SQUIDCO/SQUID'S EAR NEWS July 1, 2007

June was another month to be excited about, with 90 new releases in this mailing! We've also been busy with our companion magazine, The Squid's Ear, so check the bottom of this newsletter to find links to articles about Ground Zero, Creative Sources, psi, Jöelle Léandre, MC Maguire, Supernatural Hot Rug and Not Used, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Kato Hideki and People Like Us.

• Bauder, Matt / Wallace, Zach / Siegel, Aaron: Memorize The Sky (482 Music)
• Bennink, Han: Amplified Trio (Treader)
• Bevan / Robinson / Edwards / Wales / Sanders: We Packed Are Bags (Foghorn Records)
• Bittová, Iva: Cikori (Indies)
• Bourne, Matthew : The Molde Concert (Foghorn Records)
• Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, Peter: American Landscapes 1 (Okka)
• Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, Peter: American Landscapes 2 (Okka)
• Braxton, Anthony / Fonda, Joe: Duets 1995 (Clean Feed)
• Braxton, Anthony: 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 (Firehouse 12 Records)
• Capece, Lucio / Doerner, Axel / Hayward, Robin: Kammerlärm (Chambernoise) (Azul Discografica)
• Chicago Underground Trio: Slon (Thrill Jockey)
• Civil War: The Brutality of Fact (Longbox Recordings)
• Claudia Quintet, The : For (Cuneiform)
• Coxon, John / Smith, Wadada Leo: Brooklyn Duos (Treader)
• Davies, Rhodri / Zach, Ingar: Ieirll [VINYL] (QBICO)
• Derek Bailey: Standards (Tzadik)
• Fanfare Pourpour / Hollmer, Lars: Karusell Musik (Monsieur Fateux)
• Fantastic Merlins: Look Around (Innova)
• Flatlands Collective, The: Gnomade (Skycap Records)
• Gisler, Fabin / Schröder, John / Vallon, Colin / Walsdorf, Henrik: Backyard Poets (Hatology)
• Graewe, Georg / Reijseger, Ernst / Hemingway, Gerry: Sonic Fiction (Hatology)
• Hideki, Kato: Hope & Despair (Extreme)
• Janssen, Guus : Harpsichord (Geestgronden)
• Keune, Stefan / Schneider, Hans / Krämer, Achim: The Long and The Short Of It (Creative Sources)
• Koch / Schütz / Studer / DJ M. Singe / DJ I-Sound: Roots and Wires (Intakt)
• Leandre. Joélle / Contet, Pascal: Freeway (Clean Feed)
• Luftschiffe Zu Kalifornien: Grosse Abfahrt (Creative Sources)
• Müller, Matthias / Marien, Christian: Superimpose (Creative Sources)
• Marc Ribot: Asmodeus: Book of Angels Volume 7 (Tzadik)
• Miller, Steve / Coxhill, Lol: "The Story So Far..." and " ...Oh Really?" (Cuneiform)
• Mingus Quintet, Charles: Meets Cat Anderson [VINYL] (GET BACK)
• My Cat Is An Alien / Roden, Steve: Cosmic Debris, Vol.II split ART-LP [VINYL] (Opax)
• Nagl, Max / Bernstein, Steve / Akchoté, Noël / Jones, Brad: Big Four: Live September 3rd, 2005 at Jazzfestival Willisau (Hatology)
• New Ghost: Live Upstairs at Nick's (ESP)
• Ortega, Anthony: Afternoon In Paris (Hatology)
• Parker, Evan / Shipp, Matthew: Abbey Road Duos (Treader)
• Parker, Evan: Hook, Drift & Shuffle (psi)
• Sandell Trio, Sten / Butcher, John: Strokes (Clean Feed)
• Schliemann, Wolfgang / Vorveld, Michael: alle neune: rheinländer partie (Creative Sources)
• Sonic Openings Under Pressure : Muhheankuntuk (Clean Feed)
• Sun Ra and his Astro Infinity Arkestra: Strange Strings (Atavistic)
• Sun Ra: On Jupiter [VINYL] (Art Yard)
• Tigersmilk: Android Love Cry (Family Vineyard)
• Ultralyd: Conditions for a Piece of Music (Rune Grammofon)
• Various Artists: Free Zone Appleby 2006 (psi)
• Various Artists: Qbico U-nite-IV, Aarhus [VINYL] (QBICO )
• Various Artists: Qbico U-Nite, in NYC I [VINYL] (QBICO)
• Wright, Frank: Unity (ESP)

• Carneiro, Pedro: Improbable Transgressions (Sirr.ecords)
• eRikm / dieb13: ©haos ©lub (erstwhile)
• fORCH: Spin Networks (psi)
• Guthrie, Robin / Budd, Harold : After The Night Falls (Darla)
• Guthrie, Robin / Budd, Harold : Before The Day Breaks (Darla)
• Kahn, Jason / Korber, Tomas / Weber, Christian: Zürcher Aufnahmen (Longbox Recordings)
• Kahn, Jason / Möslang, Norbert / Müller, Günter: Signal to Noise Vol. 3 (For4Ears)
• Knell: Last Ten Meters (Utech)
• Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone: First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Quincunx Sound Recordings)
• Korber, Tomas / Weber, Christian / Yamauchi, Katsura: Signal to Noise Vol. 2 (For4Ears)
• Lockwood, Annea: Early Works 1967-82 (EM Records)
• Lockwood, Annea: Thousand Year Dreaming / Floating World (Pogus)
• Marhaug, Lasse / Asheim, Nils Henrik: Grand Mutation (Touch)
• Menche, Daniel: Wolf's Milk (Utech Records)
• Merzbow / Giffoni, Carlos / O'Rourke, Jim: Electric Dress (No Fun)
• Merzbow: Coma Berenices (Vivo Records)
• MoHa!: Norwegianism (Rune Grammofon)
• Mueller, Jon / Schoenecker, Jim: The Interview (Longbox Recordings)
• Pateras, Anthony: Chasms (Sirr.ecords)
• People Like Us / Ergo Phizmiz: Perpetuum Mobile (Soleilmoon)
• Rowe, Keith: The Room (erstwhile)
• Supernatural Hot Rug And Not Used: (EM Records)

• Bittová, Iva: Iva Bittová j.h. (Indies Scope Records)
• Blackshaw, James: The Cloud of Unknowing (Tompkins Square)
• Brainticket: Cottonwoodhill (Phonag)
• Gysin, Brion: Live In London 1982 (Sub Rosa)
• My Cat is an Alien: Into the White Vortex [VINYL] (Opax)
• Sleepytime Gorilla Museum: In Glorious Times (The End Records)
• Van der Graaf Generator: Pawn Hearts - remaster + bonus (Virgin (UK))
• Various Artists: Glastonbury Fayre Festival (AKARMA )
• Various Artists: The Great Koonaklaster Speaks: A John Fahey Celebration (Table of the Elements)
• Youngs, Richard / Neilson, Alex: Electric Lotus / Lotus Edition LP+CD (VHF)
• Zabrodzki, Piotr / Yoshida, Tatsuya: Karakany (Vivo Records)

• Cage, John: Solo For 'Cello (Wergo)
• John Zorn: From Silence to Sorcery (Tzadik)
• Moondog: The Viking of Sixth Avenue [VINYL] (Honest Jon's Records)
• Satie, Erik: Cubist Works 1913 - 1924 (LTM)

• Trio, Derome / Guilbeault / Tanguay: Étymologie: Live at L'Off Festival de Jazz de Montréal (Ambiances Jazz)
• Ikue Mori: Bhima Swarga-The Journey of the Soul From Hell to Heaven (Tzadik)
• The Wire: #281 July 2007
• Licht, Alan: An Emotional Memoir Of Martha Quinn (Drag City)

Memorize The Sky is the first full-length recording from the decade-old improvising collective of the same name, featuring saxophonist/clarinetist Matt Bauder, bassist Zach Wallace and percussionist Aaron Siegel. Often resembling electronic music despite being performed on acoustic instruments, these eight tracks were culled from over six hours of improvisations recorded in the fall of 2005. This release is the follow-up to 2005's 2 + 2 Compositions, a compositional collaboration with [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Legendary Dutch drummer Han Bennink recorded this electric session with John Coxon [Electric Guitar] and Ashley Wales [Electronics] during his visit to the U.K. at their invitation last year. Loud, fierce and darkly mysterious, the velocity and extraordinary momentum of Bennink is forcefully counterpointed by Wales' imaginative soundscapes and Coxon's irascible guitar."-Treader

International artist, violinist and vocalist Iva Bittová's album Čikori won 'Best album of the year by Czech World music awards - 'Angels 2004'.

"'The Molde Concert' is the first solo record by Perrier/BBC/IJFO Award Winning pianist Matthew Bourne, recorded at the 2005 Molde Jazz festival. This performance was the penultimate concert in a series of festival dates programmed by the IJFO (International Jazz Festivals Organisation) on receipt of Bourne accepting their International Jazz Award in 2005. The Molde Concert documents perhaps one of Bourne's most raw, personal and undiluted statements to date and, consequently, the only solo [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Live recordings of Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, an amazing lineup of players, recorded live in their European Tour of 2006. This is the first of two volumes.

Live recordings of Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, an amazing lineup of players, recorded live in their European Tour of 2006. This is the second of two volumes.

"This is a reissue of the long disappeared CD on Konnex recorded by multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton with one of his most notable pupils, Joe Fonda. "Duets 1995" is a remarkable item of the duo series from this frontline figure of avant-garde jazz. If in that series we find two other Braxton partnerships with bassists, namely Mario Pavone and the late Peter Niklas Wilson, this is far from being more of the same. Even the conservative jazz fans will find here something to deal with. The renditions [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Anthony Braxton's 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 is a nine-CD-plus-one-DVD box set documenting what Time Out New York called "last Spring's epochal run" at New York's Iridium Jazz Club with his 12+1tet. Described by Braxton as "THE point of definition in my work thus far," these concerts featured the world premieres of Compositions 350 through 358, the final works in his Ghost Trance Music series, recorded over the course of this rare four-night stand on an American stage. Included with the music [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Minimal acoustic improvisations from the versatile trumpeter Axel Dorner (Schlippenbach, Vandermark Territory Band, etc), Robin Hayward on tuba (plays with Dorner on their Absinth release), and reed and electro-acoustic player Lucio Capece. The playing is understated yet highly detailed, the players working well together in pacing and spacing the music, allowing the improvisations to breathe and to let the artists both express themselves and collaborate. The trio listens and reacts as only [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Chicago Underground was formed in 1995 by Rob Mazurek and Jeff Parker developing out of weekly sessions at Chicago's famed Jazz venue The Green Mill. Their first use of the Chicago Underground moniker was as an Orchestra in 1998, featuring Chad Taylor, as well as one time Isotope 217 member Sara P. Smith. The next incarnation came as a Duo with Rob and Chad later that same year, and the Trio featuring Noel, Rob and Chad came in 1999.

Slon, is the Trio's third release following Possible [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"The circle remains unbroken. We started and now conclude the year with a recording from this chicago-based viola, percussion and bassoon trio. If you picked up the EP and enjoyed it, I can assure you, the ardent supporter of all that is refined, that the good (read: resonant, caustic and focused) times roll on. Disc housed in a black digipak with images by Nick Butcher so sinister that when he claims to have chunks of guys like Francis Bacon in his stool, you'd better believe it."-Longbox Recordings

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"Since their founding in the late 1990s, The Claudia Quintet has walked a unique path in contemporary jazz. Unlike most jazz ensembles where the particular musicians may come and go, drummer, composer and leader John Hollenbeck always wanted Claudia to be a 'band' with a sound not only determined by the compositions and the instrumentation, but with the actual players who perform the music. This conception is why Claudia has had an immediately identifiable sound since its inception and why I [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"A long planned collaboration between John Coxon and Wadada Leo Smith finally comes to fruition with this odd, fresh sounding recording. Coxon on harmonica, electric guitar and 12 string acoustic with master trumpeter Smith in a duo with Gagaku and Blues undertows. Recorded by Zorn collaborator Jamie Saft in his Brooklyn studio."-Treader

"Beautiful duo set from these two European improvisors which is a deal more removed from any established notions of intuitive post-SME thought than you might initially suspect. Davies plays harp throughout, but right from the first track he steers away from both the scrabbly string attack favoured by most post-Derek Bailey strategists and the Heavy Metal assault of instrumental pioneers like Zeena Parkins, opting instead for a slow blur of droning notes that flare like fizzing electric currents [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"In early 2002 Derek Bailey astounded the free music community with his gorgeous album Ballads, a radical and steely interpretation of the standard repertoire. It became an instant classic, hit a dozen best-ten lists and remains his best selling cd of all time. The recordings here were made just weeks after the idea was first born at an intimate Christmas gathering in New York-and two months before the recording of Ballads. Here Derek is working out his personal approach to the standard song [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Recorded "live" in the studio, Karusell Musik delivers 17 compositions by and with Swedish accordionist Lars Hollmer, orchestrated by Jean Derome for the Fanfare Pourpour. The Fanfare - an authentic large dance ensemble like they don't make 'em anymore, with a brass section, saxes, clarinets, guitars, banjo, accordions, violins, and percussion - invites you to discover or rediscover the songs and tunes of Lars Hollmer.

Lars Hollmer has travelled the world with his timeless melodies full [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Intensely cinematic, the rare beauty of the Fantastic Merlins begins with the group's unusual blend of tenor saxophone, cello, bass, and drums. What's been called their gift for the psychedelic is really more of an alchemical interplay. Like the bass-piano-clarinet dynamics of Jimmy Giuffre's Freefall, the group executes a sensual game of freeze-tag between figure and ground. At moments angular and aggressive, but rarely ever austere, the music's textural elements breathe exceptional warmth [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Jorrit Dijkstra's Flatlands Collective brings some of Chicago improvisers Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jeb Bishop with members of the Dutch improv scene: Dijkstra, James Falzone, Tim Mulvenna and Jason Roebke, playing original compositions. Most of the band members met at Chicago's Candlestick Maker festival in 2003, with Falzone and Djikstra meeting at the New England Conservatory. The "Flatlands" concept is to level the playing field between players from disparate scenes, who are clearly able [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Though he's played with some prime-time bandleaders-including pianists Bill Carrothers and Mark Soskin, saxophonist Gary Smulyan and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel-Swiss bassist Fabian Gisler is a new name to me. Backyard Poets is his debut album as leader, and it's a pleasure to make his acquaintance, and those too of his colleagues Henrik Walsdorff, saxophones, Colin Vallon, bass, and John Schroder, drums.

Without any prior knowledge of the musicians, and with no clues provided by the studiously [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"This trio, all of whose members had played together in various settings before, had something going for them from the very beginning: They all distrust labels, and they all believe in spontaneous creation. Not every improvising musician can make this claim; many are tied to one tradition or another for their inspiration, whether it's classical, jazz, rock, whatever. Each of the individuals here -- Grawe on piano, Reijseger on cello, and Hemingway on all manner of percussion -- is a bandleader [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Unusual compositional improvisations from Downtown New Yorker Kato Hideki, working with Zeena Parkins, John Zorn and a percussive and electronic ensemble, playing Hideki's compositions inspired by black & white photography. The title comes from photographer Robert Frank, which is written over the left page of the insert: "Black and white is the vision of hope and despair." Hideki explains: "Physically photos don't have time in terms of actual movement. But I feel good pictures have a sense [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Free improvisations that range from rapidly quirky, busy improvisations to somber and mysterious moods in acoustic lowercase. All three are strong players with great ideas using extensive and extreme language on their instruments. They present a diverse set of creative concepts over which they improvise, from lyrical work to frantic and skronky material. Captivating, energetic and unexpected.

"Hans Koch is not the first of the avant-garde jazz musicians to add turntables to the mix, but he certainly is one of the best to do so. For this intriguing set, he brings two turntablists -- DJ M. Singe and DJ I. Sound -- plus percussionist Fredy Studer and electric cellist Martin Schütz. The results astound, with each of the eight pieces displaying different aspects of the group's sound. Ranging from minimalist fare to wild, ferocious crashing cacophony, the quintet blasts forth noise and [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"This pair of great French musicians had a previous duo recording in 1994, but it's now difficult to find. It was such a marvellous encounter that a second session has been greatly anticipated. Here it is, 13 years after, and with a Portuguese edition. A double bass and an accordion, nothing more because they have it all in their respective fingers and minds: Joelle Léandre and Pascal Contet have serious jazz chops but they can also deal with microtonality and dissonance. They're both [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Don't worry. Not being too well versed in German, I was a little leery of the translation of the group's name too. But it's simply "Large Departure", an octet comprised of Serge Baghdassarians (electronics), Boris Baltschun (electronics), Chris Brown (piano, electronics), Tom Djll (trumpet), Matt Ingalls (clarinet), Tim Perkis (electronics), Gino Robair (analog synthesizer) and John Shiurba (guitar). Those familiar with theses names might have a fair inkling of what to expect though, for myself, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Witty acoustic improv from this duo on trombone and percussion. Müller is a suprisingly sly player with an extensive vocabulary, from weird breathy jumbling to long twisting and joyous runs. Marien plays in, around, under and on the drums, generally preferring the sound of toms, and deftly underplaying the moment while keeping the music active and unexpected. Müller and Marien have worked together extensively through the 2000s, in bands Olaf Ton, Carnivals of Souls, Super 700, and [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Three of the most intense musicians on the planet come together in one of the most explosive and rockin' ensembles around. An original member of the Masada family since its inception, no one is more keenly equipped to handle a rock trio interpretation of the Book of Angelsthan Marc Ribot. Joined here by the versatile Trevor Dunn (Fantomas, Moonchild) on bass and the legendary G.Calvin Weston (Ornette Coleman, James Blood Ulmer) on drums, Marc plays like never before, referencing Hendrix, Sharrock, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Out-of print on vinyl for over 25 years, this is the first CD release of the two album collaborations (Coxhill/Miller Miller/Coxhill and "The Story So Far..." "Oh Really?") between saxist Lol Coxhill and pianist Steve Miller, who first worked together in Delivery and continued their partnership for several years afterwards. These albums are quite fondly remembered by those luckily enough to own them for their unique personality and low-key approach to improvisation and composition and feature [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"One of the most important figures in American jazz, Charles Mingus spent most of his career at the forefront of the avant-garde. This album, recorded in 1972 in Berlin with a superlative Cat Anderson on trumpet during a period of extensive touring, was made during a very productive time in Mingus' life. He had spent the previous year teaching music and his autobiography Beneath the Underdog had just been published. In 1972 he also re-signed with Columbia Records and his music was now performed [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Second installment in the "Cosmic Debris" split ART-LP series set up by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, aka My Cat Is An Alien, on their own Opax Records. The Vol.II sees the two space brothers from Torino, Italy, alongside Californian visual and sound artist Steve Roden. What makes this collaborative release so peculiar is the natural interactive exchange occurred between the artists, and that came out from the concept behind the experience itself. Roden's contribution thus represents the unique [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"In Max Nagl's varied jumble of creative activities, Big Four comes nearest to what we traditionally perceive as jazz. Formed at the suggestion of the producer Werner X. Uehlinger, who introduced him to the recordings of the original Big Four (Sidney Bechet, Muggsy Spanier, Carmen Mastren, Wellman Braud) from 1940, the band released its first album in 2002 (hatOLOGY 585).

"I wanted to work again with trumpet player Steven Bernstein anyway, and this was an opportunity to do so," Max Nagl [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Philadelphia free jazz scene band led by Elliot Levin. "In 2006, the revived ESP label issued this 1998 live set from the quartet New Ghost. The eccentric music is at its most vital when it involves free ensemble-oriented playing as on "It's That Passing Gleam" and "C.T." Some less successful spoken word poetry sections recall Albert Ayler's erratic Impulse albums, but in general the fiery and very open music holds one's interest. Percussionists (one at a time except for two appearing on "C.T.") [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"On first glimpse this recording might seem to be a sequel to the 1966 alto saxophone and acoustic bass duo session which formed one-half of Anthony Ortega's critically acclaimed "New Dance". But for Ortega to try and recreate that once-upon-a-time, now legendary date would be folly. He has not changed his approach to the duo (or solo for that matter) format all that much in the years between then and now. But significant differences occur in the details. Remarkably, we have the previously unreleased [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Evan Parker appears again on the Treader imprint. This time in the company of U.S Free Jazz luminary Matthew Shipp. The Famous Abbey Road Studio 2 was the location for this meeting and the vivid sound does great justice to the first duo recording of these two giants of improvised music."-Treader

This recording of a 1983 Brussels concert, part of a concert series directed by Godried-Willem Raes, was previously released under the same name on the Incus label. The album presents Evan Parker in an early electro-acoustic quartet, where George Lewis modifies his trombone with various accessories, most of which were amplified; Paul Lytton amplifies a part of his percussion set, along with cymbals, woodblocks and gongs; and Barry Guy uses amplification and effects processors with his double [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"While everybody was saying that saxophonist John Butcher, the guest musician on Strokes, was a disciple of Evan Parker, the man was already exploring new forms of blowing with a reed, inspired in electronic music (after all, the microphone is the most important tool of any electronica). This is something else indeed. Sten Sandell, the leader of this session, plays piano (listen to those cascades of notes, people!), sings biphonically (more Tibet than Tuva, by the way) and adds more electronics. [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Sonically rich continuous sound work in minimal acoustic improvisations using percussive elements that are hit, struck, bowed, scratched, plugged and thrown. The duo present encounters from minimal interactive improvisation to glowing stringed environments to clattering minimalism or resonantly ringing worlds; a surprisingly wide sonic palette in distinct percussive and improvisational concepts. The opening "Vorderkranz, grosser Keil" is an amazing sound environment, never grating, but not simply [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"The title of this CD by the Sonic Openings Under Pressure troupe is the term used by the Lenape tribe to name the Hudson River, and it means "river that flows two ways". The music acts accordingly, and surely is a New York product. There are two flows here - one is freedom (as in "free jazz" and "free improvisation"), the other is form (established by structure and composition). Everything happening in these tracks has those two interactive sides; one open, the second closed in such a way that [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Emblematic of its title, this is one of the most unusual albums in the vast discography of visionary bandleader Sun Ra. In league with such classics as Heliocentric Worlds (ESP, 1965), The Magic City (Evidence, 1965) and Atlantis (Evidence, 1967), this obscure session focuses on similarly intense long-form improvisations. Originally recorded in 1966, Strange Strings is the culmination of Ra's most otherworldly experiments.

Pre-dating the comprovisations of Butch Morris and the game pieces [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"On Jupiter is near ideal as an introduction to the musical worlds of Sun Ra. It has a magical mix of colours from Sun Ras varied palette. Beneath its compelling surface lie many layers of musical detail, and numerous hints as to where Sun Ra was coming from and where he was heading. It combines real depth with beauty and hits you the first time you hear it. On Jupiter represents Sun Ras closest encounter with the world of disco. In the late 1970s he made other albums which also [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Android Love Cry is Tigermilk's third release and delivers a persistently unsettled listening experience. One minute inhabiting delicate regions populated with traditional interplays and post-bop handles, the trio of Rob Mazurek's on cornet, Jason Roebke on bass and Dylan van der Schyff's percussion, then jumps to volatile improvisation that holds firm in its search for outer ideas of music. A three-minute solo by Mazurek cleanses the appetite before the next move of genuflecting before [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"This is the third full-length release by Norway's Ultralyd. This all-star quartet formed in 2004 when legendary saxophonist Frode Gjerstad suggested that the trio Gjerstad/Olsen/Hana needed a distinct bass player. The very first rehearsal with Kjetil D. Brandsdal (also of Noxagt) was released as the self-titled album Ultralyd on the English label FMR in 2004. After a UK tour the same year, the band established the sound captured on the album Chromosome Gun, which was released in 2005 on the [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Evan Parker's annual Appleby Jazz Festival continues to be documented on Parker's psi label with this release of Free Zone Appleby 2006. As always, Parker has assembled an experienced, creative and compatible lineup of incredible improvisers, who are presented in various permutations of duos, trios and one quartet.

QBICO's U-Nite series continues in Denmark, bringing three improvising groups together for two nights of seriously heavy music.

"One day Jon, a very young and bright feather/musician/artist/soul, asked me if I'd like to do a Qbico U-nite in the little port town of Aarhus, Denmark and I said why not !? Our original intention was to bring an American free form 4et with Arthur Doyle... in the end Arthur couldn't make it, but an exceptionally loose trio made it burn: Daniel Carter/Vin Paternostro/Ed [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Thunderously heavy two LP set from QBICO documenting a night in New York where some of the hardest working lungs still in the service of liberated fire Just to make things clear: "this is not a classic various artists record with pieces of different groups put together to make an album but an especially organized event recorded live, with the scope to unite different musicians from different backgrounds to see and hear what happens."-QBICO

"With releases by outsider heroes [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Wright's sound developed through the years, but always maintained the spirit and fire that first came through his horn in the early days. Whether he was performing with Lester Bowie's Sho' Nuff Orchestra, Rashied Ali's Funky Free Boppers, Cecil Taylor's Orchestra of Two Continents or Saheb Sarbib's Multinational Big Band, he always played with an uncompromising passion that was the signature of his sound. 'I was put on this planet by the Creator to proclaim the message of the Universal Spirit [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Improbable Transgressions" is a double cd presenting a unique proposal of the internationally acclaimed classical and contemporary percussionist Pedro Carneiro. For his debut recording on Sirr, Pedro improvised nine solo five-octave marimba pieces, each one dedicated to a specific sound artist - and each one of these "tokens" were then sent to their particular dedicatee, with a short humurous note: "please hack me".

Disc "solo marimba improvisations" contains 9 solo for marimba recorded [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"eRikm and dieb13 are two of the most prominent and well-respected experimental turntablists in the world, both working in a wide range of contexts, from the classical world to club DJing. Over the last two years, they have begun frequently working as a duo, and chaos club marks their first duo recording together.

eRikm, from Marseille, burst onto the scene in the mid-'90s as a virtuoso turntablist. Since then, he has gradually shifted his output into a more abstract vein, often abandoning [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Expanding Barrett and Obermayer's FURT duo into an octet using acoustic and electronic instruments with the unusual vocal approaches of Phil Minton and Ute Wasserman. This recording is from the SWR New Jazz Meeting in December 2005, which psi describes as "a unique collective sound, where vocals, instruments and electronics coalesce into a dense but transparent vortex." A good description for these unusual, rich and alien recordings.

"After The Night Falls and Before The Day Breaks are not ambient. Both are instrumental, absolutely beautiful and as emotionally charged as any previous work from either artist. The pair of albums complement one another, each track with its twin on the companion piece, the two conceived as experiments in the dualities of music and emotion. As with all classic recordings from the Masters the listener desires repeated listening to absorb their full sonic implications. This is soulful [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"After The Night Falls and Before The Day Breaks are not ambient. Both are instrumental, absolutely beautiful and as emotionally charged as any previous work from either artist. The pair of albums complement one another, each track with its twin on the companion piece, the two conceived as experiments in the dualities of music and emotion. As with all classic recordings from the Masters the listener desires repeated listening to absorb their full sonic implications. This is soulful [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Kahn, Korber and Weber are no strangers to tasteful restraint. Over the course of their vast discographies they have exhibited an almost militant approach to a curiously compelling form of stasis -> allowing their meticulously assembled pronouncements to unfold over a carefully monitored period of time before a cessation or modification is considered. This type of music making demands the listener's full attention for it's the detail that propels narrative."-Longbox

"Though recorded in Japan as were the initial two discs in this series, "Signal to Noise, Vol. 3" eschews the guest format instead presenting 3/5 of the Signal Quintet: Jason Kahn (analog synthesizer, percussion), Norbert Möslang (cracked everyday electronics) and Gunter Muller (ipod, percussion, electronics). As is often the case with these musicians in recent years, especially Möslang and Muller, a relatively steady pulse or two is heard prominently among the other electronics. Calling [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Utech's Arc Series, featuring covers from the abstractly menacing photographs of Max Aguilera-Hellweg, continues with the first release from French guitarist Johannes Buff A.K.A. Knell. Buff lists inspiration from an incredibly diverse set of artists, including Jason Kahn, John Cage, Fennesz, Arvo Pärt, Otomo Yoshihide, Stockhause, etc. He is a member of Radio Campus Grenoble, broadcasting the show "LSD" on Saturday nights. Utech describes it as: "An attempt to dissect the methodology [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Quincunx Sound Recordings' debut release is the first widely available recording by Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone (Command Spaceship Lemon), comprising the duo Kai Fagaschinski (clarinet) and Christof Kurzmann (lloopp, devices and clarinet), active participants of the thriving Berlin improvised music scene.

Kai, initially alone but more recently in collaboration with Christof, ran the influential Raumschiff Zitrone performance space in Berlin, hosting musicians such as Burkhard Stangl, Angharad [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"The second volume of For4Ears' ongoing series of collaborative efforts finds Tomas Korber (guitar, electronics) and Christian Weber (contrabass) teamed with saxophonist Katsura Yamauchi. I'd recently heard a couple of solo discs from Yamauchi ("Salmo Sax" and "Patiruma") which, while technically proficient, I thought were overly indebted to Anthony Braxton in both approach and general sound, so I was a little bit dubious about how well he'd be able to integrate with the other two musicians. [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"EMs original selection of her early works which had once featured on Source: Music of the Avant Garde, you know its now legend magazine for new & experimenatl music in 1967-1973. (* Source artists were important new music creators incl. Cage / Tudor / Ichiyanagi / Rosenboom / MEV / Chopin / EMS studio / Riley / Newhause &c.) . This CD includes the album Glass World (originally issued on Tangent Records in England, 1970), and trippy ritual shamanic tape piece "Tiger Balm" (1970). [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Thousand Year Dreaming (1990) was commissioned by Essential Music and was written with the musicians on this recording, their particular strengths and inclinations, very much in mind. It grew out of an improvisatory piece, Nautilus, which Art Baron, Scott Robinson and Lockwood realised in 1989. They found that the sound of conch shell trumpets, didjeridu and frame drums really flowered in the resonant spaces they were using for the piece. Lockwood started imagining the sonorities possible [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Lasse Marhaug and Nils Henrik Asheim started their collaboration in 2004 at the All Ears festival in Oslo, Norway. This turned out as a fruitful meeting between two musicians of very different backgrounds. Marhaug's feedback to Asheim's organ sounds in the Oslo concert started to reflect how the work was to develop. Asheim is working with half-stops and subtle playing techniques that create multiple layers of sound with a vibrating or fluctuating character, as well as with the power of the [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Utech's Arc Series, featuring covers from the abstractly menacing photographs of Max Aguilera-Hellweg, continues with this excellent drone and sound release from Daniel Menche. "My return to super sleek drone work. Far more textured and colorful than any of my previous drone based work. Very raw and gritty in many places and glassy and delicate in other. If you enjoyed Deluge and Sunder - Wolf's Milk will be a must for you to own. Also Utech is another label that really kick ass [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Electric Dress covers the full spectrum of sound color possibility, from totally brutal walls of destructive noise to beautiful minimal synthetic interplay, analog drone and shifting alien electronics. A total mind melting collaboration recorded live in tokyo using synths and a variety of custom analog equipment, even including Merzbow's classic spring/junk metal instrument. Warm, varied, and obsessive this is what industrial music should have been, the sound of infinite machines demolishing [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Psychedelic-noise by Masami Akita (Merzbow). "This is another work that does not have a specific identifiable "theme" regarding its sound (i.e. no focus on guitar, psychedelica, drums, etc), but there is a distinct dark, nihilistic feel to the work as a whole. The overall sound is augmented by the packaging, which depicts Masami Akita in front of a demolished building, all tinted dark and such like. Surprisingly, this darkness manifests itself in the music without pushing it to abnormally [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"This is the second full-length release from Norway's MoHa!. Due to the super-fertile Norwegian improv scene, MoHa! are boldly leading the way with a sound that encompasses the best of rock, free jazz and electronic music. Despite the enormity and broad spectrum of sounds that constitute their unique style, it is the work of just two talented young men, Anders Hana on guitar, obsolete electronics and a pallette of effects pedals, and Morten J. Olsen on drums, triggering a multitude of noises [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

This is the debut recording from the duo now known as Mouths. Mueller & Schoenecker play singing bowls, vibrating drums and a synth "so cold it could re-freeze the polar caps" (Longbox). Lowercase improv that builds from mysteriously quiet to massively sonic output. A transfixing release.

"Chasms is the extraordinary debut solo prepared piano album from Australian composer/pianist Anthony Pateras. Although placed within the lineage of the Cage prepared piano, Chasms takes things further, reconfiguring the instrument into a psychoacoustic percussion orchestra, exploring extended timbral continuums through complex rhythms and physically intense performance strategies.

Although the work is influenced by Pateras' written compositions, this album represents a more [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Fun, frequently bizarre, and sometimes serious plunderphonic-oriented release with a huge vocabulary of genre, rhythmic and strange sample sources (used in strange ways!) "A Bastards Waltz" sounds like Ranaldo and The Loaf being weirder than even they themselves were...

"Perpetuum Mobile" is the result of a uniquely schizophrenic "open source" compositional process: the UK's finest collage composers (collage-posers?) Ergo Phizmiz and People Like Us (aka Vicki Bennett) uploaded files to [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"After more than forty years, Keith Rowe is still adding to his remarkable legacy of sound and color. This latest release, The Room, marks the third full-length solo recording of his career, following A Dimension of Perfectly Ordinary Reality (1989) and Harsh (1999). Each of these prior recordings marked the end of a phase of Rowe's work just before he switched to a new guitar, whereas The Room is a continuation of his recent collaborative work, as captured on records [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Where do we put these guys? Too eventful to be "reductionist", not noisy enough for noise. Definitely not jazz. They think it's some sort of free rock, but most rockers would disagree. Nevertheless, Nisikawa and Olive both have rock backgrounds (Olive having recorded and toured extensively with Nimrod, Twerdocleb, and Soap-Jo Henshi), moving onwards and outwards, playing with a wide range of musicians including Oren Ambarchi, Birchville Cat Motel, Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Guilty Connector, Annette [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

A collection of Bittová's collaborative work, showing her incredible skills at musical forms from Czech folk, RIO/experimental music including several pieces with percussionist Pavel Fajt, to a collaboration with Zimbabwe singer Stella Chiweshe. Bittová is an extraordinarily versatile and accomplished performer on violin and voice, and also as a composer, as this album well demonstrates. Cover art is by Bittová, and the booklet includes descriptions of each work by Bittová.

"Performing and recording since 2003, James Blackshaw's name is frequently mentioned as one of the foremost modern solo acoustic guitarists. Now at the age of 25, Blackshaw, an untrained musician born and still residing in the suburban environs of Greater London, draws as much inspiration from early religious music, South-Asian folk music and composers such as Arvo Part, Simeon Ten Holt, Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine as he does from John Fahey, Robbie Basho and the early Takoma Records [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Cottonwoodhill is one of the trippiest records ever made, capturing the intensity of the peak LSD experience far more successfully than any Timothy Leary recording, and even today, when many such documents from that era can sound silly and dated, Brainticket's fascinating debut still holds hallucinogenic potency. The record has only two proper songs, "Black Sand" and "Places of Light," with a side and a half of the album taken up by the three-part "Brainticket." "Black Sand" opens the disc with [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Autumn 1982, Brixton, London, Brion Gysin, the eternal accomplice of William Burroughs, renews the methods of performance by reciting texts, hastily brought together: Tessa, a member of Slits, Steve, of Rip, Rig and Panic, Gile, of Penguin Café Orchestra, and Ramuntcho Matta on guitar. Ramuntcho, in the style of Brion, called this session White Funk.

Most of the texts were written upon meeting Burroughs, at the time of the invention of the cut-up. The influence that Brion [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

A 23 minutes piece of cosmic wilderness crescendo from the dual guitar and percussion duo of brothers Roberto and Maurizio Opalio. "My Cat is an Alien are one of the most prolific bands on the planet. The vast spaces traversed on these recordings is mind blowing. It's like some sort of aural personification of the kinetic energy that exists between Roberto and Maurizio Opalio. For lack of a better word, it's dazzling. Everytime their stellar soundwaves emanate from my speakers, I'm like a moth [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's fourth studio release keeps the torch alive on theatrical rock while making their own road. Somehow the band manages to nod to Rock in Opposition (RIO), avant prog, and dark metal with the same set of movements. In fact one review refers to them as Metal In Opposition, and the official review quote from The End Records calls them Rock-against-Rock.

The music is incredibly well crafted complex and demanding rock, intelligent and expressive and letting go a [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Van Der Graaf Generator's 3rd proper release is perhaps the most lasting and effective of their catalog. Peter Hammill wrote all of the songs on the original release, his writing prowess expanding into longer songs with more powerful themes. The music on all tracks are dynamic journeys that take the listener through powerful compositions of virtuosic playing, using an unusual combination of operatic shrieks, groans contrasting with lovely and subtle passages, ultimately resulting in strongly [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Deluxe box set of the music from this historic UK festival from 1972. Originally released as a triple album limited to 5,000 copies, the Glastonbury Fayre Festival album has been an extremely rare item for many years, sometimes bootlegged or re-released in abridged versions of this particularly impressive 1972 live festival. The importance of this document lies in the artist roster: an incredible number of undisputed gurus of underground psychedelia are present here in an incredibly memorable [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"John Fahey's death -- he is believed to have died in the explosion of a house during the filming of Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point in 1969 -- is shrouded in confusion and camouflage. His remains were never found, and the question remains: did Fahey purposely stage his own death for his own occlusive purposes?

Fahey's collusion of folk, blues, ethnic and modern classical methods, which suggests both the trickster and the shaman, has attracted a cult of musician followers over [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"This epic double set combines an LP of all-electric rock mayhem with a CD of subtle drum/shakuhachi tracks. Electric Lotus is the Youngs and Neilson's self-proclaimed "rock" album, and it is a mind-boggling clutch of guitar/bass/drums demolition. Coming off like an amphetamine-fueled Guru Guru, the music tumbles out in a crazy quilt of stun-level attack zonage, especially on the side-long "Electric Lotus." Neilson's staggering free-drumming hits a new peak here, stepping beyond his laudable [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

16 tracks of advanced "jazz" insanity from the meeting of Ruins/Acid Mothers Temple/&c. drummer Yoshida Tatsuya with pianist and bassist Piotr Brodzki from the new generation of jazz players in Poland. A CD of wild improvisations, technical virtuosity, and some very odd behaviour.

"The works for violoncello solo recorded and compiled on this CD by Friedrich Gauwerky are reference works for John Cage's unusual way of composing. Apart from the tones, Cage also helped to put the varied forms of silence on the musical map:

In John Cage's "Concert for Piano and Orchestra", the western art work, score, exploded: The work is composed in individual parts whose execution is freed of every constraint. Each part is even conceived as an autonomous work, e.g. like "Solo for Cello". [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Three distinctive instrumental works touching upon themes of magic and mysticism. Goetia are spells and incantations for summoning demonic spirits and this colorful set of variations for solo violin draws upon the ancient alliance between the violin and the devil. Gris-Gris is a virtuosic work for thirteen tuned drums inspired by the music of Korean Shamanism, Haitian Voodoo and a scene from Howard Hawks' classic film To Have and Have Not. It receives a spectacular performance by one of the [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

2007 repress of this beautiful 2LP edition, with a lustrous glossy finish that makes this feel like it's the right way to have this excellent document of Moondog's music. New York's unconventional and innovative artist Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardon) is often associated with artists like Sun Ra and Harry Partch, but his is a unique compositional voice that soaked up much of what is native, natural and unnatural about America.

Blinded at age 16, Hardon wandered the streets of NYC in unusual [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Four works written by Satie for his collaborations with the artist Pablo Picasso, including the 'Cubist' ballets Parade (1917) and Mercure (1924). Both scores are presented here in arrangements for solo piano as well as full orchestra. CD also includes two rarely-heard Satie avant-garde miniatures, The Puppets Are Dancing and Diversion (The Statue Found). Bojan Gorišek - solo piano. The New London Orchestra. Gnac. Booklet includes images and detailed liner notes by James Hayward."-LTM

From [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

The Trio Derome, Guilbeault, Tanguay has been applying their approach to improvised music to challenging jazz standards over two excellent releases on the Montreal based Ambiances Magnetiques label since 2004. This, their third release, presents the music of Eric Dolphy, Duke Ellington, Lennie Tristano, Fats Waller, Misha Mengelberg, and Jean Derome himself. Incredible performers, they update the music and bring it to great levels in amazing and inspired interplay. This DVD gives the listener [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Years in the making, Bhima Swarga is a fascinating film project from one of the most creative electronic musicians around. Delightfully animating traditional paintings from the Kertha Gosa temple ceiling in Bali, Mori depicts the journey of the soul from hell to heaven in two versions: one scored using her signature laptop electronics and one scored by Matt Welch, featuring a full gamelan ensemble augmented by Ikue's electronics and Welch on saxophone and percussion. A spectacular audiovisual [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"A thoughtful and entertaining look at how music and culture infect ('cross-pollinate?') each other, Alan Licht's An Emotional Memoir of Martha Quinn succeeds by being real. Paper, ink, binding -- it's all there -- but Licht, a long-time musician -- and writer of music-inspired commentary -- has brought the lessons learned, the high and low-lights of the last few decades in the realms of popular music, back home again. In his own words, Licht's book 'is a highly subjective survey of the last [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

On the cover: Throbbing Gristle. Features: Daniel AUI Higgs, Robin Williamson, Peter Rehberg, Keijo, Skull Disco, Axolotl. Invisible Jukebox: Sir Richard Bishop.

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