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Chris Cundy:
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Expanse:
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This session at Evil Clown Headquarters brings together a sextet featuring PEK, Michael Knoblach, Robin Amos, Bob Moores, Tony Leva, and Jonathan LaMaster, blending horns, strings, electronics, and percussion to create a richly textured improvisational journey, highlighting deep connections within the Boston improvisation scene and showcasing dynamic interactions shaped by both past collaborations and new encounters. ... Click to View


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AALY Trio (Gustafsson / Nordeson / Janson):
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Lisbon String Trio & Carlos Santos:
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Chemical Expansion League, The (Bohman / Lynch / Northover / Mengersen):
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Vasseur / Serries:
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Michael McNeill (w/ Susan Alcorn / Dave Ballou / Shelly Purdy):
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After their 2022 tour, the quartet of Michael McNeill on piano, Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar, Dave Ballou on trumpet, and Shelly Purdy on vibraphone and percussion recorded seven studio improvisations composed by McNeill, using a compositional framework inspired by the black and white keys of the piano (the 'barcode') to fuel their poetic and expressive impulses. ... Click to View


Wooden Cities:
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Eddie Prevost:
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AMM (Prevost / Tilbury):
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Recorded in Turkey in 2016, this extended improvisation features a core duo from later AMM configurations — percussionist Eddie Prévost and pianist John Tilbury, who also performs on harpsichord — captured in the exceptional acoustics of The Sibelius Museum concert hall where the intimate setting elicits profound, beautifully recorded dialogue between these two masterful performers. ... Click to View


Kanngiesser / Prevost / Wright:
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The third volume in the High Laver Levitations series that started with the duo of John Butcher and Eddie Prévost, continued with Silvan Schmid, Tom Wheatley & Prévost, now presents Ute Kanngiesser on cello, Seymour Wright on alto sax, and Eddie Prévost on drum kit, recording two extended improvisations that explore the resonant acoustics of All Saints Church in High Laver, Essex. ... Click to View


Axel Dorner / Oliver Schwerdt / Julian Sartorius:
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The title refers to the dynamic addition of drummer and percussionist Julian Sartorius, whose energy injects 'jet fuel' into this bassless, windless trio's live 2021 performance at naTo in Leipzig, Germany, with Euphorium label leader Oliver Schwerdt igniting the grand piano and Axel Dörner's thrillingly unconventional slide trumpet playing adding to the burn & mdash; exceptional! ... Click to View


Peter Evans / Petter Eldh / Jim Black:
Extra (We Jazz)

An exhilarating trio with bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Jim Black, recorded in Lisbon in 2023, capturing inventive synergy across eight original compositions by Peter Evans, ranging from the fiery intensity of "Freaks" and "Boom" to the surprising twists of "The Lighthouse", as their close-knit rapport fuels rhythmic depth and jaw-dropping improvisation. ... Click to View


Dougie Bowne:
The Stars Are Indispensable (Tzadik)

A formidable sonic duo of guitar, bass, electronics, prepared bass, and drums, featuring Downtown NY pioneer Dougie Bowne and Brooklyn-based experimental rock bassist Matt Nelson (tUnE-yArDs, Weasel Walter Large Ensemble), delivering twelve intense and startlingly inventive improvisations, using every inch of their instruments to create a heavy, captivating set of soundscapes. ... Click to View


Phill Niblock / Anna Clementi / Thomas Stern:
Zound Delta 2 (KARLRECORDS)

A posthumous realization of Phill Niblock's 2022 composition, this dense, resonant work of drone and sonic intensity, written for Italian vocalist Anna Clementi and shaped and developed with guitarist and bassist Thomas Stern of Einstürzende Neubauten and Crime & the City Solution, is presented in two monumental, haunting longform versions. ... Click to View


John Zorn:
Hannigan Sings Zorn Volume Two - Archival Series (Tzadik)

The second volume of John Zorn's vocal compositions, performed by virtuoso Barbara Hannigan alongside returning pianist Stephen Gosling, expands with orchestration for string quartet, a dynamic work for voice, cello, vibes, electronics, and drums, a lively piece for voice, piano, and rhythm, and Zorn's unique interpretation of the classic 'Pandora's Box. ... Click to View



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  Johansson / Fite / Grip 
  Swinging at Topsi's  
  (Astral Spirits) 


  
   review by Nick Ostrum
  2022-09-26
Johansson / Fite / Grip: Swinging at Topsi's (Astral Spirits)

Already at the first snare pattering and the twangy plonk of the acoustic guitar and upright bass that follow, the listener can sense what they are in for. Recorded at Au Topsi Pohl, a young venue that somehow has already become a pillar of the Berlin scene, Swinging at Topsi's documents a night of free jazz rooted in the free improv of the late 1960s. From the recording, one gets the sense that this night was both representative and special, when all the pieces seemed to fall in order.

The line-up is Sven-Åke Johansson — a pillar of that earlier Euro scene — on drums, Niklas Fite on acoustic guitar and Joel Grip on double bass. (Grip also helps organize the concert series for Au Topsi Pohl.) What they produce in the first two tracks — Set 1 and Set 2 — which form the heart of this album, is a consonant string of clunk and motion with hints of the winding melodies of the bop and post-bop eras. Niklas Flite's guitar displays this stylistic tension as much as Grip and Johansson's contributions do, as he frequently and adeptly flirts with the jazz chordal tradition while remaining woody and choppy enough to escape fading blandly into the background.

In the best tradition of Johansson's era of free improv, moreover, this trio is not afraid to swing and strut when the mood hits them. That, however, is just one constitutive element of the first two tracks and is always somewhat jagged and fractured. Fracture, however, does not necessarily mean a dissociation from each other or past tradition. And this engagement with the past through deconstruction and reincorporation is another layer that makes Swinging at Topsi's so engaging and, even, comforting. At times, it feels like a welcome revisitation of that earlier free improv scene that, for all of its destructive and iconoclastic impulses was actually deeply engaged with the styles that preceded it, which formed the basis it needed in which to deviate further from the western classical and pop norms. Such an engagement comes through even more strongly in the playful 3-minute jaunts through the standards "Isn't it Romantic" and "Out of Nowhere" that close the release, wherein Johannson temporarily sets aside his drum-set to sing. Naturally, these pieces are less outre but, in their juxtaposition with the first two pieces and lack of pretension, are somewhat stranger and enchanting.

In a world of so many contending styles of music, it is refreshing to have releases like this, that nod to the progressive past and, incorporating a half-century of musical development and hindsight, effectively carry some of that spirit into the contemporary. As much as anything else, this release shows that 68er aesthetic, in four new hands and two old, is still alive, well, and adaptive.



Johansson / Fite / Grip: Swinging at Topsi's
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