Jazz /
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…
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…
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…
To Catch a Bird In a Net of Wind
Tashi Dorji (electric guitar) and Tyler Damon (drums/percussion) have developed a musical language that is not only shaped by original forms as free jazz, metal, rock and Buddhist monastic music. Their sound merges passion and emotions of literature, art, cultural movements, politics - flashes of ecstatic intensity, blurred timbral lines, fractal repetition, noir-ish, cinematic mystery and inclinations toward free play hint that the two are pleased to follow a winding path to destinations yet un…
Light Industry
**300 copies** "Colin Webster and Dirk Serries are skilled improvisers you can’t pin down on a single outlet. They remain restless seekers, never content with merely repeating themselves, not even within the same project. Compare Gargoyles to Light Industry. They are totally different." - Guy Peters"Serries and Webster meet again at their favorite studio, Sunny Side in Anderlecht, Belgium, in September 2019 for an intimate duo where Serries plays only acoustic guitars. They already recorded a du…
Praxis
**300 copies** "It’s the classic 'the journey, not the destination' attitude. Dealing with the moment. Dirk Serries, Martina Verhoeven and Colin Webster have a refreshing take on that. They use instruments, but it feels as if they are playing with wood and metal. With breath and touch. They caress, pluck, sigh, thump, blow, push, creak, sputter. There is no obvious order to what they are doing, yet you are aware of a certain concord, an understanding below the surface of what’s there. The openne…
First and Second
**300 copies** "To fully grasp the range of extended techniques, you should be able to see them in action, but it is also perfectly possible to listen to this music and focus on elements such as flow, density and responsiveness." - Guy Peters"SETT is a an acoustic strings quartet, featuring British most prolific double bass player John Edwards, Dirk Serries and Daniel Thompson on acoustic guitars and violist Benedict Taylor, recorded at the Dave Hunt studio, London in November 2019. SETT does no…
Finch
**300 copies** "The British tradition of guitar improvisation includes some game changers like the Derek Bailey, but also John Russell, Keith Rowe and Fred Frith. Yet it doesn’t prevent Daniel Thompson from carving out his own little corner. Finch proves that even in the most demanding and intimidating of circumstances, Thompson has a sharp, creative mind. Surely, there will be more to follow. There should be." - Guy Peters"Daniel Thompson's Finch contains music recorded in a studio called the S…
An Evening at Jazzblazzt
**300 copies** "Another special such place, situated in Holland, but only a few hundred meters from the Belgian border, is JazzBlazzt. It is as homely as can get - basically a garage turned into a small concert venue - but at the same time a miraculous place, where many artists that have appeared on this label have performed." - Guy Peters"Dirk Serries, still on acoustic guitar, meets again violist Benedict Taylor, and pianist Martina Verhoeven (she plays only on the second set) in a live perfor…
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…
Finding Ourselves In All Things
**CD version** Finding Ourselves In All Things features two lengthy tracks, standing in stark contrast to each other: Melting With Butterflies is brimming with life: chaotic, hysterical and joyous - celebrating the viewpoint of all small things and their seemingly frantic nature. The Way Mountains Make Love is equally intense, but with a quite different energy – a slow moving organic unity vibrating with the frequencies of everything big and ancient.Both tracks explore and elaborate on its respe…
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…
Felis Catus and Silence
Felis Catus and Silence is a breakthrough release for Tokyo composer-guitarist Leo Takami, following the milestone albums Children’s Song (2012) and Tree of Life (2017). Takami counterpoints the soothing aesthetics of prime-era Windham Hill New Age guitar-heroism with meditative, intellectual compositions comprised of ambitious, process-oriented arrangements. While Takami largely wears his genre influences on his sleeve -- jazz, classical, Japanese gagaku -- the influence of ambient music is a t…
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, …
L'homme à la Caméra / La Glace à Trois Faces
"Un Drame Musical Instantané were founded in 1976, featuring Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé. Their aim was to promote collective musical creation, co-signing their albums, which they consider as artworks in themselves, or their live shows which they tried to renew every time they played. Their sound was created with many influences: they borrowed their sources from rock (synthesizer player Birgé and guitarist Gorgé, both authors of the album, Défense de); jazz (trumpeter Vit…
Aerials and Antennas
**500 copies** "This first vinyl offering by a sporadically 20-something years unit, still extant, originally assembled under the name Cinema Soloriens by filmmaker / musician James Harrar in 1993, to play accompaniment to his films. The line-up usually includes legendary Sun Ra alto master (and current Arkestra leader) Marshall Allen with Harrar (who is also known for his work with Arthur Doyle and Daevid Allen), plus whoever else is tapped. For this date, recorded in Nashville back in 2016, th…
Invitation to a Dream
**CD version** First release from the first time trio of legends Susan Alcorn, Joe McPhee and Ken Vandermark. Invitation to a Dream is not only the first recorded statement, it is also a document of the very first meeting of the trio. Back in 2016 we asked Alcorn and McPhee to play a duo set at our favorite festival Cropped Out in Louisville, KY, and after getting our minds blown we knew we had to get the duo into a studio to record an album. After a few failed attempts due to schedules and bad …
Segment Tones
**300 copies** "Tonus is a group that always contains Dirk Serries and his wife Martina Verhoeven, but otherwise seems to be an open membership group. Today, on Segment Tones, it is a trio. Serries plays accordion and soprano melodica (the latter I would believe for the first time), Verhoven is on concertina and cello and Colin Webster on clarinet and alto saxophone. Whatever the line-up of Tonus might be, I do believe they play slow and quiet music; music that is not in any way, shape or form, …
Impetus
**300 copies** "Dirk Serries (acoustic guitars), Kris Vanderstraeten (percussion) and Martina Verhoeven (piano) – these are three featured figures of international avant-garde jazz scene. Musicians are playing and collaborating with dozens of other famous jazz masters. Their music is played with expression, drive, creativity and energy. All three musicians have their own style of improvising, sparkling virtuosity and the will to create new, exciting and modern sound. All their music is usually b…