Insisting
Two hardcore proponents of free improvisations from different generations meet for a granular explosion.
Handle, Nail and Rubber Dinosaur
Tip! In "Handle, Nail and Rubber Dinosaur", Jun-Y Ciao plays soprano saxophone and Zhu Wenbo plays clarinet. Before recording there was very little pre-planning, the only decision was that they each play a few short passages. They recorded a single take, during which there were some naturally occurring pauses and breaks – these make up the first 13 tracks of the album. After that they decided to make another recording with a more defined limitation: they maintain fixed fingerings, limiting the s…
Archiv 2005-2006
MTDM (acronym from the Chinese name mei tui de ma, “horse without legs”) is the duet of Jun-Y Ciao and Tao Yi, both born in 1978, Year of the Horse. Tao Yi plays drums and trumpet, and Jun-Y Ciao, woodwinds, including different sizes of saxophone and clarinet. Around 2008, MTDM returned to Shanghai from Europe, and straight away got involved in the local experimental music scene, giving entirely improvised performances using only acoustic instruments. From their overall musical style, to their a…
Permian Period
Tip! *2024 stock* I first met Takashi in a duo performance by Seijiro Murayama & Tetuzi Akiyama at Permian. I recall that the small underground venue was packed and that the interplay between these two great musicians was vivid, tense and loud. After the performance we scheduled to meet and play at a later date. There’s always some aura (in my mind) when two improvising musicians meet for the first time, as if there is still a chance for an infinite amount of possibilities. It felt natural for m…
Asteroid
*2024 stock* "I have always been fascinated by the improvising combos that give prominence to the classical guitar, but it is usually easier to find such productions on the contemporary side. So having caught this little gem with strong freeform accents, where it makes its worthy appearance was a sign of amazement. We specify that the Graculus do not give exclusive space to the six strings but that in reality they are a duo formed by the English Phil Hargeraves (flute, soprano sax) and Richard H…
Fall Through the Infinite
*2021 stock* Phil Hargreaves is a Liverpool saxophonist and bold improviser whose music evokes the voices and echoes of his home city. In his new album, Fall Through the Infinite, he duets with the drummer of Spaceheads, Richard Harrison, and they create an urban soundscape, sometimes forlorn, sometimes bursting with hope, which is constantly inventive and multifaceted in its sonic patterns. Hargreaves’s tenor horn rampages through Reach for the Tar in ardent conversation with Harrison’s scuttli…
Maromas
Maromas is the debut recording of the duo of Ingrid Laubrock and Cecilia Lopez. Recorded in April 2022, the album is a collection of improvised pieces for tenor and soprano saxophone, processing and electronics. Maromas refers to the doing of tricksters, conjurers and acrobats. The music is dark, harsh but also playful in its pirouettes. The electronics process the saxophone as much as the saxophone plays the electronics. Both voices became a third two-headed creature sometimes alienating the so…
Mature Defense Mechanism
Mature Defense Mechanism is an improvised experiment in the relationships between rock and jazz characterized by whimsy amidst seclusion. It’s natural territory for guitarist Kirsten Carey and drummer Aaron Edgcomb, who are both gaining reputations for adventurous and wide-ranging approaches to music making.
Clearing
“Peridot dives right in, and so I will. It’s a gemstone, peridot, and may become your favorite gemstone (as it has mine since I’ve dug in to its history and cultural significance). I like volcanoes and volcanic land formations. “Peridot,” the musical piece presented here by Powers/Rolin, is soundtrack to memories of in-person witnessed lava floes and the infinite parade of Herzogian docu-footage of rivers of fire and constructive destruction. There are edits or augmentations evident, creating (o…
We Speak in Rivers
Patrick Shiroishi - Alto SaxophoneCamila Nebbia - Tenor Saxophone
Written, performed & produced by Camila Nebbia & Patrick ShiroishiRecorded by Lukas Marx at Soundfabrik, Berlin 2022Mix by Juan BelvisMastered by Lasse MarhaugDesigned by Tony LugoExecutive Production by Christian Di Vito
Moonutatud Muundused / Distorted Conversions
Moonutatud Muundused / Distorted Conversions can be seen as an auditive synthesis of Kris Kuldkepp’s various musical activities over the last few years. Comprising a 40-minute exploration of musical entanglements, the album explores the double bass as a solo instrument with a rich timbre quality guiding the musical journey, being simultaneously not always visible or discernible. The double bass is like a trickster, taking many different forms over the course of the musical journey; its pure deep…
A Void Dance
*50 copies limited edition* First meeting and recording between veteran drummer Dirk Wachtelaer and guitarist Jef Mertens recorded at the studio at Scherpendries, Geel in August 2023. A Void Dance is a first exploration that will hopefully spark more recordings to come.
Great Star Theater, San Francisco
Joëlle Léandre and Lauren Newton have been performing together for nearly 30 years, having met in the mid-1990s in Paris. Throughout that time, they have always favored exploring the textures of music that are not arranged conventionally but rather are scattered, diffused, and dispersed through layers of sound. The voice’s high notes forge a variety of color fragments, while the low notes of the double bass create substance and depth. These two components remain inseparable as the sound settles …
Medea
Duo in the mirror that, in a continuous game of doubling and multiplication, ventures into another world, dense with unexpectedness and vital thrills. Sun Ra and post-rock, as well as Chicago experimentation and echoes of the world of Suzanne Ciani and minimal music, are the hints one can sense while listening to Medea, a journey to the edge and beyond. Star Splitter's new album comes five years after the debut album, a period in which the two artists experimented with the infinite possibilities…
Dead Slow
Michalis Siganidis seems to narrate through the strings in this absolutely physical, organic way his experiential, intellectual and emotional relationship with the instrument. The accompanying electronic commentaries by Jannis Anastasakis refers to a dialectic of question and answer. Through this pulsating sound environment, the listener receives a musical world deeply internal, a circuit - extremely subtle but also coarse with a fierce intensity in places - of rare in expressiveness psychic vib…
Knækket Smil
In an exhilarating convergence of sonic exploration, experimental noise guitarist Nina Garcia and danish trombone virtuoso Maria Bertel have teamed up to create a heavy-hitting, collaborative record that pushes the boundaries between extreme improvisation and harsh noise. Both renowned in their respective fields, Garcia and Bertel bring their unique styles and influences to create a masterpiece of collaborative improvisation.
Knækket Smil (meaning „broken smile“) is a living, breathing, moving e…
Wood/Metal/Plastic/Pattern/Rhythm/Rock
**7-Color heavy "tip-on" jacket w/ textured paper and fold-out poster insert. ** 75 Dollar Bill, a project by Che Chen and Rick Brown present Wood/Metal/Plastic/Pattern/Rhythm/Rock. "Che's interest in the Arabic modes of Mauritanian music has marked our sound quite a bit but I have brought some things, too. The plywood crate I play is a big factor, defining, by its positive qualities (a nice warm 'boom' sound) as well as by its simplicity, what we're likely to do in the percussion realm. Wood/Me…
At Sound 323
Originally released by Confront in 2013 on compact disc as The Complete August 15th 2001. Now freshly remixed and remastered in 2023 for release on a delux double 180g white vinyl LP set and digital. Recorded at Sound 323, London by Tim Fletcher on 15 August 2001
Tubes
Tip!
Sam Newsome – Soprano Saxophone, Horn Preparations, ToysMax Johnson – Double Bass
Recorded at Conveyor by Jason Borisoff on March 18, 2023Mixed and Mastered by Max JohnsonPhoto by Peter GannushkinDesign by David Mirarchi
All music by Max Johnson (Max Johnson Music ASCAP and Sam Newsome (Some New Music BMI), except “Blue Monk” by Thelonious Monk
Cielomoto
*50 copies limited edition* Although we play other instruments, this recording is focused on the sounds of electric guitar and saxophone. We are inspired by silence, the phenomena that break it and their effects and in cosmic and natural drifts as well. Vision plays a fundamental role. Together, we understand sound as the result of our relationship and our way of building and destroying. The result is a story that becomes a future visual story, because when we play, we see.