Assai diversa nelle premesse e negli esiti dalle collaborazioni a quattro mani intraprese negli ultimi anni per esempio con Jad Fair, Ariel Pink o Jason Falkner, quella di R. Stevie Moore con Alan Jenkins - che ha via via rilanciato per la sua Cordelia Records molti titoli di Moore - aggiunge un avvincente capitolo agli originalissimi cataloghi personali di entrambi: The Embodiment of Progressive Ideals.

http://www.cordeliarecords.co.uk
https://rsteviemooreandalanjenkins.bandcamp.com/releases
http://www.rsteviemoore.com/cd/embodiment.html

Il concerto di Eugene Chadbourne dello scorso 29 ottobre al Cafe Oto - una delle tappe di un tour particolarmente intenso anche per gli standard del Nostro, con oltre 33 concerti in sei diverse nazioni europee, Italia inclusa - è disponibile come file audio nella sezione Otoroku del club londinese:
https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/shop/eugene-chadbourne-291017

Un esteso ritratto di Holger Czukay, scomparso lo scorso settembre, attraverso la ricca produzione esterna al gruppo di cui fu co-fondatore, Can: Cinema, box prodotto in distinte versioni in cd e in vinile (più video) da Grönland Records.

Nella sua recensione per Pitchfork, Daniel Martin-McCormick si concentra su uno dei capolavori iniziali di Czukay, Boat-Woman-Song (su Canaxis, 1969): "Recorded in a single night in Stockhausen’s studio, after the composer had left—“We had a second key and went in and switched everything on,” recalled Czukay; “I prepared myself at night at home, so in four hours the whole thing was done”—that piece’s haunting cruise across the airwaves blends ominous orchestra music, “unknown traditional singers from Vietnam,” and expansive drones with a hypnotic magnetism. It’s one of the strongest pieces in Czukay’s catalogue, darkened by the long shadow of World War II. You can hear Czukay wrestling with anger and despair, invoking a fevered vision of global agony. The endless downwards march of European imperialism is epitomized by a simple, elegiac descending string figure that repeats throughout, itself slowly pitching down and receding into the shadows. Spectral cries pierce the gloom; reverberant echoes suggest abandoned industrial spaces. After an extended peak in the middle, the mix collapses in on itself with tragic inevitability. The music is so enveloping it’s easy to miss its astonishing prescience, but in this early outing Czukay is making connections that musicians are still unpacking today. If this isn’t a template for modern electronic music—the remix, the DJ set, sampling, and ambient music all find precursors here, as does club music’s fascination with lost futures, re-processed voices, the layering of found sounds, loop-based minimalism, and dystopian collapse—then what is?"

https://www.groenland.com/product/holger-czukay-cinema
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/holger-czukay-cinema

Il festival di arte radiofonica Radio Revolten tenuto nel 2016 ad Halle (Germania) produsse un impressionante numero di eventi nell'arco dell'intero mese di ottobre, inclusi concerti, laboratori, progetti e incontri collettivi molti dei quali trasmessi in diretta, in streaming, archiviati sul web o rilanciati da altre emittenti. Tra gli oltre settanta artisti e performer invitati c'erano Chris Cutler, Caroline Kraabel, Lukas Simonis, la Resonance Radio Orchestra, Alessandro Bosetti, Roberto Paci Dalò, Famoudou Don Moye, Hartmut Geerken, Felix Kubin, Ed Baxter e Xentos Fray Bentos. Il dibattito culturale, l'esperienza organizzativa e la cronaca di quei giorni si traducono oggi in un corposo volume per Spector Books: Radio Revolten-30 Days Of Radio Art.

The international radio art festival Radio Revolten is to published a book on its October 2016 edition held in Halle (Saale), Germany. Hosted by the community radio station Corax who transmitted over a dedicated city wide radio art frequency, the event gathered 100 contemporary radio artists and featured installations, live performances, conferences, workshops and public interventions. Edited by Knut Aufermann, Helen Hahmann, Sarah Washington and Ralf Wendt, the book, much like the event itself, sets to “reclaim FM radio as an open access medium for cultural use”, covering some of the festival artworks and events, and featuring articles (written in English) by Anna Friz, Hartmut Geerken, Lucinda Guy, Martin Hartung, Lukas Holfeld, Udo Israel, Tina Klatte, Michael Nicolai, Gregory Whitehead, Florian Wüst, and Elisabeth Zimmermann. It also includes specially commissioned colour photographs. It is released on Leipzig publishers Spector Books.

http://radiorevolten.net/en/category/archive/audio-archive
http://radiorevolten.net/en/de-crowdfunding-fuer-das-radio-revolten-buch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjrTaQQ3bjQ
https://www.startnext.com/radiorevolten
https://www.hibou-anemone-bear.com/revolten

Bravo Aymeric! Cerca che ti cerca...

"The ultimate Canterbury Scene Holy Grail? You thought you'd never get to ever hear it? Well, here it is - the final minute or so of Alan Gowen's Double Quartet piece, performed (on just two occasions) by Gilgamesh and Hatfield and the North as a single eight-piece beast, but never heard since 1973 (apart from the aptly titled Extract, of which versions by both Gilgamesh and Hatfield exist). Still holding hope that the other performance (in Leeds) may one day see the light of day as an archive release..."

https://www.facebook.com/100013972129086/videos/395830447559356

Tenemos Roads e Clocks and Clouds sono brani tra i più noti dei National Health, due autentici capolavori pubblicati rispettivamente nell'album di esordio (Affinity, 1978) e nell'antologia postuma Missing Pieces (Voiceprint, 1996). Dave Stewart iniziò a lavorarci ancora in epoca Hatfield, faticando più che con le musiche con i testi, che poi interpretò (magnificamente) Amanda Parsons. Gli originali dattiloscritti sono in mostra su FB:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.tenemosroads
https://www.facebook.com/photo.clocksandclouds

In attesa che venga ultimata - anche con il suo zampino - la versione in inglese del poderoso libro di Aymeric Leroy L’école de Canterbury (Le mot et le reste, 2016), Phil Howitt di Facelift ospita al suo blog le acute osservazioni di Marc Hadley, musicologo e musicista competente in materia, amico tra gli altri di Phil Miller e al suo fianco nelle sue penultime e ultime vicende musicali con il gruppo The Relatives. Del valore del lavoro di Leroy dice senz'altro: "This oeuvre will be the primary source for historical record and critical evaluations of the music in the decades to come. Perhaps its main achievement is to have provided a reliable set of musical biographies of the bands and artists set within a well-researched chronology. Those who love this music must offer Mr Leroy a vote of thanks - he has been the first to accomplish what would have been a daunting task for any musical author or musicologist". Il resto si legge in https://tinyurl.com/cshadley.

https://lemotetlereste.com/musiques/lecoledecanterbury

Una candida versione di Sea Song proposta senza remora alcuna da Joo e Jon, ovvero Two Little Woodpeckers. La suggerisce Svenn Sivertssen di Robert Wyatt and Stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nJ90kG0ve4
http://wyattandstuff.blogspot.com/2018/03/sea-song-cover.html

Chi oggi festeggia il quarantacinquesimo compleanno di Larks' Tongues In Aspic ritrova sul web le note di copertina scritte da Sid Smith in occasione della riedizione per il quarantesimo, e con esse la cronaca del topico momento in cui Fripp - impegnato in quegli stessi giorni alla produzione del secondo Matching Mole con un certo batterista - ebbe l'immensa idea di unirsi a due altri batteristi, Bill Bruford e Jamie Muir: "I suddenly thought ‘Well, Bill’s a lovely drummer but he’s perhaps a little too straight for some things... Then I thought of this nut Jamie Muir whom I’d just met, and I thought, well Jamie’s a great drummer but he’s not really straight enough for some of the things I’d like him to do. Now, while I was sitting in the bath... I suddenly had this vivid idea to use the two of them... and it seemed so right."

https://www.dgmlive.com/news/HappyLarksDay

Dopo le sapienti appropriazioni dei repertori di Soft Machine (Dedicated To You... But You Weren't Listening) e King Crimson (Crimson!) l'eccellente Delta Saxophone Quartet sfoglia il catalogo del Bowie del periodo berlinese - ma non solo - e se ne esce con un nuovo capolavoro: Bowie, Berlin & Beyond, fresco di stampa per l'etichetta FMR. Loro sono Graeme Blevins (soprano), Pete Whyman (contralto), Tim Holmes (tenore) e Chris Caldwell (baritono).

Scrive quest'ultimo nelle note di copertina: "This album is the result of the collective work of one saxophone quartet, two composers, an artist, and a sound designer.. all inspired by the iconic pop actor/artist/musician, David Bowie and what he continually pointed towards: the unknown. The Delta Saxophone Quartet was formed in 1984 and held its first rehearsals in SE London not far from Bowie’s Beckenham roots and his Experimental Arts Lab Project. The quartet has always looked to merge the boundaries of its sound world, often combining contemporary jazz, progressive rock and the avant-garde. A constant mission to surprise and experiment, looking to re-invent itself but being respectful to the ‘art form’, very much like Bowie.
This album is a ‘sonic’ and ‘ambient’ stroll through Bowie’s Berlin years and beyond. An Englishman’s ‘doffing the cap’ to the echoes of a European cultural history, a reflection on time past combined with the constant of moving forwards. A recognition of an innate sense of belonging but striving to be independent and creative too. This recording was made at a time when the U.K. has been polarised by Brexit and a breaking away from Europe. Hopefully when the political dust settles there will be a realisation that it’s our shared fragility and not short term power which unites everyone of us. Something David Bowie always knew."

http://www.deltasax.com/project.php?idp=4
https://www.facebook.com/DeltaSaxophoneQuartet
https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/DeltaSaxophoneQuartet

Tra i lavori di Mike Westbrook scritti per il cinema ci sono anche le musiche per accompagnare il film muto Moulin Rouge, opera del 1928 del regista tedesco Ewald André Dupont. Negli anni Novanta le affidò al Matrix Ensemble diretto da Robert Ziegler, che le propose in qualche occasione dal vivo e anche in televisione. Un frammento è ora su YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmS0N3BcBrQ

One of the most lavish British films of the silent era in both budget and scope, Moulin Rouge stars Jean Bradin, Eve Gray and Russian-German screen sensation Olga Tschechowa in the story of a young aristocrat driven to a suicide attempt after falling in love with a young dancer and her elegant, ravishingly beautiful mother. Set in and around the famous dance-halls of Paris, Moulin Rouge showcased British International Pictures' engagement of leading Continental film-makers during the late 1920s. The first British film directed by expressionist pioneer Ewald André Dupont, it also features Werner Brandes' stylish, distinctively European cinematography and art direction by Oscar winner Alfred Junge. Filmed at Elstree through the winter of 1927, it was originally trade-shown in March 1928 as a silent feature with live musical accompaniment.

https://archive.org/details/MoulinRouge1928OlgaTschechowaEveGrayJeanBradinGeorgesTreville

Un saluto all'inverno, magari con un Primitivo di Manduria: Richard Sinclair, e il profumo di Winter Wine.

https://www.facebook.com/richard.sinclair.9404/videos/1417147791723291

Mark Hewins ricorda l'esistenza di un progetto musicale e simil-letterario iniziato nel 1997 assieme a June Campbell-Cramer (la celebre Lady June), l'autobiografico Rebela, interrotto alla scomparsa della sua autrice due anni dopo e mai portato a compimento, nonostante negli anni si siano accumulati contributi e apporti di varia natura da parte di moltissimi protagonisti - oltre una quarantina, inclusi figli, nipoti, eredi ed ex - della scena canterburyana. In attesa di vederne un giorno la forma definitiva - e di meglio comprendere i ruoli dell'Artista Dai Baffi Rosa (Daevid Allen) e di Billibum (Robert Wyatt) - si trovano sul web, ma non da oggi, sparse indicazioni, bozze di testo, schizzi musicali e missaggi provvisori, questi ultimi soprattutto tramite Soundcloud.

Rebela is a mega musical project that Mark Hewins has been putting together since 1997. A collection of tunes, narration and aural 'dream sequences' based on Lady June's autobiographical book of prose poems of the same name. The list of guesting participants is beyond amazing, it's virtually a Canterbury scene who is who: Phil Miller, electric guitar, Pip Pyle, electronic box drums, Lol Coxhill, soprano saxophone, Galen Ayers, as young Rebela, Shyamal Maïtra, tuned percussion, Rick Biddulph, bass, Hugh Hopper, bass, Jim Dvorak, trumpet, Ken Hyder, percussion, Elton Dean, saxello, Andy Ward, drums, Gerry Fitzgerald, electric guitar, Pete Brown, percussion, Mike Howlett, bass, Daevid Allen, glissando guitar, Fred Theolonius Baker, fretless bass, Theo Travis, tenor sax, Graham Clark, violin, Keith Missile, bass, Gilli Smyth, space whisper and many, many more. All words and narration by Lady June. Music and production Mark Hewins (who is still working on it and adding more guest musicians, like Richard Sinclair recently). It'd be very nice to see this work available on a physical release someday, hopefully very soon.

https://soundcloud.com/markhewins/rebela
http://web.archive.org/web/musart.co.uk/org/ladyjune/playreb.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/musart.org/rebela/the_story.htm
https://www.charlesmarlow.com/blog/2016/05/13/celebrating-lady-june

Carole Bulewski debutta da romanziera con The Music Of The Cosmos (Kensington Gore Publishing, 2018), un racconto fantasy dalle tinte horror che flirta con lo psichedelico e il soprannaturale, muovendo dalla scena musicale della Swinging London alle turbolente vicende della Parigi sessantottina, incrociando nel contempo molti eroi della cosiddetta scuola di Canterbury e anzi tirandoli in ballo con nome e cognome direttamente nella trama. La titolazione dei capitoli è quasi una playlist, prendendo da Wilde Flowers (Memories), Soft Machine (Why Are We Sleeping?, Love Makes Sweet Music, Hope for Happiness, Plus Belle qu’une Poubelle, Feelin' Reelin' Squealin' e Moon in June), Kevin Ayers (Joy of a Toy) e Robert Wyatt (Sea Song e Rock Bottom). C'è un breve video promozionale su Vimeo e una festa per il lancio del libro in programma tra qualche giorno al club londinese The Others. L'autrice intanto confessa su FB fatiche, ansie, attese e insospettate coincidenze, e in merito all'ispirazione per il libro dichiara: "I was reading an interview by French director Claude Lelouch, who was recounting driving from Paris to the Cannes Film Festival in a rented car at the time of the events of May 1968, when the entire country was paralysed by a general strike. I had this first idea of a group of friends going through something similar. In my mind, something was always going to go wrong at some point during the journey, preferably in a remote part of the country, and there would obviously be a supernatural element to it. The group of friends rapidly transformed into a group of musicians, and I made the connection with the music of those times, which happens to be my music of choice: Soft Machine and the Canterbury Music. Or, as the friends who first introduced me to it call it: the Music of the Cosmos."

https://vimeo.com/258396341
https://www.facebook.com/CBulewski
https://www.facebook.com/events/1989654137964677
http://www.kensingtongorepublishing.com
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Cosmos-Carole-Bulewski

David John Taylor dedica agli scrittori sperimentali inglesi degli anni Sessanta uno speciale programma per BBC Radio 4, The Advance Guard of the Avant-garde, realizzato con tecniche radiofoniche poco ortodosse e affini alla poesia sonora spesso promossa da quegli autori. Cita Ann Quin, Bob Cobbing, Alan Burns, Christine Brooke-Rose e soprattutto Bryan Stanley Johnson, con il contributo tra gli altri di Jonathan Coe, biografo di Johnson (Like A Fiery Elephant) e curatore di alcune edizioni di sue opere (Well Done God): "He was certainly one of the best British prose stylists of the 1960s and on that subject I can do no better than quote the poet and novelist Adrian Mitchell's words from 1964: "Mr Johnson is a fine poet and he writes the prose of a fine poet. Every word is weighed for its rhythmic effect as well as for its sense and sound." It's good to remember, incidentally, that Johnson began his working life as a poet, one whose preferred mode was the confessional, and who would only allow himself one subject: "nothing else but what happens to me". It may have been a common enough view in poetic circles at the time, but Johnson was perhaps the only person to carry this aesthetic over into the novel."

In the 1960s a group of writers set about shaking up the polite conventions of the British realist tradition through a whole range of experimental approaches. Sound poets created some of the strangest programmes ever broadcast by the BBC, while the likes of BS Johnson cut holes in the pages of his novels - and in the case of his book The Unfortunates published the unbound chapters in a box for the reader to mix up and read in whatever order they wished. Johnson and similarly minded writers like Ann Quin, Bob Cobbing, Alan Burns and Christine Brooke-Rose were prominent in their day, appearing regularly on TV and radio programmes, but by now they've largely been forgotten.
Using some of the rich archive these writers left behind, D.J. Taylor sets out to tell their story, with the help of Johnson's biographer Jonathan Coe, editor of a new Ann Quin collection Jennifer Hodgson, novelist Eimear McBride and poetry critic Jeremy Noel Tod.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09tybwl
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jun/17/biography.samueljohnsonprize2005

Ferdinando Faraò e l'Artchipel Orchestra festeggiano in concerto il premio Top Jazz 2017 ottenuto quale migliore formazione dell'anno. E sfoggiano un bel po' del loro meglio: musiche di Hugh Hopper, Mike Westbrook, Lindsay Cooper, Django Bates, Gustav Holst, Yoko Kanno, con nuovi arrangiamenti mai proposti finora e i video di Fabio Volpi... Questa sera a Milano al teatro Fontana - luogo del loro debutto nel 2010 - alle 21.15. Auguri!

https://www.facebook.com/ArtchipelOrchestra
https://www.musicajazz.it/artchipel-orchestra-top-jazz-milano
https://www.facebook.com/ArtchipelOrchestra/videos/1939166802791778

Proseguono a buon ritmo le pubblicazioni presso il sito Phil Miller-The Legacy, anche grazie all'apporto di materiali forniti da appassionati e collezionisti, tanto che nel giro di poche settimane gli archivi si sono arricchiti notevolmente in ogni sezione. Da tener d'occhio in particolare quelle dedicate a discografia complessiva, concerti dal vivo, gallerie fotografiche e riprese video, suscettibili di più frequenti aggiornamenti.

https://philmillerthelegacy.com

Hugh Hopper, Phil Miller, Didier Malherbe, Patrice Meyer, Alex Maguire e Manuel Denizet - riuniti in un gruppo ad hoc denominato Canterbury Legends - ritratti durante le prove in preparazione di un concerto in ricordo di Jacky Barbier nel maggio 2007, e un omaggio fotografico ad Elton Dean montato nel 2006 sulle note di Psychic Warrior, brano di Alex Maguire con testo di Pip Pyle eseguito spesso dal vivo quell'anno dagli Hatfield and the North. Sono due brevi ma preziosi documenti d'epoca rispolverati da Aymeric Leroy e pubblicati poche settimane fa al suo spazio FB:
https://www.facebook.com/100013972129086/videos/343743916101343
https://www.facebook.com/100013972129086/videos/347170539092014

Alle produzioni dell'etichetta AltrOck, come a quelle di Soleil Zeuhl e di Cuneiform Records, hanno fatto speciale riferimento Kavus Torabi e Steve Davis in alcuni recenti episodi del loro The Interesting Alternative Show, in onda ogni lunedì sera per Phoenix FM. Si possono riascoltare sul web tramite Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/interestingalternative

https://interestingalternative/2018-02-19-soleil-zeuhl-special
https://interestingalternative/2018-02-12-altrock-special
https://interestingalternative/2018-01-29cuneiformpart2
https://interestingalternative/2018-01-22cuneiformpart1

E Petter Herbertsson di Testbild! si fa notare con eleganza anche nel nuovo Homunculus Res Della stessa sostanza dei sogni (AltrOck/MaRaCash, 2018), contribuendo a uno dei brani più belli, Rimedi ancestrali. L'album si pregia dell'apporto di molti altri ospiti, tra cui Dave Newhouse, Luciano Margorani, Tommaso e Lorenzo Leddi.

https://www.facebook.com/HomunculusRes
https://homunculusres.bandcamp.com/album/della-stessa-sostanza-dei-sogni

Dalle pagine di Bläck Charm Nostalgi Vassa Tänder a Stoccolma Petter Herbertsson di Testbild! accosta il fantastico mondo di Karda Estra e offre un'intervista con il suo ideatore, Richard Wileman: "Karda Estra is one of the most interesting contemporary artists I’ve come across in the last ten years or so. Often described as ‘cinematic’, or unfairly associated with the horrible neo prog scene, this music certainly does something to my head, conjure up dark images and shadowy worlds of dreamt up SF movies of the 70’s (and yes, that’s a good thing). I simply had to interview the mastermind Richard Wileman to find out more!"

http://www.kardaestra.co.uk
https://kardaestra.bandcamp.com
https://bcnvt.se/2018/03/03/karda-estra
https://www.facebook.com/richard.wileman.5
https://www.mixcloud.com/interestingalternative/richard-wileman-karda-estra-presents-the-interesting-cinematic-show

L'attesa di Stad, più e più volte annunciato, potrebbe essere ancora lunga - e non è rara cosa con gli svedesi Testbild! - ma la promessa almeno di un nuovo Sternpost entro l'anno è dolce, tanto quanto il suo primissimo assaggio: Anti-Clock.

https://www.facebook.com/Testbild-94350211151

In occasione della Giornata internazionale della donna è andato in onda ieri uno speciale episodio di Late Junction (BBC Radio 3) condotto da Verity Sharp e dedicato ai collettivi musicali di sole donne, con la partecipazione in studio di Maggie Nichols (fondatrice con Lindsay Cooper del Feminist Improvising Group, nel 1977), Verity Susman (già in Electrelane) e Amble Skuse (tuttora nell'Orchestra For Females And Laptops): lo si può riascoltare ancora per qualche giorno in https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09th2st

As part of BBC Radio 3's schedule marking International Women's Day, Verity Sharp celebrates the female musical collective in all its forms, styles, and structures. A special Late Junction collaboration session has been assembled for the occasion, featuring members of notable performance collectives past and present. Our unique, one-off trio features: Maggie Nichols, who co-founded the Feminist Improvising Group; Verity Susman, formerly of Electrelane; and Amble Skuse, a member of the Orchestra For Females And Laptops aka OFFAL. Tonight, hear the results of this historic, improvised musical meeting, as well as a roundtable conversation between participants on the history and future of the female collective.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/not-the-fish-bowl-but-the-sea

E' Granite il nuovo frutto dell'inesauribile vena creativa di Kate Westbrook, un composito brano dedicato all'enigmatica e leggendaria storia delle cave di granito e caolino dell'area di Dartmoor e Haytor, nel Devon (Regno Unito), a poche miglia da dove risiedono i Westbrook. Testi, storia e ispirazione sono di Kate mentre le musiche sono di Mike; interprete è un settetto direttamente scaturito dall'Uncommon Orchestra, con Roz Harding, Jesse Molins, Matt North, Billie Bottle e Coach York. Ci sarà un album pronto a tarda primavera e una prima presentazione dal vivo ad Ashburton, per il Dartmoor Resonance Music Festival, in coincidenza con il solstizio d'estate. Informazioni: http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/katewestbrook/granite.shtml

Un ritratto della celebre fotografa e scrittrice Val Wilmer, figura centrale nella storia sociale della cultura musicale afroamericana (ma non solo) fin dagli anni Sessanta, è nell'episodio di domenica scorsa di Sunday Feature, per BBC Radio 3, prodotto da A Falling Tree. Il suo storico testo As Serious As Your Life (1977) vede di nuovo la luce in questi giorni presso Serpent's Tail.

Jazz writer, social historian, acclaimed photographer: over six decades, Val Wilmer has become "a world figure in the history of African-American musical culture". What drives her? In 1956, Valerie Wilmer - aged 14 - took a snap at London Airport of a grinning Louis Armstrong. Thus began a remarkable career that has brought her close up to almost every significant figure in post-war jazz, blues and R&B. Her books, articles and photographs delve deep into the minds, lives and politics of jazz's most famous exponents - John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus - as well as countless unrecognised men and women who have shaped African-American culture since the 1950s. How does she reveal the intimate humanity of her subjects? How, "as a white woman, as an English woman!", has she gained such trust and respect? What makes her "a world figure" in the history of Black music?
Val Wilmer is a woman with remarkable stories to tell. Here, for BBC Radio 3, she brings her encounters and recollections vividly to life... and shares her strong views on racism, feminism, and responsible journalism. Includes contributions from Margaret Busby (publisher and co-founder of Allison & Busby), Paul Gilroy (writer and academic), Richard Williams (journalist and biographer), Andrew Cyrille (musician and drummer), and Clive Wilmer (poet, and brother of Val).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09tcdx9

http://thequietus.com/articles/24147-sun-ra-val-wilmer-as-serious-as-your-life-book-extract
https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/book-extracts/val-wilmer-as-serious-as-your-life

Raro incontro tra Evan Parker e Dave Holland con due concerti a completo sostegno delle attività dell'amatissimo club londinese The Vortex. E' accaduto venerdì scorso, 2 marzo, John Fordham ne ha scritto per The Guardian e Gus Iyouvid ne ha condiviso qualche bel momento su YT.

A fantastic opportunity to see two huge talents Dave Holland & Evan Parker close up in the intimate setting of the Vortex Jazz Club. Holland and Parker have been friends since first meeting in London in the 1960s. During that time they performed together frequently, often at The Little Theater Club, and played on the landmark recording Karyobin which has just been remixed and reissued on Emanem Records. Holland and Parker, along with Craig Taborn and Ches Smith, appear on a new recording Uncharted Territories, due for release in May 2018 on Dare2 Records.
Parker who has had a monthly residency at the club for a number of years described the Vortex as ‘my haven from the demands of the road… the Vortex is for me, a space to play “free jazz”. I cannot imagine life without it’. New York-based Holland has dropped into the club on a few occasions to take in the odd Evan Parker gig as well as to take in the unique Vortex vibe created by the musicians who perform here and volunteers who look after the place. Holland says ‘…the Vortex plays a vital role in the cultural life of London providing performance opportunities for both a UK and international community of musicians… its imaginative programming introduces new listening experiences to its audience’.

http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk/event/a-duet-with-dave-holland-evan-parker-fundraising-concert-for-the-vortex-jazz-club
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/06/dave-holland-evan-parker-review-vortex-london
https://tinyurl.com/gusiyouvid

La cancellazione dell'intero New Music Dublin Festival a causa del furioso maltempo ha certamente lasciato l'amaro in bocca anche agli affezionati di This Is Not This Heat, che vi dovevano comparire il 3 marzo. L'evento sarà probabilmente riproposto in altra data entro l'anno. Nel frattempo ci si consoli con un eroico 30 Minute Snare Drum Roll del solo Charles Hayward, su YT ce ne sono diverse versioni:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmbd_ecABHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTrNT47Ru9c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O24tDzJGjyM

Anche del passaggio di Tim Hodgkinson in Italia qualche settimana fa c'è traccia su YT, ovvero le riprese del concerto tenuto a Roma al B-Folk lo scorso 13 gennaio assieme a Gandolfo Pagano e Fabrizio Spera (con ospite Alberto Popolla). Nei giorni precedenti Tim aveva condotto a Napoli, negli spazi dell'ex Asilo Filangieri, un laboratorio su improvvisazione e sciamanesimo, poi sfociato in un concerto con i partecipanti ai lavori e ancora con Pagano e Spera: "In questo laboratorio applicheremo le tradizioni delle culture non-occidentali alla nostra condizione di musicisti contemporanei. Userò le mie esperienze in Siberia e ciò che ho imparato dagli sciamani siberiani. Metterò l’accento sull’atteggiamento di lavoro dell'individuo verso i suoi strumenti espressivi (strumento, voce, corpo), lo sviluppo della comprensione e della preparazione per questo processo, l’interazione nell’improvvisazione di gruppo in tempo reale, specificamente per quanto riguarda la decisione e la forma. Una serie di esercizi, seguiti da una discussione, ci condurrà verso una pratica collettiva e inoltre ci fornirà materiale per il lavoro individuale futuro."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5FmYHjoMeU
http://www.exasilofilangieri.it/laboratorio-improvvisazione-sciamanesimo
http://www.exasilofilangieri.it/geografie-del-suono-45

Tracce del recente passaggio in Europa di Fred Frith sono conservate su YT, con riprese dai concerti in solo a Skopje (Macedonia) e Ottensheim, nei pressi di Linz (Austria). C'è anche il lavoro condotto con la GIS Orchestra (Go for Improvised Sounds) all'Alter Schlachthof di Wels:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kivZMdCJ9Ok&t=1663s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40A-v95n80w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euJAbIPpBKg

E' anche tra gli archivi Reel Recordings del compianto Mike King - della cui scomparsa ricorre oggi il terzo anniversario - che hanno lasciato cospicua traccia la musica e lo spirito di Gerald Frazer Fitz-Gerald, scomparso anch'egli pochi giorni fa: i concerti di Radar Favourites dell'autunno 1974 (Radar Favourites, con Geoff Leigh, Cathy Williams, Jack Monk e Charles Hayward), i duetti con l'inseparabile Lol Coxhill (Echoes of Duneden), le pazze avventure di The Poppy Seed Affair (da solo, ancora con Lol, e anche Ian Hinchcliffe, Jeff Nutall, Archie Leggett e Robert Wyatt tra gli altri), i contatti ravvicinati con Kevin Ayers (What More Can I Say...). Oltre a questo, naturalmente, il Mouseproof delle origini e Brixton Winter 1976, bell'episodio di Guitar Solos 2. Per un ricordo più intimo e personale, avverte un'amica: "The funeral of Mr. G. F. Fitz-Gerald will take place at 12.45 on Tuesday 13/3/2018 at West Chapel, West London Crematorium, Kensal Green, Harrow Road, London W10 4RA. It will be a Humanist service, with a few short speeches, no flowers, no music - that's what Gerry wanted."

https://www.discogs.com/artist/596015-GF-Fitzgerald

Confront Recordings saluta la pubblicazione di un doppio cd di Derek Bailey & Company - Klinker, registrato nell'omonimo club londinese nell'agosto 2000 - con una speciale serata ('Three Presences') domani presso il Cafe Oto nel corso della quale il benamato chitarrista sarà evocato in tre diverse situazioni: la proiezione di un paio di filmati tratti da suoi concerti a Londra e Birmingham nel 2000 e 2001 finora mai mostrati in pubblico, l'esecuzione di un programma di suoi brani per sola chitarra affidato a Alex Ward e un dialogo virtuale tra performance dal vivo del trio IST (Rhodri Davies, Simon H. Fell e Mark Wastell) e sue registrazioni originali, con la palpabile presenza anche di Will Gaines. Ci sarà inoltre la prima esecuzione assoluta di With Apologies to G. Brecht, a cura dei quattro musicisti coinvolti. A proposito del brano, che risale alla metà degli anni Sessanta, dicono le note di sala: "This cryptic text score has an explicit relation to the work of George Brecht; during the late 1960s Bailey had played Brecht pieces with Gavin Bryars, John Tilbury, Evan Parker and others in the ‘Instelimp’ group, which preceded the Music Improvisation Company. (Bailey may also have had personal contact with Brecht, who lived in London from 1968 to 1971.) Whether Bailey’s piece is influenced by Fluxus or represents a reaction against the movement is a matter of debate; like many Fluxus scores the text is non-specific, and requires considerable input from the realising musician(s) – although it is also possible that the score that survives is actually incomplete. For this first performance Simon Fell has prepared a version which reflects the growing exclusiveness of Bailey’s commitment to improvisation at the end of the 60s."

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/confront-recordings-presents-derek-bailey
http://www.confrontrecordings.com/derek-bailey-company