Anton Kolosov & Konstantin Sukhan - Koko (2016)

Anton Kolosov & Konstantin Sukhan - "Koko" (ТОПОТ, 2016)

Personnel:
Anton Kolosov - bass-guitar 

Konstantin Sukhan - trumpet

Tracklisting:
01 - Koko

02 - Soko

“Koko” is the result of a thorough research carried out by Anton Kolosov (electric bass) and Konstantin Sukhan (trumpet).

One short set of two pieces, “Koko” and “Soko”, is constructed from wide range of materials, including definite noise, post-academic improvisation, faint breaths or sniffs by Sukhan and an almost ritual drone by Kolosov.

“Koko” is firmly grounded on a post-jazz tension: musicians play simultaneously, but not together, and after a burst of emotions we hear silence, and chaotic roaming in one musician's thoughts is followed by a heated argument by two. This music is tangible and real, it's repulsive and beautiful.

“Koko” means “here” in Japanese, while “Soko” means “there”. Both pieces recorded at the Ground Khodynka Gallery are indeed the whole set with a short break for an applause. Two-hundred pages' novel about a bird (according the cover) with a gloomy storyline, long prelude here and an open end there.

Live at Ground Khodynka Gallery, Moscow.
21/02/2016

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Weasel Walter Large Ensemble - Igneity: After The Fall Of Civilization (2016)

Weasel Walter Large Ensemble - Igneity: After The Fall Of Civilization (Self-released, 2016)

Personnel:

Weasel Walter: drums
Henry Kaiser: guitar
Alan Licht: guitar
Chris Welcome: guitar
Peter Evans: trumpet
Steve Swell: trombone
Dan Peck: tuba
Jim Sauter: saxophone
Michael Foster: saxophones
Chris Pitsiokos: saxophone
Matt Nelson: saxophone
Tim Dahl: double bass
Brandon Lopez: double bass

Tracklisting:
01 - Igneity (Theme)
02 - Igneity (Variations)

‘Igneity’ was composed in response to Henry Kaiser asking me if I would assemble a big band, rather than a small group, for us to play a concert with in New York. I had previously included him in the large ensembles I had led when I lived in Oakland, California. However, I had not yet tackled the format in New York City. There is certainly no shortage of excellent players around here, but unlike the Bay Area, logistics tend to be somewhat more complicated, especially when it comes to rehearsal. As such, I set about devising an hour long structure which would allow me to control the general momentum and the various densities inherent in the orchestration while granting the individuals maximum freedom.

Recorded at JACK, Brooklyn, NY on April 22, 2015 by Weasel Walter.
Mastered by Henry Kaiser.

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Roswell Rudd, Jamie Saft, Trevor Dunn, Balázs Pándi - Strength & Power (2016)

Roswell Rudd, Jamie Saft, Trevor Dunn, Balázs Pándi - Strength & Power (RareNoise, 2016)

Personnel:
Roswell Rudd: trombone

Jamie Saft: piano

Trevor Dunn: acoustic bass

Balázs Pándi: drums

Tracklisting:
01 - Strength & Power
02 - Cobalt Is Divine
03 - The Bedroom
04 - Luminescent
05 - Dunn's Falls
06 - Struttin' For Jah Jah

Buckle up. This is one wild ride that cares not for your apprehension, concerns, expectations, or fears. Pianist Jamie Saft and two of his regular collaborators — bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Balazs Pandi — got together with trombone icon Roswell Rudd to get down to the art of music making with nothing but their senses to guide them. It was an improvised session in its purest form — no charts, no sketches, and no preconceived notions about where things should or shouldn't go. These men simply used intuition, receptiveness, attentiveness, and a willingness to let go as the key to open the doors to the outer limits of possibility.

Anybody familiar with these names shouldn't be surprised by the fact that there's brazen blowing, jabbing bass, slamming drums, and pummeled piano a plenty here. These four don't dance around an idea or wax hesitantly with their instruments. They take the plunge, head first, with no regrets. But that's not to say there's no thought in their actions. These musicians have far too much experience to simply turn up and tune out. You can hear that in they way they gently build and explore a radiant world ("Luminescent"), you can spot it when they flip focus to Dunn during a lengthy journey ("Cobalt Is Divine"), and, believe it or not, you can even get a glimpse of it when they chip away at cacophony at the conclusion of a shambolic and heady boxing match ("The Bedroom"). It's everything you could expect from a set of musicians known to be open to dialogue and new thought(s) yet strong-willed in their actions.

For some, Rudd will be the main draw here. He breathes a lifetime of experience through his horn, evident in his tribal chatter ("Dunn's Falls"), his beautiful peculiarities ("Luminescent"), his explorations in an avant-NOLA atmosphere ("Struttin' For Jah Jah"), and his unrestrained use of force. For others, the brash trio of Saft, Dunn, and Pandi will make the sale. And for a third group — the truly curious — the inter-generational action may be the attraction. All of that is well and good, but the selling point is of less concern than the art itself—a powerful blend of untethered and unbelievably exciting music. Strength and power indeed. [Allaboutjazz]

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Larry Ochs - The Fictive Five (2015)

Larry Ochs - The Fictive Five (Tzadik, 2015)

Personnel:
Larry Ochs: tenor & sopranino saxophones
Nate Wooley: trumpet
Ken Filiano: bass, effects
Pascal Niggenkemper: bass, prepared bass
Harris Eisenstadt: drums

Tracklisting:
01 - Similitude (for Wim Wenders)
02 - A Marked Refraction
03 - By Any Other Name (for William Kentridge)
04 -Translucent (for Kelly Reichardt)

I couldn't agree more with Larry Ochs' statement that "if you're looking to understand music, one is approaching it the wrong way", because it is the experience that counts, the total impact of the sound on your own biochemistry, including such bodily reactions as emotion, spiritual delight or goose bumps.

On this phenomenal album, the saxophonist assembled a New York band consisting of Ken Filiano and Pascal Niggenkemper on bass, Nate Wooley on trumpet and Harris Eisenstadt on drums, at the occasion of Ochs' curatorship at The Stone in New York, and these musicians, under Ochs' leadership create that unique experience that escapes rational disection and analysis.

The approach taken here is to create musical imagery, scenic moments that are partly composed, and mostly improvised, as if you can see the music in your mind's eye, and these are mostly abstract landscapes with changing and shifting horizons and colors, with a strong horizontal feeling of flux as the unpredictable sounds move the listener forward on this journey.

The album consists of four tracks, three of which are dedicated to visual artists - Wim Wenders, William Kentridge, Kelly Reichardt - in the same tradition as Steve Lacy, and it are the movies or visual installations by these artists that act as inspiration for the music, even if it is not made to accompany these movies.

One of the most striking features of the sound are the two basses, who lay a great sonic foundation for the music, not rhythmically, but in terms of the overall color of the pieces, acting in concert, or alternately, challenging each other or reinforcing the sound. Yet the entire band is stellar, five musicians who live in their most natural habitat of free flowing sounds, joining the short themes that pop up once in a while, then take off again on different paths but in the same direction.

It's the way I like music, beautifully free, sensitive and deep. [FreeJazzBlog]

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Hidden Forces Trio - Crows Are Council (2014)

Hidden Forces Trio - Crows Are Council (Knockturne Records, 2014)

Personnel:
Gustavo Domínguez: bass clarinet, clarinet & didgeridoo 

Marco Serrato: double bass 

Borja Díaz: drums

Tracklisting:
01 - Invocation / Crows are council

02 - Chalybs

03 - El ejecutor

04 - Thimble Capp

05 - Gĉod

06 - Tender Fisting Blues

Gustavo Domínguez (clarinets), Marco Serrato (double bass) and Borja Díaz (drums) are back. Crows are Council (Knockturne Records / Clamshell Records 2014) is their second record, an album where all their different experiences (from heavy metal to symphonic music, from street standards to free experimentation) collides connecting within themselves for then to start all over again. Because, in order to preserve something, it is necessary to go forward in circles but always looking backwards. Abstract searching (“Gĉod”) or unbridled rage (“Crows are Council”) always go hand in hand with keynotes and the right tempo (“Thimble Capp”, “Chalybs”), even if they are not to be played. A record co-released by Knockturne Records and Clamshell which makes it clear that there is life beyond Orthodox, and where improvisation and structured dark chaos are created mixing elements from free jazz instrumentation with extractions from heavy metal and contemporary music.

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Hidden Forces Trio - Topus (2013)

Hidden Forces Trio - Topus (Bruce's Fingers, 2013)

Personnel:
Gustavo Domínguez: clarinet, bass clarinet 

Marco Serrato: double bass 

Borja Díaz: drums

Tracklisting:
01 - Custodia de Canaán

02 - Topus

03 - El hijo secreto, no el bastardo

04 - Porque no llueve, los santos peregrinarán de espaldas

05 - Panza de azufre

06 - Las colinas

07 - La novia del chivo

I sat down to listen to this disc with some trepidation. The Bruce’s Fingers’ June update had described the musicians, from Seville, Spain, as also having “parallel existences in the world of heavy rock, doom metal, gothcore [or whatever the appropriate term is]”. Matters weren’t helped by the painting on the cover – a dental nightmare – or some of the track titles: El hijo secreto, no el bastardo (the secret son, not the bastard) and Panza de azufre (sulphur belly). I was expecting music full of adolescent angst, but it turned out to be rather different. As the adage has it: never judge a book by its cover. 

Gustavo Domínguez (clarinet, bass clarinet), Marco Serrato (double bass) and Borja Díaz (drums), play composed and improvised music. The composed material has a folkish touch, wistful and plangent. After an initial free jazz flurry, the title track is a faintly Moorish melody, over loping bass, which gradually descends into the lower registers, as the bowed bass and bass clarinet explore a darker version of the theme. 

In Porque no llueve, los santos peregrinarán de espaldas (because it doesn’t rain, the saints return to the pilgrimage) an attractive melody is first played gently on bass, repeated on clarinet, and then in outline on drums (but for rather too long). The remainder of the piece is thoughtful – but at times borders on the soporific – and I would have liked to have heard playing with rather more concision, and a touch more gusto. 

On the whole, the improvised material is rather disappointing. El hijo secreto, no el bastardo runs out of steam with an over long and rather aimless drum solo, unreprieved by accompaniment from the bass and later, clarinet. Las colinas (the hills) is somewhat diffuse, and lacking in character. There are some interesting textures, but it sounds a little like improvising by numbers. 

The trio seems to gel in the final track – La novia del chivo (the kid’s girlfriend) – rolling drums and pulsing bass with rather more brio in the clarinet, but it’s short-lived, as the piece comes to a premature close after two minutes. Curious. 

Something of a mixed bag, therefore. Over the album, rather too much of Domínguez’s work on clarinet consists of scalar-like runs and arpeggios, but often not a great deal more. I can’t help but feel that the trio simply needs to play together more, and take a more critical view of its material. Maybe some angst would help. [FreeJazzBlog]

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Svenska Kaputt - Suomi (2015)

Svenska Kaputt - Suomi (Moserobie, 2015)

Personnel:
Jonas Kullhammar: saxophones
Reine Fiske: guitar
Torbjörn Zetterberg: bass
Jonas Holmegard: drums

Tracklisting:
01 - Mellantillstånd

02 - Paroni 

03 - Nötskalsmusik #1 

04 - Veesaltonen 

05 - Gårdagens Visa\Keijsaren

A brilliant musical project from the Moserobie jazz underground of Sweden – one that brings together four completely wonderful players, but in ways that are very different than most of their work in other settings! The sound here is very open and spacious – not in a mellow way, or an ECM mode – but instead this really introspective approach to the properties of the musicians' individual instruments – almost as if they're using this project as a way to thoughtfully explore things from different sonic angles, sometimes with a surprisingly sensitive vibe. Yet there's also some nice currents of darkness in the music – things are definitely never too sweet – and surprises include some piano from both Jonas Kullhammar and Torbjorn Zetterberg – alongside Zetterberg's more familiar bass (both electric and acoustic), and Kullhamar's music on tenor, flute, baritone, and oboe. Guitarist Reine Fiske also plays piano on one track – and guitar on the others – and the group also features drums from Johan Holmegard. [Dusty Groove]

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