Art Ensemble of Chicago - Chi-Congo

ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO - Chi-Congo (Paula Records, 1973)

Lester Bowie: trumpet, flugelhorn, steer horn, bass drum
Roscoe Mitchell: saxophone, clarinet, flute, percussion
Joseph Jarman: saxophone, clarinet, oboe, flute, guitar, percussion
Malachi Favors: bass, banjo, percussion
Famoudou Don Moye: percussion

1. Chi-Congo
2. Enlorfe Part 1
3. Enlorfe Part 2
4. Hippparippp

You either love or hate these guys. If you believe that jazz is the sound of surprise, then these fellows occupy a special place in your heart. If, like others, you believe jazz is to be taken seriously and played only by men in suits, then this record will drive you batty. True to form, the tunes here have the loose kinetic swing that drives their early records, Ornette-ish funk and Miles-ish bop fractured by the hoots of whistles and the occasional yelp. Beyond everything else, though, is the undeniable fact that these gentlemen are sterling musicians and everything is done for a purpose, exactly when they want it to happen. A wonderful record by a bunch of really great guys.

HERE

CINC (Paul Lytton, Ken Vandermark, Philipp Wachsmann)

CINC (Okkadisk, 2007)

Ken Vandermark: reeds
Philipp Wachsmann: violin, viola, electronics
Paul Lytton: drums

1. Poitiers 3
2. Ljubljana 2
3. Ljubljana 3
4. Ljubljana 4
5. Ljubljana 6

Chicago saxophonist Ken Vandermark is about as well known as a jazz fan as he is a jazz musician. With a breakneck release schedule (two discs is a slow year for him), he has found time to compose and lead his own bands while paying respect to his elders: tribute albums to Sonny Rollins, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Joe Harriot, a band organized around Peter Brötzmann, and bonus discs filled with live versions of “jazz classics” that accompanied some of his quintet releases.
But he’s a fiery blower, and one area he’s spent less time exploring is the particularly British quietude. His English Suites with percussionist Paul Lytton was an admirable attempt, but this new trio disc with Lytton and violinist Philipp Wachsmann finds him squarely in the middle of territory that has been occupied by the likes of Evan Parker, Barry Guy and John Edwards. The trio is touring and has laid down five tracks (recorded at concerts in France and Slovenia in 2004) for a limited edition release initially only available at performances.

While it’s a bit of a departure for Vandermark, he easily finds his place amid two innovative improvisers each some twenty years his senior. Lytton and Wachsmann have both played in the London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra, the King Ubü Orchestrü and Evan Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. They are proficient in English extended improv of a school perhaps more fluid but no more idiomatic than Derek Bailey’s playing. Vandermark is anything but bashful in his projects, and this would seem to be another sink-or-swim proposition for him, which as usual he pulls off swimmingly.

The disc begins in quiet abstraction with the players circling each other, not quite soloing but shifting to and from the forefront. By the midpoint, however, Vandermark is pushing through, blowing hard lines with Lytton keeping pace on a controlled snare. But the one to listen to here is Wachsmann. Against the brittle horn and drums, he tends to fall toward the back much of the time. His electronic washes and thoughtful violin lines push this well beyond an English Suites sequel.

On record, the trio tends to blur: reeds and strings rub against Lytton’s seemingly almost accidental drumming until he switches to sheets of metal and the triangle again shifts. But at Tonic on June 12, it was easier to discern them as three pieces (it’s the sort of band where visuals help). Even on baritone sax, Vandermark found a place in the upper registers of his bandmates. But whether heard as a triad or something more singular, Cinc builds sparse yet protean and quite nice sound spaces.

If there’s one criticism to be made about Vandermark, it’s that his tribute projects are often efforts of respect that don’t add much to the originals. But when he approaches a style rather than specific compositions—as with the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet—he throws himself in headlong. Cinc is, with hope, just a preview of another Vandermark dedication. (from AAJ)

HERE

Ustad Bismillah Khan & Bageshwari Qamar - Shehnai Jugalbandi

Bismillah Khan & Bageshwari Qamar - Shehnai Jugalbandi (TIPS, 1994)

Ustad Bismillah Khan: shehnai
Bageshwari Qamar: shehnai
Nazim Hussain: tabla
Basharat Hussain: khurdak
Nayyar Hussain: shehnai
Mumtaz Hussain: shehnai
Nahne Hussain: shehnai

1. Raga Todi
2. Raga Madhuwanti
3. Raga Yaman

HERE

1970's Algerian Proto-Rai Underground

1970's Algerian Proto-Rai Underground (Sublime Frequencies, 2008)

1. Bellemou & Benfissa - Li Maandouche L'Auto
2. Groupe El Azhar - Mazal Nesker Mazal
3. Groupe El Azhar - Touedar Aakli
4. Bellemou & Benfissa - Lah Lah Ya S'habi
5. Boutaiba Sghir - Dayha Oulabes
6. Boutaiba Sghir - Malgré Tout
7. Boutaiba Sghir - El Fermlia
8. Cheb Zergui - Ana Dellali

HERE
Thanks to miskov from exp etc

Leo Smith, Peter Kowald, Günter Sommer - Touch The Earth

Leo Smith, Peter Kowald, Günter Sommer - Touch The Earth (Amiga, 1979)

Leo Smith: trumpet, flugelhorn, mbira
Peter Kowald: bass
Günter Sommer: drums, percussion, organpipes

1. Gebr. Loesch
2. Touch The Earth
3. Wind Song in a Dance of Unity
4. In Light
5. Ein Stuck Uber Dem Boden
6. Radepur Im Februar

HERE

Peter Brötzmann, Peter Ole Jørgensen, Peter Friis Nielsen & Johannes Bauer - The Wild Mans Band

Peter Brötzmann, Peter Ole Jørgensen, Peter Friis Nielsen & Johannes Bauer - The Wild Mans Band (Ninth World, 1997)

Peter Brötzmann: clarinet, tenor saxophone, tárogató
Peter Friis Nielsen: bass
Peter Ole Jørgensen: drums
Johannes Bauer: trombone

1-DT 104
2-Nymphalis Antiopa
3-Dead Mans Camp
4-Unfaithful Ant
5-Towers
6-Omnibus
7-Mad Cow Disease

Recorded in Copenhagen in 1997, this quartet is truly a group of wild men. The three Peters on reeds, bass, and drums, respectively, and trombonist Johannes Bauer create a new European improvisation music that is full of humor, rage, abstraction, and even perversion. Playing through a brief introduction of sequence variations, the disc really opens with "Nymphalis Antipoa," a six-minute tonal study that features Bauer exploring the nether regions of his instrument while Brötzmann plays through a restrained dark melody before giving way to a fragmental bass solo by Jørgensen on electric bass. Nothing rises above a whisper and no statement is played for more than a note or three on the way to tonal equity. This is short-lived, however, as the entire record explodes into a war-zone free for all on "Dead Man's Camp." This is the kind of music one would expect from this bunch and it never stops from here on out. Brötzmann is the gang leader and his wailing skeins of cascading scalar fury infect the rest of the band. Bauer answers his lines in a free kind of counterpoint and then extends the broken harmonic into a timbral circus. Friis Neilsen is the one who is most on his own though, as the short, clipped basslines give him little to go on except for the "texture" of rhythm. But on he goes, digging deep into his cymbals for ballast and pushing forth great heaving sighs of tom-tom thrumming atop the scattered rim shots that punctuate both saxophone and trombone. This is an exhaustive and exhausting exercise in free jazz tomfoolery of the best and wildest kind. (from AMG)

HERE

Kalyani Roy & Ali Ahmed Hussain - Soul of India

Kalyani Roy & Ali Ahmed Hussain - Soul of India (ABC, 1968)

Kalyani Roy: sitar
Ali Ahmed Hussain: shehnai

1. Raga: Jaunpuri: Alap; Jod; Gat; Taal:Teental
2. Raga: Kedara – Alap; Gat Taal:Teental
3. Dhun

HERE

Yusuf Omar & Ensemble al-Tchalghi al-Baghdadi - Iraqi Maqâm / Baghdad Tradition

Yusuf Omar & Ensemble al-Tchalghi al-Baghdadi - Iraqi Maqâm, Baghdad Tradition (Inédit, 1972)

Yusuf Omar: vocalist
Ensemble al-Tchalghi al-Baghdadi
Abdallah Ali: santûr
Shaoubi Ibrahim, Hassan Ali al-Nakib: djôzé
Abdul Razzak Madjid: tabla
Kan’an Mohammad Salih: reqq
Dia Mahmoud Ahmad: zindjâri
Ali al-Dabbou, Abdul Wahid Zeidan, Falih Djawhar, Abdul Kadir: choir

Compact Disc I
1. Maqâm Rest......................21’39”
2. Maqâm Bayât....................18’58”
3. Maqâm Nawâ .................. 17’46”
Compact Disc II
1. Maqâm Hidjâz Diwân.......19’31”
2. Maqâm cAdjam .................15’27”
3. Maqâm Mansûri ...............22’55”

Six Maqâm (vocal and instrumental suites) performed by one of the greatest Iraki singers of this century, accompanied by a tchalghi baghdadi traditional group (santûr zither, djozé bowed lute, and percussions).

CD1
CD2

Ali Akbar Moradi - Fire of Passion

ALI AKBAR MORADI - FIRE OF PASSION (7/8 Music Productions, 1999)

Ali Akbar Moradi: tanbur
Pejman Hadadi: daf

01-Introduction (Prayer)
02-Songs of Nostalgia
03-Magham Allahwaisy And Hejrani
04-Sema Of Tanbur
05-Continuation Of Magham Allahwaisy
06-Intimate Dialog
07-The Caravan
08-Magham Of Ghatar And Tarz
09-Sejar
10-Gallop

“Teheran-based Ali-Akbar Moradi is considered a virtuoso on the tanbur, a plucked string instrument with a pear–shaped belly fashioned from a single piece of mulberry wood. The tanbur has always been considered a sacred instrument associated with the Kurdish Sufi music of Western Iran. Moradi is accompanied by Pejman Hadadi, the finest Irnanian percussionist living in America, who plays the daf, a large frame drum covered with goat skin with rows of metal rings jangling about on the inside. He also plays the tombak, which is similar to a dumbek but made also from solid mulberry wood. Its warm tone complements the rapid strumming and plucking on the banjo-like tanbur. This recording was made during a 1999 U.S. tour and, in a word, these duets are extraordinary. Having performed together only three times previously, Moradi and Hadadi play entirely improvisational Kurdish music on this date, presenting their amazing skills as one triumphant spirit. Together they soar into wild molten riffs, and then return to earth to deppict the sad reality of a people without an independent state of their own.”

William Bloomhuff, “Rhythm”, May 2001

HERE

Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Akbar Moradi - In the Mirror of the Sky

Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Akbar Moradi - In the Mirror of the Sky (World Village, 2004)

Kayhan Kalhor: kamanchech
Ali Akbar Moradi: tanbur, vocal
Pejman Hadadi: tombak

01-Sar Aghaz (Introduction)
02-Showgh (Joyful Anticipation)
03-Maqam-E Gel-E Wa Darreh-Avaz (Brings Him Back Maqam-Vocal)
04-Gol Wa Khuk-Mogadameh (Flower and Earth-Introduction)
05-Maqam-E Gol Wa Khuk (Flower and Earth Maqam)
06-Gel-E Wa Darreh-Foroud (Brings Him Back-Landing)
07-Majnooni-Bedaah-E Bar Asaas-E Naghmeh Panj Zarbi
08-Maqam-E Alwand-Avaz (Alwand Maqam-Vocal)
09-Foroud (Landing)
10-Choopi (Dance)

The Persian and Kurdish musical traditions are neighbors, but rarely meet. But in this case they've come together spectacularly in the hands of two Iranians. Kayhan Kalhor (Ghazal, Master of Persian Music) is a remarkable performer on the kamancheh, or traditional spike fiddle, while Ali Akbar Moradi is a master of the lute-like tanbur. While the tanbur has long been associated with the Yarsan people of Western Iran, and its Ahl-e Haqq faith, Moradi has given it secular exposure. Here, in fact, with Kalhor, he explores the traditional tanbur repertoire of the Yarsan, the two (along with drummer Pejman Hadadi) fashioning wonderful improvisations on Yanbur themes. There's an instinctive communication between the musicians that creates a tension and a palpable magic (just listen to the filigree that's "Gel-e Darreh-foroud," for example). Both have the technique and imagination to carry this off in style. It's more than full of Eastern promise; it's an absolute delight to the ears to hear these two playing off each other, or tackling pieces like "Maqam-eAlwand-Avaz," where Kalhor plays around Moradi's vocal before they take off for the instrumental stratosphere. Essentially, there's nothing exotic about this except the sound of the instruments themselves. It's simply a gorgeous piece of work, very accessible, the sound of two virtuosos collaborating. (from AMG)

HERE

Rob Brown Ensemble - Crown Trunk Root Funk

Rob Brown Ensemble - Crown Trunk Root Funk (AUM Fidelity, 2008)

Rob Brown: alto saxophone
Craig Taborn: piano, electronics
William Parker: bass
Gerald Cleaver: drums

01-Rocking Horse
02-Clearly Speaking
03-Sonic Ecosystem
04-Ghost Dog
05-Exuberance
06-Lifeboat
07-Worlds Spinning

After its successful premier at the 2006 Vision Festival, alto saxophonist Rob Brown took his newest ensemble into the studio to record Crown Trunk Root Funk, his first recording as a leader for AUM Fidelity. A formidable blend of funky abstraction, angular post-bop and dark impressionism, it offers an expansive view of Brown's adventurous aesthetic.

A two decade plus veteran of New York City's Downtown scene, Brown employs three of today's most in-demand sidemen in this quartet. Bandleader, composer and bassist William Parker shares a performing history with Brown dating back twenty years. Drummer Gerald Cleaver has been a regular collaborator of Brown's recently, while pianist Craig Taborn is relatively new to Brown's oeuvre, playing with him for the first time in 2006.

Brown's acerbic alto takes center stage over the course of these roiling, intensely rhythmic tunes, with Taborn's jagged cadences offering reliable support. Eschewing token traditionalism, Taborn avoids conventional comping, liberally unspooling brittle linear phrases under Brown's circuitous salvos, as on the thorny "Lifeboat." Working in tandem, Brown and Taborn meander through the shadowy "Ghost Dog," weaving through labyrinthine passages driven by a percolating groove and sinewy bass ostinato.

Longstanding partners, Taborn and Cleaver unveil their intuitive rapport on "Sonic Ecosystem," the album's sole electronic piece. Glitchy hums emanate from lo-fi electronics as Taborn accents undulating sine waves with pointillist piano phrases, while Cleaver quietly responds with scintillating tones. Sporadically interrupted by a plangent unison theme from Brown's plaintive alto and Parker's bowed bass, their conversation continues unabated.

Clocking countless studio hours together, Taborn, Parker and Cleaver are frequent rhythm section companions. Whether locking into the slow burn vamp of "Rocking Horse" or navigating shifting meters on the knotty post-bop of "Clearly Speaking," they demonstrate their affable interplay with fluid invention.

Eclipsing structural traditions, Brown spars with Cleaver on the first half of "Exuberance," discharging pithy, fragmentary spirals as Cleaver throttles his kit with unfettered abandon before the entire group reconvenes.

Despite the album's overall focus on rhythm, Brown reveals a soulful, impressionistic side on "World's Spinning," closing the record with stark, yearning lyricism.

With over a dozen albums to his credit, Crown Trunk Root Funk is one of Brown's most engaging. (from AAJ)

HERE

Free Jazz Quartet - Premonitions

Paul Rutherford: trombone
Harrison Smith: soprano & tenor saxophones, bass clarinet
Tony Moore: cello
Eddie Prevost: drums

1989 PREMONITIONS (Matchless Recordings) mediafire/rapidshare

Thomas Lehn & Paul Lovens - Achtung

Thomas Lehn: analogue synthesizer
Paul Lovens: selected & unselected drums and cymbals, singing saw

This special duo constellation rests in this freedom of cliches. Although the music is occasionally incredibly dense and present, it can hardly be fixed. Is it energy powerplay? Finely linked sound research? Post Free Jazz? English School? Is that a kind of duet for percussion instruments? Or electro-acoustic music par excellence? Is it what one expects? Or something completely different?
Lehn and Lovens know, in any case, how to surprise us-in the logical sense of the word! Because, when someone suddenly calls out "Achtung!" [Look out!] that doesn't mean by a long shot that we are prepared for what will come.

2000 ACHTUNG (GROB) mediafire/rapidshare

Hamiet Bluiett, Marcello Melis, Don Moye - Bars

Hamiet Bluiett: baritone saxophone
Marcello Melis: bass
Don Moye: drums

Trois musiciens, mais une seule voix. Les trois individualités se distinguent clairement autant qu'elles se confondent en UNE seule et unique voix. Les genres se succèdent pour qu'un axe commun à tous les titres apparaisse au fur et à mesure. Les genres et les personnes, ce sont le swing post-bop de Bluiett, les appels à l'insurrection pizzicato et l'archet aux accents parfois furieux de Melis, et enfin la fluctuation de Famoudou: du jazz au rythmes bantous, from ancient to future. 1977: la période bop est définitivement close mais Bluiett ne veut pas réellement en sortir, l'improvisation collective héritée d'Ornette sert alors d'exutoire comme la Great Black Music chère aux membres de l'AACM, le phrasé bop se transforme petit à petit pour finir en cri, le CRI cher aux coltraniens. Mais ce qui permet à Bluiett de se surpasser ici, c'est certainement cette rythmique de taré, ce duo du méconnu Melis avec le fameux batteur de l'AEOC: Don Moye. Le baryton se retrouve en paysage parfois inexploré: la scène européenne surgit avec Melis mais se retrouve écrasée par le continent africain suggéré et invoqué par Famoudou. Et nous, qu'est-ce qu'on a dans l'oreille? des marches insurrectionnelles, des invocations d'esprits, une énergie typique du bop qui n'exprime rien d'autre qu'une puissance vitale prête à exploser (l'explosion sera le free). Mais l'explosion est maîtrisé, ce n'est pas le foutoir comme dans certains AEOC ou dans les premiers enregistrements européens, Bars, c'est le condensé de 15 ans de pratique d'improvisation, l'histoire de l'improvisation entre 65 et 75: un équilibre magnifique qui longe le fil du bop à l'improvisation libre nourrie de la musique noire. C'est cet équilibre qui alimente alors un dialogue magnifique entre nos trois maîtres, dialogue qui n'est pas polyphonique mais laisse quand même une grande place à l'expression de la singularité de chacun, même si ces singularités se fondent finalement en une seule voix, en un seul cri. (from ImprovSphere)

1977 BARS (Musica Records) rapidshare/mediafire

Frank Lowe - Fresh

Frank Lowe: tenor saxophone
Lester Bowie: trumpet
Joseph Bowie: trombone
Abdul Wadud: cello
Steve Reid: drums
Charles Bobo Shaw: drums
+ The Memphis Four

The emphasis is on color and sound on this spirited avant-garde album. Four of the five selections feature the adventurous tenor of Frank Lowe with trumpeter Lester Bowie, trombonist Joseph Bowie, cellist Abdul Wadud and either Steve Reid or Bob Shaw on drums. They perform two Lowe originals and two pieces by Thelonious Monk; these renditions are full of surprises and contrasts. In addition, Lowe is heard with an unknown group of local musicians called "the Memphis Four" on "Chu's Blues" in 1974. Open-eared listeners should find this set to be quite stimulating. (from AMG)

1974 FRESH (Freedom) rapidshare/mediafire

Mawja - Live One

Michael T. Bullock: contrabass, feedback
Mazen Kerbaj: trumpet
Vic Rawlings: cello, surface electronics

“Mary Staubitz emailed me asking, 'do you and Vic want to play with this guy from Lebanon?' Mary was booking a series of noise shows at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain, MA, and had been contacted, apparently out of the blue, by 'this trumpet player from Beirut.' She wanted to help him out but wasn`t sure what to do, since none of us in Boston really knew anything about him. Vic and I have had a duo established since 2000, so I knew at least I wouldn`t be totally out to sea with this new guy. I agreed and so did Vic: we would meet Mazen for the first time at the gig. We did just that. I walked into the Midway the night of the gig and saw a tall Middle Eastern man standing in the middle. The Midway is a very rowdy, noisy joint even when the music is not playing, so conversation was limited to pleasantries, and 30 minutes later the three of us were on “stage” (actually the middle of the floor in front of the tiny stage, the only place we could fit two large string instruments, two amps, and Mazen`s table crowded with trumpet preparations). Then something happened - music came tumbling out. Immediately, and for the entire set, we were in that state of mind that most groups work for months or years to achieve; the music played itself. Harsh, mild, tense, limber, awkward in the best ways, and above all, effortless. After it was over we knew we had to play again, soon, and often. We set about booking a tour for the next time Mazen could come to the US. This disc, along with “Studio One” on Al Maslakh, is the products of that intensely creative week.” Michael Bullock - Troy, June 2007

2007 LIVE ONE (Chloë) rapidshare/mediafire

Mawja - Studio One

Michael T. Bullock: contrabass, feedback
Mazen Kerbaj: trumpet
Vic Rawlings: cello, surface electronics

CD LINER NOTES

ONE STRIKE ISN'T ENOUGH

This album struck me like a big wave, a wave that makes you lose your consciousness and equilibrium for several minutes, leaving you wondering what just happened to you during this elusive lapse of time. Probably this is exactly the purpose of this trio, where as their music draws rust from your very skin, suburban rust, from those big suburbs where the individual melts, and all individuality is melted by the heavy burden that eats all. The sound ate the self, ate the collective, ate time, and invaded space.
I wasn’t expecting such a radical treatment of sound. The music here goes out of time, depriving it of its value despite the usual ties that link time and music as an art form. What we hear is rather a strong binding with space, using it as a compositional tool. This music does not move, but it wanders like blocks of colours or shapes in the empty.
The reunion of Bullock, Rawlings and Kerbaj for this recording leaves no possibilities for any future; it is a meeting of the here and now, like the musical result that is released with this recording. The Present time is simultaneously constructed and deconstructed, making the “now quality” predominant on the atmosphere of this record. The unified sound of the trio fills the air like a short-wave radio signal, carrying its usual load of small marginal details; a sound that resembles music or walks by it without remorse, not stopping at any station along the way.
Three musicians, both friends and enemies, yet above all partners of this same game, where there are no rules for improvising; one erases the other, without regret, for the sake of unity in sound.

Raed Yassin
Beirut, March 2007

2005 STUDIO ONE (Al Maslakh) rapidshare/mediafire

The Rob Brown Trio - Live at Firehouse 12

Rob Brown: alto saxophone
Daniel Levin: cello
Satoshi Takeishi: percussion

Many years before I started this blog, I already had a kind of bookkeeping file of all my records, with pretty much the same evaluation system, also with a star notation. Of the seven albums that I have of alto saxophonist Rob Brown as a leader (and I know he released more than that), all of them have a four star rating, which demonstrates that, over the years, he not only managed to keep the same high quality of the performances itself, but also that he is sufficiently creative to keep things interesting and new to listeners. On this nice album, recorded live a the Firehouse in November of last year, Brown is accompanied by Daniel Levin on cello and Satoshi Takeishi on drums, the same band that released the great "Sounds" in 2007. Just like on that album, the music is very open, slow, disciplined and almost meditative at moments. The first piece "Quick Be Nimble" starts with an Ornette Coleman-like theme, and with the same stop-and-go kind of feeling, but then it shifts into a more impressionistic mode, letting go of all rhythm and melody, for some beautiful sound coloring, and a nice cello solo, then switching back to the theme, gentle and soft. The second composition is a real treat, with a plucked intro by Levin, the percussion slowly joining with nice bell-like sounds, and a beautiful melody by Brown, lightly dancing, joyful and sweet, but then the tune gets boppish in the middle, gathering tempo and volume, only to get slower again at the end. "On A Lark" is more in the free idiom, sounding totally improvised, but according to the liner notes it was composed. The last piece, "Stray(horn)", is a tribute to Billy Strayhorn (or what did you think?), played with possibly the slowest tempo possible, with alto phrasings by Brown that could fit the jazz of the fifties, but then never for long, because his true art lies of course in free expression and emotional expressivity, restrained yet intense, clear in tone yet powerful too, lamenting and singing at the same time. Brown is a great aloist, no doubt about it. He's a great composer too. And in Levin and Takeishi he found the perfect soulmates to deliver his delicate and free musical vision. The only thing lacking is the audience, where is it? (from Free Jazz)

2009 LIVE AT FIREHOUSE 12 (Not Two Records) rapidshare/mediafire

Bismillah Khan & Party - Sarang / Dadra / Chandra Kauns / Kajaree

Bismillah Khan: shehnai

1969 SARANG-DADRA-CHANDRA KAUNS-KAJAREE (EMI) mediafire
thanks to Mr Fear from Snap, Crackle & Pop

L. Subramaniam with Ustad Bismillah Khan - Live in Geneva

L. Subramaniam: violin
Bismillah Khan: shehnai

1988 LIVE IN GENEVA (CBS) mediafire

Ustad Bismillah Khan - The Soul of Shahnai

Bismillah Khan: shehnai

1979 THE SOUL OF SHAHNAI (EMI) mediafire
thanks to bolingo69 from Anthems for the Nation of Luobaniya 罗巴尼亚国歌

Ustad Bismillah Khan - Master Musicians of India

Bismillah Khan: shehnai

MASTER MUSICIANS OF INDIA (Saregama) rapidshare/mediafire
thanks to owlqaeda from holywarbles

Ehnahre - Taming the cannibals

Ryan McGuire - Bass, Double Bass, Vocals, Percussion (Kayo Dot)
John Carchia - Guitar, Vocals (Kayo Dot)
Ricardo Donoso - Drums

Other contributors :

Jonah Jenkins - Vocals (Only Living Witness, Raw Radar War, Milligram, Miltown)
Forbes Graham - Trumpet (Kayo Dot, XthoughtstreamsX)
Greg Kelley - Trumpet (Nmperign, Heathen Shame)
Greg Massi - Guitar (Baliset, Maudlin of the Well/Kayo Dot)
Noell Dorsey - Vocals
C. Spencer Yeh - Violin


Hey, it's written "others", no ? Ehnahre is other. Ok, metal, brutal, but other.

Here

Bismillah Khan - Shehnai Nawaz

Ustad Bismillah Khan: shehnai

1971 SHEHNAI NAWAZ (His Master's Voice) rapidshare/mediafire

Ustad Bismillah Khan - First LP Record

Ustad Bismillah Khan: shehnai

FIRST LP RECORD rapidshare/mediafire

Frank Lowe - Black Beings

Frank Lowe: tenor saxophone
Joseph Jarman: soprano & alto saxophones
The Wizard (Raymond Lee Chang OR Leroy Jenkins?): violin
William Parker: bass
Rashid Sinan: drums

The age of the LP was often one of compromise for jazz musicians. Given the restrictions on playing time, recordings had to be edited to fit. This meant a loss of ideas and of development with the truncated versions being shadows of the whole. The emergence of the CD has seen the revival of music with the whole performance included. Sometimes the edits were better, but many times the complete picture brings in a deeper dimension and impact. The latter sensibility grabs this recording which has fifteen minutes added to "In Trane's Name" and "Thulani."

Recorded in 1973, Frank Lowe (tenor saxophone) pulled in Joseph Jarman (soprano and alto saxophones) and William Parker (bass) to fly into the eye of free jazz. Lowe was into the music after John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse!, 1965), and the influence and impact can be felt right through. Lowe went out on a musical limb here; the genre was not a long-term residence for him.

It all opens quietly enough with "In Trane's Name." Lowe plays with control, giving the melody its due, but when the tune erupts, the power and the force are incendiary. Both Lowe and Jarman propel and edge the music onwards, fermenting and brewing ideas on the go. There is howl and yell and intensely volatile notes shooting into the stratosphere. Jarman hits the high squiggles, squeezing out the notes, the torque tight. Lowe swipes a broader swath as he gets into a conversation with Jarman, if that's what the charged atmosphere can be called. Give the band credit though for not letting the tune spiral out of control, they bring it down, cooling the pace for the mid-section.

"Thulani" is another agitated progression, with Lowe and Jarman moving on different planes; the former is steady on the beat and the melody, the later unfurls a whorl of free motifs. But it is not long before Lowe dives into the pith and tears form apart.

Parker and Rashid Sinan (drums) are an energetic and propulsive rhythm section. As for The Wizard on violin, it is Raymond Lee Chang and not Leroy Jenkins, whose playing informs Chang through a few shimmering lines on his solo outing during "Thulani," a waft of freshness in the heat. But he, too, is caught in the turmoil most of the way.

Black Beings serves as an historical document and stopping-off point in the musical legacy of Lowe, showing a rare side of the musician.

1973 BLACK BEINGS (ESP) rapidshare/mediafire

Christine Sehnaoui, Dragos Tara, d'incise - At

Christine Sehnaoui: alto saxophone
Dragos Tara: doublebass, radio
d'incise: laptop, objects, cymbals

2010 AT .EP (conv)

Heddy Boubaker - Not Smooth, Never

Heddy Boubaker: alto & bass saxophones

2010 NOT SMOOTH, NEVER .EP (conv)

Christine Sehnaoui & Sven-Åke Johansson - La Vase / Slikke

Christine Sehnaoui: alto saxophone
Sven-Åke Johansson: percussion, crackle box

2010 LA VASE/SLIKKE (SÅJ Records) rapidshare/mediafire
Review by Elliott Sharp

Johannes Bauer / Thomas Lehn / Jon Rose - Futch

Johannes Bauer: trombone
Thomas Lehn: analogue synthesizer
Jon Rose: violin, electronics

There are several things that seem impossible about the Fucht trio. Their mesh of instruments — Conrad Bauer's trombone, Thomas Lehn's analogue synthesizer, Rose's violin and electronics — is an unlikely amalgamation, fat in the midrange and, with neither frets nor valves, ripe with slippery indeterminacy. The players, too, are an unlikely combination: Rose is a tireless conceptualist, making music out of political borders and rewriting economics and history like a viol-centric Marco Polo. While Bauer played previously with Rose in the Slawterhouse quartet, he is better known in adventurous jazz realms, having played with Peter Brötzmann, Barry Guy, Ken Vandermark and Alan Silva. Lehn can usually be found in the hotter end of less idiomatic free improv with John Butcher, Cor Fuehler and the group Konk Pack. The name they've chosen for themselves, German for "gone" or "spoiled" suggests something about their group work, although it might just as much be misleading.

But what is most unlikely about their disc, recorded over two sessions in 2006, is how impossibly close all the sounds are. The album drills maddeningly into the brain from the first moments. There is no background here, no comping or accompaniment, no division of duties. They could almost have been a proper trio: Lehn's ever mutating pops and whistles are generally percussive; Bauer could have fallen easily into a bass register; Rose might have chosen to play the melody lead like a voice or saxophone. But that, presumably, would have been going too easy on the unsuspecting listener.

Instead they frenetically circle and burrow, creating a new sonic situation every few seconds, working, it seems, inches from the listener's ears. They are working together, constantly picking up on suggestions from each other but never falling into formation. They create musical fragments only to ignore or destroy them. Futch is restless, relentless, occasionally hilarious and always commanding of attention. The bold will use headphones.(from TheSquid'sEar)

2006 FUTCH (Jazwerkstatt) rapidshare/mediafire

Brainbombs - Anne Frank

Keith Rowe / Axel Dörner / Franz Hautzinger - A View From The Window

Keith Rowe - guitars, electronics
Franz Hautzinger - slide trumpet
Axel Dörner - quatertone trumpet

Press release from Erstwhile: April 2004

Trumpeters Axel Dörner and Franz Hautzinger transcend many of the aesthetic and geographical factions that have evolved over four decades of European free improv, contributing their gorgeous tones to a wide variety of contexts. On A View From The Window, they join forces with the intensely focused Keith Rowe, one of the sceneÕs founding fathers, and explore the abstract limits of their respective palettes.

RoweÕs history should be familiar to anyone following this area of music. Having mostly performed within AMM until the late nineties, heÕs since been involved in a wide range of projects, including a slew of the most prominent Erstwhile releases. HeÕs the cornerstone musician for the label, and is co-curating the upcoming AMPLIFY festival in Cologne and Berlin, AMPLIFY 2004: addition.

Dörner hails from Cologne, and has been living in Berlin since 1994. He is one of the busiest musicians in the European improv scene, working in projects ranging from free improv ensembles like the Territory Band and The Electrics to more abstract ensembles such as Phosphor and Lines. He recently put out a superb trio disc on Creative Sources with Boris Baltschun and Kai Fagaschinski. This is his second project for Erstwhile, following the self-titled duos with Kevin Drumm, released in 2001.

Hautzinger, based in Vienna, has recorded numerous projects for Grob, including the solo Gomberg, a duo with Derek Bailey, and Absinth (a quartet with Werner Dafeldecker, Sachiko M, and John Tilbury). He has worked with an impressive diversity of musicians, including Gil Evans, John Cale, Christian Fennesz, Otomo Yoshihide, Butch Morris, Phill Niblock, Lou Reed, and the Temptations. This is his first project for Erstwhile.

A View From The Window was recorded in a single day in Vienna in November 2003 by Christoph Amann, superbly as always. The CD captures these three musicians paring their signature sounds down to their essences, with the occasional plaintive trumpet cry or subtle radio snippet emerging from the delicate intertwining. Photojournalist Yuko Zama was in attendance for the sessions, and became drawn to the glimpse of sky visible through one of the studioÕs windows. She took dozens of pictures from different angles, and her fascination inspired Rowe to title the record after the Cardew quote (see below), and to paint a more 'optimistic' version of one of her photos for the front cover.

"...it is impossible to record with any fidelity a kind of music that is actually derived from the room in which it is taking place - its size, shape, acoustical properties, even the view from the window..." - Cornelius Cardew, Towards an Ethic of Improvisation

Here

Seijiro Murayama 3.20.10 Grey Matter Books Hadley, MA

WARK

Marc Baron: alto saxophone
Antoine Daures: tenor saxophone
Sébastien Béliah: bass
Guillaume Dommartin: drums

2008 WARK (Petit Label) rapidshare/mediafire

Taylo Ho Bynum & Tomas Fujiwara - True Events

Taylor Ho Bynum: cornet
Tomas Fujiwara: drums

The duet is an idea idiom: the scaffolding of improvisation laid bare, like wires gutted from a conduit. Here, musical dialogue becomes something about communicating, or miscommunicating, through paper cups. It's far less obvious that an improviser is making no sense, or has no sense, and/or no ideas, than when musicians are speaking ear to ear.

True Events hazards—if "hazard could describe music so careful—scrutiny, packed, coiled, and double-coiled with ideas. A less generous judgment might call this a "well-studied album, and it certainly does not shock of the new so much as it does the nu—or the "now, involved as much of it is with the historical reduction that seems to consume the jazz milieu these days. At the same time, Bynum and Fujiwara are so well- equipped a pair of intellects that merely hearing them communicate so directly is enough to ignore the fact that little, if anything, truly innovative has been said.

Perhaps a better appellation would be "scholarly —as in well-grounded. Bynum has a warm, malleable tone, a talent for coaxing out the personality of the cornet that few players of his generation seem to possess; it is colored in elements of Don Cherry and Bobby Bradford—with, in pedals and splatter-effects, a few remarkable traces of Bill Dixon—and it lapses here and there into the sort of insouciant effrontery of those earlier masters.

Bynum has an adroit, sensitive partner in Fujiwara—yet another tremendous drummer out of Boston—and the conversational, strongly melodic character of this combination sides recalls any number of definitive brass-percussion duets. What separates a session like this and, for example, Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell's Mu (BYG/Actuel, 1969), is that those classic recordings had the feel of tightrope walks; True Events is a more like a jog—facile and quick, with little derring-do.

In other words, it sometimes seems that Bynum and Fujiwara are taking it a little too easy on themselves—dancing on the line rather than breaking it, which they seem amply capable of—but one never feels a lack of intelligence or grace. Hearing Bynum and Fujiwara impose and superimpose rhythms on the time is great fun, and, especially in quieter spots, there's a potent lyricism, a subtle beauty that only the finest partners—I'm reminded of Louis Moholo-Moholo and Evan Parker—can conjure. These two players have no problem exposing their intricate, voluminous ideas, though I wish they would spill their guts a little more. (from AAJ)

2007 TRUE EVENTS (482 Music) rapidshare/mediafire

Pheromone - Disparlure

Jean-Luc Guionnet: chiftelia, cithara, metal sheet, bow, wooden sticks, contact mics
Eric Cordier: hurdy-gurdy, electroni treatments
Pascal Battus: guitar

Eric Cordier et Jean-Luc Guionnet nous ont donné à entendre quelques unes des propositions expérimentales les plus intéressantes de ces dernières années, avec " Tore " paru sur Shambala et Synapses sur le label Selektion. Aujourd’hui Corpus Hermeticum sort le disque de PHEROMONE, trio avec Eric Cordier (vielle à roue et traitement électronique) et Jean-Luc Guionnet (citera, chiftelia, bois, métal et micros contact), auxquels s’est joint Pascal Battus (guitare environnée). Trio d’improvisation définitivement sorti de l’approche old school, sans pour autant sacrifier à la tendance minimaliste actuelle. Comme la plupart des disques parus sur Corpus H. celui-ci est traversé par l’énergie du rock. Pour PHEROMONE le petit Robert donne cette définition en biologie : sécrétion externe produite par un organisme, qui stimule une réponse physiologique ou comportementale chez un autre membre de la même espèce. L’ improvisation jouée comme réponse à une stimulation sonore de l’autre. Ce qui semble dire qu’il n’y a pas de réponses imaginaires mais seulement antérieures (de l’ordre du réflexe, codifiée). Ce qui pourrait être une remise en cause (ou tout au moins un doute émis à propos) du caractère déclaré libertaire de l’improvisation ou des musiques improvisées, une façon de dire qu’elles comportent un caractère idiomatique, un déterminisme culturel ? Mais il resterait du désir, du collectif, de la circulation, de l ’échange, de l’un à l’autre, l’improvisation comme érotique. Longue pièce enregistrée par Eric La Casa et Pierre-Henri Thiebaut Disparlure ", développe des paysages sonores bruissants, sons éclatés dans l’espace se répondant à la façon de ces phéromones, atteignant une apparente cacophonie de nuit d’été. Les textures sont denses et travaillées de torsions et de déchirures, de brûlures et d’implosions, la matière ne reste jamais inerte, le travail incessant. Disque de grincements, de matières ferrugineuses, lourdes, très denses. On y entend quelque chose de l’ordre de l’animalité, un peu à la façon d’une nourriture que se disputeraient des coléoptères voraces, déchiquetant, amputant, déchirant cette masse sonique. L’intérêt pour les sources sonores (de la guitare environnée ou de la vielle à roue) disparaît, semble secondaire, une belle confusion règne là, riche et non maigre, mais pourtant coupante, dangereuse. Les mains tremblent, cherchent, fouillent dans la matière à la recherche de ce son d’or qui fascine tant Charlemagne Palestine, mais ici comme pris dans le déchet, le rebus de la chose musicale. Quête alchimique de la merdre en or. Disparlure ", un bégaiement à la Christian Prigent, il y a de l’anamorphose dans la musique du trio, une torsion du musical dans le bruit monstrueux, comme une mise en vibration du réel. Prigent parlant de l’anamorphose en dit : " Son intérêt réside dans ce geste symptomatique, qui désavoue implicitement la réalité que serait censée figurer la représentation codée " . Est-ce de la musique (cette grande écriture codée des sons d’une société à un certain stade de son développement) ou plus simplement un moment de vie, du temps parlé ? Après le trio Noetinger / Marchetti / Werchowski, Bruce Russell continue d’ ouvrir son label aux expériences de l’improvisation de la vieille Europe, sortant la musique de l’impérialisme culturel anglo-saxon. Il y aurait un autre monde ?

MICHEL HENRITZI

1998 DISPARLURE (Corpus Hermeticum) rapidshare/mediafire

Rodrigo Amado / Kent Kessler / Paal Nilssen-Love - Teatro

Rodrigo Amado: tenor & baritone saxophone
Kent Kessler: double bass
Paal Nilssen-Love: drums

The Portugese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado seems to replace Ken Vandermark in this trio with Kent Kessler on bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. Vandermark played often enough with both of them in all possible line-ups and group configurations. Amado is also the sax-player in The Lisbon Improvisation Players, a Portuguese jazz band, with which Denis Gonzalez also made several performances. Amado is a different sax player than Vandermark, a little softer, more searching, more melodious, a little less energetic (but who isn't). The power of this band is that they create music, varying between hesitating and intense, calming each other, encouraging each other, propulsing each other to peaks, but without losing the focus, and with sufficient variation in the way they play their instruments to keep things fresh and exciting, even on the two longer pieces. The second of those, Pandora's Box, starts slow and searching, yet evolves into a rhythmic party full of intensity and musical joy, a piece in which both Kessler and Nilssen-Love get ample space for soloing. On the title song Kessler plays arco, Amado his baritone sax, and together they start the most abstract piece of the album, with the drums adding light touches and accents. This is no blowing fest, but very restrained, elegant and relatively accessible free jazz by three exceptional musicians. Highly recommended. (from FreeJazz)

2006 TEATRO (European Echoes) rapidshare/mediafire

Kidd Jordan, Hamid Drake, William Parker - Palm of Soul

Kidd Jordan: tenor saxophone
Hamid Drake: drums, tablas, frame drum, voice
William Parker: bass, guimbre, talking drum, bowls, gongs

It's all there at the very beginning, thanks to Kidd Jordan, New Orleans' septuagenarian saxophonist, teacher, and leader; drummer Hamid Drake, who, despite leaving the Crescent City decades ago, still understands second-line rhythms; and William Parker, bassist extraordinaire, who plays a startling array of singing bowls, gongs, and even the talking drum on this session. In the 56 seconds that are "Peppermint Falls," the album's opener, all the elements are there, up front, and waiting to peel the layers off the onion of sound. Jordan swings in everything he does, whether it's the lonesome blues singing at the commencement of "Forever" or the startling intensity of "Unity Call." It's about song and sound, the notion of singing through the horn, expressing what the Indian, North African, and Congo shamans have been singing about for centuries. Certainly this is jazz; it lives in a post-Coltrane aesthetic -- the one of discovery, not imitation. The bowed bass beginnings of "Living Peace" suggest, from the relative calm and quiet of the first two tracks, that the edges will become a noticeable present tense in this music. But there are no edges, despite the moan-song of the horn, the bowing and the skeletal inverted notion of time that Drake stretches to its breaking point. What breaks are the defined notions of the pianoless jazz trio. This is a triangle where texture, balance, and color become the points at which sound itself can be expressed without distraction or notional individual identity struggles. This is music that just is, as jazz, as blues, as folk music. The culmination of the trio's art is in the album's final cut, "Last of the Chicken Wings." Never has out jazz sounded so recreational. The percussion work by both sidemen is stunning, carrying a series of Yoruba rhythmic inventions into the joy of the moment. When Jordan gets into his Ornette thang, playing the same catchy phrase over and over again as the percussion gets louder and more insistent, it's an expression of joy. And that's what Palm of Soul is, an expression of spirit joy, one that is rooted in the breakdown of time as a construct, and jazz as an independent form. In fact, if this trio proves anything on this date, it is that jazz is the music that carries within it -- or at least can and should -- all the musics of the world. Brilliant. (from AMG)

2006 PALM OF SOUL (AUM Fidelity) mediafire/rapidshare
many thanks to fusionero

Eric Brochard, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Edward Perraud - [on]

Eric Brochard: double bass
Jean-Luc Guionnet: alto saxophone
Edward Perraud: drums, percussion

La rencontre du contrebassiste Eric Brochard, du batteur Edward Perraud et du saxophoniste – encore récemment entendu sur Propagations – Jean-Luc Guionnet, en deux actes : Lithe et Néolithe, qui se succèdent sur [on].

Là, aviser un paquet de gestes bruts, affirmant le parti pris d’une pratique radicale de l’improvisation : qui extirpe ses visions de l’instant à coups de notes qu’on arrache : grincements de contrebasse et plaintes longues d’alto, progressions incommodes de guitare et confections de drones inquiets bien qu’en voie de développement.

Et puis, Guionnet glisse et dérive, impose à son instrument un parcours circulaire ; Brochard répète une note, relent décidé de corde lâche ; Perraud tourmente ses cymbales déjà convulsives. Lithe et Néolithe, qui se succèdent sur [on], et qui l’imposent avec adresse. (from lesondugrisli)

Ce trio livre deux improvisations de 23 et 25 minutes où chacun tire de son instrument l’antithèse de sa sonorité conventionnelle. Une batterie coloriste et non rythmique, un saxophone qui évacue la mélodie et les intervalles tempérés, une contrebasse abrasive et percussive... Cymbales griffées, rayées, sons de cloches, claquements d’anches, nappes de basse, voire d’infra-basses et cordes frappées à l’archet ; bruits de fond qui émergent ; bruits de surface qui sombrent. Pas deux démonstrations : deux invitations/incitations/provocations.

Ceux pour qui « l’impro libre, c’est tout le temps la même chose » feraient bien d’écouter l’une après l’autre les deux plages : « Lithe » et « Néolithe ». Il faudra qu’ils trouvent autre chose à dire, ensuite. (from CitizenJazz)

2002 [ON] (In Situ) rapidshare/mediafire

Angles - Every Woman is a Tree

Martin Küchen: alto saxophone
Magnus Broo: trumpet
Mats Äleklint: trombone
Mattias Ståhl: vibraphone
Johan Berthling: double bass
Kjell Nordeson: drums

Magic from Sweden, published in Portugal. This Swedish band consists of Johan Berthling on double bass, Kjell Nordeson on drums, Magnus Broo on trumpet, Martin Kuchen on alto sax, Mats Aleklint on trombone and Mattias Stahl on vibraphone. The band brings a strong anti-war album here, and an ode to women in war-time, the "trees" that hold the families together. The music has this unbelievable combination of energy, melodic beauty and emotional sensitivity. Some of the tracks are wonderful, and possibly among the best I've heard this year. The opening track starts with arco bass, followed by dramatic and sad alto sax, with the vibes offering the right supportive touches, then the rhythm instruments move into a unison theme, opening the floor for the rest of the band to join in the sad melody. The bass also has a long intro for the second track, now on pizzi, for another wailing and tearful theme by the rest of the band. The title track is brilliant, with a strong and sweeping melody, very moving and heartfelt, offering lots of possibilities for expansion, and played in a wonderful African call-and-response mode, including percussive polyrhythmics and a staggering trumpet solo by Broo. And the next piece is great too, starting with a gut-wrenching sax solo by Küchen over a slow and bluesy rhythm, which offers the right background for the ensuing vibe and trombone solos. Those who know Küchen and Nordeson from their work with Exploding Customer will find similarities in the music, albeit less joyful here of course, and richer because of the additional instruments. The music is rhythmic, melodic, with a clear structural approach of theme, improvisations and back to theme, although a little more sophisticated than I describe it. But compositional power is one thing, the major achievement is in the performance itself, which is warm, sad and wonderful. A great album. (from FreeJazz)

2008 EVERY WOMAN IS A TREE (Clean Feed) rapidshare/mediafire

Return of the New Thing - Crescendo

Dan Warburton: piano, violin
Jean-Luc Guionnet: alto & soprano saxophones
François Fuchs: bass
Edward Perraud: percussion

Far from being a subversive play on words verging on paradox, Return of the New Thing is a reminder that tough, uncompromising music was not invented yesterday, but has a history spanning over 40 years.

One should appreciate the honesty and sense of humour shown by those behind the name - Fuchs, Guionnet, Perraud and (its author) Warburton - who, in this somewhat subversive manner, pay homage to tradition. On the other hand, there arise a number of doubts : can music burdened with so much tradition, as played by ROTNT, be fresh and honest ? Have the ideas of Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler and many others not become outdated or passé ? Does it make sense to refer to them ?

Upon listening to Crescendo these doubts are gradually dispelled. The quartet plays music that can still be appreciated. Music that can simultaneously irritate and fascinate, exhaust and thrill, amaze but also confuse ; music that affects both intellect and emotions. Particularly noteworthy is the freedom and precision - seemingly opposing qualities - with which the members of ROTNT develop their parts. One may feel surprise that free jazz (with which the term "new thing" was synonymous) can be so disciplined and exceptionally lucid, so precisely executed. Both as soloists and accompanists the musicians maintain an exceptionally tight grip on the clarity of their expression, and in the process of saturating it with detail they fully control the dynamics and timbre of their sound, whilst never forgetting the form and structure of the recording as a whole. The album contains only two fairly lengthy tracks, which can presumably be regarded a the product of so called "structured improvisation" - i.e. free expression based on certain elements agreed in advance. If I am mistaken in this - I am not familiar with the background of the recording - and the material is improvised in its entirety, the musicians deserve even greater praise.

In the quartet’s performance one can hear not only that its members are familiar with the history of jazz, but also that they are capable of transforming and personalising this history. It is presumably significant that Crescendo is jazz played by musicians who do not play jazz on a day-to-day basis (Jean-Louis Guionnet divides his time between electro-acoustic, improvised and organ music, François Fuchs customarily concerns himself with improvisation, while Dan Warburton and Edward Perraud possess a "serious" musical education and have quite thoroughly explored the world of non-conventional sounds, touching on rock, classical and various types of improvised music). Hence, their language becomes a product of the "free” idiom, traceable directly to the classics (e.g. Coleman, Shepp, Ayler and Mengelberg), as well as personal experiences connected with other areas of musical practice. Obviously, in line with its name, the music of ROTNT is dominated by the former, but tasty interjections lend it a certain amount of peculiar charm. (from DIAPAZON)

Tadeusz Kosiek (Translated by Rafał Eile)

2005 CRESCENDO (Not Two Records) rapidshare/mediafire