Jazz /
Aerophobia
Exploring human relationships and self perception through the use of physical objects and their potential sounds, San Antonio drummer Claire Rousay, who has worked with Jacob Wick, Ken Vandermark, Brandon Lopez, etc. recorded these six solo drum performances in the studio, developing each in a way that shows her strong technical skills and narrative voice on the drums.
Solid Bottom
Two basses and a lower-end saxophone from the trio of Damon Smith on double bass, Andrew Durham on electric bass, and Danny Kamins on baritone sax, Durham also adding effects and "Radio Manipulation" to their deep sound, Durham & Kamins the core of Carl with Damon Smith adding extra underpinnings to their slowly developing, sometimes pensive, sometimes cantankerous, profound improvisation.
I Used To Sing So Lyrical
The debut recording of New York double bassist Sean Ali's improvising string trio with violist Joanna Mattrey and cellist Leila Bordreuil, having worked together since 2015, each brings impressive technique and a somewhat twisted approach to their strings in a diverse set of extended improvisation from pensive and spacious to formidable density.
Desert Encrypts Vol. 1
Desert Encrypts Vol. 1, is a two-part suite based on observations from the desert in and around Marfa, TX. It also explores Rob Mazurek's ongoing fascination with social, psychological, and physiological structures, both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial. The composition includes written music and graphic scores for improvisation.For Desert Encrypts Vol. 1 Mazurek has put together an awe-inspiring new ensemble featuring Kris Davis on piano, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on bass and Chad Taylor on drums…
No Place To Fall
**500 copies** Rodrigo Amado and Chris Corsano need no introduction. No Place to Fall is a studio recording from July 2014 at Manouche Studios, Lisbon. The title of this album captures faithfully the urgent and restless atmosphere of this meeting. Amado and Corsano soar instantly into dense, turbulent stratosphere like there is no tomorrow. Both play with boundless energy, relying on their deep understanding of the art of the moment and super-fast instincts. They fill the room with their busy, m…
Old Growth Forest II
**300 copies** "This recording, a document of a live concert, was originally supposed to have taken place on February 12, 2017. We’d been on the road for a week in Canada and had had cold but clear weather the whole time. That couldn’t last. Sure enough, by the time we got to Kingston, Ontario on February 9, it was snowing peacefully. The snow ended up sticking. I remember sitting in my hotel room when Glenn Siegel, the presenter from Northampton, called. The forecast called for more and more sn…
Borasisi
**300 copies** Named after a sun deity appearing in a Kurt Vonnegut novel, Borasisi is a team up between two saxophonists (Patrick Shiroishi and Vinny Golia) and two drummers (Dylan Fujioka and Alex Cline). While the cover art exhibits the signature retro feel of the Astral Spirits label, the music only nods toward the past and is, in essence, a forward-looking spontaneously creative effort. And the album is a grower. Once you get to the fifth or sixth listen, the soulful and outside power of th…
Electroradiance
**300 copies, 2019 stock** Soon after the catchy synth-bass line that opens Electroradiance, listeners will start to suspect they’re in for something different. The synth-bass line has a herky-jerky contour that does fit a basic pattern of power-rock bands over the decades, but the bass clarinet melody that follows? Not so much. And halfway through, when the bass line becomes a vamp, and the improvisation enters a realm of altissimo squawks and thrillingly convoluted deep runs – well, we’re not …
Fictional Souvenirs
**300 copies** Performing in concert at Iklectik in London in 2017, the UK and Norwegian free improvising trio of Pat Thomas on Moog, Theremin and IPad based electronics, John Butcher on saxophones, and Ståle Liavik Solberg on drums and percussion, impress through a mix of masterful free playing and eclectic electroacoustic conversations, an adventurous and wonderfully unpredictable set.
Life's Intense Mystery
**500 copies** Performing live at Lily Pad in Cambridge, MA, the trio of free jazz piano legend Burton Greene with bassist Damon Smith and drummer Ra Kalam Bob Moses, in six collective improvisations, with impressive playing from all three as they segway through the three parts of Life's Intense Mystery, taking exploratory moments and even some Kid Play in between.
Drolleries
Saxophone jazz deviant Sam Weinberg joins with refugees from thrash jazz agent Little Women — Andrew Smiley, guitar; Jason Nazary, drums — to form a new trio, Bloor. It’s wild, acerbic and even a bit mathematical... Similar to the electric guitar-based free jazz units like Many Arms and Matta Gawa. Their new album Drolleries comprise of ten performances that are concise and never overlong. In contrast to another Weinberg project, W-2, there’s at least a sense of premeditated composition (seven o…
Quoniam facta sum vilis
**200 copies, 2019 stock** Quoniam facta sum vilis (For I have become vile in the eyes of the lord) is the newest solo album of the award winning composer and virtuoso bassist, Brandon Lopez. Created, in part, as an answer to the musical "reason" of the Bach cello suites, Lopez seeks to create the inverse of what's hailed as musical logic. To create something florid and beautiful from the violent and erratic and to deny the supremacy of the wrote in favor of the intuitive. Recorded mostly in the…
Throw Tomatoes
**300 copies, 2019 stock** Contrary to the fabled image, they didn’t really throw rotten tomatoes during Shakespeare’s time at The Globe Theatre. Vegetables, yes, but there are no tomatoes on record in Britain for another seven-score years after Shakespeare. No matter. The title of this album by the Rempis / Piet / Daisy trio is my own flippant gesture to the listener: "Say what you will about this music; this is what we three offer you, unapologetically. If you are revolted by the madness of ou…
Trio Discrepancies
**500 copies** The trio of Chicagoans Josh Berman (cornet) and Jason Roebke (double bass) and English free improvisation legend Paul Lytton came together in 2016 for a short European tour. The trio presented music from Berman’s critically acclaimed recording A Dance and a Hop on Delmark Records. On the course of the tour, the music became freer and freer, finally arriving at a unique language where trad jazz and pure sound improv come together. It’s a truly fresh sound and context for these thre…
Counterbalance
**500 copies** The Nick Mazzarella Trio was formed in 2008 and for several years remained one of the most active working bands in Chicago’s vibrant jazz scene, performing regularly at clubs and festivals across the city, and recording three albums before drummer Frank Rosaly moved to Amsterdam in 2016. When Rosaly returned for a visit in early 2018, Mazzarella composed a suite of six new pieces for a concert commemorating the trio’s tenth anniversary. That performance, given before a full house …
Hiljaisuus
**300 copies, second pressing** Kuzu is a hard-charging but patient trio that came together in the fall of 2017, after saxophonist Dave Rempis, a stalwart of the Chicago improvised music scene, worked with both Tashi Dorji (guitar) and Tyler Damon (drums) individually as part of a lengthy solo tour of the U.S. that he undertook in the spring of that year. Dorji and Damon’s work as a guitar / percussion duo has become well-known, a highly refined and specific language developed through relentless…
Kozmik Bazaar
**300 copies** After two critically acclaimed albums with the Japanese avantgarde / noise icon Keiji Haino, Konstrukt return with a new inspiring collaborative mind: Ken Vandermark, who for three decades now has been a highly prolific musician in contemporary jazz and free improvisation. With various groups like NRG Ensemble, Spaceways Inc., The Vandermark 5, Made To Break and his latest project Marker or the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet (to name just a few) and various spontaneous collaborati…
Blue World
In 1964, John Coltrane and his quartet produced two great masterpieces in Rudy Van Gelder's studios, namely the albums Crescent and A Love Supreme. Between the two sessions the quartet entered the studio for another recording: the soundtrack of the French-Canadian film Le chat dans le sac. Today, the tape of that session has been found and remastered, so finally here's the third 1964 album: Blue World. The content is extraordinary: not only do we find the classic quartet (with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy…
Invitation to a Dream
**500 copies** First release from the first time trio of legends Susan Alcorn, Joe McPhee and Ken Vandermark. Invitation to a Dream is not only the first recorded statement, it is also a document of the very first meeting of the trio. Back in 2016 we asked Alcorn and McPhee to play a duo set at our favorite festival Cropped Out in Louisville, KY, and after getting our minds blown we knew we had to get the duo into a studio to record an album. After a few failed attempts due to schedules and bad …
A Night In Alchemia
A Night In Alchemia was recorded by Joe McPhee (trumpet and saxophones), John Edwards (double bass) and Klaus Kugel (drums). The improvisations of this trio always have exceptional sound and are filled with inventive, interesting, innovative and bright decisions. Eclectic ideas, organic stylistic allusions, sound experiments, moody and sudden changes, contrasting pieces, an influenze of various jazz styles and musicians unique sound – all these elements are gently combined together. The music is…