Jazz /
The Seven Storey Mountain
Brilliant second album from Nate Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain project. David Grubbs and Paul Lytton have been replaced by Chris Corsano and C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core, New Monuments).
"This second recording of Seven Storey Mountain is what I hoped the series would be, a chance to try to find different ways of creating something over the same basic ideas (tape manipulation, long forms with simple written musical directions, an attempt to reach some sort of musical ecstaticism) with diffe…
Balls
Cien Fuegos presents live recordings circa 1970 Berlin from the legendary free music duo of German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist Han Bennink and pianist Fred Van Hove. Instrumentation: Peter Brötzmann (tenor saxophone), Fred Van Hove (piano), Han Bennink (drums, gachi, shell, voice). Recording: Recorded by Wolfgang Bukatz on August 17th, 1970 in Berlin. Supervision by Hans-Dieter Frankenberg. Produced by Jost Gebers. This album was origi…
Tschus
Cien Fuegos presents live recordings circa 1975 Berlin from the legendary free music duo of German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist Han Bennink and pianist/accordionist Fred Van Hove. Instrumentation: Peter Brötzmann (clarinets, alto, tenor & bass saxophone, vocals), Fred Van Hove: (piano, accordion), Han Bennink: (drums, cymbals, Schwirrholz, accordion, clarinets, floor, walls, megaphone, etc.). Recorded by Jost Gebers on Sunday afternoon, September 14…
Ein Halber Hund Kann Nicht Pinkeln
Peter Brötzmann: soprano, alto, tenor saxophone, b-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, piano. Han Bennink: drums, piano, viola, banjo, bass clarinet. Recording: A1 & A2 recorded live by Bernhard Arndt on April 8th & 9th, 1977 during the Workshop Freie Musik at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. A3, A4, A5 & B1 recorded by Jost Gebers on March 26th, 1977 at the Quartier Latin in Berlin. B2 to B5 recorded by Jost Gebers on March 27th, 1977, at the Quartier Latin in Berlin. Produced by Jost Gebers. Th…
Natsu No Sebone
Alto saxophonist Masayoshi Urabe and percussionist Toshi Ishizuka recorded this extended improvisation at Tokyo's Apia Club, quietly ferocious music with a unique physicality. "Thrilling, blood-shaking, soul-scraping and defiantly non-sexless improv set from two Japanese titans. Recorded live at the Apia club in Tokyo in December last year, this set showcases Urabe's uniquely physical approach to improvisation -- ferociously concentrated, contorted, sweating and eruptive with physical power. Hi…
Solo Drumkit Improvisations
RESTOCKED!! Solo Drumkit Improvisations is a richly detailed document of Sean Baxter's explorations in extended percussive technique. Utilising stochastic structures applied to the conventional drumkit, Baxter exploits the sonic potential of a range of percussive implements including, bamboo wok brushes and chopsticks, enamel camping plates, aluminium wind-chimes and wok lids, scrap metal, and even the body. Recorded by acclaimed Australian engineer, Christopher Lawson, with assistance from…
Phonometak Series # 9
A lovely split, with Evan Parker improvising with live electronics by Walter Prati on the first side, and percussionist/composer Lukas Ligeti (son of composer György Ligeti) with João Orecchia (guitar, electronics) on the other side.
Hearing Metal 2
Pisaro’s “Hearing Metal” series is a multipart lecture of the above, now on its third rendition. Each is in dedication to the sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi, with track names and piece subtitles littered with Brâncuşi references (Sleeping Muse, The Endless Column, Prometheus, 1911). Although the orchestration differs across each entry, each piece is primarily composed of electronic (sine tones, field recordings, a guitar, etc.) and percussive (cymbals, tam-tams, ‘surfaces,’ almglocken, etc.) eleme…
Verona
Stellar release!! ""The first disc features "Conduction No. 43: The Cloth". The first thing I noticed about this disc is how well it is recorded and perfectly balanced. We can hear Zeena Parkins's acoustic harp, the strings, guitar, oboe, vibes and other assorted percussion just right. You can tell that Butch Morris has rehearsed with this ensemble as the swirling lines they play together are so tight and instantly connected. Certain solos, like the oboe, rise above the rest of the ensemble like…
Teatro Assente
A minimal theater in sound from Taku Unami and Takahiro Kawaguchi and starring Yoko Chosakabe and Kumio Kurachi, recording at the Ueno Okura Theater Older Building. "Teatro Assente is endearing and provoking, but most of all, endlessly pleasing." Tinymixtapes
Klippe / One
homas Heberer is called “a European master” and “new trumpet genius”. The music in his new double LP brings a fresh approach to blending improvisation and composition, which allows for the highest amount of freedom on the musicians' side while incorporating significant structural tools on the composer's side as well. His solo recording applies a vast variety of conventional and extended techniques, among which the most distinctive component is the exclusive use of circular breathing.
Black Man's Blues
Recorded 29th May 1977 at A Day in Solidarity with Soweto: A Fund Raiser, Harlem Fight-Back, 1 East 125th St., New York Violinist Billy Bang made his recording debut as a leader with the Survival Ensemble, the first working band he ever led, on New York Collage in 1979. Bang, saxophonists Bilal Abdur Rahman and Henry Warner, bassist William Parker, and percussionists Rashid Bakr and Khuwana John Fuller played incendiary free jazz more clearly indebted to the New York avant-garde of the precedin…
Empire
RED trio made a stunning debut in 2010. In this second album they play with British music veteran John Butcher pushing musical boundaries to the new realms of gripping and exciting kingdom of free improvisation. Rodrigo Pinheiro, piano. Hernani Faustino, double bass. Gabriel Ferrandini, drums and percussion. John Butcher, tenor and soprano saxophone. Recorded April 6, 2010 at Namouche Studio Lisbon by Joaquim Monte. Mixed by John Butcher. Mastered by Ar nas Zujus at MAMAstudios. Design by …
Syzygy
The Tarfala Trio (Mats Gustafsson : tenor sax and alto fluteophone. Barry Guy : bass. Raymond Strid : drums) has its roots from 1992, meeting at the Solo-92 festival in Stockholm, Sweden. After that first encounter in 1992, the trio has worked sporadically and played festivals in Europe and releasing 2 CDs on Maya Recordings. This recording captures them playing live in Belgium, 2009. It is explosive, high energy loaded ferocious music focusing on low dynamic melodic material. Tarfala Trio is at…
5 More Dialogues
Here are two men whose musical natures are obviously rich and their backgrounds complex - back to Stinky Winkles in the pianist's case, back to Amalgam and the Spontaneous Music Ensemble in the saxophonist's - but who reduce, in the critic/analyst's shorthand, to tiling or fabric. Tessellations. Moiré. Does that convey all you need to know about Veryan Weston and Trevor Watts, secure in the understanding that these are self-chosen metaphors, not imposed from outside? Needless to say, no, …
Sound Gates
Guitarist Ninni Morgia, after playing with countless improvisers such as Peter Evans, Daniel Carter, William Parker and lots others, is here in a duo together with master Italian drummer and percussionist Marcello Magliocchi. Marcello Magliocchi has been active since the early 70s and has played and recorded with amazing artists like Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Peter Kowald, Mal Waldron, John Tchicai, Joelle Leandre and countless others. He also put out his work on Andrea Centazzo’s Ictus label and…
Crossing Points
A colossal encounter of drummer William Hooker and the late wind player Thomas Chapin performing at the 9th Street Gallery in NYC in 1992, 3 massive improvisations from the jazz underground. This is a monster duo! One of the greatest duo events of all time. There were a series of weekly duo encounters with William Hooker and different saxists at Jerome Cooper's loft during the summer in the early nineties. I caught two of these with Louie Belogenis and Thomas Chapin and both were incredible.I re…
Planetary Unknown
"It's a great summer for music, with some excellent albums just released - and more reviews to come ... Let's start with the great David S. Ware and his new quartet, a great quartet, with William Parker playing the bass as on all other David S. Ware albums, with Cooper-More on piano instead of Matthew Shipp, and with Muhammad Ali on drums (the latest in a long list, with Susie Ibarra, Guillermo E. Brown, Warren Smith, Whit Dickey, Hamid Drake, ... and quite a phenomenal list at that).It is no do…
Muharram 1392
**restocked, few copies left** Almost sold out in pre-sale, act fast! As this album is a treasure, a minblowing reissue (dated 1972) of an intense, spontaneous droney improvisation and the complex Michael Ranta's chiming rhythms interlaced with trance-alike collective passages. It’s a monster! ""...tomorrow i will send you the CD of a very strange anarcho spontaneously improvised sound tableau. it is one of the very first musical projects with Ranta, when we met in Egypt in 1972. i didn't listen…
Stalllife
A spare, dark, improvised performance between Hartmut Geerken and Valeri Scherstjanoi – recorded at the start of the 21st Century, but with a depth that goes back to Geerken's earlier work! As with some of his best recordings, there's a quality here that's almost more focused on sound than music – lots of unusual percussive moments and ringing tones – shaped by the freedom of the performance, and slightly augmented by some wordless vocal utterances too! The record is only single-sided – a very u…