I'm welcoming autumn with this wonderfully melancholy piano album from a very gifted composer. In fact, I've listened to it a dozen times today.
Just before it was released, Nils Frahm had broken his thumb. In the despair and fear that naturally came from such an incident, he set off to record a piece each night, before bed. Over the course of nine nights, with nine fingers, and a single microphone, he overcame the seemingly monumental setback, resulting in an improvisational opus of extraordinary beauty. These sparse and intimate portraits, spanning a mere twenty-eight minutes, are powerful, combining the spirit of Satie with some of the best new age piano recordings in the modern compositional canon.
Though he initially released the recording as a free download, not thinking it was worth much at all, he couldn't have been more wrong. I'm deeply moved by this half hour of troubled and beautiful sketches. I hope you will be too.
Below, I've also included some of his other work, so as to showcase his versatility. Be sure to watch the last video, "All Melody" to appreciate his electronic sensibility as well. Enjoy.
I first saw Ian McHolm at a solo experimental percussion gig he performed last year. He was obviously proficient in jazz and improvisational techniques. More importantly, he was exceptional at combining his kit skills with various instrumentation to create a full wall of sound. Essentially, McHolm grasps how to actually be a 'one man band'.
He doesn't limit himself to solo recordings though. I listened to his Nagual Cassettes quite often after that night. This is the Oberlin, Ohio improvisational duo he has with David Shapiro, and a collaboration has finally yielded a killer 44 minute LP on Ergot Records.
The two musicians craft meticulous loops to create dark and powerful drones. From from piano and synth, to downright Fripp, these experiments meander toward a sense of doom. One track is even reminiscent of current Swans material, with its extended repetition building immense tension until a burst of drumming is released at the end. This is musician's music but with a deep narrative. Highly recommended!
Here's a cool Minnesota trio I recently discovered. They play improvisational jazz that doesn't sound contrived or pretentious, offering warm tones with subtle stabs and skronks. Free jazz for the uninitiated? Maybe. If you don't vibe with all the shrill cacophony of typical ESP-Disk routes (like I do) but want to dig on some jazz, give this a go. This is a powerful group with gentle finesse.
The reviews I've read about this record so far really puzzle me. This is the ninth record by this act and apparently folks want to hear the same thing they've heard from the other eight albums. To the untrained ear, their entire discography could sound the same, all being avant garde western-tinged wanking with the "pulling of the heart strings" twist. Ahh yes, let's be greedy, let's ask for even more! Let's long for them to be pigeon-holed a decade after their inception. Well, I say Fuck that. These guys have been around, playing live in various projects for thirty years and then some. Let them grow! They've evolved in a really gorgeous way and the critics are stifling them for no good reason. Yes, I'm ranting. I'm sorry. I suppose it also pushes my buttons that much of the negative criticism over this record is due to the free improvisation it presents. These veterans are actually pushing boundaries. Maybe not boundaries as you see them, but imagine playing with the same couple guys for fifteen years and trying to break out of your mold.
At its inception, its blistering. Jim White finally takes the reigns and leads the band into uncharted territory with his brilliant sense of nuanced percussion. In fact, for the first five tracks, he seems like a pied piper, orchestrating a deconstruction of everything that was Dirty Three. Whatever you thought is no more. Its like manna from heaven, as far as I'm concerned. There's a nonlinear presentation here. Its almost as if everything we're hearing is raw and unedited. I can't help but imagine the feeling of freedom that this process must have given them. And just when it gets a bit too intense, "Rain Song" brings us back around to the gospel truth that is the spine of this band's career, gorgeous in its depression, conflicted in its narrative, and hopeful in its intended resolve.
Toward the end of the album, the element of orchestration slips in, no doubt due to Ellis' film scoring with Nick Cave in the past few years, but I feel that the group only benefits from this environment.
Everything about this record feels new and I'm once again excited about this act. They're one of my favorite bands ever, and this is incredibly refreshing.
I don't know much, but I know this.... Never ever doubt a Bad Seed...
If you're current with your jazz at all, you know this man is not just another number. In fact, he is possibly the most important sax player and multi-instrumentalist alive. Charles Gayle has spent his life in dedication to the free jazz tradition in the vein of Shepp, Sanders, Ayler and Trane. The "Streets the Clown" personnae is based on his many years as a homeless street musician himself. In fact, he dons this guise and continues to play on the street to this day.
Gayle is a master, and this latest release is surprisingly accessible yet blazing as always. The bassist, Larry Roland and the longtime drummer, Michael TA Thompson hold it down as well as contribute equally to a powerful, blistering, elegant album. The trio manages to manufacture free jazz that retains a vivid narrative structure. Linear yet non-linear, all the compositions here will resonate with the elitist tastes as well as the casual pallette.
I'm sad to say there is no vinyl for this. pay for download HERE and/ or listen on Spotify.
Where to begin... I can't really say. I do remember the first time I read his name. It was WIRE magazine in 1999. and what I didn't realize then was that I would read his name in almost every issue for the next thirteen years. His name is associated with what a friend and I dubbed "WIRE Babies". Examples would be David S. Ware, Anthony Braxton, Derek Bailey, etc. The beautiful thing about these names is that I actually engaged myself enough as to grasp their importance on an intimate level, recognizing their relevance not because I was supposed to but because they spoke to me, because I felt their souls, and everything they did eventually made sense. The genius I'd read about was no longer esoteric but familiar.
The brilliant Lol Coxhill has passed away. His legacy will be appreciated forever by a small group of people that still hold improvisational music and forward thinking jazz dear to their hearts.
I've always been partial to sax players, particularly those that toyed with soprano. I am familiar with soprano sax due to Coltrane's occasional outing with it. A large chunk of my childhood was based on obsession with anything pertaining to Trane (Stravinsky, Astrology, sweet potato pie. etc.), so when I hear of any musician working in any sort of similar vein, I have to investigate. After reading an article on Coxhill, I gathered as much of his music as I could and plunged in. I discovered that he had played with a vast list of incredible artists which included Derek Bailey, Robert Wyatt, Mike Oldfield and even The Damned. He was a wild experimenter that never ceased to impress all who witnessed any given performance. I only wish I'd had the opportunity.
"Not to be confused with the Egyptian god Ra", says the Wikipedia entry. Its quite difficult not to confuse this legendary figure with a god.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914, Sun Ra always pushed the limits musically. He did it all. Sometimes he'd play piano / keyboard solos, sometimes he'd be with a traditional quartet doing ragtime, swing, or bebop. I was always fond of the bizarre free jazz sounds and vocal incantations that seemed to conjure aliens from what he seemed to think was his home planet.
Beyond the jazz music, he was also one of the first artists to incorporate experimentation with electronic keyboards. In the black and white video below, its shocking when you suddenly hear that virtual sound. It creates a confusion in your mind, a sort of retro-futurist synesthesia.
Until his death in 1993, he continued to play as often as possible and just got further and further out. The bandleader Marshall Allen has kept the Sun Ra Arkestra going. To this day, you can go see them perform and still feel the spirit of the great otherworldly one himself.
"I'm playing dark history. It's beyond black. I'm dealing with the dark things of the cosmos."
Boxhead Ensemble was originally begun as a collective supporting the score for the documentary "Dutch Harbor: Where the Sea Breaks its Back".
"Dutch Harbor is one of the largest fishing ports in the United States, located on the small remote island of Unalaska, part of the Aleutian Island chain. Trawlers each day head to sea to fish in the oceans off the Pacific Northwest or up into the Bering Sea some 300 miles away. This documentary is the story of the small town where Dutch Harbor is located and the men and women who call Unalaska and the sea their home. This 80-minute film, shot in black-and-white, shows a village in transition, from a remote place on the earth to one of the most active international commercial-fishing communities. Stunning photography and an equally captivating soundtrack brings together the story of these people who live on the western shores of Alaska." ~ Forrest Spencer, Rovi
Its one of the most moving films ever made. Naturally, it wasn't well received in the states but was adored in Europe. That accepting market caused the musicians to travel there to perform further live improvised film screenings. The best moments of that tour are presented on The Last Place to Go.
Line-up includes:
Mick Turner Jim White Will Oldham Edith Frost Fred Lonberg-Holm Ken Vandermark Michael Krassner Charles Kim Julie Pomerleau
Impressive, huh? The bulk of Chicago's avant garde scene alongside two of The Dirty Three. Not too shabby.
I've never heard better relaxing yet somber improvisational music.
Sonny Sharrock was a man of immense talent and vast creative vision, a sideman in the 60's, performing on Pharoah Sanders' Tauhib and more famously on Miles Davis' Tribute to Jack Johnson.
Sharrock's use of guitar was uncommon in the early years of free jazz. He would skronk out lines like a sax and was well-known for his use of feedback. In fact, he had wanted to play saxophone due to an obsession with John Coltrane but his asthma wouldn't allow. Many times you could hear him say, "I'm just a sax player with a fucked-up axe."
That "fucked-up axe" on this album re-introduced the guitarist to the world as a solo performer. It consists of a man, his guitar and a bunch of pedals on the floor in front of him, overdubbing to create his own distinct blending of jazz, blues, funk and heavy psychedelic. This type performance is commonplace in today's experimental music communities but remember that it was not in 1986.
If you feel this album, check out Ask the Ages, his record with Coltrane bandmates Pharoah Sanders and Elvin Jones, which is Sharrock's finest hour.
Clare Armory of Brooklyn avant-garde Noise / Experimental band Excepter has died at 35 after a nine year battle with cancer. she will be greatly missed.
"Kill People" from the album "Debt. Dept." gets stuck in my head often and was one of my favorite tracks from 2008.
Improvisational experimental Drone recordings are a dime a dozen these days and the validity is rarely substantial. I know because I've been in quite a few. The Canadian trio ARC comes at it with an authentically avant-garde sound and atmosphere. Aidan Baker (guitars, flutes, tapeloops), Richard Baker (drumkit and percussion) and Christopher Kukiel (percussion) perform psychedelic guitar Drone with a rhythmically tribal approach. "Arkhangelsk" consists of four lengthy compositions recorded in two sessions. The first was improvisation on drumset and guitar and the second was layered percussion, electronics, and flute. Both were in real-time single takes with a minimum of post-production so as to capture the spontaneity of the performances. Here, they brilliantly combine poly-rhythms and textures that I find currently unmatched. They've drawn comparison to Tribes of Neurot, and I would also add Schizotrope, San Augustin and Locrian.
