Jazz /
Hawking Extended
"With Hawking Extended the two Berlin based musicians Ernst Bier & Ignaz Schick present their duo Hawking (formed in 2013) in addition with the Munich based composer, guitarist and live-electronics player Gunnar Geisse. While Hawking performed entirely with live-electronic instruments – in Hawking Extended however additionally to the three different electronic set-ups the musicians also make use of their original acoustic instruments. The purely acoustic setting (saxophone, guitar, drums) is mir…
Ilog2
*2023 stock* Ignaz Schick and Oliver Steidle started collaborating as Ilog around 2013/2014 with celebrated concerts in the Berlin experimental underground. Their first album on Boomslang Records was released in 2015 and since then the two have been performing on and off concerts & tours in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland and the USA.
In the meantime they also collaborated with the Norwegian bass maverick Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten and German sound artist Jan-Peter Son…
Chicken Shit Bingo
Peter Brötzmann collaborated with many artists in his career, regularly adding new compatriots into the fold, and Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love became one of his staunchest allies after the percussionist joined the Chicago Tentet in 2004. They worked in various contexts, including this inexhaustible, hard-hitting duo. Most of the albums they’ve issued have captured live performances, but in 2015 they made this stunning studio recording. As Nilssen-Love says in the liner notes, “Peter had a…
Afro Blue
Saxophonist Mats Gustafsson is notorious for his prolific nature and constantly expanding circle of collaborators, but few of his partnerships have been as powerful and profound as Gush, the Swedish trio which formed way back in 1988 and celebrates its 36th anniversary in 2024. This performance was captured live at the famous Stockholm jazz venue Fasching on December 17, 1998, and the music excited all three musicians when they revisited it this year. The album is named for the Mongo Santamaria …
Voices
"Manfred Schoof grew up perfecting his innovative jazz style, often practicing on either his jazz trumpet or his flügelhorn. By the time he reached high school, Schoof was composing his own arrangements. In 1955, Schoof decided to purse a musical career, enrolling in the Music Academy (Musikakademie) at Kassel. After studying and performing there for three years, he moved to further his studies at the Cologne Musikhochschule. While there, Schoof took a jazz class by Kurt Edelhagen, a West German…
Music for Piano and Modular Synthesizer
Music for Piano and Modular Synthesizer is a suite of compositions utilizing piano, modular synthesizer, piccolo trumpet, launeddas and various other sound devices in order to express certain emotions clear and bright. Resonant Stacks of Energy in shattered Time sent through a specific modular synth patch, emitting sound… corresponding to my own innate qualities of hearing, seeing and feeling. A kind of time Travel Device towards a more Utopian future. I approach the piano and composition in …
Tryangle
*2023 stock* From 1960 era, Hiroshi Yamazaki played with Masayuki Takayanagi, Kaoru Abe, Masabumi Kikuchi, and so on. He plays from standard Jazz to Freeform Improvisation by his original drum sounds and now he put the focus on this unit called Tryangle. Also bassist Nobuyoshi Ino played with Masayuki Takayanagi and Yamazaki from 60 era. Tryangle is the unsettled unit that drummer Yamazaki and bassist Ino invite unique guest musician. For example, Takayuki Kato (g), Masayo Koketsu (as), Sachi Ha…
Root
*2023 stock* Japanese prog. irregular time signature drum master, Tatsuya Yoshida and crazy beautiful jazz pianist, Dairo Suga met and improvised first time at the venue “7th Floor”, Tokyo on 2021. This CD is the all recorded memorable live performance then. The duo playing has a passion, a sense of speed, number of voices and mugginess ! Yoshida uses brushes ( unbelievable ! ) and singing by falsetto voice, and Suga send out a prog-rock-like phrase. They are getting closer to each other but don…
HMT
*2023 stock* "A critical point of explosive hardcore improv! A relentless mass of sound! The long-awaited first album of this hardcore trio, which has been steadily increasing its fan base by always running at full speed and radiating sound to the limits of their physical and mental strength, has finally made its debut! This group was formed based on Hirose's concept of packing condensed sounds to the limit, and there are no gaps between sounds, no interplay, and no formulaic improvisational ele…
Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane 1957 (Revisited)
Temporary Super Offer! “Working with Monk brought me close to a musical architect of the highest order. I felt I learned from him in every way – through the senses, theoretically, technically. I would talk to Monk about musical problems and he would sit at the piano and show me the answers just by playing them.“ – John Coltrane
Eric Dolphy At The Five Spot To Iron Man (Revisited)
Temporary Super Offer! "Eric Dolphy’s legacy is well represented by these performances from The Five Spot and the sessions supervised by Alan Douglas. They confirm him to be an artist who straddled the divide then so deep in jazz, drawing sustenance from the music’s past as he cleared a path to its future. Dolphy’s was a sensibility that could celebrate Fats Waller and honor Jomo Kenyatta, its inclusiveness rare in the polarized early 1960s. Fortunately, his example has not simply endured, bu…
Inner Space
*2023 stock* "Japanese pianist Yosuke Yamashita built his name as one of the country's avant-garde jazz leader with his bass-less trio founded still in 1969 (with drummer Takeo Moriyama and tenorist Seiichi Nakamura, in 1973 Nakamura has been changed by alto sax player Akira Sakata). Early-mid 70s were all years of trio's fame documented by representative collection of studio and live albums, all containing high energy fast and tight strongly improvisation music.Year 1977 was a transitional for …
Evolution
*2024 stock* "This release Shintaro Quintet’s private press release ‘Evolution’. It’s another well-chosen release that comes with superb packaging, high sound quality and some interesting sleeve notes which give a fascinating in-depth insight into the music and the musicians in Japan within the specified time period.
Recorded in New York, the one-off recording by bassist Shintaro Nakamura and his quintet features the brilliant trumpeter Shunzo Ohno, who has played on many of the quintessential J…
East Plants
*2023 stock* "A genuine ‘under the radar’ album known only to a handful of Japanese jazz collectors, ‘East Plants’ is now available once more, reissued as CD and digital formats. Originally released in 1983 on the Japanese VAP label, ‘East Plants’ is an essential album in the J Jazz canon. It’s an album that distils several key characteristics of Moriyama’s music: clearly articulated and inventive rhythms, open yet orderly arrangements, and an accessible groove balanced with a graceful control. …
Roscoe Village (The Music Of Roscoe Mitchell)
Tuned metal percussion figures prominently in the sound universe of Roscoe Mitchell. Many of Mitchell's early compositions for the Art Ensemble of Chicago feature xylophone and tuned bells, and his immersive set-up known as The Cage arranges an array of percussed instruments in a circle around him, including all sorts of metallophones and gongs. On Roscoe Village, Chicago-based improvisor Jason Adasiewicz has transcribed and arranged a selection of Mitchell-penned pieces, performing them all on …
Köln – February 23, 1975
The meeting between Terry Riley the father of American Minimalism and free jazz pioneer Don Cherry. Two contemporary luminaries who always shared an ear for non Western music and philosophies. Joined here by Stein Claeson on violin and el. bass, and Bengt Berger on percussion, these two giants give us an example of deep organic music based on the full integration of various materials. A beautiful example of true extended sonic democracy.
Coastline
*Contains printed inner sleeve with archival photos and extensive liner notes by two Italian soprano saxophone specialists Roberto Ottaviano and Eugenio Colombo, and pianist Martin Joseph himself* Recorded Live in Italy in October 1985 and mastered directly from the old dusty cassette, here's a previously unheard Steve Lacy recording from a rare duo appearance with pianist Martin Joseph, a little known yet fascinating British musician who had worked with Harry Beckett, John Surman, Ian Carr, Tub…
Banquet of consequences
Berlin-based Banquet of Consequences is the new sextet led by double bassist Antonio Borghini. In addition to the valuable lesson of Charles Mingus, clear references to Dutch, Italian and South African jazz traditions are mixed in the group. The group's eponymous debut album oscillates between completely improvised works - a series of numbered "Dialogues" - and compositions that swing wildly between chaos and tenderness.