Jazz /
Follow A Very Heavy Person, First Visit
"First visit to the audio equivalent of a graphic novel. Follow A Very Heavy Person is more than an album—it is an experience, an inquiry, an adventure into the unknown, defying easy categorization and existing in the liminal space between music, poetry, and philosophy. Armaroli and his quintet have crafted something truly singular—a journey through sound that is both timeless and profoundly rooted in the ephemeral beauty of the present moment." - Mark Corroto
Die Umelieder-Kollektion
2010 release ** "One of the most hypnotic current albums comes from Switzerland: No wonder, given that so many exciting niches live here, where culture and mentality stand for free spirit, which is evident time and again in the music created there. Ruedi Häusermann, Marco Käppeli, and Claude Meier form what we might call a chamber music, folkloristic, and imaginary trio. In the broadest sense... Ruedi Häusermann, the initiator and creator of the Ume songs, uses various flutes, clarinets, bariton…
The Ill-Tempered Piano
2008 release ** ""Nicola Cipani's "Ill-Tempered Piano" is a suprising and playful album of solo improvisations played on broken and untuned pianos. Cipani's accomplished melodic and rhythmic approach and his responsiveness to each instrument's raw potential set this project apart. The recordings were made over the span of two years in different New York City warehouses, on several keyboard instruments (among the pianos you hear also a clavichord), some of which are so damaged as to be hardly rec…
Pivot
"The band showed up, four folks from three different spots on the globe -- Chicago (Vandermark, Reid); Nickelsdorf, Austria (Gustafsson); Philadelphia (Taylor). They assembled their gear and sound-checked at the studio. There was a four-way freedom at play, structures but liberties and no need for elaborate explanation. Everyone spoke the same shorthand. Cues were understood; timings were implicit and considered; space was made for chances to be taken. In creative music, you sometimes need to re…
Dissenting Voices with Elisabeth Flunger, Dominic Lash, Kathryn Williams
Elisabeth Flunger - bass drum Dominic Lash - double bass Kathryn Williams - bass flute "Recording the Dissenting Voices confirmed the extent of their divergence from The Future That Never Was. Music always has something to do with the sonic architecture of instruments, but it is also about the fantasy with which musicians like Dominic, Elisabeth and Kathryn choose to play." - Christopher Fox
Solo Concerts: Bremen / Lausanne
Newly designed packaging with original artwork. Comes in a hard box cover with a 12-page booklet. There exists a clear before and after Solo Concerts Bremen/Lausanne. On those evenings in March and July 1973, in those European concert halls, Keith Jarrett wasn't simply playing piano. He was conjuring something magical and unrepeatable - note by note - in that unique dialogue between artist and instrument that only the greatest improvisers truly understand.
Today, fifty years later, ECM Records t…
3 Phasis
3 Phasis is the companion disc to the Cecil Taylor Unit, both set down over four miraculous days in April 1978. It too is a testament to the perfectionism and unpredictability that are hallmarks of Taylor's music. As always, he is the instigator and barometer of the torrents of energy channeled through his able and sympathetic collaborators. This is music of a fierce and uncompromising beauty which sweeps all before it.
Words Were Coming Out Our Ears
Recorded at the legendary Atlantis Studio in Stockholm, Words Were Coming Out Our Ears captures a unique musical encounter in the moment. Pianist Johan Graden, bassists Vilhelm Bromander and Pär Ola Landin, and drummer Nils Agnas entered the studio without a fixed plan – the music emerged organically through improvisation and attentive interplay.
What sets this album apart is the instrumentation. With two double bass players, the music gains an unusual depth and weight, where the bass not only s…
Yowzers
Yowzers is a new album by Chicago composer, improvisor, instrumentalist and musical folklorist Ben LaMar Gay. The twelve track collection is a leap forward in the lexicon of Gay’s recorded output, and a veritable masterwork of ancient inner-body rhythms and intuitive melodic storytelling. It’s worth mentioning that a leap forward for Gay is no small feat. The musical ground he has covered in the last decade, both as a bandleader and collaborator, is immense. His de facto debut album—the 2018 com…
Killing Time
Massacre was a guitar trio formed by Fred Frith, who moved to New York after the break-up of Henry Cow, with Bill Laswell (b) and Fred Marr (dr). The album was greeted with surprise and acclaim at the time as the work that steered Frith towards an aggressive, sharp-edged sound based on improvisation. The trio disbanded after one album and reformed in 1998, replacing Charles Hayward on drums, and this time the album is reissued at the correct pitch, as intended by the artist, after being released…
Shifting Types Of Amazement
Tip! A compelling live performance from Munich's Waldkirche Planegg uniting Udo Schindler's inventive bass clarinets, Erhard Hirt's textural guitar and computer interactions, and Ove Volquartz's resonant low reeds, weaving a rich tapestry of spontaneous, intricately layered improvisations infused with subtle electronic nuances.
Torque
2006 release ** "Here’s a superior set of contemporary jazz, blazing straight out of the long and unruly heritage of left-field explorations. Rising trumpeter and composer Groder is here teamed with the eminent saxophonist and flautist, Sam Rivers, plus Rivers’ usual rhythm section of bassist Doug Mathews and drummer Anthony Cole. Together, they whip up a bubbling, effervescent concoction of jagged, free-jazz group improvisations and hard-swinging free-bop that recalls Miles Davis’s mid-’60s ‘ti…
Science Fiction
Tip! Science Fiction is an album by the American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, released in February 1972. It is considered as Coleman's creative rebirth. A stunningly inventive and appropriately alien-sounding blast of manic energy, where Coleman combines his past and future, working with bassist Charlie Haden and drummers Billy Higgins and Ed Blackwell. The album is made up of spacy, long-toned melodies and rhythm, including two songs with Indian vocalist Asha Puthl…
NERR - Filling Open Spaces
This is a recorded document performed by Mark Holub, Johanna Pärli and Sofía Salvo.
Old and New Dreams Chapter-2
The second chapter of the project, "Break," marks the first encounter with Yosuke Yamashita & Hiroshi Yamazaki in 60 years since their first encounter at Ginpari. Guitarist/composer Otomo Yoshihide has been active all over the world, from movies, plays, TV shows to commercials, without being confined to the framework of free jazz. The live performance recorded on December 27, 2024 at Shinjuku Pit Inn, which has been his "core" since his teenage years, is not only a "milestone" in Otomo's career,…
Old and New Dreams Chapter-1
The opening of the pair of simultaneous releases, "Introduction," is a new wave of free jazz born from an intergenerational improvisation session with Takashi Sugawa (b) and Shun Ishiwaka (ds). Guitarist/composer Otomo Yoshihide has been active all over the world, from movies, plays, TV to commercials, without being confined to the framework of free jazz. The live recording of December 27, 2024 at Shinjuku Pit Inn, which has been his "core" since his teenage years, is not only a "milestone" in O…
Amaryllis
Return of the great American jazz trio that delivered the poll-topping "Nothing Ever Was, Anyway" in 1997. Material heard on "Amaryllis" is by turns thoughtful, touching, joyous and viscerally exciting. Some of the songs are well known – almost classics of new jazz – including Crispell’s "Rounds", Peacock’s "Requiem" and "December Wings, Motian’s "Conception Vessel". There are also a number of startlingly effective free improvised ballads. As leader Marilyn Crispell says, "There’s a great depth …
Adyton
Edition of 200. Japanese free jazz legend Akira Sakata and Greek avant-garde guitarist Giotis Damianidis present Adyton, their first-ever duo recording. Having collaborated since 2018, the two musicians have developed an intuitive and electrifying musical dialogue, culminating in this live performance at Haekem, Brussels -- the final concert of a two-week tour with Entasis in September 2023. Sakata, who turned 80 on February 21st, 2024, delivers his signature fiery alto saxophone, evocative clar…
To Walk On Eggshells
"Christian Weber said in an interview for “Jazz’N’More": No matter how I move along the timeline, my attention is focused on what is to come. At the same time, I always keep in mind what happened before, without analyzing. This way, I avoid the improvisation becoming arbitrary. Both arbitrary openness and narrow restriction, neither suits me." And therein lies the whole secret of this record and ultimately the definition of great art: it is the ability of a musician to have control over space an…