The Squid's Ear Magazine

Radigue, Eliane

Asymptote Versatile (1963-64)

Radigue, Eliane: Asymptote Versatile (1963-64) (Amgen Records)

An historic world-premiere recording of Éliane Radigue's earliest surviving work, performed at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, where a stellar ensemble realizes her flexible "sonic proposition" through evolving textures, mathematical spirals and dynamic transformations that foreshadow her later visionary soundworld.
 

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Personnel:



Eliane Radigue-composer

Xavier Charles-clarinet

Angharad Davies-violin

Rhodri Davies-harp

Julia Eckhardt-viola

Bertrand Gauguet-alto saxophone

Susan Geaney-bass flute

Dominic Lash-double bass

Thierry Madiot-bass trombone

Aonghus McEvoy-guitar

Hannah Miller-french horn

Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh-viola

Carol Robinson-bass clarinet

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Accompanying booklet in French and English. Introduction by Rhodri Davies and Julia Eckhardt.

UPC: 5904224874858

Label: Amgen Records
Catalog ID: AMGEN 012
Squidco Product Code: 36679

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: UK
Packaging: Digipack - 8 panel
Composed by Éliane Radigue. This is a live concert recording of the world premier performed at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, recorded by Simon Reynell at Huddersfield Town Hall, on the 26th of November 2023.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Eliane Radigue was born in Paris, France. She studied electroacoustic music techniques at the Studio d'essai at the RTF, under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry (1957-58). She was married to the artist, Arman, and devoted ten years to the education of three children, deepening classical music studies and instrumental practice on the harp and piano at the same time. In 1967-68 she worked again with Pierre Henry, as his assistant at the Studio Apsome.

Radigue worked for a year at the New York University School of the Arts in 1970-71. Her music, its source an Arp synthesizer and medium recording tape, attracted considerable attention for its sensitive, dappled purity. She was in residence at the electronic music studios of the University of Iowa and California Institute of the Arts in 1973.

Becoming a Tibetan Buddhist in 1975, Radigue went into retreat, and stopped composing for a time. When she took up her career again in 1979, she continued to work with the Arp synthesizer which has become her signature. She composed Triptych for the Ballet Théâtre de Nancy (choreography by Douglas Dunn), Adnos II & Adnos III, and began the large-scale cycle of works based on the life of the Tibetan master, Milarepa.

In 1984 Radigue received a "bourse à la creation" from the French Government to compose Songs of Milarepa, and a "commande de l'état" in 1986 for the continuation of the Milarepa cycle with Jetsun Mila.

Notoriously slow and painstaking in her work, Radigue has produced in the last decade or so on average one major work every three years. Very recently, in response to the demands of musicians worldwide, she has begun creating works for specific performers and instruments together with electronics. The first of these was for bass player Kaspar Toeplitz, and more recently the American cellist Charles Curtis.

Performances of her music have taken place at galleries and museums such as the Salon des Artistes Decorateurs (Paris), Foundation Maeght (St. Paul de Vence), Albany Museum of the Arts (New York), Galerie Rive Droite (Paris), Gallery Sonnabend (New York), Galerie Yvon Lambert (Paris), and Galerie Shandar (Paris); at festivals including the Festival de Como (Italy), the Festival d'Automne a Paris, Festival Estival (Paris), International Festival of Music (Bourges, France); and at the New York Cultural Center, Experimental Intermedia Foundation (New York), The Kitchen (New York), Columbia University (New York), Vanguard Theatre (Los Angeles), LACE (Los Angeles), Mills College (Oakland), University of Iowa, Bennington School of Music, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the NEMO Festival (Chicago 1996). She has appeared on many broadcast programs including France Culture, France Musique, distribution via satellite covering over 50 stations in the U.S. including special programs on KPFK (Los Angeles) and KPFA (San Francisco).

Radigue currently lives in France, where she continues to compose electronic music and study the teachings of the Tibetan lamas. She returns to the United States periodically to present programs of her electronic works."

-Lovely Music (http://www.lovely.com/bios/radigue.html)
11/20/2025

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"The work of clarinetist Xavier Charles ranges from noise to electro-acoustic via sound poetry. He has played in numerous new music festivals in France and abroad. In his work with groups and collectives, he has also collaborated with Martin Tetrault, The Ex, Ingar Zach, Pierre Berthet, Axel Dörner, Ivar Grideland, John Butcher, Jacques Di Donato, Frédéric Le Junter, Otomo Yoshihide, Getachew Mekuria, Christian Wallumrod, Emmanuelle Pellegrini, Lionel Marchetti, Jean-Philippe Gross, Michel Doneda and Frédéric Blondy. Different collectifs (Dans Les Arbres, Ouie-Dire, ONCEIM, No Spaguettitti Edition, Chris Burn Ensemble, Atmosphérique). Currently his musical research ranges from performance on the clarinet to the installation of vibrating speakers, at the edge of improvised music, noisy rock and electro-acoustic sound. He's deeply involved in the music world as an organizer of the festival "Densités". "

-Xavier Charles Website (http://www.xaviercharles.com/index.php/presentation/)
11/19/2025

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"Angharad Davies is a violinist, one at ease in both improvising and composition, with a wide discography as part of varied range of ensembles and groups. She's a specialist in the art of 'preparing' her violin, adding objects or materials to it to extend its sound making properties. Her sensitivity to the sonic possibilities of musical situations and attentiveness to their shape and direction make her one of contemporary music's most fascinating figures. 2015 has seen her being commissioned for a new work at the Counterflows Festival, Glasgow and premiering Eliane Radigue's new solo for violin, Occam XXI at the El Nicho Festival, Mexico.

She's performed at, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, BBC Proms, Music We'd Like to Hear's concert series, is an associate artist at Cafe Oto, is a member of Apartment House, Cranc and Common Objects, been artist in residence at Q-02, and played live with Tony Conrad in the Turbine Room at the Tate Modern. Other collaborations have featured the likes of John Butcher, Daniela Cascella, Rhodri Davies, Julia Eckhardt , Kazuko Hohki, Roberta Jean, Lina Lapelyte, Dominic Lash, Tisha Mukarji, Andrea Neumann, Rie Nakajima, Tim Parkinson, J.G.Thirlwell, Stefan Thut, Paul Whitty, Manfred Werder, Birgit Ulher, Taku Unami and she's released records on Absinth Records, Another Timbre, Potlatch and Confrontrecords."

-Angharad Davies Website (http://www.angharaddavies.com/biog.html)
11/19/2025

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"Rhodri Davies was born in 1971 in Aberystwyth, Wales and now lives in Gateshead in the northeast of England.

He plays harp, electric harp, live-electronics and builds wind, water, ice and fire harp installations. He has released four solo albums: Trem, Over Shadows, Wound Response and An Air Swept Clean of All Distance.

His regular groups include: a duo with John Butcher, Common Objects, HEN OGLEDD: Dawson - Davies, a trio with David Toop and Lee Patterson, Cranc, The Sealed Knot and a trio with John Tilbury and Michael Duch.

In 2008 he collaborated with the visual artist Gustav Metzger on 'Self-cancellation', a large-scale audio-visual collaboration in London and Glasgow.

New pieces for solo harp have been composed for him by: Eliane Radigue, Phill Niblock, Christian Wolff, Ben Patterson, Alison Knowles, Mieko Shiomi and Yasunao Tone.

In 2012 he was the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artists Award."

-Rhodri Davies Website (http://www.rhodridavies.com/words/)
11/19/2025

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"Julia Eckhardt is a musician and organiser in the field of the sonic arts. She is artistic co-director of Q-O2 workspace for experimental music and sound art, and of Oscillation festival in Brussels.

She has performed and released internationally, and has been engaged in a number of artistic collaborations, among which extensively with composer Éliane Radigue.

Julia is (co-)author of books such as The Second Sound - Conversations on Gender and Music, Grounds for Possible Music, and Éliane Radigue - Intermediary Spaces/Espaces intermédiaires, among others. She is a researcher at the philosophical faculty at VUB Brussels, and has been teaching and lecturing on topics related to sound, music, gender, and space."

-Julia Eckhardt Website (https://www.juliaeckhardt.net/About)
11/19/2025

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"Bertrand Gauguet is a musician trudging through a practice without hierarchy involving sound and music: as an improvising saxophonist, electronic music composer and as a sounds collector.

He plays since the early 2000s the alto saxophone in contexts of solo and group improvisation. His approach takes part in research on the technical areas of the instrument by which precise exploration of a sound language consists of materials produced by the breath, multiphonics and microphony.

Collaborations with John Tilbury, Robin Hayward, Franz Hautzinger, Xavier Charles, Sophie Agnel, Pascal Battus, Eric La Casa, Michel Doneda, Insub Meta Orchestra, Seijiro Murayama Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, John Butcher, Axel Dörner, Isabelle Duthoit... Many festivals about new and experimental music (Europe, USA, Japan ...).

As an electronic music composer, he composes original music and original soundtracks with dance, movies and radio broadcast. He produced the LP The Torn Map in 2013.

In 2011, he was a resident of the villa Kujoyama in Kyoto. He studied the shakuhachi while learning to Honkyoku directory with Mr Yoshio Kurahashi.

Since 2004, he taught at the Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin in the Sonic research program he co-founded in 2007. He leads the generative improvisation workshop at CFMI in Sélestat since 2012 and conducted educational workshops at the Cité de la Musique in Paris from 2002 to 2012."

-Bertrand Gauguet Website (http://www.bertrandgauguet.com/)
11/19/2025

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"Flute/Bass Flute performer Susan Geaney is a Composer/Improviser currently based in Dublin. She has a passion for improvisation in several contexts: dance, sound art, acoustics and electronics. In 2010, Susan composed and also improvised 'Oh Dear!' (Contemporary Dance) at La Nuit Blanche in Paris. Furthermore, Geaney was awarded a bursary from London based Just Flutes which enabled her to travel to the Isle of Skye and perform with the flute ensemble Rarescale. This April, Susan will have a work Premiered by the Quiet Ensemble in the 'National Concert Hall' (NCH). Whilst based in Cork, Susan was a regular at 'Stet Lab,' which saw her to perform with such improvisers as: Don Malone, Murray Campbell and Ian Smith."

-Avant Music News (https://avantmusicnews.com/2011/05/07/stet-lab-may-2011-featuring-susan-geaney-and-david-o-regan/)
11/20/2025

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"Born Cambridge, England, in January 1980; played bass guitar since 1994; studied with Hugh Boyd and Pascha Milner and at Basstech (London) with Rob Burns, Terry Gregory and others. Played double bass since 2001; basically self taught, with grateful thanks to Simon H. Fell. First class BA in English Literature from Oxford University (2002). Received MA Composition from Oxford Brookes University in 2003, having studied with Paul Whitty, Ray Lee and others. Received PhD from Brunel University in 2010, having studied the work of Derek Bailey, Helmut Lachenmann and JH Prynne and been supervised by Richard Barrett and John Croft."

-Dominic Lash Website (http://dominiclash.blogspot.com/p/dominic-lash_5.html)
11/19/2025

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"Thierry Madiot French parisian sound artist

a breather, inventor of instruments and collector of accessories, sound massage maker and trombonist who furrows the improvise and the contemporary music and leads musical time by a perpetual transgression with a true direction of improvisation and the deep interest in collaborations.

He is near of the "Instants chavirés team" until the beginning (18 years) where he organize a lot of concerts, performances and last years a festival "ça vaut jamais le réel". He work a lot too until ten years with CCAM, musical scene of the well known Vandoeuvre festival of experimental music "musique action international" in East France.

He work recently with Le Quan Ninh, Thomas Lehn, Malcolm Goldstein, Jim Denley, Matthias Kaul, Axel Dörner, Seijiro Murayama, Tom Johnson (recording)...

He was invit by Derek Bailey in 1993 at "the company week" at the place theater in London with Ikue Mori Phil Minton ...

Improvised and composed Music with or without texts, images, dance, in solo or with for ea those musicians and artists: Frédéric Acquaviva, Sophie Agnel, Noël Akchoté, Steve Arguelles, Didier Aschour, Derek Bailey, Richard Barrett, Pascal Battus, Claude Barthelemy, Christoph Baumann, Olivier Benoit, Frédéric Blondy, Jaap Blonk, Pierre Boesflug, Raymond Boni, Hélène Breschand, Hans Burgener, Don Byron, Jean-François Canape, Mathieu Chamagne, Fabrice, Laurent et Xavier Charles, Denis Charolles, Bruno Chevillon, Denis Colin, François Corneloup, Pablo Cueco, Roland Dahinden, Laurent Dehors, Benoit Delbecq, Caroline Delume, Axel Dörner, Quentin Dubost, Marc Ducret, Daniel Erdmann, Jean-Christophe Feldhandler, Esther Ferrer, Alexander Frangenheim, Stéphane Garin, Anne Garrigues, Olivier Gelpe, Christian Germain, François Guell, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Olivia Grandville, Kamal Hamadache, Günter Heinz, Jean-Pierre Jullian, Kristoff Kroll, Franck Lambert, Daunik Lazro, Le Quan Ninh, Urs Leimgruber, Didier Levallet, George E Lewis, Joëlle Léandre, Ramon Lopez, Kamel Maad, Alain Mahé, Jean-Michel Marchetti, Lionel Marchetti, Jim Meneses, Phil Minton, Yanik Miossec, Jean-Marc Montera, Ikue Mori, Seijiro Murayama, Theo Nabicht, Michael Nick, Jérôme Noetinger, Annick Nozati, Stéphane Oliva, Guillaume Orti, Evan Parker, Didier Petit, Emmanuel Petit, Ulrich Philipp, Dominique Répécaud, Margritt Rieben, Stéphane Rives, Jean-Pierre Robert, Yves Robert, Carol Robinson, Felix Rückert, Joël Ryan, Camel Zekri, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Jacques Siron, Alfred Spirli, Claude Tchamitchian, Patricio Villaroël, Bert Wrede, Carlos Zingaro ...

Last years Works: "In-ouïr" (performances in duet with dancer Li-Ping Ting), "Lo" with Pascal Battus and Seiji Murayama, "Rekmazladzep" with Dominique Répécaud, Daunik Lazro and Camel Zekri, duo with Alfred Spirli, " In sonoris Causa " of Daunik Lazro, " Garazi ", ", Informo live revue and "Ziph" Tub ensemble with " le Crime ". He ground in collaboration with Pascal Battus the " sound massages " cf http://soundmassage.free.fr wich is not a new age experience but an individual art sound concert with tiny object near the ears.

And work with a air compressor and long telescopic tubes on an sound installation (without electronics)

It's happen for example at "Musique Action" Scène nationale de Vandoeuvre, at Fondation Cartier, at Le Mans Europa festival, Musée de Tourcoing, de Villeneuve d'Asq, in Le tipi centre Georges Pompidou, at Banlieues Bleues, at la Company Week 93, WIM Bern, at Instants Chavirés, at Cyclop of Jean Tinguely, at festivals "Musiques en scène" de Lyon, "Fruits de Mhere", Asprojazz, Polysonneries in Lyon, de Mulhouse, "Densités", "Ouverture Danse" in Marseille, "Ecoute si il pleut" in Rouen, de jazz de Grenoble, d'Apt, in la Seyne sur mer, "Xiru", Ixtaxou, Jazz au fil de l'eau, in Lausanne, at Geneve AMR, "Humanoise", "Résonances" in Saint Nazaire, "Poésie Mode d'emploi" in Béssèges, "Audio Frames" Lille 2004, Rurart... In Germany, England, Belgium, Antigua, Armenia, Belgium, Congo, Espana, Finland, Italia, Algeria, Lebanon, Sweden, Swiss, Taiwan and of course France. He ground some experimental art production associations, Astrolab, In-ouïr, Topophonie" or Informo. He had been invited by collectives as LMC of London, Le Crime/ Malterie in Lille, Wim Bern, Wie of Wiesbaden, ARFI of Lyon, Emil 13 Nancy... Organize the festival In ouïr "Ca vaut jamais le réel" until 2004 to 2009 at Instants Chavirés.(Ben Patterson, Roi Vaara, Malcolm Goldstein, Luiz Enrique Yudo, Esther Ferrer, Tom Johnson, Serge Pey, Julyen Hamilton...) He also play often some modern written music in various group as Dedalus (dedicated to minimal music) or Hiatus (dedicated to improvised and written music) as John Cage, Tom Johnson, Giancinto Scelsi, Vinko Globokar, Dieter Schnebel, Pierre Jodlovsky Jean-Christophe Feldhandler, Art Clay, quatuor Hélios, Pascale Criton."

-Thierry Madiot Website (http://madiot.free.fr/spip.php?article109)
11/19/2025

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"Aonghus McEvoy hails from Dublin, Ireland where he has carved out a niche for himself in the experimental world and beyond as a founding member of exploitation folk-rock group Woven Skull, and brutalist punk quintet Worst. He's also renewed for playing the music of Cornelius Cardew with Rhodri Davis and others, or playing with the likes of Annette Krebs, Ludo Mich, Adam Pultz Melbye, Damo Suzuki and Tristan Clutterbuck."

-Northern Jazz Promoters (https://northernjazzpromoters.org/events/aonghus-mcevoy-group/)
11/19/2025

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"Hannah Miller grew up in Ireland, received her Bachelor's degree from Finland's Sibelius Academy and graduated with a Master's degree from the Juilliard School, where she was awarded with the William Schuman Prize for outstanding achievement in music and leadership.

Hannah is currently Principal Horn with the Irish National Opera and joined the Irish Chamber Orchestra in 2023. She also performs with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Wexford Festival Opera, and is a former member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland and the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra in Finland. With a keen interest in new music, Hannah is a member of the experimental Kirkos Ensemble, and she has also worked extensively with Crash Ensemble, Le Concert Impromptu and Ulysses Ensemble in recent years. Hannah is the Festival Director and founder of 'FuddleFest', a family-run music festival based at her home in Fuddletown, Wexford, where she also works part-time as a farmer."

-Irish Chamber Orchestra (https://www.irishchamberorchestra.com/what-we-do/our-orchestra/artistic-team/musicians)
11/20/2025

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"Dublin-born viola player Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh is a member of Cian Nugent & The Cosmos and Woven Skull, and has also performed with Circuit des Yeux, Josephine Foster and David Lacey. Sofia Records recently released a split tape featuring Swiss Barns, her duo with Jorge Boehringer. Oreing is her solo debut, featuring four unhurried but vividly focused improvisations displaying an assured style that seems to encompass Irish trad, Appalachian music, raga, noise, and the drone of Tony Conrad."

-Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh Website (https://www.ailbhenicoireachtaigh.com/)
11/19/2025

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"To say that Carol Robinson is a Franco-American composer and clarinetist is perhaps too restrictive to describe the eclecticism of her experience and passion. In fact, she seems interested in everything having to do with sound. She is not someone who likes the middle ground, preferring the edges, the extremes. Her music is situated in those places of tenderness and rage, gentleness and power that come from experience and mastery. Trained as a classical clarinetist, she graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory before continuing her study of contemporary music in Paris thanks to a H.H. Woolley grant. Whether playing repertoire or experimental material, she performs in major venues and festivals the world over (Festival d'Automne à Paris, MaerzMuzik, Archipel, RomaEuropa, Wien Modern, Huddersfield, Geometry of Now, Angelica, Crossing the Line...), and works closely with musicians from a wide stylistic spectrum. A fervent improviser, she prefers the most open musical situations and regularly collaborates with choreographers, photographers, visual artists and videographers.

In parallel, it was through writing music theater pieces that she began composing seriously. She started with small ensembles, and rapidly received commissions for larger works. Recent compositions include: Can You See (commission - French Ministry of Culture) for 8 voices mandolin, guitar and harp, Blanc de Neige (commission - French Ministry of Culture) trio archipel -saxophone - electric guitar - double bass - electronics, Forest Gazing (commission - Radio France), for birbynė and string quartet, GEORG (premiere CCAM - Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy), for bass clarinet, electric guitar and live electronics L'illusion des étangs (premiere - Philharmonie de Paris) for birbynė and string quartet, Mr Barbe bleue a chamber opera for baroque ensemble produced by the Opéra de Reims (commission - French Ministry of Culture).

Long fascinated by the extended possibilities of live and fixed electronic music, Carol has written numerous pieces for acoustic instruments and electronics. Her exploration and use of aleatory procedures is distinctive. [...]"

-Carol Robinson Website (https://carolrobinson.net/bio/)
11/20/2025

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(577 Records)
The followup to their 2020 album titled BleySchool, the trio of Pat Thomas on piano, Dominic Lash on double bass and Tony Orrell on drums revisit and further explore the music of Paul and Carla Bley, here in a 2022 live performance at London's Cafe OTO focused on early Bley compositions, and also a cover of "Monk's Mood" which Bley included on his solo album Basics.
Mayas, Magda Filamental (Mayas / Abdelnour / Caddy / Davies / Davies / Mayaas / Parks / Theriot-Ramos / Thieke)
Ritual Mechanics
(Relative Pitch)
The 2nd release from Magda Mayas' Filamental octet of Mayas, Zeena Parkins, Michel Thieke, Christine Abdelnour, Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies, Aimée Theriot and Anthea Caddy, is a fascinating studio composition developed from individual recordings provided by each musician, assembled into two detailed and cohesive works of impressive contours and almost ceremonial beauty.
Paccione, Paul (Apartment House)
Distant Musics
(Another Timbre)
Influenced by the New York School of composers (Cage, Feldman, &c.), composer Paul Paccione revisits and revises five of his compositions written 40 years prior, performed by a 10-piece configuration of London's Apartment House; beautifully contemplative pieces linked together through common threads, the momentum of individual moments absorbed by the presence of the larger work.
Gallio, Christoph / Dominic Lash / Mark Sanders
Live At Cafe Oto London
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Joining with two of London's finest free improvisers, Swiss saxophonist Christoph Gallio of DAY & TAXI fame and performing on alto, soprano & c-melody saxophones, meets drummer Mark Sanders and double bassist Dominic Lash at London's Cafe OTO for a remarkable concert of free collective playing in two large works: "Wildlife" in three parts, and "Homelife" in two parts.
Davies, Angharad / Phil Julian
Neutral Red
(Fataka)
At the request of Fataka, amplified violinist Angharad Davies and electronic improviser Phil Julian met at Cate OTO in 2014 & 2018, the two exploiting their distinct approaches to free improvisation to perform these evolving works that ebb and flow in almost hallucinatory intensity while exploring the timbral potential of their unique instrumentation.
Lash, Dominic / Stale Liavik Solberg
Hey Kye
(Confront)
John Butcher mastered this live recording immaculately captured by Alex Ward at the Vortex in London in 2022 between two exceptional free improvisers, Dominic Lash on electric guitar and Ståle Liavik Solberg on drums & percussion, their three-part dialog sliding in and out of jazz, non-idiomatic and experimental modes in quick-witted and masterful exchanges.
Ruhl, Joris
Feuilles
(Umlaut Records)
Clarinetist Xavier Charles, accordionist Jonas Kocher and percussionist Toma Gouband join French improviser Joris Ruhl for this extended improvisation of multiphonics, textures and timbres, evolving from subtle harmonics into vast waves of sound, pausing to punctuate with pointillist interaction, then expanding into dramatic waves of sound before carefully fading away; sublime.
Butcher, John / Dominic Lash / Emil Karlsen
Here and How
(Bead)
Impeccably recorded in the studio, the long-running and varied collaborations of saxophonist John Butcher, double bassist Dominic Lash and drummer Emil Karlsen come together for the first time as a trio, recording eight succinct improvisations of remarkable technique and nearly telepathic dialog, allowing space for each player to display their masterful skill.
Butcher, John / Pat Thomas / Dominic Lash / Steve Noble
Fathom [COLORED VINYL]
(577 Records)
The debut for UK saxophonist John Butcher on 577 Records is this exemplary 2021 live recording at Cafe OTO in London by the quartet of Butcher on tenor and soprano saxophones, Pat Thomas on piano, Dominic Lash on double bass and Steve Noble on drums, four of the UK's leading free improvisers demonstrating their prodigious abilities in concentrated conversation.




The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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