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In the three song cycles of this recording, Wolfgang Rihm stays faithful to the text and its meaning while paying close attention to melodic line. In choosing to do so, Rihm has a deep lineage in the great tradition of Romantic art song that stretches back to the distinguished names of Schönberg, Berg, Brahms and Schumann. Approaching the text both from the perspective of the singer and from that of the accompanying pianist, Rihm is able to reach tremendous heights of expression. While the eleve…
Buwen is both composer and organist, accompanying saxophonist Priesner on this rather academic program of duets. An earnest but dull remnant of late high modernism, the title piece inadvertently points up the limitations of classical sax technique, ignoring the expressive possibilities of the instrument almost completely. Buwen is self-effacing in the extreme, content to provide ground figures for Preisner to bounce off. Strange to think that one could write music this bland about a subject so c…
2002 release ** "One of the world's premier noise percussionists and a learned scholar of Kabbalah, Torah and Talmud, Z'ev has been a vital force in the downtown scene since the late 1970s. In addition to his collaborations with Glenn Branca, Rudolph Grey and his fascinating solo work, Z'ev is also a prolific writer and musical thinker. He has written on subjects ranging from music composition, ritual performance and has also translated several esoteric Tibetan and Hebrew texts into English. His…
Java is the center of Indonesian culture. Three out of every four Indonesians live on Java. It is the home of some of the most elegant musical styles to be found anywhere. To the veteran international sound collector, Javanese music is no secret. For the uninitiated, rather than going through an introductory outline of Javanese music history, I will wish you away to the internet, a library, or bookstore where you can find plenty of information on the subject. The selections on this CD are a comb…
1997 release ** "Japanese bassist Tetsu Saitoh stands out as a new hope from across the ocean. He's the new ray in the sea of bodies that play the same standard fare. These two recordings, released on his own Scissors label, outline the here and now in his present body of work. On "M'uoaz", Tetsu is surrounded by an all-star cast, which includes saxophonist Michel Doneda and percussionist Alain Joule. [Vocalist Antonella Talamonti joins the trio on one track.] The music is rather sparse. Joule i…
"I find this disc to be consistently superb and often sublime. Cian writes contemplative, melodic and somewhat bluesy songs that always ring true. The one cover, Baka Dance, has more of an older, folky theme, but all of the songs have an organic, human quality that feels just right. If this was released in the mid-70's, it would fit perfectly in the Takoma catalogue with John Fahey and Leo Kottke. Pretty great company for a young whippersnapper like Cian Nugent." Downtown musi…
Eight soprano saxophone solos. The 2008 solo concert in Whitstable began as an invitation from artist Polly Read and film-maker Neil Henderson to collaborate on a joint work that included a concert in St.Peter's. These recordings are taken mostly from the concert but, as with LINES BURNT IN LIGHT, one piece was recorded before the audience arrived. These are the first recordings in what has become a series of visits to the church, which has perfect acoustics and is just around the corner from wh…
One of the world's most creative harpists, Zeena Parkins has contributed her inimitable playing style to the work of artists like Bjork, John Zorn, Yoko Ono,Sonic Youth and Matmos, whilst also recording a number of wonderful solo albums (including the timeless Nightmare Alley) and a couple of Phantom Orchard collaborations with electronics guru Ikue Mori. What most immediately sets Parkins apart from her peers is a roving appetite to look beyond the ordinary constraints of her instrument. While …
a representative and intense snapshot of the Milanese sinthy wave scene of the early eighties, 20 tracks that recount the salient steps of the brief but intense career of four Milanese bands — from the post-punk of Other Side, to the oblique funk of State Of Art, to the evident Kraftwerk infl uences of La Maison, to the electro of Jeunesse d’Ivoire — four bands that illustrate the mood of an underground scene tha…
Including Notturno volgare, for clarinet; Playtime No.1; Alex in Mongolia, for two guitars; Rite in progress, for piano; Notturno, for double bass; Playtime No.4; Dietro l'orologio, for soprano & tenor saxophones; Sei danze, for violin.
Somewhere between Alex- ander Rodchenko, Jackson Pollock and Charles Ives: Marino Formenti's piano studies based on an instal- lation by Florian Pumhösl as a listening experience! The brilliant Italian pianist has placed compositions by Charles Ives (»Thoreau« from the Concord Sonata, the song »Tom Sails Away«, and »Study 11«) under his magnifying glass and studied them, has taken them apart, searched them for resonances, assonances and silences, and confronted the results with Ives’ own methods…
Considered to be Becker's masterpiece, the second album (1982) is the more subterranean, moodier one, and it's also the one that I personally prefer. Not to stress the Suicide connection, but at times the tracks really have a gentle Suicide feel softened with a Kraut expansiveness (slowly ever-shifting) that doesn't completely erase the angst underneath. "Water" has an undulating bass synth melody that is later connected to a higher pitched, repeating chirp and some distant, dubbed-out, spoken, …
First ever CD by this legendary and ultra-obscure Japanese psychedelic rock group. Kousokuya are from Tokyo, have donated some spectacular tracks to the first two volumes of the Tokyo Flashback compilation series on the PSF label, and self-released an extremely ltd. LP in 1991. The band has been around for quite some time; I originally was under the impression they formed around 1984, but was recently informed that an edition featuring Nanjo and Narita from High Rise existed going back to the l…
Much needed reissue of this long-lived Swedish band's fourth album, from 1973, with an excellent 20' bonus track from 1974 tagged on. Terry Riley's 1967 visit to Sweden and his work with these musicians when they were still just young ones in High School resonates here, and you get a weird and vibrant mixture of Riley, the Third Ear Band, bits of free improvisation and ancient Swedish folk music all blended into an excellent, droney whole.
Nothing is slow, deep and distressing like the music of Madrigali Magri and the voice of Mr. Succi of Bachi Da Pietra fame: Madrigali Magri have been cut their enviable space in italian rock underground scene, such to become an infuence for various italian bands. After "Negarville", "Malacarne" is their 2nd album on wallace records. They Split in 2005
Edition of 350 numbered and signed copies packaged in deluxe gatefold sleeves. A CD edition of what every DANIEL MENCHE fan considers his finest work to date. Remastered and expanded with a bonus album Sunder, a follow up to Deluge. Deluge & Sunder is actually a surprising departure from previous explorations by Mr. Menche as the tones are generated by real live instruments (bass guitar, accordion, piano and melodica) as played by a real live Menche. The rumbly counterpoint that so well defines …
It has been Chicago, not New York, that has been the confluence of music of Europe, jazz of the Americas, and improvised music. Whereas NYC claims all things to be "New York" (sort of like Al Gore inventing the internet), music makers in Chicago identify and defer to varying regional influences.Such is the case on Cipher, where seemingly disparate forces come together to create heady and engaging music. But then leader Josh Abrams has made a career of such things. He began with the Philadelphia …