Archive: November, 2006

church organ works

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

Osso Exotico / Church Organ Works
Sonoris / SON-03

Patricia Machas, David Maranha, Andre Maranha /organ), Bernardo Devlin / voice, one track only.

Osso Exocita appear to be a loose affiliation or collective of experimental music-makers, although the David and Andre Maranhas appear on all of their releases to date and Devlin and Machas on most of them. They’ve been recording since 1990, demonstrating at the very least the willingness of their members to play a variety of instruments. Here, they’re let loose on two church organs, and they turn in pleasingly distinctive and interesting performances.

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Standard Podcast [5:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

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signoise

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

Modisti / Signoise
CEDI / 8

Belma Martin / voice, wind objects, Pedro Lopez / objects, sampling, tapes

If, on the basis of the instrumentation, you expect one of those junk-noise collages which so often don’t work, you’re in for a big surprise. Although on paper Modisti are a duet of live object-sampling and voice, in reality their pieces are carefully constructed. Lopez may play “objects intended for the trash”, but he has no interest in the dull banging about which usually emerges from such an approach.

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major wood

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

One King Poets / Major Wood
Fragile Noise / CD99FN50

Mike Walter / saxophones, Paul Shearsmith / trumpet, trombone, Giles Perring / electric guitar, Jerry Bird / bass, Robin Musgrove / drums

It would be tempting to say, in that journalistic cliche, that the One King Poets are a controlled musical explosion.Mining an unfashionable vein of groove-based, electrified improvisation, they invite comparison with 70s Miles, Mahavishnu and, at times, Last Exit. But such comparisons can be lazy and, as Richard Sanderson points out in his sleeve notes, they’re also unhelpful to all concerned, as journalistic cliches often are. Anyway, the OKP aren’t polite enough to control themselves — they just explode.

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music by phill niblock / paul panhuysen

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

Music by Phill Niblock
xi records / Experimental Intermedia Foundation / XI111

Soldier String Quartet, Eberhard Blum / bass flute, Susan Stenger / flute

Paul Panhuysen / Partitas for Long Strings
xi records / Experimental Intermedia Foundation / XI122

Paul Panhuysen / long strings

Minimalism lives… or something like minimalism, anyway, although these two discs find it much transformed from the minimalist strategies with which we think we’re coolly familiar. Out go the iterative processes (there wasn’t really anywhere to go with them) and the hammering arpeggios (they never sounded much good anyway); in come long, slow-moving forms or un-forms or ur-forms. Niblock and Panhuysen, of course, approach their huge blocks of sound in entirely different ways.

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living alive

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

Stefano Maltese / Living Alive
Leo / CDLR265

Stefano Maltese / reeds, Arkady Shilkloper / French horn, flugelhorn/bugle, Sophia Dominacich / piano, Paul Rogers / bass, Antonio Moncada / percussion, Gioconda Cilio / voice, percussion

Maltese is something of an outsider in Italian jazz, though it’s hard to see why from this set of strong originals. It would be easy to give the impression that he’s a bits-and-pieces player — lambent, dark-toned lyricism, Tchicai-like ostinati, a melodic sense which can swing between early Garbarek and Evan Parker. Then suddenly he’s reminding you of Dolphy; a player you could wear out your hyphen button with. But that would imply that these different facets aren’t unified in a single musical vision. Well, they are. Everything he does makes perfect sense, from the serpentine melodies to the bass clarinet croaks and fragile soprano flutters.

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the juillaguet collection

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

Kent Carter and Albrecht Maurer / The Juillaguet Collection
Emanem / 4033

Kent Carter / bass, Albrecht Maurer / violin

There can be something really refreshing about all-strings improvisation, especially when it’s as good, and as accessible, as this. No harsh noise-techniques for Carter and Maurer here; these are pieces about notes, pieces which recall early twentieth-century composers like Hindemith, Bartok and Kodaly, pieces full of sweeping harmonies, exquisite dissonances which seem somehow hollow and folkish. This writer has commented before on a phenomenon in free improvisation — especially in the US — of looking back to a time before Webern and Boulez, a retrieval of the late Romantic music which those composers themselves grew out of. Well, this is another example, from three years ago, and played by musicians who have quite possibly been doing this sort of thing for much longer. So much for trend-spotting.

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ping pong

Wednesday, November 29th, 2006

Vincenzo Mazzone / Ping Pong
Leo Lab / CD056

Vincenzo Mazzone / percussion, Antonio Di Lorenzo / percussion, Lello Patruno / percussion, Giuseppe Tria / percussion, Giuseppe Berardi / percussion, Maurizio De Robertis / percussion, Ivan Mancinelli / percussion, Domenico De Palma / percussion, Simone Salvatorelli / percussion, Daniele Patumi / bass, Carlo Actis Dato / reeds, Giorgio Occhipinti / piano, Sandro Satta / alto sax, Pino Minafra / trumpet, Lauro Rossi / trombone

A bit of an oddment, I suppose — 20 minutes of music for nine percussionists, fifteen in the company of the famous Sud Ensemble, and the remaining twelve solo. The common link is Mazzone, not just by his presence at the trap set or kettle drums but also as composer and arranger.

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offline adventures

Wednesday, November 29th, 2006

Not Missing Drums Project / Offline Adventures
Leo Lab / CD057

Margarete Huber / voice, Magreth Kammerer / voice, Alex Nowitz / voice, Wolfgang Ritthof / voice, Enrst-Ludwig Petrowsky / reeds, Joachim Gies / reeds, Jurgen Kupke / clarinet, Rudi Mahall / bass clarinet, Elisabeth Bohm-Christl / bassoon, double bassoon, Axel Dorner / trumpet, Thomas Wiedermann / trombone, Aleks Kolkowski / violin, Wolfram Korr / violin, Thomas Bohm-Christl / cello, Gesine Conrad / cello, Matthias Bauer / bass, voice, Gerold Genssler / bass, Hartwig Nickola / bass, Bardo Hennig / piano, Andrea Neumann / piano

The previous release by this group (1998, also on Leo Lab) featured a somewhat smaller lineup but the same musicians on every track. This disc, emphasising the fluid membership of NMDP, combines the personnel listed above in anything from a duet to several nonets. As before, the group mixes up contemporary classical sounds with jazz, and here the latter element is very much to the fore. The unusual instrumentation means this is slightly odd-sounding jazz, rather like the music Stravinsky composed under that name, but jazz it most certainly is.

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