Jazz /
SololoS
A stunning solo album of improvised violin from Viennese violinist Irene Kepl, showing a great range of style and technique while keeping the music playful and interesting, invoking a quote from Trisha Brown: "Dancing on the edge is the only place to be."
Instants Chavirés
"This disc represents the outcome of an improvised concert from February 2000 featuring double bassist Peter Kowald, saxophonist Daunik Lazro, together with the voice of Annick Nozati. Having had to resort once more to Google Translate I apologise in advance for misunderstandings and mistranslations. Comparing the French to Google’s English I can recognise the correctness of it but suspect that the nuances of language have been overlooked. The liner notes start with Nozati saying that she does n…
Noir
"Noir" is the first studio album of the bleakly imaginative trio Marteau Rouge (French for "Red Hammer"), consisting of Makoto Sato on drums, Jean-Marc Foussat on VSC 11 and vocals and the talented guitar player Jean-Francois Pauvros (former collaborator of proper miliar stones of noise scene such as Sonic Youth and Keiji Haino), after their brilliant live recording with legendary free-improvisational saxophone player Evan Parker, whose absence on this record gives this amazing ensemble the poss…
Bennu
Rempis and Ra have worked together for about fifteen years. Most regularly since 2012 in their trio with Joshua Abrams, which expanded into a quartet in 2016 with the addition of pianist Jim Baker. That band is a real working unit, having performed dozens of gigs in Chicago and abroad, and releasing three critically-acclaimed records, also on Aerophonic: Aphelion (2014), Perihelion (2016), and Apsis (2019). The diligent work these two improvisers have put in together in that context has slowl…
Spirit Junction: Korean Folk Music Meets Jazz
* 2025 stock. First ever reissue * Composer and saxophonist Gil Ok-yun was a central figure in Korea’s golden age of gayo (1960s to 1980s), and has given us countless gems through his collaborations with greats such as Hye Eun-yi and others. Gil never did let go of his jazz roots, and would occasionally release gayo records in the jazz-tinged kayokoku style with the help of musical colleagues during his time in Japan such as Keitaro Miho and Shungo Sawada. It was through his meeting with Korean…
Circles
"There is an expression that string players use: the wolf tone. It refers to a floating sound, an unpleasant vibratory acoustic phenomenon, which occurs when the instrument emits a sound like the cry of a wolf when the bow is drawn across a string. This illustrative metaphor arises from the instrument’s physical properties, due to which it will never be a docile sheep: from time to time its “wolven genes” show through. Owing to its shape, the double bass is like a large wild beast, particularly …
La Cave Live, Cleveland 1966
the first authorized release by permission of the Estate of Albert Ayler of the two concerts played at La Cave, Cleveland on April 16 & 17, 1966. Remastered for best possible sound of these under difficult technical circumstances recorded performances.
Route 84 Quarantine Blues
Joe McPhee’s response to the challenge of making a new CD of solo music during Covid was to go at it head on, to address the present in its starkest aspects, to reach for comfort in the music of great composers, and to speak directly to the virus in no uncertain terms. The result is unlike any other of McPhee’s many records, a variety show of improvisations, favorite compositions, field recording, multi-tracking, incantation and recitation. After searching for the right studio-like setting wit…
The Field Within A Line
With his riveting performance in the inaugural Sequesterfest online festival in April 2020, Ken Vandermark inspired the Black Cross Solo Sessions. Already in the early days of lockdown, making good on the promise – or threat – of protracted off-road time, Vandermark had dedicated himself to the creation of a new book of works for solo reed instruments, which he debuted that day. The result of this watershed moment for the Chicago-based improvisor and composer was a body of works that reassert …
Renaissance Gesualdo
"Renaissance is back, this time with a double CD on Maciek Karlowski's Fundacja Sluchaj!. This clearly, the trio's masterpiece: rick, diverse, amazingly deep, emotional, expressive and simply beautiful like hell. Disc 1, "Gesualdo", contains Anna Gadt's arrangements, deconstructions and her own original music obviously related to ancient, renaissance music. With one exception: "Monumentum" de-constructs already a de-construction of ancient music by Igor Stravinski of the same title. Everything i…
Omniverse
** Purple Vinyl ** Recorded in New York in 1979 and released that year on Sun Ra's Saturn label, this is a solid, overlooked set in the vast Ra canon. The tracks aren't so much compositions as excursions, pure jazz, lots of reflective piano in trio, quartet, and sextet settings. Features cover art interpreted from a favorite Arkestra hand drawn cover, and liner notes from Irwin Chusid.
The Summer House Sessions / Organic Music Theatre (3LP in bundle)
This bundle includes the following Don Cherry LPs recently released by Blank Forms:Don Cherry "The Summer House Sessions" (LP)Don Cherry "Organic Music Theatre - Festival de jazz de Chateauvallon 1972" (2LP)
Don Cherry "The Summer House Sessions" (LP)* Black vinyl, pressed at RTI and housed in a heavy-duty tip-on Stoughton jacket, with insert. * In 1968, Don Cherry had already established himself as one of the leading voices of the avant-garde. Having pioneered free jazz as a member of Ornette C…
Fusione
Carried by a blast of pure joy comes Black Sweat’s latest LP, the self-titled debut by the mysterious Milan based ensemble Fusione. Channeling free and spiritual jazz, funk, and a globally minded ear, all carried by heavy dose of druggy psychedelic experimentalism, it’s one of the most exciting sonic journeys that we’ve taken all year.
Disillusion
Yong Yandsen is a musician from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is member SiCKL (formerly the EMACM), a collective promoting avant-garde and experimental music and expressions in Malaysia. Some may know his name from the Shang compilation, released on Xing-Wu, with two other artists from Malaysia. Yandsen did compose a piece for guitar, which was his first intrument that he dropped in favor of tenor saxophone some years ago.
With his tenor you can hear him on various recordings from the band Klangm…
Alvin Curran, Roberto Laneri, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Frances-Marie Uitti, Tony Ackerman, Bruno Tommaso
Beat 72 Lost DateDigipack CD edition. An unearthed treasure from the '70s Italian avant garde archives! A previously unreleased recording from the legendary Beat72 club in Rome in 1973, featuring a one-off Italian-American all-star ensemble with Roberto Laneri founding member of the experimental vocal group Prima Materia, maverick American composer Alvin Curran co-founder of Musica Elettronica Viva. Trombone specialist Giancarlo Schiaffini from the historical Gruppo di improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. Cello vir…
New York Is Now & Love Call Revisited
Temporary Super Offer! New York is Now! and Love Call are rarely mentioned in surveys of Ornette Coleman’s music, and they are often glossed over when they are cited…. Even in commentary focusing on Coleman’s recordings for Blue Note between 1965 and ‘68, these albums tend to be overshadowed by the two volumes of At the “Golden Circle” Stockholm... However, these last sessions before Coleman’s departure for Impulse! are pivotal, influential albums that merit reassessment. – Bill Shoemaker"Alto s…
Copenhagen 1963 „Revisited“
Temporary Super Offer! Despite persisting labeling of its music as avant-garde, The New York Contemporary Five played unthreatening contemporary jazz almost as often as it explored more daring materials. Two of Thelonious Monk’s loveliest melodies – “Monk’s Mood” and “Crepuscule with Nellie” – were embedded into their sets, aswell as three of Ornette Coleman’s more accessible, swinging vehicles, “O.C.,”“When Will the Blues Leave,” and “Emotions.” These pieces provided a perspectiveof contemporar…
Watch Devil Go
To write these few lines, we spoke to saxophonist François Jeanneau, an old friend of Jacques Thollot who also played on several of his albums, including the “Watch Devil Go” which interests us here. He told us a story which, according to him, sums up the personality of Thollot. A noted studio had reserved three days for a Thollot recording session. The first morning was devoted to sound checks and putting some order in the score sheets which Jacques would hand out in a somewhat anarchic manner…
Watch Devil Go / Untitled (2LP in bundle)
This special bundle includes the latest two Souffle Continu reissues from the Palm catalogue, namely the following:- Jacques Thollot "Watch Devil Go" (LP, 1975)- Jean-Charles Capon / Philippe Maté / Lawrence 'Butch' Morris / Serge Rahoerson "Untitled" (LP, 1977)Jacques Thollot "Watch Devil Go" (LP, 1975)* Deluxe reissue, with obi strip + 8 page booklet, 180g vinyl *To write these few lines, we spoke to saxophonist François Jeanneau, an old friend of Jacques Thollot who also played on several of…
Variation
Essential jazz album among the influences of the future-jazz quartet Sleep Walker by trombonist Hiroshi Suzuki. "Variation" is a joint project including the legendary jazz drummer Masahiko Togashi featurig pianist Yuji Ohno, saxophonist Jun Suzuki and trumpeter Tetsuo Fushimi. Masahiko Togashi was a major figure alongside Masahiko Sato, Masayuki Takayanagi and Yosuke Yamashita in the blooming of free jazz in Japan in the late sixties whose "Variation" is one of the iconic masterpiece.