30 novembre 2019


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 I finally did it because the only online entry about me and my work is long out-of-date and incomplete, only partly true, and I found it's nearly impossible to get the editors to update or change anything.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

29 novembre 2019


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

28 novembre 2019


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

27 novembre 2019


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

26 novembre 2019


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

25 novembre 2019


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 ChadbourneDuo (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

24 novembre 2019


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

23 novembre 2019


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

22 novembre 2019


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

21 novembre 2019


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

20 novembre 2019


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

19 novembre 2019


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

18 novembre 2019


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

17 novembre 2019


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

16 novembre 2019


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

15 novembre 2019


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

14 novembre 2019


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

13 novembre 2019


Per chi vuole approfondire la conoscenza dei brani di cui si compone il nuovo cd Under the Void, prodotto da ReR Megacorp, Tim Hodgkinson ha predisposto una pagina esplicativa al proprio sito: "These are not recordings of live performances: they are audio versions of compositions, made using a wide variety of techniques. I do not think of my pieces as achieving single definitive performances, and the versions here are not definitive either. I mixed virtual instruments with recorded acoustic instruments to work towards a sound image. But, just as with live performances, this sound image does not contain all the ways in which I could imagine this music sounding."

http://www.timhodgkinson.co.uk/void.htm

12 novembre 2019


A fine mese David Toop terrà presso il londinese Iklectik la presentazione del suo nuovo libro Inflamed Invisible, antologia di scritti su musica e arte prodotti tra il 1976 e l'anno scorso e raccolti da Goldsmiths Press. Il testo è disseminato di codici QR per consultare individualmente i file audio dei brani citati, mentre una scaletta completa è già disponibile tramite Spotify: "Inflamed Invisible collects more than four decades of David Toop’s essays, reviews, interviews, and experimental texts, drawing us into the company of artists and their concerns, not forgetting the quieter, unsung voices. The volume is an offering, an exploration of strata of sound that are the crossing points of sensory, intellectual, and philosophical preoccupations, layers through which objects, thoughts and air itself come alive as the inflamed invisible."

https://iklectikartlab.com/book-launch-inflamed-invisible-by-david-toop
https://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press/publications/inflamed-invisible
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/inflamed-invisible

11 novembre 2019


Le incursioni di Peter Brötzmann al Cafe Oto londinese, piuttosto frequenti negli anni, non sono mai passate inosservate, per più di un motivo. David Laskowski ne dà testimonianza da par suo in un album fotografico arricchito dai contributi di John Chantler, Hamish Dunbar, Heather Leigh e Seymour Wright: Peter Brötzmann at OTO.

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/shop/brotzmann-at-oto-dawid-laskowski

10 novembre 2019


Ma ora come ora le attese di ogni buon zappiano sono per la pubblicazione, ormai imminente, dell'edizione da anniversario dell'amatissimo Hot Rats con relativa documentazione aggiuntiva e iniziative editoriali dedicate:
https://www.zappa.com/news/frank-zappas-legendary-1969-album-hot-rats-celebrated-massive-50th-anniversary-six-disc

09 novembre 2019


Andrew Greenaway è autore assieme a Mick Zeuner e Klaus Kühner dell'eccezionale The Zappa Tour Atlas (Wymer Publishing, 2019), mappa documentatissima di oltre venticinque anni di concerti dal vivo di Frank Zappa e musicisti, con dettagli e dati statistici relativi a luoghi, viaggi e itinerari. C'è anche un'ampia sezione discografica dedicata ai 111 titoli ufficiali. La prefazione è di Robert Martin, con Zappa dal 1981 fino all'ultimo. Il commento più entusiastico però è di un compagno della primissima ora, John Leon Guarnera (ovvero Bunk Gardner): "This book is so wonderful, I'm living through all the old tours again now!"

Following the inception of his band The Mothers Of Invention in 1965, Frank Zappa toured incessantly. While he undertook fewer tours throughout the eighties - and even threatened to quit performing altogether - time and again he was drawn back out onto the road and only finally stopped when his health dictated it. This book attempts to explain this allure by providing the most comprehensive listing ever of every concert date and venue - from Osaka to the Albert Hall - revealing the thousands of miles travelled by Zappa and his myriad cohorts to a total of twenty countries during more than twenty five years of live performance.This unique multilateral collaboration by FZ historian Zeuner, crack cartographer Kühner and renowned Zappa author Greenaway guides the reader through a period that saw a great number of changes around the planet (sexual liberation, the ending of the Vietnam War, and the fall of the Berlin Wall), and is proof positive that touring can make you crazy! Also included are maps that trace the locations of all of the places Zappa ever called home. With a foreword by Robert Martin (band member from 1981 until Zappa ceased touring), this book will not only delight fans of Frank and his music, but will appeal to anyone with a passing interest in topography or the travels and travails of bands during the golden age of rock music. Combining contemporaneous maps, detailed tour statistics and reviews of each of Zappa’s 111 official albums, it is an original and informative overview of an extraordinary artist.

https://www.facebook.com/ZappaTourAtlas
https://www.wymeruk.co.uk/frank-zappa/the-zappa-tour-atlas

08 novembre 2019


Alle rarità filozappiane spesso molto interessanti e sempre in bella mostra presso Cordelia Records si sono aggiunti da poco un nuovo Mappa Zappa in versione extended-play e la collezione Lost Meat, con brani mai inclusi nella discografia ufficiale del Nostro. Ne è curatore ancora una volta Andrew Greenaway: "Cordelia Records has just released Lost Meat - an album of songs composed by FZ that you won’t find in his official discography. The album includes tracks performed by Zero (featuring Prairie Prince, Sandro Oliva and Craig 'Twister' Steward), Treacherous Cretins, Gabba Zappa Hey!, Fred Händl, and tasty cover artwork by Art For Dinosaurs (aka Hoops and Robert Ross). The theme of the Lost Meat album is compositions that either FZ himself composed and were released on 7", long, long ago, or were released on an album he produced for someone else, or were just never released, period, or compositions that he collaborated on with other artists and that were not released on any of his albums. It includes three of the four tracks co credited to Zappa from L Shankar's album Touch Me There, which he produced for him back in 1979."

http://www.cordeliarecords.co.uk/Records.html
http://www.idiotbastard.com/LostMeat.htm

07 novembre 2019


Prende il via domani la classica tregiorni del Music Unlimited a Wels (Austria), giunta all'edizione numero 33 e dedicata stavolta ai compleanni dei suoi tre curatori: Magda Mayas (40), Kazuhisa Uchihashi (60) e Joe McPhee (80).

http://www.waschaecht.at/music-unlimited
http://www.waschaecht.at/unlimited_33/unlimited_33_presskit
https://www.facebook.com/musicunlimitedwels

06 novembre 2019


Album nuovissimo per Drag City (Radum Calls, Radum Calls) e concerto benaugurale al Cafe Oto londinese questa sera (con replica a Nottingham nel weekend): è tornato Sean O'Hagan!

Sean O’Hagan has spent 30 years in music as a performer and writer firstly as the co-founder of Microdisney in the 1980s, then as the founder of the still current High Llamas. As well as fulfilling duties as a part time member of Stereolab. Radum Calls, Radum Calls, Sean's second solo album in 30 years reflects the bold new sounds of today embedded in the plush sound-world he's built for High Llamas, Stereolab and many others – thick low end synths under light orchestra strings, dubby percussion atop bossa-nova beats and rumbling drum sounds driving Sean's tongue-in-cheek ditties. Guest vocals from former Microdisney partner, vocalist Cathal Coughlan, add to the surreal bloom of Sean’s new musical conception.

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/sean-ohagan
https://seanohagan.bandcamp.com/album/radum-calls-radum-calls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOqaHefEN8c

05 novembre 2019


Album nuovissimo per Nonesuch (¡Spangled!, con Gaby Moreno) e una conversazione con Francesco Tenaglia pubblicata pochi giorni fa da Il Tascabile: torna allo scoperto il grande Van Dyke Parks...

“Non ho mai avuto nulla a che fare con il movimento hippie a parte il riconoscergli la sovranità culturale dell’epoca. Ammettiamolo, la Belle Époque ha prodotto biancheria migliore di quella che s’indossava ai concerti dei Grateful Dead. Ho idee egualitarie e riesco a immaginarmi in un mondo socialista. Detesto l’estrema disparità nelle retribuzioni e credo nel sistema sanitario gratuito, ma non ho mai fatto sesso in una cabina telefonica.  Nel 1969 ci furono la prima grande fuga di petrolio nel mare di Santa Barbara e gli omicidi legati a Charles Manson: la festa era finita. Non assomiglio a un cowboy come i Buffalo Springfield o Neil Young, ciononostante ero circondato da cocaina, dagli incubi egotici dei colleghi e l’FBI controllava le mie telefonate perché ero vicino a Phil Ochs. Ho subito tutte le indegnità della controcultura, senza apprezzarne i benefici.”
https://www.nonesuch.com/gaby-moreno-and-van-dyke-parks
https://www.iltascabile.com/linguaggi/van-dyke-parks

04 novembre 2019


Eugene Chadbourne rivisita un'antica e fortunata serie di audiocassette prodotte in proprio sul finire degli anni Ottanta (Country Music in the World of Islam) e se ne esce con una prima autoantologia dove figurano Sun City Girls, Elliott Sharp, Jon Rose e Derek Bailey: Invitation To A Jam.

http://eugenechadbourne.com
https://tinyurl.com/y2mw2to6

03 novembre 2019


La celebre Honest Jon's Records di Portobello Road a Londra sta (ri)pubblicando con lodevole impegno - non senza però qualche tiro mancino - diversi materiali archiviati in occasione degli appuntamenti fissati negli anni da Derek Bailey con la Company: tredici capitoli delle Epiphanies, per esempio, in gran parte inediti, distribuiti in tre o quattro volumi con la partecipazione tra gli altri di Ursula Oppens, Keith e Julie Tippett, Philipp Wachsmann, Fred Frith, George Lewis, Anne LeBaron, Motoharu Yoshizawa e Akio Suzuki. E altrettanto inedito è l'intero Company 1981, con Georgie Born e Lindsay Cooper, Jamie Muir, Radu Malfatti, Maarten Altena, Steve Lacy, David Toop e Tristan Honsinger.

One of the founders of Fluxus, Charlie Morrow injects blasts of Cageian fun into half the recordings here, whether blurting military fanfares from his trumpet, or intoning far-flung scraps of speech. Cellist Tristan Honsinger and vocalist Christine Jeffrey join in the joyful glossolalia, while Bailey, Toop and Kondo contribute delicious, delicate, hooligan arabesques, by turns. The remainder are performed by a different ensemble: Bailey, bassist Maarten Altena, former Henry Cow members Georgie Born and Lindsay Cooper on cello and bassoon, the insanely inventive Jamie Muir on percussion, and trombonist Radu Malfatti, showing his mastery of extended technique. Were that not enough, there’s the inimitable purity of Steve Lacy’s soprano ringing high and clear above the melee. Glorious!

https://honestjons.com/shop/label/Honest_Jons_Records

02 novembre 2019


Erano stati recuperati in cd - con orrenda veste grafica - da Blueprint nel 2002, ora tornano in forma più degna grazie a Wha Wha i due album concettuali di Anthony Moore prodotti ad Amburgo per Polydor a inizio anni Settanta, appena prima di unirsi a Dagmar Krause e Peter Blegvad in Slapp HappyPieces From The Cloudland BallroomSecrets Of The Blue Bag, gli enigmi palindromici dei numeri dispari e gli imperscrutabili misteri della volta celeste.

https://youtu.be/XfSrGKlPvnc
https://youtu.be/SoYksUccp3E
https://www.strandedrecords.com/collections/anthony-moore

01 novembre 2019


Undici composizioni in miniatura scritte eseguite e registrate pochi giorni fa da Bob Drake, offerte con gusto e ironia - autoritratti compresi - il giorno di Ognissanti. Con caldarroste e vino nuovo. Serve altro?

https://bdstudio.bandcamp.com/album/11-miniatures-for-piano-and-bass