Various

Now that we've wrapped up our inaugural six-volume CD series, Azul Discografica continues in earnest with our first vinyl release, The Sakada Sessions. Sakada is the duo of Eddie Prevost (AMM) and experimental noise agitator Mattin (Billy Bao, Josetxo Grieta, and countless other projects). Since Sakada's 2001 inception, the pair has performed with a host of radical improvisers of the highest order. This record documents two such sessions: the first, a spare, inverted dronework featuring Alan Courtis on guitar and electronics, Prevost on bowed cymbals, snare, and miscellaneous percussion, and Mattin casting beams of grainy laptop feedback through the mist; the second, an intense, uneasy scrape session with The Dead C's Bruce Russell, whose synth drones provide an insistent counterpoint to Mattin's roaring computer noise and Prevost's mechanized tam-tam drills and cymbalic violence. At times, the musicians sound uncannily like one another, Mattin teasing Russellesque squalor out of his circuitry, Eddie's perverse timekeeping recalling Alan's degree-zero pulsations on that early Billy Bao CD... It's an extraordinary set: two sidelong improvisations by three generations of uncompromising improvisers. As usual, the performances are of a very high calibre. By necessity, this is an extremely limited edition. Silkscreened covers, exquisite sound, an impeccable piece of work in every respect.