La Montaña Rusa 49.2023. Kurt Rosenwinkel. Borderlands Trio. Tomasz Stańko Quintet. Jovan Milovanović Quartet. Greg Spero. Today there will be no reviews as we are having to prepare for Christmas at the school and time is limited, so I share with you the ever-wonderful La Montaña Rusa podcast and a Continue Reading
Improvised Music
Eclectic Maybe Band – Bars Without Measures
With the exception of Christian Vander, I cannot think of too many people whose name would be so heavily associated with zeuhl and avant-progressive rock in general than Guy Segers. The former bassist of the legendary Univers Zero has collected some of the finest names in avant and progressive rock Continue Reading
Szilárd Mezei Trio – Inkább (Rather)
Serbian-Hungarian multi-instrumentalist and composer Szilárd Mezei is perhaps the most adventurous musician coming out of Hungary these days, and that’s saying a lot, considering the great quality of improvisers who have come from that country (think of the legendary A.E. Bizottság, for example). This is a trio album from 2008 Continue Reading
Jeff Gburek – The Art of Prepared Guitar Volume One
Jeff Gburek’s recent instrumental guitar album is a a wonderfully disjointed trip around his sonic weapon of choice. It’s a truly wild work, but Jeff weaves his vast musical influences together with hints of a broken kind of blues, free jazz, improvisational skronk and psychedelic rock. In Jeff’s words, which Continue Reading
Axel Dörner – Brixia
German trumpeter Axel Dörner recorded this interesting one-track album 13th of March 2022 in Brescia, Italy, mixing electronics with a very ethereal trumpet sound.
La Montaña Rusa 19.2023. Vincent Meissner. Francesco Ciniglio. Recuerdo a Jack Wilkins. Kit Downes. Mar Serra Grup. RYNDEM+KORK.
Because I will be on the road for the next few days, I will have to prepare a couple of posts ahead of time until around Thursday or Friday, when I should be settled again in Beijing. In the meantime, practice your Spanish by listening to one of Spain’s coolest Continue Reading
Duncan Blachford – Piano and Rain No 1
Duncan Blachford is an Australian intuitive musician who delivers a gentle track of piano improvisation. Not bad at all for a non-pianist, I must say, as the track held my attention for its entirety.
Karolina Ossowska & Jeff Gburek – Ariadne’s Thread
I’m used to expecting amazing things from composer and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Gburek, and certainly so when he pairs with violinist Karolina Ossowska, but this is a shockingly good album even with such expectations. The album has four compositions which are about as gentle and pleasing as anything I’ve heard in Continue Reading
Li Jianhong (李劍鴻 ) & Wen Zhiyong (文智湧) & Deng Boyu (鄧博宇) – 歲寒三友 Les Trois Amis de l’Hiver
I remember the Beijing lockups very well, as I lived in the city during the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Some residents in Beijing, including the trio of Li Jianhong, Wen Zhiyong and Deng Boyu, made incredibly good use of the time and recorded an album of music combining free Continue Reading
Mikael Tariverdiev – Visions in Black & White
Mikael Tariverdiev was a Russian cinema and TV composer of Armenian extraction but raised Tbilisi, Georgia, a true man of the Soviet world. Though he was quoted as not particularly liking jazz, he was as good an improviser that Russia ever produced. From the release’s Bandcamp page: “Visions in Black Continue Reading