03 settembre 2025

In ricordo della moglie Ann, scomparsa sei anni fa, David Garland ha cercato e trovato conforto nelle emozionanti indagini sonore di Verdancy e Vulneraries, condotte e condivise con il figlio Kenji nel corso di un doloroso processo di elaborazione personale. Ora si sente pronto a riprendere la parola, e lo fa in un album dove ritrova la forma canzone a lui più cara: The Spark.

"What is there to say after your partner dies? In my case I had a lot to express, but words weren’t always the best language. I made instrumental music, I made photographs of sunlight. I grieved, I existed, I took care of my cats. And, tricky thing, I stayed alive and had new experiences. My wife Anne died (cancer) six years ago, and that’s a significant period of time. Enough time to learn to walk and talk, if you started as a baby. For me, it was enough time to start dating, which may be more challenging than walking and talking. Songs have always been a special place for me to talk about stuff, because they can address, express, and imply so many things at once. Ideally a song creates a poetic situation in which meanings bounce off one another, accumulating in a reverberence that coheres to the listener’s contours. A couple months ago these songs rather suddenly happened."

https://davidgarland.com/music

02 settembre 2025


In ricordo del caro amico e collega Guy Klucevsek (1947-2025), e registrato in studio nei giorni che di pochissimo ne hanno preceduto la morte, Elliott Sharp e William Schimmel pubblicano per zOaR The World Is A Pleated Bellows, loro terzo capitolo insieme: "We might not understand why something we’ve played is tragic or funny but in this world there was no problem recognizing that it was indeed tragic or funny."

The latest collaboration from the duo of accordionist William Schimmel and multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp. Of Schimmel, Tom Waits once said: "He doesn't play the accordion, he IS the accordion." Sharp's polymathic talents stretch from composing to improvising to instrument building. The two make gnarly music, engaging but simultaneously bending or breaking the rules.

https://williamschimmelelliottsharp.bandcamp.com

01 settembre 2025

In ricordo del grande Sven-Åke Johansson (1943-2025) il londinese Cafe Oto pubblica in digitale e in doppio cd per la propria etichetta, Otoroku, il resoconto di due speciali serate ideate e organizzate dal Nostro ad aprile dello scorso anno con la partecipazione di Pierre Borel, Seymour Wright e Joel Grip: Two Days at Cafe Oto.

When asked to play at Oto last year, Johansson proposed two nights with four musicians half his age - alto saxophonist Seymour Wright, his fellow [Ahmed] member and double bassist Joel Grip, and French alto saxophonist Pierre Borel. Grip and Borel both played alongside Johansson in Stumps; Wright had previously recorded a trio with Johansson and Grip almost a year earlier in Johansson’s Berlin studio - due to be released later in the year via We Jazz as The Jazzy Stork. A quartet of two saxophones, bass and drums sounds like jazz, but all four players perpetually reach outside of the genre for inspiration.

Sven-Åke Johansson was a man of intention with a touch of melodrama and it kept his music from drying out. Amidst the great volume of German Free Music in the 1970s, Johannson's first solo LP Schlingerland (1972) swishes cymbal and snare, tom and hi-hat, sometimes almost imperceptibly. Skin, metal, plastic and wood, always in a tank of developer; quite melodic, beautifully concentrated. Fifty years on, Borel, Grip and Wright continue this gradual investigation of music and there are no better collaborators for Johannson. All three can shred jazz into its microparts, can swing, can groove and shriek. Over Two Days at Cafe Oto, buoyed by Johannason’s light touch, a sort of minimalist bebop emerges - the last track dividing and multiplying melodic fragments until its motifs print the inside of your skull. It’s totally luxury music - full freedom, full commitment. If it doesn't hit the first time, you’re sure to come back for it. We’re blessed it was recorded and grateful to have shared in this music. Thank you, Sven-Åke Johansson.

http://www.sven-akejohansson.com
https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/sven-ake-johansson-two-day-residency
https://youtu.be/8qjc38tdAVo
https://otoroku.bandcamp.com/two-days-at-cafe-oto