DMG Newsletter for July 2nd, 2021

THE DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY 30th Anniversary Celebration Continues:

Next Saturday, July 10th - Oliver Coffee at 2 - 5pm
ARON NAMENWIRTH / DANIEL CARTER / CLAIRE de BRUNNER
TAMIO SHIRASHI
NO LAND with BENTLEY ANDERSON

Later that same day - Saturday July 10
6:30pm
Aaron Rubinstein - guitar
Michael Larocca - bass
CD release concert for "Rubinstein/Larocca Studio Sessions Vol. 8"
8pm
Michael Bisio - bass
Stephen Gauci - tenor saxophone
CD release concert for -“ Michael Bisio/Stephen Gauci, Pandemic Duets"

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New Music Discs for This Week Begin with:

CECIL TAYLOR ENSEMBLE with JOACHIM GIES / HARALD KIMMIG / ALEXANDER FRANGENHEIM / PEETER UUSKYLA / et al - Live at Junges Theatre Gottingen Sept. 15th, 1990 (Listen! Foundation FSR 10/2021; Poland) When the late master-pianist/composer/multi-bandleader/Genius grant recipient Cecil Taylor came to Berlin in 1988 to do a masterclass and a series of concerts, it was a big thing for the avant-garde: the bringing together Cecil Taylor’s galvanic music/vision with his European brethren. So important was this collaboration that the prestigious FMP label released a large, expensive box set [‘In Berlin ’88], with 11 CD’s of live recordings: an orchestra, a series of duos with European drummers and some small group sets plus a thick, handsome 12” x 12” booklet which included Mr. Taylor’s discography up to that point. All of the 11 CD’s were also released separately and all of them have been long out-of-print. The Cecil Taylor Workshop Ensemble made two impressive discs for FMP: ‘Legba Crossing’ and ‘Melancholy’. Two years after the Berlin Meeting, Cecil Taylor came back to Berlin and met with one of the members of the Workshop Ensemble, Ove Volquartz, who got a sponsorship for Mr. Taylor to do another weeks worth of rehearsals and a concert in Gottingen. A number of the same musicians played in both of Taylor’s workshop ensembles: Alexander Frangenheim (bass), Harald Kimmig (violin), Joachim Gies (alto & soprano saxes), Ove Volquartz (various reeds) and Peeter Uuskyla (drums).
It turns out that the concert in Gottingen was recorded and these are the results, which is nearly 2 hours & 20 minutes of music. All of the five pieces here are unnamed, just Set One, Parts 1 & 2, Set Two Parts 1 & 2 & an encore. CD1 begins with layers of spooky voices, balafon (African marimba) and percussion. This long (44 minute) piece builds slowly, organically with members of the 13 piece ensemble adding their sounds bit by bit. I've attended more than a dozen of Cecil Taylor’s Workshop concerts at the Knitting Factory so I do have an idea of how Mr. Taylor provides fragments of written notes and then conducts sections and/or individual players. I can hear Taylor’s distinctive piano rumbling at the center as the storm builds, the currents around him growing in bigger torrents. Although this music sounds completely free on top, there is much more going on down below where the currents or waves are focused into a central force. The explosive rhythm team of three basses, three percussionists & Cecil has an awesome, intense, churning sound. Even when things quiet down, we can hear a good deal of focused interaction. There is a section here where many of the members of the ensemble clap their hands together in waves with some call & response vocal weirdness as well. It does take some work or patience to get used to the way things unfold and are connected on different levels. Once you get on that bucking bronco, you must hold on for dear life. Infinitely extraordinary!!! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
2 CD Set $20 [Limited Edition & we have 20 copies as of now - 6/30/21]


MARIO PAVONE THE TAMPA QUARTET with MICHAEL PAVONE / MIKE DIRUBBO / MICHAEL SARIN - Isabella (Clean Feed 573; Portugal) Featuring: Michael Pavone - guitar, Mike DiRubbo - alto saxophone, Mario Pavone - double bass and Michael Sarin - drums. Last week, I reviewed the other new disc by the recently departed bassist & composer, Mario Pavone called ‘Blue Vertical’, have played it every day I’ve been at the store and it continues to sell quickly. This week we get the second disc that Mr. Pavone worked on, over the past year and he left us with another treasure. This disc is called ‘Isabella’ and it features a different band: Michael Pavone on guitar, Mike DiRubbo on alto sax, Mario Pavone on bass & compositions and Michael Sarin on drums. One of the great things about this session is the work of Mario’s son Michael Pavone, a gifted jazz guitarist who seems to have just one disc as a leader and has fallen below the radar of recognition. Another under-recognized player is alto saxist Mike DiRubbo who played with Mario on ’Totem Blues’ from some 20 years ago and who has a couple of discs out on the Posi-Tone label. The drummer here, Michael Sarin played with Mario in the Thomas Chapin Trio for around 5 years, up until Mr. Chapin’s untimely passing in 1998. Mr. Sarin remains as one of Downtown’s most dependable, creative and in-demand drummers, working with many great leaders: Myra Melford, Erik Friedlander, Ben Goldberg & many others. This is dedicated to Isabella Pavone, Mario’s beloved grandchild who passed away at only 24 in June of 2020. “With his son Michael playing guitar and with friends Mike DiRubbo and Michael Sarin, Mr. Pavone created the most beautiful suite about the noblest of all emotions, love, and about how love survives even death.”
Like just about every record I’ve heard from Mario Pavone, there are several things going on here. Mr. Pavone loved to write these slippery, complex pieces where a few different lines are played together or around one another in tight orbits. Guitarist, Michael Pavone, has a lovely, warm tone, using minimal effects. Both saxist Mike DiRubbo and guitarist Pavone are often in flux, playing their lines together or swirling together like bees around a hive. “Philosophy Series” seems to be balanced between two themes, the quirky main theme with a couple of inspired solos in between from the guitar and the alto sax. On the title track, “Isabella”, the band calms down to play a beautiful, superbly harmonized ballad which nearly brought me to tears, due the poignancy of the tender melody. After listening to both new discs by Mr. Pavone, I realized how much Mario’s playing & writing influenced the Thomas Chapin Trio although Mr. Chapin was the main composer. Although Thomas Chapin sadly passed away in 1998, Mario Pavone has continued to evolve and grow stronger as a composer and player. Both new discs are masterworks of craft, playing and imagination so please order both if you are in the mood to be challenged and inspired. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $15

BLACK TOP PRESENTS: HAMID DRAKE / WILLIAM PARKER / ORPHY ROBINSON / PAT THOMAS / ELAINE MITCHENER - Some Good News (Otoroku 025; UK) “Double-CD documenting the magic meeting of one of the all-time great rhythm sections in jazz: percussionist Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker, with London's brilliant Black Top (Orphy Robinson and Pat Thomas) and vocalist Elaine Mitchener. Across two sets the quintet are infectiously energetic and inspired, striding from synchronized heavy groove to star bright solos, whilst incorporating dub effects, gimbri, and sumptuous blues piano playing. Formed by Orphy Robinson and Pat Thomas but always realized with an ever-changing number of invited musicians, Black Top's blend of lo-fi samples, dub effects and experimental electronics has been daring free improvisation since 2011. Their virtuoso performances draw on their Afro-Caribbean roots with delicious spontaneity and humor; the histories of Ridley Road Market, the LIO and Islamic West Africa are sounded out side by side on iPad, marimba and vibraphone. Having met in 2006, Black Top played with bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake as part of their residency at Cafe OTO in 2016; forming a quartet grounded in transatlantic kinship but which looked outward to the Caribbean, calypso music and Saharan Gnawa rhythms. When Parker and Drake returned to OTO in 2019 Black Top reformed again, but this time with the brilliant addition of vocalist Elaine Mitchener. Over the last few years, the clarity with which Mitchener has explored vocal expression in the global Black Avant Garde has been stunning, but here the range in her influences is manifest, moving effortlessly between phonetic and poetic experimentation and spoken word, all the while at ease with soul soaked jazz and dissonant free fall. A hand drum duet with Hamid Drake astonishes before being laced perfectly with cosmic theremin and Parker's fantastic acid shehnai. Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Sunday July 28th 2019 by Paul Skinner and mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Photos by Dawid Laskowski and artwork by Oliver Pitt.
2 CD Set $18

EAST AXIS with MATTHEW SHIPP / ALLEN LOWE / GERALD CLEAVER / KEVIN RAY - Cool With That (ESP-Disk 5064; USA) Allen Lowe says: "To me, free improvisation is another form of narrative, just as linear in terms of the consciousness of moving from one place to another, as any kind of storytelling. Yes, anyone can do it, you might say (and this is an old argument in jazz circles) but not everyone can do it with purpose and form and like they really mean it. This group is the epitome of all that has changed for the better in jazz in the past 50 years, and I am thrilled to be in it." Kevin Ray says: "This band is both exhilarating and terrifying to play with. You never know where the music will go, just that it's somewhere exciting, and you hope you can keep up. Allen has a wonderful sense of melody, Matt is an endless font of ideas, and this rhythm section is a dream to be in -- Gerald is tasteful, stunningly creative, and grooves like hell. I'm so glad to be a part of it." Matthew Shipp says: "I am always looking for new situations to renew who I am and the language I am involved with? This group has allowed me to reboot my brain. Allen is a unique figure, who is unlike anyone I play with in any other situation. Kevin has a delicious cross section of experience over several genres that gives him a different look than a bassist who might be seen as the usual in the idiom. Gerald -- who I have a history with -- is different now because he has had such a deep and cross section of experiences since then. The music this group makes is unique. I really enjoy playing with these gentlemen." Gerald Cleaver says: "To paraphrase Miles Davis, 'This is social music.' My take on free jazz is that it's not free at all, rather (in my mind) many, many contexts and frames of reference held at once. Playing this set with Matt, Allen, and Kevin took me through some really nice interactions and reaffirmed for me that the roots of this music are still strong."
CD $12

ROBERT DICK / NICOLA L. HEIN - Structures of Unreason (Shhpuma 065; Portugal) Aspects and gestures of a percussive, tactile musicality and an atmospheric energy, incisive and pungent at times, at others more soft and airy, but always diffused and pervasive, are the aesthetic signature of the artistic meeting and the mutual sonic intermingling of two extraordinary improvisers. Robert Dick’s and Nicola Hein’s interactional interplay explores what happens in the contingency of sound. The music focuses on the materiality of the timbre, the evolution of formal micro-episodes, and repetitive yet flowing rhythmic architectures that are often broken and fragmentary, like the fragile structures we impose on ourselves through the everyday. Staying and floating in the moment; feeling, absorbing and sonically rendering the lived material temporality of the body: this is the way in which structures of the unreasonable become music. The sounds we hear do not rely on a predetermined functional logic; rather the musical event – shaped by the individual episode, or emerging out of the encounter/clash between two vectors of forces – follows the directions that it itself produces. Wonderful are the moments when silence flickers unexpectedly and sound makes its way again rising from empty space. Natural, expressive force: cosmic, yet entirely earthly sound. Indeed, a benthic, deep, submarine voice attached to the bottom: the unison that, growing to a spasm (not realized, only announced), tears the environment and then disintegrates in a swarm of acoustic microorganisms. Something is felt, something announces itself symptomatically; but it doesn't unfold in an accomplished sense. It remains and manifests itself in the way of its making, which is also an undoing, a fading away. Like a breath, low to the ground. Sub-merged life. But life, after all.
CD $13

DANILO GALLO DARK DRY TEARS with FRANCESCO BIGONI / JIM BLACK / et al - A View Through a Slot (Clean Feed 572; Portugal) Personnel: Danilo Gallo - bass &, fx, Massimiliano Milesi - tenor and soprano sax, Francesco Bigoni - tenor sax & clarinet, Lorenzo Corti - guitar and Jim Black - drums. Italian jazz is a reality on its own, due to its caustic humor, the folkish way it uses melody, the liking for rhythm patterns, the cinematic perspectives and we could continue to bring arguments to the list. When bassist (every kind of bass, be it double bass, electric bass guitar, acoustic bass guitar, bass balalaika, whatever, with an important exception: baritone guitar)Danilo Gallo is involved you have it in spades: more melodies to listen, more riffs (and be sure “A View Through a Slot” grooves and rocks like hell) and more sarcasm. Take the technical notes: this was (supposedly, of course) recorded in Gronland in 2077,mixed by one Péppino La Piccirella (you’ll have to know Italian to laugh) in Italy and then mixed again in Bogota, Colombia, and mastered by Nonnasonica somewhere in the world. It’s Gallo’s way to say that it really doesn’t matter where or when the music happens. Don’t be surprised if some tunes are deconstructed at the final minutes: the musicians involved, including American extraordinaire drummer Jim Black, go crazy very quickly. And there’s something else: asense for the poetic and the sad that can bring tears to your eyes. In these difficult times this is what you need for a definitive catharsis. Give also a special attention to what the two saxophone players, Mr. Milesi and Mr. Bigoni, do, and to the romantic rock cinematic guitarist Mr. Corti, and stay safe.
CD $15

LUÍS LOPES LISBON BERLIN QUARTET with RODRIGO PINHEIRO / ROBERT LANDFERMANN / CHRISTIAN LILLINGER - Sinister Hypnotization (Clean Feed 571; Portugal) Personnel: Luís Lopes - electric guitar, Rodrigo Pinheiro - Fender rhodes, Robert Landfermann - double bass (with effects) and Christian Lillinger - drums. Portuguese guitarist Luis Lopes has been recording for a decade plus and has some dozen-plus discs out on the Clean Feed label. Mr. Lopes has recorded solos, duos & trios and has been running the Humanization 4Tet for years with 4 discs under their name. The Berlin Quartet appears to be Mr. Lopes new unit with Portuguese pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro (from the RED Trio), plus Robert Landfermann & Christian Lillinger from Berlin. I’ve noticed Mr. Landfermann’s name popping up over the last few years with Ingrid Laubrock, Achim Kaufman and several Luis Lopes projects. I am not even going to mention the ever-busy drummer, Christian Lillinger, since he can be found on more than 3 dozen discs over the past decade. Mr. Pinheiro mostly plays acoustic piano in the RED Trio, so it is something different to hear him play a Fender Rhodes electric piano here. “Identification” starts with dense/mutant yet solemn electric guitar and electric piano swirling together with bowed bass & effects & drums rumbling underneath. Both the electric guitar and el piano erupt intensely together on “O Androide…”, the rest of the quartet: tight, intense and erupting together. It sounds as if the Fender Rhodes is using some effects to twist the sound into lots of bent or fractures notes/sounds. At times it sounds like the Mr. Pinheiro is playing the same mutant, overloaded electric piano & ring modulator that Jan Hammer used in Mahavishnu Orchestra. On the title track the quartet sail off even higher, the interaction on the verge of soaring apart yet somehow still focused as one intense force. Contrabassist Landefermann takes off on this track as well as playing faster and more intensely as if he is about to launch off to another world. This quartet if as intense as they can get, the energy rising to boiling point at times, things about to erupt into totally free form insanity. In the early to mid-seventies, before fusion became a formula & the grandstanding went too far, there was a period of jazz/rock that was freer, more experimental and unpredictable direction-wise. This quartet sounds quite a bit like it was born in that era. So nice to be transported back in time and with great results. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $15

JACK O’THE CLOCK - Leaving California (Cuneiform 477; USA) One of the most original and compelling groups I know playing some amazing compositions that seem to tread effortlessly between Van Dyke Parks and folk music from an as yet unidentified culture, while making all the things you've always thought of as difficult sound as effortless and natural as breathing...Amazing production. Extraordinary compositions. You need to hear it.” – Fred Frith
Jack O’ The Clock’s Leaving California is a highly-detailed musical adventure that reveals new layers with repeated listens, from the opening strums of “Jubilation,” which introduces the record with whimsical folksy fanfare, to the angular harmonized violin lead on the closing track, “Narrow Gate.” Throughout, the songs of bandleader Damon Waitkus recall artists such as David Sylvian, Fairport Convention, and Elliott Smith, while creative musical arrangements showcase the band’s high-level compositional and instrumental chops. Upon first listen, Leaving California offers plenty of hooks, but this is music that truly reveals its depth upon the scrutiny of repeated spins.
This is the band’s eighth album and is the latest in a string of fine and uncategorizable releases that started in 2009. The band have referred to themselves as 'majestic junk folk' and that's a pretty funny but not inaccurate description for a band who blend folk music and experimental music together in a unique way.
CD $15

THE FOURTH WORLD QUARTET with ROGER / BENJAMIN & LAURENCE MILLER / JACK WATERSTONE - 1975 (Cuneiform 481; USA) Featuring Benjamin Miller on electric guitar & alto sax, Jack Waterstone on alto sax, Laurence Miller on bass clarinet and Roger Miller on piano & percussion. The Fourth World Quartet hailed from Ann Arbor, Michigan and consisted of three brothers and a friend they met at a small art school in 1975. Everyone in the band composed material but the band only existed for a few months. You should recognize a couple of the names here from future bands: Roger Miller was a founding member of Boston-based prog band Birdsongs of the Mesozoic and later Mission of Burma while Benjamin & Laurence ended up in a version of the legendary art/rock/punk band Destroy All Monsters, which also included Ron Ashton from the Stooges. The quartet had eclectic tastes (from the MC5 to Stockhausen & Stravinsky) so this disc is hard to pin down to any one style/genre or pigeonhole. The liner notes to this disc tell the history of the band at length and it is pretty fascinating to see how the members all evolved over time and with other projects. It turns out that some of the members studied and ended up collaborating with later Downtown hyper-pianist Denman Maroney.
Although this session was recorded at Thomas Jefferson College in 1975, the quartet soon disbanded and this music wasn’t released until recently, some more than 45 years later. The music is a fascinating blend of various influences. Ben Miller’s “Reverse Coll Distinction” is calm, thoughtfully composed and played by three reeds (alto saxes & bass clarinet) & piano and it is closer to modern chamber music than anything else. I like the way Laurence Miller’s “Pompeii” unfolds in ways that are hard to predict, sometimes there are two different duos (piano & sax, guitar & sax) which are playing together and at times apart with an undertow, almost invisible connection. There are sections when it sounds as if some members are playing completely free and others where certain lines are obviously written out. Roger Miller, who later went on to play electric keyboards in Birdsongs of the Meszoic, playing exclusively acoustic piano here and is a gifted player of more modern classical-like piano. Most or all of this music is written with minimal freer or improvised sections. This music actually takes some getting used to since it is difficult to figure out the way the songs are connected. The quartet seem to have their own logic. There are two select covers here, Roscoe Mitchell’s “Tnoona” and an excerpt of Stravinsky’s “Renard the Fox”. I really dig this album although it will take some time to figure it out. It does become more clear with each listen. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $15

ANTHONY PIROG - In Side (AGSR 002; USA) In Side is a collection combining newly composed pieces and material that I've been performing live for many years. I have long been a fan of solo guitar recordings that do not shy away from the use of overdubbing (John Abercrombie - Characters, Sonny Sharrock - Guitar, Bill Frisell - Ghost Town) and have always wanted to create a release using this approach. In Side was recorded at my home in Washington, DC during the Summer of 2020 and was mixed and mastered by Mike Reina at The Brink in Centrevile, VA.
After touring with The Messthetics (the post-Fugazi trio I'm in) for the better part of two years, the absence of live performances left me with the question of what to do with my time during quarantine. As a way of continuing to move forward I began completing unfinished works that had been sitting on the shelf for many years. After releasing 5 records and contributing to a compilation in 2020 I started to record In Side. Some songs were written as a reminder that life was continuing to take place even though I was disconnected from family and friends. The birth of my niece during the pandemic inspired the composition “Song for Ava” which evoked many conflicting emotions. The joy of celebrating family was present in the writing process as well as the longing and memory of celebrating with those who mean the most to us. Other songs such as “Strange”, a song originally performed by Patsy Cline, and Horace Silver's "Peace" are works that I have been performing for many years but didn’t find a home on my other recordings. The song “Janel” was the first composition I penned for the cello/guitar duo I have with my wife, Janel Leppin, and was written twenty years ago.
The new compositions for In Side poured out of me since I was forced to exist in my music room with nothing to do but fill my time with feeling the emotions we have all felt in this period of extreme isolation.” – Anthony Pirog
CD $14

JACK DUPON - La Republique Dominicale du Zoo (La Boite 09; France) Jack Dupon are a French quartet who feature: Gregory Pozzoli & Philippe Prebet on guitar & vocals, Arnaud M’Doihoma on bass & vocals and Thomas Larsen on drums & vocals. I caught this French band at the FIMAV festival several years ago and thought they were extraordinary live, although I hadn’t heard of them before checking them out live. I ended up purchasing 3 or 4 of their previous discs and have been impressed by each one. One of the things that impressed me live is that each member looked like a different character from a different film or fantasy novel. Both the slightly psychedelic artwork and music have this sort of science fiction/odd progressive sound. The layered, ever-changing vocals sound rather Residents-like on the opener, “Mute”, which keeps shifting as both guitars use a variety of effects and sound like synths at times. Both guitarists are inventive and hard to pin down stylistically since the songs keep changing into something else on each piece. “Niout” is both twisted and strangely funky at times. Since the lyrics are in French and hard to separate from the rest of the music, it is hard to figure out what they are singing about yet their quirky and unpredictable songs remain somehow enchanting in their own weird way. “Taureau” is a smashing, psychedelic rock that might as be Acid Mothers Temple (or perhaps Gong) but not over the top. Since there are four singers here, the quartet switch between different characters, some sly, quieter with some haunting French spoken words and other times shouting or chanting more festive asides. Although this disc is only 33 minutes, it is engaging throughout. I get the feeling that I need to get a Universal Translator device in order to figure out what they are singing about so I can get the jokes they are dealing with. The vibe is not as whimsical as their Canterbury brethren but they are still consistently engaging no matter what. Perhaps a bit dark at times but still quite unpredictable and at times astonishing. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $17

GERALD CLEAVER - Griots (577 Records/PEREC 004; USA) Detroit wunderkind Cleaver has drummed has way across a broad fraternity of jazz, free-jazz, and improv’s finest, working with more collectives than one can shake a (drum)stick at, in groups and associations with everyone from Daniel Carter, Roscoe Mitchell, Miroslav Vitous, and Tommy Flanagan to Bill Frisell, Matthew Shipp, Michael Formanek, Tomasz Stanko…the list is endless. And as he’s left his indelible, thunderstruck mark on those sessions and beyond, we as listeners can now rejoice in Cleaver’s decision to apply his nomadic impulses full tilt in exploring the multi-layered rhythmic intricacies of electronic music. Born and raised in Detroit, the thick-as-pea-soup groove attacks found on this disc’s superb predecessor, Signs, are even more pronounced here, Cleaver taking the minimalist aesthetic of his hometown’s techno birthright and splicing it into eleven magnetic sound-sculptures inhabiting a broad range of humid, beat-centric ecosystems. The album title is particularly apt: synergizing some of the ‘fourth-world’ concepts first augured by Jon Hassell, Cleaver’s corralled a tour de force of febrile polyrhythms, sparring drum machine patterns, loose-limbed synths, and numerous unidentifiable modular globules that merged together offer a veritable feast for the senses. Even more tantalizing, Cleaver uses his new palette of sounds to pay tribute to heroes past and present, so “Victor Lewis” gallops along on a colorfully textured stream of liquid throb, the opening “Cooper-Moore” reimagines sub-Saharan Africa as a seesawing rite of digital passage, and “William Parker”, with its insistent low-end pulse, expansive atmospheric cadences and pungent Hassell-flavored curlicues, perfectly captures the exploratory spirit of its itinerant namesake. This is the kind of record that only reveals its hidden mysteries and profound depth with repeated listenings; its density is its very virtue. And for an electronic music nut like myself, allow me to say how it’s always surprising and instantly delightful when acoustic-oriented musicians decide to bend their muse to the synthetic side of the spectrum, particularly when the results are this striking, this successful, this exquisite. Pure aural manna—who luvs ya', baby! - Darren Bergstein, DMG
CD $12

Five New Ones from the Great Cantaloupe Label:

JOHN LUTHER ADAMS & THE SEATTLE SYMPHONY - The Become Trilogy (Cantaloupe 21161; USA) Collected here for the first time, Become River, with newly remastered versions of Become Ocean and Become Desert by acclaimed engineer Nathaniel Reichman, The Become Trilogy pays tribute to a magical partnership between Adams, conductor Ludovic Morlot and the renowned Seattle Symphony. As a whole, the music speaks both to the meditative solace of solitude, and the universally shared experience of living, giving and interacting as a citizen of the world. Longer review next week when Frank or myself have more time to listen.
3 CD Set $35

MICHAEL GORDON & THE CELLO OCTET AMSTERDAM - 8 (Cantaloupe 21159; USA) Scored for 8 cellos, Bang on A Can founder Michael Gordon’s latest CD for Cantaloupe continues a deeply exciting through line he has been developing over the last 13 years. “Timber” (2009) was the first piece of its kind I ever experienced. It was 2013 and I was 20 years old running a DIY art space in Asheville North Carolina called Apothecary. We were a barebones space that lasted only 15 months, but over that time developed a good enough curatorial reputation to attract national and internationally recognized experimental artists, mostly from the avant-rock and free jazz traditions. Towards the end of our tenure, we were contacted by a group called Nief Norf, which was touring “Timber” and had been involved in its commissioning process. “Timber” is a percussion sextet for amplified “simantras” (basically 2x4s with contact mics), scored in such a way to cause the chorus of instruments with completely dead attack to swirl into a cavernous polyphony. Each musician has to build a separate click track, and it’s a highly involved technical experience, but one of the most total sound experiences one can have! The audience is encouraged to position themselves in relationship to the performers in any way they choose, and the idea is to create a truly immersive sound experience. They filled up our tiny space and drew me into a world of contemporary chamber music which I had previously never imagined would have wanted to exist outside of conservatories. I have heard “Timber” 5 times now, and if you ever get the chance to hear it with good subwoofers over a PA, do everything that you can to be there.
2012’s “Rushes” extends ideas express in “Timber” to an ensemble of 7 bassoons, relying on a similar tower of staccato polyrhythm, but adding harmonic motion and sustained long tones, allowing the natural characteristics of the bassoon to add a reedy melodic blend to the structures. Gordon clearly meant with this piece to continue what worked and allow the techniques to include instrumental character study, and I found “Rushes” to be equally memorable and listen to it often. In 2015, he extended the approach to electric guitar quartet, with “Amplified”, which I have yet to hear.
Now, with “8” Gordon extends the approach to strings, maximalizing both the character of the cello, and paying more of an obvious homage to the functioning organisms of traditional chamber music. As with the other pieces in this series, he never reaches into extended techniques (which can be a temptation with contemporary cello writing) instead relying on dry articulation with little to no vibrato as the building blocks of a torrential arrangement. As with “Rushes”, he allows sections of lilting longtone-heavy lines to emerge gradually out of the fray at an unassuming pace. He exploits tremolo to accentuate a rustling motion throughout the ensemble, and employs rests and sudden shifts that are uncommon to the rest of this series of pieces. Of all of these heavily choreographed pieces, this one feels the most dramatic and almost romantic leaning. The players forego the illusion of a group sound for an exploration of orchestration, placing the magic in seamless transitions between distinct roles. As always, I find it a deeply engaging listen that invites repeated listening, and fits snugly into a series that I hope grows to be canonical. - Frank Meadows for DMG
CD $15

DAVID LANG // BILL MORRISON - The Village Detective - A Song Cycle (Cantaloupe 21164; USA) Known for his poignant use of long-forgotten, and sometimes deteriorated, archival footage to open new doors of perception about our shared history and collective mythology, filmmaker Bill Morrison has crafted his own detective story out of his latest film music venture with composer David Lang, aptly titled ‘The Village Detective: a song cycle’.
The saga began in 2016, when Morrison received an email from composer Jóhann Jóhannsson about a fisherman off the coast of Iceland who had found four reels of an old Soviet film in his net. Derevensky Detektiv (1969) was not a lost, rare, or even a particularly good film, but Morrison was intrigued, and began to build his own mystery narrative around the film’s discovery at the bottom of the ocean.
“The story involves a stolen accordion,” he explains. “And I started to think about that instrument as a set of lungs that is found in the folk music of people all across the globe.” When Jóhannsson died unexpectedly in 2018, Morrison brought the idea to Lang. “David was excited by the fact that this film had new stories to tell. Ultimately we arrived at a soundtrack with a single accordion [played with elegance and emotion by Norwegian musician Frode Andersen] — a single set of lungs diving into the ocean to retrieve this story. The extraordinary music David wrote perfectly captures this, and the beautiful, tragic and inexorable drift of time.”
The music on this disc was written by Bang on a Can composer David Lang, who has collaborated with filmmaker Bill Morrison on several of his previous films. Since the story/film involves a stolen accordion, Mr. Lang scored the music for an accordionist (Frode Andersen), a vocalist (Ms. Shara Nova) with the help of recording engineer/mastering person Nick Lloyd, who we know from his work for the Firehouse12 label. I have long been a big fan of accordion music which seems to cross so many borders/barriers of culture and genre. If you have big ears, like most of you do, you know that the accordion is much more diverse than some might believe. On the second track, “I cross the field”, it sounds as if the accordionist is stretching time out, with several layers breathing in and out together. The results are immensely haunting, yet most sublime. The sound of the accordion seems to change somewhat on each piece from a melodica to an Farfisa organ to a harmonium. One of the things I like most about the accordion is the way one can juxtapose different (droning) lines simultaneously: some thicker, some thinner, some more dense and some more ethereal. Each piece seems to evoke a different series of scenes or feelings. At times, those wheezing chords sound majestic, at times disorienting as if we are entering an unfamiliar place and don’t know what will occur next. If you think that an accordion might stifle one’s creativity, then you must hear this disc, a true gem. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $15

MICHAEL HARRISON - Seven Sacred Names (Cantaloupe Music 21157; USA) The cover of Michael Harrison’s latest CD for Bang on A Can imprint Cantaloupe Music is almost comically cosmic. The artwork is adorned with references to sacred geometry; fractals, golden ratios and the like. It’s the type of thing that interests many composers, listeners, and stoners when they encounter the fascinating depths of harmonic proportion and the omniscient balance of natural pitch and rhythmic relationships. (I once thought of getting a golden ratio tattoo that I thankfully avoided!)
Harrison however, can count himself among the few that have the bona fides to do more than pay lip service to these principles. His biography includes a life long serious study of Indian classical singing and composition, as well as a stint under the tutelage of La Monte Young. He pioneered a structural approach to composition in which the proportions of harmonic relationships organically determine other musical elements such as pitch, duration, and dynamics. He also invented the "harmonic piano," a grand piano that plays 24 notes per octave, documented in the Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments.
His signature innovations are on full display here. “Seven Sacred Names” is meant as a companion album to a book by W.H.S. Gebel entitled “Nature’s Hidden Dimension”, whose premise is that the universe has an inner as well as an outer life. “..intelligence has always existed, and the unfolding and evolution of the universe is a sign of the universal intelligence wishing to know itself.” says Gebel in the foreword. The concepts expressed in the piece titles and liner notes come from the mystic cosmology of Sufism, but I have found them to be broadly translatable spiritual works that create a space for the listener to inhabit gradually. Like a plant slowly bending its stems towards the corners of light in my apartment, these pieces contain sonorous contours with a patient undercurrent. This is music you have to live with, but which inevitably grows with you. Harrison’s keyboard work (both in just intonation and in ‘standard’ tuning) glitters between his borderless vocal writing, for which he employs Indian singers, as well as Roomful of Teeth and other contemporary western musicians. Tablas and violins skitter over substructures that move like a broad river. Harrsion collaborates openly, performing himself on most of the tracks and sculpting a performance environment that feels organic yet exact. Here is the work of a scholar with a firm grasp on the exact science of life, who is able to look through and beyond it to understand the spiritual energy which animates its materials. - Frank Meadows for DMG
CD $15

CHARLOTTE KEEFFE with ASHLEY JOHN LONG / STEVE BERESFORD / CAROLINE KRAABEL / NEIL METCALFE / MAGGIE NICOLS / PHIL MINTON / LONDON IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA / et al - Right Here, Right Now - Solo, Duo, Quartet, Large Ensemble (Discus 107; UK) Over the past couple of years we’ve been listing dozens of discs from the UK-based Discus label, which is run by Martin Archer. The label has recently passed the 100 mark of releases and what amazes me is the consistency and diversity of all of the discs that myself and Darren B have reviewed. The other thing that amazes me is how well everything is recorded and how many little known British musicians that they’ve introduced us to. Which brings us to Ms. Charlotte Keeffe, trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer. I hadn’t heard of Ms. Keeffe before the past year when she appeared on two Martin Archer CD’s as well as a quartet led by Alex Ward (rel on Relative Pitch). This disc ranges from solos to duo to a quartet and the London Improvers Orchestra. It turns out that this disc is Charlotte Keeffe’s first release as a leader and it includes her first freely improvised trumpet solo and her first conduction. Several pieces feature Ms. Keeffe’s quartet with Moss Freed on guitar, Ashley John Long (Dunmall collaborator) on double bass and Ben Handysides on drums. The quartet kicks things off with “1200 Photographs”, a tightly played, impressive piece with organically written (skeletal) and free sections well integrated. The second piece is an improvised duo for trumpet and electric guitar (Diego Sampieri), it is spacious, eerie and carefully played. Plus it sounds like a continuation (vibe-wise) from the first piece. “Mysterious Breath” is the first of three pieces featuring the massive London Improvisers Orchestra (LIO), who play regular gigs in London and have many discs out on the Emanem label. The LIO members can range anywhere from 15 to 40 musicians. Ms. Keeffe is a member of the 40 piece orchestra on “Mysterious Breath”, which sounds like someone is directing the massive ensemble. “Sweet Corn” features the quartet live and it is an impressive, tight, quick, flash of exciting ensemble playing. The second piece for LIO, “To Steve Beresford’ is intense, focused improv at its best. Mr. Beresford takes a wonderful, humorous, in between categories piano solo midway which is another highlight. “Noizemaschin!!” is for solo, improvised trumpet with some effects. It is nice to hear some strong close-mic’d trumpet weirdness from an under-recognized talent. “A Horse Named Galaxy” is played by Ms. Keeffe’s quartet and it has a melody which one could hum or whistle yet there is nothing cheesy about it, showing a much different side to Ms. Keeffe’s writing. The final piece, the title track, is a longer excursion for the LIO with Ms. Keeffe conducting. This piece buzzes, floats, creating a dream-like vibe which organically shifts through different connected sections. Like everything we’ve heard on Discus, this is a winner which sounds great on many levels. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $14

INCLUSION PRINCIPLE - The 4, The 8, The 10 (Discus 110CD; UK) The events—or, more accurately, nonevents—of these strangest of strange years seems perfectly intertwined in the agony and the ecstasy that is the new Inclusion Principle release. Multi-instrumentalists Martin Archer and Hervé Perez have produced a dichotomy of riches here, a many-headed beast ejecting its sonic effluvia across a landscape of cantilevered dimensions, ominous atmospheres vying with compromised ‘jazz’ tropes that instantly mutate as they appear. Both participant’s varied hornplay acts as analog sinew binding together their determined tunneling through an entire kaleidoscopic forest of digital glossolalia; to be emphatic about it, the album’s overall sound design is simply stunning, aural epiphanies writ large. The ten-minute opening salvo “A Dark Night Ahead of Us” sets the tone, Perez's alto wails resembling beacons searching for some semblance of normality as they flutter within the piece's chromatic aviary, Archer’s soprano jostling for attention, juxtaposed against a jabberwocky of soft whispers, blurts and beats. Things take more abstract detours on the subsequent “Intermediate Space”, where the duo trade in the kind of clicks ’n’ cuts Mille Plateaux and Oval made a big deal of decades ago but Archer and Perez embrace with imaginative girth and obvious relish, a slice of cyberjungle fourth-worldism that posits a horde of extraterrestrial natives dancing on the heads of reflective pins. Space is assuredly the place on “Arising and Passing Away”, which engages in faux Tangerine Dream escapades put through the 21st-century laptop ringer, moog bass susurrations marking their territory across a shifting synthetic tundra while flocks of seagulls murmur. All of this seems but prelude to the album’s near-indescribable half-hour-plus conclusion, “Ornament of Light”, Archer and Perez letting their freak flag fly. On this three-part suite, electronic motifs of unnatural origin shiver and shake; planets align and are then thrown off their axes; foghorn calls prowl the event horizon before succumbing in a vacuum of corrosive squelch; timbres like synthetic mercury dribble out of the speaker fabric in anthropomorphic glee. Forbidding, fascinating, this work's viselike grip on your sensibility is achieved with the first gut-punch exposure, to be finally rubber-stamped on memory when you hit ‘repeat’. That a variety of moods are conjured so effectively speaks volumes about how both artists are in synch with their objectives, so clearly vested in the realization of their ideas, so highly attuned to their birthing of new musics that to accompany them on their magical mystery tour is an experience not soon forgotten. - Darren Bergstein, DMG
CD $14

OSCILATIONS with TREVOR TAYLOR / et al - 12 Tone Music for Jazz Quintet (FMR 568-0120; UK) Composed by FMR head Trevor Taylor, this ‘hybridization’ uses as its base (according to the label’s description), “partly 12 tone technique and in parts space notation, a graphic method where the players interpret the music written in a non-conventional way.” In essence, Taylor and his cohorts ‘improvise’ along a somewhat composed, pre-determined structure that allows for greater note and chord expansion, in addition to playing freely along less linear or narrative lines. Theory and compositional considerations aside, this is a mighty fine and gorgeously performed music, quite aleatory in nature, and fluidly referencing decades of jazz idiom while still sounding utterly fresh and contemporary. Though each member of the quintet—trumpeter Shanti Paul Jayashina, sax player Josh Ison, pianist Dan Banks, bassist Jose Canha, and percussionist Taylor—have their various moments in the spotlight, and collectively there’s never an instance of cacophony to upset the apple cart (this is in fact a group effort), there is still enormous space and breadth on this recording, where various ideas are seen through to completion while any disparate fragments remaining leave a sweet afterglow in the ear. That being said, Banks seems to be the star here, a commanding presence etching out well-poised, chamber-esque salutations one moment, exploding in a flurry of Cecil Taylor-inspired torrents the next. Ison and Jayashina’s carefully chosen phrases, bobbing amongst Taylor’s discrete chirrups and pulses, resonate with great effect, their infrequent exchanges acting like sudden depth charges scattered amongst Canha’s supple lines and pregnant pauses. The lengthy opening piece, “Ekrahta”, recalls nothing less than the spirit of some long lost Blue Note 60s session were it not for the great economy of notes which the quintet navigate amongst with the utmost flair, itself not only a means to an end but a near-reimagining of established jazz ethoses that is both improv-warm and bop-cool to the touch. - Darren Bergstein, DMG
CD $14

MARCO COLONNA / DARIO MIRANDA / FABRIZIO SPERA - N-EST (Listen! Foundation FSR 09/2021; Poland) Featuring Marco Colonna on clarinets, alto sax & flute, Dario Miranda on double bass and Fabrizio Spera on drums. I know reeds player Marco Colonna from his work with Alexander Hawkins, Agusti Fernandez and Zlatko Kaucic. Bassist Dario Miranda is a bit more obscure although he has recorded with Swedish Mobilia & Telegraph, both of whom have discs out on Leo. Colossal Italian drummer Fabrizio Spera we know from more than two dozen discs with 7K Oaks, Blast, Alberto Braida and the amazing Roots Magic (best Italian avant/spirit/jazz band who like to cover blues, gospel & R&B covers). This disc was recorded at Abbey Rocchi Studios in Rome in September of 2019.
Considering that free improvisation is by now its own international language, it continues to grow, evolve and change or mutate in a variety of ways. Right from the opening of “Zamia”, the bass clarinetist is reaching deeply inside with appropriate contrabass and percussion buzzing tightly together. The opening bit is less than three minutes long but it does set the stage for our attention and things to come. Mr. Miranda’s warm, thick contrabass is at the center of “Aspen” which is calm and slowly moving and stripped down with just hand percussion and solemn alto sax. This is an extremely well-balanced trio where each member contributes equally and each member gets their chance to direct or push the current(s) in their own way. At times it seems as if they’ve wandered into a museum or some ancient ruins, which Italy has quite a bit of, melodic fragments rustle together, spacious and/or mysterious ghostly sounds also appear at regular intervals. There is indeed a sense of history/mystery unfolding in its own way, a gathering of internal and external spirits coming together to celebrate life. A marvel on several levels. Bassist Dario Miranda is really at the heart of things here so I hope we get other chances to hear his magical playing in the (near) future. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $16

AWATAIR with MICHAL GOS / MARK TOKAR / TOMASZ GADECKI - Awatair Plays Coltrane / Live at Klub Zak Jazz Jantar Festival 2019 (Listen! Foundation FSR 16/2019; Poland) Awatair is Tomasz Gadecki on tenor & baritone saxes, Mark Tokar on double bass and Michal Gos on drums. Tenor & soprano saxist, composer, spirit-catcher and visionary John Coltrane left this planet in 1967, his entire music career a bit longer than a decade. More than a half century later, John Coltrane’s legacy/influence casts a long shadow on his minions all over the world and throughout modern times. Practically every year we get some sort of John Coltrane tribute from single musicians, small groups and large ensembles, from many corners of the serious music world. On this disc we find a trio from Poland paying tribute to the Coltrane legacy, performing two of Trane’s classic gems, as well as two long improvisations inspired by Trane’s music. I hadn’t heard much from the saxist here, Tomasz Gadecki, although he has worked with Canadian’s Francois Carrier & Michel Lambert, as well as in a bari sax duo called Sambar. Contrabassist Mark Tokar has worked with Ken Vandermark in the Resonance Ensemble as well as with Waclaw Zimpel & Roberta Piket. I had never heard of the drummer, Michal Gos, before this disc arrived.
Awatair begin with “The Father and The Son and The Holy Ghost”, a section from Trane’s ‘Meditations’ album. Although the ‘Meditations’ albums featured an expanded version of Trane’s main quartet with Pharoah Sanders and Rashied Ali added, this trio version is equally sprawling, powerful and intense. Right out of the gate, the bari (?) sax led trio is pushing the envelope, the saxist sounding like Peter Brotzmann at times as he shreds those notes. Towards the end of this piece, bassist Mark Tokar takes a colossal (William Parker-like bass solo. “Naima” is one of Trane’s most memorable songs, named after his first wife and found on the ‘Giants Steps’ album. Since the pieces here are continuous, I didn’t recognize “Naima” until they played that poignant theme at the end of the piece. The spiritual vibe continues with a long (20 minute) piece called, “Improvisation for Mr. J.C.”, the title inspired by Trane’s “Mr. P.C.”. The piece begins with a long Elvin Jones-like drum solo, spinning furiously like a psychedelicized octopus. Mr. Gadecki plays bari sax here, taking his time and building in intensity as he goes, the rest of the trio also levitating together. higher and higher. I really dig the long midsection here with Gadecki’s sax playing at a more moderate pace, his tone warm, burring, most enchanting. Bassist Tokar also takes a modest yet expressive bass solo midway, bowing and tapping on the strings with his bow, yet another highlight. The last part of this suite was inspired by “Seraphic Light”, a piece from Trane's amazing posthumous work, ’Stellar Regions’, which was never performed live. Again the trio do a most impressive job of pushing this piece higher and stretching out over some 15 minutes. What I like most about this trio and this disc is this: the music here is played with stirring passion and reverence, it is in the Coltrane vein but it is also unique in its own way, with a singular stunning sound. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $16

DIAMANDA GALÁS - "De-Formation: Piano Variations” (Intravenal Sound Operations 004; USA) Diamanda Galás’ latest recording is inevitable and timely. The legendary vocal maverick recently gained control of her back catalog and re-released the highly recommended “Litanies of Satan”, along with “De-Formation: Piano Variations” on her own imprint Intravenal Sound Operations. This 21 minute piece masterwork for solo piano was recorded in September 2019, and is based on the 1912 poem by Georg Heym “The Fever Hospital”. In working on the score for the poem, she realized that the piano skeleton had become its own work, and she decided to record that in advance of an accompanying vocal work.
Heym’s poem depicts the warehousing and confinement of yellow fever patients, presaging the treatment and hiding of infected and damaged soldiers later in WWI. This continues Galás’s longtime emphasis in her work on the bodily distortions and social inequities of physical suffering; the unholy marriage between disease and political oppression. Ominously prophetic in her delivery, Galás’ lifelong dedication to exploring these themes is perversely affirmed by the events spanning the two years between this recording and now. Musically, it is clear that this piece is set to frame an implied narrative, sounding like a lost gem in the canon of silent film scores. The beautifully packaged LP comes with just one side of audio and a barren side B. It is clinical in its delivery, mourning packaged in anger. Like Sun Ra on “Monorails and Satellites”, or Charles Mingues on “Mingus Plays Piano” Galás’ legendary complexity and viscerality is distilled and exposed with all the dressings taken away. The guts of her style are laid bare and it adds new understanding to her previous accomplishments. The stabbing rhythms and fierce control she exerts as a keyboardist echo her meticulously built toolbox of otherworldly vocal expression, and frames her as an omnivorous composer of the highest order.
As we transition back into a world where capitalism is encouraging us to ravenously resume our pre-pandemic social order, put on this sobering piece as a reminder that while the COVID pandemic was uniquely debilitating, there is also a timelessness to it. The diseased have often been shoved under the rug throughout history. This latest catastrophe is just the latest in a constant cycle of disaster and neglect towards the damaged. This music presents a challenge to us to learn from the horrors of our past, no matter how recent, and to channel our anger into mastery of our being towards each other. - Frank Meadows for DMG
CD $14 / LP $20

LITURGY with NATE WOOLEY / JAMES ILGENFRITZ / ERIC WUBBELS / et al - Origin of the Alimonies (YLYLCYN 3; USA) Any metalhead purists in our readership will hopefully forgive any missteps in terminology I make below. From an outsider's perspective, metal is an impossibly large umbrella term that contains a rich culture of insider terminologies and signifiers. Much like the Downtown Scene, its fandom incorporates lingo that can illuminate the fabric of its history, but which leaves it vulnerable to the reductive narcissism of small differences. This reduction can cause the building blocks of an idiom to become dangerously interchangable, and many a composer has fallen flat on their face in attempting to borrow what they think is a meaningful reference to another music culture, often reinforcing unnecessary genre divisions created by music publicists. Not so with Hunter Hunt-Hendrix on Liturgy’s “Origin Of The Alimonies”, a work unquestionably birthed from metal but steeped in operatic structure, and featuring Downtown heavies like Eve Essex, Nate Wooley, James Ilgenfritz, Eric Wubbels and Marilu Donovan. Other writers could speak more fluently about Liturgy’s history, but it is a name that I have long associated with “cross-over appeal”; a metal outfit that seemed to draw fans from all corners of the underground. What I can speak to is the remarkably tasteful balance of epic scale and brutal precision here. The dynamic swings from gargantuan to delicate, and incorporates a texturally savy array of chamber writing peppered throughout powerful “burst beats” (a term Hendrix coined) While incorporation of classical music into metal is a time-honored cliche, Hendrix truly understands how it can work and executes it beautifully. The references here are exceedingly well studied, and nothing feels like a cheap shot. Her burst beats open to unveil menacing pipe organ, and extended walls of sound towards the end feature the unmistakable crystalline harmonic framing of Nate Wooley. Marilu Donovan’s harp is boldly mixed and scored in a way that never feels “harpy”, it feels like a natural companion echo of the guitar. Hendrix steps boldly and quickly through her decisions, and avoids any potential bloating with a concise runtime. The scale of the project, a cryptic opera in which Hendrix embodies a multitude of characters, is made all the more cutting and horrifying by the succinctness of its gestures. This tome bears much repeating, and should be essential to the collection of anyone interested in the nuance of high impact experience. - Frank Meadows for DMG
CD $14

MARCO OPPEDISANO - Mechanical Uprising (OKSRNA-019; USA) Take one man, his guitar, a battery of effects, various other sound processing equipment, lock him in a room and what do you get? The insanely expressive, glistening noise fulminating from one Marco Oppesidano, string-mangler extraordinaire. Imagine a cantankerous Fripp engaging his fretboard in abject beatdown, Elliott Sharp working through some anger management issues, or Robert Quine tearing open the heavens—might provide a bit of insight into Oppedisano’s cataclysmic working methods. The results breathe fire, to say the least. This recording dates back to 2010, and unlike the bent cold sidewalks he trod his electronics down previously, he here’s fully plugged-in and ready to wage war, to let electricity take the reins, his guitar the conduit for an explosive series of self-detonated sonic bombs. The industrial sturm und clang of the molten title track turns your mind to cerebral succotash: like a runaway subway on the verge of jumping the track, sounds careen, echo, splinter, and pulsate in equal measure, Oppedisano exhibiting great sleight-of-hand in keeping the listener off-balance. Across the track’s spine-tingling eight minutes, you find yourself immersed in some excoriating guitar noir, a litany of amp-scorched bursts and sculpted feedback that might well give Rhys Chatham the shivers. Toss in what sounds like art-damaged piano, gurgling tonal clusters on the verge of asphyxiation, and some portentous, horror-flick atmospheres, and you’ll find yourself hip deep in an inescapable Carpenter-induced nightmare. The trilogy of tracks nicked from “Clockwatcher” pile on the aforementioned electroacoustic patches in Stockhausen-like fashion, timepiece concréte that simultaneously speeds up, pauses, and advances its own orgiastic chronology in dizzying fashion. Brute, unstoppable energy infuses this galvanizing recording from start to finish—allow yourself the pleasure to become anesthetized by Oppedisano’s tumultuous skronk, the finale a breathless conflation of weeping guitars and gnashing of teeth. - Darren Bergstein, DMG
CD $10

MARCO OPPEDISANO - Resolute (Spect 37; US) The most recent physical release from New York’s hyper-lucid guitarist and electro-acoustician finds him opening up full bore. To wit: this is a twenty-one minute action-packed monster of an EP, as concise and unflappable a statement of intent as you’re likely to find. All of Oppedisano’s trademark approaches are on display: brontosaurian chords that pulverize the landscape; yawning shafts of silence used as a weapon; the warping and rendering of simulated pianos, cymbals, altered states, FX, and other filigree into its own confrontational post-classical/experimental mien. That he does this with a rockist bent and singular dexterity imbues these short pieces with a force of will little seen in more arch music. “Reflection” is gutter guitar ganglia gone wild; “Breathe” exhales its carbon dioxide with animalistic ferocity; “Joyous Returns” twists barrelhouse piano into avantist shapes while tube amps glow distorted shades of red; “The Transfixed” hold the listener in numb stasis, its chimestrikes and carefully-plied strings the harbinger of something devilish and dark. The verdict? Hooked. - Darren Bergstein, DMG
CD $10

COMORIAN - We Are An Island, But We're Not Alone (Glitterbeat 109; Germany) Sun-baked instrumental meditations played on local string and percussion instruments. Yearning vocals and songs that evoke the mystifying realities of everyday life. Recorded live and outdoors on Grande Comore island by acclaimed producer Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Ustad Saami, Zomba Prison Project). The Comoro islands are known locally as the "islands of the moon." We Are An Island, But We're Not Alone is the first album of original songs ever to be released from the region. Volume #8 of Glitterbeat's Hidden Musics series.
Producer Ian Brennan tells the story of how the album came together: "It took us six flights to get to the tiny African island, well sequestered in the Indian Ocean and uninhabited by man until centuries after Christ. It is a nation with no army, only police. A place where women don thick mud-masks for sunblock . . . Shortly after arriving, we inquired about the ndzumara (a double-reed pipe, or primitive oboe), and were sadly informed, 'He died.' The last living player had just passed, the sound of the instrument ostensibly lost forever with him. We were left to only imagine its resonance . . . When searching for music, often the stronger artist is hidden behind another, more famous, but lesser one . . .In this case, a slick and successful man named Hassain led us to another non-musician named Hassain who connected us with a musician who was quite good and he ultimately introduced us to his friend and mentor, and that person, Soubi (and his partner, Mmadi) turned out, at last, to be the real deal."
CD $16

THIS IS TEHRAN? - Various Artists (30M Records 002; Germany) “Tehran -- Iran's cultural melting pot with a population of 15 million. There is a broad and lively music scene, about which little is known in the West. In Tehran, traditional music from Baluchistan in the south or Kurdistan in the west meets the hip trends of the metropolis. This Is Tehran? invites you to discover this music scene and marvel at its diversity. From contemporary classical sounds with Saba Alizadeh on the Iranian spiked fiddle Kamanche or Siavash Molaeian together with Kasra Faridi on the piano to the well-known experimental electronic musician Ata "Sote" Ebtekar. The electronic beats of a cooperation of Ehsan Abdipour and Andreas Spechtl stand naturally next to almost jazzy sounds of a Parastoo Ahmadi or Mina Momeni. The Otagh Band invites you to the dark, trip-hop laden "Rotenburg 2020", which they wrote about the cannibal of Rotenburg. This Is Tehran?: a showcase of Iranian music that makes one curious and invites you on a musical journey, as you have certainly not imagined! Also features Hooshyar Khayam & Bamdad Afshar, Pedram Babaiee, and Rojin Sharafi.”
CD $17 [In stock in 1-2 weeks]

NEW FROM NEOS:

PIERRE BOULEZ - Anthemes 1 & 2 (Neos 12104; Germany) “The program on this CD focuses on two essential aspects of Pierre Boulez's oeuvre: his love of theater and his consistent search for ways of spatializing sounds through electronics. In "Dialogue de l'ombre double" from 1985 it is still a pre-produced tape -- recorded by the interpreter himself -- which, together with the live sounds, symbolizes the clarinetist's "double shadow". In "Anthèmes 2", written around ten years later, the acoustic labyrinth in which the soloist finds herself is generated entirely by means of live electronics. The basic idea for this was already laid out in "Anthèmes 1" for solo violin, created in 1991 as a mandatory work for the Yehudi Menuhin competition. Pierre Boulez has worked with the SWR Experimental Studio since it was founded in the early 1970s. In this recording the instrumental parts were excellently cast with Carolin and Jörg Widmann.”
CD $16

GEORG FRIEDRICH HAAS - Ein Schattenspiel String Quartets No. 4 & No. 7 (Neos 12006; Germany) Georg Friedrich Haas is regarded as today's foremost proponent of microtonal composition. But it is precisely these three works -- Ein Schattenspiel, the String Quartets Nos. 4 and 7 -- that show that Haas is actually less immersed in his musical material. Instead, he concentrates on the communicative aspects of music and composition, so as to greatly unsettle and even shock the listener's perception. Of course, microtonality and composition that makes use of the overtone series and overtone chords presents a challenge to the listener accustomed to a more conventional, traditional harmony. But Haas's composition focusses more on the physical experience of this kind of music. It would not be completely inaccurate to speak of a musical aesthetic that seeks to bombard the senses into submission, where the pulsing beats inherent in the overtones and microtonality amalgamate to a roar and thunder roll of noise. The connection between the three works on this CD is the use of live electronics. It creates something like an "acoustic shadow", in which the music is played again with a time delay -- accelerated slightly in Ein Schattenspiel and thus a quarter tone higher than the original that was just heard. Together with the SWR Experimentalstudio, Sophie-Mayuko Vetter (piano), and the Arditti Quartet pre-sent exemplary world premiere recordings.
CD $16

DONAUESCHINGER MUSIKTAGE with MARK ANDRE / JOHANNES BORIS BOROWSKI / EVA REITER / ALBERTO POSADAS - 2019 (Neos 12013; Germany) “The Donaueschinger Musiktage have been regularly documented by NEOS for many years. The 2019 edition begins with Mark Andre's sensitively heard sound spaces in "rwḥ 1 for ensemble and electronics". The Ensemble intercontemporain is represented with Johannes Boris Borowski's "Allein". A notable event at the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2019 was Eva Reiter's "Wächter" for double bass flutes and tube orchestra, played by the SWR Symphonieorchester without any classical musical instruments. From the full-length cycle "Poética del espacio" by Alberto Posadas, the final part Ojo del diablo made it into the selection, interpreted in an outstanding way by the Klangforum Wien.”
CD/SA-CD $17

ERNST HELMUTH FLAMMER - Der Turmbau zu Babel (Neos 12015; Germany) “Ernst Helmuth Flammer's oratorio "Der Turmbau zu Babel" (The Tower of Babel) was commissioned for the 25th anniversary of the "Hanover New Music Days" in 1983. The world premiere took place under the direction of Klaus Bernbacher with excellent interpreters such as Catherine Gayer (soprano), Günter Binge (baritone), Theophil Maier (speaker), the Chor des Norddeutschen Rundfunks and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in the broadcasting hall of the NDR Hanover on January 29, 1983. Ernst Helmuth Flammer: "The oratorio is dedicated to all those who were forced to give up their lives in the struggle for freedom, justice and a dignified coexistence; all undaunted who accepted great personal sacrifices in following an unswerving moral path." "Der Turmbau zu Babel" is dedicated to Klaus Bernbacher. For three orchestral groups, three choirs, two solo voices (soprano and baritone), speaker, quadrophonic playback and live electronics, on texts by Friedrich Schiller, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Kurt Tucholsky.
CD $16

GUNNAR GEISSE - Triptych (Neos 12017; Germany) “Why should one still compose a piano concerto in 2020? Hasn't this leading genre of absolute music exhausted itself for decades? Gunnar Geisse's Piano Concerto, which is premiered on the present CD, definitely adds a new facet to the genre, not certain whether it continues or breaks the genre. Although the piano can be heard as a solo instrument, accompanied by a variety of orchestral instruments, only one instrument was actually played on this recording, which in turn is not a piano but an electric guitar. Geisse developed the "laptop guitar", an extension of his main instrument (the electric guitar) to include the computer, which enables him to continue playing analogue on a digital level. He uses the software-supported real-time conversion of audio to MIDI data to control virtual instruments and samplers. Geisse titled this album Triptych. The last "panel" in this triptych, rhythm changes, follows the two movements of the piano concerto. The work does not focus on a soloist-orchestral arrangement but on the laptop guitar itself. Instead of an imaginary orchestra, Geisse uses a series of sampled materials. Allusions to romanticism are replaced by insights into Charlie Parker's "Anthropology".
CD $16

JAIME REIS - Solo and Chamber Works (Neos 12022; Germany) With "Sangue Inverso - Inverso Sangue", the Portuguese composer Jaime Reis has created his own little cosmos: two times seven movements that can be performed separately, one after the other or at the same time. Despite very different tempos, moments of synchronization and coordination arise. The main idea behind this structure is the relationship between the individual and the collective, more precisely: the role of the individual regardless of his integration into the collective. The Ensemble Fractales presents nine different variations of the Sangue cycle -- both as individually as well as simultaneously played movements. Jaime Reis has dealt intensively with scientific topics. This is how the piano work "Lysozyme Synthesis" (Ana Telles, piano) became inspired by the process of protein synthesis, "Fluxus, Vortex - Schubkraft" (here in the acoustic version with the Aleph Gitarrenquartett) from the physical phenomenon of fluid mechanics.
CD $16

YOUNGHI PAGH-PAAN - Chamber Works (Neos 12026; Germany) “When the composer Younghi Pagh-Paan came to Germany in the mid-1970s, she was at first deeply insecure about the gaping contradictions between Western culture and her Korean homeland. She drew a special creative force from it -- influences from both worlds are combined in her music to this day. The works that the Ensemble KNM Berlin and the soprano Angela Postweiler recorded here were created between 1977 and 2020 and thus offer a comprehensive view of Pagh-Paan's work. Among them, the three first recordings deserve special attention: ma-am (Mein Herz) for female solo and Mein Herz I for soprano and viola, as well as the string quartet Horizont auf hoher See. The production was created as part of the award of the Berlin Art Prize 2020 by the Akademie der Künste Berlin. Younghi Pagh-Paan was born in 1945 in Cheongju, in what is now South Korea. She came to Germany on a DAAD scholarship in 1974 to continue her studies with Klaus Huber at the Freiburg University of Music. With her orchestral piece Sori she attracted wide public attention at the Donaueschingen Festival 1980. After visiting professorships at the music universities in Graz and Karlsruhe, she was appointed professor of composition at the Bremen University of the Arts in 1994 -- the first woman in Germany. She received numerous international prizes and resides in Bremen and Panicale (Italy).
CD $16

MAGNUS LINDBERG - Complete Works for Accordeon (Neos 12027; Germany) “With the complete recording of the accordion works by Magnus Lindberg, Janne Valkeajoki presents an extraordinary debut album. The young Finnish accordionist has won several international competitions and has made guest appearances at numerous festivals. On this CD, solo and chamber music works can be found; while "Jeux d'anches" (for accordion solo) and the duo "Metal Work" for accordion and percussion are original works, Valkeajoki made versions of "Dos Coyotes" (with cello) and the piano work "Jubilees" especially for his instrument. He worked closely with Lindberg, who emphasizes that the accordion versions are not just arrangements, but stand-alone works. Magnus Lindberg has a special relationship with the accordion: as a child he took his first musical steps with it. Today he is one of the most played composers internationally.
CD $16

DAVID PHILIP HEFTI - Die Schneekonigin (Neos 12028; Germany) David Philip Hefti composed his second music theater work based on motives by Hans Christian Andersen: The Snow Queen. The plot centers upon the children Gerda and Kay, whose friendship is put to a severe test when Kay falls under the spell of the Snow Queen. Hefti's high-contrast music creates sometimes shimmering cold, sometimes cozy warmth; the icy Snow Queen -- outstandingly cast with Mojca Erdmann -- sounds "clear and transparent like frozen crystals" (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). The musical story for soprano, two speakers (Delia Mayer and Max Simonischek) and orchestra is aimed equally at children, young people and adults. The recording of the world premiere with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under the direction of the composer is released on this CD. The 80-page booklet contains the German libretto as well as the English and French translations.
CD $16

JIM FRANKLIN - Songs from the Lake (Neos 12029; Germany) The way Jim Franklin combines the traditional Japanese bamboo flute shakuhachi with modern live electronics is unique. In addition to the latest studio technology, synthesizers and various instruments are used, such as the theremin -- one of the oldest electronic instruments of all. The works themselves are semi-composed, structured improvisations: a pre-composed form in which the "signposts" and turning points are clearly defined, but the exact "route" through the piece is created anew with each performance. Despite all the complexity, Franklin recorded them alone, mostly in continuous takes. Songs from the Lake is, as the title suggests, inspired by water. Franklin is fascinated by images in nature where the overall form is more or less static, but the details are constantly changing. The Buddhist view of water as an image of the spirit is also important to him. Jim Franklin first studied composition and musicology in Australia, Germany and Holland. In 1986 he discovered the shakuhachi and learned the instrument from Dr. Riley Lee, Furuya Teruo, and Yokoyama Katsuya. In 1996 he received the title of Shihan (Master) from Yokoyama-sensei. From 2006 to 2009 he was founding chairman of the European Shakuhachi Society. In 2018 he was a main organizer of the World Shakuhachi Festival in London.
CD $16

ARCHIVAL & HISTORIC RECORDINGS, REISSUES & RESTOCKS:

EVAN PARKER - Collected Solos (Otoroku Rokure 011; UK) OTOROKU presents a reissue of Evan Parker's legendary box set Collected Solos. Originally issued in 1989 and long ago sold out, Collected Solos brings Evan Parker's first four solo LPs issued on Incus -- Saxophone Solos (1976), The Snake Decides (1986), Monoceros (1978), and Six of One (1982) -- together, alongside a cassette featuring extra cuts from the sessions at FMP studios which didn't make it onto Saxophone Solos, and an accompanying booklet written by the late writer, Paul Haines. Housed in a specially made and screen-printed box and numbered in an edition of 250, the collection celebrates Evan Parker's remarkable commitment to a creative life and work.
“ "Years on we are still interested, fascinated and compelled to listen to this physical, spectacular and wholly original music at the heart of Evan's remarkable creative living. It is an inspiring example, study and celebration of commitment to creating (in) life." - Seymour Wright
4 LP Cassette Deluxe Box Set $175 [In stock soon, taking pre-orders now-limited edition]

ROY BROOKS with CARLOS GARNETT / WOODY SHAW / HAROLD MABERN / CECIL McBEE - Understanding (Real to Reel 007; Earth)”’Understanding'' is a previously unreleased recording of drummer Roy Brooks captured live by the Left Bank Jazz Society at The Famous Ballroom in Baltimore, MD on November 1, 1970. Featuring a stellar band with trumpeter Woody Shaw, saxophonist Carlos Garnett, pianist Harold Mabern and bassist Cecil McBee, ''Understanding'' was recorded 5 months after the classic live album ''The Free Slave'' (also recorded by the Left Bank Jazz Society).
This recording features a full performance by great musicians at their peak, providing a ''you are there'' experience of the excitement of great music and an appreciative crowd. Mastered from the original tape reels by Kevin Gray, the limited-edition 180-gram 3LP set includes an extensive booklet with rare photos, plus interviews with Carlos Garnett and Cecil McBee. Award winning arts journalist and critic Mark Stryker contributes the main essay as well as remembrances by American journalist, educator, author, activist and friend of Roy Brooks, Herb Boyd, alto saxophone legend Charles McPherson who grew up with Roy Brooks, Louis Hayes who got Roy the gig with Horace Silver and more.
This project came about as a desire by Reel to Real Recordings to make a positive contribution to Black Lives Matter. Understanding is our celebration of the talent, courage and spirit of the Black musicians who created a timeless and universal art, with the recognition that the injustices of 50 years ago are still with us. All proceeds from album sales will go directly to The Detroit Sound Conservancy. ''Understanding'' is produced with the cooperation of Cecil McBee and Carlos Garnett and the estates of Roy Brooks, Harold Mabern and Woody Shaw.
2 CD Set $24

ARTHUR BROWN'S KINGDOM COME - Eternal Messenger An Anthology 1970-1973 (Esoteric Recordings 52752; UK) "Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of a new boxed set featuring all of the albums recorded by the legendary Arthur Brown & Kingdom Come issued between October 1971 and April 1973. The band came together in 1970 following Arthur Brown's failed attempt to form a new band upon the dissolution of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown in 1969. Based in rural Dorset, Arthur had undertaken rudimentary recordings with the bands The Puddletown Express and Rustic Hinge before forming a new, more satisfactory band Kingdom Come. This new remastered boxed set features the albums Galactic Zoo Dossier, Kingdom Come and Journey, along with the archive disc Jam - The First Sessions 1970 and At The Bbc 1971-1972 a twelve track CD featuring sessions recorded for the BBC between March 1971 and September 1972, nine tracks of which are previously unreleased. The set also adds thirteen bonus tracks (two previously unreleased on CD) taken from studio out-takes and a rare single. Also included is an illustrated booklet with a new essay featuring an exclusive interview with Arthur Brown and a replica poster. Eternal Messenger is a fine tribute to Arthur Brown, a unique and visionary musician."
5 CD Set $60

LORD'S FAMILY - The Complete Schlossl Recordings (Sireena Records 2213; Germany) "This CD contains all audio recordings of the legendary hippie commune between 1971 and 1974. A contemporary document. Lord's Family was a rural and music commune that was founded in Nuremberg in 1970 and lived in Beilngries in the Altmühltal from 1971 to 1974 in an old castle called The Schlössl. The group's mystical and ecological self-image, which was one of the first bands to combine German-language texts with idiosyncratic music, made them a forerunner of the ecological, green movement. The family was inspired by their psychedelic experience, the influence of Christian mysticism and Eastern spirituality. From Munich to Heidelberg, from Erlangen to Berlin, Lord's Family won numerous fans through its live concerts, but never recorded an album. The musicians hardly cared about the music market and the musical mainstream. Their special feature was the combination of improvisation as a constant spontaneous new creation with composed choruses and spoken texts as well as the integration of Bavarian folklore. Radio Bremen, Bayerischer Rundfunk and numerous print media had reported on the artistic, social and ecological experiment of the Bavarian commune, the 'Monks in Jeans'. The commune even published its own newspaper, 'Family Press', whose sales were used to support the 'Schlössl' flowed, an old hunting lodge that Lord's Family lived in Beilngries until 1974. Even though the band was reserved towards the record market, they were already making forerunners of video clips on the improvised music they produced the krautrock era stopped at the 'Schlössl' during their touring, which was followed by regular return visits from the music-making community. Musically, the musicians moved somewhere between Amon Düül II and Popl Vuh, whereby the improvisation experiments of the band became deeply independent. In 1974 the commune dissolved, of the former members Sepp Kuffer and Georg Frisch are still musically active. The sound recordings on this CD have been preserved. The music comes from tapes owned by Sepp Kuffer, which certainly do not have high end quality, but represent a real sound document -- from a busy creative time when a lot was possible."
CD $17

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS - Island Of Jewels (Metropolis 1246; USA) "Originally released in 1986 and considered a more 'serious' release, with themes of war and politics, Island Of Jewels ranks among the more accessible releases in the vast catalog of The Legendary Pink Dots. Focusing more on songwriting than on studio wizardry or sonic experiments, interesting industrial sounds and memorable melodies abound. Remastered."
CD $17

LP Section:

YEAH BABY - Neptune Hotel (Self Release; USA) As a lifelong fan of bands like My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Slowdive, I found many of the visual and sonic signifiers of this debut by Brooklyn’s Yeah Baby to be both refreshing and well placed. The album cover is a lucid hi-def photograph showing a balanced display of the roots and stems of a flower, neatly halved by a line as if in the crosshairs of a lens or within some sort of digital chamber. Something about the minimal packaging, slim type-face and milky grey colored vinyl, got me finally itching to get back to my regular diet of late night rock gigs in the outer boroughs.
Yeah Baby is clearly going for placement in the lineage of classic shoegaze, to an extent that is refreshingly clear-headed and unapologetic. In a genre whose sound depends so heavily on the mastering process, you don’t recruit a member of Slowdive (drummer Simon Scott) to handle the mastering if you want it to be a secret that you want that sound. Yeah Baby stops short of lifting licks from their predecessors however, and smoothly incorporate a mature understanding of the rich sonics of the idiom without wearing the melodic imitation too boldly on their sleeves. Tracks like “Sugar” engage riff ideas that touch a rare space of feeling classic but that don’t feel worn out, like a short story you can swear you’ve read before but you can’t remember where. The sources here are obvious but the results feel fresh and the ceiling is high for their growth potential. The vocal writing can at times be tentative, well blended and smartly performed to be sure, but right on the cusp of a daring earworm and lacking memorability. There are many moments though where you can feel the whole picture starting to come together for this band’s vision, and hopefully the pandemic break has allowed them to soak in the results of their experiments to solidify a songwriting toolbox, and an inevitably great live set. I look forward to both. - Frank Meadows for DMG
LP $20

AARON DILLOWAY & LUCRECIA DALT - Lucy & Aaron (Hanson Records 300; USA) "Lucy & Aaron is the debut collaboration LP from the duo of Lucrecia Dalt (RVNG Intl.) and Aaron Dilloway (Dais Records). Full length LP in full color cover with printed inner sleeve featuring art by artist Pieter Schoolwerth." "I met Aaron in Madeira around 10 years ago, and I was blown away by his set, when I was going to tour the US for the first time, Forest, my US my booking agent asked me if I wanted to tour with someone from his roster and I suggested Mr Dilloway, the first show we played together was in Toronto, he started with a very groovy loop, some kind of soul extract that felt just right. With that, he levelled the dynamics and the atmosphere of the room, moving back and forth from the stage to the audience to double check if everything was sounding right. I have never seen such an elegant, disturbing and powerful show at the same time, it was a wild combination. We played a couple more shows together and on my journey throughout the states I was never in a place where his name didn't pop up with a positive comment of admiration. We became extremely close and utopian. We started this record during a two week visit of mine in NYC, we crossed our signals, sometimes his affecting mine, or the other way around, we just wanted to make a fun, weird and inevitably emotive record that somehow captured so many things we love about music, to put oneself in character and go with the flow." --Lucrecia Dalt "Lucrecia and I met briefly 10 years ago while performing at a festival together. We traded some releases and I was very excited by what I heard. Her records stuck out to me over the years as something very special. I was a fan. We met again recently while performing on a bill together in Toronto, and while watching her perform, I was mesmerized by her selections of sounds, as well as her movements and control of the mixing board. I felt like we worked similarly. We struck up a very close friendship and what followed was a year of intense discussions about art, music, performance and recording. Immediately we began working on music together and her expertise in mixing and her highly trained ears and overall drive were very inspirational. This album was recorded in 3 different locations, Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, NY where Lu was doing a residency, sessions at Lu's home in Berlin, Germany and finally at my home in Oberlin, OH. It was one of the most inspirational periods of my life and helped me overcome some intense musical and psychological obstacles. I learned so much by making this record." - Aaron Dilloway
LP $22

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ATTENTION ALL CREATIVE MUSICIANS OUT THERE, Around the world.

If you have a link for some music that you are working on and want to share it with the folks who read the DMG Newsletter, please send the link to DMG at DMG@Downtownmusicgallery.com. Many of us are going stir crazy staying at home so if you want to inspire us and help us get through these difficult times, please show us what you got.

MORE THINGS TO DO WHILE YOU ARE WAITING AROUND FOR THE WORLD TO END OR GET BETTER: STILL STIR CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!

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DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY 30 & STEPHEN GAUCI-MUSIC
Present a Once a Month Series Here at DMG - 13 Monroe St. in Chinatown, NYC

Saturday July 10th

6:30pm: Michael Larocca - drums/Aaron Rubinstein - guitar
CD RELEASE PERFORMANCE for "Aaron Rubinstein / Michael Larocca, Studio Sessions Vol. 8"
8pm: Michael Bisio - bass/Stephen Gauci - tenor saxophone
CD RELEASE PERFORMANCE for "Michael Bisio / Stephen Gauci, Pandemic Duets"

Saturday August 14th

6:30pm: Adam Lane - bass / Stephen Gauci - tenor saxophone
CD RELEASE PERFORMANCE for "Adam Lane / Stephen Gauci, Pandemic Duets"
8pm: Stephen Gauci - tenor sax / Adam Lane - bass / Joe Morris - drums
IN CELEBRATION OF OUR RELEASE "Morris/Gauci/Lane, Studio Sessions Vol. 3

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ROULETTE PRESENTS:

June 25 • Sonya Belaya: Cognitive Distortions / Ancestral Patterns

June 26 • Eddy Kwon: UMMA-YA

June 29—30 • Ayano Elson: A Gardener

Tickets must be purchased online by 6pm on the day of the performance.
Can't make it in person? All performances will be streamed live and available free of charge through roulette.org and on YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo, and archived for future viewing. Subscribe, like, and share to see every live performance this season!

Roulette Radio
Ridgewood Radio: The Korean Curve
Tune in: Wednesday, June 16 5–7pm EDT on WFMU.org and archived for future listening.
David Weinstein's Ridgewood Radio program on WFMU.org's Drummer stream this week: The Korean Curve, ancient instruments and techniques had a big impact on the downtown music scene. A radio sampler from Roulette concerts by CK Noyes and Sang-Won Park (1985), Steve Beresford with Okkyung Lee and Peter Evans (2008), Tori Ensemble with Ned Rothenberg, Nate Wooley, Ikue Mori (2011), and some reference materials.

Roulette Physical Address:
509 Atlantic Ave,
Brooklyn, NY 11217

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FROM ARTS FOR ARTS:

VISION 25
Breaking Free Coming Home
25 Years of VISION
Pioneer Works - July 22, 23 & 29, 30
159 Pioneer St, Brooklyn, NY 11231
La Plaza at The Clemente - July 24, 25 & 31
114 Norfolk St, NYC 10002
Lineups and Tickets Available Now

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This one is from CHRIS CUTLER, original member of Henry Cow, Art Bears, News from Babel, respected author and founder of Recommended Records. This is Chris’ wonderful podcast and I urge you all to give it a listen…

https://rwm.macba.cat/en/research/probes-292-auxiliaries

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Guitarist and DMG-pal HENRY KAISER had a Weekly Video Solo Series on Cuneiform’s Youtube page for the past year:

https://www.youtube.com/c/CuneiformRecords/videos
he recently changed it to a monthly solo series - here is the new July show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3ouWlSXPzc

past favorites of HK’s from the past year’s weekly shows are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2kVX6ig-E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afG82qVOEmg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SAncJamgw0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP-nPk5IeL4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyijtFN02xw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FY7bgJaxPs


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My good friend & guitar master GARY LUCAS is playing half hour sets at his apartment in the West village every Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday at 3pm EST on Facebook. Different songs & improvisations on each episode.
Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/gary.lucas.5836/
https://garylucas.com/www/streams/streams.shtml

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Bushwick Improvised Music Series
downstairs @ The Bushwick Public House
1288 Myrtle Avenue (across the street from Central Ave M train)
https://www.bushwickpublichouse.com/
$15 at the door gets you in all night (5 sets of music)

Monday August 2nd
7pm Ayumi Ishito's "Open Question"
w/ Ayumi Ishito - tenor saxophone
Daniel Carter - woodwinds
Eric Plaks - keyboard
Zach Swanson - bass
Jon Panikkar - drums
8pm Ben Stapp ensemble
9pm Bushwick Series House Band
w/ Stephen Gauci - tenor saxophone
Adam Lane - bass
Colin Hinton - drums
10pm Eli Wallace - synthesizer
Lester St. Louis - cello
Drew Wesely -guitar
11pm Pete Swanson - bass
Sana Nagano - violin/electronics
Kenji Herbert - guitar

Monday August 9th
7pm Patrick Golden - drums
Daniel Carter - woodwinds
Jim Clouse - bass
8pm Daniel Carter - woodwinds
Aron Namenwirth - guitar
Charely Sabatino - bass
Eric Plaks - keyboard
Colin Hinton- drums
Stephen Gauci - woodwinds
9pm Bushwick Series House Band
w/ Stephen Gauci - tenor saxophone
Adam Lane - bass
Colin Hinton - drums
10pm Adam Caine - guitar
Bob Lanzetti - guitar
Roberta Piket - keyboard
Adam Lane - bass
Billy Mintz - drums
11pm Henry Mermer - drums
Henry Fraser - bass

Monday August 16th
7pm Jared Radichel - bass
James Mckain - tenor saxophone
Leo Suarez - drums
Joey Sullivan - drums
8pm Santiago Leibson - piano
Ken Filiano - bass
Juan Pablo Carletti - drums
9pm Bushwick Series House Band
w/ Stephen Gauci - tenor saxophone
Adam Lane - bass
Colin Hinton - drums
10pm Igor Lumpert ensemble
11pm Joey Sullivan - drums
Kevin Eichenberger - bass
Cosmo Gallaro - guitar

Monday August 23rd
7pm James Paul Nadien - drums,
Cosmo Gallaro - guitar/bass
Brendan Rey - bass/synth
8pm Alex Weiss - saxophones
Dan Blake - saxophones
Dmitry Ishenko - bass
Yana Davydova - guitar
Vijay Anderson - drums
9pm Bushwick Series House Band
w/ Stephen Gauci - tenor saxophone
Adam Lane - bass
Colin Hinton - drums
10pm George McMullen - trombone
Ken Filiano - bass
Billy Mintz - drums
11pm Kaelen Ghandhi ensemble

Monday August 30th
7pm Juan Pablo Carletti's "Biggish"
Juan Pablo Carletti - drums
Yoni Kretzmer - tenor saxophone
Christof Knocke - clarinets
Rick Parker - trombone
Kenneth Jimenez - bass
8pm Nebula the Velvet Queen -theremin
Maria Nazarova - bass
Ayumi Ishito - saxophone
Damien Olsen - keyboard
9pm Bushwick Series House Band
w/ Stephen Gauci - tenor saxophone
Sandy Ewen - guitar
Adam Lane - bass
Colin Hinton - drums
10pm Cheryl Pyle -c flute /alto flute Michael Eaton -soprano sax
Roberta Piket -piano
Billy Mintz -drums,
Judi Silvano - vocals
11pm Aaron Quinn - guitar
Alex Koi - vocals/electronics
David Leon - woodwinds
Lesley Mok: Drums

Gaucimusic Presents:
Live at Scholes Street Studio, Friday August 27th
Brandon Lopez - bass
Ingrid Laubrock - tenor/soprano saxophones
Tom Rainey - drums

Two sets at 8 & 9:30pm
$15 at the door
Live audience/Live recording!
Scholes Street Studio
375 Lorimer St, Brooklyn, NY 11206 (718) 964-8763

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