OK I know times, recording techniques etc have changed.
Technology has not really slowed down the pace of recording. It has more to do with marketing. Up to the early sixities, label owners pushed artists to record a lot of tracks at one go, allowing the owners to release them in whatever configuration they pleased at whatever pace. A well honed ensemble could still record an album in a day or two: Jason Parker's album was made over three days. What slows things down is introducing more complicated arrangements--necessary to make the album standout--but more importantly, the smaller market for Jazz records. I couldn't see many musicians recording more than one album (as leader) per year.
There's a telling subtext to this retrospective of Eric Clapton blues sides. Culled from recordings cut between 1970 (the Layla sessions) and 1980 (when Clapton cut his final Polydor album, Another Ticket), these sides finds EC exploring his beloved blues while in a fragile state of mind and body. After all, he was on heroin when he concocted Layla, and though he kicked that habit in the early '70s, he continued to test his tolerance for alcohol throughout the decade. When you think of the Clapton of the '60s, you think of the fire and ice of his playing with the Yardbirds, John Mayall, and Cream. When you think of his '70s playing, it's wearier and perhaps more reflective. (It was easy to mistake melancholic for mellow at the time.) The 35 selections included on these two discs find the temporarily deflated rock superstar leaning on the blues for support as he draws on likes of Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and Little Walter for inspiration. Hardcore fans will appreciate previously unreleased versions of Bo Diddley's "Before You Accuse Me," a solo take on the traditional "Alberta," a 1974 cover of Willie Dixon's "Meet Me (Down at the Bottom), and a remixed live 1976 version of "Further on Up the Road" with Freddy King sitting in.
Splurged on this $1.99 sampler, and not bad (despite my misgivings about this large a piano themed collection) - I do appreciate when a budget comp has the composer embedded so it at least shows up in the info box in iTunes.
- "Cymbals are probably the most complex part of a drum set. Not only do they serve as a rhythmic layer, they produce a whole range of frequencies and sounds, from noise to indicated melodies. Carefully treated they expose a nearly orchestral microcosm of their own. These qualities have served as prominent elements in structuring "Cymbalism", the debut album of Berlin's Hanno Leichtmann under the moniker Forest Jackson. Combining his work as a drummer [i.e. with Jan Jelinek] and as electronic musician (Static, Vulva String Quartet), Leichtmann comes up with a synthesis of both, the beat-driven track and the exploration of sound. The rhythmic framework, derived from real drums and generated percussions, serves as an accessible basis, which allows enough headroom for soundscapes, which easily could be references to filmscores or a ride through Berlin by night, accompagnied by almost dark orchestral samples or dub-like motives. An invisible map of urban sceneries, drawn by strings and beats, guides the listener from the center of town to the suburbs and back. The logic finale seems to be the pushing "cymbalism" remix by Rechenzentrum."
- MOSZ - 2006
FOREST JACKSON [Hanno Leichtmann] - "Lives and works in Berlin. Comes from jazz and free jazz. Plays drums and all kinds of electronics.
Performed with many international free improvising and electronic musicians, among others:
Connie and Johannes Bauer, Lars Rudolph, Tony Buck, John Zorn, Toshi Nakamura, European String Quintet, Hannes Strobl, Sam Auinger, Rupert Huber, Christof Kurzmann, Ronald Lippok, Stefan Schneider, etc.
Founded different projects in Berlin: Ich schwitze nie [Trikont Rec], Paloma [Mehrwert Rec] and DJ Attach
Cut-and-paste ambient married to post-rock. Nicely melodic and just weird enough.
ETA:
Flossin's latest offering "White Anaconda and the Rainbow Boa" is an unbridled creative explosion of electronic, rock, jazz, noise featuring Christopher Willits, Zach Hill, Matmos, Nate Boyce and Carson McWhirter. Recorded at Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati, CA. during a two day session, this improvisational album reveals a limitless bombast of sound that might possibly vibrate your mind into a relaxed jelly state. There is so much going on sonically that it has the effect of an overwhelming yet calm wash.
ETA2: Holy fuck, this turns into the rock-jazz-noise album Matthew Shipp will never make.
- More excellent stuff from Hanno Leichtmann, posted by yours truely 2 years ago as a new & notable ( my goodness, how time flies when you are in good company):
Date Released: 13. december 2010
Genre: Soundtracks/Other
Label: Dekorder / Diogenes Music
- "October 2005: Seminal German director Christoph Schlingensief (R.I.P. 2010) shoots his latest feature film The African Twintowers in Lüderitz/Namibia with Irm Hermann, Klaus Beyer, Robert Stadlober, Patti Smith........
Autumn 2006: Schlingensief approaches Berlin musician/composer Hanno Leichtmann (Groupshow, Static, Denseland) regarding a soundtrack for the film. There were hours and hours of raw material; the concept being a movie with few dialogues and music throughout a 90 minute psychedelic collage; an associative visual and sonic trip.
With the help of John Nijenhuis aka Sir Henry as well as a trio of musicians playing indian music (tabla, sitar, tampura), they started to improvise in Leichtmanns recording studio projecting film sequences on a wall. Within 4 days and nights an enormous amount of tracks had been recorded and several rough mixes had been compiled.
After a while though, Schlingensief decided to shift the concept. The film transformed into an art installation with 18 monitors showing sequences simultaneously (presented at the Berlinale and Steirischer Herbst), and later on, a kind of Making of... with 90% off-comments by Christoph Schlingensief and very little music was made.
Thus, The African Twintowers Suite represents a lost soundtrack; compiling the most interesting recordings, newly edited, layered, collaged, shortened and mixed between 2009 and 2010." - Diogenes. - Soundcloud (4 tracks)
Comments
Now: Armstrong Box, disc III
F****** Brilliant !
Amazon Review
- This will with no doubt end up on my best of 2012 list . . .
Just left a link in the Mispriced thread on a large collection of Hawes.
This one's kind of boring.
Unusual. Interesting.
- "Cymbals are probably the most complex part of a drum set. Not only do they serve as a rhythmic layer, they produce a whole range of frequencies and sounds, from noise to indicated melodies. Carefully treated they expose a nearly orchestral microcosm of their own. These qualities have served as prominent elements in structuring "Cymbalism", the debut album of Berlin's Hanno Leichtmann under the moniker Forest Jackson. Combining his work as a drummer [i.e. with Jan Jelinek] and as electronic musician (Static, Vulva String Quartet), Leichtmann comes up with a synthesis of both, the beat-driven track and the exploration of sound. The rhythmic framework, derived from real drums and generated percussions, serves as an accessible basis, which allows enough headroom for soundscapes, which easily could be references to filmscores or a ride through Berlin by night, accompagnied by almost dark orchestral samples or dub-like motives. An invisible map of urban sceneries, drawn by strings and beats, guides the listener from the center of town to the suburbs and back. The logic finale seems to be the pushing "cymbalism" remix by Rechenzentrum."
- MOSZ - 2006
FOREST JACKSON [Hanno Leichtmann]
- "Lives and works in Berlin. Comes from jazz and free jazz. Plays drums and all kinds of electronics.
Performed with many international free improvising and electronic musicians, among others:
Connie and Johannes Bauer, Lars Rudolph, Tony Buck, John Zorn, Toshi Nakamura, European String Quintet, Hannes Strobl, Sam Auinger, Rupert Huber, Christof Kurzmann, Ronald Lippok, Stefan Schneider, etc.
Founded different projects in Berlin: Ich schwitze nie [Trikont Rec], Paloma [Mehrwert Rec] and DJ Attach
Cut-and-paste ambient married to post-rock. Nicely melodic and just weird enough.
ETA:
ETA2: Holy fuck, this turns into the rock-jazz-noise album Matthew Shipp will never make.
Date Released: 13. december 2010
Genre: Soundtracks/Other
Label: Dekorder / Diogenes Music
- "October 2005: Seminal German director Christoph Schlingensief (R.I.P. 2010) shoots his latest feature film The African Twintowers in Lüderitz/Namibia with Irm Hermann, Klaus Beyer, Robert Stadlober, Patti Smith........
Autumn 2006: Schlingensief approaches Berlin musician/composer Hanno Leichtmann (Groupshow, Static, Denseland) regarding a soundtrack for the film. There were hours and hours of raw material; the concept being a movie with few dialogues and music throughout a 90 minute psychedelic collage; an associative visual and sonic trip.
With the help of John Nijenhuis aka Sir Henry as well as a trio of musicians playing indian music (tabla, sitar, tampura), they started to improvise in Leichtmanns recording studio projecting film sequences on a wall. Within 4 days and nights an enormous amount of tracks had been recorded and several rough mixes had been compiled.
After a while though, Schlingensief decided to shift the concept. The film transformed into an art installation with 18 monitors showing sequences simultaneously (presented at the Berlinale and Steirischer Herbst), and later on, a kind of Making of... with 90% off-comments by Christoph Schlingensief and very little music was made.
Thus, The African Twintowers Suite represents a lost soundtrack; compiling the most interesting recordings, newly edited, layered, collaged, shortened and mixed between 2009 and 2010."
- Diogenes. - Soundcloud (4 tracks)
- Seriously weird and free @ Bandcamp.
(or something like that) - I did not see that coming . . .
- "Crushing Metal from Saft, Skerik, and Previte. Great mix by Dunn."