Jazz /
Borasisi
**300 copies** Named after a sun deity appearing in a Kurt Vonnegut novel, Borasisi is a team up between two saxophonists (Patrick Shiroishi and Vinny Golia) and two drummers (Dylan Fujioka and Alex Cline). While the cover art exhibits the signature retro feel of the Astral Spirits label, the music only nods toward the past and is, in essence, a forward-looking spontaneously creative effort. And the album is a grower. Once you get to the fifth or sixth listen, the soulful and outside power of th…
Electroradiance
**300 copies, 2019 stock** Soon after the catchy synth-bass line that opens Electroradiance, listeners will start to suspect they’re in for something different. The synth-bass line has a herky-jerky contour that does fit a basic pattern of power-rock bands over the decades, but the bass clarinet melody that follows? Not so much. And halfway through, when the bass line becomes a vamp, and the improvisation enters a realm of altissimo squawks and thrillingly convoluted deep runs – well, we’re not …
Fictional Souvenirs
**300 copies** Performing in concert at Iklectik in London in 2017, the UK and Norwegian free improvising trio of Pat Thomas on Moog, Theremin and IPad based electronics, John Butcher on saxophones, and Ståle Liavik Solberg on drums and percussion, impress through a mix of masterful free playing and eclectic electroacoustic conversations, an adventurous and wonderfully unpredictable set.
Life's Intense Mystery
**500 copies** Performing live at Lily Pad in Cambridge, MA, the trio of free jazz piano legend Burton Greene with bassist Damon Smith and drummer Ra Kalam Bob Moses, in six collective improvisations, with impressive playing from all three as they segway through the three parts of Life's Intense Mystery, taking exploratory moments and even some Kid Play in between.
Drolleries
Saxophone jazz deviant Sam Weinberg joins with refugees from thrash jazz agent Little Women — Andrew Smiley, guitar; Jason Nazary, drums — to form a new trio, Bloor. It’s wild, acerbic and even a bit mathematical... Similar to the electric guitar-based free jazz units like Many Arms and Matta Gawa. Their new album Drolleries comprise of ten performances that are concise and never overlong. In contrast to another Weinberg project, W-2, there’s at least a sense of premeditated composition (seven o…
Quoniam facta sum vilis
**200 copies, 2019 stock** Quoniam facta sum vilis (For I have become vile in the eyes of the lord) is the newest solo album of the award winning composer and virtuoso bassist, Brandon Lopez. Created, in part, as an answer to the musical "reason" of the Bach cello suites, Lopez seeks to create the inverse of what's hailed as musical logic. To create something florid and beautiful from the violent and erratic and to deny the supremacy of the wrote in favor of the intuitive. Recorded mostly in the…
Throw Tomatoes
**300 copies, 2019 stock** Contrary to the fabled image, they didn’t really throw rotten tomatoes during Shakespeare’s time at The Globe Theatre. Vegetables, yes, but there are no tomatoes on record in Britain for another seven-score years after Shakespeare. No matter. The title of this album by the Rempis / Piet / Daisy trio is my own flippant gesture to the listener: "Say what you will about this music; this is what we three offer you, unapologetically. If you are revolted by the madness of ou…
Trio Discrepancies
**500 copies** The trio of Chicagoans Josh Berman (cornet) and Jason Roebke (double bass) and English free improvisation legend Paul Lytton came together in 2016 for a short European tour. The trio presented music from Berman’s critically acclaimed recording A Dance and a Hop on Delmark Records. On the course of the tour, the music became freer and freer, finally arriving at a unique language where trad jazz and pure sound improv come together. It’s a truly fresh sound and context for these thre…
Counterbalance
**500 copies** The Nick Mazzarella Trio was formed in 2008 and for several years remained one of the most active working bands in Chicago’s vibrant jazz scene, performing regularly at clubs and festivals across the city, and recording three albums before drummer Frank Rosaly moved to Amsterdam in 2016. When Rosaly returned for a visit in early 2018, Mazzarella composed a suite of six new pieces for a concert commemorating the trio’s tenth anniversary. That performance, given before a full house …
Hiljaisuus
**300 copies, second pressing** Kuzu is a hard-charging but patient trio that came together in the fall of 2017, after saxophonist Dave Rempis, a stalwart of the Chicago improvised music scene, worked with both Tashi Dorji (guitar) and Tyler Damon (drums) individually as part of a lengthy solo tour of the U.S. that he undertook in the spring of that year. Dorji and Damon’s work as a guitar / percussion duo has become well-known, a highly refined and specific language developed through relentless…
Kozmik Bazaar
**300 copies** After two critically acclaimed albums with the Japanese avantgarde / noise icon Keiji Haino, Konstrukt return with a new inspiring collaborative mind: Ken Vandermark, who for three decades now has been a highly prolific musician in contemporary jazz and free improvisation. With various groups like NRG Ensemble, Spaceways Inc., The Vandermark 5, Made To Break and his latest project Marker or the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet (to name just a few) and various spontaneous collaborati…
Blue World
In 1964, John Coltrane and his quartet produced two great masterpieces in Rudy Van Gelder's studios, namely the albums Crescent and A Love Supreme. Between the two sessions the quartet entered the studio for another recording: the soundtrack of the French-Canadian film Le chat dans le sac. Today, the tape of that session has been found and remastered, so finally here's the third 1964 album: Blue World. The content is extraordinary: not only do we find the classic quartet (with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy…
Invitation to a Dream
**500 copies** 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 …
A Night In Alchemia
A Night In Alchemia was recorded by Joe McPhee (trumpet and saxophones), John Edwards (double bass) and Klaus Kugel (drums). The improvisations of this trio always have exceptional sound and are filled with inventive, interesting, innovative and bright decisions. Eclectic ideas, organic stylistic allusions, sound experiments, moody and sudden changes, contrasting pieces, an influenze of various jazz styles and musicians unique sound – all these elements are gently combined together. The music is…
Re-Collect
Jeb Bishop - trombone, Russ Johnson - trumpet, Jason Roebke - bass, Frank Rosaly - drums. Re-Collect has a bright and innovative sound, all compositions are played in especially expressive and dynamic mood. Suggestion, driving playing manner, passionate and unique style, creativity, luminous and dramatic culminations which calm down to silent and relaxing pieces – these are the main elements of this quartet’s music. Four great jazz improvisers are playing together and each musician has his own a…
I Am Waiting (Big Tent Digs Ferlinghetti)
Jerome Kitzke - Piano, Readings and Vocal, Steve Rust - Electric and Acoustic Basses, Harvey Sorgen - Drums and Percussion - They are not a political party, but given all the different musical points of view brought to bear by these three veteran improvisers, a delicious Big Tent in sound is created when drummer / percussionist Harvey Sorgen, bassist Steve Rust and pianist / vocalist Jerome Kitzke come together. The resulting music is possessed of raw energy or delicate filigree and everything i…
Five Spontaneous Ones
Five Spontaneous Ones was recorded by Albert Cirera (tenor and soprano saxophones), Rafal Mazur (acoustic bass guitar) and Nicolas Field (drums). The three improvisers are featured stars of the avant-garde jazz scene. Albert Cirera has an organic and expressive playing technique, impressive virtuosity, wide musical knownledge and unique sound. Rafal Mazur fuses together the tendencies of contemporary academical and experimental music, basics of avant-garde jazz and the newest tendencies of exper…
Skin and Bones
Matthew Shipp – piano, Gordon Grdina – oboe, guitar, Mark Helias – bass. All three of these musicians are master craftsman of their instruments and have received critical accolades from far and wide. Matthew Shipp has been called to as “truly one of the leading lights of a new generation of jazz giants.” Mark Helias has been hailed as “one of the finest acoustic bass players in the contemporary jazz avant-garde” and Gord Grdina needs no introduction and has aptly been referred to as a “force of …
Solar Wind
Solar Wind was recorded by Robert Dick (glissando flute, bass flute, contrabass flute, piccolo, voice), Joëlle Léandre (contrabass, voice) and Miya Masaoka (koto, percussion). Three independent jazz masters base their music on different characters, styles and expressions. All three of them have original and expressive style, rich musical language, wide musical knownledge and unique sound. Musicians are the central figures of international free improvisational music and avant-garde jazz scene. T…
The Mystery Brothers
Jay Rosen - drums, Brian Willson - drums. Recorded by Alfredo MArtin at Whitman Hall, Brooklyn College, December 10, 2008. From The Mystery Brothers, here is a wonderful performance of drum concertos, written and performed by Brian Willson, the great drummer / percussionist / conductor, and fellow master drummer Jay Rosen. The production / recording is nothing short of amazing and pristine. Here's a prime example of how the drums are indeed a melodic instrument. Willson and Rosen explore the ins…