How Sweet To Be An Idiot

Neil Innes (1944-2019)

R. Stevie Moore annuncia la cessazione ahimè definitiva di ogni attività musicale da domani, sgombrando il campo da speranze in una sua terza giovinezza. Ma con un nuovo album da poco in circolazione dal titolo Fake News Trending - in coppia con Gary Wilson - sarà da credergli?

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

Tranne il lungo brano preso dal terzo volume di Guitar Trios (Parachute, 1977), ovvero l'intera facciata Peafowl, il resto è tutto inedito e viene da un nastro ritrovato solo di recente: è il concerto del 27 febbraio 1977 tenuto da Eugene Chadbourne con Duck Baker e Randy Hutton a Calgary (Canada), dove Chadbourne ancora risedeva prima di trasferirsi a New York, seguito da una sessione notturna registrata immediatamente dopo il concerto stesso (in parte riportata anche sul retrospettivo Outside, di Baker). Il documento si intitola semplicemente The Guitar Trio in Calgary 1977, ha un alto valore storico e se ne prende il giusto merito Emanem.

Scrive Duck Baker: "When in 1977, Eugene moved to New York, where he threw himself into the scene, and got involved with John Zorn. This association produced several further records on Parachute and other labels before Eugene moved away from the city a few years later. But I think many people don’t have a clear picture of how surefooted a musician and composer Chadbourne was before he moved to New York. He was barely 23 at the time of this recording and was usually the youngest cat in the room or on the stage for all the projects he was involved in. He also played a significant part in bringing together people from all over the continent; it was Eugene who spread the word about John Zorn when no one had heard of him, and connected him with musicians like Henry Kaiser, Bruce Ackley, Davey Williams, LaDonna Smith, and myself. Eugene’s ideas about composition were advanced and well formed in those early days. I remember him saying that the reason he wanted to work with charts and structures (a new idea to me for this music at that point) was to avoid the tendency of improvisers to find one way of playing together and keep falling back towards that; giving guidelines can actually help to open things up. The music here, especially on his originals, bears this out."

http://www.emanemdisc.com/E5049.html

Tra le cose che volgono simbolicamente al termine con l'anno che si conclude c'è anche la serie di cinquanta brani rari o inediti che per cinquanta settimane - dal 13 gennaio al 20 dicembre, precisamente - ha tenuto incollate ai propri dispositivi di downloading e di file sharing intere schiere di crimsoniani. Forse anche per dimenticare i dispiaceri legati all'incidente (involontario) di Heaven & Earth. E ora, passata la festa...

All good things come to an end. The 50th-anniversary download series has become a treasured part of the week for Crimheads around the globe. The mix of rare, rarely heard, re-presented, and stone-cold classics hosted by David Singleton's insightful and revealing commentaries has been both an education and a delight for those tuning in. The fifty tracks in themselves have become an invaluable resource and library not only for seasoned fans but for those many thousands of people discovering King Crimson for the first time in this its fiftieth year. Job done!

https://www.dgmlive.com

Fin dalla sua apertura a metà anni Novanta il club Mózg a Bydgoszcz (Polonia) è stato luogo accogliente e propositivo nei confronti di musiche dissidenti ed eterodosse locali e internazionali di vario tipo, confermandosi nel tempo meta obbligata - e spesso preferita - per numerosi musicisti in viaggio nei Paesi dell'est europeo. Uno dei suoi fondatori, Sławek Janicki, poliedrico agitatore culturale e contrabbassista di discreta levatura, ha preso spunto dalla collaborazione tra la nascente etichetta Muzyka z Mózgu e la più consolidata Bocian Records di Varsavia per uscire allo scoperto con un album a proprio nome, Favorite Duets, selezione di duetti via via registrati dal vivo con David Moss, Mark Feldman, Peter Brötzmann, Kazuhisa Uchihashi e Sainkho Namtchylak tra gli altri. Altra uscita discografica di questi giorni è Sylvan Trail, un concerto dell'anno scorso del quintetto Mózg Injectors - di cui Janicki fa parte - tenuto assieme a Fred Frith, ospite del club più volte anche in passato.

Sławek Janicki is a musician, filmmaker and curator of art events. He is the co-creator and main director of the legendary Mózg club founded in 1994 in Bydgoszcz. He started his artistic activity in mid 80’s. For over 25 years he has been active on the international improvised music scene. As a musician he is entirely devoted to absolute improvisation as it is the purest form of creating music.

http://www.mozg.pl
https://www.facebook.com/clubmozg
https://muzykazmozgu/favorite-duets
https://muzykazmozgu/m-zg-injectors-feat-fred-frith-sylvan-trail

Sette giorni di concerti lontani dall'ortodossia pre-natalizia si sono svolti dal 7 al 14 dicembre scorsi per la quarta edizione del festival Lieblingsplatte presso il centro culturale Zakk (Zentrum für Aktion, Kultur und Kommunikation) a Düsseldorf, in Germania. Uno dei piatti forti è stata certamente l'esecuzione integrale del celebre album IV (Virgin, 1973) da parte dei FaUSt, in grande spolvero per l'occasione e in formazione estesa a nove elementi, con la cruciale direzione di Yumi Hara. L'ordine dei brani in concerto si è rivelato diverso sia dalle tradizionali scalette su LP o CD sia da quello suggerito in passato dai musicisti stessi: Giggy Smile, Jennifer, Just a Second, It's a Bit of a Pain, Run, The Psalter, The Sad Skinhead, Krautrock.

http://www.lieblingsplatte-festival.de
http://www.lieblingsplatte-festival.de/2017/07/18/faust
https://www.facebook.com/yumi.cawkwell
https://www.facebook.com/pg/lieblingsplattefestival/posts
https://www.facebook.com/lieblingsplattefestival/jennifer

Chi conosce Star Clocks - anche solo a grandi linee - e magari ne sa un po' di calcio può partecipare, se vuole, al tradizionale quesito simil-natalizio posto anche quest'anno dagli ineffabili Dave Stewart e Barbara Gaskin: "Which song on our album Star Clocks includes the name of a football player (please note: it's not the guy in the picture), and which team did he play for?". Gli esiti son da seguire, senza ansia, al sito https://www.davebarb.com.

https://www.facebook.com/Dave-Stewart-Barbara-Gaskin-171696959516360

E l'occasione per riprendere contatto con un'altra antica conoscenza è offerta dalla pubblicazione dell'ottimo Still (Col legno, 2019) e dalla ripresa di un'intensa attività concertistica da parte degli austriaci Knoedel, che a metà anni Novanta, per interessamento del Circ.a, portarono le loro musiche dal vivo anche sul versante italiano delle Alpi. Oggi come allora, con formazione pressoché immutata, li guida Christof Dienz: "The music on this CD feeds from nearby, from the region we come from and where we live our lives. We have had a 17-year break. In that time we have taken very different paths and moved in very different musical domains. Now that we are playing together again, this all comes out in the music: contemporary sounds meet baroque forms, instruments from our region sound out in new guise. We play these instruments and this music because we enjoy it, we are interested in our home and want to engage with what is around us. The music sprouts from more or less unspectacular, small, immediate things, incidents or people in our everyday lives, in this stage of our lives. This includes love, death, children, neighbors, politics, celebrating raucous parties, sitting staring into the fire, and taking an afternoon nap."

http://www.dienz.at/die-knoedel
https://www.col-legno.com/de/shop/20446-knoedel-still
https://www.facebook.com/dieknoedel
https://tinyurl.com/rfs85dm

La pubblicazione quasi simultanea di Devotion - di cui è titolare il trio Day & Taxi, forte dallo scorso anno della presenza di Gerry Hemingway - e Glassware e As You Were Here - facenti capo al quintetto Road Works - offre l'occasione per riprendere contatto con le produzioni dell'instancabile sassofonista Christoph Gallio, da oltre trent'anni una delle principali forze propulsive della scena improvvisata svizzera e responsabile in proprio dell'etichetta Percaso.

Christoph Gallio lebt und arbeitet in Baden, Schweiz. Als Musiker pflegt er die freie Improvisation sowie die Interpretation meist eigener Musik. Auf Augenhöhe arbeitet er immer wieder gerne mit VertreterInnen anderer Disziplinen wie Tanz, bildender Kunst oder Lyrik zusammen. Neben Kompositionsaufträgen schreibt er für seine Bands und eigene Projekte. Christoph Gallio leitet mehrere Bands ua Day & Taxi und Road Works, und seit 1986 führt er das Percaso Label. Tourneen brachten ihn nach Kanada, die USA, Russland, Kasachstan, Japan, China. Konzerte gab und gibt er in der ganzen Schweiz und im nahen Ausland.

https://www.gallio.ch/christoph-gallio
https://www.gallio.ch/percasogallioon-otherlabels/percaso

Un pomeriggio di settembre Bob Drake imbraccia la sua Alhambra acustica e si registra all'interno della chiesetta di Seignalens, villaggio di una trentina di abitanti poco distante da casa, a Caudeval (Francia). Con risultati di fascino assoluto: 2 Improvisations dans une Église. "Me enjoying the atmosphere, mystery and beauty of the sound in a little old church."

https://bdstudio.bandcamp.com/album/2-improvisations-dans-une-eglise

Bob Drake torna di tanto in tanto a rovistare nella sua sparsa collezione di antiche audiocassette, per nostra fortuna, e se ne esce stavolta con un bel gruzzolo di brani autoprodotti artigianalmente con Mike Johnson sul finire degli anni Settanta - con chiare idee pre-Thinking Plague - e successivamente nel corso degli anni Ottanta, mai divulgati finora e ora in dono presso Bandcamp: Bob 'n Mike's Old Stuff.

https://bdstudio.bandcamp.com/album/bob-n-mikes-old-stuff

Petridisch ha sentito il bisogno di tornare a The World As It Is Today - terzo manifesto Art Bears - e di riraccontarlo in undici minuti. Con un giradischi, un campionatore, quindici minidisc vergini di supporto. E con l'OK di Cutler.

https://fishprintsinc.bandcamp.com/album/the-world-as-it-is-today-retold

Trame sonore dettate dagli stupefacenti intrecci del pizzo Shetland: una vera passione per Zeena Parkins, quasi un sogno ricorrente. Questa volta sfocia in Thinking in Stitches, titolo carpito a Gertrude Stein e condiviso nel lavoro con Ryan Sawyer e Ryan Ross Smith nel trio Green Dome.

Much of Zeena Parkins’s recent work has been concerned with musical interpretation of the intricate patterns found in lace, of which she is a collector and which represents a major and largely female-led art form that transcends national and cultural boundaries. Thinking In Stitches is her third approach to the Lace material, which she utilises in a Braxton-like manner, as a body of interlocking and complementary forms susceptible to almost infinite variation. Green Dome puts her harp in the context of a jazz trio, with Ryan Ross contributing piano and electronics and Ryan Sawyer percussion. The music draws on many more traditions however, with elements of electronica, art composition, rock and, more fleetingly, folk.

The trio covers a fair amount of ground, from the haunting and melancholic to animated post-industrial inter-locking themes. Each piece involves a degree of structure, the ins and outs of which are explored by all three individuals. And yet, even the tracks with more repetitive sections exhibit sufficient non-systematic elements. Parkins, Sawyer, and Smith remain so busy throughout that Thinking in Stitches frequently comes across with a bigger sound that one would expect, even from a group of this stature.

https://zeenaparkins.com
https://greendome.bandcamp.com/releases
https://youtu.be/XI4jj4iyKTM

Puntuale secondo quanto promesso quest'estate esce anche in cd la riedizione della Souvenir Cassette che tanti (e quanti!) fece innamorare degli After Dinner al suo primo apparire, oltre trent'anni fa, assieme all'album d'esordio. Se ne occupa come allora ReR Megacorp, e oggi anche Fish Prints: "A limited edition reissue of the original commemorative cassette released only to subscribers of the first Recommended After Dinner LP - a collection of exquisite live interpretations of the songs, recorded on the band’s first European tour (itself a technically innovative event in which they essentially set up a 5.1 sound system at every concert). Great songs and great performances, full LP length. This CD edition also includes all the Tokyo recordings released on the ReR Quartlerly 0104 in 1986 and a previously unreleased song, from the 1989 European tour. With full documentation, many new photographs, technical diagrams and an introduction by Haco, who oversaw the whole project. All re-mastered by Bob Drake."

https://tinyurl.com/ttuj83w
https://haco-sound.bandcamp.com/album/souvenir-cassette
https://twitter.com/hacohacodotnet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDkwRGj1bbg
https://www.hibou-anemone-bear.com/search?q=souvenir+cassette

E un ritratto aggiornato di Kazuko Hohki attraverso le sue innumerevoli attività nell'amatissima Londra, luogo d'adozione da oltre quarant'anni, è proposto da Mika Eglinton per The Japan Times: "I would probably have become a very lazy hippie - says Hohki reflecting on what she might have become had she not left Japan - or a tremendous artist due to the layers of oppression in Japanese society. Well, more likely a hippie... Ultimately it was England that made me into an artist and I really appreciate that." Per uno sguardo alla sua creatura più celebre, Frank Chickens, è ancora valido il documentario realizzato qualche anno fa da Robert Makin e Ollie Verschoyle tuttora disponibile su Vimeo: Frank Chickens The Movie.

http://www.kazukohohki.com
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/kazuko-hohki-frank-chicken-london
https://vimeo.com/50599115

Un commosso ritratto di Hardy Fox (1945-2018) emerge da un recente scritto di Barry Walters, che nel titolo riprende quello dell'omaggio dedicato allo scomparso dall'amico Walter Robotka di Klanggalerie: The Godfather of Odd. Toccante in particolare la conclusione, riferita ai lavori pubblicati dal Nostro a proprio nome (!) dopo l'interruzione delle attività con i Residents: "After decades of artful evil clown vibes, Fox drops the mask entirely on his solo recordings, which eclipse the Residents’ fairy tale darkness with the utmost verisimilitude: mortality. Hazy and at times harrowing, they sound as though Fox is literally dying on them, which, of course, he was. Unlike eloquent, well-produced goodbye albums from David Bowie and Leonard Cohen, these records push beyond language because Fox’s tumor ultimately compromised his ability to communicate conventionally. That’s likely why 2018’s Rilla Contemplates Love is sung through a gorilla’s perspective. In struggling to journey beyond what it means to be human, Fox affirmed not only his finiteness, but also his transcendence."

http://hardyfox.com/home
https://www.bynwr.com/articles/the-godfather-of-odd
http://www.klanggalerie.com/gg300

Bing, Bing, Bing, Bong, Bong, Bong... Pressoché ad ogni Natale si aggiorna la lista di varianti e diverse versioni del classico Santa Dog (1972) operate dai Residents in persona (!). Klanggalerie ne raccoglie ben diciotto, riprendendo per l'odierna pubblicazione il titolo di una precedente antologia firmata Ralph America: Refused.

Keeping up with tradition is rarely something considered by The Residents. However, when it comes to their seminal first release, they seem to have the penchant for going back to this composition and re-imagining it for whatever new era they happen to be in at the time. Having recomposed Santa Dog at least 12 times since its original conception, the tune(s) serve as a touchstone for The Residents and fans, that originally represented the naivete of the young band but now shows how they have grown as artists over the decades.

http://klanggalerie.com/gg314
https://residents.com/historical/?page=santadog
https://residents.com/historical/?page=santadog#refused
https://www.hibou-anemone-bear.com/attuale+ad+ogni+Natale

Speciale concerto dei Westbrook con la Uncommon Orchestra domani sera al Grand Hotel di Torquay (Regno Unito), con uno speciale programma - e una speciale formazione - studiato per trarre forza, luce e speranza dalle tradizioni e dalle innovazioni del jazz quasi in consonanza con le celebrazioni di stagione, e certo in contrasto con il buissimo momento del post-elezioni: A Cool Christmas. "Westbrook classics, Panto music, Blues, Bebop, Carols, Ellington, Basie, Rossini, William Blake, John Clare, Gustav Holst, and a special treat for lovers of Sicilian Folk Music..."

Mike Westbrook and his 22-piece Uncommon Orchestra present a unique Christmas entertainment – a seasonal mix of blues, panto music, bebop, jazz carols, cutting-edge originals and well-loved big band classics by Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Following a sell-out performance at Ronnie Scott’s earlier in the year and a triumphant Jazz on a Summer’s Afternoon at the Town Hall in August, Mike Westbrook and his Uncommon Orchestra are back in Torquay at its famous Grand Hotel with A Cool Christmas. Mike grew up in Torquay and took his first musical steps there before going on to an international career as composer, bandleader and recording artist. His Uncommon Orchestra with its stunning array of soloists and vocalists and brilliant ensemble work is described in Jazz Wise magazine as “ambitious, unapologetic and uncategorisable”.

https://fougoumusic.com/fougoujazz/mike-westbrooks-cool-christmas
http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/groups/westbrookgroup
https://vimeo.com/user39335043

Importante evento (anche) musicale domani pomeriggio a Milano per ricordare Giuseppe Pinelli (1928-1969), anarchico, staffetta partigiana, esperantista, pacifista, sindacalista: a partire dalle ore 14.00 da piazza Fontana alla Questura, in varie postazioni sul percorso, si suonerà a effetto domino e si concluderà ai giardini di via Palestro per un saluto collettivo.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/50pinelli
http://www.arivista.org/riviste/Arivista/435/CiaoPino.pdf

Concludono questa sera a Rovereto (Tn) un anno intenso segnato da performance multimediali dal vivo - spesso in luoghi insoliti e suggestivi, come il Civico Planetario di Milano - e dalla pubblicazione dell'ottimo album di esordio, per la berlinese Aut Records: Phase Duo, ovvero Eloisa Manera e Stefano Greco. Sul web li si può seguire tramite YT e Soundcloud, ascoltare una recente intervista per la RSI e ammirare l'affascinante Prometheus Journey, sorta di sinfonia visiva diretta per loro da Stefano De Felici.

https://www.phaseduo.com
https://www.facebook.com/phaseduo
https://www.musicamorfosi.it/phaseduo
https://youtu.be/VfHlJCetFMA
https://youtu.be/K6c-DTuFaUo

Chi se l'era perso nell'edizione allegata alla rivista Musica Jazz nel settembre 2014 non se lo faccia sfuggire adesso, rinato in nuova veste presso Da Vinci Publishing: è unico! Artchipel Orchestra plays Soft Machine.

https://sites.google.com/site/artchipelorchestra
https://www.facebook.com/ArtchipelOrchestra
https://davinci-edition.com/product/c00173
https://tinyurl.com/w87p9v6

Ultimo (ma non ultimo) volume di una serie di antologie tematiche dedicate da Cherry Red Records alle musiche più o meno alternative e innovatrici in ambito pop rock ed elettronica prodotte nel Regno Unito a cavallo degli anni Settanta e Ottanta giunge Further Perspectives & Distortion, sottotitolato appunto An Encyclopedia Of British Experimental And Avante-Garde Music 1976-1984. Tre cd che attingono alle discografie ufficiali dei titolari, e quindi privi di inediti di rilievo, dove comunque si affollano - in ordine alfabetico - nomi cari e carissimi quali Amm, Art Bears, Gavin Bryars, Paul Burwell con David Toop, Bob Cobbing, Lindsay Cooper, Lol Coxhill con Morgan Fisher, David Cunningham, Robert Fripp, Fred Frith (un episodio di Gravity), Bill Gilonis con Tim Hodgkinson, Henry Cow (con Industry), Het, Soft Machine (epoca Softs), Swell Maps, The Work, This Heat, John White e Robert Wyatt (con l'inimitabile Rangers In The Night). Presso la casa madre il prezzo è quasi da pensierino natalizio.

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/further-perspectives-distortion-an-encyclopedia-of-british-experimental-and-avante-garde-music-1976-1984
https://www.discogs.com/Further-Perspectives-Distortion

Che Il mondo è un problema lo dice anche Alberto Piccinini. E fa cinque esempi per L'idealista, su Rai Radio 3: Nine Funerals Of The Citizen King, Terrain, Gretel's Tale, The Song Of Investment Capital Overseas, Moments Of Delight.

https://tinyurl.com/t272zdf

John Greaves offre in presa diretta una delle quarantanove letture che fanno parte del progetto Bardo pour John Giorno voluto da Laure Limongi per rendere omaggio al poeta americano nei giorni immediatamente successivi alla sua scomparsa: è un frammento di un celebre testo del 1994, Just say no to family values.

Série de 49 lectures hommages qui emprunte la durée du Bardo Thodöl (ou Livre tibétain des morts décrivant les états de conscience et les perception qui se succèdent après la mort jusqu’à la renaissance ou la libération du cycle des réincarnations) et, dans une certaine mesure, son intention, non pas dans un sens religieux à travers la récitation des textes canoniques (John Giorno était bouddhiste, suivant le courant nyingma du bouddhisme tibétain, son Sangha doit s’en charger) mais comme un accompagnement qui exprime affinité et affection, infusant sa poésie dans la rue, le quotidien, le banal – parfois si profond quand on sait le regarder – comme il n’a cessé de le faire.

https://laurelimongi.com/2019/10/14/bardo-pour-john-giorno

Appena prima del concerto in omaggio a Robert Wyatt trasmesso mercoledì scorso da Radio France - del quale rimane disponibile il file audio presso il sito dell'emittente - è andata in onda una breve conversazione tra Wyatt e John Greaves, tenuta di recente a casa del Nostro: tra le altre cose un ricordo di Daevid Allen, la collaborazione con 'Henry Vache', il concerto a Roma a Piazza Navona, i testi di James Brown...

C'est à son domicile, dans le nord de l’Angleterre, que Robert Wyatt a reçu son complice John Greaves, bassiste, pianiste, chanteur et compositeur avec qui il avait notamment enregistré son album Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard en 1975. Une discussion autour de 50 ans d’aventures et d’engouements musicaux, de Soft Machine à Justin Bieber, en passant par Henry Cow, Charlie Parker, James Brown ou Gloria Gaynor, sans oublier Rock Bottom bien sûr, dont Wyatt est très heureux qu’il continue à vivre et se réinventer…

https://www.fip.fr/live-fip-robert-wyatt-rock-bottom-04-decembre-2019

Uno dei recital letterari offerti lo scorso 17 ottobre al pubblico della libreria Ombres Blanches a Toulouse da Éric Lareine (e musicisti) era dedicato a Robert Wyatt: How Can I Rise If You Don’t Fall?, realizzato assieme a Jean-Michel Marchetti, traduttore ed editore di testi wyattiani in Francia. L'altro era nientemeno che The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, di William Blake. Sono entrambi disponibili su YT.

https://youtu.be/0jYvjlKn_eM
https://youtu.be/HanHZN8wokY
https://www.ombres-blanches.fr/ob148.pdf

E Wyatt ha parole di elogio per la musica di Thou Sonic Friend, al debutto con Cinemateria per l'etichetta Barefoot: "Your music sounds beautifully spacious - scrive a Carolyn Goodwin - allowing light and silence to play along-side you all… The combination of voice and instruments is unique; a remarkable effect in itself… this is so good."

New member Carolyn Goodwin makes her debut release on Barefoot with Cinemateria, an LP release with her trio Thou Sonic Friend, featuring Goodwin (clarinet, bass clarinet, voice), Birgitte Lyregaard (vocals, percussion, objects) and Peter Tinning (guitar, effects). Cinemateria is a radical and profound musical response to the depravities and delights the members of Thou Sonic Friend see all around them, have encountered in art, or experienced through their imaginations, refracted through a kaleidosonic medium of their own creation. Considering the backgrounds of the musicians involved and their wide musical & cultural interests, as well as the collective and improvisational nature of their music-making, this could – reductively – be described as an eclectic work of jazz-based contemporary music. However, it’s much more style-, genre-, and artform-defying than that. The music is at times cartoonishly playful – incorporating all kinds of sounds, at others theatrically profound, and at still others movingly intimate, but it always disrupts one’s expectations and sense of music and of the world; making them new, as true art should.

https://www.facebook.com/ThouSonicFriend

https://barefootrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cinemateria

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9THPo6e47USwCLDZ32Zew

Fa capolino su YT il file audio associato al progetto su Robert Wyatt Postcards from Italy, un libretto di un'ottantina di pagine - oggi di difficile reperibilità - prodotto nel 2002 da Stampa Alternativa/Nuovi Equilibri contenente scritti, interviste, discografia e vari contributi fotografici curato da Claudio Chianura. Il cd allegato conteneva tre tracce sonore realizzate da Walter Prati in omaggio al Nostro: Robert's Dream, Three Variations On "The Duchess".

https://youtu.be/jn3xirFU5Ww
https://www.discogs.com/Robert-Wyatt-Walter-Prati-Postcards-From-Italy

Procede con Album Photo il progetto Truc, nove capitoli tematici realizzati in casa InPolySons d'intesa con MonsterK7 con la produzione sia del grazioso supporto fisico - un box a tiratura limitata con musicassetta e vari materiali grafici allegati - sia di quello digitale: "Truc is a serie of 9 thematics, curious, frenzied, improbable, crazy, unique and quirky compilations. For this second volume in the series, called Album Photo, photos of anonymous and forgotten people unearthed in flea market of Paris, gain new life thanks to musicians found by Truc! Musical snapshots that are not clichés."

http://inpolysons.free.fr/en/truc-3-album-photo.html
http://monsterk7.com/catalogue/album-photo
https://compilationstruc.bandcamp.com/album/album-photo

Serata di gran festa musicale domani sera presso La Sala Rossa a Montréal (Québec) con quattro diversi concerti - ci saranno tra gli altri il quintetto di Jean Derome con un lavoro dedicato a Steve Lacy e il ritorno di un antico quintetto guidato da Joane Hétu, Castor et Compagnie - e la presentazione in anteprima di un gruzzolo di nuove produzioni discografiche promosse dall'inarrestabile Dame: protagonisti oltre a Derome ed Hétu anche Quatuor Bozzini, Ratchet Orchestra, Gabriel Dharmoo, Marie-Hélène Breault con Pamela Reimer e il portentoso Ensemble SuperMusique.

DAME was created in 1991 by musician-producer Joane Hétu to distribute and promote new music and musicians. With many years of experience in the music industry, DAME opens up new musical avenues little known in Canada. In its constantly expanding catalogue, DAME supports different independant labels from Quebec, mostly specialised in musique actuelle, amongst which we find Ambiances Magnétiques, Ambiances Magnétiques Jazz, Malasartes Musique, Monsieur Fauteux m’entendez-vous? and Collection QB. DAME distributes throughout Canada and abroad and is rapidly acquiring world reputation. For the passionate listener, the curious ear and all music lovers.

https://actuellecd.com

https://www.facebook.com/events/521685232011023

Morphius Records, distributore di cose ReR per il mercato statunitense, inaugura su Bandcamp uno spazio dedicato agli Henry Cow, con il Cow Box Redux naturalmente in grande evidenza e altri album del gruppo (al momento manca all'appello il solo Unrest): "The band who invented a new genre, changed music forever & carved out a permanent place in rock history. They were among the first bands signed to Richard Branson's Virgin label in 1973, on the recommendation of Soft Machine's Robert Wyatt, who described them as "me favourite band in the world". Their blend of free jazz and experimental rock make them one of the greatest British bands of all time."

"Morphius Records is an independent musician-run record label/distributor & music manufacturer from Baltimore, now entering our 25th year in operation. We're not genre-restrictive–we like all sorts of good music. We've had the privilege of working with hundreds of amazing artists the last quarter century and hope to work with many more."

https://henrycow.bandcamp.com/album/the-henry-cow-box-redux

Un ritratto pieno di Bob Drake è invece quello scritto da lui stesso, una lunga-lunga-lunga autobiografia (in progress): "Many times over the past decade I tried writing one of these, then forgot or said I'd do it next time I was asked why there wasn't one. I finally did it because the only online entry about me and my work is long out-of-date and incomplete, only partly true, and I found it's nearly impossible to get the editors to update or change anything. So I got busy and finally wrote me own story."

http://bdrak.com/bob/bio_page_1.html

Quasi un ritratto di Chris Cutler quello proposto ai suoi ascoltatori l'altra sera da DJ SiniMin di Wayo 104.3FM a Rochester, NY. La trasmissione si intitola - ma dai! - File Under Popular: "Experimental and avant garde, emphasizing free jazz, Canterbury, RIO/Zeul, and chamber rock. One half frivolous, one half serious, and one half silliness. Mostly stuff that you can play in the car, office, or home. Mostly." La puntata è la numero 163, e la si riascolta tramite Mixcloud.

https://wayofm.org/shows/file-under-popular
https://www.mixcloud.com/file-under-popular-163-chris-cutler

Maxi-proposte nel mini-aggiornamento di dicembre del catalogo ReR: After Dinner, Tim Hodgkinson, The Watts, il quarto volume non ufficiale dei Missing Chapters di Chris Cutler e relativa serie ancora disponibile per intero, Paolo Angeli con Iva Bittová, Fred Frith, David Myers, molte collezioni (anche natalizie) tra cui quelle di Biota, Sun Ra, Alan Jenkins e The Necks, ovviamente il libro di Pienkut (in entrambe  le versioni) e il Cow Box Redux, tutti i Points East in vinile - in attesa dell'ancora rinviata riedizione in cd - e poi i ritrovamenti di Musica Urbana (1976) e dell'indimenticabile album di debutto di Feliu Gasull in duo con Joan Albert Amargos (1977). Ancor più irresistibili lo speciale ciclo di quattro nuovi lavori di Brian Woodbury dal titolo Anthems and Antithets, pubblicati a ogni cambio di stagione via via nel corso del 2020, e l'attesa nuova raccolta di saggi di Cutler All Change: Music, Memory and Technology, per la quale si consiglia la sottoscrizione.

http://www.rermegacorp.com

Evan Parker dona alcuni brani via Bandcamp (Work in Progress) quale personale contributo a una raccolta di fondi per finanziare le attività del Vortex londinese, dove da anni è ospite regolare. E per il concerto in programma domani convoca gli amici Alexander Hawkins, John Edwards e Paul Lytton.

"The Vortex is my haven from the demands of the road. Thanks to a great understanding that started with David Mossman, the original director, I have the opportunity to perform there each month. To play music in a club of that size for an audience who have come to listen is the optimal situation for small group improvisation. The spectrum of music that I am involved in ranges from "free jazz" to "free improvisation" - these are both terms that are very approximate - but The Vortex is, for me, a place to play "free jazz". I cannot imagine life without it." (Evan Parker)

Vortex Jazz Club
11 Gillett Square
London, N16 8AZ
T: 020 7254 4097
E: info@vortexjazz.co.uk
W: http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk

Prima un concerto dei soli AMM nella classica formazione a tre - Keith Rowe, Eddie Prévost e John Tilbury - poi a seguire una loro rilettura di una sezione di Treatise assieme a Formanex e John White. Questa sera al Cafe Oto londinese: a new musical experience at the edge of genres...

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/amm-formanex
https://www.facebook.com/events/2409316125832387
https://youtu.be/X2hYGqIFRyk

Anche Anthony Braxton sottopone in anteprima all'attenzione di appassionati e studiosi le molte iniziative che l'anno prossimo andranno a far parte della Braxton75 Living Archive Campaign, in concomitanza a giugno del suo settantacinquesimo compleanno. Chi vuole contribuire a sostenerne l'impegno economico consideri che tra le ricompense potrebbe esserci un box di 8 cd registrato di recente in coppia con Eugene Chadbourne: Duo (Improv) 2017.

The Tri-Centric Foundation is excited to announce Braxton75: The Music of Anthony Braxton - a new initiative building up to Anthony Braxton’s 75th birthday celebration in June 2020. Braxton75 fuses three of Tri-Centric’s key goals: supporting live performance of Braxton’s work, publishing and distributing the compositions, and offering pedagogical services to both the professional and lay music community to nurture the next generations of artists and audiences interested in these creative practices.
Over the past five years, Tri-Centric has made tremendous progress cataloging and preparing his massive body of compositions, which has been key for developing fresh pedagogical techniques necessary to workshop both professional and student ensembles in Braxton’s unique musical approach and performance practice. Braxton’s music system demands that it be constantly evolving, responding to the unique imprint of each musician and ensemble that approaches it.
The Braxton75 project will activate this living archive, inviting select ensembles, musicians and educators, both in the U.S. and abroad, to engage with Braxton’s musical systems, compositions, and creative philosophy. Tri-Centric will collaborate with the partners, handpick suitable repertoire and will offer tailored workshops and instruction on performance practice, with the expectation that the ensembles will begin incorporating the music into their performances.
At the close of this multi-year project, Tri-Centric hopes to be at the next stage of its evolution, with Braxton’s compositional archive more accessible than ever including newly available scores, critical writings and recordings available for performers and scholars. Tri-Centric also aims to establish pedagogical standards for teaching and performing the works of Anthony Braxton, an iconoclastic American composer existing between the boundaries of jazz and classical, improvised and composed, the oral and written traditions while maintaining a firm foothold in the repertoire of contemporary American music.

https://tricentricfoundation.org/braxton75

Martin Archer di Discus Music intende produrre un nuovo album di Keith e Julie Tippett l'anno prossimo, e per farlo chiede sostegno anticipato ad appassionati e amici attraverso il sito web dell'etichetta: "Despite a wealth of excellent live recordings being available from over the years, when Discus talked to Keith and Julie about this project, they expressed a strong preference for making a new studio recording for the duo, where they would be able to overdub using multiple keyboards, voices and miscellaneous sounds.  We will probably be using Peter Gabriel's wonderful Real World Studio to make this new work, which will be produced by Keith and Julie with Martin Archer. All three of us are very excited about this project! This is a large project for Discus, which is why we are inviting subscriptions in advance to fund the recording and manufacture costs."

https://discus-music.co.uk/catalogue-mobile/dis90-241-detail

Kato Hideki e Karen Mantler rimettono mano al progetto Plastic Spoon con la promessa di fare uscire un nuovo singolo il 25 di ogni mese: Singles in Mono. Già il primo - Kingdom, con I Am A Man - merita immediato ascolto. E basta un orecchio, osserva David Garland: "Lend an ear - one ear is enough, because Plastic Spoon demands that its music be heard in mono."

"Karen Mantler croons about time, fate, money, sex, and death on Kato Hideki's multilayered, mono-mixed, art-pop feast. Come for some of New York's finest musicians working outside their usual wheelhouses; stay for thumping, fizzing songs reflecting the way we live today, in all its beauty and despair."

http://plasticspoon.net
https://katohideki.bandcamp.com/plastic-spoon-singles-in-mono
https://vimeo.com/211055407

E quasi di altri tempi, ruvido e raro come una perla di collana Shimmy sfilata a inizio anni Novanta e ritrovata inopinatamente trent'anni dopo, è l'originale cd dell'Electric Pink Moon Project, prodotto or ora da Fonoarte/Revenge Records: alle prese con il super-classico di Nick Drake sono Luciano Margorani e Federico Zanoni, con Deborah Perry e Dave Willey.

https://www.facebook.com/luciano.margorani

https://www.facebook.com/Revenge.Records.Italy
http://fonoarteblog.blogspot.com/2019/10/electric-pink-moon-project

Approda in Molkaya, territorio di un mondo nuovissimo, l'andar senza meta arcano e meraviglioso degli Hobo - Massimo Giuntoli e Eloisa Manera - sulle orme di un viaggiatore senza tempo: Edmund.

https://www.massimogiuntoli.com/hobo-cd
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/massimogiuntoli/hobo-edmund
https://youtu.be/WXUWX48REpU
https://youtu.be/xIcZMe1aRsw

Prende il titolo da uno dei suoi album più amati il libro riccamente illustrato che raccoglie i testi delle canzoni dell'intera carriera post-Soft Machine di Kevin Ayers, Shooting at the Moon-The Collected Lyrics of Kevin Ayers. Lo ha curato la figlia Galen per Faber Music: "It has taken me the best part of 5 years to get Kevin’s musical legacy in order, and this book is set to be the crown jewel of the estate… Editing and curating this book I revisited, remembered and clarified many ‘unsolved mysteries’ that were missing in my understanding of my father’s life-narrative, and this has proven both transformative and necessary." C'è anche l'affettuoso ricordo di Robert Wyatt, che così confessa: "What I don't know how to say now is that I loved him then, and I love the memory of him now, and I shall always miss him."

http://www.fabermusic.com/shooting-at-the-moon-the-collected-lyrics-of-kevin-ayers

E più particolari ci sono ovviamente nella nuova edizione - aggiornata e molto riveduta - del classico studio crimsoniano di Sid Smith, pubblicato diciotto anni fa da Helter Skelter e ora rilanciato da Panegyric con titolo In the Court of King Crimson: An Observation Over 50 Years.

Panegyric is releasing Sid Smith's significant revision and expansion of his critically acclaimed bio, In the Court of King Crimson (Helter Skelter Publishing, 2001). More than merely adding what has gone on in the nearly 20 years since the original book was published, at nearly double its size, the 2019 edition of In the Court of King Crimson: An Observation Over 50 Years is a major revision to the original book, with Smith not only revising its structure, but reshaping its entire narrative. Fans of the original will find plenty more in-depth information about King Crimson, from its early pre-KC days as Giles, Giles & Fripp right up to its current 50th Anniversary activities.

https://tinyurl.com/wefzu36
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/in-the-court-of-king-crimson
https://burningshed.com/sid-smith_in-the-court-of-king-crimson_book

Molti particolari poco o pochissimo noti finora emergono anche dalla pubblicazione di Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings, l'album di canzoni poesie e illustrazioni prodotto artigianalmente a inizio anni Settanta - epoca Blue - direttamente da Joni Mitchell e dato in dono allora a una ristretta cerchia di conoscenti e amici. Lo dà alle stampe in edizione ampliata Canongate, a Edimburgo.

Between the beautiful line art, felt-tip pen drawings, paintings, and handwritten lyrics to legendary and unheard songs alike, Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings offers treasure after treasure. It seems miraculous that Joni - who once so sternly objected even a greatest hits album - has chosen to reappraise her work in this way, but as she writes in her foreword, "Work is meant to be seen, or heard, as the case may be." How fortunate we are that fans and new initiates alike are now able to enjoy this unprecedented look into Joni Mitchell's most intimate work.

https://www.newyorker.com/joni-mitchell-discusses-her-new-book

https://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=4515
https://canongate.co.uk/morning-glory-on-the-vine-early-songs-and-drawings

Particolari ancora nascosti o poco noti su Rock Bottom? Ne indica qualcuno, en passant, Bill MacCormick: "Rock Bottom is the one album I would have loved to play on. Knowing that, in another universe, it would have been Gary Windo, Francis Monkman and me helping Robert interpret much of that music, is frustrating. Well, only in a way because what Robert et al produced was one of the most wonderful and hear-rending collections of music ever recorded. Not all of it was written in Venice. When Robert and Alfie moved into the flat in Lebanon Park in Twickenham bought for them by lustrous and radiant Julie Christie I remember asking Robert what had inspired Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road. “Alfie”, he replied, “asked me to write something to make her cry”."

https://www.facebook.com/bill.maccormick/posts/3142025665839891

Presso Soundcloud e Echoes and Dust si può ascoltare in streaming - in anticipo di qualche giorno rispetto all'uscita ufficiale - l'album con cui debutta il progetto Whistling Arrow, probabile evoluzione di Oscilanz che ora vede coinvolti Charles Hayward, Laura Cannell, Andre Bosman e gli Ex-Easter Island Head. Così scrive Stewart Lee per introdurre il lavoro: "If you’ve been searching for an album that suggests a pagan mediaeval aesthetic colliding with an electrified art rock sensibility, to create a mysterious new entity unrecognizable from the sum of its parts, then look no further, true believer. It’s here!"

Whistling Arrow is the debut collaboration between critically acclaimed composer and performer Laura Cannell, This Heat/Camberwell Now founder and seasoned composer/improviser Charles Hayward, multi-disciplinary musician Andre Bosman and prepared guitar minimalists Ex-Easter Island Head. Brought together by a shared bill on Cannell's Arts Council-funded Modern Ritual tour, the six musicians convened for a single session in Liverpool's Parr Street Studios in October 2017. Recording live in the room with few preconceptions and a warm appreciation of each others' work, the sextet improvised on violins, recorders, drums, piano, electronics, prepared guitars, percussion and voice. The music of Whistling Arrow represents a deeply empathic meeting of unique musical voices: evoking a musical territory of the ancient and the modern, earthen and concrete.

https://godunknownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/whistling-arrow
https://www.echoesanddust.com/2019/11/whistling-arrow
https://soundcloud.com/god-unknown-records/sets/whistling-arrow-st-lp

Alvin Curran incontra Jon Rose al Café Grand Abyss, ed è quasi un dialogo sopra i massimi sistemi del mondo. Ne è testimone Cutler: "Two giants on great form: Alvin spookily surefooted in deployment of his often counterintuitive palette of sounds, Jon just stunning – in a partnership that provides perfect context for both performers. And it’s beautifully recorded. I know this stuff is a hard sell, but it deserves better; this is proper musicianship and it embodies a lifetime of research and performance coupled with some exquisite musical thinking, and no sense of complacency; a master-class. Dense and complex with passages of simple perfection, and so perfectly formed I’d recommend listening to no more than 1 or 2 tracks at a sitting."

If this CD were in colour, then it would be full spectrum, containing as it does more musical bumps, slides, and rides than is decent for a CD of improvised music. There are nods to minimalism, noise, and jazz, but a description of this musical encounter might be best described as maximalist. Just when you think the parameters have been sorted, there is a twist, and we are off on another journey - the extrovert and joyous followed suddenly by the dark and strange.

https://tinyurl.com/curran-rose

Domani a Trento (Teatro Sanbàpolis) e il giorno dopo a Firenze (Auditorium Flog): arriva anche qui il Long Goodbye Tour dei Pere Ubu, oggi in capo a David Thomas, Keith Moliné, Gagarin - cioè Graham Dowdall - e Chris Cutler. Solo due tappe, ma si spera non le ultime: "Despite being billed locally as 'the last ever,' we hope that these will not be the last ever appearances in Italy. We like the food too much to say never again..."

For the record, at no point did we describe The Long Goodbye as the last Pere Ubu album. In the early stages we feared that this might be the case but we were always scrupulous in referring to it as the end of 'a' road, the end of 'a' way of doing things that involved wrapping up what had gone before - never 'the' end. This distinction is lost on some writers and promoters.
Likewise, there is no farewell tour. At some point the end of touring will come but we will not declare it. Note the Death Protocols we published some years ago: When David dies there is to be no public acknowledgement. A backlog of photos will be posted periodically along with news items and 'personal' commentaries from David that are, when possible, linked to some contemporaneous happening. 'Interviews' will be conducted by email. At a convenient point no sooner than two years from the event, Ubu Projex will note, "Oh, yeah, he died two years ago."
With anything Ubu there is never a finality. All is a work-in-progress forevermore.

http://www.ubuprojex.com