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Phicus / Martin Kuchen: Sumpflegende (Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

The Catalan free improvising trio Phicus of Alex Reviriego on double bass, Ferran Fages on electric guitar, and Vasco Trilla on drums, continue their pursuit of 4th partners, here joined by Swedish saxophonist Martin Kuchen on tenor & alto saxophones for a studio album of collective improvisation with elements of ea/lowercase playing balanced with dynamic language.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Alex Reviriego-double bass

Ferran Fages-electric guitar

Martin Kuchen-tenor saxophone, alto saxophone

Vasco Trilla-drums


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




UPC: 5905279364448

Label: Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!)
Catalog ID: FSR 06 | 2019
Squidco Product Code: 27457

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2019
Country: Poland
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Saudades Studio on October 11th, 2017, by Denys Sanz.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"In what concerns conformity in music, there's no great difference between the artistic and cultural postures we call "mainstream" and "avant on garde": there's also a highway of forms and procedures in the "alternative" and "underground" circuit, with almost everybody playing with the same grammars and vocabularies. Almost: there's also musicians who refuse to inhabite the mainstream of the avant on garde, and the Catalan band Phicus is one good example. Their special guest in this record, the Swedish saxophonist Martin Kuchen, is another. They may come from different backgrounds, but similar souls always find a way to get together.

In the case of Ferran Fages, Alex Reviriego and Vasco Trilla it was a very natural process: in the small context of the improvised music scene in Barcelona their paths crossed so often that forming a band seemed to be the next logical step. But with what purpose? It would be enough to be just another improv project, among so many? No. What about doing something with the energy and the roughness of rock, considering the past experiences of Trilla and Reviriego in black metal and punk, and Fages liking of noise music, but also profiting from the trio's appreciation of the near on silence aesthetics coming from the post on Cagean contemporary composers and from lowercase experimental electro on acoustic music?

Phicus singularity begins with the choice of instrumental combination, the one of a rock power trio (guitar, bass and drums), to create a kind of music which has nothing to do with the existing power trios, including the ones of the jazzcore tendency. Sometimes they play loud, feedbacked and distorted rock, but always dismissing fixed riffs, placing the guitar side by side with the double bass and the drumkit (in radical contrast with the pyramidal hierarchization of the classical rock and roll band) and avoiding the usual temptation to improvise inside the action on reaction norm (in rock, but also in jazz), in order to create a true collective expression.

Phicus established a specific musical language, and their members even admit that they're forming a new paradigm. In a recent interview, they said that Phicus' music isn't the same as one resulting from a Fages / Riviriego / Trilla encounter, considering that this would be simply the mix of three individual inputs and not a consistent group formula. The spontaneous compositions of the trio can be elastic and adopt multiple configurations, but there's a permanent Phicus identity. This rooted versatility is huge, and Phicus wanted to invite other people to play with them, knowing that they would act as one in any relational circumstance.

Here's the confirmation: Kuchen understood the context and manages to insert himself brillianty in the middle of it, also contributing with his own ideas and personality, but he doesn't transform the "trio plus one" concept into a quartet. This is still a Phicus record, with the added value of the timbral qualities and intuitive thinking of an extraordinary sax player. File under: uncompromised music." on Rui Eduardo Paes


Artist Biographies

Alex Reviriego is a Spanish double bassist known for the groups Memoria Uno with Agusti Fernandez, Phicus, Pindio, Völga, and Alguns Homes Bons.

-Squidco 3/13/2024

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

"Ferran Fages (1974, Barcelona, Catalunya)

Ferran Fages is an improviser and composer, and an international reference in the sphere of electroacoustic improvisation. Since the end of the 1990s, he has published over fifty discographic references on national and international labels. He has undertaken tours, performed concerts and led workshops around Europe and South America as well as in Canada and Japan.

He plays guitar, resonant objects, acoustic turntable and electronics: "feedback mixing board", pick-ups and oscillators.

From 1999 until 2006 he was a member of the IBA col·lectiu d'improvisació, with whom he organised over one hundred concerts as well as the festivals Improvisa (2000-2003) and the Experimental Music Week at Metrònom (2005), among others.

Besides his projects, he has shared a stage and made collaborations with musicians such as Christine Abdelnour, Sophie Agnel, Núria Andorrà, Derek Bailey, Pascal Battus, Tom Chant, David Chiesa, Albert Cirera, Sébastien Cirotteau, Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies, Michel Doneda, Axel Dörner, Lluïsa Espigolé, Agustí Fernández, Jean-Philippe Gross, Will Guthrie, Robin Hayward, Barbara Held, Jason Kahn, Martin Küchen,Eduard Márquez, Wade Matthews, Mattin, Manuel Mota, Ivan Palacky, Ramon Prats, Eddie Prévost, Pablo Rega, Àlex Reviriego, Ernesto Rodrigues, Alejandro Rojas-Marcos, Ivo Sans, Joan Saura, Pilar Subirà, Vasco Trilla, Birgit Ulher, Taku Unami, Nikos Velliotis, Dafne Vicente-Sandoval, Mark Wastell, Christopher Williams and Ingar Zach among others.

He has also worked with the choreographers and companies of Olga Mesa (1999), Lanónima Imperial (2003-2004), Carme Torrent (1999-2005), Ktonycia (2007), Constanza Brncic (2008-2009) and Merce Cunningham Dance Company (2009).

He has performed the following pieces of contemporary music: Guitar two, for four, by Phill Niblock (2004); Cobra, by John Zorn (2006); Meditations for Orchestra, by Pauline Oliveiros (2007); Guitar Trio, by Rysh Chatham (2007); Trio I from Trios WHITE ON WHITE, by Robert Ashley (2008); Poem 1960, by La Monte Young (2008); Diferencias familiares sobre las cuerdas, by Christopher Williams (2009); Little by Little, by Sam Sfirri (2011), and Cartridge Music, by John Cage (2012)."

-Ferran Fages Website (http://www.ferranfages.net/index.php?/bio/)
3/13/2024

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

"Born 1966; saxophones. Martin Küchen has been active on the Swedish free improvised/free jazz scene since the mid-1990s. He has composed for larger groups, participated in dance projects, performed with different poets and created the music for experimental films. He now collaborates with improvisors all over Europe and USA/Canada. His current collaborations include:

Angles - a new trio with Ingebrigt Håker- Flaten, doublebass, Kjell Nordeson, drums and Martin Küchen, saxophones. Exploding Customer - a free jazz quartet with Tomas Hallonsten trumpet, Benjamin Quigley double bass and Kjell Nordeson drums, which plays mainly original compositions. Sound of Mucus - a trio with the stringchordist Herman Müntzing and Andreas Axelsson, percussion. Unsolicited Music Ensemble - a trio with Tony Wren, double bass and Raymond Strid, percussion. a duo with guitarist David Stackenås. UNSK: Birgit Ulher, Martin Küchen, lise-Lott Norelius and Raymond Strid. Looper - a trio with Greek cello player Nikos Veliotis and Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach."

-European Free Improv Site (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/musician/mkuchen.html)
3/13/2024

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

"Born in Barcelona, Vasco Trilla started playing drums at the age of nineteen. His first influences were progressive rock and metal, but gradually he developed an interest in a variety of different genres such as jazz, Indian music, African music, klezmer, free improvisation, etc.

Since then he has collaborated, toured and recorded with many different bands and projects such as Boi Akih (an ethno-jazz band from the Netherlands), Planeta Imaginario (progressive jazz-rock) October Equus (avant-rock), The Oddvisers (pop-avant), Fine! (indie pop-rock), Mundo Flotante (ethno-jazz-rock), Kaulakau/Cobla Sant Jordi (an ethno-jazz Catalan orchestra), Filthy Habits Ensemble (a jazz octet playing Zappa's and Stravinsky's repertoire), Cows On Trees (a jazz-improv quartet with Susana Santos Silva and Kaja Draksler), Balimonster (an impro-ethno duo with Angel Ontalva), Yedo Gibson-Vasco Trilla duo (an improv sax & drums duo), Outerzone (jazz-core), Reptilian Mambo (mambo free rock), Liba's Traum, etc.

In the last years he has been playing and experimenting on the free-improv scene, applying extended techniques to the kit and treating it as a textural-melodic instrument. Blowing, bowing, scratching, playing with hands and all kinds of objects, all is valid to expand the vocabulary of this innovative percussionist. He played with improvisers, such as: Lotte Anker, Marshall Allen, Yedo Gibson, Susana Santos Silva, Kaja Draksler, Jasper Stadhouders, Mikloaj Trzaska, Martin Kuchen, Richard Barrett, Jorma Tapio, Christher Bothen, Marc Stucki, Luc Ex. etc...

He has released around 30 CDs in labels such as Cuneiform Records (USA), Altrock Records (Italy), Leo Records (UK) Discordian Records (Barcelona, Spain), Audition Records (Mexico), El Negocito Records (Belgium), Jacc Records (Portugal), Fmr Records (UK)."

-Vasco Trilla Website (http://vascotrilla.com/)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Pantanal 5:09

2. Lerna 8:11

3. Manchac 6:39

4. Shikogabana 13:06

5. Bangweulu 3:52

6. Polystovo-Lovatskaya 16:45

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Quartet Recordings
Collective Free Improvsation

Search for other titles on the label:
Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!).


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