• Music

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

    February 22, 2022 - By 

    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…

  • Music

    H.J. Ayala – Le Corps Sacré

    February 18, 2022 - By 

    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.

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek + George Christian – Thrown Extremes

    January 14, 2022 - By 

    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…

  • Music

    Ernesto Diaz-Infante – Saca Los Cuernos al Sol

    January 11, 2022 - By 

    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.

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek – Gendhing Rebaban

    December 23, 2021 - By 

    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…

  • Music

    Bester Quartet – Piazzolla Angels

    October 25, 2021 - By 

    Poland’s For-Tune Records have been consistently releasing high-quality jazz and improv music for some time now, but their latest has a special place for me. This collection, with the exception of Por Una Cabeza (composed by Carlos Gardel) was composed by the inimitable Ástor Piazzólla and arranged Bester Quartet leader and accordionist Jarosław Bester.  It’s remarkable to hear how fluidly tangos by the masters can be translated so well into jazz and improvisational music.

  • Music

    Amir ElSaffar – Inana

    July 31, 2021 - By 

    Inana is the fourth album by Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar which came out in 2011.  The trumpeter starts the album with eight tracks dedicated to Inanna, the Mesopotamian goddess of sex, beauty, war and political power.  ElSaffar mixes microtonal jazz with Arabic scales such as maqam, which seems to be naturally suited to improvisation.  It’s an evocative album – warm, passionate, and exquisitely recorded. Sadly, there is only one track available to hear on the Bandcamp site, but I attach another track available on Youtube here. Personnel: Amir ElSaffar – trumpet, vocal, santour Ole Mathisen – tenor and soprano saxophone…

  • 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.