Jazz /
Represencing
Represencing is the 2nd installment of the Joshua Abrams sound world introduced on his 2010 Eremite album Natural Information. Recorded at home in Chicago summer of 2011, Abrams again organizes small group statements around the resonant grooves of the North African ceremonial instrument the guimbri with a unique and broadly assimilative compositional voice. Sources from traditional musics to minimalism, jazz to krautrock, animate Represencing but Abrams is always grounded in the solidity o…
Le Mystere Jazz De Tombouctou
This is the second reissue from the Mali Kunkan label on Kindred Spirits. One of the rarest (that we know about) Malian records, Le Mystère Jazz de Tombouctou gets its first-ever reissue, with remastered audio and restored artwork. For fans of Kanaga de Mopti and the Super Djata Band. Kindred Spirits are proud to present to you this true West African gem. In 1977, the Malian government funded a series of LPs through its Mali Kunkan label. This series highlighted some of the great Malian orc…
Spiritual Jazz 3: Europe
Esoteric, modal and deep jazz from the European underground, 1963-1972. At the end of the '50s, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue heralded the revelatory arrival of modal jazz. As the vibrations of these giant steps resonated across the world, European jazz musicians reassessed their bearings and began to steer a new course. Across the continent, they sent roots down into the rich soil of the European folk and Christian liturgical traditions, extended their music along ancient routes of communicat…
Spiritual Jazz 2: Europe
Deluxe gatefold double LP version with color inserts and on 180 gram vinyl. As the '60s progressed, cultural and political revolutions occurred both in the U.S. and in Europe. Jazz was both a victim and a savior, with radical developments in the music occurring on both continents. In the U.S., artists took control of their own musical destiny as small labels broke away from the mainstream, expressing new and creative visions of freedom and peace against a backdrop of civil unrest, repress…
Universe In Blue
180 gram exact 1972 repro reissue. Featuring John Gilmore (tenor sax) and June Tyson (vocal). Tracks: "Universe In Blue Part I," "Universe In Blue Part II," "Blackman," "In A Blue Mood" and "Another Shade Of Blue." The Universe in Blue is a fantastic set. The title cut is just a slow blues soloing showcase with Sun Ra's "intergalactic space organ," trumpet (not sure who), John Gilmore's tenor sax, and back to Ra. June Tyson takes center stage for &"Blackman", giving a particularly impassione…
Essence of Ellington/Live in Milano
Preeminent jazz composer/bassist William Parker has been working with large ensembles from the very beginning of presenting his own work as a leader in the mid-70s. His Essence of Ellington project is the very latest manifestation of his orchestral concepts, following in similar form on the extraordinary Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield project which was definitively presented on record by the acclaimed 2010 release, I Plan to Stay a Believer (AUM062/63). The Orchestra here interprets selections …
On Jones Beach
Glacial is Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), David Watson (Afternoon Saints), and Tony Buck (The Necks). The vinyl edition of the album presents the studio session in two twenty-one minute installments. The album is accompanied by a download coupon for DRM-free MP3s of the complete 48 minute studio session as well as three live bonus tracks.“on jones beach reflects three men at the top of their craft. recorded in 2005 at sonic youth’s echo canyon studios, the album proper is made up of a single tit…
Luftwurzeln
Old and new. This new CD on Matchless by Sebastian Lexer and Christoph Schiller keeps bringing these opposite ends of a spectrum to mind. If Schiller has taken an old instrument, a spinet, and approached it in new ways, then so has Lexer, whose Piano+ digital enhancements of a standard grand piano are as exciting a new development to that instrument as I have seen in years. The music on Luftwurzeln then also spans across that same wide divide. Improvised music in London has been evolving …
Meetings With Remarkable Saxophonists - Volume 2
The second volume of Eddie Prevost's 2011 series of concerts at Network Theatre, Waterloo, London meeting with remarkable saxophonists, here with John Butcher on tenor & soprano, with Guillaume Viltard on double bass. The concerts are also notable as Eddie Prevost returns to the drum kit to extend the function of the basic jazz element into AMM-style improvisation.
Jumehniemi
"The Black Motor on Sagittarius (after their 1st qbico release) ! probably one of best & more respected free music outfit in Europe right now, for sure they rules in Finland and especially in their own town, Tampere where they even have i think a bi-monthly night called Black Motor Klubi at legendary Club Telakka... it's for sure one of the tightest group i know of, having the chance to play a lot together and this is clearly manifest when you hear their unfocused playing... their most mature wo…
Trulofa Trio
"Two new side-long improvised tracks by Trulofa Trio rec. this very year ! such fine, young and talented players with their own sound and art too, which best translate their natural music in images of... ghosts, forest's spirits, out there being, waterfalls of glorious light, dancing shadows..." label press
Summer Sessions, Del Tre
"One day i was going through the records that i bought in betw 2000 and 2010... i gave most of them away and kept only the cream.. among these there was the 1st Elektrodiesel album which came out in 2000 on Synesthetic label on a very heavy slab of wax... so i thought about writing/looking for the man behind it... fortunatly Espen, apart being a really easy going folk, rec. more material from that 1999 Summer Session ! in over 3 days, 2 hours and 40 minutes were put on a cassette dictaphone (no …
Mats G plays Gullin
restocked, very last around...3rd in a series of 3 solo one-sided LP (previous two on qbico)... this time Mats G on baritone sax render an homage to his own country leading sax player: Mr. Lars Gullin. (label press)
Catching net
PAN presents a 2CD set from experimental composer/artist/multi-instrumentalist Eli Keszler. The first disc features two ensemble versions of Cold Pin (PAN 021LP), previously released in a 2011 LP of the same title on PAN, plus a 26-minute, previously-unreleased live ensemble recording (mixed sextet and piano quintet; these are captured in contrasting acoustical spaces). The personnel for all three tracks is Eli Keszler (drums, percussion, crotales, guitar); Ashley Paul (alto saxophone, bass…
Dead Space
Blip is a duo collaboration between Jim Denley and Mike Majkowski: two of Australia's most prominent improvising musicians. They began playing together in 2002, as members of The Splinter Orchestra, and formed Blip in 2009. They have been developing their own approach to the woodwinds/strings duo arrangement, deconstructing and reconstructing this format. Blip music focuses on duration, the subtleties of sound, the pitch within timbre and texture, as well as pulse. Wi
The holistic worlds of
Michael Wintsch, piano, synthesizer. Christian Weber, bass. Christian Wolfarth, drums. Ten years ago Michel Witsch (piano, synthesizer), Christian Weber (bass) and Christian Wolfarth (drums) met - 3 musicians who have not only shaped the European scene of improvisation in the most different formations but who also catch an ear with the maybe most relevant aspect in music whatsoever: SOUND. Wintsch, Weber and Wolfrath make music with a breathtaking mental vigor. The long time working band has…
Scraps And Shadows
Scraps And Shadows is the second album by the dream pairing of Joe McPhee and Chris Corsano. A follow-up to Under A Double Moon, which featured McPhee’s alto saxophone, Scraps And Shadows finds him largely on tenor. Recorded live in Milwaukee in 2011, the album consists of seven dedicatory pieces, from the delicate balladry of “For Adrienne P” to the appropriately combustible “For Han Bennink.” Corsano’s stupendously detailed drumming and McPhee’s free-soul love cries weave a master latti…
Letter To A Stranger
Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love are back with another amazing album. This time a studio recording, recorded in Chicago's Strobe Recording in January 2011. The album contains 10 new compositions of their characteristic soulfully groovy free jazz. Vandermark & Nilssen-Love use free improvisation as a means to explore all levels of dynamics, density, rhythm, timbre, form and tonality. The results of their work are experienced as intense, exhilarating, and boundary breaking. Raw music with brut…
Age Of Energy
This year marks a milestone for the Chicago Underground Duo. It is their 15th year together as a band. In celebration of this momentous occasion they have released a new record on a brand new label.Age of Energy is Chad Taylor and Rob Mazurek’s sixth release as Chicago Underground Duo and the twelfth release in the Chicago Underground catalog. Finding time to get back in the studio was a challenge, as Rob has been touring with his trio Starlicker, The Sao Paulo Underground and the Exploding Sta…
Double Demon
What mischief can be made with just cornet, vibraphone and drums. Rob Mazurek has scaled back considerably since Stars Have Shapes, the 2010 record from his Exploding Star Orchestra. His new project, the curiously named Starlicker, is a mere trio, with Chicago vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz and Tortoise drummer John Herndon. But this group emits more sound and energy than do some sextets. Double Demon is Out to Lunch! for a new generation. Powered by Herndon’s hyperkinet…