Jazz /
Arcanum
The Scandinavian project Arcanum brings together four artists all well-known to followers of directions in music at ECM: Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari. They’ve played together in many permutations over the years, bu…
Itinerary
1991 release ** "Recorded at the Listen to Lacy festival in Vienna, 1990, this large ensemble recording is really the Steve Lacy Sextet plus ten. One of the dectet members is Franz Koglmann. Although some of Lacy's other large group experiments met w…
Tout De Suite
1994 release ** "This is the logical companion to Tout Court. The lineup has been hardly changed. The only newcomer is Alfred Spirli, who alternates percussion duties with Xavier Desandre. Yves Robert also sticks to the same formula with an emphasis …
Honig Und Asche
1998 release ** "A cosmopolitan synthesis of visionary music and outstanding poetry" is the concept and program of "Honey and Ashes," according to the press release. This claim naturally raises many questions about the work of German saxophonist Mich…
In Full Flail
1989 release ** An early Available Jelly Quartet; the instrumentation scaled down to two horns, bass/tuba, and percussion. Original compositions and covers of Brian Wilson and Misha Mengelberg. "The 1989 album from Available Jelly, In Full Flail narr…
The Uppercut: Live At Okuden
2015 release ** "Matthew Shipp, the supreme jazz pianist of his generation, and Mat Walerian, the finest Polish jazz woodwind player of his, have combined their talents in concert on several occasions. This album documents one such event on May 15, 2…
Rotella Variations
2003 release ** "“The human voice must not be limited only to a conventional language, but is an inexhaustible source of natural musical instruments. If it is coupled with jazz it becomes a double musical instrument”: Mimmo Rotella dixit, and here is…
Ambleside Days
1992 release ** "A stunning album of duets performed by John Taylor and John Surman composed by the former. This recording documents the longstanding musical relationship between the two Johns captured by Jan Erik Kongshaug at Rainbow Studios in Oslo…
Bristol Silence
Tip! An orchestra that played for Nazis. A silence that lasted for generations. A work that lets this silence speak, sing, and scream. Motvind Records presents John Andrew Wilhite’s monumental piece, Bristol Silence, written for the Motvind Festival …
Follow A Very Heavy Person, First Visit
"First visit to the audio equivalent of a graphic novel. Follow A Very Heavy Person is more than an album—it is an experience, an inquiry, an adventure into the unknown, defying easy categorization and existing in the liminal space between music, poe…
Watusa
When a limited edition 45 single landed on the desk of Jazz Room Head Honcho Paul Murphy he contacted the guys straight away. "Do you want a 45 piece of wax released on Jazz Room Records?" Bells were ringing! The A Side is a Latin Afrosound version o…
Die Umelieder-Kollektion
2010 release ** "One of the most hypnotic current albums comes from Switzerland: No wonder, given that so many exciting niches live here, where culture and mentality stand for free spirit, which is evident time and again in the music created there. R…
Janna
2006 release ** "Janna is the recording on which the extraordinary improvising cellist Ernst Reijseger collaborates with Senegalese poet and instrumentalist Mola Sylla and percussionist Serigne C.M. Gueye on a program of songs and poetry that erases …
Monumental
1991 release ** "Combining rhythic rock strength with the unrestrainable consequence of free improvisation. In the course of playing, amazingly sharp contours arise. There is no expression for style that can describe this audacious mixture of precisi…
Hut Ab
2010 release ** "Here, after Schindler+Richter and Schindler/Holzbauer/Lillmeyer, multi-reed player and flautist Udo Schindler meets an old companion from the 90s. Hubert Bergmann, a Fernando Pessoa-adoring and Tai Chi & Qi Gong-inspired jack-of-all-…
An Italian Love Affair
1996 release ** ""The final in a series of three CDs that feature the idiosyncratic Moscow Composer's Orchestra led by the incomparable Vladimir Miller and featuring ex-Ganelin Trio drummer Vladimir Tarasov and, of course, Tuvan vocalist Sainkho Namc…
Alchymia Musicæ
1995 release ** "Prague saxophonist and composer Jirí Stivín had a grand vision working when he assembled the elements for this recording. His intention was to take the great madrigals and villanelles from the 16th century in his own culture, and add…
The Icp Orchestra Performs Nichols - Monk
1989 release ** "The Nichols program, recorded in 1984, was by a band with Sean Bergin (alto sax), Michael Moore (alto sax), Maurice Horsthuis (viola), Toon de Gouw (trumpet), Han Bennink (drums), Ernst Reijseger (cello), Paul Thermos (alto sax), Ste…