Michel Doneda - Anatomie des Clefs

MICHEL DONEDA - Anatomie des clefs (Potlatch, 1998)

Michel Doneda: soprano saxophone

01-Creux actif
02-Bloc d'air
03-Portées, divisées


At first blush, more than an hour of solo soprano saxophone might appear daunting, if not tedious. In Michel Doneda's hands, the soprano saxophone is not so much a musical instrument as a vessel of prayer. There is no discernable melody and few sounds that resemble those of the saxophone. Instead, there are incredible, even astounding sounds that melt into nothingness and then erupt in fury. The three tracks are entirely different, with utterly fascinating shadings. Under Doneda's tutelage, breath and space are just as important as instrumental sound. This is not, though, some New Age mush: Far from it. It is a masterful blend of noise, air, and technically sophisticated saxophone that unites to form a coherent whole. To the uninitiated, this might make for disturbing listening; but, but for those willing to take the time, the rewards are substantial.(from AMG)

HERE

Masayoshi Urabe - Solo

MASAYOSHI URABE - Solo (PSF, 1996)

Masayoshi Urabe: alto saxophone

01-solo

Célèbre pour ses performances solos radicales, Urabe est un saxophoniste d'une intensité extrême. Dans ce premier enregistrement publié par PSF, il nous livre des phrases ultranerveuses, tendues et surpuissantes, "exorcisantes" selon certains, entrecoupées de silences très longs, plus angoissants qu'apaisants. Une performance complètement envoutante et singulière qui ne laisse pas indifférent.

HERE

Eddie Prevost & Jim O'Rourke

EDDIE PREVOST & JIM O'ROURKE - Third Straight Day Made Public (Complacency, 1993)

Eddie Prevost: drums, percussion
Jim O'Rourke: guitar

01- Reason For Eyelids
02- Two's Company
03- A Mean Fiddle
04- On A Slow Mend

Filling an old Ochyming request, I upload this strange duo from two great improvisers. Four cold and abstract pieces, between electronic and acoustic improvisation. Totally adventurous, it's an exploration of the sound itself.

HERE

Moroccan Trance Music II: Sufi

VA - Moroccan Trance II: Sufi (Sub Rosa, 1996)

Gnoua Brotherhood Of Marrakesh
01 Sidi Musakar 6:19
02 Jilalay / Moulay Abdulah / Moulay Braihim 8:39
03 Hamasha Hamdushi 7:35
04 Seet Yumala Youmalay 5:09
05 Djemma El Fna, Marrakesh, November 8th 1994 11:45
Master Musicians Of Joujouka
06 Moulay Abdeslam 3:59
07 L'Hedera (The Music Of Sidi Ahmed Sheich) 6:58
08 L'Hedera 7:54

HERE

Moroccan Trance Music: Jilala-Gnaoua

VA - Moroccan Trance Music: Jilala/Gnaoua (Sub Rosa/La cœur du monde, 1990)

01-Unknown Artist  -  Jilala Wedding Procession 
02-Jilala De Tanger  -  Ouled Khalifa 
03-Jilala De Tanger  -  Darba Del Hameni 
04-Jilala De Tanger  -  Gnaoui 
05-Unknown Artist  -  Ghaitta And Drums (Part 1) / Blind Musician, Jemaa El Fna (Part 2) 
06-Gnaoua De Abdenbi Binizi  -  Jellaba Titara 
07-Gnaoua De Abdenbi Binizi  -  Yumala 
08-Gnaoua De Abdenbi Binizi  -  Neksma 
09-Gnaoua De Abdenbi Binizi  -  Baba Larabi 
Recorded by Paul Bowles and Randall Barnwell

This is a recording of Jilala and Gnoaua music from Morocco. The CD begins with what sounds like a celebration in the street and all of the ambient sound of the festival becomes part of the musicality of the performance, including loud voices and car horns. What follows is a group of recordings that truly capture this culture's musical genius. The evolving rhythms and melodies invite the listener to explore the musical aesthetics and flavors of Moroccan culture. This music can be disorienting at times. The name "trance music" is appropriate, the circulating and spiraling rhythms can be almost hypnotic. This music will suprise you. I have made a conscious effort to explore Moroccan music and this CD continues to be my favorite. It is an excellent collection of high quality field recordings. There are other CD's that are more popular and might have benefitted from smarter marketing etc. but this recording has to be one of the best. Anyone curious about world music stands a good chance of being converted to the rank of 'enthusiast' after hearing this.
R. G. Villalobos; February 7th, 2010 - Rating: 5/5

HERE

Erhard Hirt - Guitar Solo

ERHARD HIRT - Guitar Solo: Gute und schlechte Zeiten (FMP, 1993)

Erhard Hirt: Gibson ES-175 hollow body guitar, Steinberger guitar, Hohner-Steinberger with guitarsynthesizer.

01-Noch ein Husten für Karl Valentin (02.03)
02-BHW (to Helmut) (3.26)
03-Drone (05.32)
04-Auge und Ohr (04.22)
05-Staff (03.19)
06-Kermesse (01.56)
07-Feedback (04.40)
08-Percussion (04.41)
09-Drive (04.00)
10-Slow music (to Mathias) (04.31)
11-Mit Klammern (04.59)
12-Mit Motoren (04.25)
13-Flute (02.06)
14-Klapp & Flap (02.02)
15-MZ (to Davey) (01.18)
16-Axes (to John) (01.26)
17-Waage II (to Barbara) (04.43)
18-Synthesizer (03.03)

HERE

Ostad Elahi - Celestial Harmonies: The art of oriental tanbur lute

OSTAD ELAHI - Celestial Harmonies (Le chant du monde, 1999)

Ostad Elahi: sitar, tanbur

01 Suite De Mobarak Bada
02 Wala Witana
03 Ali Aman Ya Ali
04 Suite De Hymnes
05 Supplique d'Ali
06 Suite De Tchapi

This CD unveils another facet of Ostad Elahi's music: his improvisations not only on the setar and the tanbour, which each have their own specific techniques, but also on a five-string tanbour that he himself created, probably to realize a synthesis between the Persian and Kurdish lutes. Some of the pieces are also chanted. The combination of such inimitable style, mysterious tones, and audacious dissonances takes the listener into uncharted territories. (from Elahi's website)

HERE

Snake Charmers of North India

Sapera - Snake Charmers of North India (Bona-Fi, 1999)

01 Theka Talin
02 Haryana Folk Song
03 Rajastahni Rasiya Number 1
04 Medley/Gajal Theka/Jogi Lahra/Melody from the films Nagin/Raja Hindustani
05 Rajastahni Song (solo pungi)
06 Melody From The Film Phagun
07 Damadam Mast
08 Rajastahni Song
09 Rajastahni Rasiya Number 2
10 Lok Sangit Lahra

Here
thanks to lungfungus and øשlqæda from holy warbles

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

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

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

Brainbombs - Anne Frank

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

Return of the New Thing

Dan Warburton: piano, violin
Jean-Luc Guionnet: alto saxophone
François Fuchs: bass
Edward Perraud: drums

The "New Thing" refers, of course, to the avant-garde jazz scene of the early '60s, when free jazz was, in fact, a "new thing." The fact that at the end of the 20th century the style epitomized by the "New Thing" continues to flourish is a testimony to the rich and deep resources of the music and the individual musicians. The manifestation of the "New Thing" (or its "Return") found on this recording is produced entirely by a French-based quartet whose individual members, though clearly accomplished, are largely unknown in the world of new music (at least on this side of the Atlantic). No matter. What they have produced is a highly creative document of some very exciting, even thrilling, improvisations that combine sophisticated compositional skills with excellent free jazz that weaves in and out of rivers and hills. The conventional instrumentation of alto sax, piano, bass, and percussion is misleading, as the members of the quartet create a unique collective sound. While they are capable of energizing fury, they are also adept at producing challenging collages of soft sounds. (from AMG)

1999 RETURN OF THE NEW THING (LEO RECORDS)
rapidshare/mediafire

Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, Paul Rutherford - Trio (London) 1993

Anthony Braxton: alto & sopranino saxophones
Evan Parker: tenor & soprano saxophones
Paul Rutherford: trombone

Review

by Scott Yanow

The lack of liner notes on this otherwise rewarding CD sometimes makes it difficult to know exactly what is going on. The unusual trio (comprised of trombonist Paul Rutherford and multireedists Anthony Braxton and Evan Parker) perform five adventurous group improvisations that are surprisingly concise (all but one clocks in between six and eleven minutes) and largely self-sufficient despite the lack of any rhythm instruments. Still, this is not a release for the beginner and it is most highly recommended to collectors already quite familiar with Anthony Braxton's explorative music.(from AMG)

1993 TRIO (LONDON) 1993

Free Jazz Quartet - Memories For The Future

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

This is a newly discovered recording of a concert given in Bristol in 1992 and like everything else that Mr. Prevost releases on Matchless, it is extraordinary. This is the second disc from the Free Jazz Quartet, the personnel is the same as their earlier Matchless disc - it features the late Paul Rutherford on trombone, Harrison Smith on tenor & soprano saxes & bass clarinet, Tony Moore on cello and Eddie Prevost on drums. Similar in respect to the past with an eye to the future British percussionists Eddie Prevost and John Stevens both led bands and influenced those around them with their vision and playing. Both men led by example and helped to focus the playing of the members of their various projects. This, the Free Jazz Quartet is a great example since they are much more than just a free jazz quartet. Mr. Prevost has selected an excellent, well-balanced and explorative unit. Eddie's own playing is constantly shifting between rhythms, colors and shades similar to what the under-recorded Tony Moore does on the cello, more often plucking than bowing. Eddie plays with the utmost restraint for the first few pieces on this disc, as if he is using knitting needles on his cymbals and drums. Both horns (trombone & reeds) sail around one another in a most organic fashion. Eddie's mallet playing on "Summoning" is both spacious, careful and melodic, his solo and duo with the cello is quite stunning. When the horns finally come in it is perfection personified. It sounds like a conversations between ghosts or elders, with ideas being tossed back and forth effortlessly. It was sad to lose trombone legend Paul Rutherford a few years ago. This disc show that he was still an amazing improviser later in life and captures him and the rest of this magnificent quartet just right. Truly outstanding!

Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

1992 (2010) MEMORIES FOR THE FUTURE

Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio - Physics

Evan Parker: tenor & soprano saxophones
Alexander von Schlippenbach: piano
Paul Lovens: selected drums & cymbals

Review

by Eugene Chadbourne

Physics? This is more like a plate of steaming clams, or better yet a big pot of hot fish soup. It is 74 minutes of thick, steaming music played by the group that never dies, served up in two lengthy courses. This was recorded early into their second decade of existence. By then the trio had clearly proved the inaccuracy of certain notions that fixed groups do not work in the free improvised genre. Then again, the Schlippenbach trio has a clear connection with the jazz tradition, something that some of the other groups from the European free improvisation scene don't. One can sense a link between the final period of Coltrane, for example, and the playing of Evan Parker, Alexander Schlippenbach, and Paul Lovens, although eliminated is the need for grandiose theme statements to kick the jams into gear. Since modern jazz in the early '90s had been largely running away frightened from the late Coltrane model and retreating into more conservative, commercial realms, one could say this is the trio that is physically carrying the history of jazz forward. Whatever they are doing, it's top notch.(from AMG)

1991 PHYSICS

Günter Christmann, Mats Gustafsson, Paul Lovens - Tr!o

Günter Christmann: cello, trombone
Mats Gustafsson: soprano & baritone saxophones, fluteophone
Paul Lovens: percussion

In 1994 cellist and trombonist Günter Christmann, drummer Paul Lovens and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson performed together for the first time as a trio. Now, in 2010, their performance is released on CD.

Musically, it shows that what was avant-garde then still is avant-garde today, sixteen years later, and very much so. The music also demonstrates that even within avant-garde, this trio was thinking quite ahead. What you hear is an incredibly intense interaction between three masters, barely using their instruments other than to produce sounds - not phrases, not melodies, just timbral explorations of coloring, restrained power, blocked flux, sudden release, shades, changes in intensity, and all this against a broad canvas of silence.

Critics who claim that all modern and avant-garde jazz is just noise will find both denial and confirmation here.
It is not noise in the traditional sense : the volume is kept down, allowing for even the most subtle of movements to be picked up by the mikes. No other music, not even classical chamber music, allows for such nuance of sound perception.
Yet it is noise in its most traditional sense, in its most primitive and basic meaning : what you hear are scraping, screeching,clattering, gurgling, hammering, hissing, shouting, rumbling, ticking, weeping, thundering, chattering, ... all coming out of instruments, not in a structure, but raw and in immediate reaction or as propulsion for other sounds.

Ten years ago, I would have run away from this as fast as I could, arms in the air screaming bloody horror.

Today, and don't ask me why, I can listen to this intently, as I have done several times back-to-back and in bits and pieces, enjoying the incredible power contained, almost locked-up, in this music, full of tension despite its minimalism, with sometimes no sound, then all three simultaneously letting out a shout from their instrument, as if read from some sheet music. The greatest quality of the music is the total effect, including what is not being played, not only in the silence, but in what is being suppressed. That is by itself a rare achievement. (from FREEJAZZ)

2010 TR!O

Frode Gjerstad & John Stevens - Keep On Playing

Frode Gjerstad: alto saxophone
John Stevens: drums, cornet

1994 KEEP ON PLAYING

Michel Doneda, Paul Rogers, Lê Quan Ninh - Open Paper Tree

Michel Doneda: soprano saxophone
Paul Rogers: bass
Lê Quan Ninh: percussion

1995 OPEN PAPER TREE
AllMusic