Jazz /
Light Industry
**300 copies** "Colin Webster and Dirk Serries are skilled improvisers you can’t pin down on a single outlet. They remain restless seekers, never content with merely repeating themselves, not even within the same project. Compare Gargoyles to Light Industry. They are totally different." - Guy Peters"Serries and Webster meet again at their favorite studio, Sunny Side in Anderlecht, Belgium, in September 2019 for an intimate duo where Serries plays only acoustic guitars. They already recorded a du…
Praxis
**300 copies** "It’s the classic 'the journey, not the destination' attitude. Dealing with the moment. Dirk Serries, Martina Verhoeven and Colin Webster have a refreshing take on that. They use instruments, but it feels as if they are playing with wood and metal. With breath and touch. They caress, pluck, sigh, thump, blow, push, creak, sputter. There is no obvious order to what they are doing, yet you are aware of a certain concord, an understanding below the surface of what’s there. The openne…
First and Second
**300 copies** "To fully grasp the range of extended techniques, you should be able to see them in action, but it is also perfectly possible to listen to this music and focus on elements such as flow, density and responsiveness." - Guy Peters"SETT is a an acoustic strings quartet, featuring British most prolific double bass player John Edwards, Dirk Serries and Daniel Thompson on acoustic guitars and violist Benedict Taylor, recorded at the Dave Hunt studio, London in November 2019. SETT does no…
Finch
**300 copies** "The British tradition of guitar improvisation includes some game changers like the Derek Bailey, but also John Russell, Keith Rowe and Fred Frith. Yet it doesn’t prevent Daniel Thompson from carving out his own little corner. Finch proves that even in the most demanding and intimidating of circumstances, Thompson has a sharp, creative mind. Surely, there will be more to follow. There should be." - Guy Peters"Daniel Thompson's Finch contains music recorded in a studio called the S…
An Evening at Jazzblazzt
**300 copies** "Another special such place, situated in Holland, but only a few hundred meters from the Belgian border, is JazzBlazzt. It is as homely as can get - basically a garage turned into a small concert venue - but at the same time a miraculous place, where many artists that have appeared on this label have performed." - Guy Peters"Dirk Serries, still on acoustic guitar, meets again violist Benedict Taylor, and pianist Martina Verhoeven (she plays only on the second set) in a live perfor…
Vanguard
**300 copies** "As Derek Bailey once argued, the term ‘improvisation’ is loaded with such widespread connotations (the music is unprepared, flippant, without depth) that you’d almost hesitate to use it. However, no better alternative has become available and moreover: one close listen to Vanguard lets you know that you are dealing with skilled and inspired improvisers adding a worthwhile chapter to a 50-plus years legacy." - Guy PetersPerformed, recorded, mixed and mastered at the Sunny Side Inc…
The Vortex of Past Time
**300 copies** "And there is an abundance of material displayed here, as Andrew Cheetham and Alan Wilkinson combine impressive technical prowess, dynamics and imagination into a whole that combines physicality with thoughtfulness, tumult with intimacy. A musical performance remains the ideal way to deal with the impermanence of everything, and this album makes an excellent case." Guy Peters"Percussionist Cheetham and reedist Wilkinson, veteran improvisers of the UK scene, collaborate here on fou…
Natural Sources
"Some albums show you right away what kind of spirit backs them. Ronald Snijders solo debut from 1977, Natural Sources, is one of these. It begins with a free improvised, sometimes scatting flute and while the flute goes more and more crazy some scat vocals join in to make this first track a kinda strange affair. Jazz, free and spirited, seems the way but Ronald Snijders, son of Surinamese composer Eddy Snijders, outwits us in all our tiny minded expectations with the next song already. An everg…
Sounds Good
*2022 stock.* Italian piano player Giovanni di Domenico and Catalan drummer Oriol Roca, have been musical partners for fifteen years. They started playing in duo in 2010 to explore the sound possibilities of their instruments, focusing on silence, density and space in music, through improvised fragments and some original compositions. Their first studio album is now released on Belgian label Spocus Records.
Down the Hill
*2022 stock.* Since their meeting in the Hague in the Netherlands in 2002, Alexandra Grimal and Giovanni di Domenico have been playing together regularly. Since 2011 they have been offering several subtle and inspired tête-à-têtes: Ghibli, Chergui and Down the Hill, which was released on January 19th, 2020. Ghibli, around a repertoire composed by the Italian pianist, released on the Sans Bruit label in 2011, the music navigates on the mineral lines of Alexandra Grimal's saxophones that come to r…
Chergui
*2022 stock.* Alexandra Grimal goes in her own way, elegant but robust, through the territories of jazz and improvised music over recent years. It was only natural she would meet and regularly play in duet settings with Giovanni di Domenico, as versatile an adventurer as Alexandra is, both in his musical choices and collaborations. Three years after their first recording together (2011's Ghibli on the Sans Bruit label), Chergui was recorded over two nights at the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris, Fran…
Ghibli
"Alexandra Grimal goes in her own way, elegant but robust, through the territories of jazz and improvised music over recent years. It was only natural she would meet Giovanni di Domenico over the Alps, who has woven her a series of compositions where they locate/find the ironic meander of their dialogues. A sophisticated "chamber" jazz music that yet seems to flow so naturally... One forgets the music writing to only catch the emotion of the moment."Alexandra Grimal: soprano saxophoneGiovanni di…
Finding Ourselves In All Things
**CD version** Finding Ourselves In All Things features two lengthy tracks, standing in stark contrast to each other: Melting With Butterflies is brimming with life: chaotic, hysterical and joyous - celebrating the viewpoint of all small things and their seemingly frantic nature. The Way Mountains Make Love is equally intense, but with a quite different energy – a slow moving organic unity vibrating with the frequencies of everything big and ancient.Both tracks explore and elaborate on its respe…
Troposgrafien
**CD version** Kasper Skullerud Værnes and Andreas Wildhagen has played together for ten years as of 2018. They formed a duo shortly after meeting, and quickly realized that the power and subtleness of the sax and drums duo format was worth further explorations. Through the years and in various ensembles and projects such as KNYST! (trio with bassist and Nakama founder Christian Meaas Svendsen,) and Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, the duo has grown and developed a highly flexible and telepathic in…
Gibberish, Balderdash and Drivel
**CD version** Gibberish, Balderdash and Drivel consists of three nonsensical musical conversations between Malaysian nylon guitar player Goh Lee Kwang and Norwegian bass player Christian Meeas Svendsen. The album was recorded in an independent art gallery close to Kuala Lumpur with a handheld device. It tells us the story of the first encounter between two different mindsets, nationalities and generations trying - and totally failing at - making any sensible dialogue with their respective music…
Worst Generation
"Worst Generation" is Nakama’s first fully improvised album, and was recorded as part of a live concert in studio during their first European tour. The LP version is in lenticular – the motif changes when viewed from a different angle. The CD is in English on one side and Japanese on the other with the imprint in beautiful gloss. One thing is always something different and at the same time two sides of the same coin...
Neptun
**CD version** Neptune, a planet invisible to the naked eye, it was originally discovered through mathematical deduction after scientists noticed unexpected changes in the course of Uranus. It was named after the Roman god of the sea. In addition to being ruler of the liquid element, he was said to have tremendous power over our subconsciousness and emotions, which we ourselves still today have little understanding of. The title represents the unknown, ranging from the depths of the human mind …
3 Pianos
**CD version** 3 Pianos is an album made by a unique piano ensemble consisting of three musicians with different backgrounds and experience. The curiosity for the piano and its countless possibilities was the outset whereas the wish to bend the common boundaries for piano music was the background for this project. The ensemble makes music with clear connections to the music and the ideas of the twentieth century. The musicians develop the material in their own way by focusing on elements like tu…
No Right No Left
**CD version** No Right No Left is the first solo album of drummer Andreas Wildhagen. Recorded in Wildhagen's practice room in late July 2016, it explores different expressions and levels of energy. The music is improvised, still certain ideas can be traced throughout the record. In order to eliminate right and left, one has to imagine a view which is not rooted in a subject or object. If we lack a reference point, right and left disappears. Right and left, good and bad permeate society, but mus…
Kyūbi
**CD version** This album is a free exploration of sound within the boundaries of two violins and the musicians playing them. Close interplay and together-ness permeates the 36 minutes of eclectic but cohesive music, ranging in expression from reductionist and sparse textures, to filmscore-like tonal landscapes with clear dramatic outlines. The record reflects both the duo's dionysic and apollinian sides, and the balance between the two creates something universal which the listener can relate …