• Music

    Ikuro Takahashi – しりえないものとずっと

    June 17, 2021 - By 

    An’archives, a French experimental music record label, has released しりえないものとずっと (Forever With The Incomprehensible) by legendary drummer and percussionist Ikuro Takahashi.  Takahashi has worked with the likes of Keiji Haino’s power-trio Fushitsusha, Seishokki, High Rise, Ché-Shizu, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Kousokuya, LSD March and Nagisa Ni Te.  This kind of pedigree is unmatched in the Japanese improvisational music scene.  The album is volcanic in its power, full of thundering percussion which would equal, and in some parts surpass, many percussion based free-jazz albums.

  • Music

    Der Finger – Le Cinque Stagioni

    March 28, 2021 - By 

    Russia has a pretty remarkable history with jazz.  Even during the Soviet times, everything from Dixieland to hard bop was represented rather well, and free jazz is no exception.  Der Finger are the trio of Anton Efimov (bass), Evgenia Sivkova (drums & saxophone) and Edward Sivkov (bass clarinet, saxophone and bass-domra).  They make a racket (and that is meant in a good way) that is indeed free and open, and almost borders on Industrial music in parts.  Good listening.

  • Music

    Zeena Parkins, Mette Rasmussen, Ryan Sawyer – Glass Triangle

    March 25, 2021 - By 

    Relative Pitch Records is making a great case for becoming a favorite label of mine.  There are so many great releases covering the best of improvisational and free music that I’ll probably go broke trying to purchase all of them. It’s fitting to make my first review that of avant-harpist Zeena Parkins, whose work should need no introduction to the initiated, but for those new to her work, she recorded on labels such as John Zorn’s Tzadik Records and No Man’s Land, a German improv label best known to American and British audiences thanks to their distributor, Recommended Records, who…

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    Rafał Mazur & Satoko Fujii, Guillermo Gregorio, Natsuki Tamura, Artur Majewski, Ramon Lopez – The Great Tone has no Sound

    March 13, 2021 - By 

    Though I cannot say I know much about Fundacja Słuchaj’s background, I can say that their releases tend to be excellent, releasing some of the bigger names in improvisational music.  This collection is no different. The personnel on this four-disc set is pretty phenomenal: Rafał Mazur plays bass, Satoko Fujii plays piano, Guillermo Gregorio wields the saxophone, Natsuki Tamura and Artur Majewski perform on trumpet and Ramón López fills out this group on drums and percussion.

  • Music

    Joseph Benzola – When You Get to Saturn, Make a Left.

    February 9, 2021 - By 

    I cannot think of any genre of music percussionist and composer Joseph Benzola doesn’t sound comfortable working in.  There might be some bizarre concoction lying dormant in the underground somewhere, but it’s not worth wasting one’s time thinking much about. This collection puts together what sounds something similar to Balinese percussion on the first track, Improv 24 November 2019, and then smoothly transitions to atonal piano music, then some improvisational music, and so on. The variation of styles, and how well everything meshes together, is impressive. Hints of Alban Berg, Sun Ra, jazz played at a bar over a scotch…

  • Music

    Ah-Q Jazz Arkestra – Letters From Afar

    February 3, 2021 - By 

    This release by Ah-Q Jazz Arkestra is a joint Chinese-American project.  The back story is rather interesting.  From the Bandcamp website: In early 2020, we found ourselves separated and stuck at home. Even though four of us were in Beijing, COVID19 control measures prevented us from meeting face to face. And David was much further away (in Israel, then New York and eventually Oklahoma) and unable to return to Beijing. Like much of the world, we resorted to frequent video chats and text messages to stay in touch, but as time went on, we felt we needed a better way…