Launching what looks to be the beginnings of an incredibly prolific period for the label, Holidays Records returns with a killer batch of LPs, Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble's “Music for Angela Davis” - a long recording by the legendary group from 1971 - Akira Sakata and Giovanni Di Domenico - “And Life Also Same”, and Mette Rasmussen and Pak Yan Lau - “Traditional Noise”, each sculpting singularly monumental gestures at the forefront of contemporary free improvisation. Engrossing and creatively brilliant, whether viewed individually or collectively, these sounds can't help but fill the heart with humanity and hope.

Since their founding during the early years of the new millennium, the Italian imprint, Holidays Records, has stood at the vanguard of forward-thinking sound, building a carefully curated catalog of releases that collectively build context and conversation across numerous avenues of exploration - contemporary and historical sitting side by side - within the wider field of experimental and improvised music.

One of the legendary projects of 20th Century Egyptian jazz, the Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble was formed by Salah Ragab and Hartmut Geerken as an avant-garde offshoot of The Cairo Jazz Band - the first jazz big band in the country - formed by Ragab in 1968. Sinfully under-documented, in 1970 the band issued Heliopolis, what has since become one of the rarest and most celebrated and sought-after artefacts of global jazz, thankfully reissued by Holidays last year. An entirely singular work of towering proportions - blending the sounds of big band spiritual jazz, the music of the Middle East, and the fire and energy of free jazz - other than this lone LP, the ensemble resurfaced in 1983 with “In Egypt”, an absolutely astounding collaborative album with The Sun Ra Arkestra, before disappearing from view.

Remarkably, after decades of silence - leading the world to believe that was all there was - Holidays Records has unearthed a never before released recording of Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble from 1971, comprising Salah Ragab’s long form composition “Music for Angela Davis”, that encounters two full ensembles - conducted by Hartmut Geerken and Hubertus Von Puttkamer respectively - joining forces to sculpt a singular effort of big band free jazz.

Recorded on December 4, 1971, at Nile Hall, Cairo, “Music for Angela Davis” clocks in at 24 minutes - rising and falling within a brilliant, structurally complex and fiery expression of call and response. It is collective free improvisation in its most heightened and sophisticated form. As described by Ragab “One of my attempts with the Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble was my time-related, but timeless composition “Music for Angela Davis”. I divided the ensemble into two groups of roughly the same size, each with a conductor, and both groups played simultaneously, according to the different hand signals of the conductors, without one group reacting to or considering the other. The only two tone sequences consisted of the musicable notes of the name Angela Davis, i. e. a-g-e-a and d-a s. The composition was an attempt to get together in society through the medium of free improvisation and a protest against the racial measurements of the American governments.”

Truly astounding on creative terms and as historically important as it comes, Holidays has offered a true slab of music gold with Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble’s “Music for Angela Davis”, leaving jaws on the floor, wondering where these recordings have been hiding for so many years.

Diving forward into a mind-blowing, contemporary expression of free improvisation, the next offering in Holidays’ latest batch of releases, “And Life Also Same”, captures a recent collaborative artefact from the long-standing, prolific partnership between the seminal Japanese saxophonist, Akira Sakata, and the Italian pianist and composer Giovanni Di Domenico.

Born in 1945 and trained as a marine biologist, for decades Akira Sakata has stood at the forefront of Japanese jazz and improvisation, first emerging during the early 70s as a member of the Yamashita Yosuke Trio, before venturing out as a solo performer, recording widely and collaborating with a vast number of distinguished players from the global scene.

Di Domenico, currently based in Brussels, over the last two decades has emerged as a definitive voice, bridging improvised music and advanced forms of electroacoustic music, producing a discography of critically heralded solo efforts, and intimate collaborations with Jim O'Rourke, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Arve Henriksen, Alexandra Grimal, Nate Wooley, Chris Corsano, and others. His collaboration with Sakata began during the 2010s and has since produced 9 releases with numerous configurations and line-ups.

While most of Di Domenico’s recent releases have veered toward the electronic and electroacoustic realm, “And Life Also Same” - stretching across a full LP and a 7" - refreshingly encounters him returning to his roots as an absolutely brilliant pianist. Recorded in May of 2018 at Studio 107, Radio France, both players are in top form, firing out complex arrangements and clusters of tonal interventions that collide in a stunning display of conversant artistry, ranging from restrained passages within which Sakata delivers beautiful primal vocalizations backed by the patter of Di Domenico’s notes, to full on hard blow free jazz fire.

Stunning from start to finish and proof that free improvisation is both alive and well, and forever advancing and evolving, Sakata and Di Domenico’s "And Life Also Same" is a statement that sticks with you and brings you back again and again. It’s yet another crucial reminder of the humanity and humor lying in wait during the relative silence of the last couple of years.

The final instalment in Holidays’ latest batch, “Traditional Noise”, a duo collaboration by two up and coming stars of experimental music - Mette Rasmussen and Pak Yan Lau - is possibly the most exciting of them all, offering glimpses of possible futures of free improvisation across its brilliant two sides.

Mette Rasmussen is a Danish saxophone player based in Trondheim, Norway, who first gained attention as a member of Trio Riot, before increasingly branching out as solo artist, working with the likes of Alan Silva, Chris Corsano, Fire!, Tashi Dorji, Ken Vandermark, Zeena Parkins, Ryan Sawyer, and numerous others. Drawing from a wide range of influences, spanning free jazz to textural soundwork, Rasmussen’s practice delves into the exploration of the natural rawness of her instrument and its capacity for expression, with and without preparations.

Based in Brussels, we had the good fortune of shining some light on Pak Yan Lau’s brilliant LP as a band leader, ‘Bakunawa’, earlier this year, which left us waiting on bated breath for more. Working across numerous idioms, she is a sound artist, improviser, musician, and composer, who first appeared within projects like Going - a quartette with Giovanni Di Domenico, João Lobo, and Mathieu Calleja, Eggstream - a trio with Di Domenico and Norberto Lobo, and the large-scale ensemble Dream & Drone Orchestra. Over the last decade, she has developed her own singular sonic universe, blending acoustic, electro-acoustic and electronic approaches and working both as a vocalist, as well as with prepared pianos, toy pianos, synths, electronics and various sound objects across a number of solo efforts, in addition to live and recorded collaborations with Chris Corsano, Akira Sakata, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Tetuzi Akiyama, Rie Nakajima, Toshimaru Nakamura, Susana Santos Silva, Lionel Malric, Darin Gray, and numerous others.

Recorded in Antwerp during late 2017, “Traditional Noise” features Rasmussen on alto sax, preparations, objects, voice, and Lau on toy pianos, synth, sampler, modified wok, typatune, and electronics, locked in an evolving, conversant sound expanse that pointedly avoids the explicitly musical as the two artists bristle against each other, delivering textural and tonal interventions defined by careful restraint and space.

Truly beautiful in the ugliest, most raw and delicate kind of way, Mette Rasmussen and Pak Yan Lau’s “Traditional Noise” is easily one of the most singular and exciting recordings of contemporary improvisation we’ve encountered this year. It’s killer and consuming from start to finish, revealing a partnership by two of the most exciting artists currently on the scene that we hope we haven’t heard the last from.