Jazz /
Instant Composers Pool
**2025 Stock. Very last copies** A Monumental 52 CD + 2DVD + photo-book box (Every box is numbered and unique because Han Bennink himself painted each copy by hand! ) to celebrate 45 years of Instant Composers Pool - and worldwide delivery is included! "Improvisation is like daily life... like crossing a street" - says Han Bennink. The ensemble of the Instant Composers Pool, or ICP, improvises for 45 years now on the highest level. "These guys can swing like madmen and then all of a sudden play…
Bospaadje Konijnehol I
1992 release ** Misha Mengelberg's large ensemble, the ICP Orchestra, wends its way here through a program in three parts. Following the brief, whimsical title piece (helpfully translated as "Forest Path Rabbithole I"), the band launches into a series of loose, decidedly off-liter takes on Ellington, generally tackling the real war-horses. Mengelberg's approach is always oblique at best, however, so even as the band sounds semi-traditional in one respect, the harmonies and written elaborations o…
Komen & Gaan
Even in the wildly eclectic ICP catalog, this 66th release stands out. Absent are the ‘3 T’s’ (Tristan Honsinger, Tobias Delius, Thomas Heberer); instead, you get familiar guests (Joris Roelofs and Terrie Ex) and the musical direction of ICP co-founder Han Bennink. And then there is the setting: Le Brocope, a gallery, music venue, caférestaurant situated in a tiny village in Holland’s far North. An inspiring location that takes up a central role on Komen & Gaan. The ensemble begins by airing out…
MiHa
This CD was released as part of the ICP 30th Anniversary celebrations and came in a paper pocket fixed to the inside front cover of the Anniversary booklet.
track 1 recorded at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, NL on January 31, 1997track 2 recorded at Theater Romein, Leeuwarden, NL on April 1, 1992recorded by Dick Lucascover art by Han Bennink
What You Seek Is Seeking You
'Sometimes a piece of music seems to trigger a sense of déjà vu. I had that experience listening to the Nick Mazzarella Trio’s new recording. It was as if all the things that had caught my sincere attention for some years was suddenly distilled into one set of compositions. That was an illusion, as déjà vu always is; however, it was not without some substance. I heard traces of traces of Andrew Cyrille, Steve Lacy, and Fred Anderson. This recording hit me like some of those did. The beginning of…
Seven Bridges
On his 7th album as a leader, Chicago drummer Charles Rumback explores the many ambiances that comprise his musical territory, leading a combo with serious improvisers such as cornetist Ron Miles, alto saxophonist Greg Ward and bass clarinetist Jason Stein.
Seven Bridges begins with the atmospheric tide of “Whatever It Takes”, a less-than-a-minute horn-infused exercise that almost plays like a free-form understatement. It leads to the pop song “Fall Dog Bombs the Moon”, sung by Sima Cunningham …
The Art Of Flight: For Alvin Fielder
Astral Spirits and the Instigation Festival are proud to announce the first release on Instigation Records: "The Art of Flight: For Alvin Fielder" by Survival Unit III (Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello), Joe McPhee (tenor saxophone, pocket trumpet), Michael Zerang (percussion). This set finds the trio breaking new ground - Lonberg-Holm going sans electronics for the first time in Survival Unit III's storied discography - while displaying the mastery of sonic shade and deft interplay that's been their ha…
Unreleased 1974 - 2016
Available for the first time on CD, this is another collection of essential pieces from one of the originators and masters of this style. These recordings were selected from the personal collection of Tony Oxley and were mastered for this release with superb sound by Karsten Lehl under Tony’s supervision. Some of the pieces were edited into their final composed form many years after the original recording was made. Performed by a who’s who of European improvised music, this new release is an e…
Quod
*2022 stock* Experimental improvisation from three masterful players --Joe McPhee on soprano sax, Sylvain Guerineau on tenor saxophone, and Jean-Marc Foussat on synthesizer and voice--recording in France in 2010 for two extended works of concentrated and diverse dialog.
We Now Create - Music For Strings, Winds And Percussion
A historical masterpiece recorded on 23 May 1969 at the Tokyo Studio Centre by the "Togashi Masahiko Quartet", consisting of Masahiko Togashi (drums), Motoki Takagi (saxophone), Masayuki Takayanagi (guitar) and Motoharu Yoshizawa (bass). Recorded at the Tokyo Studio Centre on 23 May 1969, this historical masterpiece has been reissued on CD from Germany.
String Fables
"A true music lover typically has dreams that their favorite musicians, who do not normally work one with another, will meet and perform together. I had a dream many years ago that the two Giants of contemporary improvised music, Joëlle Léandre and Barry Guy play a double bass duo together. And my dream became true at the 2017 Ad Libitum in Warsaw in Festival, and was released by Fundacja Słuchaj! on a phenomenal 3 CDs box “Blue Horizon ● Barry Guy@70”. Here is another dream realized by Fundacja…
Thread Of Light
'I became acquainted to Joe Fonda’s musical creativity in 1998, precisely on November 6th at a concert of the Fonda/Stevens Group at Bunker Ulmenwall in Bielefeld, Germany. Along with some friends, I was curating the club‘s jazz program since 1996 at that time. After the enthralling show in 1998 Joe was a frequent artist at our club as his music was immensely inspiring - full of enthusiasm and playfulness. On November 8th 2003 there was Satoko Fujii Quartet playing a show in Bielefeld. On this e…
Yes Tomorrow
Paul Dunmall the composer is to the fore here, delving deep into his musical history by providing a range of material that celebrates the breadth of his experience including aspects of jazz, funk and soul. The flexible ostinato based pieces are constructed around the unique musical personalities of the players; the first soloist on each track being the only preordained performance decision. Dunmall has always actively encouraged younger players and many of us have benefitted from Paul’s personal…
Pulverize The Sound
The trio of trumpeter Peter Evans, electric bassist Tim Dahl, and drummer/percussionist Mike Pride have played together since 2010, crossing the boundaries of improvisation, composition and rock in dynamic genre-defying music intended to be played loud.
Utopia
For more than two decades Swedish reedist Martin Küchen has cemented his place as one of the most versatile musicians within improvised and experimental music, following his innate curiosity to pursue many different approaches. Depending upon one’s aesthetic preferences one might know him as a free jazz firebreather in Threnody (with Johan Berthling and Steve Noble), a post-bop composer and bandleader of grainy soulfulness (particularly as the ringleader of the sprawling Scandinavian nonet Angle…
Björnhorn
*100 copies limited release* Recorded and mixed by Daniel Bengtson at Studio Rymden, Stockholm, Feb 2021Produced by Alex Zethson & Johan BerthlingMastered by Daniel Ögren
All music by Johan Berthling except For Turiya by Charlie HadenDedicated to Maria, Arvid & Vidar
Produced with support from the Swedish Arts Council
Det Försvunnas Namn
*In process of stocking* All compositions by Martin Küchen (STIM/ncb), except "Sheer Life Asleep" and "Hippopotami mit Mensch" by Martin Küchen with recordings made by Chris Watson – "19. Elephants" and "05. Hippopotami" – taken from the album "Outside the Circle of Fire” (TOUCH TO 37). Chris Watson is published by Touch Music/Fairwood Music UK Ltd. "The 5th of December 1931 02.00 AM" is based on the first part of the sarabande from Bach's Cello Suite II, BWV 1008.
Ismalfa
Soon celebrating 20 years as a duo, on Ismalfa J/L Duo team up with Brooklyn-based composer/musician Adrian Knight and vocalist/lyricist Frew Elfineh Taha (also known under the moniker Black Fist). A cohesive suite in eight parts, Ismalfa is a powerful statement of dynamic and forward-looking acoustic jazz.
Contra Songs
Tip! *In process of stocking* ‘Alone at night. Large church room. Lots of air. Stone. Wood. Glass. Quietness. Stillness. The dead and the alive. Surroundedness. ‘Existentialistic matters spinning. Peaceful state of mind. The dialectic equilibrium of complete stillness and deeper thoughts on contra-resistance on local and global levels. Fighting (y)our stupidities. Contra. I have never ever before gotten myself into such an unusual setting for a recording project. And yet, so simple. So naked. S…
All My Clothes
*In process of stocking* "This is the first release in a series of albums on Smalltown Supersound with Norwegian freeform pianist Anja Lauvdal. On All My Clothes, Lauvdal teams up with her friend, the reclusive and now retired(?) Norwegian drummer Joakim Heibø for a session in the great tradition of piano and drums at Flerbruket Studios, Hemnes outside of Oslo.
Anja (born 1987) is from the small town of Flekkefjord in the south of Norway (where Smalltown Supersound was founded) and from the age …