Reviews
Peter Brötzmann. Solo + Trio Roma. This two-CD set chronicles Brötzmann’s solo and Trio Roma concerts at 2011’s FIMAV on the approach of his seventieth birthday, a momentous occasion for an artist whose work combines titanic stamina and anarchic expressionism. The solo concert might stage[...] Read more
Anthony Braxton and Buell Neidlinger. 2 By 2. Braxton and Neidlinger’s 2 By 2 is a resurrected set from 1989, recorded live at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, which explains the sparse but polite applause, which is tentative, at times, at the end of solos. Braxton and Neidlinger convey a sense of urgency; they have[...] Read more
Pierre Bastien. Entomology, Dyane Donck–Daisy Bell, Proverbs of Hell. Machinefabriek, 15/15. Worm Records has released three limited-edition, twelve-inch vinyl albums of their Soundpiece Project. In 2011 Lukas Simonis, music curator of the Dutch alternative art space Worm invited three composers—Rutger Zuyderveld, a.k.a. Machinefabriek, Dyane Donck, and Pierre Bastien—to[...] Read more
Colin Stetson and Mats Gustafsson. Stones Stones showcases Gustafsson doing one of the things he does best: locking horns with another saxophonist. It also sees Stetson plunging into the loosest, freest material he’s yet committed to disc. This is, in fact, a recording of the pair’s very first meeting, at the Vancouver[...] Read more
CONTACT Contemporary Music: INTERsection. Toronto, Ontario. September 1–2 2012. Billed as a Top 20 Billboard of Contemporary Music, CONTACT Contemporary Music’s INTERsection New Music Festival rang in its sixth year on September 1. Held in part at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square, the festival ran for two days and featured as headliners the Bang on a Can All-[...] Read more
Kay Larson. Where The Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists. How very different the Western art world might have been—the structure of ideas, certainly, but also the structure of emotions, the hierarchy of belief—without the arrival in New York City in 1950 of a Japanese man who was “barely over five feet tall, and almost invariably[...] Read more
ReR Megacorp. If there were ever an ironic name for a record label, it is ReR Megacorp. The label originally consisted of two separate operations: Re Records and Recommended records. These labels were set up in 1978 by the English avant-rock group Art Bears (formerly Henry Cow) and drummer Chris Cutler,[...] Read more
Tin Hat. The Rain Is a Handsome Animal. The Rain Is a Handsome Animal is the first Tin Hat album to feature founding member and violinist Carla Kihlstedt as a singer. The seventeen tracks on this CD are settings of poems by E. E. Cummings. Although all four members have contributed compositions to this collection, the music carries[...] Read more
Shackle. Shackle Stick and Shackle Multiplayer Music Game. Dutch duo Shackle has just released their USB music stick, which impresses with its high production values and design, typical of mainstream artists—Lady Gaga, for example, has produced USBs including video, music, and other enriched media. The Shackle Stick features audio and video of[...] Read more
Pharaoh Sanders. In The Beginning: 1963–1964. This four-CD set features unreleased recordings of tenor horn player Pharaoh Sanders as he plays sets with Paul Bley and Don Cherry, plus two sets of Sanders with Sun Ra at Judson Hall, December 30 and New Year’s Eve, 1964. Also included in this set are recorded interviews with the[...] Read more
Pauline Oliveros’ Eightieth Birthday Releases Pauline Oliveros. Reverberations: Tape & Electronic Music 1961–1970. Important Records IMPREC352. Pauline Oliveros. Primordial / Lift.Taiga Records 22. Deep Listening Band. Octagonal Polyphony. Important Records IMPREC358. Deep Listening Band. Great Howl at Town[...] Read more
Joe Morris Quartet. Graffiti in Two Parts. Graffiti in Two Parts documents an exceptional moment in improvised music—a one-time performance by a loosely assembled band in 1985. In 1981 Boston guitarist Joe Morris met Lowell Davidson, an elusive figure in the history of free jazz, who had recorded a single CD as a pianist for the[...] Read more
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