SQUIDCO/SQUID'S EAR NEWS September 4, 2007

Summer's hazy August comes to an end, and here in the States the unofficial end of summer itself. We've been working on the store while the heat was on, with improvements to our advanced search and a better organization to our navigation. We're also in the midst of improving our shopping cart basket views and making the checkout process simpler. We're always interested in hearing your suggestions on how to make our store better!

• 3D (Dell / Dahlgren / Martin): ...Actually: It's Better Like This... (Not Two Records)
• Abrams, Muhal Richard: Vision Towards Essence (Pi Recordings)
• All Ear Trio, The : Boiler (Ninth World)
• Ayler, Albert : The Hilversum Session (ESP)
• Brötzmann Octet, Peter: The Complete Machine Gun Sessions (Atavistic)
• Caine Ensemble, Uri : Plays Mozart (Winter & Winter)
• Carney Group, James: Green-Wood (Songlines)
• Centazzo, Andrea : Fragments (Ictus)
• Centazzo, Andrea : Koans Volumes 1-3: The Ultimate Percussion Collection (Ictus)
• Centazzo, Andrea / Chadbourne, Eugene: The German Horse (Ictus)
• Centazzo/ Coxhill / Koglmann: Darkly (Ictus)
• Clusone 3 (Moore / Reijseger / Bennink): Rara Avis (Hatology)
• Dijkstra, Jorrit / Hollenbeck, John: Sequence (Trytone Records)
• Dijkstra, Jorrit: 30 Micro Stems (Trytone Records)
• Douglas Quintet, Dave: Live At The Jazz Standard (Koch)
• Exploding Customer : At Your Service (Ayler)
• Fish, The: Live at Olympic Café & Jazz à Mulhouse (Ayler)
• Gauci Trio, Stephen: Substratum (CIMP)
• Goebbels, Heiner / Harth, Alfred : Hommage/Fier Fäuste für Hanns Eisler & Von Sprengen des Gartens (Recommended Records)
• Haney, David / Priester, Julian: Ota Benga Of The Batwa (CIMP)
• Mazzon, Guido / Centazzo, Andrea: Double (Ictus)
• Mokuto : Message For The Errand Boy (Ninth World)
• Morris, Butch : Conductions143/1-143/2 (Galatina)
• Murray, Sunny : Sunny Murray (ESP)
• ONJO: Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz: LIVE Vol.2 parallel circuit (Doubtmusic)
• Pavone, Jessica / Halvorson, Mary: On and Off (Skirl)
• Robertson, Herb with Evan Parker and Agusti Fernandéz: Parallelisms (Rubyflower)
• Robinson, Perry / Stowe, Nobu / Centazzo, Andrea: The Soul in the Mist (Ictus)
• Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Infinity Orchestra: The Night of the Purple Moon (Atavistic)
• Sun Ra Arkestra: Sunrise In Different Dimensions (Hatology)
• Sun Ra: The Shadows Took Shape: Lost Reel Collection Volume 3 (Transparency)
• The Wild Mans Band: The Darkest River (Ninth World)
• The Wild Mans Band: Three Rocks And A Pine (Ninth World)
• Torden Kvartetten: 12 Erindringer fra Hr. Grøns liv (Ninth World)
• Vandermark 5, The: Alchemia (Not Two Records)
• Vandermark, Ken / Oleś, Marcin / Oleś, Bartlomiej Brat: Ideas (Not Two Records)
• Volume [Trzaska / Nielsen / Jørgensen]: Æter (Ninth World)
• Wi77!N6 : Brotherhood of the Backwards Handshake (Evolving Ear)

• Continuum: Continuum (Soleilmoon)
• Convey, Joshua: Vacant Integument (Utech Records)
• Drumm, Kevin / Menche, Daniel: Gauntlet (Editions Mego)
• Expanded Botanics: Refugium (Ninth World)
• Fibrillation: My Axis Is Undone (Anomalous Records)
• Knob A Siesta: In My Head There Is Silence And A Hula-Hula Girl Dancing To A Make-Believe Tune [VINYL] (Tonometer)
• Marhaug, Lasse: Alive: Live Recordings 1998 - 2006 (Smalltown Super Jazz)
• Martin, Aaron / Machinefabriek: Cello Recycling / Cello Drowning [VINYL] (TYPE UK)
• Mersault: Raymond and Marie (Formed Records)
• Merzbow: Aqua Necromancer (Alien8 Recordings)
• Mimir: Mimyriad (Streamline)
• My Fun: Sonorine (The Land Of)
• Nakamura, Toshimaru / Capece, Lucio: IJ (Formed Records)
• Naoshima / Takeda / Kawasaki / Takeuchi / Koike / Kawaguchi / Totsuka: Septet (Ftarri/Improvised Music from Japan)
• Plotkin, James: Indirmek (Utech Records)
• Winter Family: Winter Family (Sub Rosa)

• Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno: Hardcore Uncle Meat - Live in Croatia 2005 (Acid Mothers Temple)
• Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.: Mantra of Love (Alien8 Recordings)
• Angeli, Paulo: Tessuti (music by Bjork, and Fred Frith) (Recommended Records)
• Connors, Loren: The Hymn of the North Star [VINYL] (Family Vineyard)
• Ju Suk Reet Meate: Solo 78/79 (DESTIJL)
• Makoto, Kawabata: Osaka Loop Line (Acid Mothers Temple)
• Thomas & Foreigners, David : Bay City (Ninth World)

• Feldman, Morton: For Bunita Marcus (Sub Rosa)
• Ferrari, Luc: Volume 1: Chansons Pour Le Corps / Et Si Tout Entière Maintenant... (Mode Records)
• Various Artists: From The Kitchen Archives No.4: Composers Inside Electronics (Orange Mountain Music)
• The Wire: #283 September 2007
• Various Artists: Molam: Thai Country Groove from Isan (Sublime Frequencies)
• Various Artists: Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan Vol. 2 (Sublime Frequencies)
• Various Artists: Thai Pop Spectacular: 1960s-1980s (Sublime Frequencies)
• Ferrari, Luc: Didascalies Limited Edition CD + DVD (Sub Rosa)
• Trio X: The Train And The River: A Musical Odyssey [DVD in PAL format] (CIMPVIEW)

German percussionist Maurice de Martin with fellow German vibraphonist Christopher Dell and New York bassist Chris Dahlgren (who has played with Anthony Braxton, Alfred Harth, Gebhard Ullmann, &c.)

Vision Towards Essence captures Muhal Richard Abrams live at the peak of his powers, performing solo in front of an enthusiastic audience at the 1998 Guelph Jazz Festival in Canada. This incredible recording captures an unedited account of a continuous sixty-minute, fully improvised performance. Though Abrams has composed for everything from duos to big band and is currently working on a commission for symphony orchestra, he claims that the extemporaneous solo performance, which draws [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Excellent studio recordings from this extension of The All Ear Trio with Sirone on bass. Mostly an instrumental session playing original compositions with pieces penned by Tchicai, Agergaard and Jorgensen individually, as a group, and in various permutations. Tchicai also sings the one vocal number, the Fain/Hilliard piece "Alice in Wonderland." Amazing, intricate and melodic playing over the remarkable poly-rhythmic undercurrent of Sirone and Jorgensen. Recommended.

A legendary recording by tenor saxophonist Ayler with his amazing working band, recorded in Holland for radio play, here digitally remastered with new artwork, liner notes by Russ Musto, and including a free Ayler poster.

The Hilversum session by Albert Ayler is one of those legendary recordings in free jazz. It was recorded in a Netherlands radio studio in front of a small invited audience, at the end of the Ayler Quartet's European tour on November 9, 1964 in front of a small invited [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Described in it's original liner notes as "armed and dangerous," this definitive release of Peter Brotzmann's inspired 1968 European Free Jazz classic is part of Atavistic's excellent "Unheard Music" reissue series. Remastered with two alternate takes and a previously unreleased live version of "Machine Gun" itself. New liner notes from Brötzmann and John Corbett.

"An essential recording, Machine Gun's rightful place in the pantheon of seminal free jazz recordings is uncontested. [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

I'll be the first to admit that jazz's treatment of classical music has a bad rap. To my mind, it's not so much the "stuffiness" of the latter genre as it is the tendency to simply take a classical composition and "make it swing." What separates Uri Caine's work from other efforts is his ability to take the music to unique, inventive places while maintaining the integrity of the original piece. For this project-which was commissioned for Mozart's 250th birthday-Caine brings a cadre of tremendous [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Modern, complex yet still joyful jazz with a great lineup led by pianist and composer Carney. "Winner of the Thelonious Monk Composers Award, this keyboardist's music is beautifully crafted and intensely grooving. James Carney's aesthetic unites the jazz mainstream and avant-garde, blending derring-do with a post-bop-meets-chamber-music-and-rock lyricism. Features a starry band of NYC improvisers. Hi-res recording and a cool surround mix make the most of ear-catching voicings, timbres, and textures."-Songlines

Collecting the original two Fragments CD, this is an amazing collection of solo percussion from Ictus label leader Andrea Centazzo, recorded live in concerts during the 70s and 80, around the world from Woodstock, to Berlin, Stuttgart, Milan, and Los Angeles. All tracks were digitally remixed and re-mastered by Andrea Centazzo in 2006. Some of the tracks from the Fragments 1 disc were originally released on Centazzo's first solo LP "Fragmentos" in 1974 and are dedicated to the [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

This triple boxset puts together all three volumes of percussionist and Ictus label leader Andrea Centazzo's Koans releases.

Disk 1: Music recorded mostly with the great master Pierre Favre. Centazzo played a duo concert and recorded the LP titled Dialogues: from the same session some of the pieces here enclosed are taken. Also featuring are the two masters with a large percussion ensemble.

Disk 2: Percussionist David Moss and Alex Cline were the co-protagonists with Centazzo [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Double CD of European percussionist and label owner Andrea Centazzo in duo with Eugene Chadbourne recorded live in Milan and Grado, Italy, in 1978. Liner notes from Chadbourne's tour diary. [A more detailed review is forthcoming...]

Percussionist Andrea Centazzo and saxophonist Lol Coxhill collaborated as a duo for several years in the early 80's, often performing with trumpeter Franz Koglmann, in trio or with Centazzo and Koglmann themselves performing as a duo. The release presents the players in all three permutations of duo and trio playing performing the piece "Darkly #1," recorded live, including a standout Bosendorf Seal concert in Vienna.

"We all know how 20th century composers from Messiaen to Ellington to Dolphy cribbed melodies" from birds, says Kevin Whitehead in the liner notes to this collection of fourteen bird songs by the celebrated Clusone 3: Michael Moore (alto sax, clarinet, melodica), Ernst Reijseger (cello), and Han Bennink (drums). None of those three are represented on this broadly-ranging program, but it does include tunes by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Hoagy Carmichael alongside Peruvian folk music, Saint-Saens [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"John Hollenbeck and Jorrit Dijkstra have been playing duets on and off since 1998. They investigate the minuscule details within the sonic palette of their instruments by "zooming in" to a whole new world of sonic textures. With the help of some analog electronics, they place their sounds under an imaginary microscope, to orchestrate the overtones, micro-beats, wind flows, clicking of the pads, impact of the stick on the drumhead, and subtone effects, without losing their strong sense of melody [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Live improvisations on alto sax, lyricon and electronic processing recorded without overdubs. Dijkstra is best known from his work with Flatlands Collective (Skycap Records), his duos with John Hollenbeck (Claudia Quintet) and his own trio work, which has released albums with Benoit Delbecq and Stuart Hall.

The Dave Douglas Quintet on a double CD set of live recordings from New York's Jazz Standard in 2006. These recordings were extracted from the 12-CD set released late in 2006, but include two bonus performances not previously released.

Groove oriented free jazz in the third release on the Ayler label from this Scandinavian free jazz unit, their first studio release on the label. Amazingly tight integrated playing with great soloing particularly from saxophonist Martin Küchen, who composed the majority of the pieces, with one Carla Bley number and one composition from Tomas Hallonsten.

"There's nothing like busking to beef up your tone, and doing it near the Arctic Circle amplifies the benefits. Exploding [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet has released albums on Creative Sources, Matchless, Herbal and Fargone, a member of Hoop Whoop and has performed with Erres, Schams, and has released a series of pieces entitled "Synapses" with hurdy-gurdy player Eric Cordier; he is also noted as a sound sculptor working in the electro-acoustic compositional field, including work with Eric La Casa on A Bruit Secret. Bassist Benjamin Duboc has also recorded on Creative Sources along with percussionist Edward Perraud [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"It's been a busy year for Stephen Gauci. Not only has he led a flurry of recording sessions but he also contacts me approximately every eight weeks about yet another of his developing groups, each one exploring a different dynamic, and how fantastic all of them are at executing and extending his visions. The thing is... he's correct. And Cadence Jazz Records and CIMP have issued a number of those excursions, but the problem is: the artistic visions are coming faster than documentation is feasible. [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Material from the incredibly creative duo of Alfred Harth and Heiner Goebbels, recorded in the 70's. Von Sprengen des Gartens is an impressive display of improvisation with great interaction and technique, but balancing melodic and serious work in a fun workout. Amazing stuff. Fier Fauste fur Hanns Eisler presents the work of the great soundtrack composer Hans Eisler, alongside several compatible Harth/Goebbels pieces, and one work of Nino Rota in sensitive and playful renderings [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"This is the first of three recordings by David Haney from two planned recording sessions. Of the three sessions, this was the one not part of the original plan. The planned sessions involved two bassists (Mike Bisio and Adam Lane) and were scheduled for the next week. [...] Unlike their 2004 duo recording (which was made up of a series of Free improvs), David's stated strategy for this session was to work on original concepts which fit together as a whole.

We arrived at Gilbert Hall at [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"The '70s in Italy (and Europe, in general) were times of extreme political tension charged with subversion, terrorism and bombings. In this climate of heightened emotions, fear and hope there came about an era of music of the left, dominated by the avant-garde which was associated with the cultural revolution taking place. Artists would show their commitment to the cause both by keeping up with current events in the world, and by translating these facts into their work, in an ever closer linking [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Three of Denmarks finest improvisers in collaboration with New York trumpeter Herb Robertson, Message For The Errand Boy was recorded in July 2003 after the band had played a series of concerts during the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. The recordings present five tracks of 3 to 8 minutes in length, and the 26 minute "Captain Voms Great Adventure," which features adventurous playing and subtle interaction in a free structure that give the players a great deal of room to express themselves. [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Butch Morris with the Italian Laboratorio Novamusica presenting two of Morris' Conduction compositions, along with Laboratorio Novamusica's "Berlin Squeaking."

"Laboratorio Novamusica formed in 1991 upon the initiative of students of the Venetian "Benedetto Marcello" Conservatory, the Laboratorio Novamusica Ensemble and associated musicians not only perform today's classical music but also research and study the many and various aspects of new music. The Laboratorio Novamusica Ensemble [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Classic and important '66 release from the innovative drummer Sunny Murray in a quintet session, remastered and with bonus interview track between Murray and ESP label founder Bernard Stollman.

"Sunny Murray is the only drummer who ever played the Theory of Relativity," commented Alan Silva in a recent interview, and barely seconds into the drum solo that opens this album it's not hard to see exactly what he means. Murray's percussion work, setting up complex webs of pulsations using a [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Live recordings from 2005 & 2006 on this double CD release of Otomo's (incredible) New Jazz Orchestra.

"The guitarist Mary Halvorson and the violist Jessica Pavone have worked together in ensembles led by the avant-garde eminence Anthony Braxton, and separately in a wide array of upstart new-music groups. As an acoustic duo they produce something distinct and beguiling: an amalgam of experimental folk, rock and chamber music that feels both meticulous and raw. Their debut, "On and Off" (Skirl), presents a dozen pieces of modest scale but impressive metabolism. There's a disarming openness to their [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Lines moving together and swerving everywhere, then flying apart into another and individual parallel universe, which is just the beginning of this triadic sound experience. This trio with Evan Parker, Agustí Fernandéz and I was and is a very special collaboration. Ana Isabel has a knack at knowing what combinations of musicians might just coagulate together very nicely. The music takes on other-worldly sound elements along with the terrestrial earthly sounds. The trumpet, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Recorded live in concert, with the clarinet legend Perry Robinson and the up-and-coming Japanese pianist Nobu Stowe, "The soul in the Mist" not only stands as one of the newly recorded ICTUS productions but also states the beginning of a new creative path for composer and percussionist Andrea Centazzo.

"Robinson's clarinet articulation is brilliant. From its delicately shrill pitches to its rich deeper-toned melodies to occasional series of rhythmic phrase repetitions, the clarinet [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

This classic Sun Ra release, a small group setting from 1970 with Sun Ra playing his rare 'Roksichord' keyboard, originally issued on LP on his own Saturn label. Re-mastered and with bonus tracks including an alternate take of "Love in Outer Space" and 3 Wurlitzer solos. This is the first CD issue of this album, and was released in conjunction with El Saturn Records.

"This one is quirky, even in the Sun Ra catalog. Ra fronts a quartet playing nothing but miniMoog and Rocksichord, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

A great live recording of Sun Ra and his Arkestra from 1980 in Switzerland, originally released as a double LP, and remastered for CD in 2000 (two pieces have been excluded from the original LP release). The concert featured a ten piece ensemble playing a mix of originals, standards and modern jazz compositions, including pieces Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis/Tad Dameron, Coleman Hawkins, Billy Strayhorn, and Duke Ellington. This is a good example of later Sun Ra configurations, with Sun Ra still [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

This mysterious release in Transparency's "Lost Reels" collection is taken from an early 1970's concert discovered on reel to reel, and titled simply "Spacemaster Concert." Vocals are by June Tyson, and both John Gilmore and Marshall Allen are in the band.

"This is the fourth in a series of recordings by The Wild Mans Band, the second and third with guests: trombonist Johannes Bauer and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, and this with guitarist Pierre Dørge.

The music is freely improvised, its energetic, linear character harkening back to the free jazz world of Frank Wright and Albert Ayler. Not surprising considering the history of Peter Brötzmann. Since his legendary recording, Machine Gun, 35 years ago, early recorded evidence [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"This incarnation of The Wild Man's Band features the core of Brotzmann (on taragot, clarinet, and alto and tenor saxophones), Peter Ole Jorgensen (on drums), and Peter Friis Nielsen (on bass), with guest Mats Gustafsson (on tenor and baritone saxophones). As to be expected, this one burns hard, with the two reed players blowing fire into the music. Half of the tracks are less than four minutes apiece, but the intensity is so great throughout that the generously timed recording is difficult to [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

The mighty saxophonist Mats Gustafsson with frequent Brotzmann collaborators Peter Friis Nieldsen and Peter Ole Jorgensen, extending the rhythm section with Per Holmlander on tuba.

Amazing 12 CD box set of the Vandermark 5, recorded over 3 days in 2004 and playing a mix of Vandermark originals alongside pieces by Roland Kirk, Thelonius Monk, Sonny Rollins, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and Archie Shepp.

"[...] The Vandermark 5 is easily [Ken Vandermark's] most well-known and stable vehicle of expression. Comprised of Vandermark, reedist Dave Rempris, trombonist Jeb Bishop, acoustic bassist Kent Kessler, and newest addition as of two years ago Tim Daisy [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Amazing Chicago reedman Ken Vandermark in a trio setting with the twins Marcin and Barttomiej Brat Oles. Drummer Bartlomiej has played with Kenny Werner, David Murray, William Parker and Theo Jörgensmann, and is a member of the trio Trio Oles Jörgensmann Oles. Bassist Marcin has played with Chris Speed, Simon Nabatov and has his own Chamber Quintet which has included Erik Friedlander . This free improv trio session was instigated by Not Two label boss' introduction, and was formalized [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Interactive trio work over 14 focused compositions from this trio, drawn from the rhythm section of Brotzmann's Wild Mans Band with Mikolaj Trzaska on sax. Trzaska, a Coltrane inspired alto player, is one of the founders of the improvised avant-garde "yass" scene in Poland, and is active in the Denmark and Scandinavian jazz scenes, playing frequently with Nielsen, Jorgensen, and Peeter Uuskyla; he is heard on over 30 recordings, and has collaborated with Lester Bowie, Peter Brötzmann, Tomasz [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

There's no doubt that Fritz Welch and Ian Christie are part of the strange new improvisation world that includes bands like psi (Peeesseye), the work of Chris Forsythe or Tim Olive. This recording was made in 2000 by drummer/pounder/scraper/whistler Fritz Welch and guitarist Ian Christe in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and has sat on the shelves ever since. The band Wi77!N6 is no more, but in their heyday the released several collectible cassettes, and played shows with Deerhoof, Gavin + Delia, and Harry [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Continuum represents a multi-layered synonym for the collective ambition and vision of Dirk Serries (VidnaObmana, Fear Falls Burning) and Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree, Bass Communion, Blackfield), motivated by their immense passion for a wide-range of musical styles. Continuum 2 is the second release in a series of limited edition albums being issued by Soleilmoon Recordings. Each CD is presented in a beautiful oversized digipack with breathtaking design and artwork by Lasse Hoile. Continuum [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Vacant Integument is the debut release from NY resident Joshua Convey. Sharp, spiky overtones rattle four skillfully assembled tracks. Each gritty frame is lined with a delicate array of guitar, harmonica and electronics. Quiet drone hums along as melody slowly reveals itself amongst carefully placed shards of raw feedback and noise. Not since Kaoru Abe or Masayoshi Urabe has the harmonica been used to such magnificent effect. Vacant Integument is a singular and resonant work that deserves all [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Daniel Menche is a well known noise artist with a large discography of diverse approaches to noise; Kevin Drumm is an electro-acoustic artist with releases on labels erstwhile, Charhizm, Grob, Innova, Atavistic, &c. These two well complement each other in Menche's dark low end noise and Drumm's detailed sonic constructions. The theoretical instrumentation here is organ, guitar and noise, and it is no doubt noise oriented work that could knock your neighbor's tables over, but with a subtlety [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"One of the more intriguing aspects of electro-acoustic improvisation is that, even though its methods can be all but concealed from the listener, even a relatively unqualified listener can quickly knows when the sparks - or the sine waves - are flying. Of course, engagement with the music does not necessarily get the listener as close to its workings than is the case with, say, blues or bebop. That's the delicious conundrum of Expanded Botanics second album, Refugium. The parameters violinist [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

The first release of electro-acoustic artist Fibrillation, originally issued in 2003 after his appearance on the excellent Anomalous Records compilation Electrically Induced Vibrations, and finally available again. These dark and mysterious pieces layer drone music with environmental sound and field recordings in effective ways, meticulously constructed by Fibrillation to evoke personal experiences in his life. The layering reveals many levels of muted and mutated sounds, extensively [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Knob A Siesta makes improvised ambient - and sometimes noisy - soundscapes. The group consists of two drummers who have replaced the sticks with unconventional instruments, objects and laptops. Opposed to popular electronic music and regular pop music we take the time needed to build up our compositions - we do not force anything. We are very keen on contrasts and work with questions like computer vs. man, composition vs. improvisation, digital vs. analog, synthetic vs. organic.

Knob [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Working within the fields of noise music for over 15 years, Marhaug has toured most parts of the world, both as a solo artist & as a member of the project JAZZKAMER. Lasse keeps on paying homage to his metal roots (this time Kiss` classic Alive). A selection of live recordings done all over the world in the period of 1998 to 2006. This live album features recordings done among others in Toronto, Bergen, Chicago, New York, Oslo, Baltimore & more. In many ways this is a travel letter from [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"A blistering collaboration between two experimental music behemoths. Jet engine drone and symphonic ambience combine in one of our most gorgeous explorations of the genre to date...

Rutger Zuydervelt, a man better known to the experimental music world as Machinefabriek is somewhat prolific; a fact you might have gathered from his steady flow of super-limited edition 3" cdrs which seem to slip out relentlessly month after month. American multi-instrumentalist Aaron Martin is possibly less [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Mersault's album, Raymond and Marie, works by undermining expectations, shifting the foreground to the background and back again. A nominally placid passage contains a busy roughness that, without any overt moment of transition, characterizes the moment in question. Similarly, passages of resonant double bass emerge from rough, bracing chunks of sound, dropping after a while into parallel coexistence with electronic drone and muted percussion."-Formed Records

"Alien 8's third release by Japanese Sound & Noise aritst Masami Akita AKA Merzbow. On this recording Akita uses sampled drums, lifted from the likes Soft Machine, L'Orme and others. From the super beat-heavy "Contrapuntti Indian" to "Farsa del Buen Vivir," the most listener-friendly Merzbow track ever, Aqua Necromancer marks a departure from his more recent brutal output with amazing and refreshing results"-Alien8

Mimir is a collaboration between members of the Legendary Pink Dots and the German band Hirsche Nicht Aufs Sofa, and Jim O'Rourke, who joined the band in 1992. They have released several albums, primarily on the Streamline label. The music marries dark yet sophisticated electronic compositions with rock-oriented guitar work in lyrical and accessible pieces that are definitely of interest to both LPD, HNSA and O'Rourke fans. Mimyriad was originally released in 1993 as a CD on the Streamline [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"The Sonorine was usually a pre-recorded disc like a record but other 'talking postcards' allowed you to record your own message onto the disc. I like the idea that these records allow anyone to capture a set of sounds and replay them in a completely different environment as a means of communication. When I started gathering the material for this release, I wanted to capture recordings from specific places and then present them framed and edited like you would with images on a postcard.

Justin [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Lucio Capece and Toshimaru Nakamura's first duo sounds as if it comes from a working group of many years standing. They manage to effect in their music a sort of serene pressure as well as a constant feeling of perpendicular shift to the direction their music moves."-Formed Records

Meena is an offshoot of the Improvised Music from Japan label, and is essentially the same as the other IMJ related label, Ftarri, that put out the excellent Axel Doerner Toshimaru Nakamura Vorhernach CD, as well as the wonderful tonal improvisational release from The International Nothing. Septet is an onkyo or lowercase release of an incredibly minimal group improvisation from seven players, consisting entirely of faint sounds and silences from beginning to end. It's a suprisingly [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"James Plotkin unveils his second solo release in as many years. Indirmek presents two distinct facets of his musical work. The first track, Afyon (opium) lies closest to Plotkin's trademark drift. In essence, a guitar track stretched to limitless possibility. An elemental fury contained, dissected and entrusted to a NYC audience for their consideration in the spring of 2007. Amfetamin (amphetamine) is a second recording from NYC, performed in the fall of 2006. The track is considerably more [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Dark and mysterious 'spokentext' and music from the electro-acoustic duo of Ruth and Xavier, mixing Israeli and French persepectives. Haunting music over two CDs.

"Winter Family is a duet of spokentext & music. It was born on January 2004 in Jaffa from the meeting of the Israeli artist Ruth Rosenthal and the French musician Xavier Klaine. She writes and performs her texts in English and Hebrew while he's composes and plays the piano, harmoniums and pipe organ. They recorded their first [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Limited edition DVD of the incredible Japanese psych band let by Kawabata Makoto. "Complete version of the 2005 gig played by Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno in Zagreb. The gig was filmed with three cameras by the genius Croatian film artist Niko Potocnjak, who also edited the double DVD History of Acid Mothers Temple. The sound was recorded to sixteen-channel digital and mixed by Kawabata himself to create an astoundingly high-quality live package."-Acid Mothers Temple

Japan's Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O., led by Kawabata Makoto, with more than 16 albums already in their psychedelic catalog, release their third album on Canada's excellent Alien8 label. Comprised of two long, growing and heavily hallucinatory drone pieces that join long melodic passages to thunderous percussions, but maintaining a lid on the mayhem, in many ways one of the more beautiful records in their catalog.

"[...] The disc's first half, "La Le [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Another extraordinary release by Sardinian virtuoso Paolo Angeli, this time featuring compositions by Fred Frith and Bjork - all played solo in real time (though when you hear it, it's hard to believe it) on his highly customised and extended, electrified, giant Sardinian folk guitar. A tour de force of technique and at the same time highly musical; and there is so much going on here at any given time that it is difficult to relate what your ears tell you to just one Frankenstein instrument. [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Ever since his 1978 debut LP Gifts guitarist Loren Connors had been continually redefining the American blues and folk guitar. The Hymn of the North Star, a 180 gram 499 edition LP, is the first full-length vinyl release solely under Connors' name since 1990. Though in the years since he has recorded over two dozen solo and collaborative albums with Suzanne Langille, Jim O'Rourke, John Fahey, Alan Licht, Christina Carter, Jandek, Thurston Moore, Keiji Haino, Darin Gray, and others.

[ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Privately pressed at the end of the '70s, Smegma member Ju Suk Reet Meate's LP was lost to all but a handful of the early avant mash-up enthusiasts. The CD reissue will undoubtedly garner more listeners this time around, with a readymade audience of bedroom noise-oiks eager to absorb anything from the Smegma collective.

Much like an actual Smegma release, it's pointless to label this record in terms of any strict genre. [Wolf Eye's] John Olson's NOISE CLIFFSNOTES (his term for liner notes) [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Acid Mother's Temple founder and guitarist Kawabata Makoto's early solo experimetnal piece, originally released on cassette tape in 1981. The work is psychedelic and drone oriented, with thickly buried vocals, each track clocking in at around 22 minutes. Fascinating recordings from this psych-rock master, this limited edition issue of 500 casts an interesting look at the early work of the prolific Makoto.

"David Thomas and foreigners started life at a concert staged in the middle of the Gefion fountain, in the rain, in Copenhagen in 1996. Jørgen Teller enlisted Mr Thomas along with 2 other Danish musicians, P. O. Jørgens and Per Buhl Acs. The collaboration, recorded on a farm in Denmark between 1996 and 1999, promised a hard-edged reappraisal of American music, the lingua franca of a planet drifting into strangeness. Contrary to all logic, it is a startlingly specific cultural folkwork.

Bay [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Minimalist composer Morton Feldman wrote this piano work for composer and conductor Bunita Marcus in 1985. It was the third of four large piano compositions that Feldman wrote during his last decade. The strategy in these compositions was what Feldman referred to as 'crippled symmetry,' derived from the patterns of paintings and oriental rugs, as he attempted to translate these visual ideas into compositional forms. The characteristics of these compositions include extreme length, hushed volume, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"With recent releases on John Zorn's Tzadik label among others, Luc Ferrari is enjoying a well deserved renaissance. After studies with Messiaen and formative visits to Darmstadt in the '50s, Ferrari born Paris, 1929 , with Pierre Schaeffer, was one of the co-founders of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in 1959. In the sixties he worked with the Ensemble Instrumental de Musique Contemporaine de Paris and made the first French television documentaries on new music, between 1964-69, he taught [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

Fourth in a series of releases on Philip Glass' Orange Mountain Music label, featuring recently discovered audio recordings of concert performances at The Kitchen dating from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. This release features electronic music, the highlight of which is the Kalve work, a 23 minute track performed live in 1977 with taped violin from Takehisa Kosugi.

The third part of Ferrari's trilogy, now reissued on CD & DVD to include video footage of Ferrari "facing his tautology: two days before the end." The entire trilogy is made up of the CDs les anecdotiques (Sub Rosa 207), son mémorisé (Sub Rosa 252) and didascalies (Sub Rosa 259 or 261).

"Luc Ferrari takes out an old score, Tautologos III, to record it at La Muse en Circuit in the summer of 2005. The "score" is actually a set of three rules:

1. [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

DVD documentary of the great jazz trio of Joe McPhee, Dominic Duval and Jay Rosen, recorded in March of 2006 in Vilnius, Lithuania.

"Too few musicians in the past have been able to tell their own personal stories. It has been up to historians and critics to do the work of "educating" (sometimes inaccurately) the public about the music that is seemingly less than accessible, but for the musician the most real. Fortunately, present-day technology affords musicians the opportunity to widely [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

On The Cover: PJ Harvey (Moving back to her homeland Dorset's chalky soil prompted alt rock's 50 Foot Queenie to recast her death-rattle songs as skeletal piano dirges) / Features: Trim (UK Grime's ailing condition is being nursed back to health with Soulfood from this ex-Roll Deep MC) / Lost In Hildurness (David Stubbs goes deep in the wood with the Icelandic cellist who has worked with Múm, Pan Sonic and Throbbing Gristle) / Starving Weirdos (The northern Californian freeform soundscaping [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Molam is a multi-faceted folk music native to Laos and the predominantly rural Northeastern region of Thailand known as Isan - home to myriad ethnic groups and provinces, and once a part of present-day Laos. Mo meaning 'master' and lam meaning 'song', molam literally translates into 'master singer', but it remains more of an umbrella term covering over a dozen types of lam styles in which male and female singers can be backed by a free-reed bamboo mouth organ called a khaen, indigenous lute-like [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"The true, raw & electrified, hardcore roots Molam sound from Northeastern Thailand. As psychedelic as Country music could ever be, this is a collection of the most grooving, rocking and droning beats of the Isan countryside from the 1970's. Perhaps even better than Volume 1, this was the magic period of modern Molam when effected guitars & Phin, crazy organ sounds, and absolutely stunning vocal freestylers ruled the Northeast.

MOLAM is a multi-faceted folk country music native [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

"Thai pop history has been largely ignored and neglected by the international musical community for far too long. By the late 20th century, Thai pop music had developed as many faces as localized roots music such as Molam or styles like Luk Thung or Luk Krung, (each with their own respective pop-sectors). Bangkok - always the hub of the Thai recording industry - attracted musicians and singers from across the country that were both informed by tradition and inspired by the wealth of international [ ... continued @ Squidco ]

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