The Squid's Ear Magazine


Ranaldo, Lee / Jim Jarmusch / Marc Urselli / Balazs Pandi: [CD] (Trost Records)

Producer & bassist Marc Urselli devised this first meeting between himself and Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo, filmaker/guitarist Jim Jarmusch, and drummer Balazs Pandi's, recording in Urselli's NY studio to capture these live analog recordings of improvisations using no overdubs, a twilight set of evolving and absorbing explorations merging rock & experimental approaches.
 

Price: $16.95


Quantity:

Out of Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Lee Ranaldo-guitar, pedalboard, bells

Balazs Pandi-drums

Jim Jarmusch-guitar, pedalboard, synthesizer

Marc Urselli-bass, laptop


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 9120036682849

Label: Trost Records
Catalog ID: TROST 181CD
Squidco Product Code: 27310

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2019
Country: Austria
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded live at Eastside Sound Studios, in New York City, New York, by Marc Urselli.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"New York based producer and engineer Marc Urselli had the idea to bring people together who had never met before and let that meeting of minds create beautiful soundscapes. Film director and musician Jim Jarmusch, Sonic Youth co-founder and guitarist Lee Ranaldo shared space with versatile drummer Balazs Pandi (projects with Keiji Haino, Venetian Snares, Merzbow) for a night session at Urselli's EastSide Sound studio in downtown New York. These are the unfiltered results. Absorbing instrumental patterns of cinematic sounds and improvised rhythms. No overdubs, no editing. All was recorded live and analog, produced and mixed by Marc Urselli. The front/back cover photos were taken by photographer William Semeraro in Norway. That is why Marc Urselli gave all the songs titles inspired by Norwegian mythology. CD version includes two extra tracks."-Trost



"A one-off improvised collaboration between Jim Jarmusch, Lee Ranaldo, Marc Urselli, and Balázs Pándi evokes a night-time dérive, finds Antonio Poscic

The music of Lee Ranaldo, Jim Jarmusch, Marc Urselli, and Balázs Pándi is a stroll through a city, any city, in the dead of night. Here, under the hazy shine of orange lights, familiar buildings and streets turn into strange monuments and viaducts. The air feels different too, sharper and more dangerous than in the daytime. Heavy machinery clunks and grinds somewhere in the distance, leaving canorous echoes behind. Desolate outskirts that make one feel alone, but not quite lonely, channel and disperse into areas of never ending buzz. An ambulance or threatening police car passes by, sirens blaring. Chimes on the porch of an old, abandoned house rustle softly. Time flies by. It's daybreak.

The self-titled collaboration of the four distinguished artists feels rather than soundtracks this intimate nocturnal adventure. Recorded in one sitting without any edits or overdubs at Marc Urselli's studio in New York, the collective free improvisation is built on top of elongated motifs and sparse notes. Like a metropolis falling into reluctant hibernation, the opening 'Gulltoppr' rushes in, led by Pándi's twitchy drumming and Urselli's humming bass, only to settle and recombine itself into a coherent, expansive scenery. While one of the guitars plinks and plonks in onomatopoeic fashion, the other forms oscillating textures and saturates them into dissonance. The whole soundscape is abstract and colossal, stretched onto an alien timescale.

Especially during this first cut, there are glimpses of rawness in the playing of the group, moments when they seem unsure of which direction to take. But it's exactly this unpredictability that makes the quartet's evocative sounds thoroughly captivating. The fact that Ranaldo, Jarmusch, Urselli, and Pándi had never played together before pushes them to discover rather than revisit, unconstricted by learned behaviours.

While it would be convenient to devise parallels between Jarmusch's work as a filmmaker and as a musician, in reality there aren't many. Instead, his contributions on guitar, effects, and synth are only vaguely reminiscent of his droning duos with Jozef van Wissem. Apart from a few of Ranaldo's fugitive guitar licks that might've come off a Sonic Youth album and a few segments during which Pándi drums and brushes with too much fervour, as if playing in one of his noisier projects, the music rules over the musicians and their previous experiences.

As the album unfolds, the notes become lighter and the interactions gentler. On the five-track CD version, it all culminates with the stark 'Haar' on which a flow of feedback, anchored and punctuated by prickly percussion, washes over fuzzy voices that barely escape a broken radio. This nostalgic moment and its cinematic, grandiose scope feel earned and lived in. A peaceful, almost cathartic climax to an excellent record."-Antonio Poscic, The Quietus

Also available on vinyl LP.

Artist Biographies

"Lee Mark Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, guitarist, writer, visual artist and record producer, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo at number 33 on its "Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list. In May 2012, Spin published a staff selected top 100 guitarist list, ranking Ranaldo and his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore together at number 1.

Ranaldo was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, studied art and graduated from Binghamton University. He has three sons, Cody, Sage and Frey, and is married twice, first with Amanda Linn in 1981 but later divorced, and now with experimental artist Leah Singer.

Ranaldo started his career in New York in several bands, and joined the electric guitar orchestra of Glenn Branca. In this orchestra he played mainly electric guitar, but also some of Branca's harmonic guitars Branca had designed and built himself. In 1981, he and David Linton briefly joined the band Plus Instruments formed by Truus de Groot. With this line-up they recorded the album February - April 1981, released on the Dutch Kremlin label. After the release of the album, Ranaldo left the band and started Sonic Youth with Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Ranaldo)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Balázs Pándi (born 6 August 1983) is a Hungarian drummer. He has worked and toured with various acts from all around the world including Venetian Snares, Otto von Schirach, Last Step, To Live and Shave in L.A., The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble and Zu. He also played drums for the Blood of Heroes project.

Since 2009 he has frequently played drums live with Merzbow, and they have released three live records together. They headlined the experimental stage at the Scion Rock Fest in Tampa, Florida in 2012. More recently, he and Merzbow have performed as a trio with Mats Gustafsson. They released Cuts in 2013 on RareNoise. For the follow-up Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper (2015), they were joined by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth.

Balázs started an electronica-metal-breakcore project with Bong-Ra called Wormskull in 2010 (their first album "Sound of Hell" was released in 2011). Most recently he joined the Italian experimental instrumental band Zu. His current projects include Italian doom band Obake, Metallic Taste of Blood (featuring Colin Edwin of Porcupine Tree, Eraldo Bernocchi of Obake and Jamie Saft), and Slobber Pup (Saft, Joe Morris and Trevor Dunn). From 2012 he started to play solo shows on selected festivals under his own name."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal%C3%A1zs_P%C3%A1ndi)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Jim Jarmusch (born January 22, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor, and composer. In addition to directing over a dozen films over the past three decades, Jarmusch plays guitar in SQÜRL, a band he formed with frequent collaborators Carter Logan and Shane Stoneback."-The Creative Independent



"In the early 1980s, Jarmusch was part of a revolving lineup of musicians in Robin Crutchfield's Dark Day project, and later became the keyboardist and one of two vocalists for The Del-Byzanteens, a No Wave band who released the LP Lies to Live By in 1982.

Jarmusch is also featured on the album Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture (2005) in two interludes described by Sean Fennessy in a Pitchfork review of the album as both "bizarrely pretentious" and "reason alone to give it a listen". Jarmusch and Michel Gondry each contributed a remix to a limited edition release of the track "Blue Orchid" by The White Stripes in 2005.

The author of a series of essays on influential bands, Jarmusch has also had at least two poems published. He is a founding member of The Sons of Lee Marvin, a humorous "semi-secret society" of artists resembling the iconic actor, which issues communiqués and meets on occasion for the ostensible purpose of watching Marvin's films.

He released three collaborative albums with lutist Jozef van Wissem, Concerning the Entrance into Eternity (Important Records) , The Mystery of Heaven (Sacred Bones Records), in 2012 and the 2019 release An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil (Sacred Bones Records).

Jarmusch is a member of rock band SQÜRL with film associate Carter Logan and sound engineer Shane Stoneback. SQÜRL's version of Wanda Jackson's 1961 song "Funnel of Love", featuring Madeline Follin of Cults on vocals, opens Jarmusch's 2014 film Only Lovers Left Alive.

Dutch lute composer Jozef van Wissem also collaborated with Jarmusch on the soundtrack for Only Lovers Left Alive and the pair also play in a duo. Jarmusch first met van Wissem on a street in New York City's SoHo area in 2007, at which time the lute player handed the director a CD-several months later, Jarmusch asked van Wissem to send his catalog of recordings and the two started playing together as part of their developing friendship. Van Wissem explained in early April 2014: "I know the way [Jarmusch] makes his films is kind of like a musician. He has music in his head when he's writing a script so it's more informed by a tonal thing than it is by anything else.""-Wikipedia

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jarmusch#Music)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Marc Urselli: 5-time Grammy Award nominated, 3-time Grammy Award winning engineer, producer, mixer, sound designer and front of house engineer Marc Urselli works with artists from around the world.

He has worked with U2, Foo Fighters, Sting, Lou Reed, Keith Richards, Kesha, Jeff Beck, Les Paul, Buddy Guy, Luther Vandross, Nick Cave, Børns, The Black Crowes, Joss Stone, Mike Patton, John Zorn, Jack DeJohnette, Esperanza Spalding, John Patitucci, Laurie Anderson and scores of artists performing rock, pop, metal, jazz, experimental/avantgarde/new music, urban and electronica and classical.

Marc also composes music for film and television, creates sound design for commercials and mixes audio for film and television. He also recorded and mixed more than half a dozen movie soundtracks.Marc was born in Switzerland and raised in Italy. His musical education began at age 12. At age 17 he opened his first commercial recording facility in Italy. Marc later moved to New York City, where he currently resides and works as Chief House Engineer for the historic & legendary recording studio EastSide Sound.

Marc is a renowned, in-demand freelance producer and engineer. He records and mixes in the highest caliber studios worldwide, including Village Recorders (LA), Capitol Sound (LA), EastWest (LA), Sunset Sound (LA), Sear Sound (NY), Flux (NY), Grouse Lodge (Dublin) and many others.

Marc is also an entrepreneur, and when he's not in the studio his interests include traveling, kitesurfing, guitars, art, web design, the internet, and writing."

-Marc Urselli Website (http://www.marcurselli.com/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Andvari 11:49

2. Bergelmir 7:29

3. Groa 19:32

4. Gulltoppr 8:56

5. Haar 5:02

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Improvised Rock
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Quartet Recordings
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
New in Experimental & Electronic Music

Search for other titles on the label:
Trost Records.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Other Recommended Releases:
D. L., Jean (w/ Hermant / Ranaldo / Young)
Forays
(Shhpuma)
A set of beautiful electro-acoustic compositions, dream-like and rich in details using sources of acoustic instruments, field recordings, guitar, electronics and voice, organized into hazy and beautiful reflections, with contributions from Margaret Hermant on xylophone & violin, Jeremy Young on electronics, and Lee Ranaldo providing field recordings and voice.
Made to Break
Cherchez la Femme
(Trost Records)
The quartet of Ken Vandermark on saxes, Christof Kurzmann on electronics, Devin Hoff on bass and Tim Daisy on drums trace women's influence on contemporary art, especially music, painting and photography, through 3 incredible examples of modern jazz.
Ranaldo, Lee / William Hooker / Jim O'Rourke / Gianni Gebbia
Clouds: Victoriaville Concert May 1997
(Les Disques Victo)



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Shipp, Matthew
Codebreaker
(Tao Forms)
An unusually contemplative solo record from New York pianist Matthew Shipp, belying the intricately subtle density of his inventive approach to solo piano improvisation, with an innate lyricism through unusual motive and direction; perhaps one of the most succinct and concise albums Shipp has released, and a beautiful reflection of his creative intentions.
Ritual Habitual (Marogna / Almeida / Ernsting)
Pagan Chant
(Clean Feed)
Presented as a a tribute to past jazz masters John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry and Charlie Haden, Rotterdam's Ritual Habitual trio led by double bassist Gonçalo Almeida with drummer Philipp Ernsting and Riccardo Maronga on tenor sax, bass clarinet & synthesizers, create a sense of ritual through deep repetition of modern creative jazz rooted in free jazz tradition.
Snyder, Nicolas
Temporary Places
(Shhpuma)
West Coast sound artist Nicolas Snyder is a composer, filmmaker, sound-documenter, gardener, and forager; fascinated by the sounds of nature, he took recordings from streams and National Parks in Vietnam, Pennsylvania, and California and merged them with music composed in the studio to create these works of great beauty as a study of locational and emotional memory.
Taylor, Cecil / Tony Oxley
Birdland / Neuburg 2011
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))
Performing in the intimacy of the Birdland Jazz Club in 2011, New York innovative pianist Cecil Taylor met with London free jazz legendary percussionist and long-time associate in The Feel Trio, Tony Oxley, Taylor's rapid often percussive approach to the keys pairing with Oxley's percussive work, and both invoking lyrical beauty from the other.
Brown, Marion
Capricorn Moon To Juba Lee (remastered)
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Merging and remastering two essential albums from free jazz saxophonist Marion Brown: his 1966 ESP album "Marion Brown Quartet" with trumpeter Alan Shorter, bassist Reggie Johnson and percussionist Rahied Ali; and his 1967 Fontana album "Juba-Lee" in a septet with Reggie Johnson, drummer Beaver Harris, pianist Dave Burrell, trombonist Grachan Moncur III & saxophonist Bennie Maupin.
Lopes, Luis
Love Song: Post Ruins
(Shhpuma)
With only an electric guitar, Luis Lopes (Humanization 4tet) Love Song presents the mostly composed work "Post-Ruins", recorded live at Teatro Maria Matos, in Lisboa, using notes, intervals and chords chosen with the intention of transmitting the perception of an eternalized moment occupying the space like a sculpture, full of emotions, infinite in itself.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC