Jazz /
Two
Axel Dörner (trumpet), Thomas Lehn (analogue synthesiser) and Phil Minton (voice). two extended improvisations by three of Europe's most accomplished improvising musicians, taken from live performances in Austria (2005) and Germany (2008).
Mort a Credit
Mort à Credit shows Kaoru Abe in a fascinating period of transition, moving forth to something complexly and identifiably new, yet intransigently rooted in what had come before. It consists of two alto improvs from a show on October 18, 1975, and five more (three on alto, two on sopranino) from another performance a couple of days earlier. Released by Kojima on 2LP in 1976, it can be said to mark a significant change in Abe's style. Abe is here a little soften from his usual urgency - this can p…
3ree
2007 release ** "Tanake is unexpected music, hearth lungs sweat (even brain but kept in a hidden place), is music mentally physic, is music physically mental, is twilight at dawn, bitter honey, fresh decomposition, joy in crying. tanake is music generated by her 3ree sweethearts... In the early days [by the way: in the first album "tsu.zu.ku" (2000) tanake meant to reach structure by means of improvisation, but time left the songwriter soul all alone, and tanake's been surrounded by the never en…
#2
2006 release ** Packaged in oversize cardboard sleeve. "DeK (Die Entartene Kunst, i.e. Degenerate Art) is a group of ""contemporary improvisation"", understood as Instant Composition, in the best European and non-European radical tradition (from Nuova Consonanza to AMM, to Buthc Morris). The ensemble, open, hosts numerous musicians, who alternate from time to time. The core group is made up of Massimo Daolio, Margaret Leitgeb, Davide Negrini, Andrea Bini, Paolo Boschi, Alessandro Verdecchia. In …
The Issue at Hand
The musicians who perform together on this CD are as unlikely a group of individuals that you are ever likely to find. Yoshikazu Iwamoto brings a cultural past that has deep aesthetic roots in Japanese Buddhism, while John Tilbury's classical European training brings a sensibility that has matured through contract with cultivated traditions of learning and discipline. Eddie Prévost by his presence draws everything together into an indivisible whole, through responses that have been honed from ye…
Filth Pharmacy
2004 release ** All music recorded at "Garaget", Solna, Sweden. Andreas Axelsson - percussion, drum machines, CD player; Herman Muntzing - flexichord, sampler; Martin Kuchen - soprano and baritone saxophone, found objects.
From The Diary of Dog Drexel
"The Diary of Dog Drexel" is a suite of five movements, each of which programmatically portrays an emotional state from the diary. One of the ideas behind "Dog" was to thoroughly blend improvised and composed elements. In the first four movements "Conflicted, Pissed, Bummed, and Agitated" there are at almost all times at least one thread of composition and another of improvisation. The balance between the elements shifts steadily. Muddying the waters further is that many of the extended techniqu…
Octante
2005 release ** Limited edition of 200 copies. "The Iberian trio of Fages, Barberan and Costa Monteiro have been working together in Barcelona for long enough now to have developed a distinct language of tension, scraped metallic dynamics and a rough, textural abrasiveness. A trio with a great, off-kilter and unexpected instrumentation (there can’t be many acoustic turntable/ engines, trumpet and accordion trios kicking about Barcelona – although it’s a while since I’ve been there) they build lo…
Dentro
Somewhere between Musique Concrete and a kind of abstract improvisational work, using extended techniques and electrification that disconnects sound from any recognisable source. A fascinating first record that sits between studio improvisation and extensive post production processing composition.
Music + one
2006 release ** Music + One, created in collaboration with Myles Boisen, is a collection of solo improvisations that is meant to be played along with by improvisers. The instructions given to the participants before recording were simple: improvise for 3 to 4 minutes, as if you were playing music with your shadow. This was to allow room for others to improvise with the recording. To test this, we invited the musicians to play along with one of the tracks at the 21Grand Performance Space & Art Ga…
Hidros One
2025 stock A composed improvisation, or possibly the other way around – this is one way of describing the music played by Mats Gustafsson and the Nu Ensemble, a multinational group of improvisational musicians.
The saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, born in 1964, became interested in improvisational music at an early age, inspired by among others the German Peter Brötzmann and the Britt Evan Parker.
The Nu Ensemble was a loosely structured, irregularly convened radio and concert project built around …
Amoungst English Men
2006 release ** Limited edition of 500 hand-numbered copies packaged in special 7" sleeve. "Amongst English Men finds Mark Wastell alone, brooding magnificently in the bottom octave of a superbly recorded Steinway grand piano until his Tilburyesque clangs are eventually lost in a haze of tam tam harmonics and mournful strokes on a tubular bell. It’s deceptively simple to describe but remarkably subtle and compelling to listen to, impeccably mixed and mastered by Graham Halliwell."
Leopardo
Leopardo is a solo recording by the Portuguese guitarist Manuel Mota, who might best be described as a somewhat more fluidly lyrical Derek Bailey. Lovingly recorded on solid body electric guitar, his improvisations have the spiky quality associated with the elder statesman of the freely improvised guitar, but Mota's lines sound as though coated in oil, possessing a slipperiness and liquidity that peeks back at Portuguese traditions. There are very few extended effects employed, the guitar string…
Perfect fit
2003 release ** "Justin Bennet, Anne Wellmer and Stephie Buttrich fuse minimal electronica and free improvisation in a set of 16 warped and lovely songs."
Freedom Of The City 2001 - Small Groups
Highlights from small group recordings from the 2001 Freedom of the City festival featuring artists such as Steve Beresford (electronics), John Butcher (saxes), Lol Coxhill (sax), Paul Rutherford (trombone), Phil Minton, and more in various arrangements.
A Rock In The Snow
Together Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty have re-written the concept of modern free-jazz with their post-hardcore punk style approach of euphoric togetherness. Ferocious, spontaneous, explosive and aggressively lyrical, they've established their groundbreaking duo with loads of shows and a host of tremendous recordings.
When tales of C. Spencer Yeh's Burning Star Core project reached Corsano/Flaherty, the duo were eager to see him jam. Fortunately, fate brought them together at the DeStijl/Freed…