Bass Works: As I Venture Into
Zurich bass guitarist and composer Martina Berther is known for her delicious basslines in experimental rock outfits Ester Poly and AUL. On this solo debut, she conjures something utterly unique from her instrument. 'Bass Works' showcases Berther's talent and ingenuity across 12 startlingly varied one-take compositions. Taking root in improvisation, the collection unfolds like a playbook of strange and beautiful techniques. Voided melodies, harmonics and surfaces that prickle and collapse in sol…
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Tip!
Sam Newsome – Soprano Saxophone, Horn Preparations, ToysMax Johnson – Double Bass
Recorded at Conveyor by Jason Borisoff on March 18, 2023Mixed and Mastered by Max JohnsonPhoto by Peter GannushkinDesign by David Mirarchi
All music by Max Johnson (Max Johnson Music ASCAP and Sam Newsome (Some New Music BMI), except “Blue Monk” by Thelonious Monk
Rites (Seymour Wright Alto-saxophone Solos 2003-2023)
Tip! These Rites are designed (realised and situated) – through/in – the saxophone, as:
(conic) vessel,text,structure,lens,‘kitchen’,nexus,body/organ(s),rhythm,ecology/knot,speculative (entrepreneurial) invention,(and shadow).
Horizontal Shift
Horizontal shift, features the international trio, from Germany and U.S., of Birgit Ulher, Carol Genetti, and Eric Leonardson. The CD consists of a live performance recorded in 2018 at Elastic Arts in Chicago. Having known each other since the late 1990s, it wasn’t until early 2018 that Ulher, Leonardson and Genetti were able to perform as a trio at Elastic Arts in Chicago. All three are seasoned performers in their own right — each bringing their distinct palettes in combination to create an im…
Hailstone Temple
*100 copies limited edition* Camilo Ángeles and Joanna Mattrey present a striking set of pieces culled from an improvised live set at Museo Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico City, recorded and filmed February 2022, with a dual recording and video release presented here as “Hailstone Temple”. Both musicians have fascinated Notice Recordings for quite a while, and both exhibit deep relationships with their instruments: flute and viola, respectively. Ángeles originally caught our attention via the TVL …
Guitar Solos / Fifty
Big tip! Lunching into 2024 after after a stellar 2023, Week-End Records delivers one of their most important offerings to date, the first vinyl reissue of Fred Frith’s seminal 1974 solo debut, “Guitar Solos”, in more than 40 years, marking the album’s 50th anniversary. A groundbreaking work in the field of avant-garde recordings that changed everything in its wake, incorporating a startling range of sonorities and approaches within constrained means, to celebrate its half-century mark, Frith ha…
Solo
TIp! "This tape was the very first idea I had when considering starting the label. Actually, it may have even be the other way around: the possibility of recording and releasing the first Tom Chant solo album acted as the catalyst for Hera Corp. My main concept behind the label was as simple as "release the music you want to listen to”, and I've listened to and played with Tom so many countless times that I didn't need to think twice. It's difficult for me to point to a specific lineage or style…
Catholic Euphoria/Heaven Annihilates
TIp! Quiet and blistering harsh acoustic noise.
Pere Xirau: snare drumÀlex Reviriego: double bass
Raben
TIp! *2023 stock* After a year with plenty of band-oriented releases and collaborations, Àlex Reviriego goes back to the solo, his favourite format and one that he’s been cultivating since the very beginning of his career. Following Blaue Tauben (Sirulita 2018), Raben is the second chapter of his “german poets trilogy”, this time inspired by the writings of Paul Celan.
If the Trakl-inspired Blaue Tauben was full-on in the bleak expressionistic domain, packed with grit and aggression, this new co…
Textural Studies
*100 copies limited edition* British saxophonist Colin Webster has always had a mono-thematic approach when it comes to making solo albums. From ‘Antennae’ (Gaffer Records, 2013) which dealt purely with micro-sounds and minimal dynamics, to ‘vs. Amp’ (Raw Tonk Records, 2021) which focussed on the sonic capabilities of a baritone saxophone played through a guitar amplifier. Textural Studies – as the title suggests – is no different in approach. Each piece is a deep exploration and thorough interr…
Saudade
"Having known Nicole’s playing for over a decade, I’m always in awe of how she pushes the sound of the trumpet. I’ve been attuned to her immersive sound world since we began playing together in 2008. Whether it’s on her Bb trumpet, piccolo trumpet, or flugelhorn, Nicole’s playing is an individual voice. She has always had a unique way of expressing her instrument. Her choice ofsounds and the method in which she incorporates a rich palette of texture and timbre into herplaying takes the uncommon …
Several
*200 copies limited release* "Needless to say, anything new from saxophonist / composer Anna Webber raises an eyebrow or two. Her works for large and small ensembles exhibit a knotty sophistication that can be compared to that of Anthony Braxton. Here, she teams with experimental multi-instrumentalist Weston Olencki for just over 32 minutes of sax / trombone outside improv.
Several comes across more in the established style of Olencki than that of Webber. While there are a number of contrapuntal…
Heavy Breathing
Tip! Every squeak, skonk, breath, tap & honk imaginable. Eye-scrunching-brick-wall-saxophone for Sampler & Alto Sax by Breathing Heavy (Sam Andreae & Ciaran Mackle) on their debut tape for Infant Tree. Both proving how far they are willing to push themselves and their listeners. It's a great pleasure to be able to share this unique music. Fans of Ashcircle will be familiar with Mackles's singular sampler workouts, but will be thrilled to hear how far its goes here. Sam Andreae's work as an impro…
Tayutauta
Tip! *200 copies limited edition* While continuously engaged in the field of traditional Japanese music, female-school gidayu shamisen player Yumiko Tanaka has since the 1990s been carrying out multifaceted musical activities including contemporary classical music, improvisation (in 1996-97 she was a member of Otomo Yoshihide’s band Ground-Zero), experimental music, and theater performance/composition, performing and exchanging ideas with many musicians from Japan and other countries. While Tana…
Live Recordings
*Edition of 100.* "Live Recordings" presents MAW—the trio of Frank Meadows (bass), Jessica Ackerley (guitar), and Eli Wallace (piano/synth)—fully testing the possibilities of their creative dialogue in front of a live audience for the first time. Two concerts in Brooklyn and Saugerties, both staged in October 2021, display the performance of an acute democratic understanding, acquired across formative years of private sessions and conversation, including the late 2020 recording session that prod…
01.30.22
Tip! *Edition of 100.* Stella Silbert and Nat Baldwin’s "01.30.22" starts with a disorienting and curt mixture of vinyl static, chopped and skewed mysterious acoustic guitar strings, and a loud, acoustic “thud”. It’s an introduction to a strange piece of music from a strange album by two fascinating players in the current improvised and contemporary music landscape. This first piece, “5”, warbles and wobbles its way though oddly lyrical passages, framed in sporadic collaged format by the rapidly…
FFlair III
"Basically, we witness an intimate dialogue between two improvisers. If there had not been a special circumstance leading to this result. Christine Abdelnour and Hans Koch could not hear each other. In fact, "FFlair" is based on two separately recorded solo improvisations, which were superimposed at the end. Mind you, without any subsequent editing." - Rudolf Amstutz
Draw From The Source
Tip! *200 copies limited release. Vinyl version* ”In its sum, Draw From The Source recounts a multidimensional journey whose sources and paths constantly cross. Marco von Orelli and Sheldon Suter reveal a lot about themselves, about their individual idiosyncrasies and about their common feelings in this performance carried by finest lyricism. But behind this journey from the north to the south, from urban stagnation to Mediterranean lightness, there is also a call for us to reflect on the true n…
Grain Live
"It’s unfortunately rare for an improviser, especially in a solo context, to concentrate on one idea, a single angle of attack, and to work that idea deeply, to discover hidden jewels within a relatively “narrow” range and further, to surprise the listener with unexpected divergencies. Agnas, in the three selections from a live event presented here, does this beautifully. On ‘1992’, he places his guitar on his lap and approaches it as a kind of dulcimer, generating a strong and captivating rhyth…
Purecircle
"Applying to their utmost the timbres, textures and tessitura from the double bass and percussion, veteran drummer Ra Kalam Bob Moses, and younger bassist Damon Smith play up the instruments' orchestral as well as rhythmic functions. Moses, whose career began in the 1960s, and Smith who has partnered numerous international improvisers have played together in larger groups. But as a duo none of the 14 tracks sound reductionist.
That's because each uses his instrument to its utmost. Moses, as he d…