- "Hello Skinny is the brainchild of in-demand drummer extraordinaire Tom Skinner, who's other current involvements include Sons Of Kemet, Mulatu Astatke, Matthew Herbert, Eska, Finn Peters and The Owiny Sigoma Band amongst many others.
Taking its cue from a song by The Residents, the project is Skinner's first as bandleader, composer and producer [playing most of the instruments] and sees him exploring areas around and between psych-dub, electronics, downtown/freak jazz and folk stylings. This debut album follows on from his widely spread 'Smash + Grab' mixtape and takes the musical themes from that release and flexes and focuses the sound into a coherent, deep, soulful listening experience, featuring contributions from Shabaka Hutchings, Tom Herbert (of The Invisible), Byron Wallen, Trudie Dawn Smith and Nick Ramm.
Album opener Aquarius sets the tone with its combination of electronic bleeps and drones, synth squelches and a Morricone esque refrain, underpinned by Skinners vibrant groove. Next up, the title track, and cover of The Residents tune, whose main riff is re-configured as a dubby bassline which builds to incorporate an intense rhythmic work out, propelled by some fiery saxophone work courtesy of Shabaka Hutchings. Crush and Knot Blue continue to marry taut and soulful grooves and dubbed out experimental electronics with strong melodic themes, whilst Bump again invites Hutchings to prowl its warped electronic landscape with his sax. Tracks like Foot Tap, The Sky Is Falling and Venus take a more acoustic turn and demonstrate Skinners skill as a composer with a strong ear for an exquisite melody. The track 'Crush' was picked up by Gilles Peterson, featuring on the recently released Brownswood Bubblers 8 compilation. In all, Hello Skinny plays out as eclectic, cinematic and as retro-phuture funky as a library (music) of Soul Jazz compilations."
- http://www.slowfoot.co.uk/helloskinnylp.html Emusic
Excellent news from Valeot Records:
The brilliant Austrian cello, electronics, bass and vibraphone player + Valeot Records label owner, Alexandr Vatagin will have a new album out on 17 March 2013.
- Now available for streaming from Bandcamp:
- "Alexandr Vatagin lives as a musician, producer and labelowner in Vienna, is active in different bands like port-royal, tupolev, quarz and several other projects. until now he also released two critically acclaimed solo albums.
Alexandr Vatagin is always on the border of many different musical styles as a musician and as a producer. from experimental electronic music to singer/songwriter music, from improvised music to rock, from jazz to dancemusic.
He collaborated with Martin Siewert (radian, trapist), Bernhard Fleischmann, Stefan Nemeth (lokai), Philippe Petit(strings of consciousness), Bernhard Breuer(elektro guzzi, metalycee) , Alexander Schubert(sinebag, ahornfelder), Peter Kutin(dirac), Nicolas Bernier, Fabian Pollack, Sweet Sweet Moon, George Bagdasarov and many others.
Alexandr played concerts in Austria, Italy, France, Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, Poland, Croatia, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Serbia, Spain, the Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Greece, Moldavia and in the UK.
His solo works and works he was involved in were released on labels like valeot, cronica, n5md, morr music, mikroton, 12rec, zymogen, moozak, filmarchiv austria and many more."
- http://vatagin.klingt.org/ - http://www.valeot.com/vatagin.html
Greg Haines - Moments Eluding (Solo Piano Series Vol. 3)
- "Kning Disk presents Moments Eluding by Greg Haines, volume three of the young and ongoing solo piano series curated by Peter Broderick.
Greg Haines is a composer and musician from England currently residing in Berlin. After three beautifully slowpaced albums for the Miasmah, Sonic Pieces and Preservation labels, Greg recently worked with the Dutch National Ballet and Holland Symfonia for the production of DAY4, a new ballet by choreographer David Dawson.
Whereas Greg's albums are often centered around a densely layered sonic atmosphere, his live shows can be stripped to the bone with Greg losing himself at the piano, almost punk rock in execution. Moments Eluding is an attempt to capture that raw and curious action at the keys.
The album begins with the chiming thunk of a low string on the grand piano being struck, Greg bent over the piano with his fingers inside. Slowly he lowers to sitting at the piano and proceeds with a hauntingly sparse rendition of Snow Airport, the opening track from his debut album Slumber Tides (2006 Miasmah).
Recorded one day in December 2010 at the now defunct Tabalet Estudis outside Valencia (Spain) with Peter Broderick in the control room or on the studio floor, Moments flows fluidly between improvisational snippets and carefully executed compositions. It also finally gives a recorded life to several gorgeous pieces which before could only heard at Greg's live shows, such as the patient centerpiece With Everything That Breathes, gently begging the listener to hang on for the next note. And then there's the hypnotic cascade that is The Spin.
The album closes with one of the first songs Greg wrote on the piano. The brief Better sits like a calm yet firm lid on top of a bottle of yearning piano tones. First yearning to be played, now yearning to be heard."
- http://www.kningdisk.com/index_kd088.htm
- "Amid high-tension wires, high-voltage cables, and almost disconcerting noises, the top players of Montréal’s musique actuelle scene are at their most electrifying. Jean Derome, Joane Hétu, Danielle Palardy Roger, Alexandre St-Onge and Martin Tétreault have each composed five brand new compositions for nine virtuoso and unique performers playing an array of both acoustic and electric instruments: an eclectic and exciting mix of graphic scores, chance operations, sound poems, concertinos and multi-layered noise. Check your fuses and be ready to let this burst of alternating current flow freely!" - Ambiances Magnétiques / Actuellecd
- "Founded in 1998, the ever-changing Ensemble SuperMusique is one of the few Canadian ensembles entirely devoted to “musique actuelle” and free improvisation. Different composers/musicians from the ensemble itself alternate as leader of the band, but very rarely conduct the ensemble orchestra-style. The repertoire of the Ensemble SuperMusique comprises works by leading “musique actuelle” and improv stalwart composers from both the Canadian and international scenes.
Their compositions range from graphic scores to traditionally notated ones; in certain specific cases, they could even resort to orally transmitted instructions. The ensemble’s musicians play a very important role both as performers and improvisers. Quite often, they receive specific instructions not to blend in the ensemble’s sound; on the contrary, they are to be considered as soloists, and as such hired for their sonic specificity.
This musicians have developed over the years a significant understanding of “musique actuelle”’s specific musical idiom and as such have been widely recognized as accomplished masters." - Productions SuperMusique
On Jazzwerkstatt: Bruce Ackley - soprano and tenor saxophones
Steve Adams - alto and sopranino saxophones
Larry Ochs - tenor and sopranino saxophones
Jon Raskin - baritone and alto saxophones
- "As Rova enters its 35th season, the Berlin-based recording company Jazzwerkstatt is now releasing a new, quartet-only CD of original works by band members. Recorded in February, 2003 and August, 2011, the disc includes the long-awaited release of the Larry Ochs composition Certain Space, along with recent works by Steve Adams and Jon Raskin.
A Short History defines 3 key regions of Rova's musical domain. With The Blocks, Adams continues his fascination with the interplay of chiseled, harmonically dense rhythmic figuration, providing the quartet with a wealth of material to blow thickets of sound and build on the composition's DNA. To the Right of the Blue Wall is Jon Raskin's conceptual vehicle for open field improvisation, which relies heavily on Rova's creative application of its evolving vocabulary, and the layering of compositional elements with the quartet's proprietary memes. Ochs' Certain Space flows from the composer's propensity for epic narratives. The piece unfolds into a succession of 3 settings, each dedicated to, and inspired by, the influential composers Giacinto Scelsi, Cecil Taylor and Morton Feldman.
Inventively performed, exquisitely recorded, and handsomely packaged, this latest release is a milestone in Rova's recorded archive - further evidence that the quartet's 4th decade has been it most artistically rewarding."
- http://www.rova.org/
Pictures was the debut album from the UK's Motion. It was originally released in 2000 on his own imprint as a hand-numbered edition of 500 CDs in a clear sleeve with vellum insert.
A copy of the CD was discovered by 12k's Taylor Deupree and Line's Richard Chartier at a bookstore in Sheffield, England in 2001. After purchasing the disc Deupree spent a couple of years trying to track down its maker which eventually lead to Chris Coode, the man behind Motion.
Motion went on to record two albums for 12k: Dust, in 2002 and Every Action in 2004 and continues to be a favorite for his signature fractured, yet oddly human sound. This was "glitch" done without the modern day ease of DSP and plug in trickery. Instead utilizing an analog synth, hardware samplers, and a lot of talent.
12k is happy to be able to re-release this album in a downloadable format and make this little-known and beautiful work available once again. Pictures would have happily existed on 12k back in 2000 and, together with Dust and Every Action remind us of an important time in 12k's history. (12k site)
- New from Andrew Liles: - "O' fair young milky maiden where have ye been?
I yearn for your crimson folds, my fairy queen
I long to caress soft creamy white flesh
... and smell apple scented fresh breath
O' fair young milky maiden have ye lit the winter lights?
Are you moist on these cold, damp, lonely dark nights?
Warming yourself inside, stoking the fire
Caressing your kitten, so full o' desire
O' fair young milky maiden at last it's spring
Fat cows in green fields can hear you sing
I see you yonder, upon a stool squeezing teats
White juice on your hands, staining your pleats
O' fair young milky maiden here comes a summers eve
Let us frolic down to the village to drink wine and mead
On the morn we can churn my cheese and butter
With help from your little sister and baby brother
O' fair young milky maiden the autumn is calling
Around us red and golden leaves a' falling
My hot roasted chestnuts explode in your mouth
But for now I must leave you and go down south
O' fair young milky maiden what have you to sell?
Using your soft hands that can milk one so well
Let me lay upon your gentle down kept so soft
Rigid I stand among the hay, in the croft
O' fair young milky maiden where have ye been?
I yearn for your crimson folds, my fairy queen
I long to caress soft creamy white flesh
... and smell apple scented fresh breath"
- "Smash the Hegemony of Dance. Stand still. Pere Ubu return with their first new studio album for over three years in January 2013, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the group's debut (The Modern Dance). Lady From Shanghai is to be released on new label Fire Records (home to Guided by Voices, Mission of Burma, Giant Sand, Bailterspace, Josephine Foster and many others). The album ushers in a new era in the history of Pere Ubu, with David Thomas and band continuing to provoke and shock listeners, further establishing them as one of the most innovative, progressive and important bands of all time.
Lady from Shanghai is an album of dance music - it is the Ubu Dance Party.
"The dancer is the puppet of the dance," says singer David Thomas. "It's long past time somebody puts an end to this abomination. Lady From Shanghai has fixed the problem.
"What is the problem? Dance encourages the body to move without permission."
An accompanying book 'Chinese Whispers: The Making of Lady From Shanghai' will be launched around the same time, extensively exploring the ideas and methods behind the recording.
The Pere Ubu project was supposed to be an end, not a beginning. Assembled in August 1975 to be the Crosby Stills Nash & Young of the Cleveland music underground, the plan was to record one, maybe two singles and exist no more. Within months, however, those first self-produced records were being snapped up in London, Paris, Manchester, New York and Minneapolis. Pere Ubu was changing the face of rock music.
Over the next 34 years they defined the art of cult; refined the voice of the outsider; and inspired the likes of Joy Division, Pixies, Husker Du, Henry Rollins, REM, Sisters of Mercy, Thomas Dolby, Bauhaus, Julian Cope and countless others.
Pere Ubu make a music that is a disorienting mix of midwestern groove rock, "found" sound, analog synthesizers, falling-apart song structures and careening vocals. It is a mix that has mesmerized critics, musicians and fans for decades.
Singer David Thomas named the band after the protagonist of Ubu Roi, a play by Frenchman Alfred Jarry."
- Fire Records - 414 seconds @ Soundcloud - http://ubuprojex.net/
Coming Feb. 28 on Rounder Records - New Multitudes
"Like a cadre of musical brothers finally coalescing after years on the road apart, Jay Farrar (Son Volt, Gob Iron, Uncle Tupelo), Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel), Anders Parker (Varnaline, Gob Iron) and Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket, Monsters of Folk) gratefully deliver New Multitudes, an intimate interpretation of American icon and musical legend Woody Guthries previously unrecorded lyrics. Set to coincide with the centennial celebration of Woody Guthries birth year, New Multitudes will be released on February 28, 2012 by Rounder Records as a 12 track release and a 24 track limited edition. The limited edition features original Guthrie lyric sheets, the 12 track release, and 12 additional compositions recorded by Farrar and Parker. The album will also be available on vinyl."
I'm quite excited about this as Brokeback's first album, Field Recordings from the Cook County Water table, is one of my favorite albums of all time, any genre, and it's been quite a while - 8 years - since the last one. Sounds like the new one is going in a slightly different direction, so we'll see.
Brokeback and the Black Rock
by Brokeback
Thrill Jockey
Thrill 312 - 2012
Released Jan 22
Brokeback is the longstanding project of Douglas McCombs. McCombs is a member of Tortoise, Eleventh Dream Day, and Pullman, and has worked with Tom Ze, Azita Youseffi, Will Oldham, Calexico and Yo La Tengo.
Douglas McCombss goal for his longstanding Brokeback project has always been to do service to those fleeting moments in life when everything seems clear and defined and beautiful and the hair stands up on the back of your neck. These moments are hard to describe and by their nature impossible to capture, but to try it is to be inspired. Theyre not always auditory, but for their musical expression, think Roy Orbison when he's sad and lonely, or alternately when hes feeling triumphant, a Tom Verlaine guitar solo, Stravinsky and Erik Satie, an Ennio Morricone crescendo. Or Billy Gibbons, in a lyric like "Ridin top the floodway on a Friday night / The landscapes a fine and natural sight."
"A London based independent record label. Creating audio-visual delights since 2010."
- "A hero of the burgeoning alternative Australian music scene, Canberra born singer and producer Shoeb Ahmads debut solo record, Watch/Illuminate, is a masterpiece of ambient drone and gorgeous minimal melodicism. His debut solo album (Watch/Illuminate) finds a perfect balance between space-y, cinematic soundscapes and delicate, chiming chill wave pop.
Drawing influence from past masters of ambient song-writing such as Talk Talk and shoegaze legends Slowdive as well as contemporary electronica producers including James Blake and Toro Y Moi, Watch/Illuminate is a fascinating synergy of old and new, a hinterland crossroads of the ever-shifting face of contemporary pop music. Produced at home in Canberra and on the road throughout the south-eastern territories of Oz, NZ and Asia, Watch/Illuminate is a document of one mans travels across seas and oceans, deserts and savannah. Guest performers include Columbian singer Lucrecia Perez and acclaimed sound artist Lawrence English."
- Mystery Plays Records - music
Featuring:
Andy Aledort, Greg Anderson, Ron Anderson, Joe Berger, Michael Bierylo, Biota, Blancah, Joe Bouchard, Bill Brovold, Phil Burk, Juan Parra Cancino, Marco Cappelli, Marty Carlson, Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, Rhys Chatham, Barry Cleveland, Nels Cline, Amy Denio, Jon Diaz, Nick Didkovsky, Thomas Dimuzio, Bruce Eisenbeil, Karl Evangelista, Janet Feder, Caroline Feldmeier, Ken Field, Fred Frith, Wiek Hijmans, Mark Hitt, Henry Kaiser, Raymond T. Kallas, Mike Keneally, Jesse Krakow, Jesse Kranzler, Mike Lerner, Taylor Levine, David Linaburg, Josh Lopes, Steve MacLean, Tom Marsan, Colin Marston, Ava Mendoza, Julia A. Miller, Roger C. Miller, James Moore, Chris Murphy, Chuck O'Meara, Marco Oppedisano, Kai Niggeman, Han-earl Park, Shawn Persinger is Prester John, Larry Polansky, Del Rey, Teisco Del Rey with Bob Spalding, Keith Rowe, Elliott Sharp, John Shiurba, Alex Skolnick, Mark Solomon, David Starobin, Mark Stewart, Hans Tammen, Matt Wilson, Bruce Zeines, and Zwerm. Bridge Records - http://www.100dollarguitar.com/ - NPR
Posted just 1 hour ago on Soundcloud by the French label, Clapping Music (Egyptology and Yeti Lane): Domotic - Bipolar Model "Taken from Domotic's new album "Before and After Silence" now available!"
Stephan Mathieu - Un coeur simple - "Stephan Mathieu's latest album Un coeur simple features music made for a play based on Gustave Flaubert's novel by the same title (known in the English world as "A Simple Heart") and first published in 1877 as part of the book Trois Contes (Three Tales). That setting a modern rereading of an old tale, which at the time stood as a character study of Flaubert's contemporaries is just perfect for Mathieu's music.
For, you see, our sound artist's approach for the past decade has relied on a fascination for the past expressed through cutting-edge tools. Early instruments and obsolete music media (wax cylinders, 78rpm records) are central to his sound world, a world he weaves and refines, paradoxically, on a computer.
This album is a perfect match between Flaubert's Felicity, a love-deprived maid subjugated by religion and fascinated by a parrot from America, and Mathieu's delicate yet intriguing soundscapes, which includes bits of recordings of religious and Medieval music. In other words, on Un coeur simple, Mathieu's art achieves a new level of... felicity.
Stephan Mathieu is a self-taught electroacoustic music composer. Since his debut album in 1999, he has released 30 albums on a number of labels such as Orthlong Musork, Fällt, Die Schachtel, Crónica, Dekorder, Minority, Line, and 12k. He has worked with Sylvain Chauveau, Robert Hampson (Main), Taylor Deupree, and David Sylvian, among others."
- http://www.baskaru.com/karu24.htm - Soundcloud
- "The Legendary Pink Dots are back with there highly anticipated new album. Chemical Playschool is a concept in which more then ever an indulgence in extended ballads and psychedelic improvisations allows Edward Ka-Spels voice to engage us with his unique brand of storytelling, and the use of synthesizers brings to mind vintage space rock adapted for the modern age. The album opens with the beautifully epic Immaculate Conception where Ka-Spel transports us into a world of stars and planets surrounded by voices and distant echos. In The Opium Den Parts 1-3? we find a melancholy piece with classic LPD folk essence, arriving then at the ritual tribal ballad Ranting and Raving. Chemical Playschool is able to surpass all of our expectations for a band always able to surprise as they lead us through their peculiar dream world. A truly inspired release representing one of the most beautiful concepts created by this eclectic and mythic band."
- Rustblade - Soundcloud
After 30 years of existence, the Dots is in as great shape as they ever were . . .
01 Darren Harper - Wander, Bracken And Moss
02 Sima - Sunshine With A Piano
03 David Newlyn - Like The Work Of A Man Who Has Seen A Ghost
04 Pleq And Josco - A Broken Memory
05 Yuco - Impulsively
06 Gallery Six - Shizuku
07 Damian Valles - A Dark Matter
08 Wil Bolton - Migvie
09 Tone Color - 061
10 Nigel Samways And Daniel Dickel - Paratheatre
11 Thompost - Snoozy http://assemblyfield.blogspot.co.uk/
- "So here it is, the last instalment in Sebastian Rochford's Days And Nights At The Takeaway singles club. The final collaborator is none other than Brian Eno, ably assisted by Underworld's Karl Hyde on guitar, who recorded 'Dream Nails' in Seb's tiny London studio. Seb's Polar Bear bandmate and bassist of The Invisible Tom Herbert provides December's remix." The Leaf Label - music
Colin Stetson & Mats Gustafsson - Stones - "In the history of jazz and improvisation the saxophone duet is remarkably rare. Sax players tend to lock horns with drummers, bassists, trumpeters, even cellists and violinists, but rarely with each other. But here to blow that convention out of the water come two of the planets most uncompromising and inventive young hornithologists, Colin Stetson and Mats Gustafsson. Mats Gustafsson has perfected the art of the vein-popping, no-compromise blowout, and has appeared with Sonic Youth, Jim ORourke, improvising legends Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann and Ken Vandermark. His own free jazz power trio The Thing recently released the acclaimed Cherry Thing album with Neneh Cherry; while his Fire! trio with Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin have released three albums on Rune Grammofon. The four tracks on Stones were recorded live on stage at the 2011 Vancouver Jazz Festival. Miraculously, this explosive encounter was also their first meeting. "It was completely magic", remembers Mats. "All was there, the communication, the interaction, the music, the mystery..." This is fire music that smoulders in the dark. Perhaps this will give the sax duo a new lease of life. After all, as Mats says, theres "No escape... nothing to hide... you just need to go out there and interact!"
- Rune Grammofon - Soundcloud
One of my favorite new releases. This is pleasant, clever gold. Petra doing mostly overdubbed, all-vocal renditions of movie themes. Great arranging and singing.
- Thanks Karg . . . It's also on Emusic.
- Some may know PH's priceless acapella version of The Who Sell Out
Excellent news from Karl Records, to be released March 15, 2013 but already on bandcamp (and is likely to show up on Emusic).
- A debut album from a very skilled Trio from Hamburg / Germany: LAURENT DE SCHEPPER TRIO - Aquanaut
Isabel Fischer [ Bass] Lars Oertel [ Drums] Thomas B
Don't know if anyone's mentioned this new one yet which is scheduled for release February 5 on New West, but I just heard about it and pre-ordered it right away!
**DELUXE 2CD VERSION: Includes bonus disc with 7 bonus tracks** Guitar and folk music legend Richard Thompson has a brand new studio album, Electric, produced by Buddy Miller. Thompson, named one of Rolling Stone Magazine s 20 Greatest Guitarists, brings a record full of gifted songwriting and virtuosic guitar playing. Electric was made at Buddy Miller s home studio in Nashville, TN. The record features Alison Krauss on the song "The Snow Leopard."
Comments
Hello Skinny - ST
- "Hello Skinny is the brainchild of in-demand drummer extraordinaire Tom Skinner, who's other current involvements include Sons Of Kemet, Mulatu Astatke, Matthew Herbert, Eska, Finn Peters and The Owiny Sigoma Band amongst many others.
Taking its cue from a song by The Residents, the project is Skinner's first as bandleader, composer and producer [playing most of the instruments] and sees him exploring areas around and between psych-dub, electronics, downtown/freak jazz and folk stylings. This debut album follows on from his widely spread 'Smash + Grab' mixtape and takes the musical themes from that release and flexes and focuses the sound into a coherent, deep, soulful listening experience, featuring contributions from Shabaka Hutchings, Tom Herbert (of The Invisible), Byron Wallen, Trudie Dawn Smith and Nick Ramm.
Album opener Aquarius sets the tone with its combination of electronic bleeps and drones, synth squelches and a Morricone esque refrain, underpinned by Skinners vibrant groove. Next up, the title track, and cover of The Residents tune, whose main riff is re-configured as a dubby bassline which builds to incorporate an intense rhythmic work out, propelled by some fiery saxophone work courtesy of Shabaka Hutchings. Crush and Knot Blue continue to marry taut and soulful grooves and dubbed out experimental electronics with strong melodic themes, whilst Bump again invites Hutchings to prowl its warped electronic landscape with his sax. Tracks like Foot Tap, The Sky Is Falling and Venus take a more acoustic turn and demonstrate Skinners skill as a composer with a strong ear for an exquisite melody. The track 'Crush' was picked up by Gilles Peterson, featuring on the recently released Brownswood Bubblers 8 compilation. In all, Hello Skinny plays out as eclectic, cinematic and as retro-phuture funky as a library (music) of Soul Jazz compilations."
- http://www.slowfoot.co.uk/helloskinnylp.html
Emusic
The brilliant Austrian cello, electronics, bass and vibraphone player + Valeot Records label owner, Alexandr Vatagin will have a new album out on 17 March 2013.
- Now available for streaming from Bandcamp:
- "Alexandr Vatagin lives as a musician, producer and labelowner in Vienna, is active in different bands like port-royal, tupolev, quarz and several other projects. until now he also released two critically acclaimed solo albums.
Alexandr Vatagin is always on the border of many different musical styles as a musician and as a producer. from experimental electronic music to singer/songwriter music, from improvised music to rock, from jazz to dancemusic.
He collaborated with Martin Siewert (radian, trapist), Bernhard Fleischmann, Stefan Nemeth (lokai), Philippe Petit(strings of consciousness), Bernhard Breuer(elektro guzzi, metalycee) , Alexander Schubert(sinebag, ahornfelder), Peter Kutin(dirac), Nicolas Bernier, Fabian Pollack, Sweet Sweet Moon, George Bagdasarov and many others.
Alexandr played concerts in Austria, Italy, France, Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, Poland, Croatia, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Serbia, Spain, the Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Greece, Moldavia and in the UK.
His solo works and works he was involved in were released on labels like valeot, cronica, n5md, morr music, mikroton, 12rec, zymogen, moozak, filmarchiv austria and many more."
- http://vatagin.klingt.org/ - http://www.valeot.com/vatagin.html
ETA: A link to the free stuff thread:
Alexandr Vatagin - Live @ Riesa Efau / Dresden on September 3rd, 2010
Greg Haines - Moments Eluding (Solo Piano Series Vol. 3)
- "Kning Disk presents Moments Eluding by Greg Haines, volume three of the young and ongoing solo piano series curated by Peter Broderick.
Greg Haines is a composer and musician from England currently residing in Berlin. After three beautifully slowpaced albums for the Miasmah, Sonic Pieces and Preservation labels, Greg recently worked with the Dutch National Ballet and Holland Symfonia for the production of DAY4, a new ballet by choreographer David Dawson.
Whereas Greg's albums are often centered around a densely layered sonic atmosphere, his live shows can be stripped to the bone with Greg losing himself at the piano, almost punk rock in execution. Moments Eluding is an attempt to capture that raw and curious action at the keys.
The album begins with the chiming thunk of a low string on the grand piano being struck, Greg bent over the piano with his fingers inside. Slowly he lowers to sitting at the piano and proceeds with a hauntingly sparse rendition of Snow Airport, the opening track from his debut album Slumber Tides (2006 Miasmah).
Recorded one day in December 2010 at the now defunct Tabalet Estudis outside Valencia (Spain) with Peter Broderick in the control room or on the studio floor, Moments flows fluidly between improvisational snippets and carefully executed compositions. It also finally gives a recorded life to several gorgeous pieces which before could only heard at Greg's live shows, such as the patient centerpiece With Everything That Breathes, gently begging the listener to hang on for the next note. And then there's the hypnotic cascade that is The Spin.
The album closes with one of the first songs Greg wrote on the piano. The brief Better sits like a calm yet firm lid on top of a bottle of yearning piano tones. First yearning to be played, now yearning to be heard."
- http://www.kningdisk.com/index_kd088.htm
- "Amid high-tension wires, high-voltage cables, and almost disconcerting noises, the top players of Montréal’s musique actuelle scene are at their most electrifying. Jean Derome, Joane Hétu, Danielle Palardy Roger, Alexandre St-Onge and Martin Tétreault have each composed five brand new compositions for nine virtuoso and unique performers playing an array of both acoustic and electric instruments: an eclectic and exciting mix of graphic scores, chance operations, sound poems, concertinos and multi-layered noise. Check your fuses and be ready to let this burst of alternating current flow freely!"
- Ambiances Magnétiques / Actuellecd
- "Founded in 1998, the ever-changing Ensemble SuperMusique is one of the few Canadian ensembles entirely devoted to “musique actuelle” and free improvisation. Different composers/musicians from the ensemble itself alternate as leader of the band, but very rarely conduct the ensemble orchestra-style. The repertoire of the Ensemble SuperMusique comprises works by leading “musique actuelle” and improv stalwart composers from both the Canadian and international scenes.
Their compositions range from graphic scores to traditionally notated ones; in certain specific cases, they could even resort to orally transmitted instructions. The ensemble’s musicians play a very important role both as performers and improvisers. Quite often, they receive specific instructions not to blend in the ensemble’s sound; on the contrary, they are to be considered as soloists, and as such hired for their sonic specificity.
This musicians have developed over the years a significant understanding of “musique actuelle”’s specific musical idiom and as such have been widely recognized as accomplished masters."
- Productions SuperMusique
Bruce Ackley - soprano and tenor saxophones
Steve Adams - alto and sopranino saxophones
Larry Ochs - tenor and sopranino saxophones
Jon Raskin - baritone and alto saxophones
- "As Rova enters its 35th season, the Berlin-based recording company Jazzwerkstatt is now releasing a new, quartet-only CD of original works by band members. Recorded in February, 2003 and August, 2011, the disc includes the long-awaited release of the Larry Ochs composition Certain Space, along with recent works by Steve Adams and Jon Raskin.
A Short History defines 3 key regions of Rova's musical domain. With The Blocks, Adams continues his fascination with the interplay of chiseled, harmonically dense rhythmic figuration, providing the quartet with a wealth of material to blow thickets of sound and build on the composition's DNA. To the Right of the Blue Wall is Jon Raskin's conceptual vehicle for open field improvisation, which relies heavily on Rova's creative application of its evolving vocabulary, and the layering of compositional elements with the quartet's proprietary memes. Ochs' Certain Space flows from the composer's propensity for epic narratives. The piece unfolds into a succession of 3 settings, each dedicated to, and inspired by, the influential composers Giacinto Scelsi, Cecil Taylor and Morton Feldman.
Inventively performed, exquisitely recorded, and handsomely packaged, this latest release is a milestone in Rova's recorded archive - further evidence that the quartet's 4th decade has been it most artistically rewarding."
- http://www.rova.org/
Recommended. Out Jan 8.
- "O' fair young milky maiden where have ye been?
I yearn for your crimson folds, my fairy queen
I long to caress soft creamy white flesh
... and smell apple scented fresh breath
O' fair young milky maiden have ye lit the winter lights?
Are you moist on these cold, damp, lonely dark nights?
Warming yourself inside, stoking the fire
Caressing your kitten, so full o' desire
O' fair young milky maiden at last it's spring
Fat cows in green fields can hear you sing
I see you yonder, upon a stool squeezing teats
White juice on your hands, staining your pleats
O' fair young milky maiden here comes a summers eve
Let us frolic down to the village to drink wine and mead
On the morn we can churn my cheese and butter
With help from your little sister and baby brother
O' fair young milky maiden the autumn is calling
Around us red and golden leaves a' falling
My hot roasted chestnuts explode in your mouth
But for now I must leave you and go down south
O' fair young milky maiden what have you to sell?
Using your soft hands that can milk one so well
Let me lay upon your gentle down kept so soft
Rigid I stand among the hay, in the croft
O' fair young milky maiden where have ye been?
I yearn for your crimson folds, my fairy queen
I long to caress soft creamy white flesh
... and smell apple scented fresh breath"
- "Smash the Hegemony of Dance. Stand still. Pere Ubu return with their first new studio album for over three years in January 2013, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the group's debut (The Modern Dance). Lady From Shanghai is to be released on new label Fire Records (home to Guided by Voices, Mission of Burma, Giant Sand, Bailterspace, Josephine Foster and many others). The album ushers in a new era in the history of Pere Ubu, with David Thomas and band continuing to provoke and shock listeners, further establishing them as one of the most innovative, progressive and important bands of all time.
Lady from Shanghai is an album of dance music - it is the Ubu Dance Party.
"The dancer is the puppet of the dance," says singer David Thomas. "It's long past time somebody puts an end to this abomination. Lady From Shanghai has fixed the problem.
"What is the problem? Dance encourages the body to move without permission."
An accompanying book 'Chinese Whispers: The Making of Lady From Shanghai' will be launched around the same time, extensively exploring the ideas and methods behind the recording.
The Pere Ubu project was supposed to be an end, not a beginning. Assembled in August 1975 to be the Crosby Stills Nash & Young of the Cleveland music underground, the plan was to record one, maybe two singles and exist no more. Within months, however, those first self-produced records were being snapped up in London, Paris, Manchester, New York and Minneapolis. Pere Ubu was changing the face of rock music.
Over the next 34 years they defined the art of cult; refined the voice of the outsider; and inspired the likes of Joy Division, Pixies, Husker Du, Henry Rollins, REM, Sisters of Mercy, Thomas Dolby, Bauhaus, Julian Cope and countless others.
Pere Ubu make a music that is a disorienting mix of midwestern groove rock, "found" sound, analog synthesizers, falling-apart song structures and careening vocals. It is a mix that has mesmerized critics, musicians and fans for decades.
Singer David Thomas named the band after the protagonist of Ubu Roi, a play by Frenchman Alfred Jarry."
- Fire Records - 414 seconds @ Soundcloud - http://ubuprojex.net/
Coming Feb. 28 on Rounder Records - New Multitudes
Full LP streaming here
Brokeback and the Black Rock
by Brokeback
Thrill Jockey
Thrill 312 - 2012
Released Jan 22
- "A hero of the burgeoning alternative Australian music scene, Canberra born singer and producer Shoeb Ahmads debut solo record, Watch/Illuminate, is a masterpiece of ambient drone and gorgeous minimal melodicism. His debut solo album (Watch/Illuminate) finds a perfect balance between space-y, cinematic soundscapes and delicate, chiming chill wave pop.
Drawing influence from past masters of ambient song-writing such as Talk Talk and shoegaze legends Slowdive as well as contemporary electronica producers including James Blake and Toro Y Moi, Watch/Illuminate is a fascinating synergy of old and new, a hinterland crossroads of the ever-shifting face of contemporary pop music. Produced at home in Canberra and on the road throughout the south-eastern territories of Oz, NZ and Asia, Watch/Illuminate is a document of one mans travels across seas and oceans, deserts and savannah. Guest performers include Columbian singer Lucrecia Perez and acclaimed sound artist Lawrence English."
- Mystery Plays Records - music
Featuring:
Andy Aledort, Greg Anderson, Ron Anderson, Joe Berger, Michael Bierylo, Biota, Blancah, Joe Bouchard, Bill Brovold, Phil Burk, Juan Parra Cancino, Marco Cappelli, Marty Carlson, Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, Rhys Chatham, Barry Cleveland, Nels Cline, Amy Denio, Jon Diaz, Nick Didkovsky, Thomas Dimuzio, Bruce Eisenbeil, Karl Evangelista, Janet Feder, Caroline Feldmeier, Ken Field, Fred Frith, Wiek Hijmans, Mark Hitt, Henry Kaiser, Raymond T. Kallas, Mike Keneally, Jesse Krakow, Jesse Kranzler, Mike Lerner, Taylor Levine, David Linaburg, Josh Lopes, Steve MacLean, Tom Marsan, Colin Marston, Ava Mendoza, Julia A. Miller, Roger C. Miller, James Moore, Chris Murphy, Chuck O'Meara, Marco Oppedisano, Kai Niggeman, Han-earl Park, Shawn Persinger is Prester John, Larry Polansky, Del Rey, Teisco Del Rey with Bob Spalding, Keith Rowe, Elliott Sharp, John Shiurba, Alex Skolnick, Mark Solomon, David Starobin, Mark Stewart, Hans Tammen, Matt Wilson, Bruce Zeines, and Zwerm.
Bridge Records - http://www.100dollarguitar.com/ - NPR
Posted just 1 hour ago on Soundcloud by the French label, Clapping Music (Egyptology and Yeti Lane):
Domotic - Bipolar Model
"Taken from Domotic's new album "Before and After Silence" now available!"
Stephan Mathieu - Un coeur simple
- "Stephan Mathieu's latest album Un coeur simple features music made for a play based on Gustave Flaubert's novel by the same title (known in the English world as "A Simple Heart") and first published in 1877 as part of the book Trois Contes (Three Tales). That setting a modern rereading of an old tale, which at the time stood as a character study of Flaubert's contemporaries is just perfect for Mathieu's music.
For, you see, our sound artist's approach for the past decade has relied on a fascination for the past expressed through cutting-edge tools. Early instruments and obsolete music media (wax cylinders, 78rpm records) are central to his sound world, a world he weaves and refines, paradoxically, on a computer.
This album is a perfect match between Flaubert's Felicity, a love-deprived maid subjugated by religion and fascinated by a parrot from America, and Mathieu's delicate yet intriguing soundscapes, which includes bits of recordings of religious and Medieval music. In other words, on Un coeur simple, Mathieu's art achieves a new level of... felicity.
Stephan Mathieu is a self-taught electroacoustic music composer. Since his debut album in 1999, he has released 30 albums on a number of labels such as Orthlong Musork, Fällt, Die Schachtel, Crónica, Dekorder, Minority, Line, and 12k. He has worked with Sylvain Chauveau, Robert Hampson (Main), Taylor Deupree, and David Sylvian, among others."
- http://www.baskaru.com/karu24.htm - Soundcloud
- "The Legendary Pink Dots are back with there highly anticipated new album. Chemical Playschool is a concept in which more then ever an indulgence in extended ballads and psychedelic improvisations allows Edward Ka-Spels voice to engage us with his unique brand of storytelling, and the use of synthesizers brings to mind vintage space rock adapted for the modern age. The album opens with the beautifully epic Immaculate Conception where Ka-Spel transports us into a world of stars and planets surrounded by voices and distant echos. In The Opium Den Parts 1-3? we find a melancholy piece with classic LPD folk essence, arriving then at the ritual tribal ballad Ranting and Raving. Chemical Playschool is able to surpass all of our expectations for a band always able to surprise as they lead us through their peculiar dream world. A truly inspired release representing one of the most beautiful concepts created by this eclectic and mythic band."
- Rustblade - Soundcloud
After 30 years of existence, the Dots is in as great shape as they ever were . . .
01 Darren Harper - Wander, Bracken And Moss
02 Sima - Sunshine With A Piano
03 David Newlyn - Like The Work Of A Man Who Has Seen A Ghost
04 Pleq And Josco - A Broken Memory
05 Yuco - Impulsively
06 Gallery Six - Shizuku
07 Damian Valles - A Dark Matter
08 Wil Bolton - Migvie
09 Tone Color - 061
10 Nigel Samways And Daniel Dickel - Paratheatre
11 Thompost - Snoozy
http://assemblyfield.blogspot.co.uk/
- Featuring Stephen Stills and Buddy Miles.
- "So here it is, the last instalment in Sebastian Rochford's Days And Nights At The Takeaway singles club. The final collaborator is none other than Brian Eno, ably assisted by Underworld's Karl Hyde on guitar, who recorded 'Dream Nails' in Seb's tiny London studio. Seb's Polar Bear bandmate and bassist of The Invisible Tom Herbert provides December's remix."
The Leaf Label - music
Colin Stetson & Mats Gustafsson - Stones
- "In the history of jazz and improvisation the saxophone duet is remarkably rare. Sax players tend to lock horns with drummers, bassists, trumpeters, even cellists and violinists, but rarely with each other. But here to blow that convention out of the water come two of the planets most uncompromising and inventive young hornithologists, Colin Stetson and Mats Gustafsson. Mats Gustafsson has perfected the art of the vein-popping, no-compromise blowout, and has appeared with Sonic Youth, Jim ORourke, improvising legends Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann and Ken Vandermark. His own free jazz power trio The Thing recently released the acclaimed Cherry Thing album with Neneh Cherry; while his Fire! trio with Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin have released three albums on Rune Grammofon. The four tracks on Stones were recorded live on stage at the 2011 Vancouver Jazz Festival. Miraculously, this explosive encounter was also their first meeting. "It was completely magic", remembers Mats. "All was there, the communication, the interaction, the music, the mystery..." This is fire music that smoulders in the dark. Perhaps this will give the sax duo a new lease of life. After all, as Mats says, theres "No escape... nothing to hide... you just need to go out there and interact!"
- Rune Grammofon - Soundcloud
Mats Gustafsson once slept on my living room floor, when I presented Aaly Trio with Ken Vandermark.
Here's Jonah's comment about it on Twitter: :-)
Petra Haden - Petra Goes to the Movies
One of my favorite new releases. This is pleasant, clever gold. Petra doing mostly overdubbed, all-vocal renditions of movie themes. Great arranging and singing.
"Psycho"
- Some may know PH's priceless acapella version of The Who Sell Out
Excellent news from Karl Records, to be released March 15, 2013 but already on bandcamp (and is likely to show up on Emusic).
- A debut album from a very skilled Trio from Hamburg / Germany:
LAURENT DE SCHEPPER TRIO - Aquanaut
Isabel Fischer [ Bass] Lars Oertel [ Drums] Thomas B
Don't know if anyone's mentioned this new one yet which is scheduled for release February 5 on New West, but I just heard about it and pre-ordered it right away!
Can't wait to hear it.