Yumi Hara parla di Lindsay Cooper conversando con Jude Cowan Montague nel programma The News Agents su Resonance FM: la puntata è quella dello scorso 25 maggio e replicata il martedì successivo, ora conservata in Mixcloud.

Yumi Hara presents the Lindsay Cooper Songbook, a series of events with fellow musicians such as Chris Cutler and Chlöe Herington. Co-founder of the Feminist Improvising Group and a member of the groups Comus and Henry Cow, Cooper brought the bassoon and compositional techniques of 20th century art music into the world of '70s experimental rock. Hara discusses her own work and opportunities for women in art music. With live improvisation and performance.

http://thenewsagents.blogspot.com
https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/the-news-agents-25th-may-2019

A dieci anni dalla scomparsa del compianto Hugh Hopper si riuniscono a rendergli omaggio alcuni amici carissimi e colleghi di lunga data: François Verly, Patrick Buchmann, Dominique Grimaldi e Patrice Meyer, con ospiti Didier Malherbe e Pierre Olivier Govin. Presenta Aymeric Leroy: questa sera al club Le Triton, a Les Lilas (Francia).

Hugh nous avait quittés prématurément, il y a dix ans. Bassiste phare du début des années 70, cité régulièrement aux côtés de Jack Bruce ou Tim Bogert dans les référendums, il avait collaboré avec Carla Bley, mais entra dans l’histoire surtout pour son rôle de bassiste-compositeur de Soft Machine dans sa période la plus créative. Il s’y illustra dans l’écriture de longues pièces instrumentales, mais également dans le format « pop song » pour Robert Wyatt, avec qui il continua sa collaboration par la suite. La reformation du groupe en 2002 sous l’appellation Softworks (avec Allan Holdsworth, Elton Dean, John Marshall), puis Soft Machine Legacy (avec John Etheridge) l’avait à nouveau catapulté sur la scène internationale. Cet homme doux, quintessence de la courtoisie british, était aussi artistiquement intransigeant. Sachant s’entourer, Hugh n’était jamais aussi heureux qu’en entendant ses solistes s’exprimer dans des compositions qu’il avait ciselées à leur mesure. Quelques-uns de ses collaborateurs français lui rendent hommage en reprenant le répertoire qu’il avait créé pour Soft Machine, et pour ses trois premiers albums en solo.

http://www.letriton.com/hommage-a-hugh-hopper-2354
http://www.letriton.com/files/tribute-tu-hugh-hopper

Il nome adottato non era ancora In Cahoots ma i brani in scaletta erano già ben definiti, e destinati a divenire classici del gruppo, allora un quartetto: Above and Below, Your Root 2, Second Sight, Eastern Region, Hard Shoulder, naturalmente Calyx, e altri ancora. Una registrazione ora disponibile al sito Phil Miller Legacy riporta a una delle sue primissime apparizioni al Bull & Gate in Kentish Town a Londra, nel dicembre 1982. Con il chitarrista c'erano Elton Dean, Richard Sinclair e Pip Pyle: "In Cahoots was founded in 1982 as a vehicle for Phil’s compositions. Here is the earliest recorded gig we have: 1982 at the famous Bull & Gate, Kentish Town, London, before the band got the name In Cahoots and went out as The Phil Miller Quartet: with Phil on guitar, Pip Pyle on drums, Elton Dean on sax and Richard Sinclair on bass. The band played many gigs at the Bull & Gate. The first was on 9th November and this one was on 14th December."

https://philmillerthelegacy.com/music/in-cahoots-bull-gate-1982

Dieci anni dopo la scomparsa di Steve Gore - fondatore dei Rascal Reporters assieme a Steve Kretzmer - tornano in circolazione in digitale gli album prodotti negli anni Ottanta, quelli che diedero loro una qualche relativa notorietà, rivisti e rimessi a punto con ritocchi e aggiunte anche sostanziose rispetto al formato originale. Tra i primi titoli c'è ovviamente Happy Accidents, ma c'è anche una mini serie di materiali finora incompleti e mai venuti alla luce (Redux) assieme a un imminente album completamente nuovo (The Strange Case of Steve).

http://rascalreporters.com
https://www.facebook.com/rascalreporters
https://rascalreporters.bandcamp.com/album/redux-vol-1

In ricordo di Davey Williams, scomparso a 66 anni lo scorso 6 aprile, scrive l'amico e scrittore Lee Shook: "Growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, Davey Williams was something of an enigma. For many in town and around the state he was seen as a befuddling member of the local avant garde, while a smaller coterie knew him as the towering hero of experimental guitar and surrealist-inspired free improvisation that had gained him international notoriety through his work with LaDonna Smith and Trans Museq. It was an interesting if frustrating dichotomy that persisted throughout his career, and even until his death in April 2019..."

 https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/davey-williams

Dell'ampio e mutevole ensemble Ottawa Music Company guidato a inizio anni Settanta da Dave Stewart e Chris Cutler si ha pochissimo materiale, si sa: i ricordi di qualche diretto protagonista - Cutler, in particolare - qualche foto, un paio di programmi di sala (illustratissimi e creativi), e forse nessuna traccia audio. Ci toccherà continuare a immaginarla, perciò, la 'loro' Moon in June, cantata da Barbara Gaskin...

This large rock orchestra led in 1971-72 by Dave Stewart and Chris Cutler has unfortunately left no recorded legacy of its two-year existence. Cutler : "Before I joined Henry Cow, I was looking for interesting people to work with. I met a lot of them, many who were musicians second and wanted to do something else for a living. I knew Egg very well in those days, and lived in a house with Steve Hillage and so on. I had the idea to make a kind of rock composers orchestra to play music by these people - because there were a lot of great composers with no performers to make their music live. There were about five composers I guess - Bill Phillips, Bob Chudley, Bob Bery, Anthony Marshall and Michael Hooper -, and these were mostly composers who weren't in groups and whose music wasn't being heard at all, and who have subsequently just vanished. It's a great shame. With Dave Stewart, I formed the group. The other members of Egg were involved, Steve Hillage too in Ottawa #1 [as well as flautist/guitarist Jeremy Baines] - but the point was the other, 'unknown' people - we were 26 people altogether - a pool of composers and players. I joined Henry Cow during this period, and the #2 Ottawa included Henry Cow. We played Robert Wyatt's "Moon In June" - as a tribute - and "Peaches En Regalia" and "Dali's Car" - for fun - but again the point was that we played the music of the members of the Ottawa Company. Not repeat, not so-called Canterbury stuff. There were few concerts, about seven gigs in all - they were big undertakings, a lot of rehearsal and a lot of musicians on stage. The idea of it was that a pool of musicians existed to play music that was composed ideally for them". The Ottawa Music Company was the first outlet to showcase Stewart's talents as composer and to assemble future Northettes Amanda Parsons, Barbara Gaskin and Ann Rosenthal (in the final line-up).

https://tinyurl.com/y4y5g3qz
http://www.ccutler.co.uk/theottawamusicco.htm
http://www.calyx-canterbury.fr/bands/chrono/henrycow.html

Compie oggi novantacinque anni Marshall Allen, e non poteva che festeggiarli in gioiosa compagnia nella sua casa londinese di adozione, il Cafe Oto: questa sera, con la Sun Ra Arkestra naturalmente. Auguri!

As a young musician, Marshall Belford Allen (b. May 25, 1924) performed with pianist Art Simmons, Don Byas and James Moody before enrolling in the Paris Conservatory of Music. After relocating to Chicago, Allen became a pupil of Sun Ra, subsequently joining the Arkestra in 1958 and leading Sun Ra's formidable reed section for the next 40 years. Marshall, along with John Gilmore, June Tyson and James Jacson, lived, rehearsed, toured and recorded with Sun Ra almost exclusively for much of Sun Ra's musical career. As a member of the Arkestra, Allen pioneered the Free Jazz movement of the early sixties, having remarkable influence on the leading voices in the avant-garde. He is featured on over 200 Sun Ra recordings in addition to collaborations with Phish, Sonic Youth, Digable Planets and Medeski, Martin & Wood.

Allen assumed the position of Arkestra Musical Director in 1995, following the ascension of Sun Ra in 1993 and John Gilmore in 1995. Marshall continues to be committed to the study, research, and development of Sun Ra's musical precepts and has launched the Sun Ra Arkestra into a dimension beyond that of mere "ghost" band by writing fresh arrangements of Sun Ra's music, as well as composing new music and arrangement for the Arkestra. He works unceasingly to keep the big-band tradition alive.

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/sun-ra-arkestra-may-2019

Debutta con un'intervista in due parti a David Thomas la serie di podcast dedicata ai progetti del Nostro assieme a Pere Ubu, Rocket from the Tombs, Two Pale Boys e altri. Si chiama UbuDub e ha come argomento d'esordio il nuovo album atteso per metà luglio, The Long Goodbye.

https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/pb-7hcxy-4b160e/UbuDub

Ultime apparizioni a Londra per This Is Not This Heat, domani e dopodomani all'Albany a Deptford. Altri appuntamenti internazionali conclusivi si terranno nell'estate, tuttavia potrebbe non essere ancor scritta la parola fine: "This Is Not This Heat was always conceived as an umbrella project title. So while the band will be ending with some international dates by the summer there are ideas in development."

Although widely considered to be post-punk’s finest, This Heat actually began performing their music in the early days of London’s punk era. Within their two albums and EP they perfected a strange and volatile new strain of avant-garde rock that time has proved to be massively influential, a blueprint for much that would follow: post-rock, math rock, homemade musique concrète, experimental electronica…

Exactly 40 years to the day of their first gig in 1976 the two surviving members (Hayward and Bullen) of the original three came together, with a large group of collaborators, to perform expanded versions of the recordings. Conceived solely as a two night residency at Café Oto, under the project title of This Is Not This Heat, it sold out in a matter of hours with fans travelling from as far as Japan. An invitation from the Barbican followed along with countless offers from around the world. A touring band distilled in early 2017 leading to selective performances at major festivals and venues in the UK, Europe, USA and Japan with unfaltering acclaim from critics and audiences alike.

Ahead of their time, This Heat’s music sounds as startlingly original and relevant, live and on record, as the day it was created, but Charles Hayward says of the decision to end this iteration of the band, “moving forward has always been deep inside the music and we need to resolve that contradiction. Now.” and that “to play our final London gigs at the Albany feels right, This Heat played Rock Against Racism gigs at the old building and we look forward to returning to South London and a vibrant community of resistance and creativity”.

https://www.facebook.com/ThisIsNotThisHeat

https://www.thealbany.org.uk/shows/this-is-not-this-heat
https://youtu.be/wkyfdbA1U-0

Charles Hayward è uomo copertina del numero di giugno del mensile The Wire, a sottolineare un periodo di iperattività musicale e artistica come pochi altri nella lunga carriera. Facile facile il gioco di parole per introdurlo: This Is Not This Heat, This Is Charles Hayward.

https://www.thewire.co.uk/charles-hayward-s-wire-cover-shoot

Un piccolo oggetto di desiderio lo è davvero, se in pochi giorni la Blank Tapes - etichetta di produzioni artistiche e musicali di Londra, ad Hackney - ha dovuto venir incontro alle richieste con una terza ristampa della musicassetta: è Objects of Desire, una ricognizione sonora domestica fissata al volo su nastro da Charles Hayward a metà anni Settanta. La ricorda bene l'autore: "Summer of 1975 I had the house to myself. I had some ideas that I wanted to make real. So I did what I’d always done, work with what was to hand. I’d record onto one cassette machine, play that back into the room while also adding something live, ultra primitive overdubbing. I’d been doing a lot of thinking about how music didn’t really work in an either/or way, it was only our need to put things in boxes that did that, so whatever the next idea, that was what I made. I deliberately avoided using the drum kit too much, instead I focussed on my collection of instruments collected since childhood, junk market finds, radio noise clouds, second hand keyboards advertised in the back of the Melody Maker, plastic swanee whistles from Woolworth’s taped together, kazoos, an old tape found in a Soho dustbin. At the same time the simple cassette machines added their own presence to the sound, whispering traffic passing unpredictably, the crude compression breathing; a lot of the work happened inside the machines."

https://blankeditions.bandcamp.com
https://blankeditions.bigcartel.com/product/charles-hayward-objects-of-desire-the-blank-tapes-27

Richard Lee ha seguito giovedì scorso il debutto londinese della Granite Band guidata da Kate Westbrook e ne scrive in termini assai positivi per LondonJazz. Ma non è tempo di riposare sugli allori, perché ora si rimette in pista il Westbrook-Blake... A Mosca! A Mosca!

The latest formation of the Blake band travels to Moscow for a performance of The Westbrook Blake at The Dom on May 22nd, as part of a UK-Russia Year of Music Festival. Joining Phil Minton, Kate Westbrook and Mike Westbrook will be Billy Thompson, violin, Karen Street, accordion, Chris Biscoe saxophones and Steve Berry, double bass. They will be working with a 15-piece choir, directed by Zoya Savinkov.

http://www.londonjazznews.com/2019/05/review-kate-westbrook
http://dom.com.ru/events/4415
https://www.facebook.com/events/2300120620011468

Andrew Greenaway, uno dei massimi conoscitori zappiani, ha visto poche sere fa a Londra il controverso concerto che utilizza in scena, tra i musicisti in carne ed ossa, immagini tridimensionali in movimento del compianto Frank Zappa: The Bizarre World of Frank Zappa. E gli è piaciuto: "Much tosh has already been said and written about this tour, and I confess I was initially sceptical about the concept. But the reality is clear and simple: outstanding musicians playing some of the world's finest music with fun visuals. What's not to like?"

http://www.idiotbastard.com/reviews.htm#World

Di ritorno dall'edizione del Rock In Opposition francese appena conclusa a Lione e Bourgoin-Jallieu Nicolas Bevernage e Sylvie Hamon pubblicano alcuni contributi fotografici e video presso i rispettivi spazi web. Tra le curiosità documentate un intervento pomeridiano fuori programma di Tim Hodgkinson nel set di Geoff Leigh (con Maximiliano D'Ambrosio) ricambiato poco dopo dalla partecipazione del flautista - con Keith Macksoud, bassista dei Present - a un omaggio ai Gong di Daevid Allen e Gilli Smyth (The Isle of Everywhere) offerto come bis da The Watts (Hodgkinson appunto, Chris Cutler e Yumi Hara). Per un resoconto più articolato c'è il contributo di Hervé Laurent per Radio Pluriel.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/169719920030779
https://tinyurl.com/yxu2mtk2
https://www.facebook.com/Hamon.Sylvie
https://www.radiopluriel.fr/superbe-edition-du-rock-in-opposition-2019

Il libro, si sa, sarà pronto a settembre, ma lo si può richiedere già ora a ReR. Esiste in due edizioni, una accademica e una tascabile, con notevole differenza nel prezzo: Henry Cow-The World Is A Problem, di Benjamin Piekut.

Lo presenta Chris Cutler: "This is an academically motivated, but for the most part straightforwardly told story that tries painstakingly to piece together what was going on in Henry Cow in respect both of its individual internal relationships, and in the way these intersected with the band’s collective negotiations across the interlocking spheres of the world at large (commercial, political, sexual, theoretical, practical &c.) It tracks the band chronologically from its inception to its orderly close, employing a wealth of testimony, interviews, contemporary documentation and private records. All the surviving members of the band co-operated, giving Ben whatever materials they were willing to make public - some more than others, which is why, inevitably, the perspectives of the more generous record-keepers are more prominent. Ben also interviewed everyone he could find who had ever worked or travelled or had significant contact with the band; listened to every bootleg and read every article and interview: the research is extremely thorough. For the rest, Ben has had to interpret, edit and, occasionally, take sides as he tries to fit what he has into a sociological narrative. No one in the band will agree fully with his analysis, but neither would they agree fully with one another’s; subjectivities are profoundly complex. For most of the book, Henry Cow’s actions and negotiations with the world are well served - it’s a very thorough and detailed history. Bit when it comes to their negotiations with one another the narrative necessarily takes the form of a - mostly plausible - attempt by the future, guided by its own biases and interests, to unearth things that were already hidden when they were current: I mean motives, hopes, ambitions, insecurities and all the ties that bind, and undermine. This aspect of the book is uneven because the testimonies are uneven. That clarified, I think every Henry Cow fan will need it since it’s a mine of invaluable information – just sometimes best read between the lines."

https://tinyurl.com/the-world-is-a-problem

Appuntamento oggi al King's Place per il debutto londinese di Granite, lo splendido lavoro di Kate Westbrook ambientato negli emozionanti paesaggi rocciosi di Dartmoor, che da lì si estendono lungo il tratto sud-occidentale della costa dell'Inghilterra fino a Bodmin Moor, Carnmenellis, Land's End e le Isole Sorlinghe. Le musiche sono di Mike Westbrook, e la formazione in concerto è la stessa dell'omonimo album: Kate, Mike, Roz Harding, Jesse Molins, Matthew North, Billie Bottle e Coach York.

Andy Robson lo ha recensito per Jazzwise: "Granite is an evocation of all things granitic as found amid the unforgiving Dartmoor landscape. Granite could be seen as a counterpoint to Alice Oswald’s Dart poems: Westbrook’s songs of obduracy, immovability and timelessness contrasting with Oswald’s poems of fluidity and flux.The passage of time may bring constraints to performance - ‘I am restrained’ Westbrook sigh-sings on ‘Winter’ - but it also brings affordances: she can rock out (all pun’s intended) on the opening energies of ‘Tracks of Desire’, but be yearning personified on ‘Curlew Cry’. Her sung-spoken, cabaret style cracks open ‘Spread-Eagled’, with Harding’s keening tone superb, as it is throughout.Westbrook's is a voice for winter, exile, anger: but also for love and prophecy. Mike Westbrook’s settings leave that voice unrelentingly in our presence, while the addition of found sounds reflecting from granite surfaces further propels the ritualistic, ever re-cycling patterns of these songs into mythic proportions. Like A Lark Ascending, Granite etherializes into an aery nothingness, as the Westbrooks dissolve into nature itself. On the climactic ‘Yearning Bird’, Mike Westbrook’s chords decay beneath Kate’s voicings as her whistled fragment of ‘Let’s Face the Music’ fades into wind sigh and bird song. Magical."

https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/kate-westbrook-granite-a-soliloquy
http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/katewestbrook/granite.shtml

A l'improviste, Le Cri du Patchwork, Le Portrait Contemporain, Tapage Nocturne, Couleurs du Monde Ocora, e forse altri ancora... La minacciata chiusura dei suoi programmi più informativi e avanzati nel campo della ricerca, la sperimentazione, l'avanguardia, l'improvvisazione e l'apertura a molteplici culture musicali porterà Radio France a imporre a France Musique di cambiare nome, coerentemente: France Mutique. Lo afferma Jean-Jacques Birgé, artista indipendente, regista e compositore tra i più attivi sulla scena eterodossa francese - fondatore tra l'altro di Un drame musical instantané e dell'etichetta discografica GRRR6 - che molto ha prodotto per l'emittente anche nel recente passato, e che assieme a una raccolta firme di protesta ora alza una delle voci più forti contro l'insensata decisione: "Ce n'est même pas criminel, c'est suicidaire".

https://blogs.mediapart.fr/jean-jacques-birge/france-musique-un-autodafe
https://tinyurl.com/y4sj6nts

Nei propri guai finanziari la piattaforma di crowdfunding PledgeMusic ha trascinato tra i molti anche John Zorn, che ad essa si era rivolto per co-finanziare l'impegnativa produzione del Book Beri'ah. E il buco è davvero serio per Zorn e la Tzadik: quasi 200mila dollari!

John Zorn, the prolific and brilliantly iconoclastic composer, realized a dream of sorts last year when he released The Book Beriah — a box set of 11 new albums, featuring as many different groups interpreting music he had written for that purpose. The 92 songs in the set amounted to the final column of an impressive edifice: the Masada songbook, which he began just over 25 years ago, building on the legacies of Jewish folk music. Originally limited in scope to a single working band called Masada, the project expanded to include many branches and collaborators and a series of releases on Zorn's label, Tzadik.
The Book Beriah was a Tzadik release too, though its elaborate sprawl and high production costs led Zorn to involve an outside partner: PledgeMusic, a British-based, direct-to-fan crowdfunding service designed to help bring musical projects to fruition. "The only way we could have broken even was going on a platform like this," Zorn tells NPR Music. Now, after a calamitous turn for PledgeMusic — which announced last week that it is headed for bankruptcy — Zorn hopes to recoup a substantial loss: $197,559, all of it raised through the platform and still owed to Tzadik.

https://tinyurl.com/y38hz2n2
https://tzadik.limitedrun.com
https://www.facebook.com/masadabookthree

Presentato a inizio mese nei giorni dell'omonimo festival presso il Cafe Oto londinese, ora è anche in libreria: Flutter Echo-Living Within Sound, atteso racconto autobiografico di David Toop disponibile finora soltanto in Giappone. Lo pubblica l'Ecstatic Peace Library di Thurston Moore: "Ecstatic Peace Library are pleased to announce the publication of Flutter Echo: Living Within Sound by English musician, composer, writer and sound curator David Toop. His thoughtful studies on listening and sounds have become significant touchstones of contemporary music writing, revealing the breadth of his musical tastes and the immensity of his sonic world. For the first time David Toop has opened up about his own experiences, musical journeys, bands, collaborations, studies, travels, editorial and curatorial assignments, family, friendships and ideas on community. Flutter Echo is his memoir of a life enchanted with all aspects of music that is witness to some of the most significant events in modern music history. From recording for Brian Eno's Obscure Records imprint in 1975 to co-publishing the radical music magazines Musics and Collusion to developing music programming for the BBC to releasing recordings he made of Yanomami shaman rituals to working with artists such as creative pop icon Björk and Jamaican dub pioneer Prince Far-I, Toop brings his own life in music to focus in a remarkable, wonder-filled, engaging read. Approaching age 70 David Toop has opened his heart with these deeply intimate meditations on the heartbreak and harrowing moments in his personal life, as well as shared moments of bliss finding truth in sounds, shared vibrations and silence. 'A memoir,' he says, 'is simply a vehicle to talk about the ideas I find important, the difficulties and inspirations of following a life dedicated to marginal music, the richness of collaborative work and the inseparability of life and art'."

https://www.crisap.org/people/david-toop

Richard Marsella - più noto come Friendly Rich, titolare in proprio di diversi album e autore di curiose pubblicazioni a metà tra il satirico e il bizzarro - conduce da qualche tempo un ciclo di ascolti e conversazioni con amici artisti e musicisti di area canadese dal titolo Industry Tactics. Tra i più recenti episodi, conservati in forma di podcast presso Soundcloud, c'è l'incontro con John Oswald: https://soundcloud.com/industry-tactics/ep-65-john-oswald

Diamanda Galás riprende possesso del proprio catalogo discografico e annuncia l'avvio di numerose ripubblicazioni a partire dall'autunno. Primo titolo, su etichetta Intravenal Sound Operations, dovrebbe essere il celebre The Litanies Of Satan. Intanto dà il via libera a Spotify, Tidal e Bandcamp.

http://diamandagalas.com
https://daily.bandcamp.com/2019/04/26/diamanda-galas-discography
https://www.thewire.co.uk/news/54886/diamanda-galas-returns-to-digital

La collaborazione tra Peter Hammill e il gruppo svedese Ilsidurs Bane all'origine dell'album In Amazonia è accolta con grande favore, specialmente da chi ne ha seguito la presentazione dal vivo pochi giorni fa al festival portoghese Gouveia Art Rock. Con loro c'era anche Karin Nakagawa. coinvolta fin dall'inizio nella realizzazione del progetto. Scrive Richard Williams: "I love this record, for itself as well as for the fact that it arrives at a place where European rock music seemed to be heading when it veered away from American influences 50 years ago. To fulfil some of the promises made so long ago, while, sounding completely fresh and contemporary, is quite an achievement. And Hammill, 70 years old, is still going at full throttle, intensity and creativity undimmed." E anche il diretto interessato è soddisfatto: "It’s been an unusual writing process, working from the inside out and never quite sure what the ultimate destination was going to be. From my own point of view, in itself this produced a loose linkage, some narrative and musical connection between the pieces. Naturally, since the stuff isn’t structurally based on my own architecture, it’s also a long way from any (musical) norms of my own, so I think I’ve come up with something quite unusual."

https://sofasound.wordpress.com
https://thebluemoment.com/2019/05/09/peter-hammill-a-story-unfolding

Al via da oggi a sabato i tre giorni di concerti e incontri in programma a Lione e Bourgoin-Jallieu (Francia) per la nuova edizione del Rock In Opposition capitanata da Michel Besset: "La scène de Musiques Actuelles, Les Abattoirs à Bourgoin-Jallieu et le Périscope à Lyon, en partenariat avec Dur et Doux, concoctent un nouveau rendez-vous au mois de mai avec l’accueil du festival de renommée internationale, celui des musiques indomptables: Le Rock In Opposition. Des créations hors normes, des artistes et des visiteurs du monde entier se donnent rendez-vous pour se délecter de concerts complètement à part, le Rock Progressif et plus, dans tous ses états…"

https://www.facebook.com/events/973948059442524

Michael Björn di Popgruppen cerca di rincorrere la magia della voce di Wyatt negli affossamenti tortuosi dei paesaggi sonori creati in KiTsuNe / Brian The Fox da The Future Eve: "Over the course of a full album’s worth of music, we only get to hear his voice a handful of times. Over the rest, we wander through an alien landscape of electronic sound that while feeling surprisingly organic definitely sounds completely otherworldly. And when Wyatt is singing I can’t help but feel that the sounds are too alien for his voice; they seem to play from another dimension rather than with him."

https://popgruppen.com/2019/04/28/robert-wyatts-voice-scurries-between-worlds

Fred T. Baker svela al mondo i segreti di God Song inaugurando una nuova sezione ('Master Classes') presso il Phil Miller-The Legacy: "In this first of a series, Fred takes a fascinating and detailed look into one of Phil’s earlier pieces, explaining not only how to play it but also shares his great expertise on why it is such a great piece of music."

https://philmillerthelegacy.com/videos/fred-t-baker-master-class
https://philmillerthelegacy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/God-Song-score-and-lyrics.pdf

Aymeric Leroy prende le immagini di David Ashcraft tratte da un concerto dei National Health alla Hull University nel novembre 1977, vi aggiunge un estratto audio da quello stesso concerto e ne ottiene un documento di 3 minuti e 33 di delizia pura: "This clip was made using David Ashcraft's excellent photos from National Health's gig at Hull University in November 1977, and the music is from the same performance. It is an unrecorded piece by Dave Stewart which began life as the second half of The Bryden 2-Step then acquired a life of its own as Cold As Starshine - or maybe it was the other way round ? [The title appears on an early [1976] setlist, shown in the clip.] It notably incorporates a short keyboard riff by Alan Gowen later recycled into Bruford's Hells Bells (thus Alan's credit as co-writer)"...

https://www.facebook.com//4299603103/permalink/10157335668843104

The Amazing

(Bruce Bickford, 1947-2019)

Eugene Chadbourne e Henry Kaiser sono insieme anche in un altro titolo prodotto da Relative Pitch, una raccolta di duetti per chitarre (e banjo) di Wadada Leo Smith: Wind Crystals.

https://www.shop.relativepitchrecords.com/WIND-CRYSTALS-RPR1083.htm

Son più divertenti che improbabili i gemellaggi incrociati proposti da quattro moschettieri dell'invenzione strumentale e compositiva: Bruce Ackley e Aram Shelton (sassofoni), Henry Kaiser e Fred Frith (chitarre e altro) in allegra rimpatriata californiana, con brani originali oppure presi al volo da Eugene Chadbourne, Steve Lacy e John Zorn: Unexpected Twins, per Relative Pitch Records.

https://www.shop.relativepitchrecords.com/UNEXPECTED-TWINS-RPR1079.htm

Marie Richeux ha incontrato Fred Frith per il programma Par les temps qui courent di France Culture, approfittando della presenza del chitarrista a Parigi per una personale di tre giorni nel cartellone di Instants chavirés a Montreuil. Frith è stato successivamente anche al Torino Jazz Festival con un'esibizione in solo al Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, documentata su YT. In rete si trova traccia anche della sua apparizione di fine marzo a Napoli, presso L'Asilo.

"Je suis fasciné par le rythme, il est au cœur de tout ce que je fais. En tant que compositeur, c’est le rythme qui me donne l’impulsion de faire des choses. Je suis un batteur, peu importe l’instrument. J’aime le rythme parce c’est très physique, c’est une manière de ressentir les choses par le corps, parce que le corps c’est le centre de la musique, et je pense que c’est avec le rythme que le corps s’exprime le plus directement."

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/par-les-temps-qui-courent/fred-frith
https://youtu.be/PkcJYh42XhE
https://youtu.be/wFOQteGRjtw

In partenza tra un paio di giorni per un intenso ciclo di concerti in Germania assieme a Chris Cutler (Sound Trips no. 44) con un programma non-stop che prevede conferenze, seminari e incontri con numerosi musicisti locali, per concludere poi con The Watts l'11 maggio a Bourgoin-Jallieu (Francia) al Rock in Opposition Festival. Tim Hodgkinson festeggia così il suo compleanno, e sono settanta. Auguri!

http://www.timhodgkinson.co.uk