Jazz /
That Overt Desire of Object
“Fabulous duo studio session featuring Joelle Leandre on contrabass & voice and Phillip Greenlief on woodwinds & voice. Our good friends Mike Panico & Kevin Reilly - whom you might meet at door of The Stone on various nights - have been talking about starting their own label for the past year. Finally have their first release (and a second of Vinny Golia Qt next month!) which is quite extraordinary. Both Joelle and Phillip are gifted improvisers with long and varied backgrounds. Anyone who regul…
Guitar Solo
The Guitar Solo album was produced by Takeshi Fujii, the producer of the legendary jazz label "Three Blind Myth", in June 1981. Takayanagi responded to the request with "Lonely Woman" recorded in August 1982. As stated in the liner notes of this work, Takayanagi said: "In my two years of fighting against illness, my thoughts have changed, and now I'm thinking rather than making a group album. The form of solo would be appropriate to put it together" and he worked on the guitar solo as the first…
The beauty is the thing
The trio of pianist Aki Takase, guitarist/daxophonist Kazuhisa Uchihashi, and trumpeter Axel Dorner in an exploration of informed and exquisite dialog in acoustic and electric improvisation. This trio's musical inspirations give birth to an amazing, extraordinary, mind-boggling mandala of sound. It's an extreme sound that could only be achieved by people engaged in the ultimate sonic and musical explorations. Surrender yourself to the joyful sounds coming out of the left and right speaker…
Concentration of the Stare
Spend any amount of time in the company of Keith Rowe and the names of certain painters will arise in conversation with some frequency. Caravaggio, Twombly and, among others, most definitely, Mark Rothko. Just as, long ago, he'd imagined what the guitars in Braque's cubist painting might actually sound like, so, I think, he did with Rothko, often referring to the way the "tinged" the space in which they were hung. For some time, in the early oughts, Rowe tried to place his music in a similar are…
Action Mécanique
“Michel Doneda soprano and soprano saxophones. Jonas Kocher accordion, objects. Recorded live on 27th november 2009 at Red House, Sofia, Bulgaria. Mastering by Christian Weber. Design: Fabienne Bartel. Limited edition of 160 numeroted copies. Screenprint on sandpaper. The duo explores and questions the sound, listening and space with sound actions simple, minimal and acoustic. Entirely improvised, the duo's approach is in place and time of the concert, thus inviting a real experience of listenin…
Droplets
Dominic Lash, double bass. Patrick Farmer, percussion. Sarah Hughes, zither & piano. A 20-minute improvisation plus realisations of scores by the Wandelweiser composers Eva-Maria Houben & Taylan Susam, including an extraordinary outdoor performance of Houben's Nachtstück recorded in a wood in Derbyshire during a rainstorm. 'It's exciting to play Wandelweiser music because of its difference from improvisation, the satisfaction of being given specific tasks to carry out and attempting to do so to …
Soldier of the road. A portrait of Peter Brötzmann
'How do you become Peter Brötzmann? How do you become what you are: a painter, a musician, an absolute artist? Europe was nothing but a ruin and shame possessed the heart of the young Germans. They needed to invent, scream, regain a lost brotherhood. Overcome this silence ! That's how some young German, British, Dutch, Belgian musicians made Europe exist long before Maastrich and have kept on cherishing, imperturbably, their freedom! They are no longer twenty-year-olds, but others have followed.…
Caisson
Second outing for this powerful Anglo-Czech electronics-led trio (Jez Riley French, field recordings, zither, contact mics, electronics. Daniel Jones, turntable & electronics. Ivan Palack , amplified knitting machine). Recorded live in Hull, November 2010. 'With the Caisson CD, I think we all feel that this meeting between intuitive composition, sound & improvisation has a language of its own. The aspect of listening is constantly shifting in a forward motion. Moments are at the core of wh…
Dias das cinzas
200 copies, numbered Born in 1970 and based in Lisbon, Manuel Mota is known for his very personal language in guitar playing. His music is part of a tradition rooted in blues and reveals a multitude of influences and historical references being at the same time actual, with an enigmatic sense of timelessness. This is his last solo LP recorded in a basement of a XIX century house in lisbon - limited 200 copies numbered
African Rhythms
A landmark of Afro-centric jazz in the 70s – and the first album by this famous underground collective! Oneness of Juju were a Washington DC-based group that grew out of the ashes of the Juju avant jazz ensemble "One of the most groundbreaking bands of their time. From early avant-garde jazz work on the Strata East label to their later fusions of Afrobeat, funk and spiritual jazz, Oneness stand as a huge influence for today's jazz scene. Released in 1976, the African Rhythms album is Onen…
Live in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, July 25th, 1970
White vinyl LP release of saxophonist Albert Ayler's quartet with pianist Call Cobbs, bassist Steve Tintweiss, and drummer Allen Blairman performing in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France in 1970 (LP 1 of 2). Just a few months before Albert Ayler presumably jumped to his death from the Statue of Liberty ferry into the frigid November waters of NYC's East River he was on stage for two energy filled nights at the Fondation de Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. Little did he know at the time tha…
Live in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, July 27th, 1970
Grey vinyl LP release of saxophonist Albert Ayler's quartet with pianist Call Cobbs, bassist Steve Tintweiss, and drummer Allen Blairman performing in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France in 1970
"Just a few months before Albert Ayler presumably jumped to his death from the Statue of Liberty ferry into the frigid November waters of NYC's East River he was on stage for two energy filled nights at the Fondation de Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. Little did he know at the time that the recordi…
Ceremonies to breathe upon
Two contrabass players here, Andrew Lafkas, of whom I not really heard I think and Michael T. Bullock, of whom I did hear before, and know as someone who likes his improvised playing to be minimal - to say the least. I think Bullock at times also uses electronics, but I am not if he uses any of that here. Its not mentioned on the cover, nor the fact that this is perhaps a live concert. I do however think this is a live recording, however one with no audience, but a direct-to-track recording of t…
Shot
ultralimited lavishly packaged LP (100 handnumbered copies only!), this ground-breaking electro-acoustic trio made my day. The album is largely improvised, with extracts of Charles Bukowski’s poetic works overlapping on the interweavings and multiple stratiï¬Âed references in the trio’s music. It features a faceted palette of acoustic, analogue and digital colours: drums, metallic objects, ethnical instruments, samples, sequences, filtered voice, pedal effects, vinyls, digital electronic…
Live at the Storyville, NYC - 29 October, 1977
Day two of this rare live concert at the Storyville finds Ra and a 19-piece Arkestra again giving the audience a lesson in jazz with tracks like Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'My Favorite Things', Tadd Dameron's 'Lady Bird' and Miles Davis' 'Half Nelson', as well as a taste of his own classics ('Englight(en)Ment' and 'The Satellites')." Clear red vinyl in clear plastic sleeve with blue lettering (limited edition 500 copies).
Live at the Storyville, NYC - 24 October 1977
Quite simply one of Sun Ra's best live albums. This rare recording (originally on Horo records) finds Ra, along with a 19-piece Arkestra, playing a mix of his own compositions ('Images' and 'Lights') along with several jazz standards (including Jelly Roll Morton's 'King Porter Stomp' and Duke Ellington's 'Lightnin''). While Ra's own compositions were usually more avant-garde affairs, he always revelled in playing the classics as well in an effort to give his audience a lesson in jazz histo…
Semelles de fondation
Ressuage: Michel Pilz (bass clarinet), Itaru Oki (trumpet, flugelhorn, reeds), Benjamin Duboc (doublebass, voice), Jean-Noël Cognard (drums, objects), Patrick Müller (electrosonic) and Sébastian Rivas (laptop). Recorded in 2010 by Patrick Müller. Mixed by Patrick Müller. A coproduction by Bloc Thyristors-Bimbo Tower Records.
Michiyuki
'Thoughtful improvisation from percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani in a duo with Kaoru Watanabe on shinobue, noh kan & ryuteki, stunningly beautiful passages to active and unusual musical forms. The blending of traditional and radical new styles makes this a fascinating disc, with great communication and excellent pacing between the two players. Recommended for aural world travelers.'
White Stone Black Lamp
'From Between Trio partners percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and saxophonist Michel Doneda in a duo release of unusual improvisation, the first release on Tatsuya's new Kobo label. Doneda performs on soprano and sopranino, chirping and smearing upper register sounds and laying out long tones that play beautifully to Nakatani's gongs, bows, drums, and inexplicable sound sources. Their long association yields an impressive compatibility and almost telepathic power in discourse. Impressive, un…
Swing Low Sweet Spiritual
Following a few years spent living and playing in Scandinavia, an unknown saxophone player by the name of Albert Ayler returned home to the USA to begin imposing his revolutionary style of jazz on the world. Having recorded his debut album, My Name Is Albert Ayler for the Danish label, Debut Records, this session (which took place in New York City on 24 February 1964) was his first American effort, resulting in the eventual release of two albums: Spirits (released in 1964 on Debut) and Swi…