The Squid's Ear Magazine


Splatter with Rafal Mazur: cloudseed (Citystream)

Splatter's 3rd CD resulted from a meeting between the London-based quartet Splatter (Noel Taylor-clarinet; Anna Kaluza-sax; Tom Greenhalgh-drums; Pedro Velasco-electric guitar) and Polish bassist Rafal Mazur after their successful collaboration at Cafe Oto in 2010.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Noel Taylor-clarinet

Anna Kaluza-alto saxophone

Pedro Velasco-electric guitar

Tom Greenhalgh-drums

Rafal Mazur-acoustic bass guitar


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UPC: 888174287706

Label: Citystream
Catalog ID: 00106
Squidco Product Code: 18594

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2013
Country: Great Britain
Packaging: Cardstock gatefold foldover

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"This is the third CD from Splatter. The collaboration with Rafal Mazur began back in 2010 when they played together in Krakow. Subsequently Rafal Mazur visited London to play at Café Oto in an evening of 'Experimental Music from Poland' in which Splatter played with him to a capacity audience. The success of this evening led them to consider making a recording. This CD is the result.

Rafal Mazur is passionate about improvisation, which he links to his studies in Daoist philosophy, so it was decided that 'cloudseed' would not include any written or pre-prepared material. Most of the CD was recorded in a single session over one day. The group were amazed at how fluently each piece emerged, and how naturally Rafal Mazur seemed to blend his playing into the Splatter style. Each track seemed to move and develop according to some internal logic of its own, not perhaps the result of some mystic moment of synthesis so much as the outcome of highly focused efforts to understand each other's musical sensibilities.

The title - cloudseed - reflects this outpouring, the result of adding one extra ingredient to produce no mere splattering of creative rain but a veritable downpour."-CityStream



"The music reminds me of a controlled explosion, yet this is an explosion that does not destroy anything at all but, on the contrary, creates one of the most astonishing musical worlds I've heard recently! Marvelously paradoxical: it manages to be coherent, spontaneous and well thought-out yet at the same time, it is completely improvised. This is the artistic statement of a group of excellent musicians and mature artists and I recommend it to anyone in love with the free side of jazz, music and...life!"-Maciej Nowotny, RadioJAZZ.FM


Artist Biographies

"Noel Taylor's main instruments belong to the clarinet family - soprano, alto and bass clarinet. He lives in Lisbon, Portugal, where he moved in 2017. He has performed widely in the UK, Portugal, Germany, Poland and Italy. He is a dedicated improviser, but his work also includes short compositions, conductions with large scale orchestras, and organising musical events. .

Recent projects have involved the trio 'Redstart' , 'Splatter (with Anna Kaluza, Pedro Velasco & Tom Greenhalgh), 'Happenstance' (with Chris Biscoe, Tom Greenhalgh, Guillaume Viltard), Grimwald (with Steve Beresford, Terry Day & Roberto Sassi). 'Plank' (with Pedro Velasco,Rachel Musson, Asuman Biswas) and 'Bay's Leap' (with James Barralet & Clare Simmonds)

Splatter have released three albums to date. Many other ad-hoc partnerships have happened along the way - always with the emphasis on improvisation. Two of these shorter collaborations have resulted in CD releases, one with Niko Meinhold and one with Alberto Popolla.

Noel Taylor is a member of the London Improvisers Orchestra, where he is one of the most frequent conductors. He has also led conductions with the Berlin Improvisers Orchestra and at festivals. He has played with Rome's Iato Orchestra. He has performed in Krakow in Poland, Germany, Italy, Sicily and Portugal, as well as London & other parts of the UK.

Other musicians he has performed with include Theo Jorgensmann, Claudio Puntin, Shabaka Hutchings, Eugenio Colombo, Steve Beresford, Mick Beck, Carlos Zingaro, Harrison Smith, Mark Sanders, Terry Day, Dominic Lash, Rafal Mazur, Cleveland Watkiss, Steve Noble, Liam Noble, Luca Venitucci, Stefano Guist, diatribes, Pat Thomas, Lawrence Casserley, Satoko Fukuda, Henrik Wallsdorf, Tony Marsh & Veryan Weston, Nick Stephens, Fumi Okiji, Marcio Mattos,Ricardo Tejero, Alex Ward, Orphy Robinson & many others.

His most regular collaborators have been Guillaume Viltard, Chris Biscoe, Alberto Popolla, Andrea Caputo, Anna Kaluza, Niko Meinhold, Julie Kjaer, Beibei Wang, Tommaso Vespo, Benedict Taylor, Noura Sanatian, Pedro Velasco , Tom Greenhalgh, Clare Simmonds, James Barralet, Tom Wheatley & John Garcia.

From 2009-2013 he curated a series of events called the Luna Fringe, a series of monthly events at Arch1 in West Ham. Bay's Leap toured Portugal in 2018 and a modified version of Spaltter, which included lthe Portuguese drummer Pedro Melo Alves and guitarist Luis Marins, also toured in 2018."

-Noel Taylor Website (https://www.noeltaylor.net/index.htm)
3/13/2024

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

"Anna Kaluza studied jazz saxophone in Cologne with Frank Gratkowski, in Vienna with Klaus Dickbauer and in London with Jean Toussaint. As a student she joined Big Bands as the Freiburger Schüler Jazzorchester and the Landesjazzorchester Berlin. She was a member of Simon Rummel's Fantasmofonika, which was awarded the jazz art prize NRW in 2004. With the German Band Futür she released the album "Kein Schnee" in 2007 (Jazzhausmusik). She played festivals in Essen, Idstein, Leipzig, London, Hamburg, Köln, Düsseldorf, Saarbrücken, St. Johann, Sibiu, Palermo, Heiligenkreuz... From 2008 to 09, she lived in London, pursued a Master's degree at City University/Guildhall School of Music and Drama (funded by the German Academic Exchange Service). During this year she became a member of the London Improvisers Orchestra (L.I.O.) and the group Splatter and played with musicians from the not applicable network and label. Since returning to live in Berlin she has been establishing the Berlin Improvisers Orchestra (which includes musicians from the L.I.O.) and regularly plays with international guest musicians. She is a member of the Hanam Quintet (with Alison Blunt /vl, Niko Meinhold /p, Manuel Miethe /ss, Horst Nonnenmacher /b // 2 CDs released by AUT records), the Kaluza Quartett (with Christof Thewes /trb, Jan Roder /b and Kay Lübke /dr), the Frankfurt-based trio Baustelle No 5 (with Julian Keßler and Johannes Held), the Heisenberg Quintet (with Niko Meinhold /p, Hannes Buder /guit, Stephan Bleier /b, Rui Faustino /dr) and Ruth Schepers' little Big Band Rusira Mixtett. In 2013 she released the album Tone Hunting (cleanfeed records) with Artur Majewski (trp), Kuba Suchar (dr) and Rafal Mazur (b)."

-Anna Kaluza Website (https://akaluza.wordpress.com/about/)
3/13/2024

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

"Rafal Mazur's involvement with music began in his youth with violoncello studies in Krakow. He switched to bass guitar in the late 1980's. Since 2000 he has played an acoustic bass guitar built to his own specifications by luthier Jerzy Wysocki. He has developed an advanced and individual approach to his instrument, and to improvisation in general, in which sonority, extended technique and gesture combine effortlessly in performance. He has taken an important role in Kraków to support young artists and improvised music. A founder of the ImproArt studio of improvisation, he has performed jazz and improvised music in clubs and festivals across Poland and Europe, and in China, South Korea and Israel. In recent years he has collaborated with Lisa Ullen, Frederic Blondy, Charlotta Hug, Raymond Strid, Keir Neuringer, Zsolt Sores and others. His current focus is the band "Ensemble 56" and "Mazur/Neuringer Duo". He is an organizer of the Laboratory of Intuition, a series of spontaneous art presentations in Kraków. Mazur's main field of interest and activity is collective and solo free/spontaneous improvisation. In his practice as an improvising musician and on his way to mastery/artistry he studys Chinese philosophy (Jagiellonian University). He regards Taoism as a strong base for the enrichment of the improviser's attitude, and to this end he practices the Taoist's martial art TaiJi Quan Chen. For Mazur, following the masters of Chinese philosophy and martial arts is crucial in the development of a state of mind prepared for the unexpected situations an improviser encounters in the act of collective free improvisation. During the Polish Sound Art in China tour in 2006, Mazur presented lectures in NiHiLo Gallery in Foshan and Zendai Art Museum in Shanghai, taking the opportunity to meet Chinese improvisers and discuss and compare his approaches to improvisation, Taoism and TaiJi. Mazur's most recent work is the first album of solo acoustic bass guitar free improvisation: 'Sonor Forms'. Released by independent label DTS Records in Krakow on its Transidiomatic series, the disc is the result of investigation into the practice of solo free improvisation."

-Rafal Mazur Website (http://www.rafalmazur.eu/1bio.html)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. To Boldly Go (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 4:25

2. No You Don't, Yes I Will (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 3:27

3. Arise Ye Starvelings (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 7:25

4. Pond Life (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 5:18

5. Bronco Beat (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 3:12

6. Fog On Ice (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 4:08

7. Yah Boo Sucks (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 2:37

8. Home Time (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 4:27

9. Inglenook Tales (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 3:23

10. Slam Dunk (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 3:25

11. Cocoa & Slippers Jive (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 3:31

12. Stag Beetle Waltz (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 4:38

13. The Cat's Sweet Dream (Featuring Rafal Mazur) 6:49

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
European Improvisation and Experimental Forms
Quintet Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Citystream.


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