Jazz /
Teiku
"Teiku arranges our unique family Passover melodies into vehicles for sonic exploration. This ancestral music, much like the tradition of Creative Music through which we interpret it, is liberation music. As its humble stewards we offer it as a call for justice for all oppressed peoples; as Jews, we decry the senseless violence, displacement, and killing perpetrated in our name." - Josh Harlow and Jonathan Barahal Taylor, bandleaders Teiku’s origin story feels almost pre-ordained. Co-leaders pi…
Nice Guys
*2024 stock. Deluxe packaging* Nice Guys is an album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, recorded in May 1978 and released on ECM the following year—their debut for the label. The quintet features trumpeter Lester Bowie, saxophinists Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell and rhythm section Malachi Favors Maghostut and Famoudou Don Moye.
Urban Bushmen
*2024 stock* Urban Bushmen is a live double album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded at the Amerika Haus in Munich over two days in May 1980 and released on ECM in March 1982. The quintet comprises trumpeter Lester Bowie, saxophonists Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell and rhythm section Malachi Favors Maghostut and Don Moye.
A Field Perpetually At The Edge Of Disorder
*2024 stock*I n his review of Exta, the critic Brian Olewnick commented that “there's a tendency on the part of [John Tilbury's] younger companions to defer a bit to him”, adding that, in his view, this was not “necessarily a bad strategy”. In this encounter, their first as a trio, John Edwards and Mark Sanders do not defer to Tilbury at all, and it proves to be perhaps the best strategy of all. This is a vigorous music of equals, the democratic clamour of three distinct personalities committed …
Japan 2019
PNL Records and Audiographic Records are thrilled to announce the release of the seven CD boxset, Paal Nilssen-Love & Ken Vandermark: Japan 2019. This co-production includes live recordings by this long-standing duo from their 16-date concert tour of Japan, as well as new collaborations with legendary Japanese musicians: Akira Sakata (reeds/voice), Masahiko Satoh (piano), and Yuji Takahashi (piano).
The Nilssen-Love/Vandermark is an internationally acclaimed percussion/reed duo and has been in c…
Gnu High
A vinyl reissue, in Ecm new audiophile Luminessence series, for Kenny Wheeler’s sensational ECM leader debut. Recorded in New York in 1975, and produced by Manfred Eicher, Gnu High brought Canadian trumpeter Wheeler to a new level of international acclaim, for both his impassioned playing and his profoundly lyrical writing. Here Kenny is fronting an extraordinary quartet, with Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, all masterful improvisers who had shaped their intuitive collective und…
The New Quartet
As well as being the great vibraphone innovator of the era, Gary Burton is known for his unparalleled intuition as a talent scout. In 1973, The New Quartet introduced Abraham Laboriel: this was the first recording of the bassist who would soon become one of the most in-demand session players across all genres. “It must be emphasised that Laboriel sounds like a major artist in the making with his astonishing bass work,” wrote Melody Maker. Guitarist Mick Goodrick also emerged as a player to watc…
Saudades
Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos’s Saudades album, recorded in March 1979, was the culmination of a dream for a musician who had long yearned to hear the berimbau in an orchestral context. This ‘concerto’ for an innovative player of a traditional instrument was made possible with the creative input of Egberto Gismonti, here the arranger of the material for strings, as well as co-composer and supporting soloist. The Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart was conducted by Mladen Gutesha (who h…
Old And New Dreams
Hot on the heels of Old Friends, New Friends comes Old And New Dreams, an operation meant as a new flagship for Ornette Coleman, whose lack of enthusiasm for the project left a gap duly filled by Dewey Redman. The result is this delightful excursion into post-bop outlands that sounds as alive as ever. Two Coleman pieces comprise nearly half of its duration—which is saying much, for like many of ECM’s joints of the 70s, this one breezes by in under 50 minutes. The first Coleman piece, “Lonely Wom…
Love Nature
*2024 repress* Rare and rich contents from 1970s Japanese jazz which is now gathering global attention, originally released on Terumasa Hino's private label Love Records and distributed by a Japanese major label. Representing "Ode To Workman" from J Jazz : Deep Modern Jazz From Japan 1969-1984 released on BBE, in his session with local NY musicians, Love Nature along with three other reissues are so important pieces in 1970s independent jazz. The fourth and last work form Terumasa Hino's Love Re…
Live At Cafe Oto London
"I've been listening to Christoph Gallio and the various incarnations of Day & Taxi for over three decades – almost since its inception. On this album, however, the Swiss saxophonist makes a debut with a different trio, featuring British improvisers Dominic Lash and Mark Sanders. The result is pungent, powerful music on the cusp of free jazz and free improv – a dichotomy that helps define Gallio's work, though he also composes. Listening to this wonderful album invites re-consideration of the rh…
Skultura
*300 copies limited edition* Composition, improvisation, and performance are no longer the only elements at play in Dunston’s recorded work. On Skultura, he continuously shapes the music with various sound-manipulation techniques to create an album that is meticulous as it is visceral. To quote Jacob Garchik’s liner notes, the ‘work is made of continuous waves of inspiration and creation, strata of improvisations madepermanent, each layer related to the one below, or not’. Skultura is revered in…
Circular Temple
"On a good day it is strenuous to stay current with pianist Matthew Shipp's imposing and voluminous output. On an even better day it is a fool's hardy errand to say the least. Now with the planned re-issuing of some of his great early deconstructions of musical thought and theory, starting here with 1990's daringly incongruous yet hypnotically accessible, Circular Temple, keeping up just got a whole lot harder. With William Parker on bass and Whit Dickey on drums, this four-movement suite for pi…
Call It Art
5LP deluxe box and a 156-page clothbound book packaged in a custom white-birch wood box, limited to 665 hand-numbered copies The book features music manuscripts and notebook pages from the musicians' archives, an extensive itinerary, the complete history of the NYAQ, artists' bios, and musical analysis. 2013 release. Five LPs of entirely uncirculated music by the New York Art Quartet, featuring Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai, and Milford Graves; the bass chair is alternatively occupied by Lewis Wor…
Flesh and Bones
Flesh and Bones is the latest release from drummer, composer, and poet William Hooker. The album marks his third full length effort for Org Music, following “Big Moon” (2021) and “Symphonie of Flowers” (2019). Hooker has also referred to the new work as his “Black Lives Suite”, a multi-disciplinary event which uses music and poetry to address the social issues of the times. Recorded at NYU Steinhart Studios, the recording features fellow New York based players Ras Moshe, Charles Burnham, On Davi…
Big Moon
*2023 stock* Over 60 releases and 44 years into his career as a jazz drummer and composer, William Hooker has made (arguably) his best album yet during the pandemic in 2020, a follow up to his critically acclaimed 2019 album “Symphonie of Flowers". Clocking in at 83 minutes in total (depending on the format you’re listening to), “Big Moon” is as expansive as it is groundbreaking. With a reputation as one of the most innovative composers and drummers of his generation, for those in the know, Hook…
Symphonie Of Flowers
*2023 stock* William Hooker has been recognized as one of the most innovative musicians and drummers of his generation, leading a variety of ensembles within the worlds of free jazz, experimental, and new music. Hooker's prior collaborators range from avant garde jazz musicians to indie rock legends like Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. On his latest work, “Symphonie of Flowers”, Hooker weaves three sections into a whole, or a “symphonie” of sorts. As he says, “the piece begins and…
Mindfulness
*2023 stock* Recorded live at Slim’s in San Francisco, Mindfulness is the brilliant soundscape created by drummer William Hooker, along with Glenn Spearman on tenor saxophone and DJ Olive. The five Hooker compositions flow into each other, one after another, seamlessly, as if to take the listener on a musical voyage through time and space. The layers of vibrant sound, accompanied by trashing drums and shrieking sax show the incredible ability of each musician to take their instrumental vocabular…
Shamballa
Shamballa is the 1993 collaboration from jazz drummer William Hooker, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), and composer Elliott Sharp. The release features Hooker performing duets with each musician. Hooker and Moore’s performance is littered with bursts of feedback and distortion, while the collaboration with Sharp is characterized by a more electronic sound, building a sense of technology. The pieces were released on vinyl for the first time as a double LP for Record Store Day 2023, limited to 1,500 …
Le Sud
Tip! Le Sud trio works from the concept of lower-case free music, which has been a common European currency since the mid-1970s. Despite Brexit, violist Benedict Taylor asserts himself during this continental concert by sawing, sweeping and stretching distinctive patterns from his strings. During the two over half-hour each improvisations however there’s no lead instrument. Positioned power strokes, steel string plinks and diverted chords from Dirk Serries plus Friso Van Wyck hollow pops, metal …