The improvisation side of matters are in the hands of Ricardo Arias (bass-balloon kit), Miguel Frasconi (glass objects) and Keiko Uenishi (laptop). They played together in 2004 at the Scultpure Center in New York. I couldn’t quite follow what it says on the cover about solo, duo and trio, but apparently it’s so that everybody [...]
Ikue Mori’s electric percussion is quite simply some of the most original and exciting work happening in electronic music today. For her third Tzadik release, Ikue has assembled a varied collection of her most interesting tracks originally recorded for use in the films of award winning avant garde filmmaker Abigail Child. Erik Friedlander, Zeena Parkins, [...]
Kind of the peak of Pelt Mk II, the purest distillation of their electrified drone phase. Includes a 12 min collab with the rhBand, their complete 35 min Terrastock II set (claimed by many people as the highlight of the entire festival and earning them the nickname “The Hillbilly Theater Of Eternal Music”), a magically [...]
This is my first encounter with Fessenden, a trio of Joshua Convey on bass, Stephen Fiehn on CD players, guitar and Ipod and Steven Hess on drums and vibraphone. They are from Chicago and the two pieces on this release where recorded during rehearsals, direct on minidisc. Their music has an improvised character, but also [...]
The release of this CD marks the 50th anniversary of Sainkho Namchylak, the extraordinary and totally unique artist from Tuva. Nomad is a compilation consisting of 14 songs presenting Sainkho in different contexts from solo to big-band and in different styles of singing accompanied by different sets of musicians. Almost half of the songs have [...]
A story I told before is that on the night I saw 3/4Hadbeeneliminated I also saw Andrea Belfi, of whom I never heard. Belfi blew me away in his silent approach of the drumkit and organ, whereas 3/4Hadbeeneliminated blew me away, volume wise that is, not quality wise. Here Pilia, the guitarist of 3/4Hadbeeneliminated offers [...]
A collaboration between the Zeitkratzer ensemble and japanese noise guitarist Haino Keiji. Noise ensemble Zeitkratzer join forces with Japanese avant-garde icon Keiji Haino for a live set recorded at the Volsbuhne, Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin. The sleeve for this record seems highly apt, looking for all the world like it’s depicting the scene in Dracula where [...]
The eight pieces comprised on this album consist only of electric harp, sampler, and tapes all played by Zeena Parkins, who is a staple in New York City’s downtown art-scene of avant-garde jazz/noise/rock. She has over half a dozen solo albums and was a founding member of No Safety, a dynamic quintet that blurred the [...]
Pure Italian Avantgarde. switch parmenide” establishes vonneumann’s return to recordings after a four year period, and with its shining style marks positively the debut of the series “the hare recordings”; the hare being a long-eared, running, hopping, zig-zaging animal, destined as game flavouring for “pappardella” pasta. So, already here you have a blob of accidents [...]
The second volume of For4Ears’ ongoing series of collaborative efforts finds Tomas Korber (guitar, electronics) and Christian Weber (contrabass) teamed with saxophonist Katsura Yamauchi. I’d recently heard a couple of solo discs from Yamauchi (“Salmo Sax” and “Patiruma”) which, while technically proficient, I thought were overly indebted to Anthony Braxton in both approach and general [...]
