Quite a momentous time for me as my last day at the University of Sheffield is 30 October and I'm taking early retirement. I'm intending to continue working on the site, at about the same rate I have over the last few years, and the expectation is that, for the forseeable future, it will continue to be hosted by the University.
A substantial update this time, as well, but where better place to start that with the wonderful DVD on Han Bennink, call it a career retrospective, just out on DATA Images: Hazentijd. Han also appears on one of the two releases on Wolter Wierbos' new-ish label, DolFijn: Deining; the other being 3 trombone solos. Other recent Dutch releases include three new Evil Rabbitt CDs: the self-titled Chaque Objet; Abattoir by Audrey Chen/Robert van Heumen; and Gianni Lenoci's Ephemeral rhizome.
There are three new Joëlle Léandre CDs: a trio with Maguelone Vidal and Raymond Boni, Trace, on Red Toucan, a duo with Anthony Braxton on Leo, Duo (Heidelberg Loppem) 2007, and a duo with Jean Luc Cappozzo, Live aux Instants Chavires, on Kadima. On Emanem/psi there are: the Stellari String Quartet's Gocce stellari; Paul Rutherford double CD, Tetralogy; Grutronic's Essex foam party; and Furt's Sense. And Ogun have just re-released, first time on CD, Happy daze/Oh! for the edge by Elton Dean's Ninesense. The new Incus CD is The Ducks palace, Duck Baker in duo and trio with Derek Bailey, Cyro Baptista, Roswell Rudd and John Zorn.
Simon Reynell has updated me with all the latest Another Timbre CDs: the Kravis Rhonn Project from Annette Krebs and Rhodri Davies; Electricals from EKG [Kyle Bruckmann/Ernst Karel]; Lúnula from Octante; Decentred from Tom Chant/Angharad Davies/Benedict Drew/John Edwards; Midhopestones from Rhodri Davies/Michel Doneda/Louisa Martin/Phil Minton/Lee Patterson; Dark architecture from Max Eastley and Rhodri Davies; Loiter volcano by Paul Abbott/Léo Dumont/Ute Kanngiesser; Control and its opposites by Jamie Coleman/Grundik Kasyansky/Seymour Wright; Meshes by Mathias Forge/Phil Julian/David Papapostolou; and Scrub by Léo Dumont/Matt Milton.
On No Business Records four wonderful to look at, touch and listen to, actual vinyl LPs (great!): Mats Gustafsson's The Vilnius implosion; Trio X's Live in Vilnius (2LP); the David S. Ware Quartet also Live in Vilnius (2LP); and Barry Guy/Mats Gustafsson Sinners, rather than saints. The label has also released two new CDs: Marilyn Lerner/Ken Filiano/Lou Grassi with Arms spread wide; and the Dennis Gonzalez Connecticut Quartet with, very appropriately, Songs of early Autumn. A different Dennis Gonzalez group features on A matter of blood from Furthermore.
The new - and previous - trio of Treader CDs are now out: J Spaceman/Matthew Shipp with SpaceShipp; a solo from Alex Ward, Cremated thoughts; Alexis Taylor songs on Rubbed out; Treader duos from John Butcher/Mark Sanders + Alex Ward/Roger Turner + John Tchicai/Tony Marsh; Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith's Abbey Road Quartet; and Hayward/John Coxon/Thomas/Taylor with About. The John Butcher Group appears on Weight of Wax with somethingtobesaid; and John is also a part of Polwechsel/John Tilbury on Field on hatOLOGY. Other hat's are Lee Konitz/Martial Solal's Star eyes, 1983; and Anthony Braxton's Creative Orchestra (Köln) 1978.
Okka Disk have just released their latest two CDs: Sonore [Peter Brötzmann/Ken Vandermark/Mats Gustafsson] with Call before you dig (2CD); and The Frame Quartet [Tim Daisy/Fred Lonberg-Holm/Nate McBride/Ken Vandermark] with 35mm. There's the excellent new Henry Threadgill Zooid CD on PI: This brings us to, volume I; on Mutable, Live at Tortona by Borah Bergman/Stefano Pastor; and JB Floyd/Thomas Buckner/George Marsh In crossing the busy street; and on Balance Point Acoustics, Birgit Uhler/Ariel Shibolet/Adi Snir/Roni Brenner/Michel Mayer/Damon Smith/Ofer Bymel with Yelept; and the new solo Henry Kaiser CD Where endless meets disappearing.
Paul Dunmall appears on the excellent Mahakali in duo with pianist Evelyn Chang on DUNS Limited Edition, in quartet with Han-Earl Park, Mark Sanders and Jamie Smith Live at the Glucksman gallery, Cork, and as the subject of the FMR DVD Deep, interviews and music taking in the whole of Paul career so far. Loosetorque has released From Cafe Oto by Calling Signals 08 [Frode Gjerstad/Lol Coxhill/Nick Stephens/Paal Nilssen-Love]. On cleanfeed there's "...was there to illuminate the night sky..." from the Trespass Trio [Martin Küchen/Per ZanussiRaymond Strid], and the latest CD on Al Maslakh is A church is only sacred to believers from Nicholas Christian/Matt Milton/Eddie Prevost/Bechir Saade.
Great to have, at last, the duo session between Derek Bailey and Steve Noble from 1999 and just released on Noble's Ping Pong label: Out of the past. Also released on Ping Pong is The early years from Lol Coxhill, John Edwards and Steve Noble. And Steve is also part of The Mancini Project, alongside Simon H. Fell, Pat Thomas and Han Bennink, with Views of Mancini on FMR. And Han also appears, on CD and DVD, on Two horns and a bass from Paul Van Kemenade.
A new DVD label, Panrec by Pavel Borodin has recently issued discs by Elliott Sharp, The velocity of hue; and The Loft concert by Speak Easy (Wasserman/Minton/Lehn/Blume). The latest Ogun release is An open letter to my wife Mpumi by the Louis Moholo-Moholo Unit. Folks history is a 4CD set based around written folk melodies and played by Paul Dunmall and Paul Rogers, released on DUNS Limited Edition.
The latest Erstwhile release is a double CD set of Keith Rowe and Sachiko M: contact. And not exactly unrelated are two new releases on Improvised Music from Japan's sister labels: Me no tawamure by Naoaki Miyamoto on hitorri and Hello by the duo of the same name on ftarri. Four recent releases on Bowindo cover different aspects of the work of Domenico Sciajno: Dove days in Palermo, duos with Gene Coleman, Kim Cascone, Robin Hayward, Andreas Wagner, Thomas Lehn, Gianni Gebbia, and Tez; Sequens; Hyaline, duos with Kim Cascone; and Diospyros, duos with Gene Coleman.
I've finally found the time to bring Ekkehard Jost's Fish Music label up-to-date with: Cantos de libertad, the latest CD from the Ekkehard Jost Ensemble; Some other tapes, a 2CD compilation over a 15-year period including tracks with Peter Brötzmann and Tony Oxley (separately); and Wintertango by Ekkehard Jost & Chromatic Alarm.
Incus Records has just released The Barcelona Chronicles, three separate items, two DVDs and a CD recorded 2004/05 while Derek Bailey was in Barcelona: Live at G's Club is a DVD of a performance previously released on CDR only as At the Sidecar; All thumbs is a very nice recording of a rooftop concert (at which I was present) around the time that Derek first had problems holding his plectrum and which we now know was the onset of Motor Neurone Disease; and A silent dance is a duo CD with Agusti Fernandez recorded in Gaudi's La Pedrera, Derek's last public performance. And Agusti Fernandez also appears, along with thirteen other musicians, on the latest - and largest - Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble disc, The moment's energy.
I have added six Kadima Collective recordings courtesy of Jean Claude Jones: the lates releases - Mythology by Peter Kowlald and Vinny Golia from 2000; Günter Baby Sommer Live in Jerusalem; and Mark Dresser/Denman Maroney with Live in concert - and three older CDs: J C Jones' ReComp; recordings from the White night festival in 2006; and Raw and the cooked from the Temperamental Trio.
Intakt's recent releases include Evergreen from Aki Takase/Rudi Mahall; Katharina Weber's Woven time; This side up from Objets trouvés; Trio 3 + Geri Allen with At this time; and Black lotos from Xu Fengxia/Lucas Niggli. And on the Swiss Unit label there is Voices from Fredy Studer/Lauren Newton/Saadet Türköz/Ami Yoshida.
Following up last month's excellent Pingo release from Rogério Bicudo/Sean Bergin - Mixing it - there's the duo's first release on the same label: Tale of three city's (sic). The new CD on absinthRecords is Pappelallee from Andrea Neumann; and The Remote Viewers have released the double CD Sinister heights on their own label.
What was new on EFIP 1 June 2009
Two new Evan Parker discs out in the last few weeks or so: Live on In situ with Marteau Rouge; and The brewery tap, a duo with Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on Smalltown Superjazzz; Ingebrigt also sent me the Atomic 3CD set: Retrograde. Recent releases on Matchless include: That mysterious forest below London Bridge, contributions from three groups in 2006 including AMM; Trinity from AMM with John Butcher; and two Eddie Prévost duos: Blackheath with Alexander von Schlippenbach and Gamut with Seymour Wright.
Fourteen new CDs on Creative Sources: GIO poetics from the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra; Robert van Heumen's Stranger; a self-titled disc from Daniel Meyer Grønvold/Håvard Volden; Bear ground by Matt Milton/David Thomas/Ryan Jewell/Patrick Farmer; Eterno retorno from Ernesto Rodrigues/Guilherme Rodrigues/Carlos Santos/Andrew Drury; Figuren from Quatre Têtes; Backchats from Speak Easy (Ute Wassermann/Phil Minton/Thomas Lehn/Martin Blume); Sylvain Chauveau's Touching down lightly; Nada from François Carrier/Michel Lambert; Rhodri Davies/Stéphane Rives/Ernesto Rodrigues/Guilherme Rodrigues/Carlos Santos with Twrf neus ciglau; Zwitzerland from the Swiss Improvisers Orchestra; Whistle pig saloon from Robert van Heumen/John Ferguson; the self-titled all voice Millefleurs; and João Lucas with Abstract mechanics.
A clutch of new Dutch releases just out via ToonDIST/Subterranean: Non-functionals! from Michiel Braam's Wurli Trio; Klinkklaar from As if 3 on the new Casco label; Mixing it from Sean Bergin and Rogério Bicudo on Pingo Records; and Sliptong on Wig from Baars/Henneman/Mengelberg. Two new discs featuring Urs Leimgruber: Lausanne in duo with Thomas Lehn on For 4 Ears; and Love letters to the President from the Schweizer Holz Trio (Koch/Leimgruber/Ziegele) on Intakt. Hat have just re-issued on hatOLOGY the Anthony Braxton Trio with Tony Oxley and Adelhard Roidinger: Seven compositions (Trio) 1989.
Brand new on nuscope is the excellent solo piano CD from Alberto Braida: Talus; Rastascan have released the new duo CD from Birgit Uhler and Gino Robair: Blips and ifs; and Birgit's solo CD on Olof Bright has been out a few weeks now: Radio silence no more. Also on Ofof Bright is Maja Spasova's Maja af Svea: remixes of works 1991-2006. No Business Records have two new CDs: the Adam Caine Trio with Thousandfold; and Liudas Mockunas/Marc Ducret with Silent vociferation.
What was new on EFIP 1 May 2009
Great to see that Karen Brookman has re-started Incus with the re-issue of Derek Bailey's Lot 74, in addition to giving the Incus web site a much-needed overhaul and included lots of additional information. Two other CDs featuring Derek have also appeared since my last update: Good cop bad cop with Tony Bevan, Paul Hession and Otomo Yoshihide on No-Fi; and Gracility, a 2CD collection of pieces on Musicnow by Laurie Scott Baker which features LSB alongside Derek, Keith Rowe and Gavin Bryars; other tracks feature Evan Parker, Jamie Muir and John Tilbury. Evan Parker also appears in duo with John Wiese (who interestingly did the cover for Good cop bad cop) in C-Section from Second Layer Records.
The latest Peter Brötzmann CD on Okka Disk is Hairy bones, with Toshinori Kondo, Massimo Pupillo and Paal Nilssen-Love; Erstwhile has two recent releases with Soba to bara from Ami Yoshida/Toshimaru Nakamura and Christof Kurzmann and Burkhard Stangl's NeuSchnee; Entropy Stereo have Midnight Pacific airwaves from the Bobby Bradford Extet; and on Split Records there's the specially-packaged and fascinating Germ studies for guzheng & DX7 from Chris Abrahams and Clare Cooper.
The latest Joëlle Léandre, in duo with pianist Quentin Sirjacq is Out of nowhere on Ambiances Magnétiques. The three latest Intakt CDs are Berne concert from Trio 3 + Irene Schweizer; and two discs from Fred Frith and the Arte Quartett: Still urban and The big picture. Balance point acoustics has released its latest two CDs in plastic wallets rather than jewel cases (its '100' series): Mimetic holds from Frank Gratkowski/Scott R. Looney/Damon Smith/Kjell Nordeson and Bertram Turetzky and Damon Smith's duo Thoughtbeetle.
Several new Peter Brötzmann releases added this month: Black hole by Full Blast (Brötzmann/Pliakas/Wertmüller) a studio CD which includes a free live CD in the first 1000 copies, just out on Atavistic; Sweetsweat, a duo with Paal Nilssen-Love on Smalltown Superjazz; two follow-ups to the Funny Rat duo with Shoji Hano: Funny Rat/s 2 on Kootown Records, and Flying crow on Heart Lord Studio; Head on, a trio with Michiyo Yagi and Paul Nilssen-Love on Idiolect; and the 4CD Jazzwerkstatt re-issue of the Die Like a Dog Quartet recordings previously on FMP
All Emanem CDs (and future psi discs) are now going to be in all card packaging similar to that used on recent Ogun and Fledg'ling releases. The new Emanem 5000 series kicks this format off with Veryan Weston's Allusions; Check for monsters by Okkyung Lee/Peter Evans/Steve Beresford; and Milo Fine's Ananke. In similar format, and on Gail Brand's new Regardless label is Instinct & the body from the duo of Gail Brand and Mark Sanders.
Another timebre's three recent releases are: Blasen from Sebastian Lexer/Seymour Wright, Two by Toot (Minton/Lehn/Dörner), and Alfredo Costa Monteiro's Centre of mass; there is the first DVD on DUNS Limited Edition, a duo of Paul Dunmall and Tony Orrell with video distortions: Etchings and Paul Dunmall also appears in duo with violinist Roman Mints on Exodus; LJ Record have two new CDs from Duo pantoMorf with Antiforms and Susanna Lindeborg's Mwendo Dawa with A taste of four free minds; and there are three new SLAM discs: Songs from the black earth; Hot Tune's Magique; and Samuel Blaser's Solo bone.
A particular focus on Joëlle Léandre at the start of the new year with a 2CD set on Kadima: Live in Israel; in quartet with Gianni Lenoci/Vittorino Curci/Marcello Magliocchi: Psychomagic combination; a book in French: À voix basse; and a DVD: BasseContinue.
Recently issued is Monk on Gramercy Park Music by Han Bennink/Michiel Borstlap/Ernst Glerum. Two recent John Butcher CDs have been added: Buffalo pearl, in duo with Gerry Hemingway, on Hemingway's Auricle label; and Resonant spaces recorded in Scotland and Orkney in June 2006 and released on Confront with an 18-page booklet with photographs. Two Anthony Braxton releases on Victo, though perhaps a little long in the tooth to be referred to as new now, are Trio (Victoriaville) 2007 and 12+1tet (Victoriaville) 2007 while Red Toucan have released Wake by Gratkowski/Brown/Winant.
Zeitkratzer have released, on Zeitkratzer Records, three CDs of the group working with electronic musicians: Carsten Nicolai; Terre Thaemlitz; and Keiji Haino; nuscope has released Starmelodics by Kaufmann/Dresser/Eisenstadt; Okka Disk has two CDs of Ken Vandermark in duo with bass players Kent Kessler, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Nate McBride and Wilbert de Joode: Collected fiction; Intakt's new CDs are: Furioso from the Jürg Wickihalder Overseas Quartet; and Iron wedding from Aki Takase/Alexander von Schlippenbach; on Cuneiform there's Golden section by Isotope; and on Ruby Flower, two new CDs: Herb Robertson/Jean-Luc Cappozzo with Passing the torch; and MacroQuarktet's Each part a whole.
Erstwhile has just released two new CDs with Keith Rowe recorded in Japan in September 2008: solo, just titled Keith Rowe; and the duo of Keith Rowe/Taku Unami; For 4 Ears have also just released two new CDs: Taste tribes by Alfred 23 Harth/Günter Müller/Hans Joachim Irmler; and msa by mkm [Günter Müller/Jason Kahn/Norbert Möslang]; Henceforth have the electronics, voice and other stuff from The Skein [Andrea Parkins/Jessica Constable] with Cities and eyes; doubt music have Blood by the Imai Kazuo Trio; meenna (a spin-off of Improvised Music of Japan) have the noise-out Core Anode from Otomo Yoshihide; and Rossbin have just released the Chadbourne Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad.
This batch of Creative Sources just missed my cut-off for the last update so are slightly older than I would have liked (my fault): Habitat by dis.playce; Animali by ARG; Scott Fields' Drawings; Jacque Demierre's One is land; Jacob Wick/Andrew Greenwald with 37:55; Pedro Rebelo/Franziska Schroeder/Guilherme Rodrigues/Ernesto Rodrigues with May there be...; Luca Mauri's Between love and hate; DUE (Susann Wehrli/Karin Ernst) with Few and far between; and Mark O'Leary's Fabrikraum.
What was new on EFIP 1 November 2008
A definite focus on the Blue Notes in this update, based around the wonderful 5CD box from Ogun Blue Notes: the Ogun collection which includes re-issues with additional music of Legacy: Live in South Afrika; Blue Notes for Mongezi (2CD); Blue Notes in concert; and Blue Notes for Johnny. In addition, there's the great, just issued, duo of Louis Moholo-Moholo with Marilyn Crispell on Intakt - Sibanye - and what looks like the final McGregor/Brotherhood of Breath CD on the Fledg'ling label: Our prayer by the Chris McGregor Trio featuring Barre Phillips and Louis Moholo.
Barre Phillips also turns up on the excellent duo with Jöelle Léandre on Kadima Collectvie Recordings - A l'improviste - and Jöelle has another brand new CD, on Leo, with Akosh S. on reeds: KOR. Also on Leo is Anthony Braxton's Quartet (Moscow) 2008 recorded barely four months ago. And the second of Intakt's new CDs is The salmon by Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky and Michael Griener.
CDs on my must get around to sometime (but now finally have) list include the Journey into the valley DVD with bonus CD from Faruq Z. Bey and Northwoods Improvisers on Entropy Stereo and, on MusicNow, Consciously from Cornelius Cardew, solemn and songs of sound political intent including, on one track a great soprano contribution from Evan Parker, and Liquid metal dreaming by Robert Evans and Laurie Scott Baker.
A new label from Lithuania is No Business Records with The Vilnius explosion by Mats Gustafsson. On DUNS Limited Edition, there's Bionic beings' beginnings from Paul Dunmall/Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg/Philip Gibbs/Peter Brandt and Spirits past and future from Paul Dunmall and Tony Bianco; four more Dunmalls on FMR: in duo with Paul Rogers on Regeneration; with Barry Edwards/Mark Sanders on Mind out; with Trevor Taylor and Evelyn Chang on Crossing; and with Philip Gibbs added on Atmospheres without oxygen; on Loosetorque the trio of Jon Corbett, Nick Stephens and Roger Turner going under the name of Dangerous Musics In '91; SLAM has the self-titled Aida Severo and the fascinating D.A.T.A. disc Compressed; the new Potlatch CD is Shortcut from Trio Sowari; on 2:13 Music there's A schlep from Strathbungo, a duo by John Bisset and Ivor Kallin; on Al Maslakh there's Shortwave from Christine Sehnaoui/Michel Waisvisz, and Much remains to be heard by Stéphane Rives; and on Red Note there's RegenOrchester XII (Franz Hautzinger/Christian Fennesz/Otomo/Luc Ex/Tony Buck with Town down.
What was new on EFIP 1 September 2008
Quite a large update this time, kicking off with a new French label, Amor Fati. Just when one might have thought that mass production had taken over everything here comes short runs (generally 500 copies) in card sleeves with individual paintings on each one: each a limited edition. Out of the first sixteen CDs, eleven are now on this site: Pascal Battus: Pick up; Steve Dalachinsky/Sebastien Capazza/Didier Lasserre: 3 rocks & a sock; Ronnie Lynn Patterson/Didier Lasserre: The Gernika Suite; Jobic Le Masson/Benjamin Duboc/Didier Lasserre: Free Unfold Trio; Gianni Grégory Fornet: Troppo tintu è addivintatu lu munnu; Benjamin Bondoneau/Fabrice Charles: Dordogne; Jean-Luc Guionnet/Benjamin Duboc: W; Sylvain Guérineau: Dies irae; Edward Perraud/Mathias Pontévia/Didier Lasserre: Trio de Batterie; Paul Rogers: Being; and Bondonneau/Lazro/Chiesa/Lasserre/Sassi: Humus.
A substantial number of new discs also from Creative Sources: Mayas/Nutters/Olsen/Galvez: On creative sources (Hail Satan); Gust Burns/Ernesto Rodrigues/Vic Rawlings/David Hirvonen: Refrain; Andrea Parkins/Laurent Bruttin/Dragos Tara: Quick-drop; Jacques Foschia: Clair obscur; Mazen Kerbaj/Birgit Uhler/Sharif Sehnaoui: 3:1; Robert van Heumen: Fury; Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg/Kris Vanderstraeten/Jean Demey: Sureau; Fhievel/Luca Sigurtà: The wheel; Szilárd Mezei Ensemble: Sivatag; Stephen Flinn: Architect of diversity; Annette Giesriegl/Clementine Gasser/Karl Sayer/Michael Fischer: Vistag; Peter Evans/Tom Blancarte: {Sparks}; Praed: The muesli man; Mark Trayle: Goldstripe; Marco Scarassatti/Marcelo Bomfim/Nelson Pinton: Sonax; Szilárd Mezei/Albert Márkos: Korom; Sascha Demand/Hannes Wienert: Sirenen & blüten; Tom Shelton/Ryo Ikeshiro: Ry-om III.
Apologies for the long delay since the last update but this has been unavoidable. And not (just!) caused by the influx of discs in the meantime, starting with a new BRÖ CD, a recording of the Bennink/Brötzmann duo in Amherst 2006, prepared for their 2008 US tour completed at the end of April; there's also a curious, official bootleg of Brötzmann/Pliakas/Wertmüller recorded just one year later in the US in April 2007: Farewell. The new Emanem discs are Phil Minton: No doughnuts in hand; Martin Blume/Yedo Gibson/Marcio Mattos/Veryan Weston: Caetitu; and Spontaneous Music Ensemble & Orchestra: Trio & triangle; the new psi CD is Journey, a solo piano disc from Fred Van Hove.
Ogun has recently issued on CD All night long: the Willisau concert by the Mike Osborne Trio; Okka Disk have the new 2CD Distil by Atomic/School Days; the new Wig CD also features Ken Vandermark alongside the Ab Baars Trio: Goofy June bug; Ramboy's three most recent recordings are The Persons: Sweet ears; Michael Moore Trio: Holocene; and Michael Moore: Fragile; there's a new great solo piano disc from Guus Janssen on GeestGronden: Out of frame; and Nuscope have Gaga from the Denman Maroney Quartet.
Erstwhile's latest CDs are The Magic I.D.: Till my breath gives out; Graham Lambkin/Jason Lescalleet: The breadwinner; and Toshimaru Nakamura/English: One day; on For 4 Ears there's Jason Kahn/Tomas Korber/Norbert Möslang/Günter Müller/Hong Chulki/Ryu Hankil/Choi Joonyong/Bae Miryung/Jin Sangtae/Sato Yukie: Signal to noise vol. 6; and Martin Baumgartner: Shoot's huft; Intakt has Elliott Sharp's Concert in Dachau; the two latest from Foghorn are Matthew Bourne: The Molde concert; and Sunny Murray/Tony Bevan/John Edwards: The gearbox explodes!; Hi 4 Head has Reunion: live in London, a duo from Trevor Watts and Peter Knight; SLAM's latest CD is From Whichford Hill from George Haslam/Lol Coxhill/Richard Leigh Harris/Steve Kershaw; and Red Toucan has Steve Cohn: Iro iro; and Szilárd Mezei Ensemble: Nád/Reed.
What was new on EFIP 1 April 2008
A large update this month compared to March, with Evan Parker running through the various releases: two new CDs from psi: a re-issue of the solo Conic sections and the second edition of FURT's series of working with other improvisors: Equals; ecm have released the companion piece to Roscoe Mitchell's from last year: the excellent Bousrophedon with the Transatlantic Art Ensemble; Another timbre have the interesting combination of Max Eastley/Graham Halliwell/Evan Parker/Mark Wastell with A life saved by a spider and two doves; Maya has Topos from Agustí Fernández/Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton; and Intakt has Globe Unity - 40 years.
The other new CDs from Another timbre are Obdo from Frédéric Blondy/Thomas Lehn; and Clive Bell/Bechir Saade with An account of my hut; and on Maya: Tarfala from Barry Guy/Mats Gustafsson/Raymond Strid (and I have also updated Mats Gustafsson's page, first time in a long time); and Maya Homburger's baroque violin playing J.S. Bach/Barry Guy
Rossbin have taken their principle of being a non-profit label one step forward by donating all their income to an institution supporting poor and disabled children in Peru. To achieve this they are making their CDs free to all who make the minimun donation (mostly €6.5 each) to Divina Provvidenza (details on their website). The latest Rossbin CD is The act of observation becomes the object itself from Machine for Making Sense.
The latest Peter Brötzmann release is a 2CD duo with Peeter Uuskyla on Atavistic: Born broke; on Balance Point Acoustics there's the intriguing Jus from Jacob Lindsay/Ava Mendoza/Damon Smith/Weasel Walter; Nick Stephens' Loose Torque label has brought out Jon Corbett/Nick Stephens/Tony Marsh with The play's the thing; and The September Quartet's What goes around...; Slam has Helios Suite from George Haslam/Stefano Pastor/Steve Kershaw/Paul Hession; New World Records has just issued Malcolm Goldstein's A sounding of sources; and there are three recent CDs on Henceforth: Gustavo Aguilar's Unsettled on an old sense of place; Lisle Ellis's Sucker punch requiem; and Minamo from Carla Kihlstedt/Satoko Fujii. Ayler Records, with its renewed emphasis on digital downloads, has released Television, a duo between Mark O'Leary and Han Bennink, available in this format.
What was new on EFIP 1 March 2008
A very small update this month with the emphasis on quality rather than quantity! four new Emanem releases, two of which are double-CDs: Bare essentials from the Spontaneous Music Ensemble; Separately & together from the London and Glasgow Improvisers Orchestras (nicely namechecking Dylan in one of the titles); Grosse Abfahrt with Everything that disappears; and Barkingside by Alexander Hawkins, Dominic Lash, Paul May and Alex Ward.
DMG/ARC has been added as a new label with their latest releases - The Stone Quartet of Joëlle Léandre/Marilyn Crispell/Roy Campbell/Mat Maneri; and Last Exit's Headfirst into the flames - alongside their first CD of Selwyn Lissack's Friendship next of kin
The latest DUNS Limited Edition is a 3CD box London meets Altbüron featuring Simon Picard/Paul Dunmall/Paul Rogers/Christian Weber/Tony Levin and the Paul Dunmall Quartet is also on FMR's Four moons. LJ Records have just released Acoustic electronics by Charlotte Hug, Nina De Heney and Christian Jormin, Potlatch have issued MAP from Jean-Luc Guionnet/Toshimaru Nakamura; and on Canada's C3R there's What matters to Ali from Axel Dörner and Diego Chamy.
Nu Bop Records is a new label added this month with its first three releases: Uotha from Hamid Drake and Paolo Angeli; Di terra from Alberto Braida/Lisle Ellis/Fabrizio Spera; and Noizland + Lewis Barnes
The very latest Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet CD, out on Okka Disk, celebrates 10 years of the 10tet, live At Molde 2007; Drip Audio of Canada have just released Way out Northwest by John Butcher, Torsten Muller and Dylan van der Schyff; Doubt music's new CD is Otomo Yoshihide's Modulation with 2 electric guitars and 2 amplifiers; New World Records have brought out Clepton by Earl Howard featuring Georg Graewe, Ernst Reijseger and Gerry Hemingway; in situ's new disc is [on] by Eric Brochard, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Edward Perraud; Split have just issued Sonic systems laboratory by Robbie Avenaim and Dale Gorfinkel on (not to be confused with) vibraphones; and Slam's new CDs are Giovanni Sollima/Alessandro Gandola with Astrolabioanima; and 3bpm (Martin Pickett/Ben Twyford/Paul Jeffries) with First hearing
What was new on EFIP 1 January 2008
Two brand-new releases from Red Toucan: 9 moments from Houle/Léandre/Strid; and Reg erg from Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode; Wilbert de Joode also appears on one of the new Leo releases along with Achim Kaufmann and Frank Gratkowski: Palaë and there's the latest volume from Yoshi's - volume 4 - from the Anthony Braxton Ninetet from 1997. Similarly - links within links - Hat Hut have just re-issued Braxton's Performance (Quartet) 1979 as well as On Duke's birthday from the Mike Westbrook Orchestra featuring Phil Minton.
Peter Brötzmann appears in the Brötzmann/Wilkinson Quartet (Alan Wilkinson, Simon H. Fell and Willi Kellers) on Bo'Weavil's One night in Burmantofts and also was the subject of a recent exhibition of Paintings & Objects in Chicago; Sven-Åke Johansson appears, with many others including Mats Gustafsson, on Olof Bright's 2CD Beirut-Ystad; Fred Van Hove appears with 'Rhythm Section' (Tatsuya Nakatani and Peter Jacquemyn) on Hear here now from (K-RAA-K)3; and Tatsuya Nakatani is also on Sprout's No stranger to air with Michel Doneda and Jack Wright - who has his own disc on Sprout in duo with Michael Johnsen: Truant runts
The latest releases on Another timbre are Music for shakuhachi by Frank Denyer and Endspace by Angharad Davies and Tisha Mukarji; closely related is Rhodri Davies' duo with Ko Ishikawa on Hibari Music: Compositions for harp and sho
In mid-October, and unfortunately missing my November update, Erstwhile released One: Snow mud rain by the enigmatically titled R/S (actually Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler); For 4 Ears have released the latest volumes in their Signal to noise series: Vol. 4 by Jason Kahn/Tomas Korber/Norbert Möslang/Günter Müller/Christian Weber/Katsura Yamauchi and Vol. 5 by Jason Kahn/Norbert Möslang/Günter Müller/Aube; hitorri (a spin-off of Improvised Music of Japan) have released Sachiko M's Salon de Sachiko
Three new DUNS Limited Editions CDRs: Paul Dunmall/Philip Gibbs with New growth; Paul Dunmall/Rozemarie Heggen/Alan Purves with High birds Vol. 1; High birds Vol. 2 has Hilary Jeffery added to that line-up; Paul Dunmall appears alongside Paul Rogers and Mark Sanders on FMR's Deep whole
Trevor Watts is on two new CDs: Drum energy! from The Original Trevor Watts Drum Orchestra on Hi 4 Head Records, and Ancestry in duo with Jamie Harris on Entropy Stereo. Cuneiform have released Healing force: the songs of Albert Ayler by Vinny Golia/Aurora Josephson/Henry Kaiser/Mike Keneally/Joe Morris/Damon Smith/Weasel Walter; Sofa have released Eivind Buene's Asymmetrical music; Muhal Richard Abrams' solo Vision towards essence is on Pi; and Franz Hautzinger brings his quarter-tone trumpet to Gomberg II: profile.
What was new on EFIP 2 November 2007
Two new labels added: Another timbre (based in Sheffield) with three brand-new discs: Tempestuous by The Contest of Pleasures (John Butcher/Xavier Charles and Axel Dörner); Tasting by Sophie Agnel/Phil Minton; and Hum from Rhodri Davies/Matt Davis/Samantha Rebello/Bechir Saade; and Ruby Flower Records with Parallelisms from Herb Robertson, Evan Parker and Agusti Fernandez; and Sketches from the other side, for A.I. by Herb Robertson & the Space Cadets (Frank Gratkowski and Julien Petit).
Other releases featuring some of the musicians mentioned above include three more from Phil Minton: a brand-new duo with Daunik Lazro on émouvance: Alive at sonorités; and two US discs on Recorded from the 2005 High Zero Festival: The Enigma carols and Palatially palpable; Rhodri Davies with a new solo disc on Confront: Over shadows; and the re-issue by Ogun on 2CDs of the John Stevens/Evan Parker duos: Corner to corner and The longest night.
The two new CDs on Emanem are the Paul Rutherford's Solo in Berlin 1975 and Two Spanish guitars from Pascal Marzan and Roger Smith and on Nick Stephens' Loose Torque label there are three new CDRs: The Schizo Quartet (actually the duo of Nick Stephens and Jon Corbett) with Don't answer it; The Occasional Quartet (Todd/Coombes/Stephens/Marsh) with Desire Lines; and All said and dun from Paul Dunmall, Nick Stephens and Tony Marsh,
New Intakt releases include Anthony Braxton's Solo Willisau from 2003; Aki Takase and Silke Eberhard's 2CD Ornette Coleman Anthology; Crash Cruise from Lucas Niggli Zoom meets Arte Quartett; and Hardcore Chamber Music DVD A club for 30 days. Following on last month's update on Raymond Strid, Fungus, by LSB, has been added to his discography.
New Ictus additions include two discs from combinations of the trio of Lol Coxhill, Franz Koglmann and Andrea Centazzo: Darkly and Darkly again; Moot & Lid from Lol Coxhill, Giancarlo Schiaffini and Andrea Centazzo; and the Henry Kaiser/Andrea Centazzo duo with Infinity squared. Okka Disk has just brought out 3 new CDs: Extraordinary popular delusions by Baker/Hunt/Sandstrom/Williams; The Engines (Jeb Bishop, Dave Rempis, Nate McBride and Tim Daisy); and Collide by Territory Band-6 with Fred Anderson. Finally, hot off the press is Tatsuya Nakatani's solo percussion disc Primal communication.
What was new on EFIP 1 October 2007
Four new discs featuring Han Bennink and three with Evan Parker. Han's are a duo with Terrie Ex: Zeng!; the Ammü Quartett; Comeglians by the Daniele D'Agaro Adriatics Orchestra; and People I like by The Blueprint Project; Evan's are a duo with Ned Rothenberg: Live at Roulette on ANIMUL; A glancing blow in trio with Chris Corsano and John Edwards on Clean Feed; and an appearance with the Stan Tracey Orchestra At the Appleby Jazz Festival on Resteamed. In addition, both Han and Evan are of course part of the Peter Brötzmann Octet on The complete machine gun sessions released by Atavistic.
The three excellent new CDs on Emanem are the Trio of Uncertainty (Veryan Weston, Hannah Marshall and Satoko Fukuda) with Unlocked; John Butcher's new solo disc The geometry of sentiment; and pi:k from Elliott Sharp and Charlotte Hug. John Butcher also appears in the latest recorded incarnation of Günter Christmann's Vario - Vario-44 - in a limited edition of 250 copies with individually-produced wooden covers to the CD case.
The page on Raymond Strid has been updated and two new discs added to Raymond's discography - The Electrics Live at Glenn Miller Café on Ayler and Free the jazz by Eric Oscarsson and the Perspectives, also featuring Mats Gustafsson.
Galatina Records (distributed by FMP Distribution and Communication) have just released a double CD of Butch Morris with Ensemble Laboratorio Novamusica together with (on one disc) Armand Angster, Peter van Bergen, Wolfgang Fuchs and Hans Koch: Conductions 143/1 143/2; Potlatch have just released Propagations by the saxophone quartet of Marc Baron/Bertand Denzler/Jean-Luc Guionnet/Stéphane Rives; SLAM have the Holywell session by George Haslam/Richard Leigh Harris/Stefano Pastor/Harry Beckett/Steve Kershaw; ReR have recently re-issued two LPs from Heiner Goebbels and Alfred Harth as a 2CD set: Hommage/Vier Fäuste für Hanns Eisler & Vom sprengen des gartens and also a solo disc from Paolo Angeli: Tessuti: plays Frith & Björk; and Atavistic have two new Sun Ra discs: Strange strings and The night of the purple moon. A very delayed disc (my fault) is Les Klebs by Xavier Charles/David Chiesa/Jean Pallandre/Marc Pichelin/Laurent Sassi on Ouïe Dire.
What was new on EFIP 6 September 2007
As most people will know, the summer has been darkened by the sad death of Paul Rutherford, on 5 August. The best appreciation yet is by Steve Beresford in the latest Point of Departure. In this latest update Paul appears on a rather unrepresentative disc: George Haslam's Cuban meltdown on SLAM. And in remembrance mode, Tzadik have released Standards, the precursor to Derek Bailey's Ballads, recorded first in NYC before Derek re-thought his ideas and re-recorded them a month later in London.
It's good to start off this update with some excellent large group recordings: The Splinter Orchestra from Australia on splitrecords; two live double CDs of Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra - Live vol. 1: series circuit and Live vol. 2: parallel circuit - on doubt music, both with informative and extensive notes from Otomo; and The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with Barry Guy on FMR: Falkirk.
There are two new Joëlle Léandre duo CDs: Winter in New York - 2006 with Kevin Norton on Leo and Free way with Pascal Contet on Clean Feed; also on Clean Feed is Delphinius & Lyra by the duo of Raymond MacDonald and Günter Baby Sommer; and Raymond also appears with the George Burt/Raymond MacDonald Quartet (with Lol Coxhill) on Textile's One bloke; Axel Dörner appears solo on Sind on absinthRecords.
Damon Smith's Balance Point Acoustics label has just issued Ausfegen: dedicated by Joseph Beuys featuring the excellent quartet of Paul Hartsaw, Kristian Aspelin, Damon Smith and Jerome Bryerton; and on Al Maslakh there's the wonderful Michael Zerang CD in duo with seven Beirut-based musicians: Cedarhead; along with Studio one from MAWJA (Michael Bullock, Mazen Kerbaj, Vic Rawlings). Asphodel have released the latest of Reinhold Friedl's Zeitkratzer's excursions with Xenakis [A]live! on CD and accompanying DVD. Mutable have issued the Timeless Pulse Quintet featuring Thomas Buckner, George Marsh, Pauline Oliveros, David Wessel and Jennifer Wilsey. Finally, Ninth World Music's two new CDs are Boiler from The All Ear Trio; and Æter from Volume.
What was new on EFIP 1 July 2007
As one or two people liked the word in the last update, I'll use it again: another Brötzaganza, this time with three new discs all on Okka Disk: Guts from the quartet of McPhee/Brötzmann/Kessler/Zerang plus two new Chicago Tentet discs, recorded last year in Stirling: American landscapes 1 and Americal landscapes 2. Also on Okka a duo from Ken Vandermark/Pandelis Karayorgis - Foreground music - with a very nice tribute to Derek Bailey from Ken Vandermark.
So this time how about a Parkerthon? Six discs on Evan Parker's psi label plus appearances on a couple of others. The psis are: Lawrence Casserley/Simon Desorgher with Music from Colourdome; François Houle/Evan Parker/Benoît Delbecq's La lumière de pierres; Bark!'s Contraption; Free Zone Appleby 2006; fORCH's (FURT + others) Spin networks; and a re-issue of Evan Parker's Hook, drift & shuffle with Barry Guy, Paul Lytton and George Lewis. Evan also duos with Matthew Shipp on one of the latest Treader CDs: Abbey Road duos, the other two being Han Bennink's Amplified Trio and John Coxon and Wadada Leo Smith's Brooklyn duos
Intakt have six new discs with Barry Guy's Portrait featuring sections from a range of Intakt London Jazz Composers Orchestra CDs plus others (including the duo with Evan Parker) and a selection of Maya CDs; Loops, holes & angels from the Co Streiff Sextet; Sylvie Courvoisier's Lonelyville; Fred Frith/Chris Brown's Cutter heads; the Ulrich Gumpert Quartette; and another Wadada Leo Smith duo, this time with Günter Baby Sommer: Wisdom in time
With the recent (in the last week) devastation that has been caused by floods in some parts of Sheffield and South Yorkshire, I can't resist giving some prominence to Downpour by Tom Rainey (!) Nels Cline and Andrea Parkins, one of three new Victo CDs. The others are the Satoko Fujii Min-Yoh Ensemble's FUjiN RAijiN and Both noises end burning by Borbetomagus & Hijokaidan. No new Braxton releases this time on Victo (though, of course he did appear at the festival) but two new ones on Leo: Solo (Pisa) 1982 and Trio (Glasgow) 2005. Also new on Leo Celebrations by Gratkowski/Robertson/Nabatov/Manderscheid. Braxton and Gratkowski also feature briefly in Tim Perkis' DVD of the Bay Area improvising community: Noisy people: improvising a musical life.
Erstwhile's first releases of 2007 comprise Keith Rowe's The room, the first of the new ErstSolo imprint, and eRikm/dieb13's double CD Chaos Club. On For 4 Ears there's the next two in the Signal to noise series: vol 2 featuring Tomas Korber/Christian Weber/Katsura Yamauchi and vol 3 with Jason Kahn/Norbert Möslang/Günter Müller; the latest from doubt music is Ground Zero's Live 1992 +; on absinth there's Burkhard Beins' Disco prova and Michael Renkel/Magda Mayas/Sabine Vogel with phono_phono; and on Bateau Lavoir there is Duo from Christophe Albertijn/Thomas Campaert.
Keith Tippett's Tapestry Orchestra has been issued by Red Eye Music Live at Le Mans, and Ogun have also just re-issued on CD Ovary Lodge; Bo'Weavil have issued Obliquity by Steve Noble, John Edwards and Alan Wilkinson; hat have re-issued Sonic fiction by Graewe/Reijseger/Hemingway; Inaudible have released The Mercelis concert featuring John Russell, Jean Demey and Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg; Jazzwerkstatt's latest releases consist of Friedhelm Schönfeld with Start; Kazda's Short tales from the neighbourhood; and Strict minimum from Günter Lenz Springtime; the three new CDs from Olof Bright are Moderne Nordeuropäische Dorfmusik's previously un-issued Berlin Symphonie from 1968-72 featuring Sven-Åke Johansson; Per Svensson's Sonogram; and Christine Sehnaoui's Solo; Red Toucan have Carl Ludwig Hübsch's Primordial soup; on SLAM there's SHaK from Esmond Selwyn/George Haslam/Steve Kershaw; and George Haslam's September Spring; and on Split Records there is Jim Denley's Through fire, crevice and the hidden valley.
What was new on EFIP 1 May 2007
A Brötzaganza with four new discs, two completely new and two re-issues from two labels. Okka Disk have two limited edition 180gm LPs: Sonny Sharock and Peter Brötzmann with previously unreleased material from 1989 - Fragments - and a vinyl version of the Chicago Tentet's Stone/Water. Jazzwerkstatt have re-issued most of the duo with Bill Laswell (minus one track) and added most of (minus one track) Last Exit's Köln - Low life/Last Exit - and also released the latest recording of the four discs: Only the devil has no dreams by Sonore.
NURNICHTNUR has six new CDs with two absolutely excellent discs: Ulrich Phillipp and Georg Wolf's double bass duo on Tensid and Ensemble 2incq.'s Rhön. The others, which I haven't got round to listening to yet are Jürgen Morgenstern's Ukelele sketchbook; Zweieiige zwillinge by Schliemann & Zoepf; and Ute Wassermann's Birdtalking. There's also a curious mini-DVD of burning matchbooks by Erika Enders/Ute Völker: Schallundrauch
DUNS Limited Edition have Blown away by Paul Dunmall/Philip Gibbs/Roy Campbell/Daniel Carter/Paul Rogers/William Parker/Hamid Drake and Paul Dunmall also has two recent FMR CDs: Deep well with Peter Brandt Tony Marsh and Occasional rain in duo with Peter Brandt; also on FMR is Simon Rose's solo Procession
Single CDs include Roscoe Mitchell and The Transatlantic Art Ensemble (with Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble) with Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 & 3 on ECM; Bruise with We packed are bags on Foghorn; Naviguer, le chantenbraille by André Minvielle/Didier Petit on In Situ; Erika Dagnino/Stefano Pastor's Cycles on SLAM; Complete "La Grima" by Takayanagi Masayuki New Direction for the Art on doubt; Aporias by Raymond MacDonald/Tatsuya Nakatani/Peter Nicholson/Neil Davidson/Nick Fells on Creative Sources; and Cwymp y dwr ar ganol dydd by Traw/Rhodri Davies on Confront.