Jazz /
Kiedy Wilki Zawyja?
"This giddy avant pop affair is rather more avant than pop, with a large backing band of musicians steeped in the stylings of early 1970s psychedelia, mutant prog, free jazz saxophone solos, slinky blues (particularly on “Red White And Blue”) and moody spy soundtracks in the vein of John Barry’s score for 1965’s The Ipcress File. “Last Exit To Lublin” has a spoken word interlude in which the Cold War language of such films is remapped for the era of Brexit: “Papers, please/How long have you been…
Aeolian
"These inspired duets sound so unforced and unconstrained that they blow fresh life into that well-worn image. From the outset, two quite distinct pianists establish common ground, where they interweave and spring surprises. It's wonderfully fertile ground too. Strings of scintillating moments bound seamlessly into musical mesh, now mysteriously chromatic, now alluringly melodic, fractiously dissonant, propulsive or ethereal. Tippett's speaking voice, heard fleetingly, suggests a degree of physi…
Flow Of Everything
"As the bassist for the Matthew Shipp Trio for some dozen years, Michael Bisio has still made time to initiate a cornucopia of side projects, all distinct, all persuasive and all showcasing the deep and wide artistry of Bisio. But now, his side roads have led him back to the heart of his best-known gig. The just-released Flow of Everything centers on the bass-piano symmetry of the Matthew Shipp Trio. This isn't the first time Bisio has made a duo record with Shipp, but it's been nearly a decade.…
Provenance
Martin Archer and John Jasnoch have a musical relationship which goes all the way back to the early 1980s when they were both a part of jazz-punk pell mellers Bass Tone Trap. Over the subsequent years they have played and recorded together occasionally, previously as ASK, and now as this no frills improvised music duo which allows both musicians to utilise the full range of their respective instrumentation. This new work was recorded in the same place at the same time, one day in July 2021. The …
Made Out Of Sound
*2024 repress! LP version* "Sadly, many will hear Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt's latest LP, Made Out of Sound, as 'not-jazz,' though it would be more aptly described as 'not-not-jazz.' In a better world, it would warrant above-the-fold reviews in Downbeat, or an appearance on David Sanborn's late-night show (if someone would only give it back to him). More likely, we can hope for a haiku review on Byron Coley's Twitter timeline to sufficiently connect the various improvised terrains trodden by th…
Xylophonen Virtuosen
A collection of improvised duets with guitarist Jim O’Rourke and reedist Mats Gustafsson. All of the material has been newly remastered for release on 2xLP & digital and marks the first ever vinyl pressing with previously unreleased tracks. Tracks A1, B3 (excerpt), C1, C2 and D3 (excerpt) were in parts or in its complete form released on legendary Incus label (1999) with a different mix and master. The duo recorded the improvised duets at Chicago’s Acme Studios during 1999, with Gustafsson on te…
Astragaloi
This trio didn’t know how lucky they had it. They were certainly happy to perform again when this concert was recorded at the ArtActs Festival in St Johan Austria in early March 2020. Although their first outing was back in 2013 in Harnik’s hometown of Graz - a live concert broadcast through the Austrian National Radio/ORF, the band has had a sporadic performance history. So the opportunity to reunite for this festival performance was already special. Little did they know what lay ahead though, …
For (And More)
Futura Records presents For (and More): Daniel Beaussier & Manu Pékar with Jean-Lou Descamps & Pierre Marcault.Daniel Beaussier (saxophones, hautbois, cor anglais, clarinette, clarinette basse, flûtes en ut & sol), Manu Pékar (guitares), Jean-Lou Descamps (violon & objets sonores) & Pierre Marcault (percussion).Recorded 10th jan, 2nd jul & 20th nov 2016 at studio EDIM, Cachan (France).
La Marche Dans Le Désert
* 2022 stock * Paris, February 1972. A few months after having released Le Massacre du Printemps, Jef Gilson was back behind his keyboards for a completely different experience. Heading up his Unit, he was joined by Sahib Shihab, ex- partner to Gillespie, Monk and Coltrane, for a brief stroll in the desert. For three-quarters of an hour, the caravan passes by, evoking, one after the other, Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane, Pierre Henry and Karlheinz Stockhausen... Oh yes, and one other thing, …
Le Massacre Du Printemps
* 2022 stock * In 1971, the day after the death of Igor Stravinsky, Jef Gilson and his Unit (Pierre Moret and Jean-Claude Pourtier) made this curious homage to classical music. It is jazz, contemporary and electroacoustic music that the trio interrogate through a wild ‘noise’ session evoking as much John Cage as Pierre Henry, John Coltrane as the Percussions de Strasbourg, the Art Ensemble of Chicago as the Tacet by Jean Guérin.
Le Massacre du Printemps, (the Massacre of Spring) is a strange kin…
Kudu
Anteloper is the electric brain child of Jaimie Branch (fly or die, high life) and Jason Nazary (little women, helado negro, bear in heaven). Branch and Nazary have been playing together as trumpeter and drummer for years, since meeting at the New England Conservatory of Music in 2002, but in this duo both musicians include synthesizers to push further into the spectral space ship ether. With deep rhythmic passages, telepathic improvisations and effortless melodic negotiations, Anteloper pushes …
Forfolks
"It's a particular thing to hear Jeff play solo. He is an unusually selfless improviser, often times laying out and highlighting the contributions of his band mates. He's never been one to play three notes where none would suffice. On this recording however he is by himself, joined only by his own ideas, looped or frozen, to flesh out the music he's creating in his mind. Hearing him craft entire sound worlds on these eight selections gives us an opportunity to really see how Parker orders sound.…
Dangerous
**This version also includes the bonus disc JDR-0011 Endless Final featuring the last recording of Takayanagi** Jinya Disc presents a live concert by New Direction. The album includes the last performance of Action Direct and the last performance of Takayanagi's life. In other words, it is Masayuki Takayanagi's "remaining work". An astounding force set free upon the world, heaving with life and fire, bound to stop even the most seasoned listener dead in their tracks It’s hard to offer a better …
Printemps 2021
"The curious fact about this 52-minute improvisation by Rene Lussier (guitar and daxophone), Érick d'Orion (computer and electronics), Robbie Kuster (drums), and Martin Tetreault (turntables and electronics) is that, as far as we know, it was just the second indoor concert held in Canada after the pandemic started in March 2020, the second concert of the 2021 edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville held in May of this year. As such, it was the first time that t…
Crossed & Recrossed
Crossed & Recrossed presents two works composed by Peter Knight & inspired by mappings of imagined places by iconic Australian novelist, Gerald Murnane & Italian master, Italo Calvino. Simultaneously celebrating & deconstructing the tropes of minimalism, Crossed & Recrossed creates a series of musical mirages that form on an endless sonic horizon, reflecting & reimagining the wide open spaces described in Murnane’s iconic novel, The Plains & the labyrinthine streets of Calvino’s Invisible Cities…
Words Fail
*200 copies edition* The debut release from the trio of Chris Abrahams (piano), Clayton Thomas (bass & preparations), & Miles Thomas (drums & percussion), Words Fail is an intergenerational meeting of the minds. Despite the quintessential trio format, the sound world subverts the instrumentation across four expansive improvisations. Beginning with a lone piano note, repeating like droplets of water on a glassy lake, the interwoven textures of Clayton Thomas’ prepared double-bass & Miles Thomas’ …
Vibration!
"For the years Columbus was lucky enough to call him ours, drummer Ryan Jewell was our leading proponent of Emily Dickinson’s maxim “tell the truth but tell it slant.” He placed an idiosyncratic, indelible, and always swinging stamp on any context he assailed, from the insidiously catchy quirk of Terribly Empty Pockets to the righteous brainy scuzz-punk of Pink Reason to spacy evocative noise with collaborators like Mike Shiflet and C. Spencer Yeh to shepherding Psychedelic Horsehit through thei…
Live at OZO Land
After a long hiatus due to obvious reasons, Goncalo Almeida & Dirk Serries played an exclusive duo performance at Jazzblazzt in The Netherlands. Open air at the lovely Ozo Land location. Recorded live on June 5, 2021.
The Other Lies
“”The Other Lies is a collection of six improvised duets performed by Tom Jackson on clarinet Colin Webster on alto and baritone saxophones. Tom Jackson is very accomplished in the fields of contemporary classical music and free improvisation. He also holds a Ph.D from Canterbury Christ Church University. Colin Webster is a musician whose works I’ve reviewed here before. When one of his releases comes up on my Bandcamp feed I always take notice. He’s a prolific and under appreciated figure in th…
Melancholia
“‘Melancholia’ is, perhaps, a somewhat misleading title for the duet of John Edward (double bass) and label boss Dirk Serries (acoustic guitar). One might expect some sad music, a soft thud on the bass, a few strums on the acoustic guitar, but it is clear that these men deal with a different kind of melancholia right from the start. In the two pieces (forty-four minutes), I think there is a mutual agreement between the two to work along dynamic lines. They cut out the middle ground, it seems. Th…