Jazz /
Happy Village
LP version. Back in 2020, Kafé Hærverk, Oslo's live hotspot for a wide range of jazz and experimental music invited Master Oogway to do monthly concerts from August to December, bringing along a guest for each occasion. Two had to be moved to 2021 due to Covid restrictions, but the other three were recorded for possible use later. Initially, Rune Grammofon thought about doing a "best of" from all of the recordings, but after further listening it soon dawned on the label that the concert with Hen…
Out To Lunch
Reissue, originally released on CD in 2005. Eric Dolphy's final studio album is hailed as one of the finest examples of mid-60s post-bop. Dolphy, having recorded the album in February 1964, was in Europe less than six weeks later and his all-too-brief life ended less than two months after that. It marked his last flurry of original compositions and is considered his apex. It is fascinating to consider whether he would have moved past or away from the album in 1965, had he lived. Though Dolphy sh…
Speaksome
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* For as long as I can remember, Christian Wallumrød's piano touch has done something to me. We met early. The peculiar and surprising, but still somewhat self-evident, melodic twists. Not to mention the far above average well-weighted ornaments. He manages to create completely unique universes, either with his own ensemble or alone. In recent years, he has also returned to electronics and he treats them with a gentle rawness. There has always been something h…
Krympende Klode
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Krympende klode is a new collaboration between two internationally recognised musicians from Bergen, Norway: music producer Jørgen Træen, who has worked with talents such as Susanne Sundfør, Thea Hjelmeland and Jazkamer, and the unique and eternally inventive guitarist Stein Urheim, whose releases include 6 albums on the Hubro label. On this album they present their personal collections of synthesisers and string instruments from all over the world, and let …
Kroksjø
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* The new album by the partnership of guitarist Jo David Meyer Lysne (born 1994) and double bassist Mats Eilertsen (born 1975) is a remarkable document that functions simultaneously as both a calm and meditative series of chill-out soundscapes, and as a rigorously poetic evocation of mood and place that one might expect to hear more readily in an art gallery installation. It is also shockingly beautiful. The ecstatic shimmer of acoustic guitar and pedal steel …
Dugnad
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* “This album has everything. Which is why it’s not for everyone.” The statement belongs to Øyvind Skarbø; bandleader, drummer and composer. His ensemble Skarbø Skulekorps released their highly praised debut album on Hubro in 2019, universally hailed for being both catchy and unpredictable at the same time. Dugnad does the same thing, but amplified to the extreme. It marks a deeper and even more radical exploration completely outside normal paths of genre and …
Avant Folk
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock. Limited edition of 500 copies.* The opening track of ‘Avant Folk’ is like a dream of what contemporary experimental folk-meets-jazz-meets-chamber-music might be. Composed by Frode Haltli, ‘Hug’ begins with a galumphing off-centre rhythm that could be an accompaniment to elephants waltzing before the wheezing bellows-breath of Haltli’s accordion creates delightfully airy whispers of noise that drift across the other instruments like wisps of cloud across the s…
Live In Praha 1964
A previously unpublished recording of the Krzysztof Komeda Quintet's performances at the first jazz festival in Prague in 1964. An important, significant stop in the jazz career of the legendary pianist and composer appears on disc more than half a century after its recording. And it continues to delight.
Krzysztof Komeda was received extremely enthusiastically in Prague. His original Quintet, by the way, played at an incredibly high level, electrifying the audience gathered in Prague's Lucerna.…
Golden Quartet
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* A longtime dream project of Wadada Leo Smith, one of creative music’s most original voices, Tzadik is proud to present the first recording by a modern jazz supergroup. The four instrumental giants that comprise the Golden Quartet are veterans of some of the most influential bands in jazz history and here they are at the height of their powers. Five new compositions bring together lyricism, groove and fireworks in this exciting recording destined to become a …
Am Frankfurter Tor
*In process of stocking* Anna and Jan first met in 2004 when they started playing together in different combinations as the Kaluza Quartet (with trombonist Christof Thewes and drummer Kay Lübke), trios with pianst Niko Meinhold or with drummer Michael Griener and various others. In 2020 they played their first duo concert on a boat in Berlin (Hosek Contemporary) and decided to continue with their work as duo. The same year they went to Christian Betz’ studio in Friedrichshain to record their mus…
Khimaira
Khimaira is a three headed monster. It has a lion head in front, a wild goat head on it’s back and a snake head at the end of it’s tail. It is the offspring of Echidna, the mother of all monsters. The group collaborates to produce eerie organic sounds, howling cries, whispered hums, disturbing wailing, shrieks that die off and reimerge with an intense fluidity. Yet there is an architecture under-girding the improvisations that's only discernible in its outline.
The Embalmer
Matthew Bourne is a renowned pianist with a reputation as a fearlessly unpredictable improviser. Emil Karlsen is an independently minded drummer who plays with power and delicacy. The Embalmer documents one of Karlsen and Bourne’s first meetings. Recorded in a single session in 2020, The Embalmer sees a wide-ranging musical discourse between the two musicians unfold in its most lean form across the six improvised tracks.
Space
*In process of stocking* Ullén/Bergman/Lund is a piano trio based in Stockholm that plays free jazz that channels the American free jazz tradition as well as contemporary classical music. Combining raw power with an exquisite attention to detail, the three musicians make every moment sparkle with possibilities. In this aural space, every movement matters.
Ullén and fellow Swedes Bergman and Lund are all significant players in the Scandanavian freejazz scene and the trio first met in the sextet A…
Papirfuglen
Moskus conveys their perspective of the world with vivid improvisation in a genre-free universe. In their In their most recent release, “Papirfuglen”, the ensemble further solidifies their position as one of the most cutting-edge and transfixing voices in the newest generation of both Norwegian and international jazz. They have a unique musical approach, with a combination of infectious playfulness and a headstrong penchant for experimentation. And with these tools Moskus takes yet another ste…
Sleeping Beauty
In 2021, the international contemporary music festival Only Connect commissioned an interpretation from I Like to Sleep of the first movement of Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalila symphony. A project which initially led to a 15-minute piece performed at the festival, with the trio re-writing the music of Messiaen, but also rewriting the music of their own. Messiaen as a reference and compositional tool may be heard in the album for those really listening for references. With “Sleeping Beauty” the tr…
Fire Hills
Fire Hills is Olie Brice’s third album as a composer bandleader, following the critically acclaimed ‘Immune to Clockwork’ (Multi Kulti, 2014) and ‘Day After Day’ (Babel, 2017). A double album, Brice’s compositions for improvisers are explored by two groups of the most exciting and creative musicians in the UK, all significant bandleaders themselves.
Fire Hills showcases two versions of a new phase in Brice’s music. During 2021 – a year of covid lockdowns and greatly reduced gigging opportuniti…
Duet
“Composition 429” is the first piece using a new writing method that Braxton calls “Lorraine.” The composer’s notes to the piece describe Lorraine as “a music system that governs the ‘sonic winds’ of breath.” Saxophonist and longtime collaborator James Fei contributes an essay detailing the Lorraine system, which uses a combination of traditional notation and color-coded symbols of the composer’s design to indicate “specific sound types or performance techniques,” drawing from Braxton’s long his…
Extra Presence
Extra Presence is a 90 minute, 17-track collection showcasing Los Angeles modern music scene pioneer Carlos Niño’s unique, highly developed, self-described “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” sound, and featuring an incredible cast of collaborators (including Jamael Dean, Nate Mercereau, Shabazz Palaces, Deantoni Parks, Sam Gendel, Laraaji, Jamire Williams, Iasos, and more). It's an expanded edition of a 10-track suite called 'Actual Presence' that Niño self-released exclusively via his …
Sequential Stream
Big Tip! *Limited edition of 500 copies.* Properly transcendent deep-dream jazz fantasy from prolific trumpet virtuoso Arve Henriksen (Supersilent) and Norwegian pianist Kjetil Husebø, together shaping an album that’s much, much more than the not so inconsiderable sum of its parts. Like a fever-dream comedown, it takes us from insanely rich sounding 4th world topographies to fizzing, electric ambience and fluttering prepared piano, perfectly soundtracking the humid un-reality we’re living throug…
Live In Middelheim 1999
Crossing the Atlantic to meet in Belgium for the first time in almost six months, and going their separate ways less than twenty hours later, Masada’s concert in Middleheim was under pressure from the beginning. Reaching full-out intensity in the first thirty seconds of their very first piece, this is Masada at their wildest—simultaneously out of control and yet intensely focused like a laser beam. "I felt like a squirrel being dragged behind a Mack truck." — Greg Cohen. Beautifully recorded by …