30 giugno 2020


Stuart Moxham e Louis Philippe danno finalmente alle stampe The Devil Laughs, frutto squisito di alcune sessioni di studio ad alto tasso emotivo realizzate a quattro mani nel 2013, con il decisivo apporto di Ken Brake e Danny Manners. La distanza anche temporale da Random Rules e The Huddle House non ha minimamente scalfito l'affinità di intenti e sentimenti dei due: "What brought us together originally brings us together again".

The Devil Laughs is as out of its time as Colossal Youth was - its subtle but immediate beauty, devoid of “rock”, is a recording best understood in the light of those obscure groundbreakers who inspired it - the faux barbershop vocals of Smile-era Beach Boys, the studio lustre of Tom Wilson’s work with Simon & Garfunkel, a dash of The Swingle Sisters and French chanson - along with enough hints of Young Marble Giant’s modernist folk abstraction to satisfy longtime fans. The Devil Laughs is a small masterpiece of pure expression.

https://stuartmoxhamlouisphilippe.bandcamp.com

29 giugno 2020


E al sito Phil Miller-The Legacy fanno la loro comparsa anche i file Midi, a integrazione delle parti scritte e delle spiegazioni relative ad alcuni dei brani più noti e apprezzati composti dal compianto chitarrista. Si inizia con Phrygian Blues, dall'album con In Cahoots Out of the Blue (Crescent Discs, 2001).

https://philmillerthelegacy.com

28 giugno 2020


Tornano gli appuntamenti mensili con la splendida serie Inside the Music, gli approfondimenti teorici e pratici che Dave Stewart riserva ad alcuni brani realizzati assieme a Barbara Gaskin sotto la premiata sigla Stewart / Gaskin. Si ricomincia con Wings On Our Shoes, dall'album Star Clocks (Broken Records, 2018).

https://www.davebarb.com

27 giugno 2020


E' per oggi l'appuntamento con una speciale edizione online dell'Unpredictable Series, coordinata come sempre da Blanca Regina, Steve Beresford e Pierre Bouvier Patron: Unpredictable Times. Non sarà un collegamento in diretta streaming da varie località al pari di migliaia di altri eventi di questo disgraziato periodo, ma un vero e proprio programma costituito da interventi e contributi prodotti specificamente per l'occasione. C'è attesa in particolare per lo Spontaneous Exchange tra Beresford e Christian Marclay, una decina di minuti di musiche e immagini catturate tra aprile e maggio nelle vie deserte della Londra del lockdown.

http://www.unpredictable.info

26 giugno 2020


Hamster Theatre dal vivo in studio la settimana scorsa, a debita distanza individuale e con le necessarie cautele, celebrando in musica l'anniversario del Juneteenth e a sostegno del Black Lives Matter. Per la gioia di ascoltatori vicini e lontani, anche. Con Dave Willey c'erano Jon Stubbs, Mark Harris, Mike Johnson, Eric Thorin e Raoul Rossiter, nomi noti e cari a chi segue le vicende Thinking Plague.

https://www.facebook.com/Hamster-Theatre-218562472316

25 giugno 2020


Bob Drake traffica per qualche giorno con un software di notazione musicale e ne ottiene una suite in quattordici parti dai suoni meno stucchevoli - "charmingly artificial", dice - di quel che era forse lecito temere: Suite for Notation Software.

https://bdstudio.bandcamp.com/album/suite-for-notation-software

24 giugno 2020


R. Stevie Moore ripesca dai propri infiniti archivi i brani che Recommended volle includere nei celebri Sampler di inizio anni Ottanta: due distinti medley - Pedestrian Hop con Copy Me e What Are You Lookin' At? con Flowers Sleep Into The Night - che rappresentarono per molti ascoltatori il primissimo contatto con l'artista, nonostante le diverse autoproduzioni già alle spalle. Di lì a poco, nel 1984, il suo What's the Point?!! avrebbe segnato la nascita della Cuneiform Records.

https://rsteviemoore.bandcamp.com/recommended-records-samplers
http://www.moorestevie.com/2/recrec.html

23 giugno 2020


ReR aggiunge a quella riservata al download dei titoli in catalogo una speciale sezione dedicata a John Tilbury, con molti materiali inediti tratti dalla vasta collezione privata del pianista. Tra i primi autori scelti ci sono gli amatissimi Samuel Beckett e Howard Skempton.

This site offers recordings, many of which have never been released before, of works by Samuel Beckett, Morton Feldman, John Cage, Cornelius Cardew and Howard Skempton, as well as solo improvisations and collaborations with, amongst others, Derek Bailey, Keith Rowe, Eddie Prévost, Joëlle Léandre, Marcus Schmickler, John Butcher, Thomas Lehn, Oren Ambarchi, Mark Sanders, Wadada Leo Smith, John Edwards and Bertrand Gauguet.

http://www.rerdownloads.com
http://www.jtilbury.com/catalogue

22 giugno 2020


Molte cose nell'aggiornamento ReR di questo mese, nel segno ahimè di rincari delle spese di importazione e di spedizione: il nuovo libro di Cutler (Not as We Choose; Music, Memory and Technology), quello di Luca Ferrari (Glen Sweeney’s Alchemies: The life and Times of the Third Ear Band) e quello di Peter Blegvad con Jerry Joiner (The Marvellous Moo/Milano Eagles), poi Brian Woodbury, The Necks, Horatiu Radulescu, Aksak Maboul e, per i ritardatari, ancora alcune copie dei preziosissimi box di Art Bears e This Heat. Nulla però che sia anche solo lontanamente collegabile ad Alan Jenkins...

http://www.rermegacorp.com

21 giugno 2020


In memoria del compianto Keith Tippett è attivo da qualche giorno un sito web dedicato a raccogliere informazioni biografiche e discografiche, rassegna stampa, materiali d'archivio, segnalazioni e vari altri contributi, con un forum aperto alla discussione e collegamenti utili per l'approfondimento. Spicca al momento l'iniziativa con raccolta di firme per intitolare a Tippett la maggior sala da concerti a Bristol - luogo di nascita del Nostro - in vista della sua imminente riapertura dopo restauri, particolarmente urgente dopo le proteste del movimento Black Lives Matter e la rimozione nei giorni scorsi della statua dell'attuale intestatario, il mercante (anche di schiavi africani) Edward Colston.

"We are deeply saddened by the death of Keith Tippett. A sincere, gentle, loving, vivacious incredible spirit who gave not only through his music but through his teaching, inspiring hundreds of students worldwide. His achievements are many, through performance, leading the way in the world of improvisation, compositionally, pushing the boundaries of jazz and Western Classical music as we understand it and as an educator most notably at the Welsh College of Music and Drama and at Dartington Arts. However, his largest achievements, he would agree, are his children Inca and Luke and his life long journey with soul mate Julie Tippetts. It is our intention that this site will become a resource and an In Memoriam tribute to the maestro of the avant-garde. Meanwhile please support our efforts to campaign for the ultimate accolade for Keith, the renaming of Bristol's Colston Hall to The Keith Tippett Hall. As Bristol's most prestigious and ethical artist of this generation the title of the hall would be befitting and appropriate recognition of all his work and influence over the last five decades."

https://www.keithtippett.co.uk
https://tinyurl.com/ycyd8vcj

20 giugno 2020


Agli indimenticabili capitoli discografici prodotti da Keith e Julie Tippett in duo come Couple in Spirit mancherà purtroppo quello di cui stavano progettando la realizzazione entro fine anno assieme a Martin Archer di Discus Music e con il supporto di una piccola folla di amici e sostenitori. In via non ufficiale circolano - su YT per esempio, o presso altri gruppi di condivisione - alcuni documenti audio e video che conservano traccia di loro esibizioni dal vivo, nessuno però in grado di restituirne il particolarissimo incanto.

https://www.youtube.com/keith+julie+tippett
https://youtu.be/WpO6EyhR3Z0
https://youtu.be/bEQCrVZm3_Q

19 giugno 2020


Keith Tippett, con Julie, ha lasciato un segno memorabile nella storia dell'Artchipel Orchestra, ne è testimone anche chi ha potuto seguire i loro concerti insieme qualche anno fa. Scrive Ferdinando Faraò: "Abbiamo avuto la fortuna di incontrarlo e l'onore di collaborare con lui. E' stato un incontro fondamentale per noi, una fonte di ispirazione, un'esperienza musicale e umana uniche. Desideriamo anche mandare un pensiero in questo momento di profonda costernazione a Julie Tippetts, che abbracciamo e stringiamo forte. Riposa in pace Keith, resterai sempre nei nostri cuori. Grazie..."

18 giugno 2020


Di Keith Tippett scrivono in molti in questi giorni sulla stampa, sul web e nei gruppi di discussione, accompagnandone il ricordo con affetto e grande ammirazione: ad esempio Duncan Heining (All About Jazz), John Fordham (The Guardian), Martin Schray (The Free Jazz Collective), Tony Dudley-Evans (LondonJazz). Tra i musicisti a lui vicini è Paul Dunmall a pronunciare parole tra le più toccanti: "Keith was a totally outstanding pianist, musician and composer. I saw several of his solo concerts over the years and they were full of truly spiritual music from the soul and heart, which inspired and uplifted so many people. He was unique and irreplaceable; a soul who came to enrich us with his gift of music and has returned when this Earthly life came to an end. It’s a soul’s journey. Peace to you."

https://www.facebook.com/KeithTippettOfficial

17 giugno 2020


Anche Sid Smith ricorda Keith Tippett, scrivendo su Louder: "When pianist and composer Keith Tippett played you listened. Not a cursory, in the background while you’re busy with something else but more of a dumb-struck, stopped-in-your-tracks, type of listening that commanded attention and struck deep. Whether it was at the helm of the his 50-strong Centipede orchestra, the atonal cluster-bombs notes pitched into King Crimson or his work with Ovary Lodge or Mujician, where the building blocks of music were forensically explored at an almost sub-atomic level, his was a unique, inquisitive musical voice, whose fluid virtuosity conjured elemental forces, stirred the passions and burned with heartfelt lyricism."

https://www.loudersound.com/keith-tippett-remembered

16 giugno 2020


The Guardian affida alle parole di Richard Williams il compito di ricordare Keith Tippett, con un pezzo dal titolo The jazz great who saw music as a source of goodness: "The era of general optimism for his generation ended in the middle of the 1970s, when the record industry realised that the money was elsewhere, but Tippett remained a positive force in British music. His core belief was that when the music started, goodness would happen. Not just good music but good human connections."

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/keith-tippett-the-jazz-great

15 giugno 2020

(Keith Tippett, 1947-2020)




14 giugno 2020


Una breve presentazione su Vimeo e YT illustra la straordinaria performance immersiva proposta da Marek Chołoniewski e Chris Cutler con Piotr Madej e Artur Lis lo scorso ottobre a Lviv (Ucraina) nell'ambito del Tetramatyka Festival: Folded Maps of Time.

Folded Maps of Time (FoMaTi) is an immersive audio-visual work for live performance that integrates biosensoric electromagnetic systems (MC) and object-oriented electrified percussion (CC). Performed by Marek Chołoniewski (PL), Chris Cutler (UK), Piotr Madej (PL) & Artur Lis (PL). The audience is surrounded by a multichannel sound and video system, as if inside a living organism, or virtual brain, with multiple inlets, outlets, channels and infinite chaotic entanglements: these are our folded maps of time; a flux of unstable memories and constant flow. Brain activity is projected as a virtual model of a floating brain. Ambisonic surround-sound projection will map an analogue internal brain – this being one critical core of the performing system, since biofeedback plays a significant role in all aspects of the performance: selected brain waves (delta, theta, alfa, beta, gamma, meditation, attention, raw data) being used as both readers and processors of performer behavior to mediate the subconscious and intuitive selection of prepared, pre-composed and performed materials. This commission offers a unique collaboration between the Polish composer and artist Marek Chołoniewski and the British percussionist and composer, Chris Cutler, integrating Chołoniewski's award-winning audio and audio-visual work in electroacoustic performance, and Cutler's history of creating vanguard works across multiple genres using extended instruments and techniques. Artur Lis is responsible for visuals and Piotr Madej for sound diffusion.

http://tetramatyka2019.org/projects/folded-maps-of-time-2
https://youtu.be/gnwp-1JIwY8
https://vimeo.com/380021910

13 giugno 2020


L'incontro tra Randy Rose dei Residents e gli amici di lunga data Už jsme doma - qualcuno forse li ricorderà anche in Italia, in uno dei tre tour che il Circ.a coordinò per loro tra il 1995 e il 1998 - si concretizzò in un concerto al Moravian Theatre di Olomouc (Repubblica Ceca) nell'ottobre 2010, nell'ambito di una retrospettiva storico-artistica dedicata ai Nostri dal titolo Residents in Residence. Con qualche ritocco all'audio e minime aggiunte successive oggi ne esce finalmente documentazione ufficiale per lodevolissima iniziativa di Klanggalerie: Moravian Meeting.

The show on this album was performed in Olomouc, Czech Republic, at the Moravian Theatre, in the year 2010. The Ceasar gallery organized a retrospective exhibition called Residents in Residence in Olomouc. The exhibition contained art, constumes, masks and other artefacts of The Residents and Už Jsme Doma were asked if they could create their own versions of The Residents’ songs, and play them to support the exhibition. As Randy, the Residents’ singer, was invited for the opening and staying in Olomouc for a couple of days, it was a good opportunity to have him on one stage with Už Jsme Doma. 13 songs were chosen, partly by Miroslav Wanek and partly by Randy. Miroslav turned the original arrangements into the UJD sound with full respect to The Residents style and mood.

https://residents.com
https://uzjsmedoma.com
https://tinyurl.com/y7e4yap3
http://www.klanggalerie.com/gg328

12 giugno 2020


Anche David Thomas ha preso a trasmettere da casa, inaugurando presso Patreon un canale dedicato alla diffusione di materiali suoi e di Pere Ubu rari e inediti, concerti, video, riflessioni, commenti e dialoghi con gli ascoltatori: DPK TV (Datapanik TV). Nel primo episodio ha soprattutto reso omaggio ai film di mostri degli anni Sessanta e proposto - con motivato orgoglio, ché l'album è una bomba - qualche estratto dal nuovissimo By Order Of Mayor Pawlicki.

Pere Ubu, Rocket From The Tombs and David Thomas Projex all reside in the Avant Garage. We have been around for forty years and, with the current situation, the need to move to digital is greater than it's ever been. We created Datapanik and now we create a library of archive and unseen material for those who know to know. This is the shape of things to come. We are home.

http://www.ubuprojex.com
https://www.patreon.com/pereubu

11 giugno 2020


Chi ha già diverse esperienze alle spalle in fatto di concertini trasmessi in streaming da casa - e a differenza di molti suoi colleghi dispone di una connessione internet affidabile - è Kavus Torabi, che l'altro giorno ne ha scopertamente approfittato anche per promuovere l'album che per la prima volta lo vede unico titolare, Hip to the Jag.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=244501540188384
https://kavustorabi.bandcamp.com/album/hip-to-the-jag

10 giugno 2020


Anche Ian East ha proposto qualche giorno fa un concertino solitario trasmettendo dal vivo dal suo studio, al riparo da intemperie ambientali (ma non dai capricci della banda larga). E' conservato nei suoi archivi su FB.

https://ianeast.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/ianeastmusic
https://tinyurl.com/ydf7qjtj

09 giugno 2020


Fred Thelonious Baker, compagno di Phil Miller in tante avventure, festeggia i sessant'anni omaggiando amici e ammiratori - a debita distanza - con un bel concertino solitario in giardino: https://youtu.be/Hvh2qdx6W-I

08 giugno 2020


Bing Selfish rilancia tramite Bandcamp la colonna sonora del thriller The Unstrument, prodotto una decina d'anni fa da Libre Albedrio con Lonesome Andi Haller, SuNray Jahchild, Jason Creep e allegra compagnia bella raccattata nella comunità improv e noise di Barcelona. Piccolo capolavoro dell'assurdo - e uno spasso dall'inizio alla fine - dedicato ai fanatici dell'improvvisazione non idiomatica e del circuit bending. "Difference will never be the same again", ebbe a dirne John Cage...

On a planet of water called earth, Jason Creep, an insane experimental artist, believes he has invented the ultimate instrument: The Unstrument. His beloved creation is stolen. He hires two down-at-heel private dicks, an extraterrestrial and a twelve year old boy, to look into the case. Their investigations will set them adrift in a crazy world of sound and chaos where noise terrorists, global conglomerates, festival organisers, sound sculptresses and Tyrolean circuit bending saxophonists thrive in a jungle of petty jealousies, pretension and blind ambition. For anyone with musical taste the future is looking bleak. Murder, mayhem, music and mystery abound in The Unstrument, a major new full length motion picture from the imaginative psyche of Libre Albedrio.

http://bingselfish.com
http://www.bingselfish.com/libre_albedrio.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1756833
https://bingselfish.bandcamp.com/album/the-unstrument
https://www.hibou-anemone-bear.com/unstrument

07 giugno 2020


Altra antologia prodotta di recente dalla Él con Cherry Red Records si concentra su John Cage, radunando in tre cd alcuni suoi lavori tra i più noti - Fontana Mix e Cartridge Music tra questi - e soprattutto il famigerato concerto del 15 maggio 1958, tenuto a New York nell'ambito delle iniziative promosse da Jasper Johns e Robert Rauschenberg per festeggiare i 25 anni di attività dell'amico compositore: John Cage Lollipops.

This edition combines two important large-scale performances, the indispensable 25-Year Retrospective Concert, which so admirably showcased the composer’s broad spectrum of interests (and the first recording to include audible audience disagreement since the riot at the premiere of Déserts by Edgard Varèse in Paris in 1954), with Indeterminacy: New Aspect of Form in Instrumental and Electronic Music, which finds Cage reading 90 short Zen-like stories, each punctuated by piano and tape interjections by his long-time musical collaborator, David Tudor.
These works are complemented by the original tape realisation of the Fontana Mix sound collage, assembled by the composer in Italy; Double Music, which explores the percussive qualities of metal; and the challenging Cartridge Music, a manipulation of phonograph cartridges, where, Cage warns, “all sounds, even those ordinarily thought to be undesirable, are accepted.”

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/john-cage-lollipops

06 giugno 2020


Un'antologia in tre cd per ricomporre un quadro - tra i mille possibili - degli esordi della rivoluzione socioculturale di metà anni Sessanta a Londra, con specifici riferimenti all'arte, alla poesia, alla musica e alla moda alternative alla cultura ufficiale: Underground London-The Art Music and Free Jazz that Inspired a Cultural Revolution, prodotto dalla Él con Cherry Red Records. Con interventi di Joe Boyd, Barry Miles, Eddie Prévost, John 'Hoppy' Hopkins e Jonathon Green.

In the mid-1960s, the rigid and colourless British way of life was irrevocably transformed by the emergence of the underground movement, a loose collective of young radicals who introduced new social, sexual and aesthetic perspectives. Operating out of the heart of London, their various activities, from the newspaper the International Times, to the psychedelic club UFO, promoted alternative lifestyles and values and sparked a cultural revolution.

The Underground drew its inspiration from America’s Beat Poets; among them Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti; who espoused an impossibly attractive Bohemian culture – a hedonistic lifestyle of art and free love and all that went with it. The counterculture was also invigorated by the fearlessness of such pioneers of free jazz as Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor; drawn, in its search for a ‘spiritual elixir’, to India and her classical music, embodied initially by Ravi Shankar. Then thrilled at the audacity of an international avant-garde – including such giants as György Ligeti, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio – which pushed courageously at the limits of sound itself and who, in turn, would propose to all mediums of popular art in Britain a new palette of musical colours and techniques to work with.

Underground London is a panorama of the influences and inspirations which encouraged a cultural revolution in Britain. If the feeling of community of this generation began with CND and the marches on Aldermaston, the Royal Albert Hall poetry reading of 1965 was the pivot; a direct precursor to the International Times, the opening of the UFO Club, the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream and culminating in the Summer of Love.

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/underground-london-the-art-music-and-free-jazz-that-inspired-a-cultural-revolution-various-artists-3cd-capacity-wallet

05 giugno 2020


Una parola del figlio Sam per rassicurare amici e ammiratori sulla salute dell'amato Robert Wyatt dopo il recente intervento in ospedale: "We, the family really appreciate all your wonderful kind thoughts. Your concern is quite overwhelming. I am sure that you understand that we would like to maintain our privacy in this difficult time. If we feel the moment is right I’m sure information may be forthcoming. Suffice to say he is doing very well at the moment. He hasn’t hit rock bottom yet. But he is having a few shleepless nights."

04 giugno 2020


Jean-Paul Marillier segnala periodicamente aggiunte e aggiornamenti al suo impareggiabile sito Une discographie de Robert Wyatt: la newsletter più recente è la numero 49.

"Lettres d'information envoyées épisodiquement aux personnes ayant souhaité être tenues au courant des mises à jour du site. Souvent, je joins à cette newsletter des bonus glanés ici ou là, pour notre plus grand plaisir (mais attention des liens externes ont peut-être été cassés depuis)... La dernière newsletter est également consultable à partir de la page d'accueil du site."

http://www.disco-robertwyatt.com/news49

03 giugno 2020


Due recenti interpretazioni assai diverse - accomunate forse dall'inopinato ciondolare dei protagonisti - di un piccolo classico di Robert Wyatt donato negli anni Ottanta ad Artists for AnimalsPigs... (In There)Tony Blahd con Lydia Fine e Squid.

http://www.disco-robertwyatt.com/artistsforanimals.htm

02 giugno 2020


E' stato chiamato il cantante dei Pixies, Black Francis, a dar forza al brano Die! Die! Die! - in sintonia straordinaria con l'esasperazione e l'ira dei tempi attuali già di suo - che fa da apripista all'imminente Metal, Meat And Bone, ma la furia richiestagli dai Residents per l'interpretazione lo ha messo un po' in difficoltà: "It was pretty intense. I almost felt like I wasn’t going to be able to do justice or something. It was so dark, I didn’t know whether or not I was going to be able to pull it off. So after I got over that first hump of shyness or whatever, I was able to kind of get into the murdering kind of frantic mode. You know, it’s been a while since I’ve recorded something so frantic and angry-sounding." Per utile confronto, sul lato A del singolo c'è la supposta versione originale di Dyin’ Dog, ovvero Alvin Snow. Chi è fortunato ne trova una copia presso Psychofon Records, altrimenti c'è il video, eloquente anch'esso: https://ResidentsDieDieDie

Avant-garde collective the Residents recently teamed up with the Pixies’ Black Francis to craft a searing indictment of U.S. President Donald Trump: the fiery cut, Die! Die! Die!. The video for that song is filled with imagery of the coronavirus, the president and “666,” otherwise known as the number of the beast. The Residents claim that the song was originally written by a long lost bluesman named Alvin Snow - a.k.a. Dyin’ Dog - in the mid-Seventies. The version they created with Francis, then, is a cover. “The group felt the song’s relevance was more compelling than ever, but they pondered the writer’s motivation. What betrayal damaged Snow so deeply that he wished to see his transgressor die?” the group wrote in a statement. They continued: “Then, without warning, the world was quickly captivated and consumed by the Covid-19 health crisis. And as the pandemic grew, eagerly enveloping an entire civilization both physically and emotionally, one voice stood out from the cacophony generated by a world gravely stricken with suffering and pain. And for the Residents, something about that voice was familiar… not the actual voice itself but its tone… larger than life, sneering and utterly empty of empathy, love and compassion. And in that moment, almost 50 years of reflection back to the Seventies was complete. Die! Die! Die! became Now! Now! Now!. A perfect parallel with its all too eager protagonist snidely and indifferently turning his back on a world whose approval he so desperately sought.”

01 giugno 2020


A rinfrescare la memoria a proposito della Brass Band di Mike Westbrook a cavallo degli anni Settanta e Ottanta aiuta anche la ripubblicazione - però solo in digitale, tramite Bandcamp - del doppio album Polydor tratto a suo tempo dai concerti parigini del maggio 1981 presso La Chapelle des Lombards. In formazione con Mike e Kate Westbrook c'erano Phil Minton, Chris Biscoe, Alan Wakeman e Dave Barry: The Paris Album.

https://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk
https://mikewestbrook.bandcamp.com/album/the-paris-album