Tintinnabulation
At the centre of this release are Vergette's Time and Tide bells: handmade instruments which create sound with the rising sea levels. One of the bells is ringing at any given time of day as the tide wraps around our coast, retreats and returns again. There are eight bells currently scattered across the UK's coasts, each existing as a democratic artwork owned by the local community. Sounds from these bells are collaged with field recordings from the coast and fragments of instrumental improvisati…
Saab Fanfare
In October 2022 Musica Impulscentrum invited Amber Meulenijzer to make a composition in collaboration with the local fanfare bands of Pelt, a small municipality in the green east of Belgium. These fanfare bands are deeply rooted in Belgian culture. Even in the tiniest villages one finds at least one or several of these ensembles. The result of this confluence: a procession, a slow paced moving composition for brass instruments, performed both live and played back through twelve speakers mounted …
Ephemeralds
Ephemeralds is the first recording by Finn Loxbo’s new ensemble Kommun and marks a distinct development in the guitarist’s compositional practice. Performing together with pianist Lisa Ullén, kontrabassist Vilhelm Bromander and percussionist Ryan Packard, Loxbo has set up a situation of intense focus, dissolving individual identities into a collective sound world of resolute clarity. Each musician manipulates a collection of tightly stipulated pitch material whilst bringing the shared timbral qu…
Postcards From Hereafter
Razen's Postcards From Hereafter was recorded using a 17th century organ tuned at 398 Hz (meantone) in a Belgian cathedral erected in 1305. The ensemble explored, with rich results, the organ's strict and limiting tuning with an arrangement that included hurdy gurdy, recorders, chalumeau, violone and nyckelharpa. The pieces on Postcards From Hereafter explore the crossover between this world and the next with improvised spiritual, religious music. Brussels-based ensemble Razen use the unique tim…
Stikling
Small repress available, don't miss it **200 copies** "This record began in summer 2020, when I was staying at Andersabo, Sweden, where I run an artists' residency. I had access to a nearby church, and would set drones going on the organ while playing clarinet and piano. I started working with the combination of these long, sustained tones, combined with acoustic instruments, where the sound's duration was only as long as a breath or the pluck of a string. A lot of the last Blue Lake LP was made…
Hosono House
*2023 stock* The unbelievably prolific Haruomi Hosono is one of the major architects of modern Japanese pop music. With his encyclopedic knowledge of music and boundless curiosity for new sounds, Hosono has put his unmistakable stamp on hundreds of recordings as a session player, producer, and auteur of his own idiosyncratic musical world. Born and raised in central Tokyo, his adolescent obsession with American pop culture informed his early forays into country music, which he would revisit late…
Hugo Ball: Six Sound Poems, 1989 & 2013
*2023 stock* "This recording is a modern interpretation of sound poems written and performed by German Dadaist Hugo Ball more than a century ago. Those familiar with Ball know him as the author of these innovative works and founder of the Cabaret Voltaire, Dada’s Zurich birthplace. Despite the sound poems’ artistic legacy, they constitute only a small part of Ball’s creative output. The purpose of these liner notes, then, is to consider the complex life and work of the man behind the sound poems…
Precipitation of a Decision
Tip! *In process of stocking* "Two distinct session, the first CD presenting free improv trio perfomances in St. Louis, MO between Paul Hartsaw on soprano & tenor saxophones, Damon Smith on double bass and Jerome Bryerton on percussion, the 2nd CD finding Hartsaw and Smith in the studio in Oakland CA for a more experimental session, Smith adding laptop & field recordings and both employing extended techniques." - Squidco
Duals
"In this 3-CD set each disc contains one duo session between the three musicians: trombone-bass, piano-bass and piano-trombone. Recorded over the course of Bishop's last year of residency in Boston and soon after Smith had moved to St. Louis, these recordings capture a glimpse of the city's creative music scene at a particularly active time between 2016-22, when, the three musicians interacted frequently in many settings in the Boston area. The Smith/Bishop disc consists of all improvised music,…
The Eternity-Cult
*2023 stock* "A blend of intonation and improvisation, The Eternity-Cult is a harmonies-across-the-seas program featuring the trumpet and objects of Birgit Ulher from Northern Germany with the double bass (Damon Smith) and percussion and electronics (Chris Cogburn) from the southern US. Despite geographical distances the three are equally committed to free-from improvisation. This disc's single 37-minute track finds the trio exploring textures and pitches from minimalist to embellished, while ma…
Incanto
*300 copies limited edition* Another collection of music that, instead of offering an escape route, loads you with questions. Music that originates in a grey, intermediate zone: pieces conceived and performed by an informal group of musicians which were not written. They are improvised but, instead of existing only in their own time, they are rooted in deep interpersonal relationships. A perfect balance between freedom and rigour, between visions and penumbra, between long and complex relationsh…
Raspberry Hotel
Tip! *170 copies limited edition. In process of stocking* Having lived and worked in numerous musical directions for many years, Semay Wu’s begrudgingly faithful cello still remains at her side: from Merseyside, to Manchester, to The Netherlands, and now to Central Scotland. Always trying to push age-old boundaries of how the instrument is viewed and heard, her focus has led her to explore further collaborative and everyday improvisations, blending electronics with mixed media and a variety of g…
Do Disturb
Capturing two exceptional concerts at London's Cafe OTO in 2021 & 2022, in the launch of a new quartet expanding the longstanding trio of N.O. Moore on electric guitar, John Edwards on double bass and Eddie Prévost on drums, with Alan Wilkinson on baritone & alto saxophones, and for one performance on each night, tenor saxophonist Nathaniel Catchpole joining.
"Launch show for the quartet to mark the release of new CD 'EMPoWered' on Brooklyn's 577 Records. Edwards, Moore and Prévost have comprise…
Chimæra I
Tip! A body is bounded. It operates within physical limitations and biological constraints. Whilst some see these physiological boundaries as a terminus, others such as Colin Stetson perceive them as a nexus of possibility, and perhaps even of expansion. It is in this zone of unsteady tension and promise that his new album Chimæra dwells. Collecting a series of extended drone works for saxophone, Chimæra charts an entirely new thread of work for Stetson. This thread simultaneously maintains stat…
theeOorgannnissstheeGgreattestttSsynthesizerrrEverrrrrrrr
*2023 stock* Charlemagne Palestine's performance on the organ of the Friedenskirche, Eupen for the reihe-M showcase at the Meakusma Festival 2019 was one of the many highlights of that year's festival edition. This record features the full live performance as Palestine conjures up his dense definition of maximized minimalism, introducing the performance with a minimalist drone and himself singing on top. His voice touches upon melancholy and the absurd and gives the piece context and direction. …
Slow Poem For Stiebler
An extended duo for violin and reed organ, developed by Biliana and Sarah which extends a series of short gestures from Ernstalbrecht Stiebler’s composition ‘Für Biliana’ into slowly expanding harmonic suspensions, highlighting the simple beauty and fragility of the intervals and chords.
Melodies
*In process of stocking* An extraordinary project arising from Frank Denyer’s ethno-musicological studies in the 1970’s, which forced him to go back to basics and ask himself ‘what is a melody?’ and ‘what is a note?’ Frank answered these questions by composing a series of 25 pieces starting from single-note melodies, through melodies with 2, 3 or 4 notes, ending with more complex pieces with 14- and 15-note melodies. A wonderful double CD, with a 24-page booklet containing an essay by Frank de…
Hermit Music
*In process of stocking* “Hermit Music is a collection of spontaneously composed pieces for the double bass and bow. From 2017-2019 I played a series of solo concerts in the US and Europe and wanted to capture the music I was creating at the time, so I planned to record in the Spring of 2020. Just before the Covid-19 pandemic began, my life had undergone some major changes and losses, but when New York shut down in March of 2020, I became deeply depressed and couldn’t bear to play my instrument …
Cinq Chants d'Athènes
After studying composition at the Marseille Conservatory, Emmanuel Cremer, while writing for the theatre and the cinema, began improvising, notably alongside Barre Phillips, then Raymond Boni, with whom he recorded in 2003 ("Terronès, Suite andalouse", Blue Marge 1007 - with Foussat!), Joe McPhee, Jean-Marc Montera and other musicians from the region. In Athens in 2019, in the middle of the ancient ruins, but in fact in the studio, he recorded five solo pieces, five improvisations undoubtedly we…
Oud Klooster
Tip! Release on Raw Tonk Records.
Colin Webster - Baritone SaxophoneDirk Serries - Acoustic GuitarEmilie Škrijelj - AccordionMartina Verhoeven - Double BassTom Malmendier - Percussion
Recorded at Oud Klooster, Brecht, Belgium on 5th May 2022. Mixed and mastered by Dirk Serries