Le parole di Val Wilmer e i ritratti di Guy Le Querrec insieme per un omaggio a Sun Ra nel venticinquesimo anniversario della scomparsa, il 30 maggio 1993: Touching on All Places of Music.

https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/music/guy-le-querrec-anniversary-sun-ra-death

Altro dischetto che lancia a sua volta bagliori in cielo giapponese, in attesa di raggiungere presto il nostro, è il documento in dvd del RIO Japan 2014, contenente ampie porzioni dei dieci concerti tenuti a ritmo serrato a Tokyo il 15 e 16 novembre di quattro anni fa. Protagonisti in quell'occasione furono alcuni iniziatori storici ed eredi attuali del Rock in Opposition internazionale: Aranis, The Artaud Beats, Happy Family, Koenji Hyakkei, Mats-Morgan Band, Picchio dal Pozzo, Richard Pinhas, Present, Le * Silo e SOLA-Lars Hollmer's Global Home Project.

https://tinyurl.com/y8ljg96k
https://tinyurl.com/yabhtjol

Un misterioso dischetto volante lancia bagliori in tratti di cielo giapponese: diffonde un'estesa versione inedita di un brano di Dave Sinclair, That Day - in origine sull'album Into the Sun, del 2003 - con l'arrangiamento orchestrale di Neil Saunders, Sinclair alle tastiere, la voce di Robert Wyatt e il flauto di Jimmy Hastings. Chi l'ha visto?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ddx5UT0VwAIHlO4.jpg

Una mostra dal titolo Boyle Family: Nothing is More Radical than the Facts è in corso al centro d'arte Henie Onstad Kunstsenter di Høvikodden, presso Oslo, con una selezione di opere varie realizzate da Mark Boyle (1934-2005) e dai componenti della sua artistica famiglia, la moglie Joan Hills - sua partner anche nel celebre Sensual Laboratory, in piena epoca psichedelica - e i figli Sebastian e Georgia. Uno spazio speciale con sistema immersivo è dedicato alle proiezioni che Boyle allestì per il light show del concerto tenuto dai Soft Machine presso il Centro d'arte nel febbraio 1971, successivamente analizzato e immortalato in un preziosissimo documento che il compianto Michael King produsse per la sua Reel Recordings. L'esposizione è aperta fino al 2 settembre; l'ha già potuta visitare Svenn Sivertssen di Robert Wyatt and Stuff, che da lì è uscito con un gradito souvenir: https://youtu.be/gLjUBArzd8w

Henie Onstad's close ties with Boyle and family began in 1967 at the Youth Biennale in Paris, where Director Ole Henrik Moe was in the jury awarding Mark Boyle a prize. In the coming years Henie Onstad bought several works and became a workstation for many of the Boyle Family´s various projects. February 27 and 28 in 1971, the British jazz rock band Soft Machine was booked to play a concert at Høvikodden in conjunction with the opening of an exhibition with Mark Boyle's reliefs. As part of the concert in Studio, Mark Boyle and Joan Hills created visuals and the event is still regarded as a highlight in Henie Onstad's cross artistic history. In the exhibition Boyle Family: Nothing is more radical than the facts, Henie Onstad presents the restored and mastered original sound recordings from the Soft Machine concert in 1971, and the original 16mm films Beyond Image and Son of Beyond Image that were used in the light show.

Henie Onstad Kunstsenter
Sonja Henies vei 31
1311 Høvikodden
post@hok.no

http://hok.no/en/event/the-boyle-family
http://hok.no/en/event/boyle-family-og-soft-machine
http://www.boylefamily.co.uk
http://wyattandstuff.blogspot.com/2018/05/nothing-is-more-radical-than-facts.html

Uno speciale omaggio a Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016) è in programma oggi al Cafe Oto londinese nell'arco dell'intera giornata, con due distinti concerti e un laboratorio di ascolto profondo: sono coinvolti tra gli altri Rhodri Davies, Phil Durrant, Mark Wastell, Viv Corringham, The Vocal Constructivists e componenti dell'ensemble Contakt.

Pauline Oliveros was an American composer and accordionist. She was a central figure in the development of experimental and post-war electronic music. She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Centre in the 1960s, and served as its director. She taught music at Mills College, the University of California San Diego, Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Oliveros authored books, formulated new music theories, and investigated new ways to focus attention on music including her concepts of "deep listening" and "sonic awareness”. In 1988, as a result of descending 14 feet into an underground cistern to make a recording, Oliveros coined the term "deep listening”, a pun that has blossomed into an aesthetic based upon principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation. This aesthetic is designed to inspire both trained and untrained performers to practice the art of listening and responding to environmental conditions in solo and ensemble situations.

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/a-tribute-to-pauline-oliveros

Un approfondito e appassionato studio sulla vita e le opere di Keith Rowe condotto per oltre dodici anni dallo scrittore e artista visivo Brian Olewnick diventa un corposo volume per la newyorkese powerHouse Books: Keith Rowe: The Room Extended.

In London, in the fall of 1965, a group of four musicians dissatisfied with the constrictions they had encountered in the British jazz scene, came together with a highly thought-out agenda to revolutionize the way music was created, rejecting rules firmly in place then (and still today) among even the most forward-looking of musicians: no repertoire, no solos, no regular rhythms, no melodies, no fear of silence, 100% improvised. Keith Rowe was one of the founding members. They called themselves AMM and soon added the composer Cornelius Cardew, an associate of John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, who was seeking to escape what he thought were equivalent strictures in the avant-garde classical world. As a quintet, AMM created music unlike anything else being done at the time and, being immersed in the London scene of the mid-60s in which musical boundaries were amorphous, found themselves on the one hand sharing bills with nascent bands like Pink Floyd, The Who and Cream while on the other working with and alongside Yoko Ono and Christian Wolff.
Rowe, a guitarist trained as a painter, adapted to his guitar the lessons he’d learned in the visual arts, placing it flat on a table or the ground as Jackson Pollock had done with his canvases, using it as a sound source to be approached with all manner of implements, opening up a vast new territory of exploration, one which would be enormously influential in rock, contemporary classical, and the field of free improvisation.

http://www.powerhousebooks.com/books/keith-rowe-the-room-extended

Presso la svizzera Hat Hut si possono già sbirciare i contenuti dell'imminente nuovo album di Mike Westbrook Starcross Bridge, previsto per fine estate, più o meno quando anche la tedesca Enja svelerà quel che del Nostro tiene in serbo. Nel frattempo l'omaggio a Lou Gare sta conquistando i cuori, non ultimo quello di Richard Williams, che ne scrive presso The Blue Moment: "There was a special magic about Lou Gare’s saxophone playing, as many people rediscovered when going back to his slender discography on hearing of his death towards the end of last year, at the age of 78. Now Mike Westbrook, in whose bands Gare played in the 1960s and again in recent years, has done us an enormous favour by assembling and releasing a CD containing nine examples of his mature playing in latter-day concert and club performances with the Uncommon Orchestra."

http://www.hathut.com/hatology-754
http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/mikewestbrook/lou_cd.shtml
https://thebluemoment.com/2018/05/22/lou-gare-a-souvenir

Franco Fabbri e Mirko Puglisi presentano questa sera in forma di prova aperta Radio Sessantotto (Una radio che non esisteva) a Milano presso La Casa di Alex. In programma musiche di Stormy Six, Enzo Jannacci, Paolo Conte, Paolo Pietrangeli, Léo Ferré, Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Bob Dylan, David Bowie e altri. Radio3 Suite ne ospita in queste settimane una estesa versione radiofonica in quattro puntate.

"Radio Sessantotto: una radio che non esisteva. Quante volte abbiamo pensato: “Ah, le canzoni degli anni Sessanta: belle, semplici, trascinanti. Se avessimo oggi delle canzoni così!” E il sottinteso è che se qualcuno fosse ancora capace di farne, di canzoni come quelle, il mondo sarebbe diverso. Fausto Amodei, uno dei primi e più fecondi cantanti e autori politici italiani, scriveva in una sua canzone del 1960, a proposito della chitarra che gli era stata rubata: “... era alle volte estremista, e la sua grande ambizione era di accompagnare la musica della rivoluzione.” Sì, molti – non solo la chitarra “rapita” di Amodei – hanno avuto quell’ambizione. Ma forse le cose non stanno proprio in quel modo. Ce ne siamo accorti lavorando sulle canzoni del 1968, stabilendo innanzitutto il principio di scegliere canzoni che fossero in vita in quell’anno, o poco prima, o poco dopo, escludendo quindi di disperderci nel decennio del “lungo Sessantotto”. Abbiamo poi pensato di lavorare su canzoni appartenenti a generi diversi e a diverse culture, includendo non solo canzoni politiche e inni di piazza, ma anche la produzione pop-rock, i cantautori, la chanson à texte. Ci siamo immaginati un contenitore “impossibile”, contro la realtà storica, una radio che nel 1968 trasmettesse tutte quelle cose, una in fila all’altra: perché allora le radio di Stato non avrebbero mai trasmesso le canzoni politiche, e le stazioni pirata (che diffondevano il pop-rock) non avrebbero messo in onda le canzoni di Paolo Conte (all’epoca un autore sconosciuto) o di Léo Ferré, e tantomeno di Paolo Pietrangeli. Così è nata la scaletta del nostro concerto. E man mano che cercavamo di riappropriarci di quelle canzoni, di farle nostre, ci siamo resi conto che erano accomunate da una strana vibrazione, che percorreva (e tuttora percorre) canzoni d’amore affettuose o desolate, canzoni battagliere, pezzi agitati o sognanti ai confini (mobili, soprattutto nel 1968) fra pop e rock. Perché, abbiamo concluso, non sono le canzoni che fanno la rivoluzione, ma è la rivoluzione che fa le canzoni."

http://www.alexetxea.it/evento/radio-sessantotto-fabbri-puglisi

http://www.facebook.com/events/182916432429760

https://tinyurl.com/yas4b3bx

Con emozione - e comprensibile cautela - Steve Feigenbaum torna ad annunciare nuove pubblicazioni per Cuneiform Records, due creazioni gemelle frutto della creatività del trio Thumbscrew (Michael Formanek, Tomas Fujiwara e Mary Halvorson): Ours e Theirs.

"Here's something that I genuinely thought I would never say again: Below are two new Cuneiform releases. These two releases represent my trying find a balance between the ability to keep doing something I think I am very good at (curating a world-class record label of indefinable, cutting edge music and paying musicians what they are owed) with something that is no longer possible in today's music business environment: not losing gobs of cash while doing so. But my wonderful staff is now my former wonderful staff, and my expenses are reduced; it's just me doing it all now. So while Cuneiform can no longer do what we used to do, I am hoping to find a workable balance between the extremes and still do something to help bring great music into the world. Without going broke. We'll see. That's why I am sticking two toes (or thumbs, if you prefer) back in the water. Regardless of how it goes, I want to publicly acknowledge my deep gratitude towards the many of the folks who we worked with over the decades, who called up or wrote to offer words of wholehearted appreciation and / or encouragement when I really needed it. And very specifically to thank Michael, Tomas and Mary who went very much out of their way to lure me back in and make me feel that Cuneiform could still be useful and that I could still be useful too."

Thumbscrew demonstrates their unique collective musical vision in contrasting but complementary ways on two exciting new CDs. Ours and Theirs are the first to be released on a newly revamped Cuneiform Records, just returning from a hiatus. Comprised of longtime collaborators Michael Formanek, Tomas Fujiwara, and Mary Halvorson, Thumbscrew is a true collaborative effort with all three members contributing at an equal rate both in terms of composition and improvisation.

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com

Il sito web dedicato a Phil Miller si amplia ulteriormente inaugurando una sezione riservata alle riprese video, preferibilmente integrali, di apparizioni pubbliche e concerti effettuati nelle varie epoche. Si parte con In Cahoots dal vivo a Tokyo nel dicembre 2001: in formazione con Miller c'erano allora Elton Dean, Jim Dvorak, Pete Lemer, Fred Baker e Pip Pyle.

https://philmillerthelegacy.com/videos

E c'è sempre (almeno) un buon motivo per riascoltare Ivor Cutler, in particolare quando la BBC estrae dagli archivi qualcuno dei suoi numerosi e preziosi documenti. Proposto cinque anni addietro per festeggiare i novant'anni dell'inimitabile assurdista - che infatti se n'era andato a ottantatré - l'episodio Ivor Cutler at 90 è tornato disponibile sul web un paio di mesi fa, con l'impeccabile presentazione (e una speciale performance con Phyllis King) di David Bramwell.

Championed by everyone from the Beatles to Billy Connolly, Ivor Cutler was a poet, humourist and absurdist whose appearances on BBC radio and television span over five decades. As well as producing a vast body of records, books and plays, Ivor was a notable eccentric, often seen cycling around London in plus fours, handing out homemade stickers and badges to strangers. To mark what would have been Ivor's 90th birthday, BBC Radio 4 held a 'party', to celebrate his life and BBC archive in particular. Expect a full house, with performers, fans, collaborators and even his long-term partner, Phyllis King, introducing their favourite poems, songs and memories of Ivor. Weirdness from the archives, pleasure for fans, and a singular introduction to those encountering him for the very first time. Highlights include Bramwell and King re-enacting a morse code performance of The Little Black Buzzer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0381jzt

Naturalmente ogni occasione è buona per riascoltare Moon In June (anche a maggio!). Lo spunto può essere un Invisible Jukebox proposto da The Wire, come è toccato in questi giorni a Philip Sanderson e Steven Ball, ovvero The Storm Bugs. La versione proposta da Mike Barnes è quella registrata per Top Gear dai Soft Machine (Hopper, Ratledge, Wyatt) il 10 giugno 1969, poi conservata in un BBC Radio di Hux Records: "I don't listen to Robert Wyatt very often", dice Ball a fine seduta, "What tends to happen is that Robert Wyatt releases an album, I listen to it for about two weeks incessantly, and then I can't listen to it again for months because there's an intensity to his work. I think he's absolutely unique, his voice is amazing, and his songwriting is astonishing".

https://www.thewire.co.uk/issues/412
http://www.huxrecords.com/cdsales37.htm

Il numero di giugno della rivista The Wire offre a Val Wilmer l'opportunità di condividere storie, immagini, emozioni e ricordi a proposito di Cecil Taylor, scomparso lo scorso mese: A Man You Didn't Meet Every Day. E in ricordo del grande pianista e poeta l'Empac di Troy (Stati Uniti) diffonde un dvd con le registrazioni dei concerti di apertura della propria prestigiosa sede nel 2008, ospiti Pauline Oliveros e per l'appunto Taylor: Solo, Duo, Poetry (2012).

https://www.thewire.co.uk/about/artists/cecil-taylor
http://empac.rpi.edu/publications/cecil-pauline-solo-duo-poetry

Chi non sa attendere ancora un altro mese per il debutto a Londra del Lindsay Cooper Songbook può (forse) accontentarsi intanto di un passaggio di Auschwitz / Babel - da Sirens and Silences - citato in occasione recente da Yumi Hara tra altre sue cose pensate per Statement Heels (solo) e Logos (Artaud Beats).

In lime pits
The impediment of
Flesh is
Skimmed away –
All ambiguity
Removed – the
Residue – a core
Of speech made
Numinous by
Silence –
Enter History
As
Truth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSf6slmBfOY
https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/lindsay-cooper-songbook

Dopo il successo l'anno scorso di Nothing's Binary il secondo episodio della serie genderqueer di Billie Hartbottle e Kimwei McCarthy è un nuovo piccolo trionfo (nonché un vero spasso!): Slugs & Spice.

They say that boys are slugs and snails and girls are all things nice
But there is no accounting for the schemes of men and mice
Oh I’m an individual my sins they are all mine
I know they are original when slugs and spice combine

http://www.nothingsbinary.com
https://youtu.be/T7-rsd9zFW4
https://youtu.be/fn04VUpLjbw

Un bel ritratto di Carla Bley, complice anche il suo recente compleanno: lo compone Ethan Iverson per The New Yorker ('A Lifetime of Carla Bley') e nel contempo al proprio sito web pubblica un'intervista realizzata con lei a gennaio (Interview with Carla Bley).

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-lifetime-of-carla-bley
https://ethaniverson.com/interview-with-carla-bley

In un'altra era, quando tra canterburyani ci si teneva in contatto soprattuto con l'e-mail - e sembrava già un bel progresso, rispetto ad epoche precedenti - uno degli appuntamenti preferiti era con il periodico notiziario What's Rattlin'?, inaugurato da Aymeric Leroy nel 1996 e proseguito fino al 2004 prima di trasformarsi in gruppo di discussione presso Yahoo. Ora, dopo un fortunoso/fortunato ritrovamento tra un hard-disk e l'altro, l'archivio di tutto quell'antico carteggio è tornato disponibile. E' presso Calyx: http://www.calyx-canterbury.fr/index/WR.html

Dice Aymeric: "The entire archive of What's Rattlin'? for its original run as an e-mail newsletter (1996-2004) is now available on Calyx. I thought I had lost the majority of them in various hard disk crashes, but evidently not. Lots of interesting reading I hope for those who would like to know (or re-live) what it was like following the Canterbury Scene at the time - with fans posting reminiscences or impressions of albums old and new, musicians chiming in to offer insights and memories, and yours truly reporting on gigs, new releases etc. Enjoy!"

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/whatsrattlin

E un'era si chiude anche per il festival di Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy Musique Action, con la sua ultima edizione firmata Dominique Répécaud: "Cette 34e édition du festival Musique Action sera la dernière à avoir été rêvée par Dominique Répécaud. Complétant son geste, nous l'avons voulue inventive et iconoclaste, à l'image de la dinguerie contagieuse de faUSt ou des prestations de Charlemagne Palestine qui relèvent presque de la transe. Durant une semaine, nous vous invitons à traverser des univers sonores parmi les plus singuliers que l'on puisse envisager, parce que la musique est avant tout un espace de liberté et de découverte. C'est ce qu'a toujours défendu ce festival et ce qui constitue son identité. Nous affirmons l'absolue nécessité d'inventer des ailleurs poétiques et sonores. C'est ce sillon-là que nous traçons avec plaisir et sans relâche."

http://musiqueaction.com
http://musiqueaction.com/contenu/images-site/ma18_programme.pdf
https://www.rythmes-croises.org/evenement/slapp-happy-guigou-chenevier-faust

Momenti relativi alla cerimonia di saluto a Gérard Hourbette di venerdì scorso si possono seguire alla pagina FB degli Art Zoyd, con un nuovo toccante intervento della vedova Monique Hourbette-Vialadieu, che tra le altre cose dà appuntamento a un più ampio omaggio musicale da organizzare per il futuro. Al sito ufficiale del gruppo è già assai ricca la pagina di commenti e testimonianze inviati da colleghi, conoscenti e sostenitori; nel frattempo l'articolato memoriale diffuso attraverso la mailing list zoydiana viene rilanciato anche da Cuneiform Records.

https://www.facebook.com/ArtZoydStudios
https://www.artzoyd.net/temoignages-testimonials
https://tinyurl.com/y82lgq9h

C'è anche una fascinosa versione strumentale di Maryan - desunta probabilmente dal wyattiano Shleep, se non da For The Ghosts Within, anziché dall'originale Marian di Philip Catherine (in September Man, 1974) - nell'atmosferico album di debutto del duo costituito da Paul Jones e Steve Black: si fanno chiamare Group Listening, e l'album è Piano & Clarinet: Selected Works Vol. 1, prodotto dalla Prah Recordings con sede a Londra e un'altra sede a Margate, neanche mezzora da Canterbury...

Piano & Clarinet: Selected Works Vol. 1 is the debut album from Group Listening, a collection of ambient works - from the likes of Brian Eno, Arthur Russell, Roedelius and Robert Wyatt - arranged for clarinet and piano. Cutting out the post production and keeping overdubs to a minimum, the clarinet and piano were passed through guitar stomp boxes and other analogue effects to enable processing and manipulation directly in performance. The result hums with the ghostly energy of sound pioneers Joe Meek and Martin Hannett, while mbira and drum machines are sparingly deployed amid enveloping folds of space echo.
Like Virginia Astley or Simon Jeffes, Group Listening tread the overlap between classical and experimental music. Perhaps most startling here is the breadth of material arranged as one atmospheric whole. The pieces range from the ever-spiralling, fractal phrases of German composer Roedelius to the haunting rasps of game and Hollywood soundtracker Disasterpiece and the pioneering sonics of early electronic inventor Raymond Scott. Somehow, shot together through Group Listening’s electro-acoustic lens, these works evolve into something supremely calming, poignant and new.

https://grouplistening.bandcamp.com

Con Made Available, Repeat/Metal e Live 80-81 prosegue e si conclude l'azione di recupero in vinile dei documenti storici di This Heat intrapresa due anni fa da Modern Classics Recordings. Saranno pronti ad agosto, con quel caldo: https://lightintheattic.net/artists/1292-this-heat

Formed in 1976 in Brixton, a multicultural, and – at the time – down-at-heel part of south London, This Heat were born into a music scene in rapid flux, first thanks to the punk explosion and then via new wave and its myriad offshoots into pop, rock and art-rock. But while many sought to apply punk attitude to chart-friendly sounds, This Heat were concocting some of the most experimental ideas ever committed to tape, taking influence from musique concrète, krautrock, the burgeoning industrial scene and even the dub reggae blasting out in their home borough.
Given the difficult, abrasive, and involved nature of their furiously forward-thinking sound, This Heat never found anything approaching mainstream success, but patronage by the influential Radio 1 DJ John Peel meant they reached a national audience – whether that audience was ready for them or not. Made Available collects This Heat’s two Peel Sessions, recorded for BBC Radio 1 in April and October of 1977 and features essential songs that would later appear on their debut album, This Heat (1979) and the follow-up, Deceit (1981), as well as electro-acoustic works unique to these sessions. These are the earliest public recordings of the band, showing even in their infancy, masterful use of live tape loops and radical song structure.
Following Modern Classics Recordings’ 2016 reissue campaign to mark the band’s 40th anniversary, these new releases Made Available, Repeat/Metal and Live 80-81 round out the story. Each release is sanctioned by surviving members Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward and features newly remastered audio sourced from original tapes.

https://www.facebook.com/thisheat.official

E' pronto l'album che Mike Westbrook ha voluto dedicare al grande Lou Gare (1939-2017), raccogliendo alcuni passaggi di rilievo tratti da registrazioni effettuate dal vivo con la Big Band - divenuta poi The Uncommon Orchestra - negli ultimi anni di attività. Il cd si intitola Mike Westbrook in memory of LOU GARE, e lo si può ottenere direttamente dai Westbrook.

Ne accompagna la pubblicazione l'affettuoso ricordo di Mike: "I believe Lou to have been one of the most original saxophonists of our time, one of those legendary figures little known to the general public, but a major Influence on all those who knew and worked with him. He was in my band in the early 60s in a sax section with Mike Osborne and John Surman. He then spent many years on the Improvised Music scene, as a founder member of AMM, often in partnership with the drummer Eddie Prévost. This revolutionary group achieved international recognition and made a number of albums. Eventually Lou settled in the West Country, still playing, but in relative obscurity. This is where we got together again, ten years ago, when Lou joined the big band that became The Uncommon Orchestra. As a free improviser with strong jazz roots, his playing in the context of a large ensemble was a revelation. Lou took part in many projects and performances with the band until couple of years ago when health problems began to limit his activities. Lou was greatly loved and respected. At Lou's funeral on October 17th in his village church in Cheriton Bishop, North of Dartmoor, his wife Penny, family and friends were joined by musicians from London and the South West. The service ended with his unaccompanied tenor saxophone in one of those limitless streams of invention, audacity and lyricism that only Lou could produce. A master, and a great loss."

http://westbrookjazz.co.uk/mikewestbrook/lou_cd.shtml
http://westbrookjazz.co.uk/lou/index.shtml
http://westbrookjazz.co.uk/westbrookrecords/index.shtml
https://vimeo.com/257104182
https://tinyurl.com/y787tp4j

Dopo il debutto pochi giorni fa con la Mike Westbrook Concert Band sono pronte altre tre pubblicazioni della ritrovata Cadillac Records, ora guidata da Mike Gavin: David Murray, The London Concert, Dudu Pukwana e Bob Stuckey, Night Time Is The Right Time-60s' Soho Sounds e l'eccellente trio di Mike Osborne con Harry Miller e Tony Levin, The Birmingham Jazz Concert. Ampie anteprime d'ascolto sono su Bandcamp.

John Jack founded Cadillac Records in 1973 to independently release Mike Westbrook’s music when major labels turned their back on jazz. One of the UK’s first DIY labels, Cadillac went on to build a catalogue with albums by Ken Colyer, Joe Harriott, Stan Tracey & Mike Osborne, Dave Holdsworth-Liane Carroll Quartet, Bobby Wellins Quartet, David Murray & Dudu Pukwana among others.

https://cadillac77.bandcamp.com

Otomo Yoshihide è stato ospite di Late Junction per una mezzoretta di gioviale conversazione e lieto ascolto: Toru Takemitsu, Masayuki Takayanagi, un immortale Nelson Cavaquinho, John Zorn (da Locus Solus) e Steve Beresford (da Eleven Songs for Doris Day).

Otomo Yoshihide has long been one of the most dynamic forces in Japanese experimental music. Heralded as Tokyo's premiere noise DJ, he's spent decades at the cutting edge of Japan's experimental underground. His influences range from the musique concrète of Pierre Schaefer and Pierre Henry to the Japanese free jazz of alto sax player Kaoru Abe and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi. In 1990, he founded the influential group Ground Zero, the first free improvising musicians to use turntables, and has since been involved in countless music projects including Mosquito Paper, Project Fukushima, Sampling Virus and his New Jazz Quartet. He has also received much acclaim for his soundtracks for film and television, having produced over 70 film soundtracks, and was awarded the Japan Record Award for best composer in 2013.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b020lb

Tra gli ultimi progetti di Art Zoyd cui ha potuto lavorare Gérard Hourbette c'è Phase V, cofanetto di cinque cd prodotto per In-Possible Records con musiche sue, di Jérôme Soudan e di Kasper T Toeplitz. A breve seguiranno nuovi documenti della serie maieutica Expériences de vol, un quadruplo cd con i capitoli dal decimo al tredicesimo.

https://www.artzoyd.net/produit/phase-v
https://www.discogs.com/Art-Zoyd-Phase-V/release/11676204

Per approfondire la conoscenza di Gérard Hourbette, compositore e guida creativa degli Art Zoyd scomparso due giorni fa, ci sono sul web vari articoli commemorativi (per esempio Stéphane Fougère su Rythmes Croisés) e due interessanti interviste pur non recentissime, una concessa a Klemen Breznikar di It's Psychedelic Baby (2011) e una a Isabelle Françaix di Musiques Nouvelles dal titolo Au-delà de l’humain, au cœur de la matière (2013). C'è soprattutto da esplorare la lunga e varia discografia del gruppo, naturalmente, incluso il recente box antologico prodotto da Cuneiform Records; chissà che non l'abbiano consultata anche i responsabili del Ministero della Cultura francese, che con i loro tweet hanno voluto omaggiare in questo frangente la figura di Hourbette. Sui social è apparso oggi il saluto affettuoso espresso dalla vedova Monique Hourbette-Vialadieu, da sempre figura chiave nella gestione organizzativa degli studi di produzione del gruppo ed ora nominata direttrice ad interim: "RIP Mon amour, je te promets, on va continuer le chemin que tu as tracé... les embuches, et les obstacles se présenteront sans doute, mais nous saurons les surmonter. Ta musique est partout, les témoignages affluent du monde entier.... parfois un peu tard... mais ils sont là... et comme tu l'as toujours voulu, les studios Art Zoyd vont continuer à être remplis de vie, de créations et de rencontres! Je sais que tu sera toujours là à mes côtés, à nos côtés et que tu continueras à époustoufler les générations présentes et futures par ta musique, la musique que tu réinventais sans cesse, sans aucune concession. Je suis fière d'avoir été, et d'être toujours ta femme à jamais."

https://www.facebook.com/ArtZoydStudios
https://www.facebook.com/gerard.hourbette

Rêve Artificiel

Gérard Hourbette (1953-2018)

O Caroline!

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/may/02/caroline-coon-the-great-offender

Un docufilm sulla storia delle Slits, con testimonianze d'epoca e il racconto di molti diretti protagonisti. Ci lavorava la stessa Ari Up prima di venire a mancare, l'ha invece portato a termine William E. Badgley e al momento circola in alcune sale cinematografiche di Regno Unito e Stati Uniti: Here to be Heard: The Story of The Slits. 

Here to be Heard: The Story of The Slits tells the story of the first all-girl punk band, shedding light on the mid-70’s British Punk era from a female point of view. Contemporaries of The Clash and Sex Pistols and godmothers of the musical movement known as "Punky Reggae", the film follows the band’s story from their inception in 1976, through two albums including 1979’s classic Cut, break up, reunion, and eventual end in 2010 with the death of lead vocalist, Ari Up. When Ari passed away she was working with Slits tour manager and friend Jennifer Shagawat on a film about the band. After Ari passed and the film was still not completed Jennifer contacted her long time friend Bill over at Molasses Manifesto to come on and help finish the project.

Here to be Heard includes previously unseen footage and recordings of the band, and interviews with Don Letts (former Slits manager, punk documentarian), Viv Albertine (Slits guitarist), Ari Up (Slits vocalist), Palmolive (Slits founder, first drummer), Tessa Pollitt (Slits bass player), Bruce Smith (Slits second drummer, PIL drummer), Hollie Cook (Slits vocalist, keyboards, percussion), Vivien Goldman (New York University's punk professor), Dennis Bovell (producer of The Slits album Cut), Paul Cook (Sex Pistols drummer), Gina Birch (Raincoats bass player), and many more.

http://www.slitsdoc.com
https://www.facebook.com/slitsdoc
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/mar/23/here-to-be-heard
https://vimeo.com/231761921
https://www.mixcloud.com/DublinDigitalRadio/xxx-the-slits

Proprio ora che fa furore la nuova esuberante versione realizzata dal Colin Currie Group con Synergy Vocals riaffiora una delle primissime registrazioni di uno dei superclassici di Steve Reich, Drumming. Si tratta di un concerto del dicembre 1971 alla Town Hall di New York, quando con Reich c'erano Art Murphy, Steve Chambers, Russ Hartenberger, James Preiss, Jon Gibson, Joan La Barbara, Judy Sherman, Jay Clayton, Ben Harms, Gary Burke, Frank Maefsky e James Ogden. Lo diffonde, anche in cd, l'etichetta di San Francisco Superior Viaduct specializzata in riedizioni in vinile.

Steve Reich's minimalist classic Drumming is reissued on vinyl for the first time this month. Superior Viaduct oversees the re-release of the Reich piece which is also being remastered. The original performance of Drumming, which was written for eight tuned drums, three marimbas, three glockenspiels, piccolo and voice, took place at MoMA in New York City in 1971, with Reich leading an ensemble of performers. The piece was subsequently released in 1972 and pressed in an edition of 600 copies by John Gibbons. It now sells for hundreds of pounds on the resale market due to its rarity. Another version was released more widely in 1974 by the Deutsche Grammophon label.

https://www.superiorviaduct.com/steve-reich-drumming-2cd
https://www.superiorviaduct.com/steve-reich-drumming-2xlp

Due buone notizie in una: la gloriosa etichetta Cadillac Records riprende le pubblicazioni - grazie all'impegno di Mike Gavin, ora che John Jack non è più qui - e la prima di queste è un concerto inedito della Mike Westbrook Concert Band: The Last Night At The Old Place. Era il 25 maggio del 1968 a Londra, era il compleanno di John e questo era l'ultimo evento in calendario nella vecchia sede del Ronnie Scott’s in Gerrard Street, riaperta nemmeno due anni prima. Sul palco assieme a Mike c'era il fior fiore: Dave Holdsworth, Malcolm Griffiths, Paul Rutherford, Mike Osborne, Bernie Living, George Khan, John Surman, Harry Miller e Alan Jackson. Per onorare il cinquantesimo anniversario, e per amor di cifra tonda, l'album esce ufficialmente questo mese proprio il 25.

Founded in 1973 by John Jack and Mike Westbrook as a means of releasing Westbrook's music, the British jazz label Cadillac grew to release a host of artist including Ken Colyer, Stan Tracey, Frank Lowe, David Murray, Andy Sheppard, the Joe Harriott Quintet, and many others. Jack died on 7 September 2017, leaving behind a number of unfinished projects for the label, which new label manager Mike Gavin is now set to shine some light on. Cadillac will continue to trade as a label, reissuing out of print recordings and “bringing out never before issued gems from Cadillac’s dusty archive”, it says. The first new release will be a previously unreleased live session by the Mike Westbrook Concert Band that was recorded 25 May 1968 at London's Ronnie Scott’s in Gerrard Street, Chinatown, which Jack was managing at the time of recording. The recording was the last time a performance would be held at that old venue of Ronnie Scott's, a night that also coincided with Jack's birthday.

https://mikewestbrookconcertband.bandcamp.com
https://www.thewire.co.uk/news/50737/cadillac-reissues-gems-from-its-dusty-archive