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Peter Evans Being & Becoming (Evans / Ross / Jozwiak / Ode):
Ars Memoria (More Is More)

The second album from New York trumpeter Peter Evan's band Being and Becoming stretches out his concepts in five extended works that dovetails superb contemporary jazz integrating extended techniques and solid vibraphone work with beautifully rich and explorative passages, masterfully performed with Joel Ross (vibes), Nick Jozwiak (bass) and Michael Shekwoaga (drums). ... Click to View


Peter Evans Being & Becoming (Evans / Ross / Jozwiak / Ode):
Ars Memoria [VINYL 180gm] (More Is More)

The second album from New York trumpeter Peter Evan's band Being and Becoming stretches out his concepts in five extended works that dovetails superb contemporary jazz integrating extended techniques and solid vibraphone work with beautifully rich and explorative passages, masterfully performed with Joel Ross (vibes), Nick Jozwiak (bass) and Michael Shekwoaga (drums). ... Click to View


Ivo Perelman (Fowler / Workman / Cyrille):
Embracing the Unknown (Mahakala Music)

Recording with the legendary rhythm section of bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille, tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and stritch & saxello player Chad Fowler perfectly complement each other as they play off and complete each other's lines and phrases under the support of astute foundational support, an exemplary album of collective, cross-generational free improvisation. ... Click to View


Gregorio / Smith / Bryerton:
The Cold Arrow (Balance Point Acoustics)

The second trio release from clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio, double bassist Damon Smith and Jerome Bryerton on gongs, selected metal & cymbals (but no drums), in a sophisticated album of eight collective improvisations numbered as "The Planar Effect" and two Gregorio compositions, an absolutely impressive set that obscures the line between "spontaneous" and "composition". ... Click to View


Andre Duchesne:
Ch'val (Ambiances Magnetiques)

Montreal composer, guitarist and arranger Andre Duchesne developed the pieces on this solo album as a tribute to his sister Carole, "the one who dreamed of horses," who passed in 2010, his pieces incorporating elements of rock, improvisation and compositional forms, a sincere tribute developed by recording daily over a month as a virtual rock band of guitar, bass and drum programming. ... Click to View


Bill Harris:
MACRODOSE (Amalgam)

Combining acoustic drums, percussion and electronics, the third solo album from Chicago drummer Bill Harris delves deeper into the sonic aspects of his improvisations while providing them in discrete segments through eleven succinct recordings, a diverse set demonstrating unique approaches to rhythm and sound, enhanced on some pieces through studio techniques. ... Click to View


Dante Boon (Beuger / Boon / Elina / Holtkamp / Schuppe / Van der Ster):
Duos (Edition Wandelweiser Records)

A collection of works from pianist & composer Dante Boon in diverse duos and virtual duo compositions that reflect on John Cages's "inner clock" concept from "Two2", each of Boon's compositions directing the players through systems of notation and counting unique to each player, varying the rules of how the two players eventually synchronize their performances. ... Click to View


Joane Hetu / Ensemble SuperMusique:
Monnomest (Ambiances Jazz)

A fascinating work dedicated to improvising cellist Remy Belanger de Beauport written by Montreal composer Joane Hétu and performed by the large Ensemble SuperMusique with Jean Derome, Lori Freedman, Scott Thomson, dian Labrosse, Danielle Palardy Roger, Pierre Tanguay, &c. commissioned and perofrmed for the Ensemble's 40th anniversary and expanded for this studio edition. ... Click to View


Joelle Leandre / Pascal Contet:
Miniatures (Trost Records)

A collaboration that goes back 30 years, French improvising bassist Joëlle Léandre and avant accordionist Pascal Contet in their fifth album together, turning from their more typically extended conversations to a series of 10 "Miniatures", shorter and diverse dialogs recorded live in 2022 at the beautiful Arsenal Concert Hall in Metz, France. ... Click to View


Chad Fowler / Shanyse Strickland / Sana Nagano / Melanie Dyer / Ken Filiano / Anders Griffen:
Birdsong (Mahakala Music)

Highlighting the parallel to changes in birdsong in urban areas because of anthropogenic ambient noise, this diverse ensemble demonstrates the evolution of improv approaches through unique origins and backgrounds; with Chad Fowler (stritch, flute), Shanyse Strickland (French Horn), Sana Nagano (violin), Melanie Dyer (viola), Ken Filiano (bass) and Anders Griffen (drums). ... Click to View


Hal Russell NRG Ensemble:
The Hal Russell Story (ECM Records)

This 1996 recording of the Hal Russell NRG Ensemble of Mars Williams (reeds), Brian Sandstrom (bass, guitars, trumpets), Kent Kessler (bass, trombone) and Steve Hunt (drums & percussion) was recorded five week before Russell's passing, a wild parting gift of twenty succinct improvisations covering an incredible amount of territory with power, humor and amazing musical skill. ... Click to View


Ernesto Rodrigues / Dirk Serries / Joao Madeira / Jose Oliveira :
Dripping (Creative Sources)

crackle box, João Madeira on double bass and Jose Oliveira on percussion, extended to a quartet with Netherland's New Wave of Jazz/Vidna Obmama archtop guitarist Dirk Serries, presenting the 9-part "Dripping" series of free chamber-oriented lowercase improvisation. ... Click to View


Friedl / Siewert:
Lichtung (KARLRECORDS)

Zeitkratzer director and pianist Reinhold Friedl meets with Martin Siewert (Radian, Fake the Facts, Dry Thrust) for three improvised explorations on piano, guitar and electronics, through the course of powerful transitions building from deep introspection into prickly, bellicose interaction, yielding to a brooding finale of subtle electronics and punctuation; profound. ... Click to View


Niels Lokkegaard Lyhne / Quatuor Bozzini:
Colliding Bubbles (Important Records)

Copenhagen composer Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard's long form work refers to units of compositional structure and in systems of instruments, each a "bubble" that interacts and collides creating fluctuations, ruptures and tension release in an hypnotic sonic tapestry, performed by Montreal's Quatuor Bozzini on violins, viola, cellos and harmonica; mesmerizing. ... Click to View


Merzbow:
Cafe OTO [2 CDs] (Cold Spring Records)

A live and extended performance of brutal but shifting sonic assault performed before an appreciative audience at London's Cafe OTO in 2016, a solo performance from Japanese noise legend Masami Akita, AKA Merzbow, each of the 2 CDs in this set more than 50 minutes of tightly controlled electronic mayhem from the unremitting determination of one of the globe's masters of noise. ... Click to View


Charles Mingus:
Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird, Revisited (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Three sides of Charles Mingus in this remastered reissue set: the 1961 Candid album Mingus Presents Mingus with the classic quartet of Eric Dolphy, Ted Curson and Dannie Richmond; then the Mercury release Pre-Bird from the same year, in ensembles performing the music of or influenced by Duke Ellington, along with the ambitious and brilliant through-composed work, "Half Mast Inhibition". ... Click to View


Franz Koglmann:
Near Blue - A Taste of Melancholy (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Presented in two versions--a stereo mix and a binaural mix for headphones--flugelhorn improviser and composer Franz Koglmann leads his septet of exceptional players through 10 original Koglmann compositions, sophisticated works that show influences from Ellington to Franz Joseph Haydn or Johann Strauss, in pieces influenced by or tipping the hat to modern artists, musicians and writers. ... Click to View


Nikolaus Gerszewski :
3 Works For Strings, Giusto Chamber Orchestra (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Giusto Chamber Orchestra performs three works for twelve strings by German composer and visual artist Nikolaus Gerszewski, whose music of shifting pitches, vibrations and volumes--compared with experimental sound & noise work--is influenced by composers Radulescu and Dumitrescu's spectral music, James Tenney's "swell form" and Cornelius Cardew's graphic scores. ... Click to View


Void Patrol (Sharp / Stetson / Martin / MacDonald):
Live @ Victo (Victo)

A wild and adventurous concert and one of the highlights of the 39th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville from the electric improvising quartet of Elliott Sharp on electric guitar & electronics, Colin Stetson on bass, alto & tenor saxophones, Billy Martin on drums & percussion and Payton Macdonald on marimba, vibraphone & African xylophone. ... Click to View


Federico Ughi (w / Leo Genovese / Brandon Lopez):
Infinite Cosmos Calling You You You, Vol. 1 (577 Records)

The first album under 577 label leader and drummer Federico Ughi's name in five years brings together the incredible bass skills of Brandon Lopez and expansive Argentinean keyboard sonics of Leo Genovese, the first of two planned volumes recorded in the studio for a boundary-less album of acoustic and electric improv influenced by the music and philosophy of Sun Ra. ... Click to View


Federico Ughi (w / Leo Genovese / Brandon Lopez):
Infinite Cosmos Calling You You You, Vol. 1 [VINYL] (577 Records)

The first album under 577 label leader and drummer Federico Ughi's name in five years brings together the incredible bass skills of Brandon Lopez and expansive Argentinean keyboard sonics of Leo Genovese, the first of two planned volumes recorded in the studio for a boundary-less album of acoustic and electric improv influenced by the music and philosophy of Sun Ra. ... Click to View


Sven-Ake Johansson / Alexander Von Schlippenbach:
uber Ursache und Wirkung der Meinungsverschiedenheiten beim Turmbau zu Babel [VINYL 2 LPs & PAL DVD] (Trost Records)

Documenting the 1994 avant music drama composed by pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and accordionist Sven-Ake Johansson, uber Ursache und Wirkung der Meinungsverschiedenheiten beim Turmbau zu Babel (on the cause and effect of the disagreements over the building of the Tower of Babel) through a double LP, DVD, libretto and 16-page booklet in a solid box set. ... Click to View


Musicworks:
#147 Winter 2024 [MAGAZINE + CD] (Musicworks)

Winter 2024 issue of Canada's premiere new music magazine, with Saxophonist Andrew MacKelvie on the cover; plus features on Indonesia's Music Subculture; Sonny-Ray Day Ride; Solidaridad Tango; A History of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble; plus album reviews, essays and a CD of tracks from artists covered in the magazine. ... Click to View


Witches & Devils (Williams / Vandermark / Lonberg-Holm):
At the Empty Bottle (Knitting Factory Works)

Before his ecstatic Xmas series, An Ayler Xmas, Chicago saxophonist Mars Williams led the Witches & Devils quintet of Mars Williams on reeds, Ken Vandermark on reeds, Jim Baker on keyboards, Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and Kent Kessler on bass, an incredible and passionate free jazz group paying tribute to the music of Albert Ayler, heard live at The Empty Bottle in 1997. ... Click to View


Simulacrum:
Mechatronics (Evil Clown)

This ensemble features 3 core Evil Clown members--David Peck on reeds, winds, percussion & electronics; Eric Woods on analog synth; and Bob Moores on space trumpet, guitar & electronics--with guests Michael Caglianone on reeds & percussion, Robin Amos on electric zither and keyboards; Faruq Hassan on samplers & keys; Albey OnBass on bass; and Michael Knoblach on military devices. ... Click to View


Peter Brotzmann / Paal Nilssen-Love:
Chicken Shit Bingo (Trost Records)

Often performing together as a duo after their initial 2004 Chicago Tentet encounter, drummer/percussionist Paal Nilssen and multi-reedist Peter Brötzmann typically released albums of live performances, this 2015 studio date in Antwerp unique in their catalog, an exemplary set of recordings, particularly with Brötzmann on a new contra-alto clarinet and Paal adding gongs to their improvisations. ... Click to View


Peter Brotzmann / Paal Nilssen-Love:
Chicken Shit Bingo [VINYL] (Trost Records)

Often performing together as a duo after their initial 2004 Chicago Tentet encounter, drummer/percussionist Paal Nilssen and multi-reedist Peter Brötzmann typically released albums of live performances, this 2015 studio date in Antwerp unique in their catalog, an exemplary set of recordings, particularly with Brötzmann on a new contra-alto clarinet and Paal adding gongs to their improvisations. ... Click to View


Jean Derome:
La Chaleur De La Pensee (Ambiances Magnetiques)

Concepts of community, dialog, sharing and transmission, or "recontre", are the linking ideas between these four works commissioned of Montreal composer and wind player Jean Derome, developed for four Quebec ensembles, these pieces combine contemporary and improvisational forms, the scores shaped by constraints from the combinatorial mathematics of Marin Mersenne. ... Click to View


Giuseppe Doronzo / Andy Moor / Frank Rosaly:
Futuro Ancestrale (Clean Feed)

Having worked together in other collaborations, this was the first meeting as a trio by Giuseppe Doronzo on baritone sax & Iranian bagpipe, Andy Moor on electric guitar and Frank Rosaly on drums, performing live at BIMHUIS in Amsterdam for a contemplatively charged set of unorthodox instrumental approaches using contemporary improv attitudes through structured and collective playing. ... Click to View


Norbert Pfammatter / Florestan Berset / Francesco Losavio:
A Vol D'Oiseau (Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

The Swiss guitar trio of Florestan Berset on electric guitar with Norbert Pfammatter on drums and Francesco Losavio on double bass perform a mix of lyrical compositions from Berset, along with lyrically inclined collective improvisation from the group, each player bringing unique approaches to their instruments in a highly compatible set of conversations. ... Click to View



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  Stop and Smell the Sewers  

Psychogeographers Strive to Slow the Nonstop City


By Kurt Gottschalk and Urania Mylonas
Photos by Kurt Gottschalk 2003-06-24

On a rainy night in May in the Lower East Side, about 100 people stopped or slowed down traffic, and nobody got mad. Motorists actually smiled as the motley crew of costumed revelers, wearing skirts made from recycled magazines and hats made from household items, banged on cans, bottles, and washboards, anything they could make noise with, as they paraded up Essex Street, onto Houston and headed towards the confines of East River Park.

The event was part of Psy-Geo Conflux, a weekend dedicated to redefining how we experience the city. The parade itself was organized by the Toy Shop Collective, who previously won a competition organized by evolutionre zellen, a Berlin-based group dedicated to finding and funding those who can best answer the question: "How do you design your society?"

As the group traveled along Houston, several police cars trailed them, although they didn't try to stop the march. Many people along the way looked quizzically, as if wondering what was going on. One man stopped a member of the group and asked her why she was banging on an old dirty can. "Thats junk!" he said. The woman looked at her can, then reached inside it and pulled out a whistle and handed it to him. He seemed resistant at first, but the bright smiles and infectious enthusiasm of this group won him over and he jumped in, blowing on his whistle and abandonding self-consciousness, tuning in to the group's collective consciousness, which was best described by a banner some of them held: Is the Fear of Looking Stupid Holding You Back?

Street Grid
Psychogeographers Locate Street Scenes at ABC No Rio
Psychogeopraphy is a discipline discussed in universities and celebrated among anarchist collectives like the Lower East Side's ABC No Rio, where much of the weekend's festivities were centered. But it's not one that's easily defined. While some organizers and participants attempted long explanations of the small field of thought that concerns itself with how the environment affects an individual's inner state, others offered simpler, more utilitarian explanations. It's an effort to "stop taking for granted the things you take for granted," said Drexel University history professor Scott Knowles, who lives in Queens and took part in several of the events aimed at slowing down the nonstop city.

Knowles is a member of a loosely-knit group calling itself Psychogeography New York. In the last two years, they have undertaken such activities as collecting objects on the street and redistributing them around the city based on the object's aesthetic qualities; riding the length of the A train, starting in upper Manhattan and making the two-hour ride to have a party in Far Rockaway, Queens; and exploring the city using maps of other cities. Such projects, Knowles said, are intended to undermine their own expectations about what goes on in, and below, the streets of New York.

"To me, at the very simplest level, stripped of political meaning, it's making yourself aware that your surroundings not only effect what you think, they are what you think," Knowles said. "At the first level, it's what you are seeing and then what you are not. But there's a deeper level that people discuss where, as capitalism develops, more of the experience of the street is closed off and you are channeled to certain areas in the street.

"It's not a religion," he added. "It's not a life-changing philosophy. It's realizing that what you see on the street is effecting you."

Taking time to appreciate one's surroundings is, of course, hardly a 21st century innovation (although it may well be one that denizens of this century would be wise to recall). Psychogeography as a discipline dates back to Paris in the 1950s, but it has roots that stretch back much further. One could even argue that Socrates, who said "The unexamined life is not worth living," was the first psychogeographer. During a talk at ABC No Rio, photographer Colette Meacher, who has worked as a lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of the Andes in Bogota, discussed the value of meditative walking through philosopher Immanuel Kant's work.

"Walking has always been a means to thought, not just for writers, artists and poets but for philosophers as well," Meacher said. Kant took the same walk at the same time every day, and used these walks as ways to discover the beautiful and the sublime, not just in his surroundings but in own experiential states, she said.

"The city itself, as landscape, offers moments of wonder by virtue of the wealth of diverse practices which, synchronously, and continuously, manifest therein," she said during the talk. "The sublime views which can be gained neither depend on perspectival privilege nor on a specific positionality within its spaces - a feeling of awe can be achieved irrespective of familiarity with it or whether it is approached wit a 'naive' eye."

Regaining that "naive eye" was the impetus for several self-guided walks during the weekend. People stopping by ABC No Rio could pick up photos taken around the Lower East Side, locate the site pictured, and then return to put them in the appropriate spot on a large map on the wall. A book was handed out that directed the reader around the city, steering participants in different directions based on hearing a car alarm or a cell phone or seeing a bicycle locked to a street sign or a woman wearing a hat. And groups were sent out to photograph and document the service entrances of New York's most prominent buildings.

Bill Brown
Bill Brown
If the psychogeographers want to get a fresh look at the city, they're not forgetting that they're being watched at the same time. Bill Brown maps security cameras around the city, and says there are at least 7,500 in Manhattan alone. And with cameras mounted on emergency vehicles, planes and satellites, "we are now visible from the ground all the way to the sky," he said.

The cameras are not a product of terrorism concerns so much as attempts to monitor drug sales, traffic infractions and consumer behavior, he said.

"We are now visible to those cameras," Brown said, pointing to a camera mounted on the side of a building aimed at the dozen people circled around him. "Because we are lingering, we are loitering. It is interesting enough to track us. It used to be in our society we divided people into two groups, the people that might commit crimes and the people that might not commit crimes. If you stand here on the corner of 14th Street and 8th Avenue, you are worth watching."

The sights and sounds of the city have often been the source of artistic expression, of course. The closing party, held at Subtonic, in the basement of the nightclub Tonic a few blocks from ABC No Rio, featured site specific sound work by percussionist Sean Meehan and sound manipulator Geoff Dugan.

Sean Meehan & Geoff Dugan
Sean Meehan & Geoff Dugan
Dugan used recordings of Meehan playing on the street as a sound source, layering it and altering it as Meehan sat quietly, as if trying to find away in to the sound, into aduet with himself, despite excessive chatter and onlookers who displayed no sense of the performers' personal space. Or perhaps Meehan was simply absorbing all the noise, the sounds of conversation and cash registers, before beginning. Eventually he entered into the dialogue, rubbing the rim of his snare with a fork, rolling the drum on the floor, pushing thin wooden rods against a cymbal, mixing in with the sound around. Whatever his reaction - annoyed, amused or inspired - it could only have been seen as appropriate by the psychogeographers gathered on a rainy Mother's Day night. Meehan and Meehan, and the sounds of a basement bar. To ignore the noise would, perhaps, have been to miss the point.



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Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Federico Ughi (
w /
Leo Genovese /
Brandon Lopez):
Infinite Cosmos
Calling You You You,
Vol. 1
(577 Records)



Sven-Ake Johansson /
Alexander Von Schlippenbach:
uber Ursache
und Wirkung der
Meinungsverschiedenheiten
beim Turmbau zu Babel
[VINYL 2 LPs & PAL DVD]
(Trost Records)



Charles Mingus:
Presents Charles Mingus
To
Pre Bird,
Revisited
(ezz-thetics by
Hat Hut Records
Ltd)



Franz Koglmann:
Near Blue -
A Taste of
Melancholy
(ezz-thetics by
Hat Hut Records
Ltd)



Void Patrol (
Sharp /
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Martin /
MacDonald):
Live @ Victo
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Peter Brotzmann /
Paal Nilssen-Love:
Chicken Shit Bingo
(Trost Records)



Jean Derome:
La Chaleur De La Pensee
(Ambiances Magnetiques)



Giuseppe Doronzo /
Andy Moor /
Frank Rosaly:
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(Clean Feed)



Hal Russell /
Mars Wiliams:
EFTSOONS
[VINYL]
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Scratching Fork (
Malinowski /
Rychlicki /
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Scratching Fork
II
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Ivo Perelman /
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Tom Rainey:
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Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Elliott Sharp:
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Scheen Jazzorkester
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Quatuor Bozzini:
Jurg Frey: String Quartet
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Ensemble SuperMusique:
Le fil d'Ariane
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Wadada Smith Leo /
Joe Morris:
Earth's Frequencies
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Paul Dunmall /
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Susanna Hood Trio:
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Jonas Cambien:
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PNY Quintet (
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Over The Wall
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