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Reflecting their evolution as a trio, Swiss drummer Christian Bucher, Filipino bassist Simon Tan, and American alto saxophonist Rick Countryman present a powerful statement of collective freedom, with the album title capturing their progression as a cohesive and expressive unit, highlighted by Bucher's rhythmic mastery, Tan's solid foundation, and Countryman's soulful, dynamic lead. ... Click to View


Bucher / Countryman:
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Continuing their long-standing collaboration, American alto saxophonist Ricky Countryman, based in the Philippines, and Swiss drummer Christian Bucher explore space and time through fourteen succinct improvisations recorded at Strawberry Jams studio in Quezon City, blending pensive moments with dynamic interplay in a compelling journey of evolving musical dialogue. ... Click to View


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A superb and extended live performance from 1980 at NYC's Fat Tuesday jazz club, from the outstanding sextet of forward-thinking free improvisers, Jimmy Lyons on alto sax, Ramsey Ameen on violin, Alan Silva on double bass & cello, Jerome Cooper on drums & African Balaphone and Sunny Murray on drums, led by Cecil Taylor on piano in an ecstatic concert never previously released. ... Click to View


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Transforming 200 years of war data — including defense spending, casualties, nuclear stockpiles, and peace — into a compelling sonic narrative, blending raw data with expressive improvisation as pianist Dan Banks, drummer Trevor Taylor, and bassist Jose Canha perform powerful and evocative improvised explorations while recording at Toucan Tango Studios in Hornchurch, UK. ... Click to View


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Recorded across two live sessions in Munich, Ephemeral Locations expands Udo Schindler and Paul Rogers' LowToneStudies with the addition of drummer Eric Zwang Eriksson on several tracks, blending Schindler's mastery of bass reed instruments, Rogers' unique 7-string double bass, and Eriksson's dynamic percussion in a captivating exploration of deep tonal textures and spontaneous improv. ... Click to View


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Abdou / Gouband / Warelis:
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With a thoughtful approach to collective improvisation, saxophonist Sakina Abdou, pianist Marta Warelis, and percussionist Toma Gouband weave free music into a 60-minute arc of intimate, acoustic interplay, exploring collective themes like a torn canvas of echoes and fragments, where each gesture binds, stretches, and celebrates stories woven from ash and memory. ... Click to View


Michael Attias (Attias / Leibson / Pavolka / Ferber / Hoffman):
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Anna Gadt / Marta Grzywacz / Natalia Kordiak / Gosia Zagajewska:
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Recorded at Przeswit in Warsaw, Poland, Voiceact brings together Polish vocalists Anna Gadt, Natalia Kordiak, Marta Grzywacz, and Gosia Zagajewska in an avant exploration of the art of the voice, blending ancient music, contemporary classics, and folk influences across eleven improvised pieces that showcase a captivating range of vocal styles and possibilities. ... Click to View


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Marilyn Crispell / Harvey Sorgen:
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Gray / Alessi / Augustin:
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Brooklyn-Berlin-based drummer and composer Devin Gray in the second volume of his hopefully named project in an evocative trio recording with trumpeter Ralph Alessi and pianist Myslaure Augustin, blending energetic and introspective moments in politically charged compositions that reflect Gray's inventive approach to modern jazz and his concerns for global democracy. ... Click to View


Reut Regev's R*Time:
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Israeli trombonist Reut Regev and drummer Igal Foni join with legendary American composer and percussionist Doug Hammond, blending Hammond's reflective compositions and six-decade legacy — spanning blues, jazz, M-Base, and modernist works — with the boundary-pushing energy of the R*time quartet, for an engaging fusion of bold improvisation and musical insight. ... Click to View


Innovative Landscapes Laboratory:
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Ukrainian composer Taras Opanasiuk explores spontaneous soundscapes, blending free improvisation with a meticulous compositional process as he transforms modular synthesizer sessions into five compelling sound collages that balance atmospheric electronics, musique concrète, and studio layering, in an imaginative and introspective journey through Opanasiuk's unique sonic palette. ... Click to View


Abcess Grenk:
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Marc Myers, recording in Lincoln, Nebraska, is the creative force behind Abcess Grenk, merging analog electronics and experimental guitar in Erguss Von Licht, as a blend of synthesizers, modular synths, a Fender guitar, and a '69 Fender Deluxe Reverb amp, for richly layered and textured improvisations steeped in a DIY aesthetic that reflects Myers' decades-long evolution in sound exploration. ... Click to View


Svobodni III (Bennington / Hunger / Seyler / Thatcher / Jennings):
The Return To Catalhoyiik (ThatSwan!)

For their third album, Chicago-based Svobodni — co-led by synthesist Phil Hunger and drummer Jimmy Bennington — create an evocative narrative inspired by ancient civilizations, blending layers of Stockhausen- and Kraftwerk-influenced electronics, intimate saxophone, grounded bass grooves, and searching percussion for a rich electroacoustic improvisational work that defies genre. ... Click to View


Dunmall / Noble / Edwards / Sanders :
Disappearing Worlds (FMR)

Recorded live at Bristol Music Rooms in March 2024, this hard-hitting modern jazz session brings together Paul Dunmall (tenor & sopranino saxophones), Liam Noble (piano), John Edwards (bass), and Mark Sanders (drums & percussion) two fiery and exploratory conversations that blend free improvisation with structural cohesiveness, a thrilling and boundary-pushing session. ... Click to View



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  Kim Cascone 
  Music For Dagger And Guitar  
  (Aural Terrains) 


  
   review by Max Schaefer
  2009-01-27
Kim Cascone: Music For Dagger And Guitar (Aural Terrains)

A glut of interests ferment in the face of the complex of conflicts and fiery magnetism of Music For Dagger and Guitar, an audio-adventure that dwells on a plane penned by Asger Jorn in his radical reconstruction of philosophy and aesthetics, Luck and Chance (Dagger and Guitar). In the spirit of that book, the album’s body is concerned with play and renewal. To that end, Kim Cascone injects chance into the rule and laws into disorder. The slick operation of studio buttons brings about moments of rapid-fire metamorphoses and tonal variation that disturbs the entrancing sodium-lit sounds of nature, while, in yet other places, it is the fluidity and relaxation of the introspective plod of nature that tears the cool lapping phrases and resonant rounded tones away from themselves and turns the work into something more intrusive, agitated and squally. Even though the elements thus know a certain duality in their roles, and though in turn the work changes often, it nevertheless seems the same throughout its duration. Despite the awkward switches in direction, then, the recording sounds whole and complete.

Also owing to this duality, there is a sort of confusion in the stylistic references, which has the effect of reducing their importance, and making this more a matter of sensibility. Both the novelty and the banality of these cacophonous forests and cavernous spaces of sonic bacteria and warm thrums feel almost shockingly intimate and alive, inciting one to respond in a personal way. Cascone states that this is not a travelogue, an exploration of inner space, nor a work that makes a statement or serves any purpose whatsoever. True to this layout, the work does build a certain resistance to the aforementioned. At the same time, its confrontational nature makes these statements sound like challenges, to see whether the disc lives up to them and, if so, what such a music ultimately sounds like.



Kim Cascone: Music For Dagger And Guitar
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