SoundScapes # 3 Festival Munich - 2021 SchwereReiter
'14 musicians from nine different countries went on a sound journey directed only by their own musical fantasy, no borders – except one, more about that later. The venue, the newly built „Schwere Reiter“ in Munich, is perfect for this: clear acoustics, clear architecture. In the middle of the covid pandemic, in a short time when concerts were possible, such an intense and open exchange could happen, two days in a row, on October 1st and 2nd 2021 – a stroke of luck. A music that moves, stimulates…
Substantial Myths
The most promising vibraphone virtuoso Emilio Gordoa collects an excellent quartet with such fantastic young colleagues Dag Magnus Narvesen and Don Malfon and legendary iconic bass player John Edwards. They presented their music first time at the Artacts Festival in St. Johann in Tirol. Now this great performance is available on CD.
Room with No Name
Luis Vicente, one of the most demanding trumpet players from Lisbon with the companion of the excellent pianist Seppe Gebruers and magnificent drummer Onno Govaert. Three young faces in an improvised world in their second trio recording. Unedited improvisations in the order as played, are composed by an interaction between the musicians, instruments, a nameless room, audience, microphones and you.
My Lord Music, I Most Humbly Beg Your Indulgence In The Hope That You Will Do Me The Honour Of Permitting This Seed Called Keiji Haino To Be Planted Within You
Tip! For over 25 years, Keiji Haino has used the Hurdy Gurdy to channel dark dimensions- creating music that bridges the centuries between distant medieval eras and a future awash in densely layered sounds that grind and float in an otherworldly atmosphere. “My Lord Music…” is a suite of nine pieces that reveal the startlingly distinctive and wide range of Haino’s approach to the instrument. The music is at once dissonant and hypnotic, rich with unfurling drones that dynamically ebb and flow - H…
Out Of Standard !! France 4
*Limited edition 100 copies* 4th compilation of French unconventional projects on Out of Standard!!, ADN side label. Mastered by Ruggero Tajé. Dedicated to Chris Marker.
The Gift Of Silence
Tip! "Recorded during the first lockdown in July 2020. All pieces are derived from improvisations experimenting with extended techniques / prepared bass, microtonality and Harry Partch's 11-Limit tonality diamond tuning system, overdubbing and long formless melodies. Inspired and dedicated to my daughter Yumi who was born on 25th April 2020." - Michael Bardon
Erosion
Tip! *100 copies limited edition* Erosion is a sprawling yet focused love affair with the bass drum, allowing myriad objects to playfully interact with its grand form. Kevin and Jacob engage with the instrument in an entirely unrelenting way, traversing textural, pointillist sections, as well as rippling metallic drones. Notice’s admiration of Kevin and Jacob’s work goes back to circa 2008, with Kevin’s album with Tetuzi Akiyama and Christian Kiefer on the much-loved Digitalis Industries, and J…
Elders
Tip! Elders is the debut release from Ensemble Nist-Nah, a nine-piece percussion group led by Nantes-based Australian drummer and percussionist Will Guthrie. The diverse group of French musicians that make up Ensemble Nist-Nah – whose collective experience encompasses traditional Gamelan performance, contemporary composition, noise, jazz, and everything in between – perform on drum kits, traditional and junk percussion, and a complete set of Javanese Gamelan instruments. Though building on the f…
s/t
Reading Group is thrilled to introduce the debut LP from a new improvising group of three singular artists: Fred Moten (voice), Brandon López (double bass), and Gerald Cleaver (drums). López and Cleaver have been improvising together as a duo for a number of years, over which they’ve developed a secret, unspoken language of organically growing repetitive figures in a wide range of sonic palettes. López and Cleaver have long been recognized as some of the most vital voices in contemporary experim…
A Short Story
For almost ten years, Ruben Machtelinckx has followed an extraordinary path in Belgian and European improvised music. As a guitarist, but equally as a composer. It began in 2013, when the quartet Machtelinckx/Badenhorst/Jensson/Wouters released their debut, ‘Faerge’. The album was praised by international press and was listed ‘Best Belgian jazz release’ by Knack magazine. In 2020 he won the Klara Award for Best Belgian Jazz release for his latest record: Porous Structures (Aspen 009). In between…
Moving My Body Through Space
Recognized as a skilled and sought after collaborator, Ted Byrnes solo albums cast a wide net that capture Byrnes' adventurous and omnivorous approach to solo percussion. An alumnus of Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, Byrnes has made his home in the center of a Venn diagram that includes free improvisation, studied electro-acoustic work, fearless new music and harsh noise. Recognizing the porous borders between these modes, Byrnes' work on Moving My Body Through Space is a flailing medita…
The Gleam
Tip! *In process of stocking* Like its predecessor, Philos, The Gleam is a completely solo work, all the music composed and played by Park Jiha on the piri, a type of oboe, the saenghwang, a mouth organ (shown on the album cover art), the hammered dulcimer known as the yanggeum, and glockenspiel. There’s a stark clarity to the sound, yet it’s never spare or empty. There’s a searching warmth to what she does. It’s minimal without being minimalist, occasionally presenting itself with the formality…
Music For Modified Melodica
*200 copies limited edition* Music for Modified Melodica by Japanese composer Kaori Suzuki was born out of two explorations: one of tuning (and subsequently degrading) the small reeds of a melodica, and the other to modify it playable with foot pumps, allowing for the sustained excitation of the reeds. Playing with the highly resistive foot bellows introduced massive ‘volumes’ of air to the reeds, overblowing them to vibrate loudly. This aspect led me to work with the sound potentials of combina…
Visitations
London-based guitarist and producer Leo Abrahams and NYC master musician (and boss of figureight records) Shahzad Ismaily unite for a unique imagining of guitar music on Visitations. The work of two highly skilled, highly celebrated musicians, Visitations marks a curious, mysterious, uncanny collection of music, offering a take on guitar playing that snakes and collides with unexpected turns. It encourages - requires even - a deep listening experience, every discordance balanced with harmony, ev…
Chapel
"Sometimes I wonder why it takes years for something to find its way to a release, but in this case, you could think: wow, that's really fast. The concert that we find on these recordings dates from September 4. I must assume the CD went into production the day after the concert. I believe I had not yet the pleasure to hear music as part of a duo (in some bigger groups, yes), and he teams up with recent improvised music convert Dirk Serries. The latter is on guitar. I would think this CD covers …
Solo Acoustic Guitar Improvisations I
**Limited edition of 100 copies** “Following some forty CD releases on his imprint New Wave Of Jazz, Dirk Serries thinks the time is right to expand to the world of vinyl. Here he plays a 1957 Hoffner archtop guitar, and recorded with a single microphone, some 50 centimetres from the guitar and there has been no other audio processing. The liner notes, as always by Guy Peters, are on the front cover, and he uses the extra space the format allows him, to talk some more on the history of free jazz…
Glints
"The three musicians seem to exchange and overlap tones, creating the feeling of a single and continuous arc extending, curving in space, a kind of bridge or thoroughfare outward." – Stuart Broomer (liner notes) Magda Mayas piano John Butcher tenor and soprano saxophones Tony Buck drums
La Pierre Tachée
"… a kind of ideal duet, no imitation conversation but two simultaneous composers each repeatedly provoked and silenced, prodded and enchanted by the other…" – Stuart Broomer (liner notes) Sophie Agnel piano John Butcher tenor and soprano saxophones
Induction
"Improvised music at this level of concentration may touch the roots of human culture, the transformative power of the cave and the paintings of Lascaux and Altamira." – Stuart Broomer (liner notes) Burkhard Beins percussion John Butcher tenor and soprano saxophones Werner Dafeldecker double bass
Impermanence
Tip! “When choosing a title for an audio document of improvised music, you really can’t go wrong with Impermanence; it’s not exactly original, in terms of either the specific genre or music as a whole, but it will never not be accurate. In the case of Violeta García (a cofounder of the splendid TVL Rec imprint) and Émilie Girard-Charest’s first meeting as a duo, the word accumulates a more unique meaning because of the two musicians’ chosen instruments. Cellos are often associated with their abi…