Jazz /
Why is there something instead of nothing
This, Majkowski's third solo double bass release, is an album comprising of two pieces, which in their own way explore the relationship between stillness and momentum. The spectrum and resonance of particular sustained frequencies, and the atmosphere which they create is also at the core of this work. Majkowski captures these aspects via specific and highly detailed playing approaches, sustained over extended periods of time. We hear an inner pulse in slow melodies, and floating, almost frozen, …
Sin Gas
Wire Magazine's official King of All Skronk Mats Gustafsson is back with his partner in time Paal Nilssen-Love for a new duo record this week. I'm rather struck by the creepy skeleton on the front cover, and I'm also gleaning enjoyment from the textural bubble'n'squeak madness on the disc. There are quite a few droney periods on this one, with Gustafsson eking soft moans and primal howls and jagged rasps from his saxophone, with the drums often puttering around amorphously, but there are also mo…
Both Ends
The title 'Both Ends' seems innocent enough until you read the back sleeve of this record and discover the circumstances behind this recording. The experienced free jazz trio of percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love with sax pest Dave Rempis tooting the reeds and Fred Lonberg Holm handling cello and electronics played a gig in Warsaw immediately after accidentally poisoning themselves with bad chicken and then dousing their insides with vodka in the hope of sterilising away any bacteria. I'm pretty su…
Untitled
Atsushi Reizen, living in Japan, uses electric-guitar-based sound sources with drone, noise and minimalist techniques. In 2007 he formed the ambient quartet Nerae, but he has now left the group to focus on his solo music. This LP features two newly recorded tracks based on the concept of 'differing speeds', and a track recorded live at Fylkingen in Stockholm.
Untitled
Re-issue of one of the earliest Confront releases, originally available in an edition of 50 in 2001. Matt Davis : trumpet. Phil Durrant : violin. Mark Wastell : violoncello. 'The All Angels concert series ran between 1999 and 2001. Co-curated by Rhodri Davies and myself, we wanted to find an environment that was acoustically articulate enough to present our own quickly developing style of music. Rhodri found the perfectly beautiful Norman Shaw designed church, close to his then home, in Chiswick…
s/t
Fred Frith, electric guitar. Michel Doneda, soprano and sopranino saxes. First meeting recorded live at Swissnex, San-Francisco (February 2009).
The Nubians of Plutonia
An excellent Sun Ra session from 1959! Ra and the Arkestra are playing in a fine mix of straight jazz and spacey styles, with Ra on electric piano throughout the entire set. A few tracks have some great chanted vocals – and we're not sure if they're sung by one of the Saturn doo wop groups, or by the ensemble – but they give the tracks a great sound, and the whole set has a good late 50's Arkestra sound.
Art forms of dimensions tomorrow
Recorded in New York in 1962, this out-there disc sees Sun Ra and drummer / recording engineer Tommy Hunter experimenting to the max with wild use of home-made tape-loop echoes on the percussion pieces "Cluster Of Galaxies" and "Solar Drums". Also includes a lovely early version of the beautiful "Lights On A Satellite". Another essential reissue, complete with original hand-drawn artwork.
The soul vibrations of man
Saturn Research has just reissued one of the more harder to find LP’s in the massive Sun Ra catalogue that is pilling from reissue labels all over the world. With Saturn being the first label and Ra’s personal imprint, whenever a title gets pulled from the depths from them the Sun Ra community immediately takes notice. Saturn printed over a 100 different titles in Sun Ra’s vast body of recorded works from the early 50′s to the 80′s and early 90′s. The Soul Vibrations of Man is the LP Saturn is l…
For Adolphe Sax
At last, the reissue of German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann's long out-of-print first record, one of the most auspicious debuts of free music, and a trenchant tribute to the inventor of the saxophone. For Adolphe Sax is a roundhouse punch of European free jazz, delivered in1967 by the saxophonist's first classic trio featuring drummer Sven-Ake Johansson and bassist Peter Kowald. Initially issued in a tiny private run on Brötzmann's own BRO label -- silkscreened cover designed by Brötzmann, with h…
Soundtrack
Sax legend Mats Gustafsson teams up with experimental artists dieb13 and Martin Siewert. There's a distinct fusion approach to the album which results in many a dissonant moment with Gustafsson's jagged sax leading the way through the shrouded clouds of machine generated mess. Despite the overall hysteria embracing the improvisations, the trio manages to create calm areas in this storming affair, and thus making a nice contrast to the ever growing turbulence.
Cherchez la femme
New studio-album by this exciting electric/acoustic ensemble, led by ken Vandermark, that bridges his musical strengths of composition, organization, and improvisation. Founded in 2011, the saxophonist drew together bassist Devin Hoff (The Resonance Ensemble), drummer Timothy Daisy (Vandermark, Sound In Action Trio, Bridge 61), and a new contributor, Christof Kurzmann (electronics). In the early 2000s, Vandermark's interest in non-jazz elements like funk and reggae developed with his Spaceways …
Boot!
After more than 600 concerts around the globe, five studio albums and a variety of live releases over the years, the Scandinavian garage, free jazz trio, The Thing – Mats Gustafsson (bass, baritone, tenor and soprano saxophones), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (electric bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) — are excited to present their sixth studio album, BOOT! As the first album on their new label, The Thing Records, and first studio album following their collaborative release with Neneh Cherry, 2012’s…
Schl8hof
Trost presents Chicago's premier live band, DKV Trio: Hamid Drake (drums), Kent Kessler (bass) and Ken Vandermark (clarinet and tenor sax), plus Mats Gustafsson (tenor and baritone sax), Paal Nilssen-Love (drums), and Massimo Pupillo (electric bass).
Live at Inroads, NYC
Very last copies, A really difficult (or impossible) to describe unreleased live session. This definitely is one of the most unique and one-of-a-kind records in the history of jazz and creative music! In order to get an idea of what's on offer, on really has to hear it! This set was recorded on October 15, 1981 and features Billy Bang (violin), Wilber Morris (bass), Dennis Charles (drums) and Henry Warner (clarinet). Limited to only 70 copies on black vinyl, presented with a photo on the front o…
Joty Drums
"After so much troubles and efforts i arrived at #50, half way then qbico... and to celebrate such goal i choose what for me is a very special record. before i leave you, here's the key..." ep. Pressed on black vinyl in a limited edition of 75 numbered copies! Includes a colour postcard as insert.The players here are Muruga (nada drum, shaker, congas, drones), John Churchville (tabla, bass guitar) and Pandit Samar Saha (tabla), with special guests Alex Terzian (saz, electric mandolin), Vince…
More compositions
KNM Berlin, Ensemble Zwischentöne, Eberhard Blum, Agnieszka Dziubak, Gunnhildur Einarsdottir, Sven-ke Johansson, a.o. Rec.1992 - 2013. 'Italienische Vekehrsverstndigung' (1983) for seven woodwindplayers woodwind ensemble, conducted by SJ,recorded Ballhaus Naunynstrasse Berlin 1992. 'Klingend und festgehalten' (1995) five stations for combo drum set 'Bom-Zeke-Bom' (1995) for septet, Ensemble Zwischentöne. '22 Miniaturen für Akkordeonorchester' (1991) for accordeon orchestra. Akeordeon Orchestra B…
Seven Storey Mountain III And IV
Restocked! A double disc set featuring two live performances from Brooklyn's Issue Project Room in 2010 and 2012. This continues the series of recordings released over the past five years on Important Records of Wooley's long form electro-acoustic work and features, alongside the composer on trumpet and amplifier, such leading lights of the experimental music scene as: Chris Corsano, C. Spencer Yeh, Ben Vida, Ryan Sawyer, David Grubbs, Paul Lytton, Matt Moran, Chris Dingman, and the TILT Brass S…
Coin coin chapter two: Mississippi Moonchile
Mississippi Moonchile is the much-anticipated new installment of Matana Roberts' unique and forward-looking project and it finds Roberts conjuring some of the most nuanced, thoughtful and substantial American liberation music of the 21st century. Mississippi Moonchile was developed for an intimately woven New York jazz sextet and represents the next leap forward in Roberts' iconoclastic and complex project of memory and recuperation, where historical and contemporary musical tropes, fragmentary …
Coin coin chapter one: Gens de couleur libres
At first look this might seem like a weird move for the Constellation label as Matana Roberts’ debut for the imprint is pretty much straight-up free jazz. But she’s got some serious history with the Montreal collective, even throwing down horns with Godspeed Thinking about it too, there’s always been a nod towards the free jazz scene (not least on Colin Stetson's recent genre-bending LP) but where others were a nod, ˜COIN COIN Chapter One : Gens de Couleur Libre…