The Squid's Ear Magazine


Spence, Alister / Tony Buck: Mythographer (Alister Spence Music)

Stepping away from the Australian trio The Necks, drummer/percussionist Tony Buck meets pianist Alister Spence in the studio for seven distinct dialogs of "submerged rhythm, oblique extended forms, entwined interplay, and sound for its own sake", Spence at times using preparations on his strings, as both listen and respond deeply through a congenial approach to playing.
 

Price: $15.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 2.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Alister Spence-piano, prepared piano, percussion

Tony Buck-drums, percussion


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 793888297074

Label: Alister Spence Music
Catalog ID: ASM013
Squidco Product Code: 32873

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2022
Country: Australia
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at 301 Studios, in Sydney, Australia, on January 14th, 2022, by Tim Whitten.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Mythographer showcases the connection between Alister Spence and Tony Buck; two endlessly curious, deeply committed, distinctive, improvisers. Spence and Buck share a fascination with submerged rhythm, oblique extended forms, entwined interplay, and sound for its own sake.

As contemporaries their musical histories have run in parallelÑand occasionally intersectingÑfor the last thirty years. For the last five years or so they have been enjoying re-connecting musically. Both musicians have so much to bring to the table from their wealth of musical experience, offering each other the opportunity to dig deep into their vocabularies in order to engage in genuine, interactive dialogue. Whether playing wide-ranging abstract improvisations, swinging driving pieces, or more reflective soundscapes the pair manage to find focus and form wherever the music takes them."-Alister Spence Music


Artist Biographies

"Alister is recognized as one of Australia's most original, distinctive contemporary jazz pianists/composers. With a performing and composing career spanning more than 25 years, his wide-ranging talents have led him to perform with and compose for some of the world's most respected artists in the areas of contemporary music, improvisation, film and theatre.

In recent years he has devoted his energy to writing and performing with his trio, The Alister Spence Trio with Lloyd Swanton (the Necks) on double bass and Toby Hall (formerly with pianist, Mike Nock) drums and glockenspiel. This celebrated group has recorded six CDs (Rufus Records and Alister Spence Music [ASM]) and has a growing international reputation.

Their most recent CD, Alister Spence Trio: Live (ASM 2015) was recorded live at the Sound Lounge, Sydney in 2015 and received a 4 star review in Jazzwise Magazine. Far Flung (Rufus Records 2012) also received a 4 star review in Jazz Journal (June 2013) and was listed in Critics Poll 2013 (January 2014). It was also listed in The WIRE 2013 Rewind - Critics' reflections by Andy Hamilton as Album of the year. fit (Rufus Records 2009) was voted in the top 15 jazz/improv releases worldwide for 2009 by The Wire, UK. Both Mercury (Rufus Records 2006) and Flux (Rufus Records 2003) received ARIA nominations (Australian Record Industry Awards) for 2004, 2007. The trio toured in U.K and Canada in 2006 and Japan in 2008.

Since performing at The Vilnius Jazz Festival 2009, with bassist, Joseph Williamson (Tobias Delius Quartet, Alex Ward) and drummer, Chris Cantillo (Nils Berg Cinemascope, Lena Nyberg), Alister has returned to Europe and the UK on a regular basis to tour with this lineup. Spence/Williamson/Cantillo released their debut CD, Begin (Alister Spence Music) in 2015. It was described as "Brilliant musicianship, masterful playing and imaginative improvisation" by Eyal Hareuveni, Salt Peanuts.

Alister also performs with improvising groups Sensaround - Alister Spence/keyboards, Raymond MacDonald (Scotland)/saxophone and Shoeb Ahmed/samples releasing two CDs Isotropes (2014 HelloOsquare Recordings) and Travelogue (2016 HellOSquare Recordings).; and ch/an/ce - Andrew Fedorich/saxophone, Evan Dorian/drums, Alister Spence/piano.

Since 2008, Alister has collaborated with acclaimed, Japanese pianist/composer Satoko Fujii performing a double bill at Tokyo International Jazz Festival - Alister Spence Trio and Satoko's ensemble Mah Doh Quartet. In 2011, they performed as a duo in Sydney at the Eugene Goosens Hall ABC and in 2015 performed as part of an improvisation concert at Kuhlspot Berlin wiht Magda Mayas, Natsuki Tamura and Andrea Parkins. In 2016, Alister toured in Japan with Sensaround and the Satoko Fujii Orchestra and performed several duo piano concerts with Fujii.

Other collaborations include releasing an improvised duo recording with Scottish saxophonist, Raymond MacDonald, Stepping Between the Shadows (2013 Rufus Records); and Everything Here is Possible (2013 Alister Spence Music) with US pianist Myra Melford, winning the APRA/AMCOS Art Music Award for Excellence in Jazz 2014.

Alister is a founding member of Wanderlust and a long-standing member of The Australian Art Orchestra (AAO). Alister was also co-leader/composer with the internationally acclaimed group Clarion Fracture Zone for 15 years from 1990 - 2005.

Over the years he has played with many fine musicians including Satoko Fujii (Japan), Michiyo Yagi (Japan), Barre Phillips (US), Myra Melford (US), Mark Helias (US), Andy Sheppard (UK), Joe Williamson (SWE), Jim O'Rourke (Japan), Raymond MacDonald (Glasgow), Karraikudi Mani (IND), Bernie McGann, Sandy Evans, Chris Abrahams, Don Burrows, Dale Barlow, Peter O'Mara, Tony Buck, Phillip Slater, Paul Capsis, Archie Roach and Ed Kuepper (The Laughing Clowns).

Alister has toured extensively in Europe, Asia and Canada and has performed radio broadcasts for ABC (Australia), BBC (UK), and WDR (Germany). His playing is featured on more than 40 CDs, many of which have either won or been nominated for Australian Record Industry (ARIA) Awards.

His talents as a composer are well known in Australia. Alister has been commissioned to write for The Australian Art Orchestra and Claire Edwardes/Amy Dixon duo. Alister's work is also featured on Passion (The Australian Art Orchestra-ABC Classics) on Bernie McGann's 2001 ARIA winning CD Bundeena."

-Alister Spence Website (http://www.alisterspence.com/biography.php)
3/27/2024

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

"Born in Sydney in 1962, Tony is regarded as one of Australia's most creative and adventurous exports, with vast experience across the globe. He has been involved in a highly diverse array of projects. Apart from The Necks, he is probably best known as leader of hardcore/impro band PERIL.

Early in his musical life, after having graduated from the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, he became very involved in the jazz scene in Australia, often touring with visiting international artists such as Vincent Herring, Clifford Jordan, Mickey Tucker, Branford Marsalis and Ernie Watts, as well as Australians Mark Simmonds, Paul Grabowsky, The catholics, Sandy Evans and Dale Barlow.

Following time spent in Japan, where he formed PERIL with Otomo Yoshihide and Kato Hideki, Tony moved to Europe, and has involved himself in many projects there, including the development of new "virtual" MIDI controllers at STEIM in Amsterdam.

Tony has played, toured or recorded with, among others, Jon Rose, Nicolas Collins, Tenko, John Zorn, Tom Cora, Phil Minton, Haino, Switchbox, The Machine for Making Sense, Ne Zhdall, The EX, Peter Brotzmann, Hans Reichel, The Little Red Spiders, Subrito Roy Chowdury, Clifford Jordan, Kletka Red, Han Bennink, Shelley Hirsch, Wayne Horvitz, Palinckx, and Ground Zero."

-The Necks Website (http://www.thenecks.com/bio)
3/27/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Dry Wood Talking 8:36

2. And Yet She Turns 22:55

3. The Extent to Which We Still Need Beauty 4:39

4. Curious Terrain 8:09

5. Strange Luminant 6:54

6. Mythographer 9:03

7. Put to Sea 7:19

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Jazz
Piano & Keyboards
Percussion & Drums
Duo Recordings
Australian Improvisers, Composers and Experimenters
The Necks
Instruments with Preparations
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
New in Improvised Music

Search for other titles on the label:
Alister Spence Music.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Regenorchester XII
Relics
(Trost Records)
Franz Hautzinger formed the orchestra in 1995 as an ensemble for experimental music, developing into an advanced improvising band that incorporates a shifting and diverse set of styles, heard here at Klangspuren Festival in 2019 with Hautzinger on trumpet, Christian Fennesz on guitar & laptop, Otomo Yoshihide on guitar & turntables, Luc Ex on bass, and Tony Buck on drums.
Kira Kira (Tamura / Spence / Fujii / Takemura)
Bright Force
(Libra)
Since 2007 Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii and Australian keyboardist Alister Spence have collaborated on performance and recording in several configurations, including work with Tony Buck, Raymond McDonald, Jim O'Rourke, &c.; this energetic and otherworldly quartet session with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and drummer Ittetsu Takemura was recored live Knuttel House, in Tokyo, 2017.
Butcher / Buck / Mayas / Stangl
Plume
(Unsounds)
Drummer/percussionist Tony Buck and saxophonist John Butcher are the common elements in these two trios, one with guitarist Burkhard Stangl, and one with pianist Magda Mayas, using imaginative and unusual approaches to improvisation.
Necks, The
Silverwater
(Recommended Records)
The trio of Chris Abrahams, Lloyd Swanton & Tony Buck in their first release in 4 years, named for an industrial suburb, a bleak and beautifully building affair in The Necks tradition.
Mayas / Buck
gold
(Creative Sources)
Necks drummer and percussion Tony Buck in a duo from December 2007 performing at the dOeK Festival in Bimhuis, Amsterdam with extended technique pianist Magda Mayas.
Other Recommended Releases:
Buck, Tony / Mark Nauseef
Mongrels
(Relative Pitch)
Using a wide assortment of guitars (electric, baritone, arch top acoustic, bass) + monochord, waterphone & zulu bells, Necks drummer and multi-instrumentalist Tony Buck joins with percussionist Mark Nauseef performing on bells and gongs for seven exotic improvisations rich in overtones, microtonal movement, ringing harmonics and hybrid motion.
Necks, The
Travel
(Northern Spy)
Starting each day in the Australian studio with a 20-minute improvisation, The Necks trio of Chris Abrahams on piano & keyboards, Tony Buck on drums and Lloyd Swanton on bass developed this, their 21st album, as a collection of "shorter" and varied improvisations, released with minimal overdubs to present their music closer to their exceptional live performances.
Rose, Jon
State of Play [2 CDs]
(Recommended Records)
An expansive double album from Australian violinist and mad genius Jon Rose, in solo, duo and odd orchestral settings, including tracks with Jim Denley, Clayton Thomas, Robbie Avenaim, &c.; a project with a 32-string automaton violin + string ensemble; a work for a casino-music driven player-piano; a dueling banjo and interactively bowed violin, &c. &c.; masterfully inexplicable!
Butcher, John / Magda Mayas / Tony Buck
Glints [VINYL]
(NI-VU-NI-CONNU)
The 5th of NI-VU-NI-CONNU's 5-LP John Butcher series and part of a 2 night residency at ausland in Berlin coinciding with his 65th birthday, tenor & soprano saxophonist John Butcher is joined by the long-running duo Spill of pianist Magda Mayas and drummer Tony Buck (The Necks) for two extended works of evolving, absorbing introspection and eruption.
Machinefabriek
With Drums [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(esc.rec.)
Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) invited 41 drummer/percussionists including Tony Buck, Vasco Trilla, Tim Barnes, Greg Stuart, Cyril Bondi, &c. to take part in a project by recording a few short fills or phrases, which Zuydervelt used as "Lego Bricks" to build a series of short rhythmical collages, the results being 24 diverse and fascinating compositions.
Pateras, Anthony
Pseudacusis
(Bocian)
The title referring to a condition of aural hallucinations, Anthony Pateras' composition is a work of tense motion, dissonance and resolution, commissioned by the Musica Sanae project and performed at the 17th Sacrum Profanum Festival in Krakow, 2019, using a recording improvised and assembled in Australia with his tape septet that underpins the performances in concert with his live septet.
Machinefabriek
With Drums
(Machinefabriek)
Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) invited 41 drummer/percussionists including Tony Buck, Vasco Trilla, Tim Barnes, Greg Stuart, Cyril Bondi, &c. to take part in a project by recording a few short fills or phrases, which Zuydervelt used as "Lego Bricks" to build a series of short rhythmical collages, the results being 24 diverse and fascinating compositions.
Johnson, Hermione
Tremble
(Relative Pitch)
Using an imaginative set of piano preparations, Auckland, New Zealand pianist Hermione Johnson draws unusual timbral and tonal qualities from the prepared piano, deftly improvising with dexterous technical skills to create unusual rhythmic and timbral environments, each a marvelous, miniature universe of unexpected voicings, evoking gongs, guitars, kotos, &c.
Phillips, Simon James
Blage 3
(Mikroton Recordings)
A reduction of composer Simon James Phillips' 5 hour improvisation performed with Tony Buck (drums), Werner Dafeldecker (bass), BJ Nilsen (electronics), Liz Allbee (trumpet), Arthur Rother (guitar) & Simon James Phillips (piano) exploring time, perception and place.
Rose, Jon
Rosin [3 CDs + 1 Data Disk + Book]
(Recommended Records)
A 3 CD box set with a booklet and bow hair marking violinist/conceptualist Jon Rose's 60th birthday, all previously unreleased works ranging from radio documentary and radio fiction to virtuoso performances using acoustic violin and his hyperstring interactive bow system.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Large Unit (Paal Nilssen-Love)
Clusterfuck
(PNL)
One of a pair of albums--New Map and Clusterfuck--recorded in the studio in Oslo, Norway by percussionist and composer Paal Nilssen-Love's Large Unit, a 15-piece, incredibly flexible and open-minded ensemble, here improvising over a work of graphic notation where the composed structures are balanced with blocks of improvisation, allowing for quick dynamic shifts in direction.
Large Unit (Paal Nilssen-Love)
New Map
(PNL)
One of a pair of albums--New Map and Clusterfuck--recorded in the studio in Oslo, Norway by percussionist and composer Paal Nilssen-Love's Large Unit, a 15-piece, incredibly flexible and open-minded ensemble, here performing a work where the improvisers are provided with a series of open-form "cells"--concrete ideas, notes and directions--to which they must respond.
Fujii, Satoko / Otomo Yoshihide
Perpetual Motion
(Ayler Records)
Expanding their instruments into sonic sculpture, this first meeting between acclaimed Japanese improvisers Satoko Fujii, performing inside and out of the piano, and electric guitarist Otomo Yoshihide, demonstrates their incredible compatibly as heard in these live recordings at Tokyo's Pit Inn, part of an annual festival organized by Fujii & trumpeter Natsuki Tamura.
Nevai, Nandor / Peter Evans / Steve B / Ron Stabinsky
Trigesisextet for Brass + Gospel Power Walls
(Psykomanteum)
Two large-scale compositions from "Through-Composer of Brutal Classical" Nandor Nevai, scored for 35 brass players and a vocalist, accomplished through 10 layers of Peter Evans (trumpet, piccolo trumpet), 9 of Steve B (tenor trombone), 7 of Ron Stabinsky (bass trombone) and 10 of Nevai himself on tenor trombone & voice; plus "Gospel Power Walls" for a chorus of 5 (bad) people.
Dry Thrust (Georg Graewe / Martin Siewert / Dieter Kern)
The Less You Sleep
(Trost Records)
The trio of German pianist/composer Georg Graewe, guitarist Martin Siewert (Radian, Trapist, Also), and drummer Dieter Kern (DEK Trio, Bulbul, Fuckhead) bring together diverse attitudes in free improv from avant jazz to ea-/experimental approaches and bristling rock forms, sharing a unique collective voice with an oddly implied sense of humor and disconcertingly ingenious skill.
Denzler, Bertrand / Jason Kahn
Translations
(Potlatch)
The seventh release on Potlatch for tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and the first for electronic artist Jason Kahn, in an extended electroacoustic improvisation, Denzler performing his instrument in ways Adolphe Sax did not intend intersected by Kahn's bent and crackly emissions, each increasingly assertive through to a engrossing, exhalable end.
Frith, Fred / Susana Santos Silva
Laying Demons To Rest
(RogueArt)
An evocative album of sublime improvisation between guitarist Fred Frith and trumpeter Susana Santo Silva, recorded live for France Musique/Radio France at Motoco, Mulhouse as part of Festival Météo in 2021, the two inspiring remarkable force and assertive direction in a darkly spirited conversation of deep introspection and cathartic exorcism; magnificent!
Ogura, Miharu
Ogura Plays Stockhausen [2 CDS + DOWNLOAD]
(thanatosis produktion)
A double CD of Japanese pianist Miharu Ogura's performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Klavierstücke I-XI for solopiano, recorded at the MONOPIANO festival in 2021, bringing to a pinnacle her fascination with Stockhausen's unique approach to this set of compositions, captured in her second live performance after a concert in Tokyo in the same year.
Almeida, Goncalo
Improvisations on Amplified and Prepared Double Bass
(Shhpuma)
Performing on double bass, amp and a volume pedal, Gonçalo Almeida (LAMA, Albatre, The Attic) explores new sonic environments and possiblities for the large strings, using feedback that modifies based on the physical location between the amp and the resonator of the double bass, Almeida improvises with bowing strokes, pizzicato and unusual string preparations.
Risser, Eve / Red Desert Orchestra
Eurythmia
(Clean Feed)
The rhythmically rich Red Desert Orchestra assembled by pianist and composer Eve Risser is an ensemble made up of nine European musicians joined by African musicians and configured in several distinct ensembles, here as Eurythmia, collaborating with three Burkinabe musicians living in France for irresistible music at the intersection of jazz, West African and dance music.
MMM Trio (Mascolo / Mira / Maglioccho)
Bridge In The Dark
(FMR)
The MMM Trio of Carlo Mascolo on prepared trombone, Miguel Mira on cello and Marcello Magliocchi on drums & percussion recorded this album during a concert series in Puglia, Italy, placing each musician in a separate room with headphones, promoting the close listening and concentrated interaction each brings to their unusual approach to free improvisation.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC