Jazz /
Let Our Rejoicing Rise
*2022 stock* In the year that Juneteenth was finally declared a national U.S. holiday, 2021, Joe McPhee and Tomeka Reid united for a live concert in celebration. Multi-instrumentalist McPhee was deeply moved by the historical nature of the circumstances, the incredible freight of that history of oppression and liberation represented in the legislation, both the insanity of its overdueness and the joy of its institutionalization. As a preamble to the music, McPhee led off with two poems, read wit…
An Offering
Flowing water is an essential element of Earthly existence, a living force, a process of nature, a path-making which combines infinite sources mixing imperceptibly into a singular energy. It’s also a potent metaphor. A childlike wonder at flowing water’s presence and power, all the impressions it makes and creative neurons that it fires, happens to be a personality trait shared by Evan Shornstein (aka Photay) and Carlos Niño. The two producers/musical connectors may have grown up and reside a co…
4 Cuts Placed In "A First Quarter"
4 Cuts Placed In "A First Quarter", the companion piece to Solos, is the sonic result of a collaboration with artist Lawrence Weiner. As Landry remembers, “I was working for Keith Sonnier at Castelli Gallery and met Lawrence. He asked ‘can you make a video for me?’ So we did "To and Fro..." At some point he was working on "A First Quarter" (1973) and wanted me to do the music. I said ‘I already have the music.’ He said ‘what do you mean?’ I had recorded several pieces with Kurt Munkcasi and walk…
Magrebh Blues
When internally the plan came up to release a bunch of vinyl singles for Unrock's 30th anniversary as an entity, Richard just like his brother Alan, the other keyholder of Sun City Girls legacy was among the first to take a deep look into his archives. Out came two shining pearls from different periods of his long career. "Taqasim For Omar (acoustic)" was recorded in Seattle in 2008. It was recorded before the Sir changed his mind and recorded the track with an all-electric band again for his Th…
Karaoke (7")
If you ever witnessed an Alvarius B. show you are probably aware that there are a few things only in underground music matching this level. If you haven't, don't miss him when he's coming close next. Karaoke shows one of the many characters you could explore during his shows. As his brother Richard, the other keyholder of Sun City Girls legacy, Alan Bishop played a lot of shows not only under the Alvarius B. moniker on various Unrock stages through the years. "Solo Nostalgia" (E. Morricone) and …
Signe Emmeluth
Its an honor for the AFJ-Series to introduce the self-titled debut album by Danish Oslo resident Signe Emmeluth. Recorded at Flerbruket, in the forest an hour outside of Oslo - Emmeluth alone in a room with her alto and tenor saxophones.
A fantastic session of sax solo ecstasies recorded by Magnus Hemnes Nergård. Much like Joe McPhee's Tenor and Peter Brötzmann's 14 Love Songs, this album share the same beautiful intimacy. It is close, sparse, poetic and raw at the same time. Minimalist and soul…
Globe Unity
*Limited edition of 500 copies.* In 1966, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach assembled his first large ensemble to play his compositions “Globe Unity” and “Sun.” This 14-piece band, which brought together some of the leading figures in European improvised music, would eventually expand – incorporating not only Europeans but also American and Asian musicians – and assume its rightful name: Globe Unity Orchestra. In its nascent outing, beautifully recorded at Ariola Studio in Cologne, Schlippenba…
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…
Hive Mind
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* A power trio of contemporary masters unlike any other! Miles Okazaki, Trevor Dunn and Dan Weiss are among the very best of a new generation of musicians working in the nexus of jazz, rock, noise, composition, improvisation and more. All dedicated students of the esoteric, they come together here as Hive Mind, a collective trio, to perform some of the wildest freewheeling improvisations around. Three compositional minds weaving bizarre soundscapes through tel…
The Crooked Path
Tip! *In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Morten Qvenild and Gard Nilssen, previously know as the duo “sPacemonKey”, have returned as the duo Skrim; the magical musical interaction they have refined for over 10 years, just as present. This time they are extended with guests Ståle Storløkken and Stian Westerhus – a constellation that formed under Gard Nilssen’s redicency at Moldejazz 2019. These four improvising musical wanderers went in the studio, or out for a walk if you will. They walked on …
The Sage Flower
Limited edition of 100 copies.* Cellist Guilherme Rodrigues (Portugal, residing in Berlin) and guitarist Dirk Serries teamed up for a chamber music-esque session at the Sunny Side Inc. Studio (Anderlecht, Belgium). The Sage Flower is that collection of detailed interaction, acoustic outbursts and linear minimalisme.
light as never
The distinctive sound of Linus is born from a delicate balance between folk, jazz, minimalism, chamber music and free improvisation. Starting as a duo, Ruben Machtelinckx and Thomas Jillings have always tried to infuse their compositions, which tend towards poetry and simplicity, with the ungraspable spirit of true open-minded improvisation. In the search of new stories to tell, it therefore did not come as a surprise that they chose to expand their palette by including both an eclectic mix of i…
Pacemaker
* Limited Edition of 300 copies with hand-made artwork. Hand-numbered edition. * Lithuania saxophonist - here on contrabass and prepared clarinet, tenor and soprano saxophones - is a musician with many faces, ranging from the powerful free jazz of "Kablys" over the melodic and sensitive excursion with pianist Petras Geniusas, to the angular free improv with Barry Guy on "Lava". On Pacemaker he demonstrates yet another side of his art, now in the company of Christian Windfeld on prepared drum kit…
Sluimer
**Limited to 240 hand-numbered copies** "Fantoom is a quartet that feature Dirk Serries, his wife, autodidact double bass player Martina Verhoeven (who is also a gifted photographer), drummer René Aquarius, and sax player Otto Kokke, both from the Dutch group Dead Neanderthals, with whom Serries played in their Endless Voids project on the 2014 edition of the Incubate festival in Tilburg, Netherlands. The quartet debut album, is a free-improvisation affair that was recorded in studio in Decembe…
Extra Presence
Extra Presence is a 90 minute, 17-track collection showcasing Los Angeles modern music scene pioneer Carlos Niño’s unique, highly developed, self-described “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” sound, and featuring an incredible cast of collaborators (including Jamael Dean, Nate Mercereau, Shabazz Palaces, Deantoni Parks, Sam Gendel, Laraaji, Jamire Williams, Iasos, and more). It's an expanded edition of a 10-track suite called 'Actual Presence' that Niño self-released exclusively via his …
Did It Again
Toc Did It Again, and uses the celebration of fifteen years of sonic ebullition to add a tenth stone to its discographic edifice, a quadruple live album majestically underlined by the fineness of the line of the drawer Jérôme Minard and by the verb of the journalist Petr Slabý.
The trio lives only by the confrontation with its public. After almost two years without being able to hit the road, the musicians are finally leaving in October 2020 for Central Europe for a dozen concerts that are wild …
Fu-rin-ka-zan
Furinkazan* ” Wind, forest, fire and mountain “, is a suite of pieces constituting in music a travel diary in Japan. The orchestration of this trio gives it an identity between jazz trio and percussion trio. The music, composed by Ludovic Montet, alternates between very written themes and large improvisation areas. It is meant to be evocative of this fascinating island that is Japan, where a great mystical breath and a striking modernity are mixed. The three musicians of this trio have used thei…
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…
When The Circle Was Closed
*100 copies limited edition. In process of stocking* Dinzu Artefacts presents When The Circle Was Closed by Slow Bell Trio. Midwest trio that taps into the slower, more meditative side of improvisational music allowing for some deep listening.
Reflections 1952
In 1952, Thelonious Monk, joined by Bassist Gary Mapp, Drummer Art Blakey and Drummer Max Roach, drove to an early iteration of pioneering Sound Engineer Rudy Van Gelder's studio in New Jersey, and entered a small and tightly-managed room that Van Gelder had strict technical rules for. In those recording sessions, and again in 1954, despite Van Gelder's tight management and an out-of-tune piano with tinny fidelity, Monk produced some of the most glorious music of his entire recording career and …