Jazz /
The Spanish Suite
2012 Re-release "The Spanish Suite was written to magnify the contribution that Moorish Spain made on the European Renaissance. The relationship of music to cosmic rhythms and harmony was altered from the original state of Spanish music and eventually distorted down to the 12 tone equi-temperment system of tuning. The Artistic Heritage Ensemble was taught to play outside of the 12-tone system and to recognize natural tone relationships. The musicians had to be dedicated to music for life …
Maru Sankaku Shikaku - Circle Triangle Square
Reissue of this Japanese early '70s performance group. The group's name is literally the icons for a "circle," "triangle" and "square," with "Maru Sankaku Shikaku" substituting as a translation for those images. Circle Triangle Square were a painted bunch of commune rockers and percussion tribe second to none, whose random bells, flute and remedial tea-tray flailings were still more like the Godz or Nihilist Spasm Band than the deep theta-space obliterations of Taj Mahal Travellers. Led by futur…
A Birthday Tribute - 75 Years
Five recordings, 2 from 1977 at Tempo Natural and 3 from 1993, where Tony Oxley leads various permutations of improvisers Derek Bailey, Paul Rutherford, Pat Thomas, Matt Wand, Phillip Wachsmann, Ian Brighton. The first track from 1993 brings all musicians together for a 29 minute work of great dynamic and dialog. The following track present a quartet with Oxley, Bailey, Thomas and Wand from the same session, and the final 1993 track is the duo of Oxley and Rutherford. The first '77 tra…
Mirrors & tides
Eyes closed, ears wide open, we are given freedom to dream the void. Sweeping, intricate, sometimes ominous yet always exuding a warmth and depth of emotion, The Stargazer's Assistant produces pure cinema of sound. For the new EP, David J. Smith (Guapo) is joined by Circle vocalist Mika Rttö', who sings on the heart-breaking 'Coral Butterfly'. David also had the honour of playing the late Finnish jazz drummer Edward Vesala's Sound & Fury collection of unique metal percussion. Ancient fore…
Lammergyer
The Lammergyer. A spaceship created by a race thousands of generations dead. With a stardrive so shitfire lethal that just to enter an inhabited system was to trigger a fatal ecological cataclysm. Lammergyer. To say it was to hear the slamming of sarcophagus lids in hell. The anti-genesis. The world killer. –Kicking the Monolithic Habit, Heavy Metal, Vol. 19-1Burning Tree consists of Dag Erik Knedal Andersen on drums and Dag Stiberg on sax. The duo have created a harsh free jazz record inspired…
Con-gas
Of course we know Bocian since their earliest releases, which was all on 7". Now, an impressive catalogue further, they suddenly return to this format, and make two of them. On one hand Bocian is a label for strictly improvised music and on the other hand for radical experiments in electronic music. This 7" is clearly a product of the first interest. These four pieces were recorded earlier this year in Vienna and has Nilssen-Love on congas and Gustafsson on slide and brass saxophones. This is th…
Exta
Finally restocked! "Butcher’s sax ranges from soft, whispery purrs to teeth-chatteringly spiteful blasts. Lehn’s analogue synth leaps in a moment from burbling tones to fiercely sizzling abstraction, and Tilbury slips from his familiar melodic interludes and fragmented arpeggios to crashing, seismic attacks on the inside of the piano. What sets this album head and shoulders above similar offerings is the understanding between the trio. It’s not just the way all three move together as one from su…
Barcelona Express
Stunning work of radical free music by saxophonist Masayoshi Urabe and guitarist Rinji Fukuoka (Overhang Party / Majutsu no Niwa). Recorded in 2004 in various locations (France, Spain, Switzerland and Japan), this album brings together elements of free jazz, rock, noise and even folk music, in a way that is magically spontaneous, iconoclastic and full of grace in every single sound produced. Pretty much uncomparable to any of the music 'out there' nowadays, these are wild cuts by two wild …
Kampen
"Sometimes there are weird coincidences. When we got new albums on our review list recently, many of them included reminiscences of the golden jazz eras in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Rob Mazurek's Pulsar Quartet sometimes sounds like the seminal Miles Davis Quintet, Sam Rivers' trio with Dave Holland and Barry Altschul brings back memories of his RivBea studio days, Michael Blake taps the great jazz-rock bands of the 70s, Joe McPhee's plays "Naima" and "Round Midnight" on two new reissues, and even…
Live at Hasselt
Excellent free improvisation from the quartet of Els Vandeweyer (vibraphone), Fred Van Hove (piano / accordion), Paul Lovens (percussion), Martin Blume (percussion) recording at Kunstencentrum BELGIE & Cultuurplatform Motives for Jazz.
Lava
"Lava is a wonderfully apt title for this duet between Liudas Mockunas on soprano, tenor and bass saxophones and Barry Guy on bass. The music was recorded live at Kaunas Artists House Concert Hall in Lithuania on the 2nd of April, 2011, and released in a limited edition run of 300 vinyl LP's. Lava is the appropriate name for this music as it flows slowly and inexorably forward. Guy is a rock solid bassist who is a stalwart on the avant jazz and classical scene in Europe, and his skills ar…
Live
A previously unreleased concert recording from 1986 of a group of leading out jazz artists (Billy Bang, Fred Hopkins, Andrew Cyrille, &c.). Part of the magic of jazz in New York City is groups of musicians coming together for brief engagements and then moving off into other groups and configurations, leaving fond memories but little recorded evidence of their existence. The Group was a very talented amalgam of musicians, veterans of the free jazz and loft scenes: Ahmed Abdullah on trumpet …
Canons - 2nd Hoisting
Four extended compositions from the Tubass Quintet led by Szilard Mezei (performing on double bass instead of his usual viola) performing with a heavy group of 4 double bassists and tuba. An unusual configuration playing unusually named tracks (HEP 15, HEP 16, HEP 17 B, HEP 58/2), but clearly playing a unique rendering of jazz, swinging music from the lower end of the spectrum, with an open and accessible nature.
Nasty & Sweet
Very limited 2 LP release of the trio of Thomas Borgmann (reeds), Wilber Morris (bass) and Reggie Nicholson (drums) performing live at the Tampere Jazz Festival in 1999, plus one track from St. Ingbert in 1998.
Slow and Steady
The Convergence Quartet with Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Alexander Hawkins (piano), Dominic Lash (bass) and Harris Eisenstadt (drums) performing live at the Vortex Jazz Club in November, 2011 as part of the London Jazz Festival.
Shift
Sweden's advanced free jazz piano trio Correction (Sebastian Bergstrom on piano, Joacim Hyberg on bass, and Emil Astrand-Melin on drums) are met by fellow Swede, baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, for a stunning album ranging from abstract to hard blowing improv."In Gaito Gazdanov's marvelous novel "The Spectre of Alexander Wolf" there is a crucial scene in which the narrator contemplates his future lover Jelena Nikolajewna and wonders about her disharmonic physiognomy which he considers as a…
Live At Maya Recordings Festival
Superb improvisation from three masters - Evan Parker on sax, Barry Guy on bass and Paul Lytton on drums - performing at the Maya Recordings Festival, September 23 - 25, 2011 at Theater am Gleis, Winterthur, Switzerland." After twenty one recordings there may not be too much more to say about the superlative English threesome of saxophonist Evan Parker, bassist Barry Guy and drummer Paul Lytton. Some 30 years on since their debut Tracks (Incus, 1983), they converse in a language entirely of th…
Melodic Art-Tet
**CD edition** 1974 recordings at WKCR in NYC from the quintet of Charles Brackeen (flute & sax), Ahmed Abdullah (trumpet), William Parker (bass), Roger Blank (drums) and Tony Waters (percussion), beautifully recorded and essential free improvisation. "The dominant influences at this time were John Coltrane and Albert Ayler (both of whom had passed away relatively recently); and Ornette Coleman (who had not yet gone Harmolodic). Although some musicians had sought to push the Fire Music of late C…
For We Have Heard
"As a band leader, Lugerner has released multiple albums to critical acclaim - Narratives (2010) These Are The Words (2010) & Live at The Bunker (2012). His compositions have been described as "a textured, nearly seamless blend of composition and improvisation" by Francis Davis of The Village Voice - while the New York Times calls him "an impeccably trained multi-reedist, with an emphasis on 'multi' - he plays clarinet, bass clarinet, oboe, English horn and flutes, along with saxophones...…
Inner peace suite #2
"Deep & sophisticated spiritual jazz, following Mr. Gale's Ghetto Music tradition... including the marvellous African Sunshine, a 17 minute piece which goes on and on, and on and on... and you'll never get tired of the on; right ON ! Inner Peace music." EP/Sagittarius A-Star. Eddie Gale - flugelhorn & muted trumpet, James Garrison - tenor sax, Emily Haozous - alto sax, Leonard Thompson - piano, Yvette Zee - violin, Colette Zee - violin, Richard Duke - double bass, Allen Santos - double ba…