As in the previous update, I'm starting off with a particularly impressive box set of 4 heavyweight 180g LPs documenting the highlights of the Just Not Cricket! festival that was held in Berlin in October 2011 with its line-up of 16 musicians from 4 different generations of British Improvisors. It's the first vinyl release from the new Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu label run by Antoine Prum and a DVD of the festival and other films of British improvisors should be released later in 2013. An earlier DVD from the same label is Tschüss Bethanien! by Rüdiger Carl and Sven-Åke Johansson.
Three new DVDs have been released recently by Pavel Borodin's Panrec label: Nils Wolgram/Simon Nabatov with Moods and modes; Hans W. Koch/Thomas Lehn/Ben Patterson/Jozef Cseres with Requiem for a baby grand, in association with Heyermears Discorbie; and The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet Concert for Fukushima, Wels 2011, in association with Trost.
Four brand-new releases on Erstwhile are Making A by Keith Rowe/Graham Lambkin and the first three CDs on the new aeu imprint: Joe Panzer/Greg Stuart's Dystonia duos; Anne Guthrie/Richard Kamerman's Sinter; and Graham Stephenson/Aaron Zarzutzki's Touching. New and recent on Unsounds are Plume by John Butcher/Tony Buck/Magda Mayas/Burkhard Stangl and Myriad from Magda Mayas/Christine Abdelnour.
Two new CDs from Urs Leimgrumber: The pancake tour in duo with Roger Turner on Relative Pitch; and Montreuil in trio with Jacques Demierre and Barre Phillips on Jazzwerkstatt. Two new Ayler discs: Jean-Luc Cappozzo/Géraldine Keller with Air prints; and Matthieu Metzger's Selfcooking. Duo Baars-Henneman have a new disc - Autumn songs - on Wig; eBRAAM have 3 on BBB; Dedalus/Antoine Beuger/Jürg Frey are on Potlatch; and Faces and tales is by Daniele Cavallanti & The Brotherhood Creative Trance Music Ensemble on Rudi Records.
What was new on EFIP 1 March 2013
Starting off with really impressive boxes. First, there's the Peter Brötzmann 5-CD set on Trost, Long story short, all recorded at the Unlimited Festival at Wels in November 2011. And, secondly, the 3-LP coloured vinyl box on Bloc Thyristors from the quartet of Conny Bauer/Johannes Bauer/Barry Guy/Jean-Noël Cognard: BRIGANTIN - la fièvre de l'indépendance.
Two new/recent Han Bennink CDs out: Bennink # Co. from the Han Bennink Trio on Ilk (as was their first CD); and a duo with Uri Caine: Sonic boom on 816 Music. And two new recordings each on Fataka - White cable black wires from John Edwards/Okkyung Lee; and the solo piano Al-Khwarizmi variations from Pat Thomas - and kukuruku - John Butcher's solo Winter gardens on 180gm vinyl and Adam Bohman/Tasos Stamou's The car boot sales. And the first new recording on Bead for some time: Untuning the sky from Chris Burn/Matt Hutchinson.
A new label added: Rudi Records whose most recent disc is Baboon by Sartori/Delius/Honsinger. Other CDs added from the label are Giancarlo Schiaffini/Sebi Tramontana Wind & slap; Sandro Satta/Roberto Bellatalla/Fabrizio Spera Re-union; Salis/Schiaffini/Kasirossafar Live in Ventotene; and Saadet Türköz/Giovanni Maier/Zlatko Kaucic Zarja-tay. Recent releases from Mutable are: Dan Joseph Tonalization (for the afterlife); JB Floyd Another time and place; Thomas Buckner/Earl Howard/Mari Kimura/J D Parran with Particle Ensemble; Richard Teitelbaum's Solo live; and the Revolutionary Ensemble's Counterparts.
Two tribute discs to Tony Marsh have appeared in the last couple of months: Free play by Corbett/Stephens/Marsh on Loose Torque and For the last time by Tony Marsh/Paul Dunmall/Phil Gibbs on FMR. Other recent releases by Paul Dunmall are The Realisation Trio (FMR) and, in duo with Tony Bianco, Thank you to John Coltrane (Slam). Just out on Red Toucan is Nel margine from Alberto Braida/Giancarlo Locatelli.
Two brand-new discs from Joëlle Léandre: the Sudo Quartet (with Zingaro/Tramontana/Lovens) Live at Banlieue Bleue on NoBusiness Records, and Evidence, a duo with Jérôme Bourdellon on Relative Pitch Records. Closely associated with Joëlle, as sound-recordist on many of her CDs, is Jean-Marc Foussat who has his own solo CD out on his own Fou Records: L'oiseau. And an earlier link with Potlatch leads to their latest disc Pluie fine by Cremaster/Angharad Davies.
The very latest Ogun CD is Keep your heart straight, a duo from Alexander Hawkings and Louis Moholo-Moholo. And, for some unaccountable reason, I forgot to include the previous release so here it is now: Chris McGregor's re-issued (with additional material) solo In his good time. On Emanem is One four and two twos, from John Stevens/Paul Rutherford/Evan Parker/Barry Guy, a part-re-issue with previously unreleased duos; on absinthrecords there is Kopfüberwelle from Chris Abrahams/Sabine Vogel; and on LJ Records, Music from Mwendo Dawa.
Two new labels added this time. Kukuruku Recordings has been around for a while and has released around 20 discs, primarily on CD-R. Recent releases are the London Improvisers Orchestra with HMS concert; the self-titled Mike Cooper; a solo by Tasos Stamou, Objects 1, and Jennifer Walshe/Tomomi Adachi Live @ WKCR. A new solo John Butcher LP is in the works but is not quite yet available. Fataka has just released two new CDs: Cinema John Coxon/Evan Parker/Eddie Prévost; and At Oto by John Butcher/Matthew Shipp. A brand new recording by Sabu Toyozumi - Kosai Yujyo - has been jointly released by INaudible and improvising beings and features a large number of European improvisers - for example, Pascal Marzan, John Russell and Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg - usually in one-off groupings of varying sizes.
NoBusiness Records has just issued three LPs - Bobby Bradford/Frode Gjerstad/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Paal Nilssen-Love with Kampen; Mikolaj Trzaska/Olie Brice/Mark Sanders with Riverloam Trio (a double LP); and Liudas Mockunas/Barry Guy with Lava - and two CDs - Carlos Alves Zingaro/Jean Luc Cappozzo/Jerome Bourdellon/Nicolas Lelievre Live at Total Meeting; and Vinny Golia/Marco Eneidi/Lisa Mezzacappa/Vijay Anderson Hell-bent in the Pacific. Intakt's recent batch of releases include: Günter Baby Sommer/Savina Yannatou/Floros Floridis/Evgenios Voulgaris/Spilios Kastanis with a book and CD: Songs for Kommeno; a re-issue of three early solo Pierre Favre albums: Drums and dreams; Maya Homburger/Barry Guy with Tales of enchantment; and Alexander von Schlippenbach's solo Schlippenbach plays Monk
Emanem has just released Bouquet by Charlotte Hug/Frédéric Blondy; Not Two has a new duo from Joëlle Léandre and Lauren Newton: Conversations: live in Ljubijana; Amirani has Tidal: amphidromic cotidal by the group A Windy Season; Erstwhile has two new live recordings from AMPLIFY 2011 at The Stone: Keith Rowe with September; and Radu Malfatti/Taku Unami; and Rudi Records has released Zarja-tay by Saadet Türköz/Giovanni Maier/Zlatko Kaucic.
I have updated Tony Wren's page alongside three FMR CDs: Larry Stabbins/Howard Riley/Tony Wren/Mark Sanders with Sleeper and St Cyprians 2; and Howard Riley/Philipp Wachsmann/Tony Wren with St Cyprians 3. Also on FMR is Paul Dunmall/Neil McGovern with Intervention and Paul Dunmall also appears on Rare Music's Golden ocean alongside Sophia Domancich/Tony Levin/Miles Levin. The new Evil Rabbit CD is U-ex(perimental) from Mark Lotz/Meinrad Kneer alongside a raft of colleagues and the latest Wig CD is Live @ The Ironworks Vancouver from the Ig Henneman Sextet.
What was new on EFIP 1 September 2012
By now, most people will be aware of the sad news that Lol Coxhill died on 10 July. Here is a link to just one of several obituaries, from The Independent. A memorial concert, under the title, Remembering Lol Coxhill is being organised for Wednesday 19 September at Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regents Park Road, London NW1, 1900-2100, doors open 1815.
Just released by NoBusiness Records is an extremely impressive, very handsomely-produced, 6CD-and-booklet box set of William Parker's unreleased early recordings from 1976 to 1987: Centering.
Erstwhile has 3 recent releases: two live 'ErstLive' CDs from the AMPLIFY festival at The Stone in NYC in September 2011 - Christian Wolff/Keith Rowe; and s'approcher s'éloigner s'absenter, a composition by Antoine Beuger performed by Barry Chabala, Dominic Lash, and Ben Owen - and the double CD by Jason Lescalleet, Songs about nothing. Also, from earlier in the year and probably gone into some kind of postal limbo, Jon Abbey having kindly just recently sent me a replacement, there's Andrea Neumann/Bonnie Jones' Green just as I could see. Andrea Neumann and Bonnie Jones appear in trio with Christine Abdelnour on Olof Bright's AS:IS while Andrea Neumann is also part of a trio with Sven-Åke Johansson and Axel Dörner on Olof Bright's Große gartenbauausstellung. The third new Olof Bright disc is Lovsång och Hemlighet/Cerchio from the J/L Duo.
Two new saxophone/piano duo discs this time: Dialogues in two places, a 2CD set from Trevor Watts and Veryan Weston on Hi 4 Head Records; and Dortmund variations from Evan Parker and Georg Graewe on nuscope. Evan Parker also contributes, along with Urs Leimgruber, Joëlle Léandre and fifteen other musicians on Rogueart's 13 miniatures for Albert Ayler. And Joëlle Léandre has two new CDs: a duo with guitarist Serge Teyssot-Gay, Trans; and the solo Wols circus, twelve compositions corresponding to the titles of the etchings by Otto Wols, created between 1942 and 1949.
Paul Dunmall has two new CDs on FMR: Pipe and drum, a duo with Mark Sanders; and The Iceberg Quartet (with Sam Wooster, Chris Mapp, and Mark Sanders) and a new disc on SLAM: Pictures of a quartet with Sebastiano Meloni, Sebastiano Dessanay, and Mark Sanders. The two new discs on Amirani are Polishing the mirror by MAGIMC; and Turbulent flow by Gianni Mimmo/Daniel Levin while the two new Ayler CDs are Acid rain from Noël Akchoté/Jean-Marc Foussat/Roger Turner; and Carrousel from the Théo Ceccaldi Trio (with brief liners by Joëlle Léandre. The new Remote Viewers disc is City of nets, and the latest Umlaut CD is Composition no. 6 from Pierre-Antoine Badaroux.
What was new on EFIP 1 July 2012
URGENT! late addition (2 July). I've just heard from Veryan Weston that Lol Coxhill is very ill in hospital, having been there for six months now. Further information and suggestions for ways in which to help are included in the attached document which, for speed, I'm including as a pdf.
Straight off the press are the three new psi releases: Evan Parker Electroacoustic Ensemble with Hasselt; Bark! with Fume of sighs; and Gerd Dudek's Day and night. And on the Canadian Tour de Bras label, Vivaces features Le Grand Groupe Régional d'Improvisation Libérée avec Evan Parker.
No Evan Parker on the new releases from NoBusiness Records but some close musical colleagues on LP: Nate Wooley/Christian Weber/Paul Lytton with Six feet under and The Thing with Barry Guy - Metal! (2LP). On 2LP and also CD there's Narada Burton Greene solo Live at Kerrytown House; and on CD, Andrew Lamb's Rhapsody in black; and Henry P. Warner/Earl Freeman/Philip Spigner with Freestyle Band.
The new Intakt releases include two groups with Barry Guy: Katharina Weber/Barry Guy/Balts Nill Games and improvisations and Paul Plimley/Barry Guy/Lucas Niggli's Hexentrio; the other two new issues are Fred Frith Cosa Brava with The letter and Jürg Wickihalder Orchestra with the opera Narziss und echo.
A bit of an emphasis on bass players in this update as there's also Nick Stephens in duo with Frode Gjerstad on Loose Torque: Different times. And Umlaut's Joel Grip has released a beautiful looking and sounding solo bass LP: Pickelhaube while he's also on one of the new Ayler releases as part of Snus - Can't stop snusing; the other Ayler CD is Alexandra Grimal with Andromeda. A little while ago Cuneiform released Blixt by Raoul Björkenheim/Bill Laswell/Morgen Ågren.
LJ Records have just released an impressive 3CD set by Sten Sandell, solo, in duo and in trio and with one disc dedicated to 'sounds': Music inside the language. Birgit Ulher's page has been updated and she has two recent releases: the solo Hochdruckzone on Entr'acte and the duo Myelin with Heddy Boubaker on Intonema: Axon. New on Erstwhile is Crosshatches, a 2CD work from Michael Pisaro/Toshiya Tsunoda and on Potlatch there is 300 Basses (3 accordions) with Sei ritornelli. Alister Spence/Raymond MacDonald have a duo on Rufus Records, Stepping between the shadows.
There's a Canadian element about this update as well, for in addition to the Vivaces disc mentioned above, there are two new CDs on Red Toucan: Ensemble X and Cookbook from Thomas Heberer's Clarino, and the latest Peter Brötzmann release, 2CDs on Victo: Solo + Trio Roma. Recent releases on the Canadian Barnyard Records are Abandoned ballroom by Saint Dirt Elementary School and The Element Choir & William Parker At Christ Church Deer Park.
Another beautiful piece of vinyl has recently been released, this time by Cafe OTO, initiating their own label, OTO roku: ...the worse the better by Peter Brötzmann, John Edwards and Steve Noble, it's also available as a download.
Also just released from Emanem/psi are: Daylight by John Butcher/Mark Sanders; Haste by Veryan Weston/Ingrid Laubrock/Hannah Marshall; the long-awaited (by me anyway!!) Foxes fox Live at the Vortex; and Toma Gouband's Courants des vents. Martin Davidson also remastered the new 2CD release on John Jack's Cadillac label, the Mike Osborne Trio (with Harry Miller and Tony Levin): The Birmingham Jazz concert.
The brand new Joëlle Léandre disc, just out on Leo is the MMM Quartet (with Frith, Curran and Leimgruber) Live at the Metz Arsenal. Just out on Umlaut is Sven-Åke Johansson's 'all star' small group, Die harke und der spaten, and The New Songs (David Stackenäs/Eve Risser/Sofia Jernberg/Kim Myhr) with A nest at the junction of paths. And three recent Paul Dunmall CDs, two on FMR - Tribute to Tony Levin with Phil Gibbs/Paul Rogers, and Realisation Trio with Salt dolly - the other on Kilogram: The lamp by Asunder Trio (Dunmall/Hasse Poulsen/Mark Sanders).
New on Red Toucan is Shoe by Jan Klare's 1000; on Long Song Records there's Parallel worlds by Alan Silva/Burton Greene; on Potlatch newly out is Lucio Capece's Zero plus zero; on abzu, Piotr Michalowski/Jaime Rodríguez Matos/Christopher M. Skebo with Dyads; and on NURNICHTNUR Arte-facts by Florian Wittenburg.
What was new on EFIP 1 March 2012
A number of musician addition/changes this time, the first for quite a while (apart from updating discographies). The addition is Nick Stephens who played for a long time with John Stevens and who also runs the Loose Torque label. In adding Nick's discography there's one or two rare-ish John Stevens Away discs and also the new CD on Leo - Kongens gade - by Jon Corbett's Dangerous Musics: in trio with Nick Stephens and Louis Moholo-Moholo. And Louis also appears, of course, on the brand new Blue Notes Ogun release, Before the wind changes, recorded in Belgium in 1979. The second change is a major update of Georg Graewe's biography, coming after the recent release (see last update) of Grubenklang.reloaded. And, finally, it's good to see that Paul Hession's own web site is back up and running so I've added a link from Paul's page on my site, together with the brand new Hession/Wilkinson/Fell CD, Two falls & a submission.
Substantial new releases from NoBusiness Records: Joe McPhee/Michael Zerang with Creole gardens: a New Orleans suite on LP and CD; Pascal Niggenkemper with Upcoming hurricane on LP and CD; Julius Hemphill/Peter Kowald Live at Kassiopeia on 2LP and 2CD; Lazro/Pauvros/Turner with Curare on LP and CD; Nobuyasu Furuya Quintet with The major (LP only); Ran Blake/David "Knife" Fabris with Vilnius Noir (LP only); the self-titled Hasler/Paeffgen/Berger (CD only); and Mockuno NuClear with Drop it (CD only).
Michael Moore has recently released 6 new CDs on his Ramboy imprint: Rotterdam by the Michael Moore Quintet; Amsterdam and Easter Sunday by the Michael Moore Quartet; the complete Available Jelly Baarle Nassau concert from 2007 on two CDs - Set 1 and Set 2; and Holshauser, Bennink & Moore Live in NYC. Intakt have 5 new discs: Barry Guy/London Jazz Composers Orchestra with the DVD Harmos: live at Schaffhause; the Co Streiff/Russ Johson Quartet In circles; the new duo CD from Ulrich Gumpert and Günter Baby Sommer, La Paloma; Camino Cielo Echo from the Tom Rainey Trio; and Irene Schweizer's To whom it may concern: piano solo Tonhalle Zürich. Over the last couple of months, Martin Davidson has brought out four new discs: on Emanem, Kay Grant/Alex Ward with Fast talk; and two Steve Lacy discs: The sun and Avignon and after volume 1; and on psi, The bleeding edge from Evan Parker/Okkyung Lee/Peter Evans. Evan Parker is also part of a trio with Wes Neal and Joe Sorbara At somewhere there on Barnyard Records from Canada.
Four brand-new CDs on Another Timbre: a large group, Skogen with Ist gefallen in den schnee; Annette Krebs/Anthea Caddy/Magda Mayas with Thread; Taus (Tim Blechmann/Klaus Filip) with Pinna; and Osvaldo Coluccino's Atto. The latest two CDs on Al Maslakh are Spill (Magda Mayas/Tony Buck) with Stockholm syndrome; and "A" Trio (Mazen Kerbaj/Sharif Sehnaoui/Raed Yassin) with Music to our ears and from Amirani, Likeidos by the EAOrchestra; and Again: The Shoreditch Trio live in Bruxelles (Gianni Mimmo/Hannah Marshall/Nicola Guazzaloca). The four new CDs on Mikroton are Heddy Boubaker/Mathias Pontevia/Nusch Werchowska with A floating world; Rhodri Davies/Mark Wastell Live in Melbourne; Stodgy by eRikm/Norbert Möslang; and El infierno musical (Christof Kurzmann/Ken Vandermark/Eva Reiter/Clayton Thomas/Martin Brandlmayr).
Ken Vandermark appears to be popping up everywhere. He's also on one of the three excellent new Kilogram CDs - as part of the Reed Trio's Last train to the first station, the other two being Inner Ear's Breathing steam; and the clarinet quartet, Ircha with Watching Edvard - as well as part of Sonore with Peter Brötzmann and Mats Gustafsson live from Cafe Oto/London on Trost. Joëlle Léandre is one of the bassists acting as duo partner for Vinny Golia in The ethnic project on Kadima (VG on ethnic reeds); and her Stone Quartet is Live at the Vision Festival on Ayler. The other Ayler release is Dennis Gonzalez Yells at Eels with Alvin Fielder: Resurrection and life. Three new Umlaut discs have been added: Donkey Monkey's Hanakana; Je Suis!'s Mistluren; and r.mutt's #03. The new Evil Rabbit disc is A cool tree by Lysander Le Coultre/Albert van Veenendaal.
Finally, if you haven't heard, an ICP box is in the works, bringing together all the music ever issued on ICP's 50 releases. Further information at http://www.icporchestra.com/icpbox/.
What was new on EFIP 1 January 2012
A little old news now, but very sad to hear that Hans Reichel died on 22 November 2011.
On the release front, it's particularly exciting to welcome back Georg Graewe's Random Acoustics label with a new web site (get the link from the labels index) and a Book/DVD release, grubenklang. reloaded. The book is a 120-page A4-landscape paperback of photographs, writings, interviews, comments and data and includes a DVD with approximately 70 minutes of video and 4 hours of audio from a wide range of musicians and groups. Full details on the linked page.
A major update on Creative Sources records with: Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø Solo; Martine Altenburger/Frédéric Blondy/Bertrand Gauget Vers l'ile paresseuse; Boris Hauf/Steven Hess/Keefe Jackson/Juun Proxemics; David Chiesa/Jean Sébastien Mariage Oort; Hans Koch/Thomas Rohrer/Antonio Panda Gianfratti Aicó; Ernesto Rodrigues/Guilherme Rodrigues/Gil Gonçalves/Nuno Torres/Abdul Moiméme/Armando Pereira/Carlos Santos/José Oliveira Suspensâo; Erik Carlsson The bird and the giant; Abdul Moimême/Ricardo Guerreiro Knettanu; Matthias Muche/Philip Zoubek/Achim Tang Excerpts from anything; Steve Beresford/Stephen Flinn/Dave Tucker Ink room; Heddy Boubaker/Ernesto Rodrigues/Abdul Moiméme Le beau déviant; Alon Nechushtan Dark forces; Marjolaine Charbin/Frans Van Isacker Kryscraft; Olaf Rupp/Joe Williamson/Tony Buck Wierd weapons 2; and Joe Williamson Hoard.
Mbari Música from Portugal have recently released the wonderful solo piano disc El laberint de la memòria by Agustí Fernández. MET-X from Brussels have released a new disc with Trevor Watts: 11 songs by Mishalle/Watts/Drame/Foliba/Marockin' Brass. And on Leipzig's Euphorium Records, there's Friedrichsschwerdt with Gay - Wir saunawirt.
What was new on EFIP 1 November 2011
Well, October has been really interesting, largely because of the Just Not Cricket! festival in Berlin. Billed as Three days of British improvised music, 6-8 October, it featured ensembles composed from Tom Arthurs, Steve Beresford, Tony Bevan, Matthew Bourne, Gail Brand, Lol Coxhill, Rhodri Davies, John Edwards, Shabaka Hutchings, Dominic Lash, Phil Minton, Eddie Prévost, Orphy Robinson, Mark Sanders, Alex Ward and Trevor Watts. Absolutely great! Just Not Cricket! was curated by Antoine Prum in collaboration with Tony Bevan and Helma Schleif and the concerts marked the beginning of a documentary film on the history, past and present, of the British free improvised music scene. More details can be found on their web site.
On the recordings front it is wonderful to see nato records back with a brand-new web site of their own (for the first time) and brand-new releases as well as some CD issues of old favourites. The new CDs are The rock on the hill by Lol Coxhill/Barre Phillips/JT Bates; and Snodland by Steve Beresford/Matt Wilson. Also new, but issued as part of the 3CD box Erik Satie et autre messieurs Airs de jeux is Tony Hymas' Correspondances Erik Satie Claude Debussy; the other two CD re-issues in the box being Sept tableaux phoniques Erik Satie (with Beresford, Coe, Coxhill, Wachsmann among others) and Ulrich Gumpert's Trois sarabandes et six gnossiennes. The other nato CD-reissues are Lol Coxhill's Instant replay and Jöelle Léandre's Les douze sons, both with a very varied list of improvising contributors, and Deadly weapons by Steve Beresford/David Toop/John Zorn/Tonie Marshall. Also from France, Ayler Records have just issued a clutch of new releases: Benjamin Duboc's 3CD Primare cantus; Marc Ducret's Tower vol. 2; the Szilárd Mezei Wind Quartet with Inne; and Daunik Lazro's Some other zongs. And new from the French/Swedith label Umlaut is a 3CD box of improvisations and tunes, including those from Swedish folk music, by Raymond Strid and Roland Keijser: Yellow bell. Jöelle Léandre's latest CD is a duo with György Szabados: Live at Magyarkanizsa.
As with the last update, there's a strong Berlin-based component to this one too, either from musicians at Just Not Cricket! or those based in Berlin. So, I've updated Steve Beresford's page after some period of dormancy; there's a CDR of Phil Minton and Roger Turner Live at Hull Art Lab from Poot; a new Trevor Watts multi-tracked CD on Jazzwerkstatt, The deep blue; Triatone (Mark Sanders/Ricardo Tejero/Pablo Pérez) with Airam airun; and a Foghorn Records upate that covers two Sunny Murray/Tony Bevan/John Edwards discs - Boom boom cat and I stepped onto a bee - and A big hand by Tony Bevan/Paul Obermayer/Phil Marks/Dominic Lash. The new absinthRecords release is a DVD by Diego Chamy, The intelligent dancer. The latest release on SÅJ Records is a duo by Rüdiger Carl and Sven-Åke Johansson - d'accord - and I've also added Ballistik I-IX by the Free Quartet as well as bringing the catalogue of SÅJ Records up-to-date. Another related addition is Danish border by Sven-Åke Johansson and Peter Ablinger on blumlein records. And an important addition to the literature of free improvisation (and other music) is the recently-published echtzeitmusik berlin.
The latest Incus CD is the first official version of Derek Bailey's Concert in Milwaukee, previously issued as a limited edition privately-issued cassette. The new version was produced by Steve Beresford and has notes by George E Lewis. Derek Bailey also appears (apart from Jöelle Léandre's Les douze sons, above) on Goldsmiths, a live recording from 1972 by Iskra 1903 on Emanem. Other Emanam/psi releases are Gratuitous abuse by Barrel (Alison Blunt/Ivor Kallin/Hannah Marshall) and Together in zero space from Grutronic and Evan Parker. Evan Parker is also part of a quartet with Mark Nauseef, Ikue Mori and Bill Laswell on Tzadik's Near nadir, and appears with the Turkish group konstruKt Live at Akbank Jazz Festival. The same label, Re:konstruKt, has also released Dolunay on which konstruKt play with Peter Brötzmann. And Peter Brötzmann is also on the just-issued Sketches and ballads by Full Blast & friends on Trost.
There is a Turkish link also through one of the latest Dutch releases on Evil Rabbit Records, where Mark Lotz and the group Islak Köpek were engaged in Istanbul improv sessions May 4th. Other new Dutch CDs include: Modern primitive by Klare/Platz/Kneer/Elgart (Evil Rabbit); Cut a caper from the Ig Henneman Sextet on Wig; and On the move by Michael Braam's Hybrid 10tet (BBB). And, talking of Dutch connections, Han Bennink is in duo with Aki Takase on Intakt's 2 for 2 while other new Intakt CDs are the Jürg Wickihalder European Quartet Jump!; and Daniel Erdmann/Samuel Rohrer's How to catch a cloud. The Danish label Ninth World Music has just brought out three new CDs Volume's Tungt vand; Cockpit Music's This doesn't look like our town; and Long as in short, walk as in run from Annie Lewandowski/Fred Frith, and there's one that somehow slipped through the net Flower head by The WIld Man's Band (Peter Brötzmann/Peter Ole Jørgensen/Peter Friis Nielsen/Fred Lonberg-Holm).
And thank you once again to Rocco Stilo for keeping me informed of those label addresses that I've neglected over the years and letting me know the new web sites: many changed for this update.
What was new on EFIP 1 September 2011
A substantial, very wide ranging and generally excellent set of new releases this time, covering most of the musicians on the site and very difficult to know where to begin. But particular mention must be given to Soldier of the road, the DVD about Peter Brötzmann that I mentioned in May this year. Finances were forthcoming and the resultant DVD is now available. Produced and directed by Bernard Josse, with interviews and photographs by Gérard Rouy it's virtually an autobiography with interviews of Peter Brötzmann in addition to Evan Parker, Han Bennink, Fred Van Hove and others.
My wife and I visited our daughter in Berlin in July and had - unplanned but very felicitous - a very musical few days. Caught two excellent gigs, one at b-flat with Claudia Binder, Michael Thieke and Michael Greiner (Michael G is on, for example, hatOLOGY's (Steve) Lacy Pool and in duo with Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky on Intakt's The salmon), the other at an intriguing performance space in Kreuzberg with Vorabend: Tobias Delius/Uli Kempendorff/Antonio Borghini/Christian Lillinger. Also met up with Sven-Åke Johansson, got an update of his recent activities and his recent releases. On his SÅJ label there is, on CD, Cool Quartett vol. II, the second Hudson Riv disc A foggy day and, on LP (wonderfully recorded and great playing), La vase/Slikke in duo with Christine Sehnaoui. And there's Kippenberger hören with Oliver Augst, Rüdiger Carl and Sven-Åke Johansson performing live with the text and recordings of Martin Kippenberger. Umlaut records have recently released a 4CD box of Sven-Åke Johansson in duo with Per Henrik Wallin (Joe Williamson on the most recent disc): 1974-2004 and SÅJ has also done the artwork for the recent Peeping Tom disc on Umlaut, Boperation, as well as their previous outing File under: bebop. Michael Renkel has sent me a copy of his duo with SÅJ on Kning Disk, Kalte Welle 102: dreizehn fragmente, and the new absinthRecords disc, Le goût de néant by Craig Hilton/Tomas Phillips.
The latest disc on John Butcher's Weight of Wax label sees the long-delayed release of a London session recorded in 2000 by Derek Bailey, John Butcher and Gino Robair: Scrutables. Six new discs from Martin Davidson in July/August: Trevor Watts/Veryan Weston with 5 more dialogues, Charlotte Hug's solo Slipway to galaxies, and Pascal Marzan/John Russell's Translations on Emanem; and Tony Marsh's Quartet improvisations, Misha Mengelberg and Evan Parker's duo It won't be called broken chair, and Squall line by Aleks Kolkowski and Ute Wassermann on psi. Agustí Fernández turns up in duo with Joe Morris on Ambrosia on Riti. Brand new on Ogun is From granite to wind by the new Keith Tippett Octet; Clean Feed has released Positions & descriptions, Simon H. Fell's large-scale composition premiered at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in November 2007. And the latest piece of heavyweight vinyl from Dancing Wayang is Anicca, a duo from Phil Minton and Okkyung Lee.
A substantial update from NoBusiness Records with one CD (double) - Billy Bang's Survival Ensemble with Black man's blues/New York collage - and several LPs: William Hooker/Thomas Chapin's Crossing points; Thomas Heberer's 2LP Klippe/One; Sei Miguel/Pedro Gomes' Turbina anthem; the Tarfala Trio's 2LP + 1x7" Syzygy; Red Trio + John Butcher with Empire; and Billy Bang's Survival Ensemble Black man's blues. The two new CDs from Red Toucan are In just by DuH (Frank Gratkowski, Szilard Mezei, Albert Markos and Martin Blume) and Polylemma from Joe Hertenstein/Thomas Heberer/Joachim Badenhorst/Pascal Niggenkemper (cross-ref with Thomas Heberer's NoBusiness LP above). Recent Intakt CDs include: Affinities from Marilyn Crispell/Gerry Hemingway; Trio 3 + Geri Allen Celebrating Mary Lou Williams; and Ingrid Laubrock Sleepthief with The madness of crowds.
Recent releases featuring Han Bennink include A B D in a trio with Ray Anderson and Christy Doran, a recent compilation on hatOLOGY of two earlier hat ART CDs, and two CDs on Paul Van Kemenade's Kemo label, Close enough with an extremely varied personnel from track to track and the thoroughly entertaining (not that the other isn't!) Who is in charge? from the quintet of Ray Anderson/Han Bennink/Frank Möbus/Ernst Glerum/Paul Van Kemenade. Paul Hession's page has been updated and two recent CDs added: Aligment by The Thin Red Line, and Do easy by the group Home of the Brave. And recent-ish CDs on Gino Robair's Rastascan label include Jon Raskin's Quartet; Gino Robair's "opera in real time" I, Norton; and Smonta Tutto (Giancarlo Locatelli/Alberto Braida/Gino Robair) with Piovono bici.
A major update for Joëlle Léandre this month with the appearance of Solo a book of interviews covering her life and work, finally in an English edition courtesy of Kadima Collective and with two discs, one DVD and one CD. Also, there is her excellent 2CD set recently released on Leo: Live at the Ulrichsberg Kaleidophon with two long pieces, one by her Tentet, the other by a trio completed by John Tilbury and Kevin Norton, and her new duo with Phillip Greenlief, That overt desire of object, on the new Relative Pitch Records.
The latest Incus release is Old sights, new sounds from the duo of Lol Coxhill and Alex Ward. And the very latest Rasterscan CD is a new recording from the duo of John Butcher and Gino Robair: Apophenia. I've added two more CDs featuring Veryan Weston: the sextet Sol6 on Red Note; and in duo with Jon Rose, Tunings & tunes on Heyermears Discorbie. And the latest batch of Intakt CDs are: Fred Frith's Clearing customs; Stephan Crump and Steve Lehman's Kaleidoscope and collage; What is there what is not from Biondini/Godard/Niggli; Hôtel du Nord from the Sylvie Courvoisier/Mark Feldman Quartet; and Elliott Sharp's 3CD The age of Carbon. Also new on Leo, in addition to the Joëlle release, above, are Shift (Martin Blume/Frank Gratkowski/Thomas Lehn/Phillip Zoubek/Dieter Manderscheid) with Songs from Aipotu; and Zlatko Kaucic's Emigrants.
The four latest discs from Another Timbre are: Sophie Agnel/Bertrand Gauget/Andrea Neumann with Spiral inputs; Tiziana Bertoncini/Thomas Lehn with Horsky Park; Choices from Lucio Capece/Birgit Ulher; and Michel Doneda/Jonas Kocher/Christoph Schiller with ///grape skin. New on Olof Bright is Peashot by Sven-Åke Johansson/Annette Krebs and on Creative Sources there's Knettanu from Abdul Moimême/Ricardo Guerreiro. The Polish label Monotype has recently issued three new CDs - Mark Wastell/Lasse Marhaug's Kiss of acid; Alessandro Bosetti's Royals; Lionel Marchetti's 2CD Une saison - but, in addition, is also distributing Bolt Records with interesting recent releases around the theme of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio - PRES revisited: Józef Patkowski in memorium (featuring Phil Durrant, Eddie Prévost and John Tilbury; Bohdan Mazurek: Sentinel hypothesis; and Zeitkratzer plays PRES - in addition to a full recording of Cornelius Cardew's The great learning.
Finally, there's a new version of Richard Shapiro's Cecil Taylor Sessionography. Apologies to Richard as this should have gone in on the previous update, but I forgot!
What was new on EFIP 1 May 2011
A wonderful array of new music from Emanem/psi which includes my favourite CD of the year so far - Veryan Weston's Different tesselations - alongside the excellent Life amid the artefacts by Otherways and Free Space; a re-issue (though withdrawn shortly after this update and so no longer available) of Steve Lacy's School days with a couple of Thelonious Monk Quintet tracks; Agustí Fernández and Joan Saura with Vents; DJ Sniff plays Evan Parker (with a sneaky reproduction of a famous LP cover) on ep; Trance map by Evan Parker and Matthew Wright; Lio Leo Leon by the London Improvisers Orchestra; and Figures and grounds by the Adam Linson Systems Quartet. Martin Davidson has also digitally remastered the original recording that has just been released on Ogun for the first time: Spiritual knowledge and grace by Louis Moholo-Moholo, Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani and the Rev. Frank Wright. Another strong link with these discs is the new CD on Heyermears Discorbie: Mouth wind, a duo between Lawrence Casserley and Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg.
Three new Peter Brötzmann discs: Brötzmann/Drake on BRÖ; Hairy Bones at Fresnes; and Roma by Brötzmann/Massimo/Nilssen-Love. And Soldier of the road, a film on Peter Brötzmann by Bernard Josse in collaboration with Gérard Rouy has recently been completed and previewed in Paris on 30 April. It is hoped to produce a DVD version and this is currently being worked on though finances could significantly delay production. For further information, please contact Gérard Rouy at gerard.rouy@nordnet.fr.
A new Simon Rose CD - solo baritone saxophone - has just been released on Not Two (excellent brief Badland tour in the UK in early April): Schmetterling and Simon H Fell (part of Badland of course) is part of a trio with Alex Ward and Joe Morris on Victo's The necessary and the possible. The new Erstwhile release is an intriguing 3CD set of duos from Radu Malfatti and Keith Rowe in a speciallly-produced fold-out cover: Φ. A previously unheard John Surman session has recently been unearthed and released as a combined CD/DVD package by Cuneiform: Flashpoint: NDR Jazz Workshop April '69. The new release on Amirani is Live at Bauchhund Berlin 2010 by the soprano saxophone duo of Gianni Mimmo and Harri Sjöström. And two new FMR releases feature Paul Dunmall and Paul Rogers: the Deep Joy Trio (with Tony Levin) Live in Austria; and, with Neil Metcalfe and Philip Gibbs, Sun inside.
The new Ayler Records CD is Tower vol. 1 by Marc Ducret; there are two recent Dutch releases by young improvising musicians: The Ambush Party; and Ka Da Ver by Premier Roeles. Finally, two recent CDs on Kadima: Live at the Total Music Meeting by Ariel Shibolet; and Deep Tones For Peace by Mark Dresser/Irina-Kalina Goudeva/JC Jones/Barre Phillips/Bert Turetzky
What was new on EFIP 1 March 2011
Very sad to hear of Tony Levin's death on 3 February; an obituary appeared in The Guardian last week.
The major news is the new FMP box set. out in mid-January. Im Rückblick - In Retrospect contains 12CDs of new, re-issued and previously unreleasted music, none of which has been on CD before, together with a 220-page LP-sized book documenting the history of FMP in words and pictures. The CDs, which are due to be released individually, are: Globe Unity Orchestra + guests: Baden-Baden '75; Steve Lacy Solo & Quintet: In Berlin; Schweizer/Carl/Moholo: Messer und...; Schlippenbach Quartet: At Quartier Latin; Peter Brötzmann solo: Wolke in hosen; Malfatti/Wittwer: Und? ...plus; Fred Van Hove: Piano solo; Peter Brötzmann Die Like A Dog: Close up; Manfred Schulze Bläser Quintett: Choral-Konzert; Manuela+ [Carl/Reichel/Zingaro/Kim]: Live in Berlin; Peter Kowald: Was da ist (live); and, finally, Tristan Honsinger/Olaf Rupp: Stretto. To bring things fully up-to-date this update also includes all the recent FMP single releases: Alexander von Schlippenbach: Piano solo '77; Cecil Taylor: The dance project; Olaf Rupp: Whiteout; Peter Kowald: Open secrets; Keune/Schneider/Krämer: No comment; Olaf Rupp/Marino Pliakas/Michael Wertmüller: Too much is not enough; and Christmann/Gustafsson/Lovens: TR!O.
One new label has been added, Mikroton Recordings, from Moscow, with all its current releases: Günter Müller: Cym_bowl; Alan Courtis/Jaime Genovart/Christof Kurzmann/Pablo Reche: Palmar zähler; Jason Kahn/Asher: Planes; the self-titled Dafeldecker/Kurzmann/Tilbury/Wishart; the 2CD compilation Klingt.org: 10 jahre bessere farben; Jason Kahn/Günter Müller/Christian Wolfarth: Limmat; and Clare Cooper/Chris Abrahams/Christof Kurzmann/Tobias Delius/Clayton Thomas/Werner Dafeldecker/Tony Buck: Hammeriver. Recent CDs from Monotype Records include: Bertrand Gauget/Franz Hautzinger/Thomas Lehn: Close up; Günter Müller's double CD Buenos Aires tapes; Cremaster: Noranta graus a l'esquerra; Franz Hautzinger/Masahiko Okura/Tetuzi Akiyama: Rebuses; Michel Doneda/Olivier Toulemonde/Nicolas Desmarchelier: Le terrier; and Olga Magieres/Tetsuo Furudate: Introduction of "Blue of noon".
The four latest CDs from Another Timbre are: John Cage's percussion piece Four4, performed by Simon Allen/Chris Burn/Lee Patterson/Mark Wastell; Chris Cogburn/Bonnie Jones/Bhob Rainey: Arena ladridos; Michael Pisaro: Fields have ears, performed by Philiip Thomas and others; and Looper [Nikos Veliotis/Martin Küchen/Ingar Zach]: Dying sun. The second CD from the new French PiedNu label is Audrey Chen: The gratitude of sentiment; and the latest CD from Potlatch is Bertrand Denzler's Tenor.
The latest Joëlle Léandre CD is a trio with Nicole Mitchell/Dylan Van Der Schyff on Rogueart: Before after; PanRec has just released two more music DVDs, the first being a record of the three-day Unlimited 23 festival with, among many others, Ikue Mori, Martin Blume, Sylvie Courvoisier, Chris Cutler, dieb13, Fred Frith, Thomas Lehn, Phil Minton and The Ex; the second Simon Nabatov Plays Herbie Nichols. On ESP there is Identical sunsets by Paul Dunmall/Chris Corsano; on Red Toucan Ardent grass by Frank Gratkowski/Jacob Anderskov; on Silkheart Kaiso stories by Other Dimensions in Music/Fay Victor; and the four new Ayler Records CDs are: Mark O'Leary/Peter Friis-Nielsen/Stefan Passborg: Støj; Laurence Cook/Eric Zinman: Double action; François Carrier Trio+1: Entrance 3; and Flow Trio: Set theory: live at The Stone.
Also quite a large number of edits across the site to try to improve accuracy and remove misleading information (in the bibliography and list of distributors, in particular)
What was new on EFIP 1 January 2011
Following on from an excellent concert (primarily of compositions) by John Tilbury, Michael Duch and Rhodri Davies at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in November - and not forgetting Joëlle Léandre's superb John Cage evening - there's a substantial update to Rhodri Davies' discography this month: Cornelius Cardew Works 1960-70 by the Tilbury/Duch/Davies Trio on +3db records; Copper fields by Cranc on absurd/Organized Music from Thessaloniki; Wunderkammern in trio with Lee Patterson and David Toop on Another timbre; Lodi by IST on Confront; SLW with Burkhard Beins, Lucio Capece, and Toshimaru Nakamura on Organized Music from Thessaloniki; and Bricolage by Muta on Al Maslakh; the other new release on Al Maslakh is Old and new acoustics by Sharif Sehnaoui. Related are two recent CDs featuring bass player Michael Duch: the solo Edges on +3db records; and Rød & blå by en en en on ØRA fonogram.
The very latest Intakt and Maya releases are: For a little dancin' by Oliver Lake/Christian Weber/Dieter Ulrich; Polisation from Lucas Niggli Big Zoom; Das buch der albträme by Urs Widmer/Michael Riessler; 7 by Der Rote Bereich; Le voyage by the Pierre Favre Ensemble; Camerata Kilkenny with Bach's The musical offering; Attikos by Savina Yannatou/Barry Guy; and the 2CD Morning glory from Agusti Fernandez/Barry Guy/Ramon Lopez. These last three musicians also appear on Valencia by the Ramón López freedom NOW Sextet on Xàbia Jazz.
The latest Emanem/psi CDs are: Paul Hubweber/Philip Zoubek with Archiduc concert: Dansaert variations; Charlotte Hug/Fred Lonberg-Holm with Fine extensions; and Cry, want by the big band of Hans Koller with Bill Frisell, and Evan Parker on two tracks. The Free Elephant label has recently released two new CDs: André Goudbeek/Christine Wodrascka/Peter Jacquemyn/Lê Quan Ninh with AGiiiiR; and Carl Ludwig Hübsch's solo, Die sache an sich.
There have been two great vinyl releases in the last few weeks: Needs! a solo by Mats Gustafsson on Dancing Wayang (who have now been added to the Independent labels page) and Crumbling brain by Full Blast + friends on Okkadisk. Also on Okkadisk are Artifact: live in St. Johann by iTi; and Wire and brass by The Engines. And while on formats other than CD, there is Sunny's time now, a film by Antoine Prum available as a 2DVD set.
On Ayler Records there is the Zed Trio with Lost transitions and Luis Lopes Humanization 4tet with Electricity; on Erstwhile there is Graham Lambkin/Jason Lescalleet Air supply and Michael Pisaro/Taku Sugimoto with 2 seconds/b minor/wave; on FMR there are three new Paul Dunmall CDs: Boundless by Paul Dunmall/Barry Edwards/Philip Gibbs/Mark Sanders; Live in Oxford by Atmospheres without oxygen 4; and MANU by Paul Dunmall/Philip Gibbs/Miles Levin; Paul Dunmall is also featured as main soloist on Ed Bennett's Dzama stories; on SLAM there is Mark Anderson/Paul Dunmall/Philip Gibbs/Tony Hymas with 21st Century V-bop; The path by the Outward Bound Trio; and Charles Hayward/Han-earl Park/Ian Smith + Lol Coxhill with Mathilde 253; on LJ Records there is Coast by Ove Johansson; Excursions by Susanna Lindeborg; and Thoughtful world by the Lindeborg/Johansson Duo; on Henceforth there is Shed by Toca Loca; and Binibon by Elliott Sharp; on Euphorium the very latest CD is White power blues by the New Old Luten Trio; and on Discus there is The leaf factory fallback by Inclusion Principle.