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Jazz /

Summer Works 2009 [3 CDs]
Bassist Kent Carter chose the ensemble of two string and two wind players from amongst the most experienced musicians in Europe to record the studio and live compositions in this exceptional 3 CD set. "The meeting of four of the most experienced musicians in Europe, all of whom have worked with each other in various groups, except that this was the first time that Jorgensmann and Rolin had met. The totally improvised music shows their individual strengths as well as their ability to work …
Old Idea
For a decade jazz cornetist Josh Berman has been a mainstay of the post-Vandermark generation of Chicago improvisers, a wide circle of ambitious musos who meet up in varied ad hoc or fixed settings: a circle including all the players in Josh's group Old Idea. He's already recorded some--as, say, part of a quartet on Chicago-Luzern Exchange alongside tenor saxophonist Keefe Jackson, with Jackson's big and small bands Project Project and Fast Citizens, wit…
Pie and Mash
A duo improvisation between French trombonist Mathias Forge and Brussels-based improviser Olivier Toulemonde, recorded live in Sheffield in January 2010, with and without audience. Pie'n'mash – its title playfully referencing the traditional London working-class dish – documents the meeting of two remarkable musicians who were relative unknowns at the time but who have since been recognized as significant voices within post-reductionist improvisation. Forge, a virtuosic young trombonist, demonst…
Giles U.
An improbable yet utterly compelling duo pairing tuba and spinet – two instruments rarely heard together in musical history, brought into dialogue by German tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and Swiss spinet player Christoph Schiller. Recorded in Cologne in November 2009, Giles U. documents seven pieces that explore the sonic possibilities of this unconventional combination, creating what one critic aptly described as "the kind of thing you might hear if a steampunk novel became sound." Hübsch, a major…
AD
A duo encounter between two of the most distinctive voices in European improvised music: Welsh violinist Angharad Davies and German trumpeter Axel Dörner. Recorded in December 2008 at a West London house, A.D. documents an intimate meeting between two musicians who share a profound commitment to extended technique and sonic exploration, creating music that transcends the conventional boundaries of their instruments. Dörner has long been recognized as one of the most consistently innovative trump…
On fire
Norway's Smalltown Supersound label is just one of those imprints that you have to keep an eye on, because if not you're sure to miss out on some nugget of psyched avant-metal or North European disco that you'll be kicking yourself over neglecting in 10 years time. 'Smalltown Supersound On Fire' is a very handy and rather essential compendium of forthcoming releases on the label, including tracks from Arp, Meanderthals, Diskjokke and Tussle alongside remixes from the likes of Prins Thomas and Bj…
Berlin Symphonie MND 1968 - 72
Legendary recordings by Johansson and friends, precursor of today´s minimalistic impro. Includes 30 minutes solo by sax player Frippe Nordström. CD I recorded at Club Litfass, Berlin, 1968; CD 2, track 1 recorded at SR, Stockholm, 1970; CD 2, tracks 2-4 recorded at Club 7, Oslo, 1972.Sven-Åke Johansson, drums, voice; Norbert Eisbrenner, guitar, alto saxophone, voice; Bengt Nordstöm, tenor saxophone (CD2 track 1); Werner Götz bass (CD 1, CD2 track 1); Peter Dyck, cello (CD2 tracks 2-4).
Old Dogs (2007)
Jerry Hemingway joined and remained a member of the infamous Anthony Braxton quartet for eleven years from 1983 - 1994. This set documents their first recorded collaboration in 12 years. Using an hourglass as a guide, each CD contains one 60-minute improvisation, and each improvisation is very different in character and instrumentation. These studio recordings were made at Wesleyan University in August 2007. Released to celebrate Braxton's 65th birthday, the recordings are packaged in ca…
Woodblock Prints
Awesome new LP, just arrived, Referencing the delicate artistic printing method, this nonet recording presented by Harris Eisenstadt on drums and compositions, Michael McGinnis on clarinet, Jason Mears on alto saxophone, Sara Schoenbeck on bassoon, Mark Taylor on french horn, Brian Drye on trombone, Jay Rozen on tuba, Jonathan Goldberger on electric guitar and Garth Stevenson on acoustic bass (with smaller groups frequently breaking out) is a model of artistic restraint. At times sounding like a…
Chew Your Food
The performance on this LP was recorded live at Roulette in New York last year. I have appreciated Knuffke's playing and music before, and I will do it again here. His tone is always full and warm, and he's a master at taking tough bends easily. The music is jazz in its purest sense : improvisational joy and emotional expressivity in a compact form. There is nothing but pulse in the pieces they play, even if the rhythms are not always explicit or when there are no patterns, the three musici…
Cymbals
restocked, but very few available...LP art edition of 310 numbered copies, recorded on 1973, NEVER previously issued on vinyl, this is a jewel from saturn: try to find it in the cosmo if you can. This  albums originally intended for release by Impulse! in the early 1970s,  Cymbals is very a much a continuation of efforts like The Night of the Purple Moon, with an overall extended sax workouts, and built out with plenty of welcoming grooves.  An highlight from a fertile period when Sun Ra and his…
Le viandier de taillevent
for almost 10 years, the québécois collective napalm jazz gets its hands dirty with its unorthodox approaches to improv.' 'mostly activ as a duo with erick d'orion and philémon they like to get different guests like for example a_dontigny, arnaud rivière, erikm or erik minkkinen. limited to 181 copies and coproduced with notype from montréal." (label info)
Hyste
A sequence of six duo improvisations on tenor saxophone & church organ recorded at St Peter’s, Whitstable in 2009.
Psalms
A sequence of six duo improvisations on tenor saxophone & church organ recorded at St Peter’s, Whitstable in 2009.
Wazifa
PAT THOMAS (piano and synthesizer), CLAYTON THOMAS (double bass), RAYMOND STRID (percussion) recorded in concert at the 2009 Perspectives Festival, Västerås, Sweden.
Creak above 33
An interesting development in recent times has been the transAtlantic and trans-generational connections being made in the improvisation community. The Emanem recording by Steve Beresford with Okkyung Lee and Peter Evans, and George Lewis' collaboration with GIO are just two recent examples that come to mind. At the forefront of this trend is the duo of Nate Wooley (trumpet & amplifier) and Paul Lytton (percussion & live electronics) bringing two of the most questioning minds in improvised music…
A week went by
Aki Takase's visit to the North East of England resulted in two new fruitful encounters which Chris Trent was on hand to document. The duo with alto saxophonist John Tchicai and the trios with John Edwards (double bass) and Tony Levin (drums) are augmented by solo pieces all taken from the Music Outside Festival of 2008."Creating an arc from disparate, spontaneously generated materials; positing authenticity that recognises the dynamic between jazz and improvised music, A WEEK WENT BY confirms A…
Whitstable solo
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…
Adrift
Three live performances of collaborative electroacoustic compositions from 2007-08, recorded in London, Brisbane and Antwerp, each exploring different points of contact between precomposed structures and spontaneous invention: a duo adrift  (in memory of Paul Rutherford) with pianist Sarah Nicolls, a nonet codex IX (in memory of Mauricio Kagel) with the ELISION ensemble, and a 17-piece group with Ensemble Champ d'Action realising codex VII (to Vinko Globokar).
Set
This music was inspired by Lynn Margulis’ serial endosymbiosis theory (SET), and is dedicated to her and her amazing insights into the mechanisms of biological evolution.In inviting Paul Lytton, Barry Guy, Walter Prati, Marco Vecchi, Lawrence Casserley and FURT, I was trading on the pre-existing musical structures that these musicians brought with them: the solo works of Guy, Lytton , Casserley and myself; the duos with Lytton, Guy, Prati and Casserley, the trio with Guy and Lytton, the trio wit…