We have a unique recording from Taiwan featuring DJ 誠意重, a turntablist in the style of Christian Marclay, Philip Jeck, and Otomo Yoshihide. He collaborates on this album with the band 神仙老虎狗 (Buddha Tiger Dog), which includes Jun-Yang Li playing self-made instruments and objects, and Xiao Liu on saxophone. This project showcases free improvisation with an interesting twist.
Free Improvisation
Jane in Ether – Oneiric
Jane In Ether is a trio composed of Miako Klein on recorders, Magda Mayas on piano, and Biliana Voutchkova on violin, who also utilizes her voice as an instrument. Their improvisational skills are remarkable, reminiscent at times of a more contemporary AMM or MEV. The sounds they create have an organic quality that swells and recedes Continue Reading
Lao Dan (老丹) – 逐雲追夢 Going After Clouds and Dreams
Lao Dan is one of the most interesting improv artists operating in China at the moment. This release comes from Modern Sky World Music, based in my current home, Beijing. Going through their catalog, there is going to be more than a few releases getting featured on the blog soon Continue Reading
Vesna Pisarović – Poravna
What an album this is! The mixing of Sevdah, one of Bosnia’s most melancholic and romantic forms of music, with free improvisation is not something I expected to work, but with the vocals of Croatian singer Vesna Pisarović, Noël Akchoté on guitars, Tony Buck (The Necks) on drums, Greg Cohen Continue Reading
Anthony Braxton – Quartet (Bristol) 1985
One of America’s foremost saxophonists, Anthony Braxton, collaborates with Marilyn Crispell on piano, Mark Dresser on double bass, and Gerry Hemingway on percussion. This music is as free as it gets, but has a slight film-noir soundtrack feel in parts. Impressive.
Helena Espvall / Ernesto Diaz-Infante / Marjorie Sturm – A Shadowed Fulguration
Thanks ever so much to Ernesto Diaz-Infante for alerting me to his latest release with percussionist and Nepalese flute player Marjorie Sturm (his spouse, if I am not mistaken) and cellist Helena Espvall. Musically, there is a gritty, lo-fi feel to the recordings, with the guitar sounding more like a Continue Reading
Susan Alcorn – And I Await the Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar
Susan Alcorn passed away in January of this year, leaving a gaping hole in the improv community. I believe it was Ian Nagoski of Canary Records who enlightened me to this recording being available, and it is gorgeously recorded. The pedal steel guitar is played sublimely by Alcorn, who uses Continue Reading
Ivo Perelman & Tyshawn Sorey – Parallell Aesthethics
This release pairs Ivo Perelman and Tyshawn Sorey, two of the leading lights of the improv jazz scene. From the Fundacja Słuchaj Bandcamp site: “This year we are celebrating the 10th birthday of our label. On this occasion, we have prepared a lot of surprises and very unique musical offerings Continue Reading
George Christian – Lágrima-Pantera, A Míssil – Uma Música Visual por… (GCSA 62)
Our friend George Christian returns with two tracks of improvisation that, at least on first listen, sounds like it is flavored with the sounds of MBP (Música Popular Brasileira) and a couple of flashes of Hendrix. A pleasurable listen.
A Second Life for The Avant-Jazz of Leo Records
Today is a travel day, so there will be no posts, but it seems Bandcamp has a great article on Leo Records. Leo Feigin was the man responsible for introducing me to people like my old friend Roman Stolyar, Sergei Belichenko, and the work of Sergei Kuryokhin, who I ended Continue Reading