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Elka Bong (Margolis / Wright / Bouchard):
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Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters, The (Rasmussen / Mitelli / Rezaei / Koenig):
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Akmee:
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Mat Watson:
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Extracted from archival sessions at Imaginary Sound Fields in Melbourne, Australian synthesist Mat Watson assembles a limited-edition set of vivid modular compositions — ranging from library-inspired cues to exploratory electronic abstractions — capturing the tactile nuance of a Eurorack modular as he sculpts asymmetrical, colorful soundscapes that blur nostalgia, experimentation, and inner space. ... Click to View


Unredeemable (Tracy Lisk / Andrea Pensado):
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+DOG+:
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Das B (Mazen Kerbaj / Mike Majkowski / Magda Mayas / Tony Buck):
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Das B (Mazen Kerbaj / Mike Majkowski / Magda Mayas / Tony Buck):
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Inspired by John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, the second album from the Berlin-based quartet Das B — Mazen Kerbaj (trumpet), Mike Majkowski (bass), Magda Mayas (piano), and Tony Buck (percussion) — subverts the tribute format with a radical re-imagining built on free improvisation, textural exploration, and structural homage, resulting in a deeply immersive and conceptually rich work. ... Click to View


Matt Mitchell:
Sacrosanctity (Obliquity)

Fully improvised and recorded in the same session as his previous solo album, Illimitable, pianist Matt Mitchell's solo performance explores shifting structures and emotional densities with a remarkable clarity of form and spontaneity, blending jazz intuition, classical modernism, and abstract rhythm into a deeply focused and personal sonic journey. ... Click to View


Dave Burrell / Sam Woodyard:
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Unearthed from Dave Burrell's personal archive, this long-rumored 1979 Paris session with legendary Ellington drummer Sam Woodyard finally emerges, presenting a rare and intimate duo performance sourced from a cassette dub of the original tape — an essential historical document capturing two master musicians in a spontaneous and deeply expressive exchange. ... Click to View


Ernesto Rodrigues / Miguel Mira / Flak / Tiago Varela / Manuel Guimaraes:
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Carlos Zingaro / Bruno Parrinha / Fred Lonberg-Holm / Joao Madeira:
Enleio (4DaRecord)

Reuniting violinist Carlos Zingaro and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm with bassist João Madeira and bass clarinetist Bruno Parrinha, Enleio captures a dynamic Lisbon session of free improvisation rich in textural interplay, pointillist gestures, and evolving sonic dialogues, blending expressive restraint with bursts of manic energy across four nuanced and immersive pieces. ... Click to View


Ferdinand Schwarz :
Listening Time (Another Timbre)

A contemplative composition by Ferdinand Schwarz for the Oslo-based ensemble AREPO, Listening Time unfolds as a patient, microtonal exploration of harmonic stasis and collective structure, blending just intonation, fragile textures, and co-composed material in a deep listening experience that merges composed form with improvisational sensibility and communal artistry. ... Click to View


Timothy McCormack :
Mine But For Its Sublimation (Another Timbre)

Composed for and performed by pianist Jack Yarbrough, Timothy McCormack's mine but for its sublimation is a resonant and formally immersive solo piano work that explores gesture, vulnerability, and transformation through precise touch, spatial decay, and evolving harmonic tension, revealing a deeply personal and physical engagement with the piano's sonic possibilities. ... Click to View


Eventless Plot | Francesco Covarino:
Methexis [CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD] (Innovo Editions)

A textural and quietly immersive collaboration between Italian percussionist Francesco Covarino and Greek trio Eventless Plot, combining modular synth, field recordings, percussion, and tapes in an intricate 2024 live studio session that continues the exploratory cassette ethos of Covarino's TSSS label through Innovo Editions' equally intimate and tactile aesthetic. ... Click to View


Dan Brown / Dan Reynolds:
Live At The Grange Hall [unauthorized][CASSETTE] (Sacred Realism)

A unique document of Don Brown and Dan Reynolds' unconventional compositional practice, recorded live to tape in 2008 with an 8-piece ensemble performing four decades-spanning works at Multnomah Grange #71, this unauthorized cassette release captures a pivotal moment in Portland's experimental scene, offering singular music with deep references and no clear precedent. ... Click to View



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  Angelica Castello / Jerome Noetinger 
  Disturbio  
  (Mikroton Recordings) 


  
   review by Dave Madden
  2019-02-28
Angelica Castello / Jerome Noetinger: Disturbio (Mikroton Recordings)

As there is so much we could discuss about these veteran players, their instruments, and the palette of Disturbio, I will give a high-level view so as to not wax on too long about / overemphasize the importance of any ingredient over another:

• Angélica Castelló: Born in Mexico, lives in Vienna, professor and electroacoustic (heavy on the acoustic) composer, electronics maven, Paetzold performance extraordinaire

• Paetzold: An instrument based on the Renaissance bass recorder. It resembles a large, wooden periscope mated with a stilt — or mutated goose neck — is capable of very low tones, and is often (boringly) employed to double clarinet an octave below. Notable performers include Castelló and Anna Petrini

• Jérôme Noetinger: One of the greatest living mystics of sound mangling. He has run the gamut in the composition and improvised performance world, and continues to tweak and get mileage out of his bag of tricks. His current set-up of crumbling feedback and crackle effects features a Revox A77 tape deck as it's keystone, the latter enabling real-time manipulation, live looping and staccato-to-elongated aural torrents

• The Revox A77 reel-to-reel player / recorder: Once relegated to "swinging bachelor pads," the A77 is referred to by audiophiles as "The Rolex Oyster of tape decks." It was a bit cheaper than some of the studio standards, but can physically endure much more than some of the less sturdy counterparts. I don't think any of that has any bearing on this music, but you can read more here if you are so inclined.

Anyway, the electroacoustic / post Cage / free improvisation domains usually adhere to one or all five of the following: Construction, destruction, a combination of the previous two, dissection, and / or observation. In the case of Disturbio, the field is already laid to waste; we're stepping in after an unresolved coda where whatever sudden catastrophe caused the collapse lingers and continues to impede renovation; but there is a sub-dermal environment squirming under the debris, attempting communications that are squashed before reaching the surface or a first responder.

Okay... Remember the robotic mice from Ray Bradbury's There Will Come Soft Brains? Their job was to prepare food and clean up after any mess in the this-is-the-automated-future-per-1950s-predictions home; they continued to do so despite the disintegration of their masters, even pressing on while losing bolts and limbs to the house crumbled on top of them. They continued to wiggle. That's the telepathic mental image of the sonic world Castelló and Noetinger navigate and deform.

A blend of broken, distant television and radio broadcasts mingling with grumbles, fried circuits, twitching held notes, gravelly footfalls, staccato exhales, whistles, tape spinning and winding, and otherwise percussion guides this narrative. Would you prefer pink noise, gentle rumbles, and the synthetic clone of someone massaging a balloon? Gradually pour in hissy bird call recordings that surf on some type of Doppler effect and patiently move into an intricate, complex chord, a combination of AC hum, shimmering squeals, ocean noise — like a Buddha Machine designed for bigger, advanced brains. Can the foreground sometimes emphasize the broadcast voices, or popular songs, or opera snippets, or Spanish exorcism prayers? Could you add some subtle idiosyncratic reminders that the recorder that eats clarinets and bassoons for breakfast is also participating (i.e. wheezy humming, wooden grinding and sawing)? Cloudy feedback loops and the players real-time sample each other too?

Tangled, right? Not really. There is a lot of disparate elements firing on Disturbio, but a thoughtful progression and micro placement keeps the works hypnotic, slightly adhesive, mysterious, playful, not physical engulfment and desensitization into boredom.



Angelica Castello / Jerome Noetinger: Disturbio
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Recent Selections @ Squidco:


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2021-2022)
[2 CDs]
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[CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
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