Hunt At The Brook Again / Hunt At The Brook With Neil Metcalfe
Tip! In Vital Weekly 1397, I reviewed a CD by Dirk Serries, Benedict Taylor and Friso van Wijck they released on the Portuguese label Creative Sources Recordings. Now, the Portuguese entered Serries' label New Wave Of Jazz. The improvised music scene is small but very busy. A trio consisting of Carlos "Zingaro" on violin, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello and José Oliveira on percussion. They played on July 30, 2021, in Lisbon and for the title, they took inspiration from Kurt Schwitters. I think the…
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…
Smiles + Di Domenico, Bordin, Marogna
The two recent Castel Sotterra releases in a special discounted bundle
Jackie-O MotherfuckerSmiles
Recorded live on April 28, 2014 at Outside Inside Studio, Montebelluna. Alan Zignoto: bass. Dave Easlick: drums. Tom Greenwood: guitar, vocals. Jeffrey Alexander: synth, chalumeau. Michael Whittaker: saxophone, flute, trombone. Dave Siebert: violin, lap steel. Mixed and mastered by Matt Bordin. Photos by Lorenzo Ferraro.
Giovanni Di Domenico, Matteo Bordin, Riccardo MarognaDi Domenico, Bordin, Ma…
Live in Luxembourg, December 3rd 2021
*300 copies limited edition* This record contains four tracks taken from a live performance which took place on December 3rd 2021 at the vinyl harvest record store in Esch-sur-Alzette Luxembourg. The concert was curated by non-profit organisation I am esch twenty too and the label mint.conception.recordings. I am esch twenty too was founded in 2020 as an alternative suggestion to the city of Esch-sur-Alzette being European Capital of Culture 2022 and its role and program. The budget for this con…
Density Dots
*200 copies limited edition* Impetus Group is Dirk Serries’ big band formation. The band name naturally refers to the Latin meaning: urgency, driving force, but even more spiritually to the moving language and strength of each musician in the ensemble to realize this free improvisational music. Impetus group is also a tribute to the improvisation scene of the sixties and seventies, more specifically the London scene led by guitarist Derek Bailey with his Company group.
The group has a fluctuatin…
Earthworks
Following 'Gargoyles' and 'Light Industry', Colin Webster and Dirk Serries recorded their third studio album at the Sunny Side Inc. Studio in May 2022. With Colin on the baritone, the pressure is high. Carefully selected from a way longer session, this shorter album is just that : full-on free interaction with no boundaries hold, spiced by the friendship of both musicians and the respect for each other' skills and approaches.
Ilog3
"Ilog3 was recorded only a little more than a year after the epic Ilog2 session. In-between the two album releases the duo has performed a few high profile festivals like Jazz Em Agosto in Lisboa, A’Larme in Berlin, Meaksuma in Eupen or La Nature in Wallonie. While Ilog3 originally was only intended to be a video shooting session the duo put down another suite of incredible music and decided to release it in triple format as DD, CD and LP. The music is a succession of densely improvised electro-…
Altered Alchemy
*2023 stock* Achim Kaufmann and Ignaz Schick met for the first time in 2015 when they performed together on a Finland tour with Sestetto Internazionale. Both musicians work with refined textures and strongly abstracted sounds, thus a more intimate and direct collaboration in a concentrated duo format was a logical fit. At that time, Ignaz Schick also immediately asked Kaufmann to join his large ensemble Circuit Training, as he felt the pianist, with his subtle playing, would enrich the sound of …
Now Is Forever
Tip! "During one of my early teenage trips to Strasbourg/France in an urgently needed escape from provincial Lower Bavaria and with the aim of making some money by basking in the streets of France with my saxophone I found amongst some other jewels a copy of „Jila-Save! Mon. - The Imaginary Suite“ LP by George Lewis & Douglas R. Ewart in the sales bin of a local Jazz record store. I had already seen George Lewis performing live with Bill Frisell and John Zorn as "News For Lulu", and listened to …
The Big Two
Tip! Here's the last will and testament of Usurper. The final curtain on two decades of heroic toil in the experimental/noise/improv/no-audience underground. Over the course of their twenty year existence, Usurper developed into one of the most original and uncompromising groups to emerge from the early 2000's sub-sub underground, always pushing themselves (and audiences) to new territory. They were fearlessly experimental, with seemingly limitless reserves of creativity. Their performances were…
An evening with nehan
Nehan is a Japanese free improvisation/avant-garde rock quintet formed in 2022. Their performance is initiated by a 9HZ brain wave emitted from a testee who has been brought into a deep meditative state. nehan respond with gongs, typani, tabla and other percussion, crumhorn, bagpipes, oscillator and mellotron, passing tranformatively through a musical prism, from east to west, from traditional folk and classical to rock, jazz, and electronic.
Bill Nace / Emily Robb
Tip! *300 copies limited edition* "Before hitting the road together in 2022 Bill Nace and Emily Robb recorded a tour split — a cassette, limited run of 50 — only to be found at their merch table. Now on vinyl, the split captures a moment bursting with verdient, crisp anticipation. Both artists were then on the heels of significant artistic leaps. Robb was wrapping up the promotional cycle of her first full-length solo record, 2021’s How To Moonwalk, and Nace had recently shifted his focus from p…
All The Duos
Tip! Orb Tapes presents “All The Duos,” a brand new collection of collaborative pieces featuring Maria Chavez and Sandy Ewen. A colossal effort, this double CD release contains over 90 minutes of music and showcases the improvisational prowess of both artists. Taking their instruments past the point of recognizability, each has a knack for coaxing unpredictable yet beautiful sounds from her equipment – turntables and guitars treated in utterly novel ways. Now based in Brooklyn, Chavez and Ewen h…
Ramybe / Autoportretas
Santaka is truly the sound of a culture. The name means “confluence” in Lithuanian, and the project has been exactly that from the moment DJ/producer Manfredas and drummer/producer Marijus Aleksa resolved to work together in the early days of 2020.
Not only does it bring together the talents that Manfredas and Marijus have individually honed over their own illustrious international careers in the club underground and young jazz worlds – but their recordings have drawn on talents from across styl…
Empty smile
*100 copies limited edition* This solo could have been titled "16 Caprices for cello.” As in Paganini's Caprices, all the techniques and virtuosity of the classical tradition are used here, expanded and enriched by the sounds and research of the contemporary one. However, the approach to the instrument is physical and bodily characteristic of European free improvisation and jazz. But as in Tristan Honsinger, Leroy Jenkins or in Cage's Freeman Etudes for violin the focus is always The Music, whos…
Lichtung
With over a dozen releases on Karlrecords, and a total output of more than 100 albums in general, Reinhold Friedl doesn't need much of an introduction to anyone interested in contemporary music / avantgarde: his ensemble zeitkratzer is as respected as it is feared for its radical approach on music, and it seems redundant to mention all collaborators and projects.
Friedl is known for his unique piano sound, his advanced techniques, and his musical intensity paired with precise exuberant sound con…
Double Consciousness
*75 copies limited edition* From the label: "On the occasion of Eric Thielemans' japanese tour, we have published 75 numbered cassettes with which Eric will go on tour."
Blind ecosystem
We are nine voices, sighted and blind, who have been singing and exploring together for 11 years. Our practice consists of listening to and imitating sound ecosystems. We become the sounds of biotopes, machines, endangered species, humans and non-humans. Our songs blend ancestral and experimental vocal practices. We are the stumbling blocks of a memory populated by tunes, buried melodies that emerge and carry us away for hybridizations, mutations.
I-I
We are thrilled to introduce the world to the innovative sounds of the Japanese improvisational music trio ‘I-I’. Composed of three exceptionally talented musicians, Kazuhisa Uchihashi (guitar, daxophone, pedals), Mitsuhisa Sakaguchi (synthesizers, pedals) and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto (percussion). This dynamic ensemble has embarked on a remarkable musical journey with their homonymous debut album. "There's no inspiration from others. We just played." With this raw and unfiltered approach to music, ‘I…
Fine Tuning: The Gradisca Concert
The ubiquity of Coxhill’s sax lines are here answered, cherished, enhanced by the excellent guitar touch of Enzo Rocco. It’s a sort of subtle anarchic dance, intriguing and true.