Jazz /
Imaginary Junction
Performed by Cath Roberts (bariton saxophone and objects), Dirk Serries (acoustic guitar), Martina Verhoeven (piano), Tom Ward (flute, clarinet and bass clarinet) on July 18th 2020. This music was recorded simultaneously in two locations - Brockley and Sint-Lenaarts - using the JackTrip software to transmit/receive the live sound via the internet. The musicians could hear each other at studio quality in near-realtime, despite the physical distance separating them.
Crosscurrents
* Edition of 300 * Performed by Patrick De Groote (trumpet, bugel), Cel Overberghe (alto sax), Dirk Serries (acoustic guitars), Martina Verhoeven (piano). Recorded, mixed and mastered at the Sunny Side Inc. Studio, Anderlecht (Belgium) on December 14th 2019.
New Inventions
* Edition of 300 * Performed by Colin Webster (alto saxophone), Andrew Lisle (drums) at Shrunken Heads Studio, London on 24th May 2019. Recorded and mixed by Senor Al Funklinos. Mastered at the Sunny Side Inc. Studio, Anderlecht (Belgium).
On Sunday
* Edition of 300 * Beautiful registration of a 2010 concert by this exceptional trio, 3 musicians renowned in the world of free improvisation: John Russell (guitar), Stefan Keune (sax) and Kris Vanderstraeten (percussion) at L'Archiduc in Brussel (Belgium).
Dr Heckle and Mr Jive
The debut album by post-punk/funk group, Pigbag - Formed from creative jam sessions in punk’s aftermath, the young group gathered steam after convincing Simon Underwood to join the fun following his departure from The Pop Group. Mixing punk, funk, jazz, ska, reggae and afrobeat into a bewitching brew, this vinyl reissue is the first time this album has been on wax since 1982.
On The Corner
* 180 gram vinyl * Scorned by critics at the time of its release, Miles Davis' 1972 album On The Corner is now seen as a forerunner of Post Punk, Hip Hop, Drum and Bass and Electronic music, thanks to its revolutionary recording techniques.
Miles wanted to reconnect with a younger audience, who had forsaken him for Rock and Funk, and the experimental On The Corner was his answer. Leaning more heavily on a drum and bass groundwork, the overdubs consisted of free improvisations held in the studio.…
Alvin Curran, Roberto Laneri, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Frances-Marie Uitti, Tony Ackerman, Bruno Tommaso
Beat 72 Lost DateAn unearthed treasure from the '70s Italian avant garde archives! A previously unreleased recording from the legendary Beat72 club in Rome in 1973, featuring a one-off Italian-American all-star ensemble with Roberto Laneri founding member of the experimental vocal group Prima Materia, maverick American composer Alvin Curran co-founder of Musica Elettronica Viva. Trombone specialist Giancarlo Schiaffini from the historical Gruppo di improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. Cello virtuoso Frances Marie U…
Tour Beats Vol. 1
In process of stocking. Anteloper is a duo of psychedelic sonic compatriots starring a pair of raggedy celestial sound warriors: trumpeter Jaimie Branch and drummer Jason Nazary. These longtime friends and collaborators met as young explorers and consider their electronic duo a continuous experiment into the unknown sonic abyss. Recent results have come back as mind-bendingly abstract head boppers, improvised organisms guided by a unique desire to hear what hasn’t been heard before. This is musi…
She Knows...
Temporary Super Offer! The Thing started as a recording project in 2000, for the newly formed label Crazy Wisdom, run by Christian Falk, Conny Charles Lindström and me. I wanted to put together a trio, to record some Don Cherry pieces and since I had recently played with Paal in Stockholm and heard Ingebrigt playing live, I knew they were tight. So, things went where they went.
I invited the two young Norwegians to Stockholm for a recording date at Atlantic Studios. One day of recording for the …
The Unasked Answer
Temporary Super Offer! In 1908, Charles Ives wrote a work called “The Unanswered Question”. It was for the unusual instrumentation of offstage string ensemble, woodwind quartet and, most significant for our purposes here, solo trumpet. Though it was inspired, we think, by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem “The Sphinx”, Ives provided his own explanatory text. The trumpet asks “The Perennial Question of Existence” seven times, to which the woodwinds provide only six increasingly disordered answers, while…
Crossfade Estate
Crossfade Estate was a special, distinct project. It was made in November 2005. Recorded in 10 hours. Edited, mixed and collaged over 18 months. It was a development of Charles Hayward's long term relationship with The Albany in Deptford, London. They asked him to push their recently installed digital recording suite and see what he could make. The approach was a step further from the series Accidents+Emergencies which Hayward had curated in the late 1990's.
It was a pulling together of differen…
Apura!
It is intended with the utmost respect that this album is entitled Apura!, which in the Filipino language Tagalog translates to “Very Urgent” (the name of an epochal record by the Blue Notes, the pioneering South African jazz sextet of which drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo was the heartbeat). The musicians of Louis and Trevor Watts’s generation cast a tremendous shadow over the legacy of improvised music. It’s not difficult to romanticize the era in which these musicians first made their marks, exer…
Exultations
If Brandon Seabrook’s previous trio album, Convulsionaries, was quietly pummeled by a modified chamber jazz vibe, Exultations, featuring the ever-versatile drummer Gerald Cleaver and the inimitable Cooper-Moore on diddley-bow, leaves no holds barred. A makeover doesn’t even begin to describe what has happened to Seabrook with the shift in personnel, now a vehicle in full flight; while the faint of heart had better clear out, everyone else should buckle up!
For those unfamiliar with Cooper-Moore’…
The Shape of Jazz to Come
Zeitkratzer keeps on being good for a surprise and finally goes jazz! Looking at the line-up of the "modern composition supergroup" (The Wire) it seems astonishing that it took so long: Saxophonists Frank Gratkowski and Hayden Chisholm both won independently the German radio SWR Jazz award, the French horn virtuoso Hild Sofie Tafjord grew up with jazz, as her father and uncle are members of Norwegian jazz group Brazz Brothers, Hilary Jeffery toured with numerous jazz musicians, as did drummer Ma…
Tongue in a Bell
**CD Edition** “Peter Brötzmann has made no secret of the fact he doesn’t especially dig playing with pianists, citing a few notable exceptions including Fred Van Hove, Pat Thomas and Masahiko Satoh. Recorded in Dublin in 2015, this adventurous set extends the honour to Irish pianist Paul G Smyth. As Brötzmann locks into a characteristically savage mutter, Smyth responds with hyperkinetic leaps up the keyboard but, when the tenor briefly drops out, he’s able to employ a more deft touch, generati…
Psychic Armour
"Operating at an extremely high level, Smyth and Corsano share a special connection. One can almost see their thoughts syncing together and their bodies merging into one four-armed monster. Several moments are reminiscent of the best work from Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley, while still managing to sound like Smyth and Corsano." — Burning Ambulance
“With the energy and focus on display, it is tempting to compare the meeting to two heavyweights coming toe-to-toe, prepared to slug it out… but that wo…
Mopomoso Tour 2013 - Making Rooms
4-disc boxset with 20-page booklet documenting Mopomoso's triumphant UK tour in 2013.
disc 1 – Evan Parker / John Russell / John Edwards – Chasing The Peripanjandra
disc 2 – Pat Thomas – Naqsh
disc 3 – Alison Blunt / Benedict Taylor / David Leahy – Knottings
disc 4 – Kay Grant / Alex Ward – Seven Cities
"On this evidence, 'Making Rooms' already seems certain to feature prominently in many an end-of-year list of best releases. Yes, a future classic." — All About Jazz
"'Making Rooms' has a connect…
Transition East
"Transition East" features two new pieces of music created by Angel Bat Dawid in response to Emma Warren's 2019 book "Make Some Space" – i.e. the book that chronicles the history of London DIY music institution Total Refreshment Centre. Angel Bat Dawid, who first met Emma Warren at Total Refreshment Centre in 2017, composed & recorded "Transition East" alone in her space on the Southside of Chicago, originally to be accompaniment for the audiobook version of "Make Some Space." Angel conceptualiz…
Option
**300 copies** "FTR is proud to present what is only the second solo album by Borbetomagus' sax giant, Don Dietrich. Crazily, Option documents the first solo performance Don ever did. It was recorded in 2019 as part of the Option series in Chicago, where Dietrich appeared at the invitation of Ken Vandermark (who also wrote the liner notes). The cover photo shows one of Don's polycarbonate sculptures, after which the album is partially named. Twisted, compressed, and strangely inviting, it is emb…
Silver Dollar
"For the past 15 years, bass clarinetist Jason Stein has been an integral part of Chicago’s avant-garde jazz scene, leading two bands—Jason Stein’s Locksmith Isidore and the Jason Stein Quartet—while co-leading other groups like Nature Work and Hearts & Minds. Each crew has a different sound: Isidore straddles darker and more traditional forms of jazz, while the Quartet covers deep cuts by Thelonious Monk and Charlie 'Bird' Parker. Nature Work and Hearts & Minds are thicker blends of downbeat ja…