k: sublime and gentle, minimal, acoustic J-pop, which once may have been destined for the now-defunct Happy label, but can now sit comfortably beside …
Prince Of Truth
Beginning with her first Constellation release in 2006, Carla Bozulich’s Evangelista project has steadily been gaining recognition for its complex beauty and fierce, raging appeals. Bozulich has been knocking these and many other ideas into form for two decades (Neon Veins, Ethyl Meatplow, The Geraldine Fibbers, Scarnella). Evangelista is the best and the brightest, filled with adventurous risk taking that sometimes whispers and licks, sometimes pulls the listener so close that it is hard to bre…
Oort
David Chiesa - double bass. Jean-Sébastien Mariage - acoustic guitar. Recorded by Pierre-Henri Thiébaut at école Britten in Périgueux.
Under Milk Wood
The new LSD March album Under Milk Wood is their first full length since 2007's Constellation Of Tragedy for Important Records. With grace (in the rock sense), style, humor & the perfect touch of heavy riffage this tremendously unique and original recording is a classic of the new Japanese underground. Recorded at Black Snowflake Studios in Japan, Under Milk Wood is a fascinating ghostly rock album full of clean untreated restraint and a grounded calm compliments of Takahashi Ikuro's drumming. I…
Scandinavian parts (immersive live salvage supplement)
The size of the stage, position of the equipment, monitor position and height, hall architecture and acoustics, capacity and attendance, temperature and humidity, and sound level (dB) or Leq Meter limiting all varied from event to event. Each of the final recordings documents the performed audio output, each hall's acoustics, the audience's reaction, and their proximity to the recorder, all from an onstage position, while retaining the auditorium's spatial impression. Recordings failed, or…