Jazz /
Hindukush Serenade
Remembering his old friend and the days when this live recordings were taken, says Hartmut Geerken: "When John came to visit us in Afghanistan and in Greece, where we lived in the 70's and 80's, my wife Sigi had to extend his bed always with fruit boxes. His height didn't fit into a normal sized bed as well as his musical dimensions were too far out to fit into the mainstream taste of the masses. It was wonderful to hike with him in the Hindukush mountains up the Salang Pass. Afghanistan was a v…
Enter
Gatefold double LP version. It can't be easy gathering 28 of Northern Europe's finest jazz and improvising musicians in one place at the same time, which is why Sweden's Fire! Orchestra has been one of the continent's best-kept secrets so far. After playing rare shows a handful of times a year, this incredible mass ensemble is getting ready to unleash its full power with Enter, its first studio recording. This isn't jazz: this is Nordic dynamite. Fire! originated as the trio of Swedish …
Spring Snow
Masahiko Satoh, piano. Paal Nilssen-Love, drums, percussion. Tokyo pianist Masahiko Satoh recorded these two extended improvisations with Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love in concert at Shinjuku Pit Inn, Tokyo in 2013, a remarkable dialog of intense technical power and creative passion.
Cliff of Time
A quartet session bringing together players from Northern Europe, Japan, and Chicago : Akira Sakata (reeds), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello & electronics), Ketil Gutvik (electric guitar) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums & percussion) for an intense and joyful free jazz.
The Sauna Session
A sweaty summer session or radical free music! Recorded in July 2012 close to a nice small lake in the North of Italy, at the beautiful Sauna Studio (yes, even the studio name is as hot as the music!).Featuring Peter Evans as special guest, and an unusual tuba instead or a more expected double bass, Piero Bittolo Bon’s Lacus Amoenus delivers a brilliant, adventurous ensemble sound, full of raw, daring improvised music. Certainly not your usual easy listening jazz music, “The Sauna Session” is…
Wood cuts
Peter Brötzmann, alto & tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, Bb-clarinet. Paal Nilssen-Love-drums, percussion. Recorded October 2008 in Oslo, Norway.Second album from the godfather of European free-jazz, Peter Brötzmann and Norwegian virtuos Paal Nilssen-Love. This is the follow-up to 'Sweet Swea' from 2007. Woodcuts is another free jazz mastodont from the two masters. This is European free-jazz at its best. Recorded live in concert at Kampen in Oslo, Norway.
12 clarinets in a fridge
This was a project a long time in the making - Xavier Charles is a not a person you can rush; he has very clear objectives that need the time that they take. When he took interest in the sounds of the appliances in his kitchen, daily sounds that remain unnoticed to most of us, he was to explore listening and perception as part of his music making. Typically, Xavier has worked here with the ambient noise in his recording environment, something he has been exploring and refining for many years now…
Spontaneous combustion
A 2 CD issue of the 2013 LP with 78 additional minutes, from the two day residency at UK's Cafe Oto of Decoy with special guest Joe McPhee on pocket trumpet and alto sax.
Quintet, Sextet, Duos
The final night of Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M's first residency in 2009 saw the pair joined by the long-running trio of Evan Parker, John Edwards and Tony Marsh and special guest John Butcher. Butcher played duos with both Otomo and Sachiko and joined the quintet for a rousing sextet: stunning twin saxophone interplay, the unparalleled openness of the Marsh/Edwards rhythm pairing, Sachiko's deft high-frequency interventions and Otomo's guitar at the center -- moving between abrasive textural …
The 80's Selected Concerts
'Rimski' with Mats Gustafsson, tenorsax, sopranino. Wolfgang Fuchs, bass clarinet, sopranino. Sven-Ake Johansson, drums vocal. Recorded by Christian Fnghaus, (Audionauten) Berlin 6.9.1990. 'Erkelenzdamm' with Richard Teitelbaum, piano, electronics, and Sven-Ake Johansson, drums, accordeon. Rec. at Institut Unzeit, Berlin 1985. 'Splittersonata' with Günther Christmann, trombone. Wolfgang Fuchs, bass clarinet, sopranino. Sven-Ake Johansson, vocal, accordeon, percussion. Torsten Müller, double bass…
Malus
"An often inspired study in post-noise atmospherics, Malus brings together three pioneering improvisers in their late thirties. Nate Wooley deploys vocalisation and extreme extended technique to turn his trumpet into a hissing steam engine and a bubbling cauldron, channelling electricity to create groggy lo-fi textures. Chris Corsano is in a reflective, exploratory mood, dragging objects across amplified skins to create queasy high-pitched drones and dull metallic rings. Double bassist Hu…
A Way A Land Of Life
Bassist Jason Ajemian composed these 8 works performed with the Chicago/NY band of Tony Malaby on tenor sax, Rob Mazurek on cornet & electronics, and Chad Taylor on drums, a dynamic set of music that varies through a spectrum of styles while staying true to its jazz roots."Jason Ajemian can always be counted on to offer up way more than just the usual set of avant and improvised music – and as with some of his other recent albums, this set shows a range of imagination that just seems to be…
Live in Lisbon
The Freedom Principle is an album crackling with energy. Consisting of three long tracks, none shorter than 11 minutes, the album is full of bristling creativity and expression, never feeling tired or lost. Rodrigo Amado is a musician and photographer from Lisbon, Portugal (check out his artist home page; in addition to his discography, he had a link to his pictures and a photo book, all very nice), who was involved in the burgeoning free jazz scene there in the mid to late 90's. The start of …
Vole lotta love
Insane Bobetomagus wax! Full-Blast-Borbeto jazz/noise recorded live in Helsinki Finland in 2005... Mix-maximized by Tommi Keränen. Beautiful 2 color silkscreened and hand-glued covers by Sami Pekkola. Titled inspired by the romantic M. Apsa video included with the gigs opening act. Those in the know will know. Grab it! Edition of 300."Thunderous new limited to 300 copies live LP from the killingest trio of horn/guitar thinkers this side of judgement day: recorded live in Helsinki in…
Witch
Produced in the twilight of the '80s in London and originally released on white-label LP with homemade rubber stamp impression, Witch is the mysterious and powerful debut from poet, artist, and musician Leslie Winer. It's an infectious patchwork of dub beats, tasteful samples and Winer's sultry blend of spoken word with cool, folksy lullabies that later became popularized by acts such as massive attack and tricky. Even though Witch predates those artists' breakthroughs by a year or more, Winer q…
Goodnight, Civilization
finally ZU are back, with an amazing new line-up. Full album to follow in summer.
Black Paladins
In December 1979, two Art Ensemble of Chicago members - Joseph Jarman and Don Moye along with the great South African bassist Johnny Dyani gathered together under the name of Black Paladins. Inspired by the words of the great black poet Henry Dumas, the music traces a deep, dense sound path; from ancient Africa through the rural American south to the modern urban contrast. After almost thirty five years, Black Paladins still resounds with grace and power in the history of Great Black Music.
Raw Materials And Residuals
One of the essential albums of 70’s creative jazz, and a landmark recording in the second wave avant-garde movement of that era. The music of the late great saxophonist and composer Julius Hemphill presents a strong combination of Blues roots, free energy and bop complexity. Hemphill's compositions were meaty enough to offer the improvisers plenty of ideas, but they were airy and open, too. They left room for solos, accompanied by the rhythm section and unaccompanied, and for group improvisation…
Cosmic Love
Good vibrations and resonances are distributed along 9 tracks, which explores worlds of peace. Jungle, abysses, distant stars, every place can be right where express the Cosmic Love. Thanks to the usual blend of traditional and exotic instruments, including space effects and loving choirs. Recorded at El Guscio studio in Milan. It's available in 400 vinyl copies, and a special 100 on splattered vinyl + tour poster.
Alastor: The Book of Angels vol. 21
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* The latest in John Zorn‘s second Masada songbook, the highly melodic and dynamic Book of Angels, the 10 songs on Alastor come courtesy of master composer and violist / multi-instrumentalist Eyvind Kang. Though Kang generally skews towards classical, chamber, and ambient, his take on Zorn’s hand-picked selections is a surprising and gorgeous collision of styles.
“Hakem” opens with synthesized accents and a strong Indian and Persian inflection—elements that re…