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Into the Night Sky is the sixth album from avant guitarists Alan Licht and Loren Connors, the first after 2003's In France (FBWL). Since 1993 these New York City artists have evolved an instrumental dialogue merging shades of electric blues and minimalism. These two epic pieces -- one from 1996, the other 2006 -- recorded live in concert clearly show far their desolate sound world grew over a decade of collaboration while the core of layered guitar complexities and alien melodies remain. T…
Aka: the shape of (free) jazz to come. Bill Nace on electric guitar and Steve Baczowski on bass saxophone bless us with two sides of furious, raw improvised music. Their motto is easy to recognize from the beginning: total freedom, with instruments on fire moving along as if in the middle of a power electronics assault. Just a few seconds of silence, and then a small, delicate whistle starts, soon accompanied by a sinister percussive sound that introduces a sax / guitar dialogue which is …
There is not a lot to say when a young talented percussionist meet one of the master of improvised music, also percussionist ; we can just sit and listen what happens. this is what exactly did the guys at cosabeat studio during "mirrors" recording session. the result is incredible. you can really feel the musicians concentration and then understand the importance of every sound they created. this is a focused, brilliant, top class "sound dialogue" between two of the most dedicated artist i …
Barcelona-based Ferran Fages is known both for his lyrical acoustic guitar playing (on solo discs such as Cançons a per un Lent Retard and Al Voltant d'un Para/'lel) and for hard-edged electronics (with groups such as Cremaster and Octante). His work in Ap'strophe—a duo with Athens-based zither player Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga—is an intriguing combination of these two sides of his music: there is plenty of resonant acoustic playing, but this is set against both the metallic textures of Lazari…
This fourth Supersilent installment once again features the tantalising quartet lineup of Helge Sten (aka Deathprod), Ståle Storløkken (synthesizer), Arve Henriksen (trumpet), and Jarle Vespestad (drums). If you haven't encountered their work before, Supersilent 4 is a good place to start - a sumptuous arrangements of tracks often described as "Death Jazz", though the title is somewhat misleading. Deathprod's arrangements and production techniques loom large over these amazing pieces, coating th…
Debut triple CD by a Norwegian deathjazz improvising unit! The group features Helge Sten (audio virus), Ståle Storløkken (synthesizer), Arve Henriksen (trumpet), and Jarle Vespestad (drums)." Many hours of studio recordings, which have been trimmed down into this debut. "Difficult music, perhaps, but also playful and stunningly beautiful, always trying to stretch the limits." New packaging, now comes in an elaborate fold-out digipak.
"Ikef continues to mine the extraordinary musical territory of St. Louis's fervent '60s musical innovators with the reissue of the impossibly rare Collected Poem For Blind Lemon Jefferson. Originally released on the late, brilliant saxophonist Julius Hemphill's artist run Mbari label in 1971, Blind Lemon is a highly energetic, raw and primitive avant-garde take on the Blues Mythos. Hemphill, named 'one of free jazz's most visionary composers' (Chris Kelsey, All Music Guide) is in full form as he…
Instant Coffee! is a playful, genre-defying romp through experimental pop, noise, and improvisation, with Instant Coffee channeling the DIY spirit of The Residents and the irreverence of Half Japanese.
Named after the slow loris—an animal beloved by Patrick Farmer and Sarah Hughes for its shy, gradual movements—this London trio creates music that moves at a similarly unhurried pace. Farmer (natural objects, e-bow snare, tapes), Hughes (chorded zither, piano, e-bow), and Daniel Jones (turntable, e-bow, piezo discs, electronics) recorded these three pieces at Middlesex University in 2009, producing what Richard Pinnell in The Watchful Ear describes as "a calm but invigorating massage of the eard…
This international improvising ensemble has been going since 1984 with various members, but a couple of years ago leader and legendary Norwegian sax and clarinet player Frode Gjerstad handpicked a new band of musicians that has meant something special for him during his long career. The title of this monumental 3CD set is relevant on several levels. Between the youngest and oldest musician there are some fifty years, they come from three continents and they cover a wide range of musical ideas wi…
Formed for the purpose of playing 2008's Instal Fest, this trio comprises C Spencer Yeh (of Burning Star Core), Ben Hall (of Graveyards) and Don Dietrich (of Borbetomagus), coming together for the common cause of relentless, ear-blasting improv. Sax-toting noise legend Dietrich is no stranger to the more abrasive school of free improv, having been operating in the field since the early 1980s, but the comparatively fresh-faced Yeh and Hall hold their own here (manning violin and traps, respective…
A new group comprising Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor, This Heat's Charles Hayward and Treader label regulars John Coxon and Pat Thomas, this quartet are an explosive improvisational outfit, with Hayward leading from the backline via some stunningly powerful drumming. The remainder of the musicians take up predominantly electronic instruments - mostly synthesizers and samplers, but within Taylor's musical menagerie you'll hear a spot of electric guitar, percussion and shruti box. This record is more o…
Languid Red Marchetti captures the early, raw energy of the legendary No-Neck Blues Band, blending free improvisation, ritual percussion, and abstract sound in the tradition of Sunburned Hand of the Man and AMM.
AMAZING RELEASE!! Between 1977-1978 Japanese improvising guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi performed with his "New Direction Unit" in a series of concerts of different formats (trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, &c). This "Archive" box set included the recordings of 5 concerts in Japan: the "another situtation" concert at Purcinera and "Regular Concerts" from Jean Jean in Shibuya. Comprised of live improvisations, this beautifully packaged box also has a booklet with details on the concerts, though mos…
Reissue of a magnificent, impossible-to-categorize French classic originally released on the hopelessly obscure d'Avantage label in 1976. Pretty much the definition of musical anarchy, "Paralleles" begins with an atonal duo for trombones, wends its was through accompanied poetry readings and cornet solos, vamps into a rap delivered by Vince Taylor (France's answer to Eddie Cochran and Bowie's inspiration for Ziggy Stardust!) on 'Rock N Roll Station' (which Nurse With Wound deconstructed later on…
"Un biglietto del tram" is an historical album, featuring some of the most important, militant, political and proletarian fighting songs of the Seventies. Stormy Six sound is acoustic here, but it does not copy the anglo-american folk style; in fact it shows a very personal and original approach and a mediterrean influence. This CD is a milestone of the italian Seventies music scene!Available in the usual BTF deluxe papersleeve CD series with gatefold cover and detailed booklet with vintage phot…
Barcelona's Octante—Ruth Barberán (trumpet, speaker, microphones), Alfredo Costa Monteiro (accordion, objects), Ferran Fages (oscillators, pick-ups), and Margarida Garcia (electric bass)—create what one reviewer calls "a crackling and crunching kind of sound" that's "utterly condensed." The quartet has essentially become "one common music machine" where distinguishing individual instruments becomes nearly impossible. The two extended improvisations (each around 29 minutes) recorded in Barcelona …
Richard Bamford, drums, percussion. Stuart Brown, drums, percussion. John Burgess, bass clarinet. George Burt, acoustic guitar. Matthew Cairns, trumpet. Aileen Campbell, voice. Neil Davidson, electric guitar. Nick Fells, shakuhachi. Krzysztof Hladowski, bouzouki. George Lyle, double bass. Raymond MacDonald, soprano & alto saxophones. George Murray, trombone. Peter Nicholson, cello, voice. Emma Roche, flute, baroque flute. Ernesto Rodrigues, viola. Guilherme Rodrigues, cello. Matthew Studdert-Ken…