Jazz /
Meets Matthew Bourne Volume 1
On July 16 2021, Shiver (Guitarist Chris Sharkey, Bassist Andy Champion and Drummer Joost Hendrickx) met up with Pianist Matthew Bourne at his house in Airedale, Yorkshire. Hungry to make music following various lockdowns, cancellations and disappointments, the quartet embarked on a ferocious two-day journey of exploratory music-making. The weather was good, the connection was immediate. There was much laughing, tea-drinking and storytelling. In the evening, the stove was lit and we listened to …
Intaglio
*2022 repress* Studio Mule present a re-recording of Motohiko Hamase's Intaglio, originally released in 1986. Currently the rediscovery of long-forgotten Japanese electronic, jazz, and new age music is at a peak like never before. Although many reissues have already hit record stores, the large, diverse musical culture of Japan still got some gems in store that are really missing. For example, the work of Japanese bass player, new age and ambient musician Motohiko Hamase. When the now 66-year ol…
ZZAJ: Jazz From the 23rd Century
*In process of stocking* ZZAJ: Jazz from the 23rd Century, is a thrilling new collection of music featuring 34 new songs – all previously unreleased – from artists from all over the world. The brainchild of producers/multi-instrumentalists Jerry King (Cloud Over Jupiter, Moon X, John Shirley & Jerry King) and Dave Newhouse (The Muffins, Manna Mirage, Moon X), ZZAJ asked musicians to interpret jazz from various conceptual viewpoints, particularly avoiding traditional jazz sounds. Says King, “It’s…
Monolog
Renowned Swedish musician Tomas Hallonsten’s debut solo recording started out as a Mark Hollis-influenced project featuring Hallonsten’s instrumental compositions sparsly performed with acoustic guitar,piano, bass and drums at its core. Gradually the music morphed and
eventually it turned out as a solo album where the compositions came to life mainly via Hallonsten’s unique treatment of drum machine and synths.
Lefto presents Jazz Cats volume 2
Lefto presents Jazz Cats volume 2, features a balance of known and obscure artists. From the thrilling frenetic grooves and innovative soundscapes of Bandler Ching and the electronic influenced Stellar Legions (Andrew Claes from (STUFF.), to the jazz fusion collective LũpḁGangGang and weaving musical odyssey that is M.Chuzi, ‘Lefto presents Jazz Cats volume 2’ is a melting pot of the best musical talent coming out one of the smallest countries in Europe. In addition, there’s the beautiful unease…
Obstacle Illusion
'Obstacle Illusion is born out of my love for a wide array of musics that I've experienced and studied over the years. The album includes edited live concert recordings from my 3-month European tour at the end of 2021 (Centro d'Arte in Padova, AngelicA Festival in Bologna and the Rassegna di Nuova Musica in Macerata). The first and fourth tracks are solo acoustic piano. The second and third tracks are solely with the Korg Wavestate: all live, no overdubs. This music is the result of a collaborat…
Natural Sources
"Some albums show you right away what kind of spirit backs them. Ronald Snijders solo debut from 1977, Natural Sources, is one of these. It begins with a free improvised, sometimes scatting flute and while the flute goes more and more crazy some scat vocals join in to make this first track a kinda strange affair. Jazz, free and spirited, seems the way but Ronald Snijders, son of Surinamese composer Eddy Snijders, outwits us in all our tiny minded expectations with the next song already. An everg…
Spring Collection
Brooklyn based drummer/producer Jason Nazary (of Anteloper) makes his We Jazz Records debut with "Spring Collection", released on 25 June. The album sees Nazary crafting some deliciously sparkly solo cuts plus working long distance with choice collaborators Jaimie Branch, David Leon, Ramon Landolt, Matt Mitchell, Grey McMurray and Michael Coleman. This is essentially a collection of home recordings and the whole operation has an infectious feeling of immediacy to it. The result is improv adjacen…
The Long View
Orfeo 5 formed in 2002 out of a series of text/music projects curated by The Word Hoard artists’ co-op. They’ve composed and toured a number of commissions in different line-ups, and released two CDs, a year on the ice from The Word Hoard in 2009, and in the green castle from Discus in 2017. The core of the group’s sound comes from longstanding members Shaun Blezard on electronics and Keith Jafrate on saxophones, with other players from an extended family of musicians and poets joining them from…
Hors Pistes
*2022 stock* Futura Marge presents Hors Pistes by Laurent Geniez (alto & soprano saxophones, effects, machines, synthesizer, children's toys, washing machine pipes, guitar, electric bass, percussion, tins, various objects & vocals), Paco el Lobo (vocals, guitar & hand clapping) & Octave Z (trumpet, keyboards, programming & decks.
Recorded between 2005 & 2007 at studio Z, and at l'Auditorium in Paris
All Directions Home
Recorded last summer at The Sugar Maple, in Milwaukee, the latest release from Ken Vandermark and Nate Wooley, All Directions Home, wastes exactly no time getting going. The opener, Vandermark’s “Another Lecture (For Walter Benjamin),” is a hearty, up-tempo blues that absolutely swings. Vandermark and Wooley trade solos woven between unison lines. They rapidly bound ideas back and forth, with Vandermark on baritone sax and Wooley playing to the middle. About a minute in, they lock into a fantast…
Antiphonen
Sainkho Namtchylak is a singer originally from Tuva, an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation just north of Mongolia. She is known for her Tuvan throat singing or Khöömei. Her music encompasses avant-jazz, electronica, modern composition and Tuvan influences. Once the Soviet Union had collapsed, she moved to Vienna, making it her base, although she traveled widely, working in any number of shifting groups and recording a number of discs that revolved around free improvisation. Amongst th…
With, Without
Phil Minton is a jazz/free-improvising vocalist and trumpeter. He is a highly dramatic baritone who tends to specialize in literary texts: he has sung lyrics by William Blake with Mike Westbrook's group, Daniil Kharms and Joseph Brodsky with Simon Nabatov, and extracts from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake with his own ensemble. Minton is perhaps best known, however, for his completely free-form work, which involves "extended techniques" that can be as unsettling as they can be mesmerising. His voca…
Clinamen
"Pianist / composer Giovanni Di Domenico formed this trio because of the extremely special quality of the sound he wanted to achieve within a musical group, and the choice of the musicians involved in it is extremely related to that special quality. Clinamen, in ancient roman philosopher Lucretius’s 'De Rerum Natura’, is the magic force that makes an atom to change direction during it’s fall and thus be able to hit other atoms and ‘create’ Energy and Life. It’s not a law, it happens by ‘chance’……
Opus Caementicium
"The Mafioso expression 'cement shoes' describes a method of execution or body disposal – wrapping the victim or body in concrete and pushing into deep water. This expression has become a tongue-in-cheek death threat by criminals, despite no real evidence of using this method of execution. Now this American expression also graces the name of a new pan-European trio, featuring Italian, Brussels-based Fender Rhodes and electronics player Giovanni di Domenico, Portuguese, Rotterdam-based electric b…
Landet Er Gitt Oss
**CD version** Improvisation, truth, joy, jazz and doubt. These are but a few of the elements that frequently emerge in the universe of Filosofer, and on their debut Landet Er Gitt Oss. Using the Norwegian version of a term used for people who spend most of their time pondering over life's big mysteries, one is lead to believe that their music is rooted in complex concepts and theoretic academia. So it is not. Filosofer focuses more on guts and feel rather than analyzing and thinking. Their basi…
Atlantis
Following closely on the heels of his ravishing solo album Tomorrow is Too Late, Stockholm-based synthesist and improviser John Chantler switches gears to unleash the stunning second album by his trio with saxophonist Seymour Wright and drummer Steve Noble, Atlantis. Chantler is well-known for his solo electronic work, which frequently explodes richly layered ambient soundscapes into visceral explosions and thrilling physicality, to say nothing of his imaginative experimentation with the organ, …
The Underflow
An übertrio drawn from distinct parts of the creative music spectrum, The Underflow was recorded during a sizzling two-night stand in May 2019. In a series of duets and trios, guitarist David Grubbs, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, and trumpeter Rob Mazurek met headlong for the first time, converging not only their acoustic and electric instruments, but at times submerging themselves in a tangle of electronics, then emerging into shamanic bell-shaking chant or chest-rattling howl. Ranging from extr…
Templo del sonido
**500 copies** A few years ago I had this crazy idea... Why not ask Obnox aka Lamont "Bim" Thomas to make a free jazz record? After seeing him on tour playing drums with Cleveland out-rock legends X_X, I just had to try and make it happen. Bim, who is no stranger to making out-there genre defying records, surprised me a bit by happily agreeing. It seems a bit of a cliche to try and get rock people to make jazz records, or jazz folks to make rock records, but what the hell? Of all people, Obnox s…