The Squid's Ear Magazine


Balderin Sali, The (feat Paul Lovens / Evan Parker / Philipp Wachsmann): Variations [2 CDs] (Leo Records)

Part of The Soundscapes Concert Series organized by saxophonist Harri Sjostrom and named for the Helsinki venue where it was recorded, over 2 days 11 incredible musicians in various configurations presented a spectacular set of performances, with improvisers including Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Phil Wachsmann, Sebi Tramontana, Harri Sjostrom, Teppo Hauta-aho &c.
 

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Personnel:



Veli Kujala-accordion

Matthias Bauer-bass

Teppo Hauta-aho-bass

Paul Lovens-drums, cymbal

Dag Magnus Narvesen-drums, percussion

Libero Mureddu-piano

Harri Sjostrom-soprano saxophone, sopranino saxophone

Evan Parker-tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone

Sebi Tramontana-trombone

Emilio Gordoa-vibraphone, percussion

Philipp Wachsmann-violin, electronics


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UPC: 5024792087020

Label: Leo Records
Catalog ID: LEOR870871.2
Squidco Product Code: 28610

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2020
Country: UK
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded live at the Balderin Sali, in Helsinki, Finland, on September 8th and 9th, 2018, by Jari Koho and Samuli Arrela.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"A historical meeting under the Helsinki skies; three generations of legendary European masters of Present Time Composition during a two-night celebration. Powerful, joyful, orchestral, seductive, poetic, free... Instant composing at its best! With people like Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Phil Wachsmann, Sebi Tramontana, Harri Sjostrom, Teppo Hauta-aho (11 musicians altogether) one cannot expect anything less. This double CD is truly one of the brightest quasars in the Leo Records catalogue!"-Leo



"The Balderin Sali refers to the Helsinki venue for the latest staging of an on-going festival of improvised music. The Soundscapes Concert Series was founded by saxophonist Harri Sjöström as a meeting ground for Finnish and Berlin-based musicians in Berlin in 2013. Next was a 2016 follow-up in Helsinki with this third iteration, chronicled over a two-CD set occurring over two nights in September 2018. There are 11 musicians present here, spanning generations of improvisers, many of them operating on the Helsinki-Berlin connection that Sjöström defines.

The senior participants here are Finnish bassist Teppo Hauta-aho, German drummer Paul Lovens, English violinist (and electronic musician) Phillip Wachsmann and saxophonist Evan Parker; a slightly younger generation is represented by Sjöström, Italian trombonist Sebi Tramontana and German bassist Matthias Bauer, with younger generations represented by Finnish quarter-tone accordionist Veli Kujala, Italian pianist Libero Mureddo, Mexican vibraphonist/percussionist Emilio Gordoa and Norwegian drummer Dag Magnus Narvesen.

Look a little closer though and it's a more intimate gathering than all those nationalities might suggest. There's a Berlin quintet called Up and Out that includes Sjöström, Wachsmann, Bauer, Gordoa and Narvesen: the group, sans Wachsmann, turns up among the sub-groups here, while in another configuration the quintet appears with Parker in place of Gordoa. Mureddo and Kujala are both associated with Helsinki's Sibelius Institute, leaving only the well-traveled Parker and Tramontana as relative outsiders. The result, then, is at once a celebration of the international language of free improvisation and the very special relationships that exist between Sjöström's multiple musical communities.

Though drawn from concerts spread over two days, the two CDs have a forceful beginning and an equally powerful conclusion, each an extended orchestral segment including the full complement, with 11 segments in between that range from duos to quintets. It's unnecessary at this point to sing the praises of many of these musicians, who together embody much of the collective genius of international improvised music.

Suffice to say, the known figures here (consider just Sjöström's extended collaboration with Cecil Taylor) have set standards for a music that is consistently empathic and intrepid, acutely aware of nuance and gesture while evolving and redefining macro- and micro forms. The larger ensemble dialogues here reach back five decades to the Globe Unity Orchestra (including its microcosm, the Schlippenbach trio, with two of its members present here).

The music is also as alive as the last and next five minutes. The sequencing creates fine contrasts, setting an almost electronic-sounding abstraction of Gordoa, Hauta-aho, Narvesen and Parker before a blustering salvo from Tramontana, Lovens and Mureddu. The second track on disc 1 is a duet of Sjöström and Kujala, the third track on disc two a duet of Parker and Kujala, and one has to ask: what was this music before the quarter-tone accordion, a question that had already occurred during that first opening orchestral swarm when sudden flashes of microtonal keyboard reeds lit up the ensemble in an utterly fresh way. The duets announce the arrival of a significant new musician bearing an instrument equally unknown. Veli Kujala not only provides a novel field and foil for those master saxophonists, he also contributes brilliantly to other sub-groups, including a lightly busy trio with Lovens and Hauta-aho and a quartet that adds Mureddu's comparable keyboard vision. I'm left looking forward to the possible keyboard trio of Kujala, Mureddu and Gordoa, three musicians to whom I was introduced on these CDs

The collected proceedings are frequently surprising, testifying to the vigor and range of contemporary improvised music, an inclusivist vision in which genre and tonal identities are old floor markings increasingly worn away in the persistent joy of the dance."-Stuart Broomer, The Free Jazz Collective


Get additional information at The Free Jazz Collective

Artist Biographies

"Veli Kujala (b. 1976) has gained a solid reputation of an outstanding interpreter of contemporary music on the accordion. In 2010 he completed his Doctor of Music degree with distinction from the Sibelius-Academy. He is a prizewinner of many international competitions for soloists and for composition in the field of classical music. Kujala's compositional output covers a wide variety of genres ranging from electro-acoustic to orchestral works. His composer portrait CD 'Hyperorganism' (Alba Records) was nominated for the best Finnish classical album of the year 2016. From the beginning of his career Kujala has also been very active in the field of jazz and improvised music, with an open mind upon all genres of popular music, from progressive rock to tango, ethnic music to French chanson. Pipoka, Gourmet sextet and Kalle Kalima K-18 count among the most relevant bands he is involved in.

Kujala has performed as a soloist with ensembles including Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Gävle Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Insomnio, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, the Tapiola Sinfonietta with conductors such as Stefan Asbury, Hannu Koivula, Hannu Lintu, Susanna Mälkki, Ari Rasilainen, Dmitri Slobodeniouk and John Storgårds. He has co-operated with a number of contemporary composers and has premiered accordion concertos by Pekka Pohjola, Markus Fagerudd and Olli Virtaperko. Moreover he has premiered concertos by Sampo Haapamäki, Joachim Schneider and Jukka Tiensuu for the quarter-tone accordion; a new instrument, which he developed together with Haapamäki.

Veli Kujala has performed in whole Europe, in major festivals and venues. He has also toured in the USA. Since 2005 Veli Kujala has been teacher of concert accordion and improvisation at the Sibelius-Academy."

-Veli Kujala Website (https://velikujala.com/biography/)
3/27/2024

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"Matthias Bauer is a double bass player, improviser and composer who is mainly working in the field of improvised and new music.

He performed with many internationally renowned musicians of the free improviser scene and took part in various ensembles and festivals.A central concern is his own solo performance incorporating the voice.

His compositions aim to make a bridge between composition and improvisation.new music

He performed a large repertoire of solo compositions and is working with Berlin based new music ensembles unitedberlin, asian art, Junge Musik and mosaik.He is on several CD releases and performed at festivals like Maerzmusic Berlin, musicaviva München, Biennale Venedig, nuovaconsonanza Rom, musique on scene Lyon, Daegu Contemporary Music Festival, Wien Modern, Konfrontationen Nickelsdorf and Total Music Meeting."

-Matthias Bauer Website (https://www.bauerbass.de/)
3/27/2024

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"Finnish composer and bassist Teppo Hauta-aho, is the most prolific bass composer of our time and since the 1970s has composed almost 300 works for double bass - spanning the entire range of standards from beginner to virtuoso.

Teppo Hauta-aho was born in 1941 and studied double bass with Orvo Hyle and Oiva Nummelin in Finland, and Frantisek Posta in Prague. He played with the Helsinki Philharmonic between 1965 and 1972, and the Finnish Opera Orchestra from 1975 to 2000. He is an active recitalist, both classical and jazz, has given more than 300 recitals with his duo partner, Carita Holmström, and is at the cutting edge of modern improvisation - performing with leading improvisers throughout the world.

Finnish composer Harry Wessman writes: "As a composer, Teppo Hauta-aho has always been his own teacher, basing his technical knowledge on his wide practical musicianship as an orchestral player, chamber and jazz musician. It would not be an exaggeration to claim that he was the jazz bassist most in demand in Finland in the 1970s, and a few of his works are pure jazz compositions. But the compositional techniques and musical means used in the majority of his works originate in an unusual openness for any devices. Along with modern techniques, his source of inspiration include all the previous stylistic periods in European music, impulses from Oriental music and, of course, jazz. His own instrument, the double bass, has profited especially from his rich inventiveness in finding new means to conjure forth unusual sounds from the instrument, and in applying them in an artistically meaningful and striking way."

Hauta-aho's music has been performed extensively in Finland and abroad, notably in America, Britain, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Soviet Union, Australia and Switzerland. His most famous work Kadenza (1978) has achieved cult-like status, is recognised universally as a 20th-century classic, and is the most performed contemporary work for double bass."

-Recital Music (https://www.recitalmusic.net/spweb/creators.php?creatorid=30690)
3/27/2024

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"Born in Aachen, Germany, 6 June 1949; Drums, percussion, musical saw, etc.

Paul Lovens played the drums as a child. Self-taught, from the age of 14 he played in groups of various jazz styles and popular musics and from 1969 has worked almost exclusively as an improvisor on individually selected instruments. He has worked internationally with most of the leading musicians in free jazz and free improvisation, among whom have included the Globe Unity Orchestra, the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, the Schlippenbach trio, Quintet Moderne, Company, and a duo with Paul Lytton. He has undertaken concert tours in more than 40 countries, is a founder member of a musician's cooperative and has produced recordings for his own label, Po Torch Records since 1976. He has worked with painter Herbert Bardenheuer. Despite very rare solo performances, and although giving occasional concerts with ad-hoc groups and an involvement in projects with film, dance and actors, Paul Lovens' main interest and work is musical improvisation in fixed small groups. In the mid-1990s these small groups numbered around 16, of which a few were part of a special selection, called 'vermögen'.

Paul Lovens somehow epitomises the free drummer/percussionist who is not there to lay down the beat and kick everyone else into action but to listen, colour, contribute, guide, and occasionally direct, the overall cooperative sound. In concert one cannot fail to be moved by his intensity and concentration and there is an overiding feeling that even the most random events are somehow planned in time. In this respect, there is a nice irony that on the Nothing to read CD with Mats Gustafsson, Lovens describes his kit as consisting of 'selected and unselected drums and cymbals'. Miking seems to be a problem at times with some recordings giving him undue prominence and others insufficient. Good recordings are Elf bagatellen, Nothing to read, Pakistani pomade, and ,stranger than love."

-European Free Improv (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mlovens.html)
3/27/2024

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"I discovered free improvised music at the age of 16. As a drummer who was quite fed up with just filling the "time-keeping-role", the first encounter with musicians as Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman and Peter Brötzmann altered my musical course quite considerably. The intense musical energy and the immense presence of the musicians simply blew my young brain away.

Since then, I have been fortunate enough to be able to expand my musical perception through playing with truly great musicians (to whom I can never be thankful enough), listening to a tiny bit of the music available in this world (some of it introduced to me by friends to whom I also owe thanks) and through composing music on my own, some of which you can find under SOUNDS in the menu to the left."

-Dag Magnus Narvesen Website (http://dagmagnus.com/about.html)
3/27/2024

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"Libero Mureddu: Pianist, improviser, music technologist and producer based in Helsinki, Finland.

He has studied Composition at the Conservatory "G. Verdi" of Milan and Music Technology at the Centre for Music and Techology, Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He is currently doing his artistic doctorate at the MuTri doctoral school at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki.

A versatile musician, during the past twenty years his musical experiences extended from contemporary and experimental music, to jazz and popular music.

Active pianist and keyboard player in the field of jazz and improvised music, with long-standing collaborations in the Italian scene with Giovanni Falzone, the Chant Trio, and more recently in Finland with the dance and music collective Liquid, the Korvat auki ensemble and the Mureddu://:Cartheuser duo, among many others.

As a composer his main interests are in the fields of algorithmic composition and the exploration of the connection between written composition and improvisation.

Since 2006 he has been working regularly with the Yamaha Disklavier player piano as a composer, performer and technical assistant.

Since 2009 Libero Mureddu is the general manager of the NYKY Ensemble, the contemporary music ensemble of the Sibelius Academy. The NYKY Ensemble is nowadays considered as an important actor of the Finnish contemporary music scene."

-Libero Mureddu Website (https://www.liberomureddu.com/)
3/27/2024

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"Harri Sjöström (soprano & sopranino saxophone)

""""

Born 29 February 1952 in Turku, Finland. Played piano, guitar and drums in his childhood. Studied music and fine art photography in San Francisco from 1974 - 1978; later film studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. Saxophone and flute with Harry Man, Leo Wright, Friedhelm Schönfeld, Steve Lacy; further piano studies at the San Francisco Conservatory; attended special class for contemporary improvised music at the Lone Mountain College led by trombonist Johannes Mager; composition studies at the electro acoustic music department at Hochschule Für Musik Wien, Austria; composition class led by composers Prof. Haubenstock-Ramati and Prof. Friedrich Cerha.

""""

The joyful, creative and intensive experiences with contemporary music, contemporary improvised music studies, and visual art studies captivated him so much that he has worked intensively ever since with contemporary improvised music, precent tme composition and in mixed media projects including film, photography, visual arts, theater and dance. Has participated in master courses and workshops held by John Cage, George Russell, Steve Lacy, Bill Dixon, Daniel Kientzy, Vinko Globokar, Evan Parker, Cecil Taylor.

""""

In 1980 -1985 he lived in Vienna, Austria, which became his doorway to the European contemporary music scene; formed his first groups and organized numerous artist exchange-projects in Finland and elsewhere. Brought many most notable innovators on the international contemporary improvisation scene to Finland. One of his early projects included a tour with Derek Bailey Company, which was their first in Finland; Bailey's visit in Finland was largely commented by the finish press as "the occurrence" of the year in the contemporary music scene; moved to Berlin in 1985.

""""

Founded the international Quintet Moderne and; co-founded the The Player Is -trio with Teppo Hauta-aho and Philipp Wachsmann, Harri Sjöström as well as founding the groups: Quartetto Finlandia, Wait, Motström, Up and Out, ECIO, (European Composers Improvisors Orchestra), Sestetto Internazionale; Trio Internazionale; co-founded the MOVE - quintet; City Of Pyramids -Casserley, DJ Illvibe, Morgan, Sjöström; since 1989 in collaboration with the British guitarist John Russell in Russells international Mopomoso (MOdernism POstMOdernism) projects.

""""

In 1990, Harri met Cecil Taylor in Berlin and has an extensive working relationship with the legendary pianist and composer on many projects like; Cecil Taylor Quintet Desperados: (Cecil Taylor, Paul Lovens, Teppo Hauta-aho, Tristan Honsinger, Harri Sjöström) Cecil Taylor Quartet- Qua, Cecil Taylor "New Unit" : (Cecil Taylor, Tony Oxley, Okkyung Lee, Jackson Krall, Harri Sjöström); and five recording releases with different C.T. ensembles; since the late 70s Harri performed at numerous international jazz and contemporary music festivals.

""""

Additional collaborations in different projects with a.o. Bernahrd Arndt, James Andean, Yoko Arai, Matthias Bauer, Guy Bettini, Tony Buck, Sergio Castrillón, Angelo Contini, Markus Fagerudd, Emilio Gordoa, Frank Gratkowski, Teppo Hauta-aho, Steve Heather, Tristan Honsinger, Kalle Kalima, Achim Kaufmann, Veli Kujala, Jukka Kääriäinen, Okkyung Lee, Francesco Miccolis, Gianni Mimmo, Dag Magnus Narvesen, Heikki Nikula, Adam Pultz Melbye, Luca Pissavini, Günter Baby Sommer, Jone Takamäki, Janne Tuomi; Occasionally performs solo and is involved in making film music.""Harri Sjöström has been a saxophone teacher since 1980 and is a vital member of the European contemporary improvised music scene; he has composed music for film and is still active today with his photography."

""-Harri Sjostrom Website (http://www.harrisjostrom.com/biography.html)
3/27/2024

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"Evan Parker was born in Bristol in 1944 and began to play the saxophone at the age of 14. Initially he played alto and was an admirer of Paul Desmond; by 1960 he had switched to tenor and soprano, following the example of John Coltrane, a major influence who, he would later say, determined "my choice of everything". In 1962 he went to Birmingham University to study botany but a trip to New York, where he heard the Cecil Taylor trio (with Jimmy Lyons and Sunny Murray), prompted a change of mind. What he heard was "music of a strength and intensity to mark me for life ... l came back with my academic ambitions in tatters and a desperate dream of a life playing that kind of music - 'free jazz' they called it then."

Parker stayed in Birmingham for a time, often playing with pianist Howard Riley. In 1966 he moved to London, became a frequent visitor to the Little Theatre Club, centre of the city's emerging free jazz scene, and was soon invited by drummer John Stevens to join the innovative Spontaneous Music Ensemble which was experimenting with new kinds of group improvisation. Parker's first issued recording was SME's 1968 Karyobin, with a line-up of Parker, Stevens, Derek Bailey, Dave Holland and Kenny Wheeler. Parker remained in SME through various fluctuating line-ups - at one point it comprised a duo of Stevens and himself - but the late 1960s also saw him involved in a number of other fruitful associations.

He began a long-standing partnership with guitarist Bailey, with whom he formed the Music Improvisation Company and, in 1970, co-founded Incus Records. (Tony Oxley, in whose sextet Parker was then playing, was a third co-founder; Parker left Incus in the mid-1980s.) Another important connection was with the bassist Peter Kowald who introduced Parker to the German free jazz scene. This led to him playing on Peter Brötzmann's 1968 Machine Gun, Manfred Schoof's 1969 European Echoes and, in 1970, joining pianist Alex von Schlippenbach and percussionist Paul Lovens in the former's trio, of which he is still a member: their recordings include Pakistani Pomade, Three Nails Left, Detto Fra Di Noi, Elf Bagatellen and Physics.

Parker pursued other European links, too, playing in the Pierre Favre Quartet (with Kowald and Swiss pianist Irene Schweizer) and in the Dutch Instant Composers Pool of Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink. The different approaches to free jazz he encountered proved both a challenging and a rewarding experience. He later recalled that the German musicians favoured a "robust, energy-based thing, not to do with delicacy or detailed listening but to do with a kind of spirit-raising, a shamanistic intensity. And l had to find a way of surviving in the heat of that atmosphere ... But after a while those contexts became more interchangeable and more people were involved in the interactions, so all kinds of hybrid musics came out, all kinds of combinations of styles."

A vital catalyst for these interactions were the large ensembles in which Parker participated in the 1970s: Schlippenbach's Globe Unity Orchestra, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, Barry Guy's London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LJCO) and occasional big bands led by Kenny Wheeler. In the late 70s Parker also worked for a time in Wheeler's small group, recording Around Six and, in 1980, he formed his own trio with Guy and LJCO percussionist Paul Lytton (with whom he had already been working in a duo for nearly a decade). This group, together with the Schlippenbach trio, remains one of Parker's top musical priorities: their recordings include Tracks, Atlanta, Imaginary Values, Breaths and Heartbeats, The Redwood Sessions and At the Vortex. In 1980, Parker directed an Improvisers Symposium in Pisa and, in 1981, he organised a special project at London's Actual Festival. By the end of the 1980s he had played in most European countries and had made various tours to the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. ln 1990, following the death of Chris McGregor, he was instrumental in organising various tributes to the pianist and his fellow Blue Notes; these included two discs by the Dedication Orchestra, Spirits Rejoice and lxesa.

Though he has worked extensively in both large and small ensembles, Parker is perhaps best known for his solo soprano saxophone music, a singular body of work that in recent years has centred around his continuing exploration of techniques such as circular breathing, split tonguing, overblowing, multiphonics and cross-pattern fingering. These are technical devices, yet Parker's use of them is, he says, less analytical than intuitive; he has likened performing his solo work to entering a kind of trance-state. The resulting music is certainly hypnotic, an uninterrupted flow of snaky, densely-textured sound that Parker has described as "the illusion of polyphony". Many listeners have indeed found it hard to credit that one man can create such intricate, complex music in real time. Parker's first solo recordings, made in 1974, were reissued on the Saxophone Solos CD in 1995; more recent examples are Conic Sections and Process and Reality, on the latter of which he does, for the first time, experiment with multi-tracking. Heard alone on stage, few would disagree with writer Steve Lake that "There is, still, nothing else in music - jazz or otherwise - that remotely resembles an Evan Parker solo concert."

While free improvisation has been Parker's main area of activity over the last three decades, he has also found time for other musical pursuits: he has played in 'popular' contexts with Annette Peacock, Scott Walker and the Charlie Watts big band; he has performed notated pieces by Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman and Frederic Rzewski; he has written knowledgeably about various ethnic musics in Resonance magazine. A relatively new field of interest for Parker is improvising with live electronics, a dialogue he first documented on the 1990 Hall of Mirrors CD with Walter Prati. Later experiments with electronics in the context of larger ensembles have included the Synergetics - Phonomanie III project at Ullrichsberg in 1993 and concerts by the new EP2 (Evan Parker Electronic Project) in Berlin, Nancy and at the 1995 Stockholm Electronic Music Festival where Parker's regular trio improvised with real-time electronics processed by Prati, Marco Vecchi and Phillip Wachsmann. "Each of the acoustic instrumentalists has an electronic 'shadow' who tracks him and feeds a modified version of his output back to the real-time flow of the music."

The late 80s and 90s brought Parker the chance to play with some of his early heroes. He worked with Cecil Taylor in small and large groups, played with Coltrane percussionist Rashied Ali, recorded with Paul Bley: he also played a solo set as support to Ornette Coleman when Skies of America received its UK premiere in 1988. The same period found Parker renewing his acquaintance with American colleagues such as Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy and George Lewis, with all of whom he had played in the 1970s (often in the context of London's Company festivals). His 1993 duo concert with Braxton moved John Fordham in The Guardian to raptures over "saxophone improvisation of an intensity, virtuosity, drama and balance to tax the memory for comparison".

Parker's 50th birthday in 1994 brought celebratory concerts in several cities, including London, New York and Chicago. The London performance, featuring the Parker and Schlippenbach trios, was issued on a highly-acclaimed two-CD set, while participants at the American concerts included various old friends as well as more recent collaborators in Borah Bergman and Joe Lovano. The NYC radio station WKCR marked the occasion by playing five days of Parker recordings. 1994 also saw the publication of the Evan Parker Discography, compiled by ltalian writer Francesco Martinelli, plus chapters on Parker in books on contemporary musics by John Corbett and Graham Lock.

Parker's future plans involve exploring further possibilities in electronics and the development of his solo music. They also depend to a large degree on continuity of the trios, of the large ensembles, of his more occasional yet still long-standing associations with that pool of musicians to whose work he remains attracted. This attraction, he explained to Coda's Laurence Svirchev, is attributable to "the personal quality of an individual voice". The players to whom he is drawn "have a language which is coherent, that is, you know who the participants are. At the same time, their language is flexible enough that they can make sense of playing with each other ... l like people who can do that, who have an intensity of purpose." "

-Evan Parker Website (http://evanparker.com/biography.php)
3/27/2024

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"Sebi Tramontana (born December 12, 1960) is a jazz trombonist most often associated with avant-garde jazz and free improvisation music. A member of the Italian Instabile Orchestra, Tramontana has also recorded with such musical artists as Jeb Bishop, Joëlle Léandre, Mario Schiano, and Carlos Zingaro."



"Born 12 December 1960 in Rosolini, Sicily; trombone.

Sebi Tramontana started playing guitar as a child and then moved to the soprano saxophone in the late 1970s. He switched to trombone in 1982 and during a radio production with Bruno Tommaso met Giancarlo Schiaffini, who convinced him to move to Rome and study with him at A. Casella Conservatorio in L'Aquila. In Rome he calloborated with Martin Joseph, Eugenio Colombio and Mario Schiano and in 1986 was a member of the New Talents Orchestra, performing at the Rocella Jonica Festival. He guested with Gruppo Romano Free Jazz for their 30th anniversary in 1996.

In 1987 he started a trio with Daniel Studer and Roberto Altamura which played at the Contraindicazione Festival in Rome and subsequently performed with Paul Rutherford, Barry Guy, Gerard Siracusa, Eugenio Colombo, Co Streiff and Martin Mayes.

Tramontana was invited by Mario Schiano in 1988 to take part in the recording of Red and blue with Vladimir Tarasov and Vladimir Chekasin. In 1990 he completed his studies at A. Casella Conservatorio and joined the Italian Instabile Orchestra.

His first solo performance was in Rome in 1992 and this has been followed by performances in Zürich, Mulhouse, Clusone, Köln, Ruvo Di Puglia, Roccella, Jonica and Göttingen. In 1994 he was invited by Georg Gräwe to "Two Nights Of Random Acoustics" in Köln, subsequently joining the Georg Graewe Quintet and touring Europe. In 1998, he recorded a duo with Graewe for the Italian Splasc(h) label and in July 2003 became a member of the Georg Graewe new quintet, with Tobias Delius, Kent Kessler and Michael Vatcher.

In 1996 Tramontana performed at the festival di Roccella Jonica with Barre Phillips, Michel Doneda and two dancers and then at the Victoriaville festival with Mario Schiano, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens and Barry Guy. He also appeared at the Empty Bottle in Chiacgo with Hamid Drake, Kent Kessler, Ken Vandermark and Mars Williams. In 1997 he performed the 'Art Of Dialogue' in Munich with Joëlle Léandre.

In 1999 he received a scholarship from the City of Munich for 6 week residence in the US and as a result visited Chicago (playing at the Empty Bottle festival and recording with Jim Baker, Fred Lonberg Holm, Michael Zerang, Lou Mallozi, Jeb Bishop, Ken Vandermark and Kent Kessler), San Francisco and New York. From 1999 to 2002 he was Artistic Director (with Ch.Hofig department of Culture of the City of Munich) of the festival "Come Sunday" and during this period he also founded the group XAXA with Phil Wachsmann, Mats Gustafsson and Paul Lovens.

In 2001 Tramontana undertook concerts and recordings in Chicago with the "Night People" project (a homage to Dickie Wells), a string quartet with Guiellermo Gregorio on clarinet and in duo with Jeb Bishop (Chicago defenders). He also began to play in duo with Paul Lovens (with the Buster Keaton The General project), performing in Munich, Ljubljana, Graz, Cologne, Regensburg, Rome, Maribor, Kassel and Göttingen. In 2002-03 he was a member of the Mats Gustafsson's Nu Ensemble.

In 2003 he appeared at the Banlieues Bleu Festival in Paris and Ghent (Belgium) with Joëlle Léandre's European Quartett featuring Carlos Zingaro Paul Lovens and special guest Irène Schweizer. He played a duo with Léandre at the Ulrichsberg Kaleidophon and also performed in the Trombone Trio - in Ljubljana and Maribor - with Vinko Globokar and Johannes Bauer.

Since 1999 Sebi Tramontana has toured Germany and Austria with TV and movie actor Udo Wachtveitl and, since 2001, been a musician and actor with the Dance Company En Knap of Iztok Kovac from Ljubljana. He appeared in the film of Under my skin, directed by Saso Podgorsek, in 2004. 2004 also saw a collaboration with the electronic 48 nord group in Munich.

In November 2004 he will exhibit his paintings in an exhibition in Chicago entitled Stop, Look & Listen: Artwork by Musicians alongside works by Pee Wee Russel, Hal Rammel, Han Bennink, Peter Brötzmann and others. In April 2005 he will tour with Joëlle Léandre and Paul Lovens and will be in Chicago to perform with a new project of Lou Mallozzi."

-Wickipedia, European Free Improv Page (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/musician/mtramon.html)
3/27/2024

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"Emilio Gordoa is a Mexican composer and vibraphonist based in Berlin since 2012. He's involved in numerous projects including his work as a soloist and in collaboration with theater and dance. Emilio is specially focus in sound art, experimental music, noise, free jazz, improvisation and contemporary music.

He is redefining the vibraphone as a source, treating it with preparations and extended techniques, and is a busy composer as well, writing graphic scores for a variety of ensembles, large and small, for theater, documentary films and audiovisual.

Emilio studied music composition with Vincent Carver and Mario Lavista, and percussion with Raul Tudon. He has collaborated and performed with artist such as John Russell, Tristan Honsinger, Misha Marks, John Butcher, Axel Dörner, Tony Buck, Tobias Delius, Ignaz Schick, Klaus Kürvers, Alexander Bruck, Richard Scott, and Ute Wassermann."

-Creative Sources (http://creativesourcesrec.com/creative_artists.html)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Philipp Wachsmann. Born Uganda, 1944; violin, viola and electronics.

In the CD booklet to Gushwachs, John Corbett notes that Phillip Wachsmann came to free improvisation from a predominantly classical background, particularly via the contemporary experiments of "indeterminacy, graphic and prose-based scores, conceptualism and electroacoustics, listening to Webern, Partch, Ives, Berio and Varèse, reading 'Die Reihe' and interrogating the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic preoccupations of Western art music. Starting in 1969, Wachsmann was a member of Yggdrasil, an ensemble performing works by Cage, Cardew, Feldman, Ashley and others and in this group he used contact mikes on the violin and made his own electronic instruments, ring modulators and routing devices. Ironically, his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1969-1970) pushed him hard in the direction of free music. He recalls: 'Despite her neoclassical orientation, her insistence that composition is about the imagination of performance and its realisation, the live moment, and her stunning ability to make this happen was a powerful influence on me, steering towards 'performance' and therefore 'improvisation'.'"

Wachsmann moved from Yggdrasil to Chamberpot - recorded on Bead 2 - and shortly thereafter appeared on Tony Oxley's influential February papers, forward looking in the virtual 'industrial' orientation of some of the tracks, years before this became an accepted genre; the two musicians have continued to work together, in various groupings but notably in the percussionist's Celebration Orchestra. Philipp Wachsmann has also performed and/or recorded with: Derek Bailey's Company, e.g. on the recording Epiphanies; Georg Graewe; Barry Guy; Iskra 1903; King Übü Orchestrü; London Jazz Composers' Orchestra; Evan Parker, particularly as part of the Evan Parker Electronic Project; Quintet Moderne; Fred Van Hove's ML DD 4; Rüdiger Carl's COWWS (now CPWWS) Quintet; and Lines, with Martin Blume, Jim Denley, Axel Dörner and Marcio Mattos. He also plays as a solo musician.

Phillip Wachsmann also administers Bead Records."

-EFI: European Free Improv (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mwachs.html)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



CD1



1. Balderin Sali 1 12:58

2. Balderin Sali 2 5:45

3. Balderin Sali 3 9:51

4. Balderin Sali 4 10:13

5. Balderin Sali 5 10:32

6. Balderin Sali 6 7:45

7. Balderin Sali 7 11:05

CD2



1. Balderin Sali 8 12:41

2. Balderin Sali 9 13:22

3. Balderin Sali 10 10:11

4. Balderin Sali 11 8:46

5. Balderin Sali 12 7:25

6. Balderin Sali 13 13:11

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Large Ensembles
Parker, Evan
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