Di Zëss, dei cinquant'anni dei Magma e di molto altro parla Christian Vander con Alex Dutilh in Open jazz di France Musique: Magma, 50 ans après.

Zëss est une œuvre musicale du compositeur français Christian Vander pour Magma. Composée dans les années 1970, il n'en existait pas d'enregistrement studio connu à ce jour. Cette oeuvre de 38mn est longtemps restée frappée du sceau de son inachèvement, et son enregistrement a été longuement différé. Quatre décennies après sa première esquisse, l’œuvre est enfin gravée, après avoir trouvé la formule orchestrale qui lui donne à la fois sa véritable dimension onirique et la force de son dépassement.

https://www.francemusique.fr/emissions/open-jazz/magma-50-ans-apres-avec-christian-vander-73173

Ed è uscito ufficialmente ieri per Seventh Records l'album dei Magma che presenta finalmente in modo completo uno dei brani più emozionanti e visionari nell'universo compositivo vanderiano, eseguito dal vivo, ma sempre in modo parziale, fin dal 1977: Zëss (Le Jour du Néant). Chissà se davvero sarà l'ultimo album del gruppo, ma il suo tono - meno impetuoso che in passato, complice anche la sontuosa dimensione orchestrale - appare lampante, e definitivo.

Zëss, le nom lui-même est acéré comme une lame, effilé comme une entaille, furtif comme la course d’un météore. Si l’inspiration qui habite Zëss vient du fond des âges, une première ébauche se dessine en 1977. Peu à peu complété, le morceau sera joué une première fois en concert au printemps 1979, puis constituera l’une des pièces maitresses du répertoire de Magma jusqu’à sa mise en sommeil en 1983. Alors que la musique semble naître de la nuit pour la transfigurer, les premiers accords s’étalent dans des lueurs d’aube, puis se lèvent tels de grands contre-jours. Leur orbe dessine déjà l’ovale d’un stade antique posé dans le noir sidéral, immense arène céleste qui résonne de toutes les voix de l’univers. Car tous s’y sont donnés rendez-vous pour une célébration ultime: celle du Jour du Néant.
Zëss est longtemps resté frappé par le sceau de son inachèvement, et son enregistrement a de fait été longuement différé. Quatre décennies après sa première esquisse, l’œuvre est enfin gravée, après avoir trouvé la formule orchestrale qui lui donne à la fois sa véritable dimension onirique et la force de son dépassement, exaltant alors un chant magnifié. Car Zëss est avant tout le reflet visionnaire d’un rêve immémorial qui hante la part la plus obscure des âmes. Oratorio incandescent, Zëss pointe ainsi ce renversement suprême à travers lequel fuse cet au-delà de la musique que seule la musique permet d’atteindre. N’est-ce pas là cristallisée toute l’histoire de Magma…

https://www.seventhrecords.com/magma-19/zess--1284.html
https://youtu.be/xCF9-k_LnOg

Il trionfale concerto parigino di compleanno (cinquanta!) offerto l'altra sera dai Magma - con i brani più classici del repertorio e l'integrale di Zëss in una speciale versione allargata e corale, ben venti musicisti oltre a Christian Vander - trova riscontro immediato anche in rete nei commenti e nei materiali, ufficiali o meno, finora pubblicati. Tutti nel segno di un grande entusiasmo, anche a scapito dell'accurata informazione. Il gruppo è ora atteso al concerto di Lione il prossimo 2 luglio, quando per la prima volta nella sua lunga storia dividerà il palco con i King Crimson, altro gruppo che quest'anno festeggia i cinquanta.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/252189641550411
http://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/musique/magma-a-donne-un-concert-volcanique-a-la-philharmonie-de-paris-28-06-2019-8105244.php

Fred Frith torna al Cafe Oto londinese per una nuova residenza artistica di tre giorni: da domani a domenica incontrerà Samuel Dühsler, Lotte Anker, David Toop, Steve Beresford, Haize Lizarazu, Núria Andorrà e naturalmente Heike Liss.

One of the most inventive and eclectic figures in contemporary music, guitarist and composer Fred Frith celebrates his 70th year with a three day residency at Oto – his first since 2015 – with a fantastic array of collaborators old and new. With the aim of performing with as many people as possible this year, Frith has curated a line-up of "extraordinary and extraordinarily intense players", including a rare trio show with David Toop and Steve Beresford; the three having known each other for decades but this being only their second show together in the past thirty years!

http://www.fredfrith.com
https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/fred-frith-three-day-70th-birthday-residency

Tutti a vedere e sentire in anteprima come si aprirà il nuovo album dei Pere Ubu, The Long Goodbye, disponibile tra qualche giorno: What I Heard On The Pop Radio.

‘I’d been listening to commercial pop radio non-stop for months,’ David Thomas says. ‘That’s what I wanted to rewrite and reimagine. Pop music shouldn’t be without meaning or truthfulness. We live in desperate towns and we keep on going regardless of the stench. It’s not often you’re gonna find the answers. If ever. But here is pop music the way it should sound.’

https://youtu.be/iRjgRlTGlTQ
https://soundcloud.com/pere-ubu-official/what-i-heard-on-the-pop-radio

Un ritratto di Warrick Sony e Kalahari Surfers è proposto in questi giorni da Noah Berlatsky per Bandcamp (The Political Prog of Kalahari Surfers), con un breve ragguaglio sulle ultime attività: "Sony just completed his masters degree in fine art, on sound and social control in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. He’s planning to pursue a PhD examining totalitarian regimes, especially in Russia. And he’s working on getting more of his discography online, including a 2009 collaboration with Greg Hunter of The Orb, called Turntabla. After more than 35 years, Kalahari Surfers continues to treat music as a route to political education." La più recente raccolta di brani si intitola Chernobyl, ed è disponibile appunto su Bandcamp, assieme all'intera discografia del gruppo.

https://daily.bandcamp.com/kalahari-surfers
https://kalaharisurfer.bandcamp.com
https://kalaharisurfer.bandcamp.com/album/chernobyl
https://warricksonicart.com

Fu l'ultima volta che Daevid Allen prese parte ai concerti della Glissando Guitar Orchestra, da lui fortemente ispirata ma guidata in verità da 'Shankara' Andy Bole: era il 18 maggio 2013 al Midlands Arts Centre di Birmingham (Regno Unito), e con Allen e Bole c'erano Brain Abbott, Kev Hegan, Will Greenwood, Steve Pond, Dani Speakman e Steve Bemand. Documentazione audio e video di quella sera è ora su Bandcamp e YT: The 7 Drones Live.

https://andybole.bandcamp.com/album/the-glissando-guitar-orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VlQ3FI61co

Ed è pronta la riedizione in un sobrio mini-box dei tre titoli Soft Machine pubblicati dalla Harvest tra il 1975 e il 1978: Bundles (1975), Softs (1976) e Alive And Well, Recorded In Paris (1978). Come già per le ripubblicazioni del 2010 se n'è fatta carico Esoteric Recordings.

Re-mastered 3CD clamshell boxed set featuring all three Soft Machine albums released on the Harvest label between 1975 and 1978, with replica album sleeves and a poster. The hugely popular Bundles featured a line-up of Mike Ratledge (keyboards), Karl Jenkins (Oboe, Piano, Soprano Sax), John Marshall (Drums), Roy Babbington (Bass) and guitar great Allan Holdsworth. By the time Softs was recorded, the line-up included Karl Jenkins John Marshall, Roy Babbington and new members John Etheridge (Guitar) and saxophonist Alan Wakeman. The album contained the final appearance on a Soft Machine album by Mike Ratledge (who contributed to Ban-Ban Caliban and Song of Aeolus). Soft Machine’s final album for Harvest was Alive And Well, Recorded In Paris. The band’s line-up had changed once more and comprised Karl Jenkins (Piano, Electric Keyboards, Synthesiser), John Marshall (Drums), John Etheridge (Acoustic and Electric Guitars) and new members Steve Cook (Bass Guitar) and Ric Sanders (Violin). The album was the result of several nights of excellent concerts staged at Le Palace Theatre in Monmartre, Paris in July 1977.

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/soft-machine-the-harvest-albums-1975-1978-3cd-remastered-clamshell-boxset-edition

Mentre i festeggiamenti del cinquantennale del teatro Gulbenkian a Canterbury (Regno Unito) si dipanavano con i concerti tra gli altri di Soft Machine e Caravan, gli appassionati globali a distanza - un tantino delusi dalle accidentate trasmissioni in streaming sul web - avevano modo di consolarsi con un comunicato della Madfish e buttare il pensiero un po' più avanti. Di qualche bel mese...

https://thegulbenkian.co.uk/50-years

L'estate di Londra prende il via oggi nel verde dell'Old Paradise Yard con la seconda edizione del festival di musica improvvisata OsCiLlaTioNs promosso dall'Iklectik, un'entusiasmante raffica di interventi non-stop da pomeriggio a mezzanotte in compagnia di Rosa Lynch-Northover, Caroline Kraabel, Neil Metcalfe, Steve Noble, Atsuko Kamura, Adam Bohman, Clive Bell, Steve Beresford, Mandhira de Saram, Adrian Northover e molti molti altri.

https://www.facebook.com/events/364225747554104

La Rec Rec a Zurigo festeggia quest'anno i propri quarant'anni di attività, mettendo in cantiere speciali concerti e altre iniziative da tenersi tra giugno a dicembre nella sede del negozio in Rotwandstrasse: Fred Frith, Wädi Gysi, Day & Taxi e Thomas Fehlmann sono tra gli invitati, assieme naturalmente a Chris Cutler, nume tutelare e massimo ispiratore dell'impresa fin dai suoi primi passi. E già si guarda avanti, non senza apprensione, a quando Veit Stauffer, sua storica guida, lascerà l'incarico...

Rec Rec was a Swiss independent record label founded in Autumn 1979 by Daniel Waldner and Veit Stauffer. RecRec Music co-produced the records which were distributed by Recommended Records (Switzerland), later renamed to RecRec Genossenschaft. After the bankruptcy in 1997, the label was split into two companies, RecRec-Shop - the record shop - and RecRec Medien AG - the distributor - with two new labels: Make Up and Make Up Your World. In Spring 2008 the label & distribution closed. Veit Stauffer is still active with shop & mailorder.

https://recrec-shop.ch
https://recrec-shop.ch/blog/40-years-recrec-shop.html
https://www.facebook.com/REC-REC-Shop-230065963718137

Un album di Peter Lemer rimasto negli archivi per oltre quarant'anni vede oggi la luce grazie all'interessamento di Art of Life Records: si intitola Jet Yellow, frutto di un paio di sessioni in studio risalenti al maggio 1977, quando con Lemer c'erano Laurie Allan, Francis Moze e brevemente anche Allan Holdsworth. Così ricorda il tastierista: "We were invited by Nick Mason, via Nick Griffiths, Pink Floyd's studio engineer, to record this session as a 'warm-up' for Britannia Row Studios. At around this time Annette Peacock called Allan Holdsworth, Francis Moze, and a south american drummer named Solar, who had a ginormous custom-built Rogers drum kit, and myself to explore the possibilities of a new line-up - which sadly didn't get off the ground. As a result, I invited Allan to join us for the song Dognose and the possibilities this particular line-up opened up were, and are, unimaginable. The trio played some gigs before and after this recording and disbanded not long after. Laurie Allan and I had been musical chums for many years with a delightful string of bassists: John Mitchell, Jeff Clyne, Johnny Dyani, Steve Cook and others. On Jet Yellow we were joined by Francis Moze who brought his fluid and inventive style to the music."

http://www.artofliferecords.com/jetyellow.html

Giunge al terzo - e probabilmente ultimo - volume la preziosa serie Secret Signals curata da Dave Newhouse per portare all'attenzione alcune rarità d'archivio e inediti di studio o dal vivo degli amati The Muffins: cd prodotti in tiratura di poche copie, che nel caso dei precedenti volumi sono andate subito esaurite. Si può tentare di recuperarne qualche esemplare chiedendo direttamente a lui: ndnewhouse@comcast.net

http://www.mannamirage.com

Le circostanze sono terribili, ma il risultato è magnifico: i Garlands, papà David e figlio Kenji, prendono chitarra a dodici corde e sintetizzatore modulare e li fanno dialogare fino a farne una l'estensione dell'altro, perché la musica che ne nasce dia coraggio e conforto (anche) ad Anne. E' un primo capitolo, Vulneraries: "Vulnerary is an archaic term for a medication - herb, balm or, in this case, music - used to promote the healing of wounds.

In October, 2018, my wife Anne Garland was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer. Instances of this adenocarcinoma in female “never smokers” like Anne is apparently increasing world-wide. She is being treated with radiation and chemotherapy, with the hope that this aggressive disease can be reduced and held at bay for a while. Our son Kenji has been able to visit for extended periods in our Hudson Valley home to care for Anne with me. Anne has been exhausted by the illness, treatments, and medications. Often while she has been resting or sleeping, Kenji and I have set up our instruments downstairs below the bedroom to play music, providing sonic solace for Anne and ourselves.
I’ve never doubted the power of music to convey the ineffable, ignite the senses, provoke and provide catharsis, to soothe and console, and in those ways and others, to heal. We hope this music lives up to that potential. Our conception of healing music encompasses anger and grief along with kindness, love, and compassion; and our conception of beauty includes dissonance and noise. Tonality in these unhurried pieces is kept quite simple, allowing the guitar’s resonances to blossom."

https://davidgarland.com
https://www.facebook.com/david.garland.nyc
https://davidgarland.bandcamp.com/album/vulneraries-vol-1

Il nuovo album solitario di Charles Hayward, (begin anywhere), è pronto in cd per Klanggalerie e in vinile per God Unknown Records: "Known primarily as a drummer, songwriter and improviser, a new project centred around songs performed at the piano, a sequence of betrayal, paranoia, subterfuge, opening out into resistance, hope and humanity, interweaved with sound events, drums, spoken word, performance. Stark, minimal arrangements; an unexpected departure."

http://www.klanggalerie.com/gg301
https://godunknownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/begin-anywhere
https://youtu.be/tZGpWGbJAv4
https://youtu.be/I8pQlygClhQ

Nuova impeccabile autoproduzione dei Remote Viewers ancora una volta in formazione essenziale, con i soli Dave Petts, Adrian Northover e John Edwards: Notes Lost in a Field.

http://www.theremoteviewers.com
https://soundcloud.com/the-remote-viewers
https://youtu.be/au-h23iQWZA
https://youtu.be/edM6hcZAfnk

Vraiment Autre Chose inaugura i propri reportage dal festival Rock in Opposition di Lione e Bourgoin Jallieu con uno dei concerti dell'ultimo giorno, l'11 maggio scorso, quello di Yumi Hara con Tim Hodgkinson e Chris Cutler: The Watts.

Vraiment Autre Chose a eu l'immense plaisir d'assister à l'édition 12 du festival Rock in Opposition, édition qui se déroulait cette fois à Lyon et à Bourgoin Jallieu. Et on a tout enregistré, des concerts mais aussi des interviews. Et l'on démarre donc cette série d'émission avec le groupe The Watts, superbe trio de musique improvisée, composé de monstres sacrés des musiques "in opposition" : Chris Cutler, à la batterie, Tim Hodgkinson à la clarinettes et aux machines et enfin Yumi Hara, au piano préparé. Après s'être délecté de leur concert, on les a rencontré pour en savoir plus sur ce surprenant projet, qui a réussi à surprendre tout le monde dans un festival de musiques surprenantes, et leur approche totalement improvisée donnait à cette musique une liberté totale. Bref, un concert, une interview, quelques titres choisis par eux même, et on boucle ces deux heures avec deux titres du Live In Japan de The Work, l'un des albums majeurs du mouvement RIO, ou l'on retrouvait déjà Chris Cutler et Tim Hodgkinson.

http://vraimentautrechose.hautetfort.com
https://www.mixcloud.com/vraiment-autre-chose-129-rio-2019-the-watts
http://www.yumiharacawkwell.co.uk/HTML/THEWATTS.htm

Radio 3 della BBC l'aveva già trasmessa tre anni fa, ma è tornata brevemente disponibile di nuovo la riduzione radiofonica del lavoro teatrale dedicato all'inimitabile Ivor Cutler prodotto nel 2014 da Vanishing Point e il National Theatre of Scotland: The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler.

The fragmented life of the surrealist, poet, songwriter and eccentric, Ivor Cutler. He shot to fame, when The Beatles cast him in The Magical Mystery Tour. George Martin produced his records, John Peel had him on numerous sessions, Bertrand Russell admired him, he wrote plays for Radio 3. But it is his voice that distinguishes Cutler. His studied melancholia and frail persona tells naive fables which have an existential sting in the tail. He grew up in Glasgow when the pursuit of happiness was never going to be written in the constitution.
The radio adaptation is based on an original play by Vanishing Point and National Theatre of Scotland created by Sandy Grierson, James Fortune and Matthew Lenton, with Ed Gaughan and the company.
Like most ‘loveable’ eccentrics Ivor was a provocateur. Off stage we also tell the love story of Ivor and the poet Phyllis King who were together 40 years. It is a romance told in tiny moments of cups of tea and trips to the zoo, and his most lovely song: Beautiful Cosmos. Ivor is played by Sandy Grierson and Phyllis is played by Elicia Daly.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07j3m50

C'è un altro Pride questo mese, e a promuoverlo è Massimo Giuntoli: "Nell’era degli strumenti di misura digitali, i minuscoli pesi di una vecchia bilancia ritrovano orgogliosamente una ragione d’essere, riscattandosi dal destino di mero soprammobile, privo di una funzione che non sia puramente ornamentale o storico-museale." Weight Pride.

www.massimogiuntoli.com
https://youtu.be/uD4szXeoW_k

Deep Memory, Elusive Memory, False Memory: tre concise annotazioni musicali firmate Jonathan Coe. Come scritte dal suo Benjamin Trotter.

https://soundcloud.com/user-112781549/sets/three-memories

Il premio annuale intitolato alla memoria di Phil Miller, recentemente istituito presso il Dipartimento Jazz del Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, verrà assegnato per la prima volta questa sera nel corso di una cerimonia cui prenderanno parte con le loro proposte gli allievi della scuola. Il riconoscimento andrà al solo di chitarra ritenuto più meritevole dalla giuria, formata da due cari amici e colleghi di Miller: Fred T. Baker e John Etheridge.

Phil Miller (1949-2017) was a progressive rock and jazz guitarist associated with bands such as In Cahoots, Soft Machine, National Health and Short Wave. Conservatoire guitar and bass tutor Fred Thelonious Baker was a fellow musician with Phil Miller for many years and has helped set up this prize in honour of Phil’s great musicianship and contribution to the scene. We thank the Miller family for the generous support of the prize and we are glad that this new annual feature in our calendar will keep the legacy of Phil’s playing alive.

The prize is a solo guitar prize and the brief is wide open. Our students entering the prize can offer any style from free jazz to rock to contemporary jazz and beyond. Our panel of Fred Baker and John Etheridge will hear each soloist in turn with you the audience and then award the best solo feature of the night. After the presentation of the award there will be encores from the winner and special features from Fred Thelonious Baker and John Etheridge. This promises to be a great night out and a fitting tribute to a British guitar legend.

https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/phil-miller-guitar-prize-10-06-2019

Il vivace dialogo via posta elettronica tra autori e pubblico che una decina d'anni fa caratterizzò - e in buona misura influenzò - la trama e lo svolgersi degli eventi del composito progetto interattivo The Bunny Boy dei Residents è ora raccolto in un libro redatto da Jen Kraynak e Paulie Kraynak per lo stesso collettivo francese Bandits-Mages che ha prodotto la straordinaria esposizione da pochi giorni conclusa al centro d'arte Transpalette a Bourges: The Bunny Boy Emails.

The Bandits-Mages association met The Residents in June 2016. Since then, they have been envisioning the publishing of this rare, almost magic and uncanny correspondance between The Bunny Boy and numerous real people around the world. A selection of email picked by Jen and Paulie Kraynak, inviting you to follow the whole investigation of The Bunny Boy.
The genesis of the project was an old acquaintance of The Residents coming back into their lives after a long absence. They received a bizarre collection of videos of a man (Bunny) pleading for help to find his brother. The Residents recognized their old friend, and decided to help by retelling his story so that it would reach more people. The album The Bunny Boy released on the 09/01/2008 is the first part of a bigger project. A webseries soon appears on YouTube. As the two medias are closely intertwined, the songs are the base of the story depicted in the videos. They provide a lot of clues about what we will find in each episode. The combination of the two was used as the structure for the live show. As the serie was interactive, the viewers were invited to correspond with Bunny via email. Their comments and advice would shape the narrative of the series. In total there were 66 episodes, a soundtrack album, a music album, a tour, and a DVD.

https://it.ulule.com/the-bunny-boy-emails

Bob Drake parla del suo rapporto creativo con Joe Mruk, artefice delle indimenticabili illustrazioni che caratterizzano iconograficamente i suoi ultimi tre album - Lawn Ornaments, Arx Pilosa e L'Isola dei Lupi, tutti prodotti da ReR - al punto da accompagnarne e sostenerne l'impianto tematico e narrativo: "Our working relationship began in 2013, I think… I do know it was when I was just finishing up Lawn Ornaments and starting to wonder what to do about cover art. Then came an email out of the blue from Joe, who I hadn’t heard of until then, saying he liked my music and that he’d like to design a poster for a gig if I ever needed one. I took a look at his website, didn’t take more than a few moments of browsing there before I asked if he’d do the design for Lawn Ornaments. He did… not only the cover, but he wanted to do an illustration for each song! Since then he’s also done the subsequent albums Arx Pilosa and L’Isola dei Lupi, giving them all that recogniseable consistent look and design. How fortunate for me that he contacted me back then eh? So now, please go visit his website! As you’ll see he does lots of album covers for lots of bands, illustrations for many Pittsburgh area festivals and events, amazing wood sculptures, maps, T-shirt designs, etc etc."

http://redbuffalo.org

http://bdblog.bdrak.com/in-praise-of-mruk
http://www.bdrak.com/sounds/lo.html
http://www.bdrak.com/sounds/arx.html
http://www.bdrak.com/sounds/lisola.html

Con studiato tempismo ReR fa uscire insieme una bella collezione di titoli storici - più un cd di inediti e un prezioso libretto informativo - dei Biota (The Biota Box) e un album nuovo di zecca (Fragment for Balance) invogliando tutti a immergersi in quel meraviglioso mondo, anche a ritroso...

The Biota Box
Without any obvious keystone event, Biota – who started recording in the late 1970’s as the Mnemonist Orchestra – have quietly become a musical fixture, honoured for their uniquely, abstract, layered, polystylistic approach to musical construction - deaf to fashion or possible sales. And it seems, paradoxically, to have been just this art-orientated commercial indifference that has slowly won them loyal followers and surprisingly respectable sales. Now, for a wider audience - and at a congenial price - this box collects five representative releases that span their discography and track the radical evolution of their crystalline aesthetic – with added documentation, a band history, insights into their work process, and a full-length bonus CD embroidered from their archive of rare and unreleased material: Funnel to a Thread, Half a True Day, Invisible Map, Object Holder and Gyromancy (recorded as the Mnemonist Orchestra), and the box-only bonus Counterbalance.

Fragment for Balance
After 4 years of work on their 11th release for ReR, this extraordinary, reclusive, and highly individual audio-visual collective continues to evolve through the painstaking accumulation and disposition of a seemingly incompatible range of both exotic and familiar musical languages, instruments, techniques and studio manipulations - into one of the few genuinely original bands at work today. It took a long time to refine their unique process of composition to this level of ambiguity and depth, and newcomers will wonder how they strayed so far from orthodoxy and yet managed to retain a lucidity and transparency that is quite rare in contemporary music. Timeless, almost weightless - yet teeming with life, motion and complexity - this is a music that suggests an untroubled world in which nostalgia, tragedy and agony, while rudely present, remain subservient to deeper, calmer currents. Sic transit gloria mundi. More plainly, these are not conventional compositions, nor are they collective improvisations; but are made of simultaneities, conspiracies, accidents, careful planning and a guiding aesthetic that is both exacting and empirical. A classic.

https://tinyurl.com/y23owpe5
https://tinyurl.com/y5k4vsju

Frutto di attività compiute a metà anni Ottanta da Gordon Whitlow al di fuori dei crescenti impegni con Biota - poco dopo Bellowing Room - rivede la luce Sorry For Laughing, per la prima volta in formato diverso dall'audiocassetta, per iniziativa di Klanggalerie. Scrive l'autore: "This is a solo musical project recorded in the winter of 1985-86 and self-released on cassette in a very small edition in 1986; this was followed by a modest limited edition cassette release on the ADN label in Italy in 1989. It has never been released to the public on any medium other than cassette. The compositions stem from my beginning days with the avant-garde recording ensemble Biota, shortly after completion of the Bellowing Room LP. The recordings feature a handful of Biota players contributing to compositions that fall outside the group’s activities. Vienna-based label KlangGalerie has expressed interest in reissuing the project as a CD. As you will hear from the initial spoken word (interview) passages, the project has a quasi-Christmas theme, but it is not overt in that sense. Rather, it is a collection of instrumentals whose moods and atmosphere are founded on largely repetitive melodic passages accompanied by “found” atonal elements. It is intended to be minimalistic with sparse arrangement (and on one track, some distant vocalization), aiming for a sense of nostalgia, isolation/loneliness, and childlike muse."

http://www.klanggalerie.com/gg289
https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/sorry-for-laughing

L'omaggio a Robert Wyatt offerto dai berlinesi Hütte guidati dall'iperattivo batterista Max Andrzejewski vedrà la luce a settembre con un lavoro pubblicato dall'etichetta Whyplayjazz. Nel frattempo, dopo l'esordio lo scorso ottobre al festival Leipziger Jazztage, il gruppo è in tour questo mese con concerti a Monaco, Dresda e Wendland. Ospiti del quartetto, dal vivo e nell'album, sono Cansu Tanrıkulu e Jörg Hochapfel. Il commento di Wyatt: "This project is great for my sense of still being alive, knowing that these brilliant young musicians look my way for a moment. Please thank them from me. They have my profound gratitude."

http://maxandrzejewski.de

Omaggi a Wyatt li porge anche Elaine Gorton dalle vetrine - e dal laboratorio di ceramica sul retro - del suo Crackpot a Louth: "Art is my life. I’ve admired artists, studied art, criticised techniques and perfected my own talents. Art can convey many messages, from portraits to oil paintings through sculpture and modelling, but above all else, for me art is inspiration. The inspiration to create and adapt and refine and realise. That’s what Crackpot is all about, the freedom to explore your own creativity, make your own mark and create your own masterpieces. I used to think that creativity was a gift; perfected by the few and admired by the many. Now I realise that the real gift is being able to share my love with the world. Just don’t ask me why I called it Crackpot!”

Crackpot
16 Queen Street
Louth
LN11 9AU

https://www.laamb.co.uk/artists/crackpot-louth
https://www.facebook.com/LouthCrackpot
https://crackpotlouth.wixsite.com/ceramic

Per la sua serie di podcast Lincolnshire Arts and Music Bulletin Introduces... pubblicati presso Mixcloud Dave Larder inaugura un ciclo di quattro brevi episodi dedicati a brani della discografia di Robert Wyatt interpretati da altri nel corso degli anni (o anche in tempi recenti): tra i primi titoli ci sono Alliance, Sea Song, Just a Bit, Free Will and Testament, A Last Straw e O Caroline.

https://www.laamb.co.uk
https://twitter.com/laamb4
https://www.mixcloud.com/LAAMB4/laamb-introduces-robert-wyatt-covers

Anticipando di qualche settimana il tormentone estivo di Calypso Dreaming e in attesa del successivo Bionic Cat Rees recupera il fenomenale singolo d'esordio trent'anni fa di Bad Dream Fancy Dress e lo serve ancora più piccante in barba alle imperanti regole del food porn: Curry Crazy.

https://www.baddreamfancydress.com
https://youtu.be/e4cPBDIQM8U
https://youtu.be/dAUvGknPMZA

C'è voluto del tempo, ma adesso è pronta anche l'edizione in vinile di uno dei migliori album del decennio (oltre che specialissimo capitolo nella rispettiva discografia dei protagonisti): The Ocean Tango, frutto sbocciato nel 2010 dalla collaborazione - un lungo dolcissimo flirt, in verità - tra Louis Philippe e Testbild!, con lo zampino di Danny Manners, Sean O'Hagan e Jonathan Coe. Era su Wonder Records, ora è in capo a Kalligrammofon. Come un Natale a luglio...

The Ocean Tango is the result of a joyful summertime collaboration between French pop craftsman Louis Philippe and Swedish art-pop conceptualists Testbild! An intoxicating blend of chamber pop and chamber jazz, the album is awash with trumpets, vibraphones, flutes, strings, harpsichord, Fender Rhodes, nylon guitar and the lushest of harmonies - all wrapped around elegantly tooled, constantly surprising melodies. Imagine a late-night session featuring the Beach Boys, Antonio Carlos Jobim, John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler, with a few electronic flourishes from Brian Eno, and you’re getting close to the vibe...
Originally released as a cd on Wonder Records in 2010. Remastered and slightly edited for vinyl in 2019. Produced and mixed by Kenneth Brake (London) and Petter Herbertsson and Petter Samuelsson (Malmö). Strings and vocal arrangements by Louis Philippe. Remastered for vinyl by Tomas Bodén.

https://kalligrammofon.bandcamp.com/album/the-ocean-tango
https://www.hibou-anemone-bear.com/Ocean Tango