Tag: Improvised Music

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Music

Sergey Kuryokhin (谢尔盖·古廖金) – Divine Madness (天赋的疯狂)

First, a disclaimer: I am posting this review with the understanding that Leo Records has licensed this astounding collection covering the career of the late enfant terrible of Russia’s then-thriving avant-garde music community, Sergey Kuryokhin, to Old Heaven Books Records in Shenzhen, China.  If this is so, it’s wonderful to know that Sergey’s reach will continue to grow almost three decades after his passing.  Collaborators on this box set include Igor Butman, Sergei Belichenko, Valentina Ponomareva and Boris Grebenshchikov among others.  I’m excited to see Old Heaven Books continue to branch out.

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Music

Michel Banabila, Cengiz Arslanpay, Oene van Geel – Waking Memory

Dutch composer and experimental musician Michel Banabila is joined on this one-track release by duduk player Cengiz Arslanpay and violist Oene van Geel for a warm, haunting take on improvisational music.

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Music

Amine Mesnaoui & Labelle – African Prayers

What a strangely beautiful album…

From the duo’s Bandcamp site:

Berlin and Reunion based duo, Amine Mesnaoui and Labelle are set to release their debut album on revered London independent imprint Lo Recordings on the 1st of April 2022.

‘African Prayers’ is a collection of seven new compositions, which includes lead single ‘Bleu Noir’, that aims to bring a contemporary and fresh interpretation to the Lila Ritual of the Moroccan Gnawa masters – also known as the Ritual of the Seven Colors.

With a firm belief they can deliver a sound that finds its anchor in heritage and yet escape folkloric clichés and stereotypes,
the two musicians have strived to make something that is rich in meanings, minimal but complex, simple but deep. This is a record that is universal and invites the listener to the depth of meditation, to the dance, even to the spiritual state of trance.

Mesnaoui plays a prepared piano that is modified by different objects, which are inserted into its strings while Labelle simultaneously plays electronic instruments and further processes the piano sound. These instruments are not native to the traditional context and their choice allows for a new perspective on the Lila Ritual. By pushing the boundaries of what those tools usually offer, the sound explores yet untapped territories. Each piece on the record refers to a specific color and its associated symbolic realm in the ritual.

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Music

Wabjie – Lull

Wabjie are a Swiss trio made up of singer Soraya Berent, pianist/composer Michel Wintsch and drummer Samuel Jakubec who produce a sound that references Thom Yorke, Bobby McFerrin and Betty Carter at their most experimental, but perusing the promo sheet, one name was left off that hit me very hard when listening to the album (which will be fully released on February 25): Laurie Anderson.  That gentle, experimental but ever-so-pleasant way Anderson has of speak-singing is matched quite well by Berent, whose voice flows effortlessly on top of rhythms that sound as if Björk had a date at The Knitting Factory.

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Music

Carlos Niño & Kofi Flexxx – In The Moment, Part 3

Longform Editions is a boutique record label out of Australia which does many things well, but specialized in releasing short albums packed with electronic experimentalia from all over the world.

This one brings Los Angelino Carlos Niño and a world traveling sax player whose work I’m quite new to in Kofi Flexxx paring down a two-hour session.  Carlos explains more about the session below, courtesy of Longform’s Bandcamp site:

“For me, extended, deep listening is it! I listen a lot and journey eternally within. Hearing and feeling, in, of, with and around, playing music is extending, deeply listening, being at once totally present, intaking, and expressing, expanding and contracting, pulsating, in connection, communion with yourself, with instruments, with environments, with others, with an audience. As a very active LP, cassette and files collector with a vast collection, I am often listening to recordings of various lengths and sounds. I have been interested in making an offering to Longform Editions since I was first introduced to it by Matthew David of Leaving Records. Here’s to pieces that wouldn’t easily fit onto a side of vinyl, or even two sides. Here’s to recordings that would rarely be played in full on the radio. These are pieces that by intention are allowed to blossom, ripple, stretch, reach, and feel even more. I love it!”

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Music

H.J. Ayala – Le Corps Sacré

This is the second guitar-based album we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing this week.  This one comes from Mexican-French guitarist Hector (H.J.) Ayala who works out of Strasbourg, France.

The album is a gentle, twangy, pleasantly meandering collection of tones which belong to a film which has not yet been made.  Ayala continues to develop his mastery of the guitar and the ambience he brings to his compositions.  Another solid release.

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Music Youtube

Sergey Kuryokhin & Boris Grebenshchikov – Mad Nightingales of the Russian Forest

I will be airborne most of today as I go from Moscow to Los Angeles to handle some personal business, so In honor of this momentous event, I present you with what was one of the first Russian jazz/improv/Avant-rock albums I ever heard, from two legends: Sergey Kuryokhin & Boris Grebenshchikov

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Music

Jeff Gburek + George Christian – Thrown Extremes

During the next few weeks, I’ll be catching up on releases I could not get to in 2021.  This one is really a gem that I’m surprised I didn’t get to earlier, but thanks to Jeff Gburek reminding me of it, I can happily present this release he did in collaboration with another one of the blog’s dear friends, George Christian.

The two tracks which go under the name The Charles Ives Observatory (Parts 1 and 2) bookend the centerpiece of the album, the 28-minute opus Magellanic Clouds.  The CIO tracks have the feeling of classic-era electroacoustic music imbued with energy and, dare I say, a touch of humor, but also an element of something that would not have sat out of place in one of Pink Floyd’s early album period, when they were far more a psychedelic band and less a blues-rock project, whereas the centerpiece allows Gburek’s synthesizer and zither and George Christian’s organ to flow into each other, again, in a way that reminds me of really good psychedelic music circa 1968 to 1973.

Credit to Ulka Pind Records out of Bhopal, India, for publishing the music.  I look forward to learning more about their catalog as time passes.

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Music

Ernesto Diaz-Infante – Saca Los Cuernos al Sol

My fellow Californian Ernesto Diaz-Infante provides us with a warm, shimmering work of nine instrumental pieces composed solely for guitar.  Each track is warm, not only by experimental music standards, but in terms of pure music listening.  My particular favorite was IV, which reminded me of a hybrid between John Fahey and Roy Montgomery playing while immersed in a silvery pool of water well outside this realm.  It made for a very pleasant listening experience.

For a hard copy of this release, go to Headlights Recordings.

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Music

Jeff Gburek – Gendhing Rebaban

As we near the close of a challenging 2021, we’re graced with a release by composer Jeff Gburek which features a rebab, a spiked fiddle.  It’s an instrument he studied in Indonesia under Pak Suhardi, blended with synthesizers and electronic bloops and bleeps which left me feeling like I was listening to some remarkable sound experiments out of the old BBC Radiophonic Workshop.  Jeff mentions below that there is no tradition of rebab-playing in Western electronic music, so he should be congratulated on consistently breaking new ground in this release.

From his Bandcamp site:

There aren’t many traditional compositions (if there any at all) that feature the rebab in Javanese gamelan history, so my title is primarily ironic.The rebab is a double-coursed, spike violin played- in Javanese style – with a slack-ish bow. I studied traditional music with Pak Suhardi in Yogyakarta over 20 years ago. There have been many detours since. On this album the rebab meets with synthesizer arpeggios, clicks, electronic noises in a free exchange where I explore extended techniques on the rebab that stem partly from Western strings, improv a la William Parker, and partly from the shamanic berimbau of Naná Vasconcelos. Since there is no rebab in traditional Western electronic music, I am at risk of heresy in the eyes of some and innovation in the ears of others. But I offer it all in the spirit of playful balance and improvisation. In celebration of Winter Solstice, 2021.