Released today. Worth a listen if you like Thelen's/Reuter's sound world.
The title track, Promise of a Better World, is inspired in part by Terry
Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air, yet it ventures into darker, more
dramatic terrain. Its foundation is a towering, feedback-sculpted
soundscape Markus recorded at Berlin’s iconic Hansa Studios during the
Rothko Spaces Vol. 4 sessions in October 2024. I later added layers of
organ and strings while on a solitary retreat in Romania’s Carpathian
Mountains — just down the road from Dracula’s castle — a setting whose
haunted serenity quietly echoes through the piece.
The second track, Clocks Go Down in Wonderland, is a 2025 reimagining of
our 2019 digital-only debut. This new version is greatly expanded,
incorporating an entirely new section built from sonic material recorded
during the same Hansa sessions. The piece revolves around interwoven
organ patterns in differing tempos, creating a fluid, shifting sense of
time. Markus’ guitar solo soars
with lyrical elegance, while my e-bow solo — spacious, melancholic, and
strangely luminous — remains one of my personal favorites.
I only came across this album recently and amongst a glut of new old albums in nearly got the one play and filed treatment, which would have been wrong. Goodrick was a guitar player in Gary Burton's band, This is his only ECM album as leader. His band here is rather special Eddie Gomez bass, Jack DeJohnette drums and John Surman sax. Expect bluesy mellow ballads almost throughout. This would have been way too tasteful for me when I was a youth despite being a Surman fan since the early 80's.
Yellin from They Might Be Giants and Kaplan from Yo La Tengo great stuff including a great joke / memory of Hawkwind's Master of the Universe oh and Surfer Girl the Brian Wilson tear jerker. Really like Yellin on cello here. Thomas is in a good mood but still sounds like a psychotic episode waiting to happen. Recorded at The Knitting Factory back in 93.
".......a selection of twenty-three emblematic tracks celebrates eight years of musical research and experimentation featuring Cuba’s musical avant-garde under the curation of Gilles Peterson with the backing of the Havana Cultura project."
Drifts peacefully, but has a real presence. Was just reminded it earned the #10 slot on my BitW Best of 2016 list, which typically goes to a wildcard entry.
ProgArchives says "Cheer-Accident has maintained an impressively eclectic approach to music-making throughout their lengthy career, releasing a slew of albums that range in style from noise rock to avant-prog to pop."
Revisiting some of the older releases on the imprint PJCE (Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble). I still like the label plenty, but there were some recordings back in the 2010-2015 years that seriously floated my boat.
Two very different approaches to the notion of drone. The Hubro album is Jo David Meyer Lysne – For Renstemt Klaver which uses electro-magnets to vibrate the piano wires.
The Sarah Davachi album is one composition performed in four iterations with differing instrumentation. Both albums need a lot of close listening, more than I've managed so far. Both bought on the last Bandcamp Friday.
First listen in quite a while. Wonderful record, never released on cd as far as I know. Includes a great Balafon work out. Chico Freeman - saxophones, flute; Jay Hoggard – vibraphone; Cecil McBee – bass; Anthony Davis – piano; Famoudou Don Moye - drums, percussion. YouTube is your friend if you want a listen, I wish someone would digitise the whole India Navigation catalogue.
Love that Chico album! Often on my turntable back in the late 70s. Beginning in '80, I started working for a distributor that carried India Navigation titles. It was my job to sell that label, so I'd get free promos to build my collection. Wonderful label that I visit every once in a while if I can find the albums here at home in the collection.
Believe it or not I wonder if my post would get a response from you! I envy you those promos multiplied by being annoyed at my younger self for not seeking out labels like India Navigation when I had access to Mole Jazz, Ray's Jazz etc in London for so many years. I think ignorance had quite a bit to do with it ;-)
First album by Andrew Hill recorded 1959 released 1960. Malachi Favors bass, James Slaughter drums. Not a jot like his famous Blue Note albums, straight ahead ballad playing and really rather nice for a Sunday morning while I cough and hack having picked up a bug from some cruise ship passengers yesterday.
There was a spell when I was a big offthesky fan and would automatically purchase every new release, including physical releases in odd formats. (he's fairly prolific and I have a LOT of offthesky albums). Then there was a period of some years when suddenly my ears were not hearing what his ears were hearing. This is a new one consisting of eight forty-minute collage tracks (five hours of music for $10) and so far I am loving all of them.
form.radio is a series of live performance long-form mix-tape style
collages consisting of recordings mined from a myriad of radio stations.
each of these 8 sonic quilts spans the gambit from pop-ambient, drone,
new age, minimal, free jazz, experimental, classical, musique concrete,
acousmatic, field recording, and various shades in between. with a heavy
emphasis on a live loop based lofi aesthetic, the pieces are often
unpredictable, playful, imperfect, with twists and turns, roiling
rhythms, and rough hewn movements occurring throughout.
I don't think I would have known it was a collage from radio stations from listening - it sounds like an offthesky record, not a smorgasbord of snippets of music. But it's really nice.
(His full discography is currently $48 for 84 releases.)
Comments
The second track, Clocks Go Down in Wonderland, is a 2025 reimagining of our 2019 digital-only debut. This new version is greatly expanded, incorporating an entirely new section built from sonic material recorded during the same Hansa sessions. The piece revolves around interwoven organ patterns in differing tempos, creating a fluid, shifting sense of time. Markus’ guitar solo soars with lyrical elegance, while my e-bow solo — spacious, melancholic, and strangely luminous — remains one of my personal favorites.
Led me to play their album "Human Equation". It was rated no. 2 Progressive Rock album for 2004 by ProgArchives.
Day Of Phoenix - Wide Open N-Way (1970)
I only came across this album recently and amongst a glut of new old albums in nearly got the one play and filed treatment, which would have been wrong. Goodrick was a guitar player in Gary Burton's band, This is his only ECM album as leader. His band here is rather special Eddie Gomez bass, Jack DeJohnette drums and John Surman sax. Expect bluesy mellow ballads almost throughout. This would have been way too tasteful for me when I was a youth despite being a Surman fan since the early 80's.
Yellin from They Might Be Giants and Kaplan from Yo La Tengo great stuff including a great joke / memory of Hawkwind's Master of the Universe oh and Surfer Girl the Brian Wilson tear jerker. Really like Yellin on cello here. Thomas is in a good mood but still sounds like a psychotic episode waiting to happen. Recorded at The Knitting Factory back in 93.
I've been delving into my back catalogue of eMusic downloads
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/nov/13/gilles-peterson-presents-havana-cultura-review
".......a selection of twenty-three emblematic tracks celebrates eight years of musical research and experimentation featuring Cuba’s musical avant-garde under the curation of Gilles Peterson with the backing of the Havana Cultura project."
https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/perihelion
ProgArchives says "Cheer-Accident has maintained an impressively eclectic approach to music-making throughout their lengthy career, releasing a slew of albums that range in style from noise rock to avant-prog to pop."
Two very different approaches to the notion of drone. The Hubro album is Jo David Meyer Lysne – For Renstemt Klaver which uses electro-magnets to vibrate the piano wires.
The Sarah Davachi album is one composition performed in four iterations with differing instrumentation. Both albums need a lot of close listening, more than I've managed so far. Both bought on the last Bandcamp Friday.
A long time favourite of mine - at least for five decades!
First listen in quite a while. Wonderful record, never released on cd as far as I know. Includes a great Balafon work out. Chico Freeman - saxophones, flute; Jay Hoggard – vibraphone; Cecil McBee – bass; Anthony Davis – piano; Famoudou Don Moye - drums, percussion. YouTube is your friend if you want a listen, I wish someone would digitise the whole India Navigation catalogue.
Believe it or not I wonder if my post would get a response from you! I envy you those promos multiplied by being annoyed at my younger self for not seeking out labels like India Navigation when I had access to Mole Jazz, Ray's Jazz etc in London for so many years. I think ignorance had quite a bit to do with it ;-)
First album by Andrew Hill recorded 1959 released 1960. Malachi Favors bass, James Slaughter drums. Not a jot like his famous Blue Note albums, straight ahead ballad playing and really rather nice for a Sunday morning while I cough and hack having picked up a bug from some cruise ship passengers yesterday.
I will just have to make do with listening to my favourite Boris album "Pink".
AMG says "Pink is easily the most cohesive, adventurous, and "listenable" recording of Boris' career to date"
I don't think I would have known it was a collage from radio stations from listening - it sounds like an offthesky record, not a smorgasbord of snippets of music. But it's really nice.
(His full discography is currently $48 for 84 releases.)