The Squid's Ear
Recently @ Squidco:

Joe Maneri / Tyson Rogers / Jacob Braverman:
In The Shadow, First Visit (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Capturing a multidimensional dialogue through breathy microtones, atonal piano fragments, and ambiguous percussion, Joe Maneri on sax and clarinet, Tyson Rogers on piano, and Jacob Braverman on drums craft abstract improvisations exploring the delicate interplay of shadow and light, revealing emotional nuances and identity in richly layered, spontaneous constructions of impressive expressive intensity. ... Click to View


Christopher Kunz / Florian Fischer:
Die Unwucht, Disperation And Focus First Visit (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

German saxophonist Christopher Kunz and drummer Florian Fischer capture the essence of German forests in their outdoor recording, titled to translate as 'The Unbalance, Desperation and Focus,' where sauntering saxophone and dynamic drums blend with environmental sounds to evoke a profound intimacy, growing with each listen and inviting deep engagement with nature's wild and humane aspects. ... Click to View


Joe Henderson / Kenny Dorham / Andrew Hill / McCoy Tyner:
Our Thing to In ’N Out Revisited (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Joe Henderson, alongside Kenny Dorham and Andrew Hill, revisits the essence of the 'New Thing' in jazz with the remasters and reissues of Our Thing to In 'N Out, showcasing mastery of both conservative and adventurous impulses through a sly blend of inside and outside tactics, marked by intricate solos and dynamic group interplay that highlight the evolving soundscape of early 60s Blue Note recordings. ... Click to View


Zero Point (Rick Countryman / German Bringas / Itzam Cano / Gabriel Lauber):
Determinism (FMR)

An exciting meeting of free improvisers featuring saxophonists Rick Countryman and Germán Bringas — whose synesthetic explorations have defined Mexico City's free jazz underground since the '90s with his band Zero Point — updated here with bassist Itzam Cano and drummer Gabriel Lauber, Countryman joining while in Mexico City for this fiercely interactive 2022 session of profound sonic reflections. ... Click to View


Udo Schindler / Erhard Hirt / Ove Volquartz:
Shifting Types of Amazement (FMR)

A compelling live performance from Munich's Waldkirche Planegg uniting Udo Schindler's inventive bass clarinets, Erhard Hirt's textural guitar and computer interactions, and Ove Volquartz's resonant low reeds, weaving a rich tapestry of spontaneous, intricately layered improvisations infused with subtle electronic nuances. ... Click to View


Hemphill Stringtet, The :
Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out Of Your Head Records)

Celebrating the profound compositional legacy of Julius Hemphill through inventive string adaptations of his saxophone quartet and sextet works, violinists Curtis Stewart and Sam Bardfeld, violist Stephanie Griffin, and cellist Tomeka Reid channel Abdul Wadud's expressive spirit, transforming Hemphill's blues-inflected jazz into vividly textured chamber improvisations with lyrical intensity. ... Click to View


Adam O'Farrill :
For These Streets (Out Of Your Head Records)

Brooklyn trumpeter Adam O'Farrill leads a superb octet — Mary Halvorson (guitar), Patricia Brennan (vibes), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), and others — through dramatically inventive compositions inspired by the literature and arts of the 1930s, balancing angular rhythmic intensity, rich melodic lyricism, and expressive improvisational depth with adventurous sophistication. ... Click to View


Laura Cocks:
FATHM [VINYL] (Out Of Your Head Records)

Flutist and TAK Ensemble member Laura Cocks crafts an intimate, breath-driven solo work that blurs sound and silence, guiding listeners through fragmented melodies, hushed textures, and resonant pauses, offering a deeply personal and poetic meditation on presence, absence, and the physicality of listening. ... Click to View


Ernesto Rodrigues / Nuno Torres / Guilherme Rodrigues:
Whispers In The Moonlight - In Seven Movements [2CDs] (Creative Sources)

Capturing a richly nuanced sonic journey across seven improvised movements from concerts in Berlin, Köln, and Munich, this 2-CD set from the Portuguese trio of Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Guilherme Rodrigues (cello), and Nuno Torres (alto sax) presents a masterful exploration of intricate textures, hushed atmospherics, and lyrical interplay, woven into a vivid tapestry of contemporary European free improvisation. ... Click to View


Simulacrum:
Mecanique Analytique (Evil Clown)

An intricate electro-acoustic exploration from David Peck's Simulacrum sextet — featuring expansive horn and reed textures, a robust three-member electronics section, and eclectic percussion — in a sonically adventurous live session at Evil Clown Headquarters, resulting in vibrant improvisations blending organic timbres with dynamic electronic atmospheres. ... Click to View


Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio:
Dream A Dream (Libra)

Pianist Satoko Fujii's Tokyo Trio, featuring bassist Takashi Sugawa and drummer Ittetsu Takemura, expertly balances structured compositions with intuitive improvisation on their third album, recorded in Paris after touring the material across Japan and Europe, exploring shifting moods and intricate interplay through richly lyrical piano lines, subtle rhythmic dialogue, and inventive collective expression. ... Click to View


Paul Dunmalll (Dunmall / Sanders / Bellatalla / Adams):
Jazz Suite Outcome Of Choice (FMR)

Recorded at Birmingham's Custard Factory in 1999, tenor saxophonist Paul Dunmall leads drummer Mark Sanders, bassist Roberto Bellatalla, and guitarist John Adams through a set of Dunmall compositions, delivering lyrically expressive free jazz improvisations that blend dynamic interaction with inventive melodic exploration. ... Click to View


Transcendence (Bob Gluck / Christopher Dean Sullivan / Karl Latham):
Music Of Pat Metheny (FMR)

Inspired by the compositions of Pat Metheny, the Transcendence trio of pianist Bob Gluck, bassist Christopher Dean Sullivan, and drummer Karl Latham blends intent listening and explorative improvisational mastery into an expressive and dynamic performance, recorded in parallel with Gluck's book Pat Metheny: Stories Beyond Words in a heart-felt and sincere tribute to the guitarist's work. ... Click to View


Frode Gjerstad:
Stavanger 9 9 2024 (FMR)

A live 2024 performance at Spor 5 in Stavanger, Norway, uniting saxophonist Frode Gjerstad with pianist Margaux Oswald and drummer Ivar Myrset Asheim in an engaging set of collective free improvisation marked by dynamic interplay, impressive dialog from reserved introspection to expansive kinetic energy across shifting textures and intensities. ... Click to View


Ackerley / Prymek / Turner:
All Hope With Sleeping Minds [CASSETTE] (Full Spectrum)

Born from remote exchanges between Jessica Ackerley (guitar, voice, synth), Nick Turner (guitar, mellotron, synth), and Chaz Prymek (guitar, lap steel), this debut album emerges as an evocative imaginary soundtrack, blending improvisational noise with Americana-inflected ambience in an expansive meditation on post-apocalyptic contemplation. ... Click to View


David Myers Lee :
Tin Drop Tear [BOOK w/ DOWNLOAD] (pulsewidth)

Experimental composer and feedback artist David Lee Myers (Arcane Device) ventures into literary territory with a limited-edition book of fifty "Plunder-Lit" poetic pieces, complemented by fifteen spoken-word audio readings set to experimental soundscapes, evoking Tristan Tzara's work, William S. Burroughs' cutups, and the sensibilities of Captain Beefheart. ... Click to View


Leap Of Faith:
Decoding the Evolution of Meaning (Evil Clown)

Boston-based improvisational ensemble Leap of Faith, led by multi-instrumentalist David Peck (PEK) and cellist Glynis Lomon, presents a drummerless seven-piece configuration recorded live at Evil Clown Headquarters, navigating expansive free improvisation with horns, strings, electronics, and unconventional percussion in an explorative chamber-like performance of subtle dynamics and spontaneous interplay ... Click to View


Zilmrah:
Hallucinatory X-Ray Visions (Love Earth Music)

The debut full-length from Lawry Romani's noise/drone project Zilmrah blends manipulated samples, modular synths, and handcrafted electroacoustic instruments into intriguingly distorted yet spacious soundscapes, balancing hypnotic rhythms with dadaist absurdity and dense sonic experimentation in a captivating journey of cut-up electronics and immersive drones. ... Click to View


Peter Brotzmann / Heather Leigh:
Ears Are Filled With Wonder (Not Two)

Brotzmann continued to surprise in eclectic pairings, here pitting his tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, tarogato, and clarinet against Heather Leigh's pedal steel guitar, recorded during a tour of Poland where the two paused from big bands, trios, quartets, and duos to record this gem. ... Click to View


Joe Fonda Quartet (w/ Wadada Leo Smith / Satoko Fujii / Tizano Tononi):
Eyes On The Horizon (Long Song Records)

NY Bassist-composer Joe Fonda leads an exceptional quartet featuring trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, pianist Satoko Fujii, and drummer Tiziano Tononi in a profound tribute to his mentor Smith, skillfully blending compositional clarity with collective improvisation in a deeply resonant and lyrically intricate musical conversation that reflects inspiration, respect, and artistic integrity. ... Click to View


Giovanni Maier / Alexander Hawkins:
Two For Keith (Long Song Records)

Recorded live in the studio in Trieste, Italy, bassist Giovanni Maier and pianist Alexander Hawkins deliver a deeply expressive and adventurous duo session dedicated to the late, great Keith Tippett, weaving spontaneous improvisations and dynamic interplay in a heartfelt homage that reflects Tippett's profound influence and creative spirit. ... Click to View


Ernesto Rodrigues / Carlos Santos / Miguel Mira:
The Knowledge That Our Time Is Limited Can Inspire Us (Creative Sources)

Recorded live during the 2024 Creative Sources Cycle, violist Ernesto Rodrigues, cellist Miguel Mira, and analog synthesist Carlos Santos deliver a nuanced and exploratory collective improvisation, drawing on Rodrigues's delicate textural approach, Mira's lyrical sensitivity, and Santos's ethereal synth interactions, evoking an urgent reflection on the fleeting nature of time. ... Click to View


Der Vierte Zustand:
Layers (Creative Sources)

The Cologne-based free improvising trio Der Vierte Zustand — vocalist Hanna Schörken, guitarist Christina Zurhausen, and drummer Ramon Keck — om a compelling blend of experimental soundscapes, noise rock influences, and free jazz energy, driven by Schörken's acrobatic wordless vocals, Zurhausen's effects-laden guitar textures, and Keck's dynamic rhythms. ... Click to View


Udo Schindler / Sandy Ewen / Damon Smith:
Munich Sound Studies Vols. 4, 5 & 6 [3 CDs] (Balance Point Acoustics)

An expansive 3-CD document recorded live across three Munich venues in May 2023, featuring Udo Schindler (clarinets, saxophones, brass), Sandy Ewen (electric guitar), and Damon Smith (double bass), each session enhanced by collaborators Karina Erhard, Jaap Blonk, and Sebastiano Tramontana, in an inventive series of improvisations of dynamic interplay and innovative sonic experiments. ... Click to View


Thanos Chrysakis :
Psyche (Eternal Music Projects)

Exploring the depths and boundaries of the psyche through seven compelling electroacoustic compositions, Greek composer Thanos Chrysakis delivers a deeply psychedelic, mysterious, and immersive sonic journey, masterfully blending electronic textures and acousmatic elements that resonate within the listener's consciousness, psyche, and imagination — a vivid reflection on complex inner landscapes. ... Click to View


Luke Martin:
To Be Worthy of Pessoa (Editions Verde)

Drawing inspiration from Fernando Pessoa's "The Book of Disquiet," composer Luke Martin leads the ensemble Ordinary Affects — Morgan Evans-Weiler & Francesca Caruso (violin), Jordan Dykstra (viola), Laura Cetilia (cello), J.P.A. Falzone (vibes) and Luke Damrosch (farfisa organ) — through two introspective, quietly evolving compositions of minimalistic beauty creating thoughtful sonic dialogues. ... Click to View


Turbulence Orchestra & Sub-Units:
Smear Out the Difficulties (Double Live) [2 CDs] (Evil Clown)

Bringing together a powerful 20-member ensemble, Turbulence Orchestra — led by David Peck and featuring Bonnie Kane, John Loggia, Glynis Lomon, and a diverse array of improvisers — unleashes an expansive and dynamic improvisational journey, combining dense textures, radical instrumentation, and structured spontaneity through novel conducting techniques for a set of unique sonic narratives. ... Click to View


God Pussy:
Rudimentar Desejo De Liberdade (Love Earth Music)

Brazilian noise artist Jhones Silva, aka God Pussy, delivers a brutal, uncompromising conglomerate of harsh electronic textures, abstract noise, and aggressive sonic distortion, employing pedals, synths, radios & noise generators in an intense DIY exploration of social chaos, urban corruption, and humanity's unfulfilled desire for freedom through confrontational electroacoustic compositions. ... Click to View


Simon Nabatov / Mark Helias / Tom Rainey:
Assamblage (Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

A far-ranging transatlantic trio session from pianist Simon Nabatov, bassist Mark Helias, and drummer Tom Rainey, capturing a dynamic fusion of composed and collective free jazz, as Nabatov's intricate compositions burst with frenetic energy, shifting between exuberant rhythmic interplay, explosive improvisation, and richly textured sonic landscapes in an electrifying set of performances. ... Click to View


Harri Sjostrom:
SoundScapes #4 Festival Berlin 2023 [3 CDs] (Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

A remarkable live document of Finnish saxophonist Harri Sjöström's SoundScapes #4 festival in Berlin, bringing together 19 extraordinary musicians from across Europe, Australia, and the U.S. for a series of improvised performances from intimate duos to expansive octets, highlighting spontaneous collaborations all driven by creative risk-taking, deep listening, and a profound sense of musical trust. ... Click to View



  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!



The Squid's Ear
Facebook: Squidco Sales

Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Keith Rowe and John Tilbury 
  Duos for Doris  
  (Erstwhile) 

   review by Nate Dorward
  2003-09-16
Keith Rowe and John Tilbury: Duos for Doris (Erstwhile)

Duos for Doris features guitarist Keith Rowe and pianist John Tilbury, two-thirds of the current AMM lineup, but in place of AMM's layers of thick description (an approach nicely summed up by the title of their album Laminal), these duets offer a scrupulous thinness. Rowe describes this as a "music of zero" in his session notes (posted on Erstwhile's website): "A music that might be nothing in itself but juxtaposed to another: together transformed." This process takes place as much in the listener as in the music itself. Brian Olewnick, who was present at the recording session, contributed a notable early review of the disc for the online journal Bagatellen, one characterized by a vigorous, often violent imagery and diction that convey the impression of a disc characterized by furious activity. And yet my first impression on hearing it was closer to "OK, so where's the music?": one wouldn't easily divine from his review that the presiding dynamic level is on a finely- graded scale from p to pppp, with a few momentous exceptions. Yet his review is not therefore inaccurate: the lamination of the musical experience comes not so much in the performance itself as in relistening. For a visual analogy, think of a piece of mica, whose individual layers are each brittle, translucent and almost colorless: it is only as layer is added to layer that the mineral gains character and substance. What is at first almost not there is gradually materialized as it is successively folded back on itself. If Olewnick's review has something of the princess and the pea about it, this is only because in this music, the pea actually becomes more sensible with each additional layer of mediation.

Mediating layers have been piling on at an alarming rate: the disc comes with a mountain of backstory, and continues to touch off further narratives even after its release. It took Erstwhile's Jon Abbey two yearsof coaxing and organizing to arrange the recording session, originally scheduled as a two-day session in January 2003, at the auditorium in Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France, where AMM's Fine was recorded. These plans were disrupted by the death of Tilbury's mother Doris at the age of 95, three days before recording was to take place. Wishing to fulfill his commitment, Tilbury agreed to come for an abbreviated, one-day session. The disc is dedicated to his mother's memory; these personal circumstances are reflected in the fugitive and shadowed nature of the music. Another layer of circumstance was added by the fearful political moment, as Bush's America and Blair's England entered the last frenzied stage of threats and self-justification preparatory to the assault on Iraq. The disc has since become further entangled in issues of political dissent because of l'affaire Tilbury at The Wire. (An article by Olewnick discussing both Tilbury's music and his decision to cease performing in the USA, as a response to the vicious imperialism of the Bush regime, had much of its political content removed by The Wire's editors. Tilbury's subsequent angry letter to the editor touched off further discussion in the journal's pages and elsewhere.)

The album contains three tracks, arranged in descending order of length over two CDs: "Cathnor" (70 minutes), "Olaf" (45) and "Oxleay" (17). The dramatically decreasing lengths are symbolic of the music itself, which so often gives the impression that it is steadily receding. Spread across these discs are some of the most extended, nuanced and lingering decrescendos ever recorded, the last of them running from a point halfway through "Olaf" right to the end of "Oxleay." "Cathnor" recedes, rather than builds, to a climax: there's a false alarm early on - two or three sharply-struck notes from the piano around the 20-minute mark - but from this point the tide instead begins to withdraw, with incredible slowness. Rowe's menacing encroaching crackle thins out and then thins out again, into an ultrafine hiss, and Tilbury finds less and less occasion to intrude; by the 39-minute mark there's barely anything left at all, beyond Rowe's little shapeless tufts of string-noise - the sound of someone waiting, not impatiently but watchfully. Now, after three- quarters of an hour, the piece's violent catharsis arrives: its open expressiveness, however frightening, is also a relief compared to what precedes it. It comes with a resolving minor-key coda from the pianist; here Rowe's bowed guitar is so traditionally elegaic it's virtually a substitute for a cello part.

Though it too has several punctuating events and one sharply-jutting peak just before the halfway point, "Olaf"'s overall sound is shaped by Tilbury's use of preparation to turn the piano strings into tuned percussion (unlike most prepared-piano specialists, he mutes rather than augments strings: he seems comparatively uninterested in wilder sounds like buzzes and rattles). What is left when the music's tide recedes are long passages where morse-code messages are softly tapped out back and forth inside the piano. It is with infinite slowness - the process takes up the entire second half of the piece, in fact - that these coalesce into a final, anguished statement from the (now untreated) piano.

"Oxleay" is a continuation of the preceding track in mood and in dynamic, with Rowe marking the evolutionary stages by gradually stepping down the background hiss (at this stage he's barely touching his guitar). The pianist's hard-won expressiveness is diffused in homeopathic stages, diluted and then diluted again as it approaches a condition of stillness. At the end comes a small surprise: in the final seconds, when you expect a clean tapering-off or a cosmetic fade-out, the music actually gathers a little force toitself, enough so that the track's ending seems a trifle abrupt.

It's easy enough to end a review with a glib "Recommended," but this is hardly a disc amenable to such bubble-packaging, for all the elegance of its presentation. Traces of the tedious figure of the agonized Romantic artist give me pause in Rowe's liner notes - the heroics of the claim that "failure beckons"; Tilbury's citation of Clifford Curzon's "People do not know the cost of a phrase," with its mandarin adversion on "people" and its apparent implication that the (personal) cost of a phrase must necessarily be high. In this vein one could complain about an excess of momentousness in the music. I might have mounted that critique at one point; listening to the album again, I'm surer that this is a misjudgment. But I'm not certain: and, come to think of it, I'd better go put it on the stereo now for another listen....





Comments and Feedback:



The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Frode Gjerstad:
Stavanger
9 9 2024
(FMR)



Paul Dunmalll (
Dunmall /
Sanders /
Bellatalla /
Adams):
Jazz Suite
Outcome Of Choice
(FMR)



Transcendence (
Bob Gluck /
Christopher Dean Sullivan /
Karl Latham):
Music Of
Pat Metheny
(FMR)



Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio:
Dream A Dream
(Libra)



David Myers Lee:
Tin Drop Tear
[BOOK w/
DOWNLOAD]
(pulsewidth)



Joe Fonda Quartet (
w/ Wadda Leo Smith /
Satoko Fujii /
Tizano Tononi):
Eyes On
The Horizon
(Long Song Records)



Giovanni Maier /
Alexander Hawkins:
Two For Keith
(Long Song Records)



Udo Schindler /
Sandy Ewen /
Damon Smith:
Munich Sound Studies
Vols. 4, 5 & 6
[3 CDs]
(Balance Point Acoustics)



Ivo Perelman /
Tyshawn Sorey:
Paralell Aesthetics
[2 CDs]
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Simon Nabatov /
Mark Helias /
Tom Rainey:
Assamblage
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Harri Sjostrom:
SoundScapes #4
Festival Berlin 2023
[3 CDs]
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Chris Jonas /
David Forlano /
Gregg Koyle:
Trio
(Creative Sources)



Fred Loisel /
Philippe Lenglet /
Christian Vasseur:
Priced And Cheap (
Two Graphic Scores)
(Creative Sources)



Tristan Honsinger &
The House Of Wasps:
Noisy Sadness
(Creative Sources)



Isotope Ensemble:
Caesium
(Creative Sources)



Modelbau:
1x33.3
(Love Earth Music)



Cecil Taylor:
Air Above Mountains
(ENJA RECORDS)



Rick Reger:
Textures & Tonalities
for Analogue Synthesizers &
Percussion
(Aural Terrains)



Carlos Zingaro /
Carlos Bechegas /
Ernesto Rodrigues:
Spleen
(Creative Sources)



Teodora Stepancic:
A O | F G
(Another Timbre)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (27067)