★Astral Spirits
Little Flower
* Edition of 100 * Recorded in Indianapolis on Sunday, April 16, 2017 and Sunday, April 21, 2019. Performed by Landon Caldwell: piano, synthesizers and Mark Tester: Arp Odyssey, field recordings. Layout & Cover Art by Jaime Zuverza.
Jeb Bishop Centrifugal Trio
* Edition of 175 * Recorded at zentri-fuge, Berlin, on September 8, 2019 by Tito Knapp. Mastered by Mikey Young. Performed by Jeb Bishop: trombone, Antonio Borghini: bass, Michael Griener: drums. All selections freely improvised.
So Glossy and So Thin
* Edition of 100 * Recorded live at the Hungry Brain, Chicago on June 10, 2018 (track 1) and September 29, 2019 (track 2). Performed by Keefe Jackson - tenor/sopranino saxophone, Jim Baker - piano/synthesizer, Julian Kirshner - drums. Engineer: Bill Harris.
The Invitation
* Edition of 100. Yellow Tape * Recorded, mixed & mastered by Mike Pride at Farming Studios, Chester, NY on July 6, 2018. All music performed Mike Pride - drums, percussions, strung items and Jonathan Moritz - tenor and soprano saxophones.
End of Softness
* Edition of 250 * The arrival of Amirtha Kidambi and Lea Bertucci’s End of Softness finds us in a vastly different world, a mere six months after the release of their debut Phase Eclipse (2019). Working remotely in isolation, Bertucci and Kidambi engaged in a process of creative editing, lifting fragments from the Phase Eclipse sessions and a live performance, to re-contextualize the music amidst a pandemic. The crisis lends a new expression of agony to the torrential caterwauls of Kidambi’s vo…
Live in Florence
* Edition of 175 * Recorded on May 30th, 2018 at Tempo Reale Festival in Florence, Italy. Mixed & Mastered by Ryan Power. Performed by Otomo Yoshihide - guitar and turntables and Chris Pitsiokos - alto saxophone and electronics. Layout & Cover Art by Jaime Zurverza.
June Holiday
**CD version** "A sublime trio set from drummer Charles Rumback – a record that has us really appreciating the special touch the leader can bring to a date, as this album may also be one of the best that we've heard from pianist Jim Baker in years! Baker has this great way of sounding soulful and lyrical, yet also moving towards the freer side of his spectrum too – working with the subtle drums of Rumback and the careful bass of John Tate, all with energy that almost takes us back to the groundb…
Casts
Originally released in November 2014 when we had just started out, we're incredibly pleased to reissue one of our very first releases and one that we truly believe deserves more attention. Composed, Performed, and Recorded by Sarah Hennies in Austin, TX & Ithaca, NY 2012-2014.
Microclimates
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Marc Schots in January 10th 2018 at Splendor, Amsterdam. Performed by Hupata! : Ada Rave - tenor saxophone, clarinet, Marta Warelis - piano, Yung-tuan Ku - percussion + objects, preparations, voices; featuring Marc Schots on track no.8.
All compositions by Marta Warelis, Ada Rave, Yung-Tuan Ku. Special thanks to: Michael Moore.
Live at Static Age Records
Recorded at Static Age Records in Asheville, NC, June 10, 2018 by Dylan Jordan. Performed by Tatsuya Nakatani - percussion, Shane Parish - nylon string guitar, Zach Rowden - double bass. Mixed by Tatsuya Nakatani in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, Summer 2019.
Lost and Found
Formed in 2017, J Pavone String Ensemble features Jessica Pavone and Abby Swidler on violas, and Erica Dicker and Angela Morris on violins. The group's latest release, Lost And Found, combines both traditional notation and improvisation, with a focus on sustained collaborative playing and the application of ideas exploring the healing potential of sonic vibrations. It was recorded at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, Connecticut.
Speaking with The Wire's Philip Clark in November 2019, Pavone describes …
Hellraiser
Icepick is the super-power trio of some of the busiest musicians on this planet – American, Brooklyn-based trumpeter Nate Wooley, Norwegian, Austin-based bass player Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and American, Upstate New York-based drummer Chris Corsano. «Hellraiser» is already the third album of this trio and was recorded live in February 2018, on the occasion of a gathering supporting the Option series at Experimental Sound Studios (ESS) in Chicago. Originally, this performance was slated for anoth…
Luke Stewart Exposure Quintet
"Back in 2018, I was invited by Dave Rempis to participate in the Exposure Series at Elastic Arts in Chicago. The Series was for me a shining example of artist-lead organizing of different yet connected communities around the Music. From my standpoint, it is yet another in the continuum of such actions, specifically in Chicago, and has been a major inspiration for my work as an artist and for the material on this recording.
The ensemble was assembled by Mr. Rempis, and was the first time the gro…
The Reinvention of Romance
“The Reinvention of Romance,” a new work for percussion and cello that examines the care and empathy that emerge when two lives share space. Over the course of 90 minutes, a series of repeating patterns creates a peculiar kind of harmony in which two musicians are rarely “playing together” but are nonetheless intimately bonded. The Knoxville-based duo Two-Way Street (Ashlee Booth and Adam Lion) commissioned Hennies to compose “a very long piece;” for this recording they step into its two intertw…
Apura!
It is intended with the utmost respect that this album is entitled Apura!, which in the Filipino language Tagalog translates to “Very Urgent” (the name of an epochal record by the Blue Notes, the pioneering South African jazz sextet of which drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo was the heartbeat). The musicians of Louis and Trevor Watts’s generation cast a tremendous shadow over the legacy of improvised music. It’s not difficult to romanticize the era in which these musicians first made their marks, exer…
Exultations
If Brandon Seabrook’s previous trio album, Convulsionaries, was quietly pummeled by a modified chamber jazz vibe, Exultations, featuring the ever-versatile drummer Gerald Cleaver and the inimitable Cooper-Moore on diddley-bow, leaves no holds barred. A makeover doesn’t even begin to describe what has happened to Seabrook with the shift in personnel, now a vehicle in full flight; while the faint of heart had better clear out, everyone else should buckle up!
For those unfamiliar with Cooper-Moore’…
Hearts and Minds
“Sometimes it’s dumb fun to think up impossible supergroups. Maybe they help you imagine a sound you’ve never considered, a combination of histories and vectors that contradicts those that might be steered by normal forces, such as geography or genre or circle of colleagues. A parlor game designed to transcend time and place.Here’s one: John Carter, Bernard Parmegiani, Mike Ratledge and Tony Williams. Think of the possibilities, Ratledge offers fudgy bass keyboards, circa 1970, Soft Machine’s Th…
No Place To Fall
**First pressing of 175 copies with red cassette shells** The longer one works as an artist, the more secure one’s own identity becomes — whether visual, sonic, textual, or otherwise, the goal is to be clearly oneself. It may seem overly simple to cut the fat and center on creation and individuality, but considering those who have gone before and died for their art, the gambit seems far from easy. Saxophonist and photographer Rodrigo Amado (b. 1964, Lisbon) has worked in two different but relate…
Days and Other Days
Majkowski returns to Astral Spirits, after his brilliant "Neighbouring Objects" tape that came out in 2015! "Days and Other Days" is Majkowski's 7th proper solo release following on the heels of the equally magnificent releases "Bright Astonishment of the Night" on Bocian Records and "Swimming in Light" on Entr'acte Records.
Quite possibly the most astounding and darkest (in a good way) album we've heard from Majkowski yet! He continues to explore the intersection between acoustic instruments an…
From The Land of the Wicked King
**175 copies** "A joint release between Noel Meek's New Zealand label Called God In The Music and Astral Spirits, the trio of Meek himself on electronics, Arrington de Dionyso on saxophone and Rodrigo Rico on drums are caught live at Gallery 1412 in Seattle, WA in 2017 for a freely improvised album of controlled chaos among intensely wicked and mischievous electroacoustic improv." - SquidCo