★Astral Spirits
Jazzpreis
Tip! *In process of stocking. Limited edition of 500 copies.* Dry-sober: The whole thing is not new. Neither the line-up nor the methodology according to which the music on this record is organized. The two have known each other for 40 years, then as now they just met and started playing, without prior arrangements, earlier out of ignorance, today out of the opposite: the results are amazingly similar. Only: the recordings from the last 40 years, made privately with the tape recorder or later by…
Under & Cracked
Limited edition of 200 copies.* Aonghus McEvoy is an Irish, Dublin-based experimental guitarist, who has played with musicians such as Annette Krebs, Ricardo Jacinto, Adam Pultz Melbye and Damo Suzuki. Aonghus’ long-term projects include a duo with chaotic synthesist Tristan Clutterbuck and he is a member of pioneering exploitation folk-rock group Woven Skull and the brutalist punk quintet Worst. Likewise, he counts among his many inspirations Eva-Maria Houben, J.S. Bach, Cornelius Cardew, Rhodr…
Blood In My Eye (A Soul Insurgent Guide)
*Limited edition of 500 copies.* It was during the long stretch of isolation that I received a message from Bashi Rose. A big brother figure to many of us in Baltimore during the 1990s - 2000s, he’s been a fixture on the scene as a poet, writer, theatre person, director, and most recently drummer. His message came shortly after the release of the Ocean Bridges lp by Archie Shepp, Damu, and Raw Poetic (on which Bashi and Jamal Moore both played integral parts). I was blown away by the music and p…
Graceful Collision
*Limited edition of 600 copies.* The Bi Ba Doom trio, featuring saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos, bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Jason Nazary, will release their debut album Graceful Collision in the coming months. The trio Bi Ba Doom, in their recording debut with the album Graceful Collision, delivers five collective compositions (Skeletal Representation, Invisible Maze, Caught The Flicker, Graceful Collision and Limitless Fascination) in which free improvisation, ambient jazz, electronic music a…
In Search of Our Father's Gardens
*Limited edition of 500 copies.* Absolutely thrilled to present the debut release from the duo of RA Washington (from Mourning [A] BLKstar, Vernacular - our recent amazing Astral Spirits reissue of their only recorded album) and Jah Nada (from Bloody Show, Obnox, JZNZ and more).
In Search For Our Father's Gardens is a sprawling double LP that features a large 14 piece ensemble cast, including members of Mourning [A] BLKstar, Oneida, and more. The album runs the gamut of sounds from the reverent …
Models of Duration
*Limited edition of 400 copies.* The latest from the uncompromising John McCowen is a split release between Dinzu Artefacts and Astral Spirits. Models of Duration follows the same trajectory as McCowen's other amazing solo releases - Solo Contra (International Anthem, 2017), 4 Chairs in 3 Dimensons (Astral Spirits, 2018), Mundanas I - V (Editions Wandelweiser, 2018) but is also a whole world beyond those. McCowen continues to focus on extended possibilities of the clarinet family as well as acou…
Boiling Point
*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 300 copies.* "Boiling Point" is the sophomore release from Gordon Grdina's Nomad Trio featuring Matt Mitchell (piano) and Jim Black (drums) and also follows up on 2021's Astral Spirits Grdina / Black duo release "Martian Kitties." The self-titled 2020 debut of Grdina’s Nomad Trio (Skirl Records) was hailed by PopMatters for setting up “loose structures for wild improvising [while also including] a healthy menu of hot unison licks and fleet melodies.” S…
In The Swarm
*In process of stocking.* Few bands in improvised music seem to generate more palpable sonic friction than Brandon Seabrook’s trio with Cooper-Moore and Gerald Cleaver. The group produces a seriously tactile, almost psychedelic sound: the gut-punch of drums, the rumbling twang of diddley-bow, and the slashing, brittle crunch of electric guitar. On Exulations, the trio’s 2020 debut album on Astral Spirits, these sounds coalesced into gritty, propulsive improvisations possessed of an almost three-…
The End and The Beginning
*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 500 copies.* The debut LP from RedGreenBlue posits a mesmeric, minimalist extension of Chicago's groove-based improvised music tradition. Over the course of two introverted, side-long pieces, the band patiently crafts hypnotic—yet still dynamic—sonic spaces using languid pulsations, careful shifts in colour, and occasional bursts of virtuosic urgency. It's music that hovers between worlds, unfurling a foundation of almost-ambient weightlessness that's …
Final Thaw
*Limited edition of 500 copies.* Final Thaw is the debut from the new trio of John Kolodij (guitar), Jayson Gerycz (drums) & Dylan Baldi (saxophone). You will likely recognize Kolodij from his incredible Astral Editions album "First Fire • At Dawn" and you likely will recognize Baldi & Gerycz from Cloud Nothings (as well as Powers/Rolin/Gerycz, Monocot, etc)...and Iceberg doesn't really sound like any of those things, in the best way possible. "Final Thaw" features two sidelong workouts that bui…
These Things Happen
*Limited edition of 500 copies.* A group here that features some key members from the American avant scene, but whose standout member might well be pianist Oscar Jan Hoogland – who contributed two originals to the set, and whose work on the keys seems to really direct the energy of this session that features fresh interpretations of tunes by Herbie Nichols and Thelonious Monk! The setting is quite a different one for saxophonist Keefe Jackson, but he's superb throughout – blowing tenor and sopra…
Master Of Time
*Limited edition of 500 copies.* Coming on vinyl is a noteworthy release from guitarist Tashi Dorji and percussionist Susie Ibarra. Master of Time is a live performance commissioned for the exhibition of Bardo Now, The Second Buddha: Master of Time at the Tang Teaching Museum during a residency on April 16-18, 2019. Vinyl contains the tracks "Confluence" and "The Way of the Clouds".
...Of Late
Astral Spirits presents ...of Late by Jessica Pavone String Ensemble.
Jessica Pavone - composer / viola; voice on track 3Aimée Niemann - violin; voice on track 3Abby Swidler - violin on tracks 1,3,4; viola on tracks 2&5; voice on track 3
Curious Music
The music on this album was created using only Electric Guitar * Using a single instrument - Electric Guitar - As A frame and the studio as the limit ie :The sound of ‘Harp’The layering of a single, guitar chord. The sound of ‘Trumpets’ & ‘Saxophone’Were designed and treated using fuzz / Wah Wah / Pitch Box / Delay & Mic Gate.
The sound of ‘hi hat’ was designed through the scratching of two guitar strings repeatedlyetc. Thank you for listening Michael Grossman & Jai Morris-Smith
Curious Music.
*…
out side work | two duets with xristian espinoza and alan bishop
*In process of stocking* We are beyond thrilled to present the latest from South African drummer / cultural worker / organizer Asher Gamedze. I'm sure many of you are familiar with his incredible debut Dialectic Soul (On The Corner, 2020) or his work with Angel Bat Dawid and Tha Brothahood, and we're happy to unveil another side of Gamedze's work with out side work | two duets. out side work | two duets is a very literal album as the album features Gamedze in a conversation of sorts, a recordi…
What You Seek Is Seeking You
'Sometimes a piece of music seems to trigger a sense of déjà vu. I had that experience listening to the Nick Mazzarella Trio’s new recording. It was as if all the things that had caught my sincere attention for some years was suddenly distilled into one set of compositions. That was an illusion, as déjà vu always is; however, it was not without some substance. I heard traces of traces of Andrew Cyrille, Steve Lacy, and Fred Anderson. This recording hit me like some of those did. The beginning of…
Unfamiliar Ceilings
*50 copies limited edition* Astral Spirits presents Unfamiliar Ceilings.
Lina Tullgren: violinAlec Toku Whiting: koto, bass kotoTed Reichman: synthesizer, pedals (track 3)
Engineered and mixed by Ted Reichman at Subtext Sound SystemMastered by Jack Callahan
Heisse Scheisse
'At its best moments – throughout most of the album in fact – Heisse Scheisse is joyous chaos. The quintet seems to relish playing two or three different overlapping pieces of music. Case in point, Lapsarian begins with a labyrinthine riff-like structure that rapidly deteriorates into Eisenberg and Neuburg heading in their own directions. After a relatively calm and short interlude, Pitsiokos and Eisenberg both solo at the same time, but in an orthogonal fashion, before the overall structure is …
…And Then There’s This
The members of the all-star Artifacts Trio – flutist Nicole Mitchell, cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Mike Reed – have long been recognized as torchbearers of Chicago’s innovative jazz scene, as well as the most prominent performer-educators in the third generation of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM), the historically vital, leading-edge Chicago arts organization. The trio served on the organization's executive board from 2009–2011, and their music advances the organi…
New Spells
*100 copies limited edition* Ava Mendoza plays these songs. She makes them sing. Her technique is impeccable, but her playing is astonishingly expressive. She doesn't just bend blue notes; she wads them up into a ball and throws them up against a wall. She manipulates raw lightning, giving us a sound that is fluorescent and powerful enough to leave a trace of ozone in the air. Mendoza knows what she does better than almost anyone else on the planet, which is tell stories with her guitar.
New Spe…