Ottima selezione audio e video dalla lunga serie di concerti tenuti come trio di sole voci la scorsa primavera: Live and Unaccompanied di Rachel e Becky Unthank con Niopha Keegan, quinto capitolo della pregiata serie Diversions.

The Unthanks move on from their recent orchestral explorations by going back to what they know and do best - singing in unaccompanied harmony. Recorded live across a five week tour, these are not live versions of songs made for a studio album. Treating unaccompanied song as a performance art in storytelling that requires an audience, these are the definitive versions!

Tyneside sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank grew up singing songs, in weaving, unschooled vocal harmony, without accompaniment. They are joined by Unthanks member Niopha Keegan to make a vocal trio. The three have already established a band within a band in The Unthanks, with the success of haunting harmony signature pieces like Magpie, recently brought to wider attention by Mackenzie Crook’s beautifully poignant series, Detectorists, and also through live collaborations with legendary Irish trio, Voice Squad. On this record, they fully explore their rich and unique vocal combinations, with brand new material and arrangements.

http://www.the-unthanks.com

Tempeste di neve e trasloco in casa nuova non hanno distolto Karen Mantler dal partecipare a inizio mese all'ultimo concerto dal vivo della newyorkese Ghost Train Orchestra di Brian Carpenter con il repertorio di composizioni di Moondog (Louis Hardin, 1916-1999) prima dei lavori in studio in vista di una pubblicazione ufficiale. Peter Gannushkin ne ha tratto un'intera galleria fotografica: https://downtownmusic.net/ghost-train-orchestra-02-02-2020

http://ghosttrainorchestra.com
https://www.facebook.com/ghosttrainorchestra
https://twitter.com/GhostTrain_Orch

Si amplia con Mortality la collana musicale intrecciata affettuosamente dai Garland padre e figlio, David e Kenji, in ricordo di Anne: Vulneraries.

"Mortality was recorded in the days immediately following the death of my wife (and Kenji’s mother) Anne Garland. During her last week, Anne’s gradual but unrelenting decline from lung cancer became even more precipitous. Kenji and I had spent the previous nine months doing whatever we could to mitigate Anne’s discomforts. There was a limit to how effective our efforts could be, but it was always a sort of dialog with Anne and her body, and all of us were constantly making adjustments for whatever benefit was possible. We didn’t experience Anne’s illness as a general state of being, but as a constantly changing moment of now in which the effort to help her was the focus. Anne became less responsive in her final week - which of course we didn’t know was her final week, until it was. She was less and less able to have a dialog with us about her condition, so, increasingly, all we could do was reach out to her with touch, love, and sound. During the last days it wasn’t clear how much did reach her, but we offered and tried. Sometimes I played guitar next to her. Wanting to provide some sense of serenity, I came up with the simple, stately sequence that has become the Mortality theme."

https://davidgarland.bandcamp.com/album/vulneraries-vol-3-mortality
https://www.hibou-anemone-bear.com/vulneraries

Inizierà a maggio con il celebre The Litanies of Satan la serie di riedizioni in cd, vinile e digitale delle opere di Diamanda Galás, ora che ne è lei stessa la piena propretaria. A compimento dovrebbe giungere poco dopo anche un brano finora inedito, Deformation, probabilmente tratto da Das Fieberspital: “a march and delivery of maimed and infected soldiers to hospitals and industrial warehouses throughout Germany during and after the First World War. In the hospitals the maimed would receive experimental operations and the infected would be confined to protect the mental well-being and physical health of the citizens of the State.”

Diamanda Galás’ debut album The Litanies of Satan, originally released on Y Records in 1982, is reissued on the artist’s own Intravenal Sound Operations label in LP, CD and digital formats. The album has been meticulously remastered from the original Y Records analogue tapes by Diamanda and engineer Heba Kadry and features the original classic artwork of that release. Vinyl includes poster. This the first release in a new reissue campaign since Diamanda regained ownership and control of her entire catalogue in 2019.

http://diamandagalas.com
https://diamandagalas.myshopify.com/products/the-litanies-of-satan

Chi si è visto il carnevale impedito o turbato dagli eventi psicovirali in corso avrà un motivo in più per godersi - almeno virtualmente - la strepitosa festa di colori e suoni organizzata da Massimo Giuntoli sulle immagini di Pat Barrett: Disruptus, capitolo più recente di una serie in progress di progetti musicali dedicati dal Nostro alla fotografia e alle arti visive.

https://www.massimogiuntoli.com

http://www.patbarrettstudio.com
https://youtu.be/g9TURnfkVik

Xenakis, Stockhausen, Berio e Varèse, Coltrane, Parker e Sun Ra, Bach, Sibelius e Debussy e decine di molti altri nomi della classica, del jazz e dell'avanguardia annoverati tra gli ascolti e gli esempi più influenti sulla cultura alternativa degli anni Sessanta: è l'orizzonte scelto dall'antologia in tre cd prodotta dalla él - ahimè solo lontana erede di quella - per Cherry Red Records dal titolo I’d Love To Turn You On, contemplando la galassia di preferenze, ispirazioni, prestiti e rimemorazioni variamente attribuibili a Beatles e George Martin, Soft Machine e Pink Floyd, Zappa e Bowie, Jobim e Gilberto, Scott Walker e Nick Drake. Il brano accostato a Robert Wyatt - Six Dukes Went a-Fishing, proposto dall'impeccabile coppia Britten/Pears - è così commentato dal Nostro: "This was something in my dad's collection, on a 78. His was of Scottish songs, from recordings Britten did with the tenor Peter Sears. The tunes in them are wonderful, but the chords sound so strange to us now - and that strangeness is what interested Britten. The thing about avant-garde musicians is they're not just about looking forward. They also look back, far beyond that which other people do. It's like looking at primitive paintings and trying to speak their language."

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/label/el
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/id-love-to-turn-you-on-classical-and-avant-garde-music-that-inspired-the-counter-culture-various-artists-3cd

Gran festa in musica stasera a Le gare a Parigi per celebrare i settant'anni - e a giorni anche la sua nuova cittadinanza europea - del grande John Greaves, "le rocker culte qui emmerde le Brexit". Auguri!

https://www.facebook.com/events/603086050457593
https://www.telerama.fr/sortir/john-greaves

Nell'imperdibile collezione storica di documenti audio e video montati da Aymeric Leroy e condivisi su YT c'è un ricordo di Phil Miller e Richard Sinclair a proposito dei loro primi incontri prima della meravigliosa avventura Hatfield: "Richard Sinclair and Phil Miller remember how they first met, initially through future Hatfield bandmate Pip Pyle, and began playing together in casual improvised sessions, then in studio situations (Caravan's Waterloo Lily album, Coxhill/Miller album with Phil's brother Steve) until they formed a band together with Pip Pyle in 1972 which eventually morphed into Hatfield and the North."

https://youtu.be/B6sqgKW0JB4

Se era inatteso l'Ex-Futur Album di qualche anno fa - dopo lunghissimo silenzio - inatteso lo è quasi di più il prossimo Aksaq Maboul, Figures, doppio album previsto a primavera assieme ad alcuni appuntamenti dal vivo e intanto preceduto da un curioso singolo bifronte: Tout a une fin e Blaue Bleistift.

Legendary experimental pop group Aksak Maboul returns with their first real new release in decades. Entitled Figures, it’s a double album containing 22 tracks & interludes: it took no less than that to accommodate the flow of ideas which arose after such a long gap… Drawing again from the multiple sources which have always inspired the band (from electronic music and pop to experimentation, jazz, minimalism, contemporary classical etc), Aksak Maboul reconfigure them with their inimitable style. Weaving electronic and acoustic instrumentation, improvisation and programming, songs, beats, found objects and sound collages, the album works as a labyrinth, full of secret passages and interconnections.

The album was wholly written, conceived and produced by Marc Hollander & Véronique Vincent (respectively founder of Aksak Maboul & Crammed Discs, and former vocalist with The Honeymoon Killers), Marc being in charge of the music, while Véronique wrote the lyrics and made the drawings and paintings for the artwork. Also appearing on the album are contributions by the band’s current live line-up: Faustine Hollander, Lucien Fraipont (Robbing Millions) & Erik Heestermans, and by guests including a.o. Fred Frith, Steven Brown (Tuxedomoon), three members of Aquaserge and more.

https://aksakmaboul.bandcamp.com/album/tout-a-une-fin-blaue-bleistift
https://youtu.be/b1MIbKBXzPM

A corredo delle sue più recenti esibizioni - inclusa una rapida incursione anche in Italia pochi giorni fa - c'è su Radio Panik uno speciale dedicato a Pierre Bastien, con una breve intervista, uno sguardo aggiornato alla discografia e alcuni estratti dal concerto tenuto il mese scorso a Bruxelles con il duo Tomaga.

Après des débuts au hochet comme tout le monde, Pierre Bastien construisit vers dix ans une guitare à deux cordes, à partir des éléments du jeu "Le Petit Physicien". Vers quinze ans il élabore une première machinerie consistant dans un métronome flanqué à droite d'une cymbale, à gauche d'une poêle à paella. Ces expériences enfantines pourront paraître dérisoires, elles le sont à peine comparées à ses premiers actes de musicien adulte, puisqu'il a d'abord l'occasion de jouer du torchon de vaisselle, le maniant comme un fouet pour le faire claquer devant le micro, dans le disque Parallèles de Jac Berrocal. De ce disque le public retiendra surtout un titre, Rock'n Roll Station avec Vince Taylor, Berrocal à la bicyclette, et Bastien dans un ostinato d'une note à la contrebasse.
Malgré ce départ peu conventionnel, et grâce peut-être à la survivance simultanée d'un certain esprit dada chez ses contemporains, Pierre Bastien est alors amené à travailler avec de grands artistes. En même temps il a longuement construit et mis au point un orchestre domestique et privé fait de dizaines de robots en Meccano, joueurs d'instruments de musique traditionnels et parfois d'objets usuels. C'est avec ces machines regroupées sous le terme Mecanium, et d'autres issues de pratiques voisines, qu'il enregistre ses albums et donne ses concerts.

https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/moacrealsloa/pierre-bastien

E le più varie possibilità espressive di batteria e percussioni integrate nello spazio elettroacustico generato da microfoni e accurata amplificazione sono investigate a fondo da Vincent Glanzmann e Gerry Hemingway in Composition O, due diverse sessioni di studio del 2017 raccolte in un album pubblicato ora in Polonia da Fundacja Słuchaj: "The compositional particularities are fixed in regards to each performance. However after each performance the piece is again open for discussion and re-evaluation. Some parameters that could change might include of change the manner of notation, instrumentation, organization of sound properties, and the consideration of alternate formations of musicians. The electro-acoustic element of microphones integrated into an otherwise percussive instrumentation allows access to micro-acoustic areas of sound as well as a parallel investigation of developing them as instruments unto themselves."

https://sluchaj.bandcamp.com/album/composition-o

Fu FMP a segnare nel 1972 il debutto discografico di Sven-Åke Johansson con Schlingerland / Dynamische Schwingungen, fenomenale indagine solitaria e senza remore dentro e fuori il set batteristico. Lo riprende oggi in vinile Cien Fuegos, ritoccato leggermente da Martin Siewert.

Sven-Åke Johansson's 1972 record Schlingerland presents just the man and his drum set, exploring the polyrhythmic possibilities of his kit. Schlingerland fills a gap in the documentation of '70s European improvisation. At the same time, it retains a surprisingly contemporary sound which reverberates in the ear, mind, and heart of the 21st century listener.

http://www.sven-akejohansson.com

Un doppio solo inedito del grande Peter Kowald (1944-2002) registrato dal vivo il 6 e l'8 novembre 1997 nel corso del trentesimo Total Music Meeting al Podewil di Berlino: Total Music Meeting 1997-Solo Bass, pubblicato in digitale da FMP. Lo si trova in Destination Out.

This stunning double album showcases never before released solo performances from legendary bassist Peter Kowald. It's a key recording for any fan, showing how Kowald uses his formidable techniques to create spellbinding musical compositions, every note forged in the furnace of the moment. Recorded at the Total Music Meeting 1997.

https://destination-out.bandcamp.com/total-music-meeting-1997-solo-bass

Tornano grazie al recupero di Hat Hut Records i mondi eliocentrici di Sun Ra definiti in due distinte registrazioni newyorkesi effettuate con la sua Arkestra nel 1965, ad aprile e a novembre: Heliocentric Worlds 1 & 2 Revisited. Interessante quel che sottolinea nelle note di copertina Brian Morton, richiamando lo spirito del tempo: "This is music that makes you think. It also conjures up a very specific time in American culture. The space race was heating up. Vietnam was heating up. The day Heliocentric Worlds, Volume 2 was recorded, a space craft was launched from earth that was to become the first to reach another planet (as opposed to moon or satellite). Unfortunately, perhaps, it was a Soviet rather than American craft, but it still meant that the solar system, which had gone through Ptolemaic, Copernican, Galilean and the modernist versions, was suddenly existential in a new way, part of the universe reachable by human means. In June, between the two Heliocentric Worlds sessions, an American man, Ed White, had exited Gemini 4 and actually walked in space, not in that nonsensical and unscientific vacuum we call "zero gravity", which is a classic misnomer, but freed from the bounds of earth for a moment and able to look down on our complex, beautiful little planet unhampered by wind or cold or bodily weight. NASA was always unimaginative in its choice of astronauts, picking the fit ones, good-looking ones and the ones least likely to cause embarrassment at a press conference. Imagine if they had sent Herman Sonny Blount up there, or back up there, as he might have insisted. What a different view of America and the world it dominated, he might have seen."

http://www.hathut.com/ezz1104-copy

Per l'etichetta di Nick Didkovsky Punos Music, riservata alle sue cose più estreme, esce con fragore l'album Loud dei benamati Doctor Nerve, di nuovo in attività dopo qualche anno di silenzio. Quattro brani in stesura originale, con gli assoli di chitarra di Didkovsky, più una girandola di versioni alternative con gli interventi di Henry Kaiser, Mike Keneally, Robert Musso, René Lussier, Andrew Hawkins e Shawn Persinger tra gli altri. In digitale, in cd e per chi vuole anche in vinile (con effetti speciali).

http://www.doctornerve.org

https://www.facebook.com/DoctorNerve

https://doctornerve.bandcamp.com/album/loud
http://www.punosmusic.com/doctornerve/loud

Steve Feigenbaum racconta a Tzvi Gluckin di Plus One Me la storia e le vicende della sua Cuneiform Records. E a chi si è perso qualcosa delle pubblicazioni dell'anno appena trascorso offre un piccolo (e gradito) assaggio tramite Bandcamp: The Albums of 2019.

https://plusoneme.substack.com/p/steve-feigenbaum-talks-about-cuneiform
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/the-albums-of-2019

Quando per il concerto dello scorso ottobre a Oslo i Pere Ubu dovettero fare a meno di Chris Cutler, bloccato nel caos di un disservizio dei treni britannici, presentarono i materiali allestiti per il loro Long Goodbye Tour enfatizzando le componenti elettroniche - anche ritmiche - da cui l'album stesso aveva peraltro presso le mosse. Per l'occasione ribattezzarono la formazione a tre (Thomas, Moliné, Gagarin) ATTAC, ovvero All The Trains Are Cancelled. A quanto pare la cosa ha funzionato, tanto che tra qualche settimana verrà riproposta a Brighton, al Green Door Store. Appena fuori dalla stazione ferroviaria, per evitare altra confusione...

http://www.ubuprojex.com
http://www.ubuprojex.com/tlg.html
https://David-Thomas-Pere-Ubu-and-Friends-The-Long-Goodbye-ATTAC-gig
https://www.flickriver.com/photos/Pere Ubu

C'è finalmente una versione in lingua inglese dello studio di Henry Cow - en analyse av avantgarderock, scritto a metà anni Ottanta da Trond Einar Garmo e pubblicato nel 2001 a Trondheim (Norvegia) dallo Skrifter fra Musikkvitenskapelig Institutt. Disponibile in lingua originale sul web, ora se ne fa carico in un'edizione arricchita e aggiornata ReR Megacorp: "This substantial book was written in 1984/85, soon after the band broke up and while memories were still fresh. It was written very much from the perspective of the time - that’s more important than it may sound in such a project: hindsight has its own value but it loses the essence of the moment, the context, the freshness; the feel of unfamiliarity. Originally written as a master’s degree thesis, it was updated and published in book form in 2000 by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. This limited edition translation, further updated, makes it available in English for the first time. Written with the full cooperation of the band, the book concentrates (unlike Ben Peikut’s) on the music – and includes many pages of original scores (both printed and handwritten by the composers), song texts (ditto) and (perfectly understandable) analyses. And, of course, the book also tells the story of the band itself, through a combination of research, analysis and interviews (published and unpublished). It also includes a bibliography and a discography - both of Henry Cow’s own releases, official and unofficial, and all the band-members’ many subsequent projects. A valuable addition to the history of the band and of the period. For fans, scholars, musicologists and the generally curious."

http://www.rermegacorp.com
http://folk.ntnu.no/trondeg/Henry_Cow.php

Prosegue la pregevole serie Probes curata ormai da qualche anno da Chris Cutler per Radio Web Macba, presso il Museo di Arte Contemporanea di Barcellona. L'episodio pubblicato l'estate scorsa, il numero 26, indagava il rapporto di scambio tra oggetti quotidiani e pratiche artistico-culturali nell'esperienza musicale promossa da Satie, Cocteau e Avraamov tra i primi; oggi l'appendice, come sempre utilissima, condensa in mezzoretta una gran quantità di altri esempi: "a variety of integrated musical incorporations of car horns, auto-parts, doorbells, scrap metal, asphalt, foghorns and power tools, in the worlds of rock, pop, contemporary music, jazz and film scores."

Probes takes Marshall McLuhan’s conceptual contrapositions as a starting point to analyse and expose the search for a new sonic language made urgent after the collapse of tonality in the twentieth century. The series looks at the many probes and experiments that were launched in the last century in search of new musical resources, and a new aesthetic; for ways to make music adequate to a world transformed by disorientating technologies.

https://rwm.macba.cat/en/research/probes-26
https://rwm.macba.cat/en/research/probes-262

E' pronto l'atteso tomo di Mike Barnes A New Day Yesterday (Omnibus Press, 2020), istruttiva indagine di oltre seicento pagine sul 'rock progressivo' britannico tra la fine degli anni Sessanta e la metà degli anni Settanta. Che con capitoli dai titoli Knights in Beige Terylene, Sock in Opposition, All Roads Lead to Homerton o Can a Wyatt Man Sing the Blues? promette anche di divertire...

Music journalist Mike Barnes goes back to the birth of progressive rock and surveys the cultural conditions and attitudes that fed into, and were in turn affected by, this remarkable musical phenomenon. He examines the myths and misconceptions that have grown up around progressive rock and paints a vivid, colourful picture of the Seventies based on hundreds of hours of his own interviews with musicians, music business insiders, journalists and DJs, and from the personal testimonies of those who were fans of the music in that extraordinary decade.

https://omnibuspress.com/collections/a-new-day-yesterday

Dar conto delle innumerevoli collaborazioni musicali occorse nell'universo Wyatt nel corso degli anni non è certo cosa che possa risolversi in poche righe: ci prova in altro modo David Hoskins, semplificando un po', sulla scorta della discografia indicata da Marcus O'Dair in Different Every Time. Grazie a Tableau.

https://public.tableau.com/RobertWyattDifferentEveryTime
https://twitter.com/data_ink

MoonJune Music ricorda il compianto Elton Dean (1945-2006) nell'anniversario della scomparsa tornando alle prime pubblicazioni dell'etichetta a lui dedicate e offrendo per una cifra simbolica l'album The Unbelievable Truth registrato dal vivo nel 2005 con The Wrong Object. Scrive Leonardo Pavkovic: "14 years ago, February 8 2006, my dear friend Elton Dean, the legendary British saxophonist and long time friend since mid 80’s died in London. There would be no MoonJune without Elton. Our dreams were fulfilled in my apartment in June of 2000 when we started planning a sort of Soft Machine reunion. That’s how MoonJune started. We were able to invent Soft Works with Allan Holdsworth, Hugh Hopper and John Marshall, we continued as Soft Machine Legacy with John Etheridge taking the guitar slot after Allan’s departure, and that’s how I started my booking business, MoonJune Global Media which became years later MoonJune Music, and the first ever album on my label was Elton Dean’s collaboration with Mark Hewins, “Bar Torque”. Immediately after Elton’s death, I decided to release a live recording of the young and promising Belgian band The Wrong Object with Elton Dean as a special guest, they only played one show in Paris, and a tour of Benelux and France was being planned in the Spring of 2006, something that never happened. To celebrate the memory of this great man and immense musician, MoonJune is offering download of the album “The Unbelievable Truth” for $1 only."

https://thewrongobject.bandcamp.com/album/the-unbelievable-truth

E appuntamenti dal vivo attendono presto la nuova formazione a dodici dei Magma, dopo la dipartita del 'veterano' Philippe Bussonnet, di Benoît Alziary e Jérome Martineau-Ricotti (e prima ancora quella del buon James MacGaw): una dozzina di concerti, alcuni in veste ancor più estesa ed orchestrale, da fine mese fin quasi a metà maggio. Informazioni: http://www.magmamusic.org/fr/concerts

Groupes et modes passent, quelques uns restent, et durent. Très au delà du simple spasme musical et de l’effet de mode, Magma s’est imposé dès 1970 avec une musique libérée des connivences et des clichés, une musique violente, virtuose, sans pareille. Christian Vander, batteur et fondateur du groupe, a joué ses premières rythmiques sous la direction d’ Elvin Jones, et il a grandi comme une des mémoires du jazz des années 50/60, avec sa vision propre.
Avec Magma, il se démarque très vite de ses contemporains et évite la facilité. Musicien rigoureux, farouchement exigeant, il hypnotise dès qu’il joue ou chante, et ouvre les voies d’une polyrythmie puissante et implacable. Les musiciens qui l’entouraient alors, sont tous aujourd’hui de grands noms de la musique contemporaine. Ils s’appellent: Jannick Top, Michel Graillier, Claude Engel, Bernard Paganotti, Didier Lockwood…
A l’image d’un Miles Davis, Vander reste un grand formateur de talents. Son attitude provocante et décalée avant l’heure, son originalité vocale, lui ont valu maints procès d’intention. Et pourtant sa musique est toujours présente, indépendante, indomptable, vibrant aux muses de son inspiration grandiose tels John Coltrane, Igor Stravinsky, Bach ou encore Carl Orff. Un musicien capable de ne pas être musicalement sectaire reste un phénomène rare. Un musicien libéré des structures du show-business est une exception.

http://www.magmamusic.org

Tre nuovi appuntamenti dal vivo per Torba, ovvero Tim Hodgkinson, Gandolfo Pagano e Fabrizio Spera, a due anni dal loro primo concerto insieme: "Un nuovo trio nato dall'intreccio di relazioni sviluppate nel corso degli anni nell'ambito delle musiche di ricerca. Una formazione che fa della improvvisazione la sua pratica essenziale. Un suono inevitabile, elaborato in tempo reale attraverso l'ascolto e in continua lotta fra intento narrativo e pura accidentalità." Domani a Roma, poi a Montisi (Si) e a Ravaldino in Monte (Fc).

https://zero.eu/it/eventi/torba
https://youtu.be/X5FmYHjoMeU
https://www.hibou-anemone-bear.com/torba

E sempre nel numero di febbraio-marzo 2020 di Perfect Sound Forever Gary Gomes pubblica la prima parte di un'intervista a Leonardo Pavkovic, che inizia ricordando le motivazioni personali, le conoscenze e le coincidenze dietro alla decisione di dar vita quasi vent'anni fa alla sua benemerita creatura, MoonJune Records: "I don't know why things are happening in life. Things are happening for an unknown reason, because I believe I am a natural improviser in life because of the way I live my life, the way I survive, the way I had to grow up. It was always that survival instinct that led me to improvising life. I am a very optimistic and positive person. I like the unpredictable, the unknown, like whatever is known to everybody - I'm not saying it's boring, it probably is not - [but] it doesn't attract me. It came out of nowhere, a coincidence, a set of circumstances. It is a very long story,..."

http://furious.com/perfect/moonjune.html

https://moonjunerecords.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/moonjunerecords2

Gary Gomes intervista Geoff Leigh nel numero di febbraio-marzo 2020 di Perfect Sound Forever: "Geoff Leigh is one of the more interesting improvising musicians performing today. He is perhaps best known to the fan community for his tenure on Henry Cow's first album Leg End but his musical career extended well before this and after. A unique improvisor - at times, he reminds me a little of the late John Gilmore from Sun Ra's Arkestra."

http://furious.com/perfect/geoffleigh.html
https://geoffleigh.bandcamp.com

Iancu Dumitrescu e i suoi Charismatic Numbers al Cafe Oto londinese lo scorso 27 gennaio: “One” (per solo violoncello, eseguito dal compositore); “Three” (improvvisazione spettrale per tre contrabbassi, affidata a John Edwards, Gwen Reed e Otto Willberg); “Five”, conduzione con Sarah Gail Brand (trombone), Chris Cutler e Mark Sanders (percussioni), Tim Hodgkinson e Yoni Silver (clarinetto basso). Su YT grazie a Polca.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/Charismatic Numbers

Il team di Chemikal Underground che ha prodotto il simpatico omaggio a Ivor Cutler Return To Y’Hup: The World of Ivor Cutler, disponibile da qualche giorno in vinile colorato e in cd, ne ha offerto una spettacolare presentazione dal vivo a Glasgow mercoledì scorso, nei giorni del festival Celtic Connections. Sul palco, con i titolari Matt Brennan e Raymond MacDonald, una ventina tra musicisti e ospiti alle prese con Gruts for Tea, The Boo Boo Bird, Muscular Tree, Who Tore Your Trousers? e Women of the World tra le decine e decine di brani: Karine Polwart, Stuart Braithwaite, Duglas T Stewart, Stuart Murdoch, Malcolm Benzie, Sarah Hayes, Chris Thomson e perfino Heather Leigh tra gli altri. Ospite dell'isola immaginata da Cutler è ovviamente anche Robert Wyatt, presente sull'album con una lettura di Out of Decency presa pari pari da A Wet Handle (1997).

Chemikal Underground takes great pleasure in announcing the release of Return To Y’Hup: The World of Ivor Cutler, a celebration of the life and work of an artist of unrivalled musical and poetic vision. 26 of Cutler’s choice compositions are presented by Citizen Bravo, Raymond MacDonald and a host of friends from the crème de la crème of Scotland’s music scene. This ambitious project is a pioneering experiment in the field of imaginary archaeology: a sonic conjuring of a decades-old fictional island.

Noting Cutler’s absence from an exhibit about the history of Scottish pop music at the National Museum of Scotland, Matt Brennan (Citizen Bravo) and saxophonist/composer Raymond McDonald (Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra) decided to set the record straight. They wanted to pay homage and re-affirm Cutler’s status as a national treasure, uniting their two very different two musical backgrounds in a freaky and fruitful collaboration. The core team was completed by producers Malcolm Benzie (eagleowl and Withered Hand) and Andy Monaghan (member of much missed Frightened Rabbit).

The underlying concept of the album was to resurrect the mythical island of Y’Hup – a territory which Ivor Cutler dreamt up and described throughout his early recordings. Here, the island has been populated with distinct Scottish voices alongside new arrangements of Cutler’s music, featuring a large number of high profile guest artists, including: Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), Tracyanne Campbell (Camera Obscura), Kris Drever (Lau), Alex Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand), Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian), Pictish Trail, Emma Pollock (Delgados), Karine Polwart, Rick Redbeard (Phantom Band) and James Yorkston. Visiting the island as distinguished guests are two English vocalists, Phyllis King (Ivor Cutler’s longtime companion and collaborator) and living legend, Robert Wyatt.

http://www.ivorcutler.org
https://chemikal.co.uk/live/return-to-yhup-the-world-of-ivor-cutler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWMWR8eTLm0
https://www.youtube.com/user/gonars

Nel dare conferma del loro concerto londinese di inizio agosto - si chiamerà Time's Arrow-The Concert - Dave Stewart e Barbara Gaskin comunicano anche la sede prescelta: ed è un'ottima scelta!

To celebrate 40 years of music-making, we're excited to announce we'll be playing a special concert at London's prestigious Kings Place Hall One on Saturday August 1st 2020. The line-up will be Barbara (vocals), Dave (keyboards) and Beren Matthews (guitar), playing a selection of material (including old favourites and some brand new songs) drawn from the Stewart / Gaskin catalogue. Please come and join us on this special occasion!

https://www.davebarb.com
https://burningshed.com/dave-stewart_barbara-gaskin_e-ticket