You need to hear this pianist, a self-professed misanthropist (hey, brother!) who finds a reason to live in playing the instrument without fears of being misunderstood – he probably couldn’t care less – and if the audience is slim, that’s also fine. Despite having studied with Bill Dixon and Milford Graves and performed – among [...]

JOËLLE LÉANDRE / MAGUELONE VIDAL / RAYMOND BONI – Trace An implicitly appealing album from a trio in which the voices of the strings (Léandre’s double bass and Boni’s guitar) fight against – but also embrace – a fairly original lingo by saxophonist Vidal, whom I’d never met prior to this outing. The latter employs [...]

N(8) – Trischen Didn’t know who N was until now but, having seen that this LP has been mastered to vinyl by Fear Falls Burning, a doubt arose about this being another moniker of the same artist (the erstwhile Vidna Obmana, for the younger readers. Ah, the good times…). But no, he’s a German sound [...]

Not Two One immediately realizes when, in an improvisational setting, the components are ill-assorted in a way that causes an unestablished kind of interplay as a result. You know, the typical sense of uncollected fragments, of “wrong” self-determination that defines a disarray where creativity is dreadfully omitted. On the contrary, saxophonist Amado (tenor and baritone) [...]

Ambiances Magnétiques Master saxophonist Jean Derome – one of the members of bassist Guilbeault’s ensemble – writes that “Mingus’ music (…) is not for the lukewarm and the undecisive” (sic). Now, I have a high degree of respect for Derome, and the few Chazz albums in my possession are obviously treasured. That’s why it is [...]

Triple Bath I’m happy to be the possessor of an exemplar of this 128-copy limited edition, as Yorgis Sakellariou put a lot of competence in the work, confirming himself among the best creators in the field of noise-induced stupor. The four tracks of 61:50 are all valid statements – especially “31:43”, an inferno of growingly [...]

Edgetone Loyal readers know that when Massimo writes that someone is great, he’s not overstating the case. Well, take a note about this name please – you’ve heard it here first: Lorin Benedict, vocalist and composer, one third of The Holly Martins together with equally outstanding guitarist Eric Vogler and alto saxophonist Kasey Knudsen. Benedict [...]

JEPH JERMAN – Prayer * Tactus Despite the attention-catching sources listed on the cover – which include Tinguely’s machine, Tibetan prayer wheels, burden busket and drum for “Prayer” and stones, volcanoes, shortwave, wire and vlf for “Tactus” – the music heard in this CD results as a rather murky proposition, of which I’m not able [...]

PanRec Simon Nabatov is a gentle bear of a man who seems to struggle a bit when forced to put the quintessence of music and inspiration in plain words. But, when turning to the piano keyboard, his fingers do all the necessary talking, shutting an enraptured audience up in the process. A child prodigy born [...]

New World As Ingram Marshall himself writes, defining beauty is practically impossible yet the word is perennially in his mind when he composes. It is difficult to contradict him after having listened to the four pieces comprised by this CD – starting with 2002’s title track, dedicated to the victims of 9/11 and impeccably executed [...]

North Pole Having listened to just a little part of Horist’s past production and remembering it as pretty “out there” in terms of experimental vision, I was surprised and increasingly enchanted by the gently unsettling quietude of Covalent Lodge, which finds him using various guitars (including baritone), keyboards and a bass drum and being helped [...]

Ultramarine Guitarist Ninni Morgia is slowly but surely becoming a “name” in the circle of contemporary improvisation, well accepted by the likes of William Parker (with whom Morgia has recently released Prism on this same label – unluckily not heard here – which is receiving rave reviews even by establishment-nourished journalists). In this double vinyl [...]

Planam Nobody better than John Duncan is aware of the subtle line separating actual events from the ones generated by the mind, especially if the latter is altered by a state of anxiousness or discomfort. A body of work that has always privileged probing first and questioning later; moreover, very few of our needs of [...]

Two Acorns The first release on the label recently launched by Celer’s Will Long couldn’t have been better, including the wonderful cover photos by his late wife Dani, who participated in the recordings and to whom the record is dedicated, just like everything else Will does. I won’t be tedious in listing the sources utilized [...]

Monochrome Vision Very first encounter of yours truly with this German artist, of whom Rigobert Dittmann says that “he irritates” to start his liners. Maybe this is a reference to the frustration of defining the music without recurring to terms such as “nonfigurative”, “lawless”, “erratic”? Because if that’s the case, I’d be willing to be [...]

Creative Sources Just as the leafless tree adorning the CD’s cover, the sonic picture expressed by this quartet (viola, acoustic guitar, cello and double bass are the respective instruments) is devoid of frondescence and embellishments. It ultimately comes off as a rather unfriendly landscape, but also presents sudden openings where genuine, if undernourished pitches make [...]

Die Schachtel That this is a meeting of virtuosos is quite evident, as both Thollem Mcdonas and Stefano Scodanibbio need no introduction to affirm that their reputation of master improvisers is totally deserved. A mix of restraint, lucidity, sudden bursts of fervour and scents of earlier eras defines the duo, making us forget about the [...]

Brass Tonic An anthropologist, puppet theatre music composer and trumpeter – turned songwriter in 2000 to fight the sorrow generated by an important loss – Sarah Wilson writes according to principles which, for her own admission, haven’t changed much from when she started, despite successive formal trainings. Being mostly constructed on rather graspable bass lines [...]

Zeromoon A duo formed by Nikolaus Gerszewski and Gustavo Aguilar, Sonic Update debuts with a net release that explores the social aspects of a performance’s interaction between a human and a laptop – minus the latter. In fact, all we hear in the 37 minutes of Conference For One derives from various kinds of percussion [...]

Jazzwerkstatt The trio of trombonist Matthias Müller, bassist Clayton Thomas and drummer Christian Marien, The Astronomical Unit is a no-compromise intersection of instrumental personalities able to transcend barriers through the generation of a kind of sonority that is dense or rarefied depending on circumstance. The banishment of whatever may resemble an even vague shape of [...]

Sound On Probation A subtle sadistic pleasure pervades yours truly when a release of electronica / laptop music transpiring pretentiousness and lack of significance appears on my table, ready to be knocked to oblivion. Nevertheless, I’m happier when the same congested areas produce records with a value (as in this time), not only capable of [...]

Auger Down This American artist of unambiguous Mediterranean origins is also a nearly literal namesake of the Italian Radical Party’s founder (but, for our good luck, much brighter; not that it takes an extreme effort to achieve that goal, though). Helped by the sweetly untrained voice of wife Anna Bario (who, all alone, delicately intones [...]

AudiOH The soundtrack to an exhibition produced by The Barbican Gallery and curated by Catherine Ince called Future Beauty: 30 Years Of Japanese Fashion, Unfolding is a 33-minute marvel downloadable for free from the composer’s website. The title tells everything in a way, the music disclosing its magnificence instant by instant, gradually revealing veiled colours [...]

Self Release A 14-minute online release, subdivided in five nameless tracks which McFall deemed unfit to other projects, opting for offering them separately. In all sincerity this is a perplexing work, though surely not dull (on the contrary, the third movement is splendid in its wrapping shroud of huge pulses and bottomless subsonic activity). Still, [...]

Nonine More good news from ME Raabenstein (aka Slowcream), who had surprised yours truly with the excellent And several months ago. The six tracks of River Of Flesh are not as startling, but surely confirm this gentleman as the owner of a proper creative persona improved by the ability of constructing electronic music devoid of [...]