The Creative Music Sweepstakes Continues with Wonderful Recordings from:


John Zorn: Elegy - 20th Anniversary Edition! Aboriginal Music Society 2 LP+Book Box Set: Juma Sultan/Ali Abuwi with Phillip Wilson/Julius Hemphill/Frank Lowe/Abdul Wadud/Bobo Shaw..!

New Brotzmann Full Blast.. and Rare Brotzmann: CD's & LP's! Nate Wooley! Noah Kaplan/Joe Morris! Dave Liebman/Marc Copland! Greg Burk/Gerald Cleaver! Greg Kelly/Olivia Block! Amanda Monaco! Jerome Noetinger/Will Guthrie! Szilard Mezei! Bertram & Nancy Turetzky!

Zeitkratzer Does Stockhausen! Ayelet Rose Gottlieb/Matana Roberts/Avishai E Cohen! Graham Collier! Robert Black/John McDonald! Dan Joseph! Scanner! JB Floyd! Karl E H Siegfried/Greg Ward! Nils Frahm! Susanna Wallumrod!

Can - Tago Mago, and Throbbing Gristle, Expanded Editions! Arthur Russell Dinosaur L! Samla Mammas Manna! Algarnas Tradgard! International Harvester! Master Musicians of Jajouika and Lots More Fabulous Sonic Treasures!

Plus.. Great Box Sets and other great stocking stuffers - At Below Wholesale!




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The DMG Free Weekly In-Store Performance Series Continues With:

This Sunday, November 20th: Two CD Release Celebrations Featuring:
6pm: KEN ALDCROFT - Solo Guitar Compositions & Duo with WILLIAM PARKER!
7pm: KEN ALDCROFT / WILLIAM PARKER / ANDY HAAS TRIO!

Sunday, November 27th at 6pm:
JESSE DULMAN & JASON CANDLER - Great Tuba & Alto Sax Duo!

Sunday, December 4th at 6pm:
TOM BLANCARTE / LOUISE D. E. JENSEN / DAMON HOLZBORN !
New Contrabass / Saxophone / Electronics Trio!

Sunday, December 11th at 6pm:
PATRICK BRENNAN - Ronin Phasing - Solo Sax!

Rare Saturday Performance, December 17th at 6pm:
CLARINO - Amazing Clean Feed Trumpet/Reeds/Contrabass Trio featuring:
THOMAS HEBERER/JOACHIM BADENHORST/PASCAL NIGGENKEMPER!

Sunday, December 18th - OutNow Records Double-Header featuring:
6pm: YONI KRETZMER - Tenor & ANDREW DRURY- drums!
7pm: ROY CAMBPELL, JR. - trumpet & EHRAN ELISHA - drums!

There are no in-store performances on December 25th or January 1st, since we will be closed for the holidays


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THE CUNEIFORM RECORDS FESTIVAL!

..CONTINUES AT THE STONE - Now Through November 30th!

Cuneiform Records has long been the guiding light of independent labels worldwide. For more over 3 decades Steve Feigenbaum, founder of Cuneiform Records and head of Wayside Music, has provided a home for progressive and other challenging musics while many creative labels have bitten the dust.
There are more than 300 releases on Cuneiform, which includes historic recordings from Soft Machine, Brotherhood of Breath, Graham Collier and many other important musicians and composers.

The complete schedule is at the top of the gigs listing in pt 2 of this newsletter

..or go here https://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php


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Some of the GREATEST UNHEARD MUSIC you finally have your chance to hear!

JUMA SULTAN'S ABORIGINAL MUSIC SOCIETY With ALI ABUWI/EARL CROSS/GENE DINWIDDIE/PHILLIP WILSON/JULIUS HEMPHILL/ABDUL WADUD/FRANK LOWE/CHARLES 'BOBO' SHAW et al - Father of Origin [2 LP + CD + Book set; Ltd Ed OF 600] (Eremite 55/54/55; USA) LP [MTE-54] recorded 11 September 1970, Intermedia Sound Studios, Boston MA. Ali Abuwi hand drums & percussion, flutes; Earl Cross trumpet, mellophone, piano; Gene Dinwiddie tenor & soprano saxophone, flute; Juma Sultan bass, hand drums & percussion, ahoudt, wooden flutes; Ralph Walsh electric guitar; Philip Wilson drum kit; possible unidentified additional hand drummer/percussionist (1-3); unidentified background vocalists (4).
LP [MTE-55] recorded 2 April, 1971, AMS studio, NYC. Abuwi hand drums & percussion; Frank Lowe tenor saxophone & percussion; Sultan bass, hand drums & percussion, alto saxophone.
CD [MTE-56] recorded post 1969, probable location Tinker Street Cinema, Woodstock NY. Abuwi hand drums & percussion, oboe; Dinwiddie flute; Julius Hemphill alto saxophone; Rod Hicks bass; Charles "Bobo" Shaw hand drums & percussion ; Sultan bass, hand drums & percussion; Abdul Wadud cello; Wilson drum kit.
Deep archeology into a long buried & previously undocumented chapter in the history of the early '70s loft era brings forth the revelatory Father of Origin (MTE-54/55/56), Eremite's box set retrospective of percussionist/bassist Juma Sultan's Aboriginal Music Society. Drawn from Sultan's mammoth private archive of recordings, this ground-breaking set includes two audiophile LPs & a CD, a 28 page 12x12" book featuring previously unpublished photographs & ephemera & a detailed historical essay by jazz scholar Michael Heller, all manufactured to highest quality-freak standards. This old-school multi-media extravaganza exposes some of the most extraordinary & explosive free jazz of the period to the light of day for the first time.
Established by Sultan & percussionist Ali Abuwi in Woodstock in 1968, Aboriginal Music Society was both a radical arts presenting organization & a killer band. Dedicated to musician self-sufficiency and stubbornly non-commercial, AMS waged guerrilla cultural warfare against mainstream America from strongholds in rural Woodstock & from lofts on New York's Lower East Side. For ten years, Sultan & the loose alliance of like-minded musicians in AMS produced independent concerts, owned & operated its own recording studio, & collaborated with legendary artist-run New York loft space Studio We on performances & educational programs. But during that whole time, they never released a record.
Inspired by an emerging understanding of African cultures & the political ideas of the black power movement, AMS synthesized an African approach to percussion and collective performance with the revolutionary jazz of its day. In open-ended free improvisations they played an incendiary mix of massive trap kit & hand drum grooves & heaven-storming free jazz. The music was a cry of freedom, a declaration of black cultural artistic & political independence; & until now it has not been heard since the day it was made.
Father of Origin for the first time reveals the cross fertilization between the New York loft scene & an extremely rich Woodstock music scene, a powerful confluence of artists & sensibilities that has long gone unacknowledged. In Woodstock Sultan & Abuwi were tight with members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, including saxophonist Gene Dinwiddie, guitarist Ralph Walsh, bassist Rod Hicks, & the late, great AACM drummer Philip Wilson, all of whom crop up on different sessions in Father of Origin. Sultan himself easily bridged musical genres. He was a member of Jimi Hendrix's Gypsy Sun & Rainbows & performed in the band's legendary Woodstock Festival concert. In New York, AMS worked with a huge cross section of the wildly fertile & creative loft scene, including saxophonists Frank Lowe & Julius Hemphill, trumpeter Earl Cross, cellist Abdul Wadud, & drummer Charles Bobo Shaw, who are all heard from on Father of Origin.
The first of the set's two LPs, a 1970 Boston studio date, features a New York-Woodstock sextet - including Sultan, Abuwi, Dinwiddie, Wilson, Walsh, & Cross - engaged in a characteristically percussion-heavy improvisation. The African-to-free percussion maintains a relentless rhythmic pressure on the band, and Dinwiddie responds with a powerful performance whose genuine free-jazz fire will completely re-write the book on the late saxophonist. The fourteen minute "Ode to a Gypsy Son," Sultan's meditation on Hendrix, finds Sultan, Abuwi & Cross over-dubbing flutes, home-made wind instruments, chanting & percussion into a startlingly original & deeply psychedelic veneration.
The other vinyl disc features a private jam session by Sultan, Abuwi, & saxophonist Frank Lowe at the Broadway headquarters of AMS. Recorded in April 1971, it predates by several months Lowe's recording debut on Alice Coltrane's World Galaxy & by over two years his debut recording as a leader, the classic ESP side Black Beings, making it the earliest example of the free jazz titan's music currently available. The circumstances were casual, but definitely not the music. Lowe was reaching a coruscating early career peak & the percussionists goad him to some very intense playing. The session is the best illustration we have of Lowe's stated early ambition to fuse Pharaoh Sanders & John Coltrane into a single cosmic cry. The CD features yet another historic meeting - an undated concert with the Woodstock crew & a trio of Midwesterners recently relocated to New York - saxophonist Julius Hemphill, cellist Abdul Wadud, & drummer Charles 'Bobo' Shaw, all members of the St. Louis music & arts collective, Black Artists Group. Wadud & Hemphill are outstanding in this sprawling Aboriginal Music Society collective improvisation with soloists weaving in & out of the teeming drums & percussion.
Whenever they performed - whether in the studio, the bandstand, in private jam sessions or on the Woodstock village green - Juma Sultan & the Aboriginal Music Society played with a full sense of the occasion. Every opportunity to make music was an event and they knew it, throwing everything they had into the music every time. Father of Origin presents three of the most memorable of those events, played by a band previously lost to history.
Father of Origin is presented in a heavyweight telescoping box in paper wraps screen-printed by Alan Sherry at Siwa, who also screen-printed the LP sleeves, CD jacket & additional loose memorabilia. Audio restoration & mastering from the original analog tapes by Michael King at Reel Recordings. LPs cut by Steve Fallone at Sterling & manufactured by RTI.
Edition of 600 copies ONLY.
2 LP + CD + Book Box Set for $105


One of Zorn's most classic recordings - available again!

JOHN ZORN - Elegy: 20th Anniversary Edition (Tzadik 7302 B; USA) Composed, recorded and originally released in Japan in 1992, Elegy is one of Zorn's most important "file-card" compositions. Drawing inspiration from the writings of Jean Genet, it creates a mysterious musical world of erotic perversion, blending rock, classical, improvisation and more. Featuring some of San Francisco's most interesting musicians and long-time Zorn alumni, including Mike Patton (Faith No More, Fantomas), Trey 'Scummy' Spruance (Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3), David Slusser (George Lucas, David Lynch, Pixar) and William Winant (John Cage, Lou Harrison, Thurston Moore) - as well as David Shea, David Abel, and Barbara Chaffe - Elegy is a cinematic masterpiece.
Back in print after a year in limbo, this new digipack edition includes an expanded booklet beautifully redesigned by Chippy, filled with photos, testimonies and remembrances by the musicians. TZADIK ARCHIVAL SERIES
CD $14



A Bundle O' Brotzmann - both New and Rare!

ADAM MELBYE/HAKON BERRE/PETER BROTZMANN - A Tale Of Three Cities (Barefoot 08; EEC) Adam Pultz Melbye double bass; Hakon Berre drums; Peter Brotzmann saxophones, taragoto. A tale of three cities" is a result of five intensive days of touring in may 2007, when bassplayer Adam Melbye and drummer Hakon Berre invited german saxophone player and freeimpro legend Peter Brotzmann to join in for their diploma exam at the Academy of Music in Esbjerg. The exam was the first totally improvised in Denmark and resulted in the making of the MBB Trio - a hardhitting and and hardworking trio that delivers no-nonsense free jazz. The music is uncompromising and raw, with a wide dynamic range and builds on a high level of communication between the three musicians. The CD contains 3 improvised tracks from live shows in Hamburg, Esbjerg and Copenhagen.
CD $16

FULL BLAST [PETER BROTZMANN/MARINO PLIAKAS/MICHAEL WERTMULLER] + KEN VANDERMARK/THOMAS HEBERER/DIRK ROTHBRUST - Full Blast & Friends: Sketches & Ballads (Trost 107; EEC) The Full Blast trio of reedist Peter Brottzman, bassist Mario Piakas and drummer Michael Wertmueller are joined by Ken Vandermark, Thomas Heberer and Dirk Rothbrust for an excellent concert at Donaueschinger Musiktage, 2010.
If you know the score, you might actually think of the piece's title as a bit of an understatement. After all, it is made of 50 densely-written pages, which might cause some interpreters to lose track of sight. For Michael Wertmuller's composition Sketches And Ballads is full of seemingly unplayable rhythms, which hail from his extensive experience as a percussionist: complex 256th parts and 512th parts are no exception in Wertmuller's work. Even the visual appearance of it shows much of the dynamic and ferocity of his music. And these notations are really just "sketches." The piece was originally composed for the SWR to be played at the NOWJazz sessions of the Donaueschinger music days in 2010. The title's true meaning becomes apparent when Michael Wertmuller himself talks about his work. As it turns out, the term "sketch" is actually a reference to Miles Davis' Sketches Of Spain, especially because Wertmuller is very impressed by the density of Gil Evans' composition for Davis. Still, there is a deeper level as well. Although the score of Sketches And Ballads is written out in detail, it only fully unfolds its beauty and real meaning when the single particles are connected by free improvisation. This is one of the reasons why Sketches And Ballads clearly is a jazz piece -- the other reason being that the composed parts are really vibrating with a jazzy groove due to the free work of the musicians with the material and their jazz-like phrasing. The piece was performed by a sextet in October 2010 in Donaueschingen for the first time. The musicians were fronted by the trio Full Blast -- a critically-acclaimed group consisting of Peter Brotzmann (saxophone), Marino Pliakas (e-bass) and Michael Wertmuller himself on drums. For the realization of Sketches And Ballads, some friends joined the threesome for the performance. American saxophonist Ken Vandermark has often been linked to Full Blast and adds some special timbre to the baritone saxophone and the clarinet. German trumpeter Thomas Heberer is one of the most creative and versatile musicians in New York's Downtown scene; percussionist Dirk Rothbrust plays a wonderfully headstrong timbal. Although there are two percussionists involved, Sketches And Ballads only works with a few, very well-placed passages in fortissimo. The composed parts are strongly influenced by Wertmuller's highly sophisticated understanding of time. At the same time, there are also temptingly tender parts: the ballads which are almost tailor-made for Peter Brotzmann. The German saxophonist, internationally well-known for his distinctively raw sound on saxophone, clarinet and tarogato (a Hungarian woodwind), developed a seemingly more melancholic side. Brotzmann's touching sound acts as a counterpart to Wertmuller's fast-paced compostion. Michael Wertmuller accomplishes a lot with his piece: he provides the proliferating free jazz with certain compositional structures without holding back. Eventually the formally structured "neo free jazz" -- also incorporating intense rock elements -- still has the same core theme it used to have in the 1960s: criticizing the political state of affairs and social injustice that leave the masses paralyzed. Peter Brotzmann (tenor sax + tarogato), Ken Vandermark (baritone sax + clarinet), Thomas Heberer (trumpet), Marino Pliakas (e-bass), Dirk Rothbrust (percussion + timpani), Michael Wertmuller (drums + composition). Recorded live at the Donaueschinger Musiktage, 10/16/2010, recorded by SWR.
CD $17


PETER BROTZMANN & HAN BENNINK - Ein halber hund kann nicht pinkeln (FMP 420/Cien Fuegos 01; Germany) Peter Brotzmann, soprano, alto, tenor saxophones, a-clarinet, b-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, piano; Han Bennink, piano, drums, viola, banjo, bass clarinet.
Recording: A1 & A2 recorded live by Bernhard Arndt on April 8th & 9th, 1977 during the Workshop Freie Musik at the Akademie der Kunste in Berlin. A3, A4, A5 & B1 recorded by Jost Gebers on March 26th, 1977 at the Quartier Latin in Berlin. B2 to B5 recorded by Jost Gebers on March 27th, 1977, at the Quartier Latin in Berlin. Produced by Jost Gebers. This album was originally released on FMP, 1977. Original FMP catalog number: FMP 0420. THIS HAS NEVER BEEN RELEASED ON CD!
LP $32

PETER BROTZMANN/FRED VAN HOVE/HAN BENNINK - Tschus (FMP 230/Cien Fuegos 02; EEC) September 14th,1975 at the Quartier Latin in Berlin. A6 was recorded live by Jost Gebers on September 13th,1975 at the Quartier Latin in Berlin. Cien Fuegos presents live recordings circa 1975 Berlin from the legendary free music duo of German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brotzmann, Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist Han Bennink and pianist/accordionist Fred Van Hove. Instrumentation: Peter Brotzmann (clarinets, alto, tenor & bass saxophone, vocals), Fred Van Hove: (piano, accordion), Han Bennink: (drums, cymbals, Schwirrholz, accordion, clarinets, floor, walls, megaphone, etc.). Recorded by Jost Gebers on Sunday afternoon, September 14th, 1975 at the Quartier Latin in Berlin. A6 was recorded live by Jost Gebers on September 13th, 1975 at the Quartier Latin in Berlin. Produced by Jost Gebers. This album was originally released on FMP, 1970. FMP catalog number: FMP 0230. THIS HAS NEVER BEEN RELEASED ON CD!
LP $32

PETER BROTZMANN/FRED VAN HOVE/HAN BENNINK - "Balls" (FMP 20/Cien Fuegos 03; Germany) Cien Fuegos presents live recordings circa 1970 Berlin from the legendary free music duo of German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brotzmann and Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist Han Bennink and pianist Fred Van Hove. Instrumentation: Peter Brotzmann (tenor saxophone), Fred Van Hove (piano), Han Bennink (drums, gachi, shell, voice). Recording: Recorded by Wolfgang Bukatz on August 17th, 1970 in Berlin. Supervision by Hans-Dieter Frankenberg. Produced by Jost Gebers. This album was originally released on FMP, 1975. Original FMP catalog number: FMP 0020. [Atavistic CD edition is out-of-print]
LP $32


Just in from Hat!

NOAH KAPLAN QUARTET With JOE MORRIS/GIACOMO MEREGA/JASON NAZARY - Descendants (Hat ology 688; Switzerland) Noah Kaplan sax, Joe Morris gt, Giacomo Merega ebs, Jason Nazary dm.
The transparency of the quartet's intent and mode of operation allow hearing inside the music, from which details of descent and association emerge. In response, memory, and imagination, memory's mirror, suggest familiar analogies - such as the guitar's Appalachian folk arpeggios in Pendulum Music, the tenor saxophone's vocalization and the raga-like development of Descent, the bluesy edge of Esther, the multiple meters in Rat Man. Or the way Wolves comes together - the fluid electric bass fitting hand-in-glove with the guitar's fluttering modalities, the groove and textural incident of the drums, the soprano saxophone's shofar cry. As the improvisational mode coheres, everything relates to melody, even the rhythm section, urging without forcing, alert to alternatives in the moment. - Art Lange
CD $19

DAVE LIEBMAN/MARC COPLAND DUO - Impressions (Hat ology 689; Switzerland) [one CDs worth of material taken from the out-of-print 2CD Bookends set - hat ology 587] The two may have done little more than talk about the weather before they began playing the largely standards-focused Impressions, but from such mundane chitchat comes a performance that exemplifies the best of what each of these fine musicians does - but also, with the push-and-pull of two different musical personalities, demonstrates the ability and willingness of each to be drawn outside their normal predispositions, to create music that's the best of both, and something a little more, and a lot special. - John Kelman
CD $19


NATE WOOLEY - The Almond (Pogus 21061; USA) The Almond started as a short study for trumpet for the British website Compost and Height. Wooley, a rising young composer known mostly for his radical recontextualization of the trumpet in improvisation and jazz music, was, at the time, feeling constricted by the sound based language he had been using up to that point in both his live solo playing and his earlier solo records. His goal was to make a true solo trumpet record, using only the trumpet as it was intended to be played with no extended techniques. This challenge spawned a 20-minute piece that, at the surface level, was a quick, arcing narrative made up glacially shifting textures of pure pitched sound.
The process behind the piece was much more complex, however, as each pitch heard in the piece was made up of anywhere from three to ten different recordings of the trumpet recorded in different mutes, tunings, with different microphones, and in different rooms. The result was each note of the piece, now expanded to 70 minutes in its final version, takes on a synthesized aspect, sometimes sounding like a voice, others like an organ, but always maintaining some timbral tie to the trumpet. With the exception of one very low pedal tone, all the pitches are played on a regular embouchure, again a far cry from Wooley's usual work.
The piece grew to 70 minutes as a formal construction for the presentation of materials became clear to the composer. What is on the recording, The Almond, is a much different piece of work from the early, raw 20-minute study that spawned it. Now the materials appear and return in the same relaxed pace, but they seem to grow out of each other, spatialized in a way that suggests a more organic movement than the tedious tape preparation outlined above would suggest. Groups of pitches appear and recede, creating phantom overtones of ghostly singing as they interact with other harmonies already present in the work. In the original sketch, posted on Compost and Height, Wooley suggests that The Almond should be listened to at a high volume or better yet in headphones. The extended version of the work, here presented for the first time, is better experienced loud on speakers with time to listen in a relaxed way to the complete 70 minutes, allowing the listener to follow the entrance and exit of each new harmony.
CD $12


GREG KELLEY/OLIVIA BLOCK - Resolution (Erstwhile 63; USA) Greg Kelley plays trumpet and Olivia Block plays electronics and piano. Along with Nate Wooley & Peter Evans, Greg Kelley remains one of the few American trumpeters who has consistently experimented with his sound and approach to playing what is one of the most common of jazz instruments. After a series of some two dozen discs with players like Bhob Rainey & Paul Flaherty, Mr. Kelley has been releasing fewer discs than before. Chicago-based electronics explorer Olivia Block is more selective about her output which is mostly solos (3), duos or small groups. This is Greg and Olivia's first recorded collaboration and it is one of Erstwhile's finest gems.
It sounds as if Ms. Block has recorded some environmental sounds and then manipulates them while Mr. Kelley plays slow, selective, breath-like radiator hissing sounds. Mr. Kelley's distinctive sound is highly focused, yet he sounds as if he is standing inside a wind tunnel which is carefully being altered, the air waves shifting in different layers. Ms. Block plays sparse piano on "How Much Radiance Can You Stand?", occasionally tapping or rubbing inside the piano while Kelley plays high end, taught, eerie feedback-like fragments. It sounds as if Ms. Block has recorded the sounds of someone breaking (metal?) objects, the sudden nature of which sounds violent at times. Greg sounds as if he is holding a thin piece of metal up to his trumpet on "Some Old Slapstick Routine" while Olivia plays minimal dark notes on the piano, the overall effect is unnerving like a disorienting dream sequence. Each sound or group of sounds on this disc seems to have created with great attention to detail. Hence, this disc works as a whole thought movie, evoking a series cinematic images in one's mind's eye or ear. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $13

JEROME NOETINGER/WILL GUTHRIE - Face Off (Erstwhile 64; USA) Featuring Jerome Noetinger on Revox tape machine & electronics and Will Guthrie on drums, percussion, microphones & electronics. We know Mr. Noetinger from his collaborations with Sophie Agnel, Lionel Marchetti, Erik M and members of Voice Crack. Although Australian percussionist Will Guthrie has worked with Bucketrider saxist Adam Simmons, I am much less familiar with his previous work.
These are strong, focused and intense sounds even though they are quite sparse. Often, it doesn't really matter what the instrumentation is since the results are more important that knowing what is actually going on. Mr. Guthrie's selective percussion is used minimally, just here and there. Mostly I hear just highly selective sounds, some electronic, some acoustic but every sound counts. Specks or sounds fragments are delicately applied to the blank, sonic open space. The seamless way that these sounds blend together makes this both mysterious and mesmerizing. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $13


GREG BURK TRIO With JONATHAN ROBINSON/GERALD CLEAVER - The Path Here (482 Music 1077; USA) On his 5th release for 482 Music, the Rome-based pianist travels forward into his past, reuniting with old friends Gerald Cleaver (drums & percussion) and Jonathan Robinson (bass & thumb piano). Mr. Burk also plays a washint, which is an Ethiopian end-blown wooden flute. This session was recorded in a studio in Rome, Italy in January of 2009. This disc starts off a lovely, elegant piece called "Song for IAIA" which has a somewhat gospelish vibe. Each song seems to be more adventurous or complex than what has come before. "Look to the Asteroid" has a strong, two handed theme with a couple of different lines intersecting with a stimulating midsection of unaccompanied piano. "Child's Dance" features wooden flute, thumb piano and hand percussion and sounds like it was recorded in an African village, the mood is sublime and mysterious. Mr. Burk writes consistently enchanting songs with rich melodies and often elegant, harp-like piano flourishes. All of the songs here are originals and mostly written by Mr. Burk with one by Mr. Robinson and one by Mr. Cleaver. "BC" is a incredibly quick piece and tight piece in which the trio sounds as if they are about to spin out of control, the adrenalin is pumping on this one, whew! Time for some strong coffee. Most of these songs have a most uplifting quality and the trio swings with solid swagger at times. This is a most exciting and consistently crafty piano trio, certainly one of this year's best offerings. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $15


GRAHAM COLLIER MUSIC With HARRY BECKETT/HENRY LOWTHER et al - The Day Of The Dead/October Ferry/Symphony Of Scorpions/Forest Path To The Spring [2 CD set] (BGO 1026; UK) Day of the Dead: A suite based on Malcolm Lowry's writings is one of the most successful fusings of spoken word and jazz on disc. While the concept of jazz accompanying poetry was, of course, not new when this was composed, rarely if ever have the two been so inextricably and magnificently intertwined. Collier writes for his 12-piece ensemble so that every word of the selections from Lowry's work - as read sonorously and convincingly by John Carbery - is seamlessly connected to the music, a rare and laudatory accomplishment. Cadences rise and fall, and the music is remarkably a part of the recitation, and not merely background. It helps, of course, that all the words are clearly articulated and easily understood, and that Lowry's writings are hypnotically revealing, particularly as recited beautifully by Carbery.
Symphony Of Scorpions: Graham Collier, Harry Beckett, Pete Duncan, Mike Page, Malcolm Griffiths, Art Theman, Ed Speight & John Cameron Mitchell. "Symphony of Scorpions, recorded late in 1976, was loosely based around Malcolm Lowry's shambolic novel of the same name. Written more as a saxophone concerto to showcase the work of sax great Art Theman, the ensemble Graham Collier formed for the date numbered 12 pieces, as it did for the previous year's New Conditions, and included five members of his regular group, including Harry Beckett, Ed Speight, John Webb, Roger Dean, and, of course, Collier himself. In addition to Theman, Peter Duncan, Henry Lowther, Malcolm Griffiths, Tony Roberts, Mike Paige, and John Marshall filled out the band. It is through the solo statements by Theman that new themes, motions, and directions are uncovered in Collier's loosely written text. At times indulgent, and at others very sparse, the ensemble moves along with excellent focus, drama, and tension, allowing for groupings of smaller units inside the ensemble to carry the motion of this seemingly directionless ramble forward - all the while honing in on Collier's small-figured place of balance within movement. This is an arduous listen, but is far more successful at sustenance and creative dialogue than New Conditions was, and showcases Collier as having fully embraced the vanguard, and as being very comfortable writing for such a large group." - Thom Jurek
Included on this disc are also other pieces which are impossible to get!
2 CD set for CD $20


AMANDA MONACO With AYELET ROSE GOTTLIEB/DAPHNA MOR/SEAN CONLY/SATOSHI TAKEISHI - The Pirkei Avot Project, Vol 1 (Genevieve 30603; USA) Amanda Monaco leads AM4 with Jeff Davis, and her newer quartet Deathblow with Michael Attias, and co-leads Playdate featuring saxophonist Wayne Escoffery. In 2010 Amanda released two critically acclaimed recordings - Deathblow's I Think I'll Keep You (LateSet Records) and then the self-titled debut CD of Playdate (Posi-Tone Records), and most recently, the 2nd AM4 album Intention (Innova)
Amanda's recent project Pirkei Avot draws its inspiration from a collection of texts with the same name. Containing over six hundred years of rabbinical teachings, the Pirkei Avot was compiled in the third century C.E. and has been traditionally studied ever since. Monaco has composed and recorded a suite of music inspired by these teachings, using excerpts as the lyrics for each piece, sung in the original languages they were written in, Hebrew and Aramaic. Joining her on the recording are Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, vocals; Daphna Mor, recorders and ney; Sean Conly, bass; Satoshi Takeishi, percussion.
CD $13

AYELET ROSE GOTTLIEB With AVISHAI E COHEN/MATANA ROBERTS/SHAHAR LEVAVI/MATT MITCHELL/ED SCHULLER/BOB MEYER - InTernal-ExTernal (Genevieve 30602; USA) Vocalist Ayelet Rose's original compositions represent a range of musical approaches including free improvisations inspired by Gottlieb's explorations of color and sound, and robust compositions infused with Middle Eastern sounds and erotic Biblical texts. She glides with ease from Hebrew to English to wordless sound, and she uses every "language" with striking sophistication, integrating her international roots with musical influences such as Betty Carter, Ornette Coleman and 1950s Egyptian chanteuse, Oum Koulthum - drawing upon traditional jazz, free improvisation, and her Jewish and Middle Eastern roots.
Each song on her CD InTernal/ExTernal is unique, yet the album flows from beginning to end. It starts with "Peace," the oft-played but rarely sung jazz standard by Ornette Coleman, with Gottlieb's own text describing the emotions that accompany a journey from her home town of Jerusalem. It ends with Gottlieb's original "Internal/External," a largely improvised piece with text from an essay by painter Wassily Kandinsky.
On "Al Mishkavi" ("As I Lay"), Gottlieb takes an erotic Hebrew text extracted from the biblical "Song of Songs", singing it as a powerful duet with trumpeter Avishai E Cohen. Gottlieb's use of her talents is perhaps the most straightforward here: the song's structure is simple and strong; she treats every word with care, and sings with a deep, warm sound to express the underlying message about love. Other tracks, though, have her integrating into group improvisations that foray into unknown worlds, and still others have her vocalizing sounds beyond your imagination. Gottlieb has been compared to Bjork, the late Jeanne Lee and other great singers. Their shared quality is simply this: they all paved their own roads.
CD $13


BRYAN AND THE HAGGARDS [BRYAN MURRAY/JON LUNDBOM/JON IRABAGON/MOPPA ELLIOTT/DANNY FISCHER]//MERLE HAGGARD - Still Alive And Kickin' Down The Walls (Hot Cup 111; USA) New York's Most Decorated Avant-Country Instrumental Merle Haggard Cover Band, featuring: Bryan Murray - Tenor Sax, Jon lrabagon - Alto Sax, Jon Lundbom - Guitar, Moppa Elliott - Bass, Danny Flscher - Drums
CD $13


SZILARD MEZEI TRIO - Tisza (Slam 532; UK) Szilard Mezei on viola & compositions; Ervin Malina on double bass and Istvan Csik on drums & percussion. This is Mezei's second CD on SLAM, following Slam 521 "Tank/Stump" by his Octet. Mr. Mezei is one of the most prolific musicians/composers to emerge from Eastern Europe in recent years with more that two dozens discs on numerous labels (Leo, Red Toucan, Not Two, Creative Sources, etc.) Although Mezei is a gifted improviser, it is his ability to draw from Hungarian folk influences, that makes his music distinctive. Viola led trios are pretty rare but this one is extra special. "Along the Coast" opens and reminds me of Billy Bang's fire music intensity and freedom. Each song has a different structure, providing a variety of challenges each member of the trio. "Rovas/Natch" has a sort of rather tribal beat with pounding drums and devilishly difficult viola lines. Although all of this music is adventurous, none of it is completely free. It is consistently exciting and has that edge-of-your-seat type of fascination. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery.
CD $16

DOMINO [MARCO COLONNA/FRANCESCO LO CASCIO/LILLO QUARANTINO] - Domino's Tales (Slam 533; UK) Featuring Marco Colonna on bass clarinet, baritone & soprano saxes & flute, Lillo Quaratino on bass and Francesco Lo Cascio on vibes & percussion. This recording session develops as a choral tale, a kind of emotional brainteaser where single pieces belong to each of the three musicians, combining in the elements of play and surprise. Creative experience, poetry of the moment, intensity of expression suggest the ideal rules of a performance where the tellers, as in a domino game, reveal their confidence and set out to discover their vision of freedom. Once again, the UK-based Slam label introduces us to a new trio of courageous Italian musicians.
This is a thematic sort-of suite which is titled as "Tales of...". Each tale evokes a different mood or scene which then evolve in cinematic ways. The first tale features some playful bass clarinet, frollicking vibes and subtle bass. Often one instrument (like the bass clarinet) will start a piece off and then the others will join in when a certain vibe or groove is established. For "The Tale of Souls", the vibes kick off the central theme as some simmering baritone slowly enters. Whether Mr. Colonna is playing bass clarinet, bari or soprano sax or flute, he is an immensely creative player. You can tell that this trio has been playing together for a while and that they have worked hard at developing a group sound. Although each tale tells a strong story, each one is also connected to a thread or stream. Sort of like three strong characters in a fascinating play that develops in a most organic way with excellent results on various levels. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $16

MARTIN PICKETT GROUP With PAUL JEFFERIES/BEN TWYFORD/STEVE WATERMAN/MARK BASSEY - Lyric Pieces (Slam 286; UK) Martin Pickett - Piano, Steve Waterman - Trumpet and Flugelhorn, Mark Bassey - Trombone, Paul Jefferies - Double Bass, Ben Twyford - Drums. This new CD from pianist and composer Martin Pickett features a 5-piece band, including two of the finest brass improvisers in the UK. Augmenting the well-established trio of Martin on piano, Paul Jefferies on bass and Ben Twyford on drums (aka 3BPM), are Steve Waterman on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Mark Bassey on trombone. Together they navigate their way through Martin's challenging yet lyrical compositions to produce music with a directly emotional impact.
CD $16


DAN JOSEPH - Tonalization (For The Afterlife) (Mutable 17545; USA) Dan Joseph Ensemble: Dan Joseph (hammer dulcimer); Tom Chiu (violin), Loren Dempster (cello); Marija Ilic (harpsichord); Leah Paul (flute); Danny Tunick (percussion). Special guest Thomas Buckner (baritone).
Mutable Music is pleased to announce the release of the latest collection of chamber works by New York-based composer and hammer dulcimer player Dan Joseph. The central work is the 33-minute multi-movement sextet Tonalization (for the afterlife) scored for flute, violin, cello, marimba, harpsichord and hammer dulcimer. The work, composed in 2009, was the composer's first new large-scale piece to follow his 2006 collection Archaea and marked the return of the Dan Joseph Ensemble to New York's concert stages after a two-year hiatus. Along with the accompanying duos Wind Patterns and Music Primer, these three works formed the core of the ensemble's repertoire from 2009 to 2011. While discernibly tethered to minimalist and post-minimalist idioms, the works on this CD draw strongly from the composer's decade in California (1991-2001), where he came into contact with West-coast pioneers Terry Riley, Lou Harrison and Pauline Oliveros and studied Chinese and near Eastern folk music. The works thus combine the rhythmic drive of pulse minimalism with a contemplative, improvisational approach. Ever present, however, is the composer's strong sense of timbre and unabashed ear for pure beauty. Tonalization (for the afterlife) is dedicated to the memory of Suzanne Fiol who tragically lost her battle with cancer at the time of the work's creation. Her sudden death in October 2009 affected the composer deeply, as it did so many of those who came to know and appreciate her through their involvement with Issue Project Room, which she founded. Wind Patterns was composed for flutist Jackie Martelle and was premiered with her in New York in November 2002. It has subsequently been included in Dan Joseph Ensemble programs in an arrangement for cello and hammer dulcimer as well as in its original scoring.
Music Primer for baritone and hammer dulcimer sets the first ten lines of Lou Harrison's poetic 1971 prose book Lou Harrison's Music Primer. It was written for Thomas Buckner and reflects musically on the time the composer spent living in the San Francisco Bay Area, a place where Mr. Buckner also spent a number of important years. The piece is divided into ten sections - one for each line - and allows a good deal of improvisation and interpretive freedom.
CD $14

J B FLOYD With LIANA PAILODZE - Another Time And Place: Music For Pianist And Yamaha Disklavier (Mutable 17546; USA) JB Floyd, Yamaha Disklavier; Liana Pailodze, Yamaha Disklavier. This compilation of JB Floyd's Keyboard Music with the aid of the Yamaha Disklavier, spanning over 30 years of his career, signifies the great breadth of his creative experience and his surprising individuality in such diverse disciplines of musical style. JB Floyd was composing at the age of 12 in the style of boogie-woogie emulations of the great pianists, Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons, whose recordings were somehow available to him at the time even in the backwoods of East Texas. Following always his interests in both classical and jazz genres, Floyd emerged as a formidable performer in both paths of musical expression and also developed his own voice as a composer bridging both styles.
"TRIBUTE For my Father"(1991) is a live performance by the composer. "SOLOS AND SEQUENCES I"(1999) is a composition for pianist and Yamaha Disklavier performed here by Liana Pailodze. "VARIATIONS-1979" was the first composition to capture the kind of music that Floyd has been improvising all his life. "WAVES: THE EBB AND FLOW"(1981) is related to the sounds of the Atlantic Ocean and its powerful, incessant wave motion. "SOLOS AND SEQUENCES II, for pianist and Yamaha Disklavier, performed by Liana Pailodze. The unique sounds of the Buchla Synthesizer inspires "PRINCE OF PENTACLES"(1979) by transforming the piano to enable it to realize many more possibilities of timbre. "ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE (1993), for Yamaha Disklavier, virtual instruments, percussion and solo pianist, performed by Doug Floyd and JB Floyd.
CD $14


Zs [SAM HILLMER/BEN GREENBERG/IAN ANTONIO] - 33 [2 x 7" set; Ltd Ed of 300] (Northern Spy 016; USA) "Brooklyn's Zs have always walked a jagged line between 21st Century composers and bratty art-punks; their voluminous, decade-strong output evokes everything from Schoenberg's jagged beep-boops to Glass's hypnotic minimalism to the headbanging abandon of crusty loft-party noiseniks." - Village Voice
Sam Hilmer on tenor sax and effects, Ben Greenberg on guitar, Ian Antonio on drum set (electronic & acoustic). Over the past 12 years, Zs have been headed slowly, but surely into this slow motion psychedelic wonderland where they have arrived. Here on 33, i can only ponder the speed of the record. Loose guitar lines that fall in and out of place, a horn processed by effects that help change the shape of the room from a distance, and the drums that bring forth a harrowing feeling crawling up your spine. Even if played on a different speed the transformative effect takes shape, so it depends on your mood which rpm you will choose. Perhaps it is necessity to leave things open ended with possibilities for the listener to parallel with an ever evolving line-up and modular input from various musicians over the years. Or one could see it that Zs would rather break free of the chamber jazz moniker that was possibly being carved on their creative tombstone, but they have awakened with a whole new life, one that will have you scream like Dr. Frankenstein, "It's alive!". Definitely the weirdest Zs recording to date and I like it! Recommended! - Chuck Bettis/DMG
2 x 7" set for $14

HUBBLE [BEN GREENBERG] - Hubble Drums (Northern Spy 015; USA) Hubble is Ben Greenberg's solo moniker for his sonic explorations; with the sole exception of an accompaniment on only one track ("Nude Ghost") which features Matt Papich, Joe Williams, and Jon Leland (whom which no instrumentation is credited). To add to the mystery, one of the tricky things here is that there is absolutely no track titles listed anywhere on this disc, so you will have to listen carefully ('cuz I'm not going to give away the answer). On Hubble Drums, Greenberg's multiphonic guitar playing builds up his compositions, layer upon layer, with the aid of loop pedals as well with some serious chops. You can hear the heavy influence of the early minimalists in his work, leaning especially close to the composers who utilized phasing (Steve Reich & Terry Riley). Here Ben symphons those influences and places them into the realm of rock ala psychedelic intensity. Even after listening to the entire recording you will be wondering why this Hubble recording is called Hubble Drums, the only reason I can come up with is a vague notion that he transcribed some drum compositions for guitar, but your guess is as good as mine. A little over 40 minutes to put you in a different headspace. For fans of the early minimalist composers or of the godfather of loop guitar, Robert Fripp. Recommended! - Chuck Bettis/DMG
CD $14


New on Transparency!

HELIOS CREED - Galacti Octopi (Transparency 353; USA) Helios Creed's first album in five years, "Galactic Octopi" is a space rock masterpiece that is more than worth the wait! With LUX VIBRATUS on bass and ALEPH KALI on drums. The record is nothing short of amazing, Helios really shreds on guitar, it is oh-so-psychedelic, a real kiss-to-the-brain, I can honestly can say that it is one of Helios' best records in years, it's incredible. - Michael Sheppard
CD $13

ALESSANDRA CELLETTI - Crazy Girl Blue (Transparency 362; USA) Featuring Alessandra Celletti on piano & vocals with Maurizio Mansueti on theremin and Daniela Bombelli on electronics (both 1 track each). Ms. Celletti is a Rome-based musician, vocalist and composer and this is her third disc for the Transparency label. On a previous CD, Ms. Celletti collaborated with Hans-Joachim Roedelius, German keyboard wiz who was a member of Cluster, Harmonia and who worked with Eno. '' 'Crazy Girl Blue' expresses my world, my fascination for the unseen and my passion for flying. And the blue? It has always been my favorite color, perhaps because it is the color of the sky and freedom. For years, piloting the glider has taught me to develop the insight to recognize the direction of the winds and the color of the clouds. There is a common point between the discipline that I learned to fly a glider and the one it takes to play the piano: it is the lightness.'' -- Alessandra Celletti.
"Ms. Celletti's own music is lovely, elegant, magical fairy tale-like piano. Her music is closer to older forms of classical music than anything contemporary. Alessandra sounds like she playing for the children of the world or the children in each of us. Often sad and solemn, I found myself nearly moved to tears while listening this. I felt like I was haunted by some ancient memory that I couldn't quite bring into focus yet it felt somehow familiar. This is good music to mellow out to, especially if your children drive you crazy sometimes. - BLG
CD $13

CRACKED LATIN - Alone With You (Transparency 329; USA) Cracked Latin are/is an immensely charming, silly, sly octet from New York I believe (where this was recorded). Post-surf, cheesy yet somehow cute and still crafty. Although I can't take this music very seriously, I do notice that there a good deal of work involved with the arrangements. When I read through some of the lyrics I noticed some surprising references to Zappa and even the mention of 'Their Satanic Majesties Request' by the Stones?!? Sometimes you got to be patient and look below the surface to find the hidden treasures of what might be actually be a work of art camouflaged as something too silly to take seriously. In the current times of daily stress and some much bullsh*t in the news, it does feel good take a vacation and dance around to an odd little treasure like this disc. Good work Mr. Sheppard (head of Transparency). - BLG
CD $13


BERTRAM TURETZKY & NANCY TURETZKY - Spirit Song: Music For Contrabass & Flute (ImaginaryChicago 09; USA) Long-awaited new recording by the groundbreaking innovator who redefined the bass as a solo instrument!
Subtitled "Music for Contrabass & Flute," the new album features Mr. Turetzky's wife and musical partner, flutist Nancy Turetzky. Over the past 50 years, the couple has created a vast repertoire of new works for this surprisingly simpatico instrumental pairing. Spirit Song includes works spanning a 650-year period - from Jacopo da Bologna's 14th-century madrigals to premiere recordings of new works by John Alexander, Teppo Hauta-aho, Peter Racine Fricker and Turetzky himself.
CD $14

KARL E H SIEGFRIED With GREG WARD/FRANK ROSALY - Portrait Of Jack Johnson (ImaginaryChicago 07; USA) Critically-acclaimed straight-ahead jazz album from the award-winning Chicago bassist/guitarist/composer!
The Boxing Bassist Suite opens the new recording by portraying three boxing champions who also played bass: Jack Johnson, Archie Moore and Ezzard Charles. Seigfried - who writes for East Side Boxing and trained as a boxer - has composed pieces capturing the flamboyant styles of the champs inside and outside the ring.
Portraits in Jazz rounds out the recording with dedications to jazz artists Seigfried has worked with or who have inspired him. The pieces span rural blues, New Orleans street music, swing, bebop, funk and free jazz.
CD $14

THE NEW QUARTET [KARL E H SIEGFRIED/GREG WARD et al] - Blue Rhizome (ImaginaryChicago 03; USA) The New Quartet brings together four exceptional performers with greatly varied backgrounds to create works that cross musical boundaries and find common ground between different world music traditions. Peoria saxophonist & flutist Greg Ward is a sideman with some of Chicago's straight-ahead jazz masters. Israeli violinist Carmel Raz is an experienced chamber musician and soloist in the European classical tradition. The Chicago rhythm section of bassist & guitarist Karl E. H. Seigfried and drummer & percussionist Chris Avgerin anchors many groups on the cutting of edge of both jazz and rock in the city.
CD $14


ROBERT BLACK/JOHN McDONALD - Modern American Bass [2 CD set] (New World 80722; USA) Performed by Robert Black (bass) and John McDonald (piano). "In the twentieth century, a series of instruments and ensembles have found their repertoire expanding exponentially and their place on the classical stage suddenly front and center, instead of accompanying from the wings. The contrabass and viola were the last of the string instruments to make the leap to this prominence, and Robert Black's recital on these discs shows the remarkable emergence of the former as a leading voice for the most intimate and imaginative musings of American composers from the last century. Black's program falls into two parts. Disc 1 features music for bass and piano, Disc 2 the instrument unaccompanied. It also breaks down chronologically, with the former works largely earlier and more traditional in character, the latter later and more experimental/avant-garde. The works for accompanied bass show the first step taken toward instrumental 'equality': it becomes a lyric partner with the piano like any other string instrument. Composers come to realize that the exceptional range of the instrument, combined with its rich and differing timbres from one register to another, make it uniquely expressive. And the bass's importance in jazz is mirrored in a new interest in active rhythms and pizzicato textures. When we move to the unaccompanied works, a new conception of the bass emerges. In the postwar years, a series of factors combined to create a new instrumental practice, one combining elements of theatricality, a concentration of unusual sounds and techniques, and extreme virtuosity." Featured works: Joseph Iadone: Sonata for Double Bass and Piano (1944/1950); Halsey Stevens: Arioso and Etude (1953); Quincy Porter: Lyric Piece for Contrabass and Piano (1950); Jerome Moross: Sonatina (1967); Otto Luening: Suite for Bass and Piano (1958); Johanna Beyer: Movement for Double Bass and Piano (1936); Barney Childs: Sonata for Bass Alone (1960); George Perle: Monody II (1962); William Sydeman: For Double Bass Alone (1959); John Cage: 59 1/2" for a String Player (1953); James Tenney: Beast (1971); Jacob Druckman: Valentine (1969).
2 CD set for $28


ZEITKRATZER [REINHOLD FRIEDL/FRANK GRATKOWSKI/FRANZ HAUTZINGER et al]//KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN - Old School: Karlheinz Stockhausen (Zeitkratzer 12; Germany) Recorded live on April 12, 2011 at Kino Siska, Ljubljana, Slovenia, and April 14, 2011 at Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, Zagreb, Croatia. This is the fourth release in the Zeitkratzer Old School series. The first three CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage, James Tenney and Alvin Lucier have been highly-acclaimed. This new release is dedicated to the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Karlheinz Stockhausen is one of the most outstanding composers of the 20th century. After his early, super-organized compositions as Gesang Der Junglinge, Kontakte or Studien 1 and 2, he conceived his From The Seven Days works as a precisely-organized text composition. Not one single note is written, but it is exactly defined: what kind of material the musicians should choose and how they should play it. Length, tempi, etc., are not given. Zeitkratzer had the chance to work on this piece in Ljubljana in the Spring of 2011, and tried to develop their approach to interpret the texts as precisely as possible, in the traditional way of score-reading. As Stockhausen pointed out: "musical meditation is not sentimentality, but ultra alertness and -- in the lightest moments -- creative ecstasy." Set sail for the sun. Directed by Reinhold Friedl. Burkhard Schlothauer (violin); Anton Lukoszevieze (violoncello); Ulrich Phillipp (double bass); Reinhold Friedl (piano); Christian Lillinger (percussion); Frank Gratkowski (reeds); Hild Sofie Tafjord (French horn); Hilary Jeffery (trombone); Martin Wurmnest (sound). Mixed by Martin Wurmnest, mastered by Rashad Becker, produced by Reinhold Friedl.
"I do not want a spiritualistic session. I want music." --Karlheinz Stockhausen
CD $16


SCANNER [ROBIN RIMBAUD] - Timelapse/(Mnemosyne) (Bette 08; UK) This release features Scanner's classical/electronica score to the full-length ballet for Dutch National Ballet, which premiered at Het Muziektheater on June 17th 2011, commissioned for the Holland Festival. Choreographed by Britain-born Berlin resident David Dawson, the work reflects upon the legends from Greek mythology, across a range of moods. Spooky, sexy, percussive strings resonate a cinematic tension, while a disco-from-hell arrives and disappears and we are left in a melancholic realm of romantic strings and heart-aching emotions. Active since 1991, Robin Rimbaud -- known as Scanner -- has been intensively active in sound art, producing concerts, installations and recordings. He has remixed and collaborated with a wealth of artists across the arts, including Laurie Anderson, Bryan Ferry, Carsten Nicolai, Dangermouse, Michael Nyman, Luc Ferrari, and Mike Kelley, amongst many others.
CD $16


PETER BRODERICK - Music For Confluence (Erased Tapes 36; UK) New-Berliner Peter Broderick has established himself as a composer in his own right, may it be as a touring member in Efterklang, collaborating with label mates Nils Frahm and Dustin O'Halloran, or most recently, working on the Last Night soundtrack with Clint Mansell. His innate gift as a musical medium, picking up any instrument to turn his musings into songs, has won the 24-year old American composer many hearts worldwide. Following on from his contemporary dance scores Music For Falling From Trees and Music For Contemporary Dance, Broderick returns with a brand-new work entitled Music For Confluence. Created for documentary filmmakers Jennifer Anderson and Vernon Lott, the soundtrack takes the listener through waves of stark emotions. In his own words: "I had been asked to make the score for a documentary film called Confluence. The film is based in the Lewiston, Idaho area, not too far from where I grew up in the USA, and it chronicles several mysterious cases of young girls found murdered or gone missing around 1980, all of which seem to lead back to one man who for a variety of reasons has not been able to be charged with these crimes. So, with my minimal equipment ... I set out to create some textural soundscapes which could compliment the building tension of the story without being too intrusive or suggestive. Days and nights, snowed in and experimenting with layers and layers of whichever instruments I had around, finding a murky atmosphere that fit with the uneasy feeling which the film gave to me. On New Year's Eve I was inside, recording the final notes for the score. I had finished everything except the piece for the credits. After speaking with one of the directors of the film, Vernon Lott, we decided the song for the credits should be different from the rest of the score. So while the fireworks were exploding outside my window, I was recording 'Old Time,' a song which for me felt like a breath-of-fresh-air after story which can only leave you wondering."
CD $16

NILS FRAHM - Felt (Erased Tapes 33; UK) Berlin-based pianist Nils Frahm is already a firebrand in the modern classical world, collaborating with contemporaries such as Peter Broderick, Olafur Arnalds and Anne Muller. His unconventional approach to an age-old instrument, played contemplatively and intimately, has won him many fans around the world. He finally returns with the successor to his highly-acclaimed solo piano works Wintermusik (ERATP 018CD/LP) and The Bells (ERATP 021CD). Having recorded his last album live in a large, reverberant church, Nils Frahm now invites you to put on your headphones and dive into a world of microscopic and delicate sounds -- so intimate that you could be sitting beside him. Recorded late at night in the reflective solitude and silence of his studio in Berlin, Frahm uncovers a new sound and source of inspiration within these peaceful moments: "Originally I wanted to do my neighbors a favor by damping the sound of my piano. If I want to play piano during the quiet of the night, the only respectful way is by layering thick felt in front of the strings and using very gentle fingers. It was then that I discovered that my piano sounds beautiful with the damper." Captivated by this sonic exposition, he placed the microphones so deep inside the piano that they were almost touching the strings. This brought a host of external sounds to the recordings which most producers would try their hardest to hide: "I hear myself breathing and panting, the scraping sound of the piano's action and the creaking of my wooden floorboards -- all equally as loud as the music. The music becomes a contingency, a chance, an accident within all this rustling. My heart opens and I wonder what exactly it is that makes me feel so happy." Felt creates its own personal microcosm, offering a refuge of tender and honest beauty.
CD $16
also available on LP for$24

and, still available..

NILS FRAHM - The Bells (Erased Tapes 21; UK) This is the second full-length release by Berlin-based pianist Nils Frahm for Erased Tapes. As the curator of the Swedish boutique label Kning Disk's Piano Series, Peter Broderick invited Nils to record a new album of piano improvisations -- the result is The Bells, which is now released on Erased Tapes in the UK, Ireland and North America. Perhaps the most stunning aspect of what on the surface appears to be an entirely pre-planned and composed body of work comes with the discovery that these pieces were in fact improvised. These two friends share a common affinity in that they both possess an absolute mastery of melody, composition and performance -- able to deliver with devastating effect. The modest Mr. Broderick states "I remember thinking to myself as I lay there stunned, that I could spend ten years trying to write an amazing piece of piano music, and still it would never be half as good as these improvisations!" Recorded in a rented, beautiful old church in the heart of Berlin over two nights, Nils "just played," with the occasional instruction from Peter: "I spouted 'make a song using only the notes C, E, and G,' or 'make a song that you could imagine me rapping over the top of' ... At one point I was even inside the piano, laying on the strings, asking him to make a song called 'Peter Is Dead In The Piano.'" The resultant work The Bells shares the same excitement and air of playfulness. For a musician this early in his career, Frahm displays an incredibly developed sense of control and restraint in his work.
CD $16

NILS FRAHM - Wintermusik (Erased Tapes 18; UK) This is the debut full-length release by Berlin-based Nils Frahm on Erased Tapes (first issued in a limited edition by Sonic Pieces). Nils Frahm, born in 1982, had an early introduction to music. During his childhood he was taught to play piano by Nahum Brodski -- a student of the last scholar of Tschaikowsky. It was through this that Nils began to immerse himself in the styles of the classical pianists before him as well as contemporary composers. Today, Nils Frahm works as an accomplished composer and producer in Berlin. In early 2008, he founded Durton Studio, where he has worked with Peter Broderick and Dustin O' Halloran, amongst other fellow musicians. The three instrumentals, which make up Wintermusik are piano-led pieces, colored with occasional celeste and reed organ parts. The record's equal measures of sorrowful refrains and uplifting passages, combined with a real intimacy makes for an album you'll want to return to again and again.
CD $16


RICHARD KNOX & FREDERIC D. OBERLAND - The Rustle Of The Stars [Ltd Ed of 300] (Gizeh 36; UK) A music related concept by Richard Knox and Frereric D. Oberland. 450 km from the Arctic Circle, The Rustle Of The Stars is a phenomenon of austere beauty, a barely audible noise that occurs when the draught from human breath causes multiple collisions among the ice micro-crystals in the air. Some words from Richard & Frederic: "We met on tour when performing in Europe with our respective bands Glissando and FareWell Poetry. We had beautiful times, drinking and talking our common grounds while some simple ideas formed in our minds: to compose an album together. To imagine a musical passage through the North Pole explorer diaries. To ask some people and some friends to participate. To record the project in a church. To act quickly. We began to work at our homes in November 2010, in Paris (FR) and in Leeds (UK), with electric guitars, a bunch of pedals, piano, dulcimer, organ, crystal glasses, bows and field recordings, sending and adding ideas together to the tracks, trying to find a global organic sound. We met in Leeds two months later at the beginning of 2011 to record in the St. Margaret of Antioch Church, using a 'wall of sound' process in some of the tracks and arranging/recording the string parts you will hear in the music. We would like to think of this album as a polar journey to the ends of the earth through the Arctic Sea. We kept in mind the first polar expeditions, Edgar Allan Poe's 'Dream-Land,' the ships trapped or crushed by ice, the point of no return, the minds sinking, the attempt on the Pole ending in disaster, the quest of the Northwest Passage, Erebus & Terror, the Mercy Bay, Mangazeya, Charles Francis Hall, Beechey Island, the midnight sun and the polar night." Limited edition pressing of 300 numbered/heavyweight LPs with artprint/postcard and download code.
LP $27



Re-Pressed on Edition RZ

MATHIAS SPAHLINGER - Morendo/Yon Hier/Storung/Sotto Voce ... (Edition RZ 1005; EEC) Six compositions by the German composer Spahlinger:
MORENDO Fur Orchester: RSO Frankfurt, Leitung: Francis Travis /
VON HIER fur Streichquartett: Leonardo Streichquartett. /
VIER STUCKE: Ens. fur Neue Musik, Stuttgart, Leitung: E. Karkoschka /
ENTLOSCHEND fur Tamtam: M. Spahlinger /
STORUNG elektronische Musik /
SOTTO VOCE: Schola Cantorum, Stuttgart, Leitung: Clytus Gottwald.
LP $24

TOSHI ICHIYANAGI//MAKI ISHII - Music For Living Process//Cho-Etsu (Edition RZ 1008; EEC) Two pieces by Japanese avant garde composers, performed in 1973. ("Music For Living Process" for Shakuhachi, flute, harp, percussion) & ("Cho-Etsu" for Shakuhachi, shell horns, percussion, harp).
LP $24

HORATIO RADULESCU - Horatio Radulescu (Edition RZ 1007; EEC) Two 22+ minute works by this Romanian composer. ("Clepsydra" for 16 sound icons [a grand piano laying vertically on its side, with the strings played by bowing]) & ("Astray" for 6 saxophones and sound icon). "Clepsydra" is a massive, rumbling work of outstanding darkness, and needs to be heard.
LP $24

HERMANN SCHERCHEN - Musikalisches Opfer (Edition RZ 60001; EEC) J.S. Bach's "Musical Offering" as conducted by Hermann Scherchen. Made up as a series for small ensembles (various groupings of violin, viola, cello, oboe, English Horn, flute, bassoon & harpsichord).
CD $20


SUSANNA KAROLINA WALLUMROD - Jeg Vil Hjem Til Menneskene (Grappa 4337; EEC) Susanna Wallumrod is one of Norway's finest and most distinctive vocalists. Jeg Vil Hjem Til Menneskene (trans. "I Want To Go Home To The People") is her first Norwegian-language album. All the lyrics were taken from the writings of poet Gunvor Hofmo, whose profound ability to express human longing, loss and a sense of wonder in the presence of both evil and beauty in life struck a chord with Susanna Wallumrod. Wallumrod became interested in Gunvor Hofmo in 1999, when she received the Christmas book Jeg Glemmer Ingen (trans. "I Forget Nobody"), published by Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, presenting 15 unknown poems by Hofmo. Wallumrod's interest in Hofmo intensified a few years later after reading Jan Erik Vold's Morkets Sangerske (trans. "Singer Of Darkness"), about Hofmo. She was inspired to set Hofmo's poems to music one evening in 2009 during a conversation with Havard Rem about the poet. Gunvor Hofmo (1921-1995) published her first collection of poems, Jeg Vil Hjem Til Menneskene ("I Want To Go Home To The People"), in 1946. Altogether, she had 700 poems and 20 poetry collections published. She is regarded as one of Norway' most significant modern poets and as one of the powerful voices of the post-war generation. Susanna Wallumrod has established herself as one of Norway's top musicians with her duo Susanna And The Magical Orchestra (with Morten Qvenild) and as a solo artist. She has released three albums with Susanna And The Magical Orchestra and two solo albums, and has attracted attention both at home and abroad. Wallumrod has received glowing reviews and has given concerts all over the world. Her music has been heard on the successful series Grey's Anatomy, and she has collaborated and toured with the American artist Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Jeg Vil Hjem Til Menneskene is an encounter between two of the most prominent of the melancholic Northeners. The album was recorded in Stockholm in ABBA's old studio, Atlantis, and was produced by Helge "Deathprod" Sten. Susanna Wallumrod put together a dream-team of musicians for the recording: Stale Storlokken (Elephant9, Supersilent, Terje Rypdal), Hans Magnus Ryan (Motorpsycho), Jo Berger Myhre (Solveig Slettahjell, Splashgirl) and Erland Dahlen (Nils Petter Molvaer, Madrugada, Xploding Plastics).
CD $17


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Holiday Gifts That Keep On Giving.. at Cut-Rate Prices!
(Limited Quantities)


Especially in the case of this one - which keeps growing new songs after you own it!

NEIL YOUNG - Archives Vol 1 [10 Blu-Ray Disk set] (Reprise; USA) This is the first volume of the Neil Young Archives series of box sets, produced by Neil Young himself. This series is the definitive, comprehensive, chronological survey of his entire body of work. Volume I covers the period from his earliest recordings with the Squires in Winnipeg, 1963, through to his classic 1972 album, Harvest and beyond, including studio and live tracks with the legendary Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Neil Young with Crazy Horse. This Blu Ray disc edition contains 10 discs, each in its own custom sleeve. 9 of these discs hold a total of 128 tracks (12 hidden), all presented in ultra high resolution 24-bit/192 Khz stereo PCM state-of-the-art master quality sound, and featuring nearly 60 previously unreleased songs, versions, mixes, or rare tracks. Also found on these 9 multimedia discs are 20 special feature videos, film clips, and film trailers, an additional 55 audio tracks of rare interviews, radio spots, and concert raps, and an array of interactive features, including image galleries of archival photos, press, lyric manuscripts, documents, biographies, tour dates, and complete lyrics, as well as an interactive timeline feature which presents an in-depth overview of Young's life and career. Each of the 10 Blu Ray discs feature 1920X1080 high definition picture quality.
Plus each copy comes with a code to download even more unreleased material from this era when it's found - which is 10 more rarities as of this writing!
In addition, a Blu Ray disc of Young's acclaimed first film, 'Journey Through The Past', available for the first time since its original theatrical release in 1973, is included, featuring pristine picture transfer, audio presented in both DTS 5.1 surround and stereo PCM, plus archival materials. Included in the durable custom display box are a digital download card to access MP3 files of all 128 audio tracks, a lavish 236 page fullcolor hardbound book that features additional archival materials, tapes database, and detailed descriptions of the music and artwork, a foldout Archives poster, a custom keeper for the 10 sleeved discs, and more.
(We are shipping U.S. orders via Media Mail -it's HEAVY! - for shipping savings, unless you specify otherwise)
[normaly $275+]
SALE! 10 Blu-Ray Box Set for $195
only 2 copies left at this price


BEE GEES - The Studio Albums 1967-1969 - Stereo, Mono, Rarities & Outtakes: Bee Gees' 1st/Horizontal/Idea [6 CD box] (Reprise; USA) As any diehard Bee Gees fan - or fan of their early pre-disco period - knows and really, who else is going to splurge for this lavish reissue of the group's first three internationally released albums?--the brothers Gibb had a long and relatively prosperous career as singer-songwriters before they metamorphosed on 1975's Main Course as blue-eyed, falsetto-singing soulmen with Saturday Night Fever dancefloor aspirations. This sumptuous six-disc box kicks off an extensive reissue program of the band's previously neglected back catalog in commanding fashion.
In addition to the original tunes in both stereo and mono versions on the dedicated disc for each album, a treasure trove of rarities, most unreleased, is unearthed on the second CD devoted to each album. The Bee Gees' often innovative use of orchestration, introduced on Bee Gees 1st's opening "Turn of the Century" and "Holiday," continues through 1968's Horizontal and Idea. The remastering of the nearly 40-year-old tapes is astonishing; every chime, tambourine slap, violin pluck, and, especially, vocal harmony is distinct, uncovering the astounding beauty and detail of this meticulously constructed pop. Special note should be taken of brother Maurice's innovative McCartneyesque bass lines--most prominent in "I've Gotta Get a Message to You". Most impressive is the quality of the abundant alternate takes, B-sides, Christmas songs, non-album singles (such as the exquisite "Words"), and even soft drink commercials that have been painstakingly researched and dusted off. Add rare photos along with detailed liner notes that include interviews with Barry and Robin for a definitive representation of the Bee Gees' early days.
"As a longtime Bee Gees fan, I still go back to these early records and smile. 'Bee Gees 1st' (1967; but actually their 3rd if you count the two Australian-only albums that preceded it) is a true classic with superb Beatles-esque vocal harmonies, crafty arrangements and even some strong psychedelic moments. It still sounds great today. Their next two ('Horizontal and Idea) albums were of the same caliber, and still amaze first-time listeners today! Even the dozens of bonus tracks here are well worthy of your time and consideration. Although I never dug their disco era, they did make almost a dozen fine albums, including the double-length Odessa being possibly their masterwork, before the arrival of 'Mr. Natural' and 'Main Course'." RECOMMENDED! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
[normally $60]
SALE! 6 CD set for $35 7 for 6 SALE.


FOREVER CHANGING: ELEKTRA RECORDS - The Golden Age Of Elektra Records 1963-1973: Deluxe Limited Edition [5 CD + Book Box Set] (Elektra; USA) Very Special Limited Edition Version Packaged in a 12 Inch Box that Includes, Among Other Delights, a Lavishly Illustrated Hardback Book to Accompany the Discs, Four Fine Art Prints of Classic Elektra Sleeves, a Set of Postcards, Scrapbook Style Facsimile Memorabilia, an Illustrated Discography and a CD Rom Copy of Jac Holzman and Gavan Daw's Autobiography and Label History 'Follow The Music'.
Five CD set that highlights the absolute finest recordings for the Elektra label during their first (and some say finest) decade: 1963-73. Features the label's biggest hits, most famous artists and plenty of obscure classics as well. 117 tracks from the likes of Judy Collins, Eric Clapton, Tom Rush, Paul Butterfield, The Lovin' Spoonful, Queen, Dennis Linde, Carly Simon, Bread, The Wackers, David Ackles, Harry Chapin, Mickey Newbury, The Doors, The Stooges, Love, MC5, The Dillards, Tim Buckley, Nico, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs and many more.
"Founded in 1950, Jac Holzman's Elektra label grew from its folk roots, embracing the burgeoning blues and rock scenes of the '60s and eventually becoming a major force in the pop music marketplace of the '70s. This five-disc set not only celebrates its years of ascendancy and experimentation, but also explores beyond the familiar into some very obscure but still potent recordings. The first four discs proceed in relative chronological order (the fifth is devoted to rarities and assorted efforts from the fringes). Introduced by the better-known songs and acts, the discs open with Judy Collins, Love (twice!), and the Stooges. Each disc is also its own little journey that reminds us of how rich Elektra's catalog is--the Incredible String Band, Fred Neil, Nico, and many more found their way into record collections of the era and continue to resonate. However, it's the more forgotten acts that make this box so exciting, as the Wackers, David Ackles, Plainsong, Paul Siebel, and many others burst forth from the speakers. Even among the well-known there are some nice surprises, such as an early version of the Doors' "Moonlight Drive" (sounding more like one of the label's folk-blues performers) and the harder-edged punch of Judy Collins's "Hard Lovin' Loser."" -David Greenberger
[normally $200+]
(We are shipping U.S. orders via Media Mail -it's HEAVY! - for shipping savings, unless you specify otherwise)
5 CD + BOOK Ltd Ed Box Set for $140 (Out of print, but we have it!)
only 2 copies at this price


BILL FRISELL With RY COODER/GREG LEISZ/WAYNE HORVITZ/VIKTOR KRAUSS/JIM KELTNER - Good Dog Happy Man [2 LP set] (Nonesuch/Elektra 79536; USA) Bill Frisell (acoustic & electric guitars, loops, music box); Ry Cooder (electric & Ripley guitars); Greg Leisz (pedal steel, lap steel, National steel & Weissenborn guitars, mandolin, dobro); Wayne Horvitz (piano, organ, samples); Viktor Krauss (bass); Jim Keltner (drums, percussion).Recorded at O'Henry Sound Studios, Burbank, California. "This is Bill's 11th release for Nonesuch in the past decade, he has come full circle...from ECM subtlety to Naked City intensity, through a quartet and mostly covers down to the essential trio doing soundtracks for Buster Keaton silent flicks, to the restrained chamber qt. without a rhythm team, back down to Nashville before returning with a new trio of session drummer supreme & bluegrass acoustic bassist...then two duo albums with piano and violin doing standards perhaps too retro for many of Bill's old fans. And now here's Bill's fine new trio again of Viktor Krauss (sibling of young bluegrass princess Alison) on bass and Jim Keltner on drums. There are two other guests whose sound permeates much of this groovy album, Wayne Horvitz on organ and session string wiz - Greg Leisz on dobro, steel & mandolin.
This music is pure Americana - a mix of soulful grooves, nimble, delicate & tasty acoustic and occasionally electric guitars, lovely folky melodies and country/jazz guitar licks. Wayne's ever present ultra soulful organ blends perfectly with Greg's refined dobro picking. Bill wrote all but one of the delightful, sunny tunes found here. He only turns his guitar up once for one great wah-wah solo, often playing acoustic rather then electric. This often reminds me of instrumental passages by the Band, an earthy unit that once set the standard for their rootsy blend American influences. I'm game, are you?" - BLG
[normally $28+]
SALE! 2 LP set for $20

BILL FRISELL With RON MILES/GREG TARDY/JENNY SCHEINMAN/EYVIND KANG/HANK ROBERTS/TONY SCHERR/KENNY WOLLESEN - History Mystery including Mysterio Sympatico [2 CD set] (Elektra/Nonesuch 435964; USA) Bill Frisell's History, Mystery is a series of short pieces, alternately elegant and playful, written by Frisell for an octet comprised of the guitarist himself and a group of longtime collaborators-friends. One evocative snippet melds into another to form a virtually seamless work that unfolds over the course of this double-disc package. It has an engrossingly theatrical quality, as if it were the score to some unseen play.
Some of these tracks were originally written for Mysterio Sympatico, a 70-minute multi-media dialogue between Frisell and fellow Seattle based artist/comic book author Jim Woodring that premiered in 2002 at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, featuring Frisell's compositions and Woodring's surreal projections, and that has subsequently been reprised around the country.
Bill Frisell electric & acoustic guitars, loops; Ron Miles cornet; Greg Tardy tenor saxophone, clarinet; Jenny Scheinman violin; Eyvind Kang viola; Hank Roberts cello; Tony Scherr bass; Kenny Wollesen drums
[normally $20+]
SALE! 2 CD set for $12 7 for 6 SALE.

KRONOS QUARTET With WU MAN//TERRY RILEY - The Cusp Of Magic (Elektra/Nonesuch 360508; USA) The Cusp of Magic, with its lullabies and entrancing Chinese songs and sweet disposition, brims with joy."-Los Angeles Times. Nonesuch Records releases the latest Kronos Quartet album, comprising the debut recording of Terry Riley's six-movement piece, The Cusp of Magic. Commissioned by Kronos on the occasion of their longtime friend and collaborator Riley's 70th birthday, the piece features the Quartet joined by Wu Man on pipa (a Chinese plucked string instrument, similar to a lute) and vocals, with all musicians also playing a variety of percussion instruments, toys, and noisemakers. The Quartet premiered The Cusp of Magic in 2005, and the piece was performed at Carnegie Hall as part of Kronos' 2006 Live Mix series.
[normally $13+]
SALE! CD $9 7 for 6 SALE.


ELVIS COSTELLO And THE ATTRACTIONS/BRODSKY QUARTET/WHITE CITY SEPTET - A Case For Song: Live In Concert At The BBC June 18 1996 [DVD] (Rhino; USA) (This DVD adds 6 songs - for a total of 100 minutes/20 songs - not on the original VHS release, but leaves off Accidents Will Happen and Watching The Detectives, which were on the VHS release a decade previously) Taped in studio concert at the BBC Television Centre, June 18 1996.
Elvis Costello, has been listed by several noted music critics as one of the 100 most influential rock musicians of the 20th century. This live performance, filmed at the BBC in London, features Elvis Costello along with the Attractions, the Brodsky Quartet, and the White City Septet. Live: A Case For Song is finally being released for the first time ever on DVD and now features Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound , plus 6 additional performances which were never available on the original VHS release "OMIGOSH! Ths is EC at the absolute top of his game! Never mind it being the very last Attractions [Bruce Thomas] gig, for which they invent all-new one-time arrangements of their classics, including a Pump It Up for accordion, snare, and guitar - it's seeing him do the Beach Boys' God Only Knows [an absolute show-stopper here] and Pills And Soap with only a string quartet; Shipbuilding with an industrial/downtown style improv for the bridge using everybody including a chamber ensemble and co-writer Clive Langer; plus my favorites Riot Act, All This Useless Beauty, et al.. Total Orgasm! HIGHEST THUMBS UP!" - MannyLunch
DVD $12 7 for 6 SALE. (Out of print, but we have it!)


And, What's a Holiday without DMG tossing a few more great items of their own in?

So, just through Nov 27th [end of Thanksgiving weekend] we're offering our own DMG?ARC label release for incredible savings - buy a bunch and give'em out - they'll LUV U!

RAOUL BJORKENHEIM/WILLIAM PARKER/HAMID DRAKE [DMG TRIO] - DMG @ The Stone Vol 2: December 26 2006 (DMG ARC 722; USA) [upc 808713072228] The second in our series of CDs recorded at the DMG New Music Magic Mystery Festival at The Stone in December 2006."The final week of our festival began on Tuesday, December 26th with Raoul Bjorkenheim, William Parker and Hamid Drake, another first time meeting. Raoul is a member of the explosive Scorch Trio, one of the most exciting jazz/rock/noise power trios to emerge from Scandinavia and was once in a great quartet called Krakatau (ECM). Raoul asked that we help put him together with his dream rhythm team: William and Hamid! The gig, well attended, was explosive throughout. Raoul also played his electric viol da gamba, as well as an electric mando/guitar. Raoul looked like a kid who won the lottery and jumped around with glee, overwhelmed to be playing with two other giants who work so well together. As William and Hamid continually whipped up a rhythm storm, Raoul took one furious solo after another. Two incredible sets - the best parts of which are captured on this CD!" - BLG
"Match the premier rhythm team of the era with one of the most exploratory electric guitarists on the international scene and sparks are sure to fly. Raoul Bjorkenheim, William Parker, & Hamid Drake combine for an evening of spontaneous guitar trio heroics on DMG At The Stone, Volume 2. The main piece they construct, 'Lithotone I,' comes right at you, then dances around the room for quite some time before it dissolves. The quasi-ethnic dance of 'Lithotone II' has Parker switching to the double-reed shawm and Bjorkenheim playing a rolling bass part on viola da gimbri (probably the Moroccan lute-like instrument). Marvelously transportive music that goes by in a flash." - Stuart Kremsky, The Journal
Normally $14
SALE - ONLY $10 'til 11/27!

CURLEW [GEORGE CARTWRIGHT/TOM CORA/NICKY SKOPELITIS/BILL LASWELL/BILL BACON or DENARDO COLEMAN] - Curlew (1st Album) + Live at CBGB 1980 [2 CD set] (DMG ARC 704; USA) [upc 808713070422]
Disc One: The legendary first [self-titled] album by Curlew, initally released by Landslide on LP in 1981 and out-of-print ever since, with the original lineup of saxophonist/composer/leader George Cartwright, Tom Cora on cello and devices, Nicky Skopelitis on guitar, Bill Laswell on bass, and Bill Bacon on drums. This incredible record, originally released by Landslide in the U.S. and U.K., has never before been released on CD anywhere! Bonus material on this disc includes six more cuts from one of their earliest live gigs at CBGB on February 6th 1980, previously unreleased in any format! [two other tracks from this gig are included as part ot the original album sequence]
Disc Two: Previously unreleased in any format! A complete 64 minute set from CBGB on October 1st 1980, with almost the same lineup, except Denardo Coleman [from Ornette's Prime Time, and Jayne Cortez' Firespitters] is on drums!
"Extra tracks are usually a good thing, but an entire extra disc (or more) of previously unknown material puts a reissue into another realm of discovery. That's the case with the fabulously unclassifiable Curlew, whose 1980 debut is extended with bonus tracks plus a live show of the period on First Album + Live at CBGB 1980. This quintet of misfits, led by saxophonist and main composer George Cartwright, also featured guitarist Nicky Skopelitis, innovative (and deeply missed) cellist Tom Cora, and electric bassist and scene maker Bill Laswell. Bill Bacon was the drummer on the first album, which combines studio material with live tracks taken from a performance at CBGBs. Disc one is filled up with even more performances from that show, while the second previously unissued disc comes from later in the year, with Denardo Coleman [fils Ornette] taking over the drum chair and sounding solidly at home. Curlew always seemed to have trouble deciding what it was really about while the music churned and smoked, an attitude of genre-straddling that was part of their charm. In retrospect, it's not that hard to hear how Ornette Coleman's electric Prime Time gave Cartwright a starting place for his new-jazz/new-rock/ new-dance fusion sound. It may not be as danceable as Cartwright intended, but the propulsive rhythms and gutsy solos will have you moving one way or the other. Cartwright has kept the group together for decades now, with many personnel changes. This exemplary reissue shows you where it all began. Definitely recommended!" - Stuart Kremsky, The Journal
Normally $22
SALE - 2 CD set ONLY $16 'til 11/27!

LAST EXIT [SONNY SHARROCK/PETER BROTZMANN/RONALD SHANNON JACKSON/BILL LASWELL] - Headfirst Into The Flames: Live In Europe (DMG ARC 701; USA) "The downtown 80s experimental collective Last Exit well knew that a freedom using potential chaos needs an ingrained order to become art. Although sax,guitar and even bass so often leave rigid forms the instruments lose their usual definitions both bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Shannon Jackson never lose the root spine that gives axe howler Sonny Sharrock and saxist Peter Brotzman just enough of a shifting foundation to remain both focused and restless. Names cease to be important when musicians strike such an intelligent balance. By releasing these live cuts knowledgeable NYC store Downtown Music Gallery proves true liberty creates humility." - James Hopkins
"One of my favorite recordings of all time, PERIOD! What a joy it is to present this as an early entry on our own label!" -MannyLunch
Normally $14
SALE - ONLY $10 'til 11/27!

THE STONE QUARTET [JOELLE LEANDRE/MARILYN CRISPELL/ROY CAMPBELL Jr./MAT MANERI] - DMG @ The Stone Vol 1: December 22 2006 (DMG ARC 721; USA) Our THIRD Release on Downtown Music Gallery's newly formed DMG ARC label is the first in our series of CDs recorded at the DMG New Music Magic Mystery Festival at The Stone in December 2006.
The second set that night was originally supposed to be Joelle Leandre performing duos with Marilyn Crispell, Mat Maneri and Roy Campbell, but turned out to be a superb quartet with Joelle directing. This was a first time performance by this unique drummerless lineup and it was a phenomenal set! There were sections of duos and trios that Joelle helped instigate, yet you couldn't predict the many magical moments that arose from this group. Superbly recorded by John Rosenberg and wonderfully remixed & mastered by Jean Marc Foussat, the sound is incredible. I still get goosebumps as I listen to this disc, since it does capture that dynamic improv magic so well. I recall that both sets that night were excellent, the first was a strong duo of Joelle with percussionist Kevin Norton (released on Leo) and the second is this fabulous quartet. Listening now to the second set, whether you were there or not, you get the feeling that something very special was taking place. There is an aura of suspense and mystery that runs through the entire set/disc. You can hear all four musicians listening closely and having an ongoing dialogue. This quartet features Joelle Leandre on contrabass, Marilyn Crispell on piano, Roy Campbell, Jr. on trumpets & flute and Mat Maneri on viola & violin. Highest recommendation from your good friends at Downtown Music Gallery! - BLG
Normally $14
SALE - ONLY $10 'til 11/27!

SELWYN LISSACK'S FRIENDSHIP NEXT OF KIN With MIKE OSBORNE/MONGEZI FEZA/KENNETH TERROADE/HARRY MILLER/EARL FREEMAN - Facets Of The Univers (DMG ARC 702; USA) "Thanks to the NYC store Downtown Music Gallery for unearthing this 1969 treasure, originally out on the French BYG Goody imprint and never on disc until now. Like the South African free jazzers that carved out the path to Europe before him (Chris McGregor, Mongezi Feza, Harry Miller), drummer Selwyn Lissack was trying to make his personal connection with the music that barely filtered into his homeland, and made a three year detour to the UK in hopes of continuing onto America landed him with connections to the likes of Lol Coxhill and Mike Osbourne before he took on the reins as a leader for Friendship Next of Kin. Unfortunately the notorious label producer Claude Delcloo butted heads with Lissack, provided and unsatisfactory mix which kept the album in short run despite the stellar lineup on it. Besides fellow ex-pats Feza and Miller, there was another South African, Louis Moholo, plus Osbourne and others joining in for this amazing slab of music; and thankfully Lissack (now a laser artist and sculptor) retained the rights to fix up the sound and reissue it here. "Facets of the Universe" (Real Audio) is a complete blowout of unbelievable proportions; American/Euro/African universal soundmeld that spirals into vicious, relentless attack up there with Brotzmann's Machine Gun or Pharoah's Izipho Zam for sheer gut-bludgeon potential. I would love to hear Lissack's only other session, on the Ric Colbeck Quartet's "The Sun Is Coming Up", and also bummed that I missed his first appearance in 30 years at the Stone this past December (also lined up by DMG)." Brian Turner, WFMU
Normally $14
SALE - ONLY $10 'til 11/27!


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Last copies of this out-of-print gem..

MICHAEL MARCUS - Speakin' Out: Reed Instruments Solos (Drimala 02-347-04; USA) Speakin' Out... multi-instrumentalist Michael Marcus performing in his first solo recording session.
From Jon Morgan's liner notes....Marcus circumvents playing it safe, but nor does he utilize his extended techniques to a deliberately abstruse end. At times, Marcus' muse is of a fastidious nature as he gradually, yet decisively dissects and juxtaposes a musical kernel, curling up within the thematic material until it flourishes and resurfaces as a cogent melodic statement.
These pieces run the gamut, from frenetic to picturesque as Marcus slowly sculpts the sounds with supple phrasing and deft tonal manipulation. Marcus' playing is simultaneously abstract and complex, yet ruminative and evocative enough that even the most dark-hued motifs remain a thing of eruptive grandeur. Through it all there is an inherent warmth and poignancy to Marcus' expressive narrative, which will surely assert him as one of the superlative artisans of his craft.
CD $13


I HAVE MY LIBERTY! [V.A.] - Gospel Sounds From Accra, Ghana (Dust To Digital 023; USA) I Have My Liberty! Gospel Sounds From Accra, Ghana is an album of sounds and performances recorded live in 2008 from the churches of Ghana's capital city. This album is the missing link between American gospel records by artists like Rev. Johnny L. Jones and traditional African artists like those featured on Opika Pende: Africa At 78 RPM (DTD 022CD). Amid Accra's bustling sprawl of swirling dust and exhaust, are countless havens for homegrown musical expression: charismatic and spiritual Christian churches. There, distorted PA systems, anchored by female singers, and ramshackle guitars played by a rotating cast of local men weave in and out of popular melodies, bringing congregations to their feet. Singers emote in repeated phrases, lifted by tambourines, claps, and percussion, to unite their voices in praise and worship. I Have My Liberty! Gospel Sounds From Accra, Ghana takes listeners into these churches, where congregations join together to process the anxieties of their West African metropolis. Recorded and edited by Calpin Hoffman-Williamson, a Philadelphia-based producer and audio engineer.
CD $15


MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA [JOUJOUKA] - The Primal Energy that is the Music and Ritual of Jajouka, Morocco (Sol Re Sol 01; USA) "In 1972, Joel Rubiner made his way to Jajouka to do fresh recordings of the group. He knew that there was an audience for the unfiltered sounds of the Master Musicians of Jajouka and spends the summer with a tape machine and the musicians. Jams formed into songs, Rubiner had tapes that music freaks would die for. Hypnotic, pulsing, energetic, and discordant - the Rubiner recordings needed to be released. In 1974, Adelphi Records took a chance on the Master Musicians and released The Primal Energy that is the Music and Ritual of Jajouka, Morocco. When the album was released on CD, it netted the All Music Guide's Best of Genre award. Out of print on vinyl for over twenty years, The Primal Energy.. makes a return on Sol Re Sol Records (a spin-off of avant-rock label S.S. Records). Sol Re Sol's repressing of this classic album contains the music of the original (remastered by John Golden), plus the original liner notes by Robert Palmer. The packaging however is something new - housed in a gatefold sleeve, it includes a new cover with little seen Rubiner photographs from the time the album was recorded. The recordings and photographs have been fully licensed. The group's publishing royalties have been paid. No one is getting exploited in order to return this wonderful music to vinyl. Fans of Sublime Frequencies, Mississippi Records, the Nonesuch Explorer series, Ocura Records, and the Ethnic Folkways series will dig this release."
LP $20



CAN [HOLGER CZUKAY/IRMIN SCHMIDT/JAKI LIEBEZEIT/MICHAEL KAROLI/DAMO SUZUKI] - Tago Mago: Expanded Edition [2 CD set] (Spoon 9377; UK) "The new 40th Anniversary Edition of this genre-defying album comes packaged in the original UK artwork for the first time since 1971, and includes a bonus CD featuring (almost) fifty minutes of unreleased live material from 1972, remastered in 2011. Tago Mago, the first album with Damo Suzuki on vocals, features the Can line up of Holger Czukay on bass, Michael Karoli on guitars, Jaki Liebezeit on drums and Irmin Schmidt on keyboards, and was recorded at Schloss Norvenich in 1971, released later that year on United Artists. Can's influence is well known and far-reaching and the impact they made on music is felt today as keenly as it ever has been. They themselves have always been impossible to classify and reflecting this, the scope of artists who in recent years have cited Can as a major influence is varied. Of all the band's oeuvre, Tago Mago has been most often cited as an influence for a host of artists including John Lydon, Radiohead, the Fall, Ariel Pink, Fuck Buttons, Sonic Youth, Factory Floor and Queens Of The Stone Age."
2 CD set for $19


THROBBING GRISTLE [CHRIS CARTER/COSEY FANNI TUTTI/GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE/PETER CHRISTOPHERSON] - 20 Jazz Funk Greats: Expanded Edition [2 CD set] (Industrial 03; UK) The CD version includes a bonus CD of live recordings, including two versions of the manic classic, "Discipline." The 8-page full-color book includes visual ephemera and previously-unpublished photographs. Cover artwork has been painstakingly restored from the original source material. Cosey Fanni Tutti (vocals, guitar, synthesizer, cornet); Peter Christopherson (vocals, cornet, vibraphone); Chris Carter (vocals, synthesizer); Genesis P-Orridge (violin, synthesizer, vibraphone, bass).
Though Throbbing Gristle's label, Industrial Records, inadvertently gave the music world a new genre heading, there's not much in the way of clanging pipes or steam-vent hiss on 20 JAZZ FUNK GREATS. Then again, you'll find no jazz (title track excepted), precious little funk, and only 13 songs here. "Maturing" beyond the performance-art outrages of COUM Transmissions, TG's Genesis P-Orridge, Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, and Peter Christopherson take to cutting slabs of murky, artless, malevolent noise with such titles as "Zyklon-B Zombie" and "Maggot Death." GREATS slaps a sarcastic happy-face on the band's antisocial aesthetic. This is TG's "pop" album. The cover even shows them standing in a meadow, grinning ear-to-ear (or trying to). The cause of their amusement, however, is a nude female corpse splayed among the tall poppies. The creepy calm of "Tanith," the tortured synth-pop of "Still Walking," and "Hot On The Heels Of Love" capture the mood. Terminally sour P-Orridge's chanted litany of complaints ("What A Day") is pretty funny, and "Walkabout" is a lovely synth-strumental. But the voyeuristic aplomb with which he tears into "Persuasion," a grainy S&M script set to Gristle-y sound effects, is thoroughly unnerving
2 CD set for $22

DINOSAUR L [ARTHUR RUSSELL et al] - 24->24 Music: Expanded Edition [2 CD set] (Sleeping Bag/Traffic 76534; USA) "Though classically trained Arthur Russell's major contribution to the music world was in the dance genre. Despite the fact that his pioneering work in the late '70s and through the '80s was only quietly acknowledged at the time his long term impact on the genre is best described as formidable Russell's innovative; left field dance records were way ahead of what people were used to hearing at the time, in part due to his involvement New York's downtown avant-garde music scene. He scored several hits on the underground New York dance scene at clubs like the Paradise Garage (Larry Levan was a huge supporter). His biggest tunes, 'Go Bang!' and 'Is It All Over My Face?' were worldwide club hits and are still played today as classics. Sleeping Bag Records and Traffic Entertainment Group are proud to present his seminal work, 24-24 Music expanded to a deluxe double CD box set issue. In addition to the music found on the original issue of 24-24 Music this set includes rare 12" remixes and edits including the highly coveted 'Go Bang! (Walter Gibbons Mix) and the never before on CD 'You Can't Hold Me Down (Test Pressing Version)'. Both discs are housed inside beautiful full color sleeves that tuck into the extra durable box along with a 48 page booklet featuring unreleased photos by Janette Beckman and other Russell ephemera with words courtesy of Russell biographer Tim Lawrence. Sadly Arthur died in 1992, but his music lives on and his influence is still felt in the world of dance music and beyond. His tunes still sound great and are still moving many dancers around the world, so his spirit lives on."
2 CD set for $20


ALGARNAS TRADGARD - Garden Of The Elks [Framtiden Ar Ett Svavande Skepp, Forankrat I Forntiden] (Silence 3611; Sweden) 2011 repress of this Silence CD, originally issued on LP in 1972. Algarnas Tradgard's name translates as "Garden of the Elks" and this debut album has always stood as one of the pinnacles of underground psychedelic rock -- comparable to early Pink Floyd, Group 1850 and other world masters of space-out genius. The title translates as The Future is a Hovering Ship Anchored in the Past. The group employed an instrumental array made of: violins, rebec, cello, guitars, sitar, piano, zither, organ flutes, zinks, jew's harps, tablas, percussion, Moog-synthesizer & VC-3 Putney-synthesizer. Recorded at Studio Decibel in 1971, this CD reissue adds two bonus live tracks from 1972. From Dan Soderqvist's notes: "We have known each other since 1968, when we met in our home neighborhood Vastra Frolunda, Gothenburg. We listened to everything; Perotinus heavenly choirs from the 13th century, Messien's heavy works for orchestra, Beefheart's Safe as Milk, with it's surreal lyrics, King Crimson's endless string of chords, the beautiful acoustic Third Ear Band, Terry Riley's minimalism and above all the psychedelic music of early Pink Floyd. Sometimes we played our 'dagga-dang-music', crazy rhythmical plays with acoustic guitars and hysterical giggles. Sometimes we just sat and listened to the sounds slowly disappearing into space ... We experimented with getting strange sounds out of our instruments, started to use amplifiers and played with echoes ... We constantly expanded our possibilities to get new sounds, with organs, mouth harps and pedals ... We got our hands on the first Moog module system that just about had reached Sweden. We mixed Middle Age instruments such as zinks and rebecs, sound effects, church bells, fragments of both Bach and The Beatles and improvised our way through the first album."
CD $16

INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER [BO ANDERS PERSSON et al] - Sov Gott Rose-Marie (Silence 3614; Sweden) 2011 repress of this CD reissue of this all-time Swedish underground classic, originally issued on the Scandinavian Love label in 1968. International Harvester were the second incarnation of Bo Anders Persson's group, after Parson Sound (whose early sound experimentation was finally documented in 2001 by Subliminal Sounds). Early in the 60's Bo Anders Persson had envisioned a new kind of communicative music -- would it be possible to create a more contemporary kind of rhythmic music that could play the same role as traditional folk music, a music that was both sensual and transcendent? In 1967 came the answer. The hypnotic feelings of Terry Riley's eternity music + the rough-riffing of The Rolling Stones = a new alchemical wedding. Parson Sound was formed, which started to perform publicly in the summer of 1967. The next year they changed the name into International Harvester, taken from the American company manufacturing agricultural machines, trucks and ambulances. The astonishing thing about their two official recordings is the complete freedom of the music, inspired by a Terry Riley-esque repetitive song structure. The atmospheres of these songs are both utopian and dystopian, mixed with an early environmental awareness. Sov Gott Rose-Marie starts with the strongest of statements: the Latin death hymn "Dies Irae," played like it was a medieval heavy rock-theme. This was music of turmoil and inner upheaval, mostly played in the slowest of rhythms, but still with a sense of constant change. There's constant juxtapositions going on between documentary sounds and floating states of mind; hard rocking tunes, demonstrations against the war in Vietnam, bird song, sounds from police radio, psychedelic tranquility, lullabies.
CD $16

SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA [ZAMLA MAMMAZ MANNA: LARS HOLLMER et al] - Samla Mammas Manna (Silence 3603; EEC) 2011 CD repress of Samla Mammas Manna's self-titled debut is their most accessible album and the one most likely to be enjoyed by listeners who are not deep into fusion. While the band sometimes managed to stir up a good rock groove, like in "Slade Till Satori," they still didn't have a guitarist, and the music was organ- and piano-driven, consisting of equal parts folk music, jazz-rock, and something that could be described as twisted circus music. Accordingly, the first track is called "Circus Apparatha" and includes nonsense lyrics, some sung in German, about clowns and fighting animals. The recording quality is not the best, but Samla Mammas Manna is something as unusual as a virtuoso band inviting people to laugh at them at the same time they gaze in amazement. The band would later get tighter, more avant-garde, and simply more skilled, but few of their recordings are as charming as this one. Also, it can be argued that while the folk influences were just as strong later, they came more to their right in this less-chromatic environment. -- Lars Loven
CD $16

SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA [ZAMLA MAMMAZ MANNA: LARS HOLLMER et al] - Maltid (Meal Time) (Silence 3604; EEC) 2011 CD repress of Maltid (Swedish for "Meal Time") was the Samla Mammas Manna's second LP, the first featuring guitarist Coste Apetrea. A beautiful piece of work, although poorly recorded, this album showcases the musicianship, audacity, and downright silliness of the band. Free improvisation, Scandinavian folklore, progressive rock motifs, and Amon Duul II-like short songs all come together on this LP as a patchwork instead of an integrated whole. "Dundrets Frojder" is a kaleidoscopic piece containing the best and worst of the Samlas. It features a middle part with lush Mellotron chords and a warped electric piano solo by Lars Hollmer. "Oforutsedd Forlossning" is a simple song with self-mocking, screaming, high-pitched vocals, while the instrumental "Den Aterupplivade Laten" could have been recorded by the early Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. "Tarningen" is a dual keyboard/guitar melody that will remain in the band's live set for quite some time. "Minareten" features some extended jamming in twisted time signatures with a weird blues-like finale. Maltid is not yet the Samla Mammas Manna's prime material, but it is still a very respectable offering. This CD reissue contains three bonus tracks from the same recording session. -- Francois Couture
CD $20


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