#peter margasak

[sinceileftyoublog]

BCMC & andplay Live Show Review: 2/20, Constellation, Chicago

BCMC

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Tuesday night marked the beginning of the Peter Margasak-curated Frequency Festival, an annual event hosted by Constellation that focuses on contemporary classical and experimental music. Though this year's lineup is heavy on microtonal music, specifically string players, the headliner of night one was a guitar-and-synth-wizard supergroup. BCMC is guitarist Bill MacKay and Cave/Bitchin Bajas multi-instrumentalist Cooper Crain. They had been playing live together for a few years before releasing their debut album Foreign Smokes last year via Drag City. Unlike what I imagine was the experience of many folks in the crowd on Tuesday, this was my first time seeing BCMC live. Witnessing their performance after their album was released, meaning I had a number of months to digest it, gave me a greater appreciation for how the duo was able to, live, build off of their compositions.

BCMC started off with abstract sounds, gradually becoming more concrete before reverting back to rounded noise. MacKay's bluesy guitar riffs embedded within Crain's synthesizer hum, replete with a sense of motion akin to a chugging train, simultaneously swirling and gentle. At times, the songs turned percussive, via pulsations, as MacKay either meandered or ripped slide guitar licks. Even Crain got an opportunity to solo on the keyboard on "The Swarm". Simultaneously tactile and droney, BCMC were able to lull you into hypnosis and suddenly capture you at the command of their instruments.

andPlay

The opening set from NYC-based string duo andPlay, meanwhile, set the tone (no pun intended) for the rest of the festival's ethos. Violinist Maya Bennardo and violist Hannah Levinson performed the two pieces that make up their latest album Translucent Harmonies (Another Timbre), both of which use just intonation. Kristofer Svensson's "Vid stenmuren blir tanken blomma" (“By the Stone Wall, Thoughts Become Flower”) emphasized extremely short strokes of different lengths and volume, using pauses and ultimate silence to create a sense of tension and disintegration. At times, one player would play a note--a mere pluck--and the other would continue their stroke, resembling a sort of synaptic process. Ultimately, the piece was paradoxically meditative, consistent in its lack of consistency. Their second piece, Catherine Lamb's "Prisma Interius VIII", was comparatively deliberate, the players playing in tandem at times and not just off of each other. As a duo, in contrast to larger ensembles who have played on other recorded versions of the piece, Bennardo and Levinson were able to strip "Prisma Interius VIII" down to its essential elements. Though there were many contrasts between andPlay and BCMC--in instrumentation, in groove (or lack thereof), in space--the two acts shared a common desire to hold your patience and deep attention, toy with your expectations, and make you reflect.

[deepartnature]

Complete Communion: Jazz For November Reviewed By Peter Margasak

“Newly unearthed archival recordings of live dates from the 1960s, a profound homage to the swing-and-drag aesthetic of drummer Paul Motian from former collaborators, a new quintet from the veteran Swedish drummer Sven-Åke Johansson, and a thrumming quintet session from drummer Tom Skinner of The Smile are featured in Peter Margasak’s latest round up of jazz and improvised music ...”

The Quietus (Audio)

[burlveneer-music]

Insomnia Brass Band - Late Night Kitchen - bari sax, trombone, & drums

"Baritone saxophonist Almut Schlichting, trombonist Anke Lucks, and drummer Christian Marien are a miniature brass band, transcending its compact size to produce a raucous, ebullient sound one might expect from a much larger ensemble." (Peter Margasak) Playing material composed by Lucks and Schlichting the band has been touring with numerous concerts in jazz clubs and at festivals.

[bedroomcommunity]

New York violist Nadia Sirota joins Anubis Quartet for a thrilling concert Monday night

“ But what really makes Monday's concert extra special is the presence of guest violist Nadia Sirota, one of the greatest and most versatile exponents of new music in New York. She's a crucial figure in the potent artistic community that revolves around the Icelandic record label Bedroom Community—Nico Muhly, Daniel Bjarnason, Ben Frost, Paul Corley, and Valgeir Sigurdsson all nonchalantly dissolve stylistic boundaries and destroy lines between high and low culture.”     Peter Margasak 2nd February 2013 https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/02/07/dynamic-new-york-violist-nadia-sirota-joins-chicagos-anubis-quartet-for-a-thrilling-concert-monday-night

[berlysbandcamp]

This essential new collection will hopefully rectify how overlooked composer John McGuire is within the annals of minimalism. This American composer of rare erudition and curiosity spent a good chunk of his life in Germany, studying under folks like Stockhausen, Penderecki, and Koenig, but these recordings made in Cologne between 1975-1979 prove that he developed his own ideas, finding a common ground between minimalism and serialism. Three of these four extended works are electronic, using voltage-controlled synthesis to realize richly hypnotic excursions that rank alongside Terry Riley or Philip Glass. “Pulse music” relates to this technology, as electronic pulses created the parameters governing tone, duration, and tempo utilized in realizing these rapidly-changing, intricate skeins of thrumming melody. “Pulse Music I” is built from dizzying patterns that are in constant flux, energizing the close listener. “Pulse II” is a realization of the same ideas using conventional instrumentation—members of the Bremen Radio Symphony Orchestra—although McGuire needed to slow down the tempo to allow humans to be able to produce these terse pulsations with the necessary precision to make it all work. “108 Pulses” is the earliest piece here, a kind of successful test run of his ideas, while “Pulse Music III” (1978-79) is the latest piece, displaying the composer’s mastery.

-  By Peter Margasak

[epistrophyarts]

Ches Smith / Craig Taborn / Mat Maneri

Wednesday, October 3 8PM The North Door ( 502 Brushy St., Austin, Texas 78702)

$20 general admission

ALL Ages

This exciting trio plays in Austin for the first time with three of the most notable musicians in New York’s vibrant creative music scene—drummer Ches Smith (John Zorn, Tim Berne, Marc Ribot, Terry Riley), pianist Craig Taborn (Chris Potter, Dave Douglas, Wadada Leo Smith, Dave Holland), and violist Mat Maneri (Marilyn Crispell, Paul Motian). As Ches describes it himself: “An improvising trio that plays compositions as well; THE BELL is just that, Craig, Mat and I playing my pieces I wrote for the group.” The best thing I caught all weekend,” said critic Peter Margasak of the 2014 New York Winter Jazzfest, “was a superb trio led by drummer Ches Smith with pianist Craig Taborn and violist Mat Maneri, which expertly infused seductively narcotic writing with a mixture of brooding melody and rich texture.” Since that NY debut, the trio has become a priority project for all participants, and in June 2015 Smith, Taborn, and Maneri recorded The Bell at Avatar Studios with Manfred Eicher as producer. Ches Smith’s first album as a leader for ECM follows appearances for the label with Tim Berne’s Snakeoil and with Robin Williamson. Smith has worked with a very wide range of music in his career, playing with musicians from Marc Ribot to Terry Riley to Wadada Leo Smith, and his own groups have been informed by his far-reaching experience. “His first album as a composer and bandleader on the iconic ECM label burns with a subtle heat.” (Pitchfork) “For Smith, THE BELL was not meant to be the stepping off point for a new group but rather a one-time impromptu session. However, after he, Maneri and Taborn played live in New York, Smith realized he an opportunity to create something more lasting with this exceptional group. His written compositions are intentionally kept minimal so as to let the improvisations take center stage. The trio responds to this approach with an appealingly patient mix of empty spaces, complex phrasing and textures that play in the moment and with an organic feeling.” (Karl Ackermann, allaboutjazz) FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE GUARDIAN,COM review Epistrophy Arts is supported by individual contributions and by the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division of the Economic Development Department.

[dustedmagazine]

James Brandon Lewis Quartet – Molecular (Intakt)

Ornette Coleman invented Harmelodics. Wadada Leo Smith pioneered Ankhrasmation. Anthony Braxton engineered at least five major compositional frameworks that have defined his creative output over the last half-century. There’s a long and storied lineage of devising and applying stylized systems to improvised music. James Brandon Lewis adds to the estimable number with Molecular, an album that debuts musical means influenced by the structural aspects of the DNA double helix alongside an auspicious ensemble assembled to actualize it.

Lewis is no novice when it comes to pulling in disparate influences to inform his work. Spoken word and the traditions of African American spirituals and quilting have shaped past projects. Here, in the company of pianist Auran Ortiz, bassist Brad Jones and drummer Chad Taylor the emphasis is on balancing ensemble integrity with individual creativity. Lewis, and essayist Peter Margasak run down the specifics of the music’s borrowings from molecular biology, but it’s testament to the vibrancy of the end results that no theoretical weed-whacking proves purely voluntary and hardly necessary.

“A Lotus Speaks” and “Of First Importance” land a strong one-two opening punch, the former cast as a staggered, centripetal march and the latter a mallets-driven ballad plying dry humor in its programmatic positioning to title, but it’s on “Helix” where Lewis’ compositional equanimity comes into razor focus. A propulsive theme statement dispensed with, the leader drops into a racing solo punctuated with clipped Doppler effects. The others are equal participants lead by Ortiz’s frenetic fills that recall the cascading obsidian figures that the late great Andrew Hill used to specialize in.

“Per 1” and “Per 2” are comparatively curt exercises, each stamping out convincing hairpin slabs of syncopated, claustrophobic free funk. The title piece shapes the melodic consensus to accommodating ballad contours and Ortiz once again traces dark hued patterns over an undulating bass and drums groove. “Neosho” derives considerable gravitas from the contrast of the pianist’s shimmering ostinato with Lewis’ incremental cry. Jones and Taylor once again keep pliant and propulsive cross-rhythms that further stoke the drama.

Lewis’ must have heard something liberating in their spirited interaction because he becomes spectator on “An Anguish Entirely,” leaving the remaining players to lock and release over a repeating rhythmic figure that’s as invigorating as it is infectious. Brief and poignant, “Loverly” signs the album off on a delicate and mellifluous shared note. DNA architecture serves as Lewis’ metaphorical musical correlate, but it’s also a subjective measure of how deeply these four musicians connect in terms of shared language and imagination.

Derek Taylor

[swartzmark]

“[Dan] Lippel's effective electronic manipulations of his guitar playing evokes a Dali-esque warping, as if his lines were oozing into the cracks of [Cory] Smythe's playing like melted wax.” --Peter Margasak (read more)

[stormyrecords-blog]

new arrivals 7-13-17

glenn jones plays this week on thursday night at trinosophes. also - this week is the first week of the east dearborn musical event - tunes at noon. full desription and schedule just below the list of this week's new arrivals. items in stock thursday - july 13th 2017 Love Theme: S/T LP $21.99If there's a single guiding motif to this debut recording from Love Theme, it's the melancholic throb of love learnt and love lost, a descent that tumbles and slips through the overall feeling of looking back. As intimately and carefully as its parts cohesively lament a narrative, it's the after-image that catches your breath, like a memory morphing as it is observed. Comprised of Alex Zhang Hungtai, of the now defunct project Dirty Beaches, along with Austin Milne, and Simon Frank, Love Theme is arranged from an improvised session with twin saxophones, synthesizer, percussion, drum machine, and voice. The aching wane of the saxophone arrangements frisk the propulsive aggro of the mixed percussion, forcing a melancholic halo upon the queasy stupor of the synthetic swing that closes each side of the record. It's a bizarre lust for life that's being divined from equal parts dislocation and invigoration, a potent remedy which perhaps Love Theme can call their own. Percolating and finding form over time, the record instinctively follows a travel narrative, moving across a series of landscapes, reflecting the innate experiences of the expressions and voices that were first collected in South London back in February 2015. Mitchell, Nicole : Mandorla CD $15.99"Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds is Nicole Mitchell's second album for Chicago-based FPE Records. Recorded in May of 2015 at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, it features her longtime collaborators Renee Baker (violin), Tomeka Reid (cello, banjo), Alex Wing (electric guitar, oud) and Jovia Armstrong (percussion), along with new members Tatsu Aoki (bass, shamisen, taiko) and Kojiro Umezaki (shakuhachi). Also in the mix is Chicago artist, scholar and poet Avery R Young, who brings her lyrics to life with visceral humanity. Composer and flutist Nicole Mitchell, once hailed by Chicago Reader music critic Peter Margasak as the 'greatest living flutist in jazz', continues the work begun when jazz visionary Sun Ra and his Arkestra first touched down on Planet Earth and told humanity that space (outer and inner) is indeed the place. As with contemporary Afrofuturist pioneers like cosmic jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington, post-everything beat maker Flying Lotus, R&B cyborg Janelle Monáe and dystopian noise-rappers Death Grips, she uses Afrofuturism as a platform to launch her own, unique vision. Her vast sound often encompasses contemporary classical, globally oriented fusion, gospel, spoken word, funk-inspired groove research and even brittle shards of avant-rock. Mandorla Awakening II collides dualities such as acoustic vs electric, country vs urban, simple vs complex, while also sounding through intercultural dialogue between Black, European and Pan-Asian improvisational languages. The outcome is a creative music suite that blurs musical styles into recognizable fragments that weave a unique sound fabric, where human emotion and the struggles of today swim." Baroncini/D'Amario: Music for Movement  LP $32.99Sonor Music Editions present a reissue Angelo Baroncini and Bruno Battisti D'amario's Music For Movement, originally released in 1969. Another terrific jam and a very obscure Italian library record, originally released on Roman Record Company label, the label responsible for Droga (1972), Traffico (1972), and the Viaggio Attraverso I Problemi Dell'Uomo series. The music is signed by the great guitar players and composers Angelo Baroncini and Bruno Battisti D'Amario, D'Amario being the unmissable guitar man of maestro Ennio Morricone. Crazy early fuzz beats with fast western swings, experimental rock distractions, rhythmic movements, with totally insane acid guitar and sitar riffs and a huge underground psychedelic mood. A truly inspired and deep session recorded for some impossible TV synchronization purpose. Holy grail alert. Original sleazy stereo recording restored sound. Edition of 500 Watson, Chris: El Tren Fantasma CD $15.992017 repress. "Take the ghost train from Los Mochis to Veracruz and travel cross country, coast to coast, Pacific to Atlantic. Ride the rhythm of the rails on board the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM) and the music of a journey that has now passed into history." --Chris Watson Kawai, Kenji: Ghost In The Shell  OST LP $27.99We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records present the first ever official vinyl pressing of the soundtrack for Mamoru Oshii's critically acclaimed and all around legendary science fiction anime film Ghost In The Shell (1995), adapted from Masamune Shirow's groundbreaking manga series of the same name. The haunting score is composed by Kenji Kawai, one of Japan's most celebrated soundtrack composers alongside Joe Hisaishi and Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose work includes Hideo Nakata's Ring (1998) and Ring 2 (1999), Death Note (2006), Hong Kong films Seven Swords by Tsui Hark (2005) and Ip Man by Wilson Yip (2008), and countless others. Kawai's compositions see ancient harmonies and percussions uncannily mesh with synthesized sounds of the modern world to convey a sumptuous balance between folklore tradition and futuristic outlook. For its iconic main theme "Making Of Cyborg", Kawai had a choir chant a wedding song in ancient Japanese following Bulgarian folk harmonies, setting the standard for a timeless and unparalleled soundtrack that admirably echoes the film's musings on the nature of humanity in a technologically advanced world. Ghost In The Shell is widely considered one of the best anime films of all time and its influence has been felt in the work of numerous movie directors, including James Cameron's Avatar (2009), the Wachowskis's The Matrix (1999), and Steven Spielberg's AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001). For fans of anime, manga, movie soundtracks, science fiction, ambient, folklore, Japan, Akira (1988), artificial intelligence, Midori Takada. Cut from the original master reels at Emil Berliner Studios (formerly the in-house recording department of renowned classical record label Deutsche Grammophon). Trost, Heather : Agistri LP $20.99LP version. "Heather Trost is best known for her work composing and performing as one half of A Hawk And A Hacksaw. She has also played with Neutral Milk Hotel, Beirut, Josephine Foster, and most recently Thor Harris of Swans. She has arranged and performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra, as well as conductor Andre De Ridder and his Stargaze Orchestra, and toured throughout the world. In 2014 she released her first solo project, a 7-inch on Ba Da Bing Records, followed in 2015 by Ourobouros, a limited edition cassette of expansive electronic ambient compositions influenced by Basil Kirchin, Terry Riley and Angelo Badalamenti on Cimiotti Recordings. These two projects propelled a full length album: named after a Greek Island, Agistri is a song cycle of freely formed pop songs touching upon soul, samba, and pop music of the '60s and '70s, with a subtle shade of psychedelia. Ambient and melancholic sounds interweave with Hammond organs and '70s Italian synthesizers, reflecting the desert landscapes of New Mexico, and the sparse shrubbery and turquoise water of the Aegean Sea and its islands. Bolstered by contributions from Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeremy Barnes on drums and bass, Deerhoof's John Dieterich on guitar, and Drake Hardin and Rosie Hutchinson of cult New Mexico band Mammal Eggs, Trost's talents as a songwriter and arranger explode on this wonderful, often surreal album." Wire #402: Aug 17 MAG/CD  $10.50"Stuck to the cover of this month's issue: The Wire Tapper 44 CD, featuring 20 tracks by AGF + Werkstatt, Sarah Angliss, Paul Rooney, Susanna, Hear In Now, Bonaventure, and more. Meanwhile, inside the issue: Finland's postmodern metal masters Circle; New York underground hiphop veteran Scotty Hard; Anton Lukoszevieze, leader of UK chamber music ensemble Apartment House; a report on the electronic explorers and pop-punk mavericks of Sapporo's DIY microscene; and more." TUNES AT NOONevery thursday at 12 noon in dearborn city hall park at the corner of michigan ave and schaeferone hour of free music - bring your lunch and enjoy some fun in the sun!! 7/13 Dearborn School of MusicWe are a music school that offers private lessons on all instruments and all styles of music to students of all ages. We also have group lessons for preschoolers called "music for little mozarts." For the summer concert we have put together a rock band comprised of students and instructors that will be playing some classic rock and modern rock and punk rock songs. 7/20 Lac La BelleLocal musicians Jennie Knaggs & Nick Schillace create music that blends history with the present via accordion, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, harmonizing vocals, and fingerpicking resonator guitar. With their separate experiences learning folk and blues in Appalachia, American roots bind Lac La Belle’s compositions with a heavy thread. For this performance enjoy some of their favorite old time, bluegrass and western swing favorites, alongside their original tunes. 7/27 Detroit Pleasure SocietyDetroit Pleasure Society plays the traditional jazz of New Orleans with a fresh twist and raucous candor. 8/3 Libby DeCamp"Libby DeCamp makes dusty folk and American Roots-inspired music with a lyrical edge and a classic three-piece energy, delivered with a haunting vocal closeness that reaches listeners of all kinds. Sweetly soulful "Broken Folk." 8/10 Michael Malis TrioMichael Malis is a pianist and composer based in Detroit, MI. Malis bridges the gap between original composed, complex material and the spontaneity of improvisation. His trio (piano, bass, drums),   featured on his latest album, has toured in the United States and Canada, and in September 2016, they performed at the Detroit International Jazz Festival. 8/17 Viands "Viands is a spontaneous collaboration between two auteurs of Detroit's underground music scene: Joel Peterson and David Shettler. The music they create is a deep, reflective and fearless alternate-reality keyboard meditation that draws on the pair's broad musical vision to explore new vistas.

[jazzworldquest-blog]

SWITZERLAND: Angelika Niescier with Chris Tordini, Gerald Cleaver feat. Jonathan Finlayson-New York Trio (INTAKT 2019)

During the current decade cologne-based saxophonist angelika niescier has made her connection to new York’s elite improvisational jazz community readily clear. Her trio cd The Berlin Concert, was voted one of the most important releases of 2018 by Downbeat. this stunning new recording suggests that only the atlantic ocean separates her from the agile collaborators heard here. once again her music is anchored by the bass playing of chris tordini, the saxophonist’s longest-running stateside partner. the album includes the first recorded evidence of her simpatico ties with drummer Gerald cleaver and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson. on numerous pieces niescier has experimented with various cagean compositional devices to propel, complicate, and energize improvisational endeavors. she’s long been stimulated by the ideas of John cage, but this recording marks the first time she’s chosen to apply them to her own work, albeit in a highly personalized fashion. Peter Margasak writes in the liner notes: “this fresh direction only suggests a blossoming of niescier’s creativity, as she complements the enlargement of her new York circle with an expansion of compositional models."  released April 19, 2019  Angelika Niescier: Alto Saxophone Christopher Tordini: Bass Gerald Cleaver: Drums Jonathan Finlayson: Trumpet via Blogger http://bit.ly/2XOy9p3

[deepartnature]

When Sun Ra Went to Egypt in 1971: See Film & Hear Recordings from the Legendary Afrofuturist’s First Visit to Cairo

“Sun Ra died in 1993 (or he returned to his home planet of Saturn, one or the other). Twenty-seven years later his Arkestra is still going strong. ‘No group in jazz history has embodied the communal spirit like the Arkestra,’ writes Peter Margasak at The Quietus. ‘Their hardcore fans are the closest thing jazz has to Deadheads.’ We could further compare Sun Ra and Jerry Garcia as bandleaders—their embrace of extended free form playing against a background of traditionalism. Folk, and country in Garcia’s case and big band swing in the work of the man born Herman Poole Blount in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914. ...”

Open Culture (Video/Audio)

Inside Sun Ra’s 1971 trip to Egypt (Video)

[bestreasonstowriterecordreviews]

“...I’d be very hard-pressed to name a band in the world that’s more powerful and resourceful.” 

Review of The EX & TOM CORA by PETER MARGASAK, Editor

BUTT RAG #9 page 47 Spring 1994

I think it’s safe to say that Margasak’s assertion about the Ex being the most powerful and resourceful band in the world still holds true nearly 25 years after he wrote this review. 

Long may they! THE EX

The Ex’s most recent,  27 Passports, is definitely one of the Best Reasons To Write A Fuckin’ Record Review in 2018!

After 25 years, Peter Margasask said farewell in 2018 to Chicago Reader. His now writes freelance and at Muck Rack  

The Ex with Tom Cora live from Budapest, 1993!

[burlveneer-music]

Mars Williams presents: An Ayler Xmas (The Music of Albert Ayler & Songs of Chrismas)

For many years Witches & Devils, the long-running Albert Ayler tribute band led by saxophonist Mars Williams, have existed mostly as an excuse to get together and perform an annual Chicago holiday concert. For these memorable concerts, Williams merges a variety of Christmas songs with the indelible repertoire of free-jazz titan Ayler, who brought a scalding intensity to tunes rooted in gospel and spirituals. It may sound silly, but the performances are no joke, and they produce a seriously joyful noise. The band tackles warhorses like “O Tannenbaum” and “12 Days of Christmas” in the same smoldering fashion as their take on Ayler: the rhythm section bubbles and generates a kind of levitating intensity during the wonderfully expressive, multilinear theme statements, while the horns state familiar melodies in loose cries and the embellished lines of each player pull apart and coalesce in a naturalistic frenzy. Williams designs clever medleys that appropriate the pulse and feel of particular Ayler tunes as the band rips through a greatest-hits lineup of holiday tracks. - Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader released October 29, 2017

RECORDED LIVE AT HUNGRY BRAIN, CHICAGO 12/18/16

Featuring: WITCHES & DEVILS

Mars Williams – Saxes, Toy Instruments Josh Berman – Cornet Fred Lonberg-holm - Cello Jim Baker – Piano, Arp Synth, Viola Kent Kessler - Bass Brian Sandstrom – Bass, Guitar, Trumpet Steve Hunt – Drums, Percussion

ALL TRACKS CONTAIN MUSIC WRITTEN BY: ALBERT AYLER (Syndicore/BMI)

HOLIDAY SONGS: PUBLIC DOMAIN ARRANGED BY: MARS WILLIAMS (Music From Mars /BMI) RECORDED, MIXED & MASTERED BY: DAVE ZUKOWSKI DESIGN BY: RICH GOOD SOUL WHAT RECORDS SWR 0003 

[bedroomcommunity]

Best of Bandcamp Contemporary Classical: November 2016

“ The album opens with the three-movement Viola Concerto, performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, giving Sirota another fantastic platform—especially in the second movement, where her soaring lines collapse dramatically only to be answered by a thunderous swell of percussion and then perk back up, albeit with some effective tension, for the finale.” Peter Margasak November 2016 https://daily.bandcamp.com/2016/11/17/best-of-bandcamp-contemporary-classical-november-2016/

[decopage1]

DEATH

Long before The Clash, the Sex Pistols or the Ramones came Death, a proto-punk band from Detroit made up of three young black brothers, who started off as a soul band but quickly ditched that sound once they heard the hard, discordant rhythms of The Stooges. As Peter Margasak wrotein the Chicago Reader, their guitarist “pushed the group in a hard-rock direction that presaged punk, and while this certainly didn’t help them find a following in the mid-70s, today it makes them look like visionaries.” Their music has since been documented in the 2012 documentary A Band Called Death, a film that has won them a cult following decades after they disbanded.

[stormyrecords-blog]

new arrivals july 20th 2017

lots of used lps this week - kiss, bowie, hendrix, black sabbath. zeppelin. tons of new arrivals in the used vinyl world. a whole new bin of rock records and a whole new bin of jazz records. lots of fun listening for your summer - and all at great prices!! also - this week is the second week of the east dearborn musical event - tunes at noon. full desription and schedule just below the list of this week's new arrivals. items in stock thursday - july 20th 2017 Belfi, Andrea: Ore LP $21.99LP version with download code. Andrea Belfi (born 1979) is an international respected electroacoustic musician and composer. He began playing drums at the age of 14. He studied art in Milan, before becoming involved in experimental music and since 2002 he's been in collaboration with a wide range of artists, currently residing in Berlin, Germany. His new album Ore is released on the new UK record label Float which was founded by Sofia Ilyas, who was previously the label manager at Erased Tapes Records. The new label exists parallel to Float PR, the London based agency dedicated to the promotion of unique artists and projects, and Andrea Belfi is the first signing. Titled Ore, the album places the drums as its centerpiece, while textures are embellished and mutated through electronic manipulations and dark, eerie sonic details. Over the years, Belfi has built a sound-world that artfully combines a modest drum set-up with an equally concise electronics component. He has searched long to produce and refine the acoustic timbres of his music, but has now reached a certain point of fulfilment, courtesy of his Saari drum-kit from Finland. Melded seamlessly with the acoustic elements are a Nord modular and sampler. On Ore, Belfi attains a masterful synthesis of these two sonic realms. Belfi has gained a reputation for his energetic and charismatic performances, both as a solo musician and within numerous collaborations. 2016 saw him tour with Nonkeen, the German three-piece band headed by Nils Frahm. Belfi became an instant highlight following a sold-out gig at London's Barbican Centre, lighting the stage with an impressive and explosive drum solo that became one of the most memorable moments from the evening. "When I started the record I really wanted to find something very direct. I was looking for something very raw, something sonically and acoustically complex. The title Ore actually was suggested by my wife. I had to look up the meaning and loved the concept -- something raw that you can extract, and the refinement into a precious material. It's a very simple metaphor but there's a lot there, you can just put that word out and you don't have to explain too much. You give an input to the listener, and just leave it to the imagination." Mixed by Francesco Donadello; Mastered by Nils Frahm. Mitchell, Nicole: Mandoria 2LP  $29.99Double LP version. "Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds is Nicole Mitchell's second album for Chicago-based FPE Records. Recorded in May of 2015 at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, it features her longtime collaborators Renee Baker (violin), Tomeka Reid (cello, banjo), Alex Wing (electric guitar, oud) and Jovia Armstrong (percussion), along with new members Tatsu Aoki (bass, shamisen, taiko) and Kojiro Umezaki (shakuhachi). Also in the mix is Chicago artist, scholar and poet Avery R Young, who brings her lyrics to life with visceral humanity. Composer and flutist Nicole Mitchell, once hailed by Chicago Reader music critic Peter Margasak as the 'greatest living flutist in jazz', continues the work begun when jazz visionary Sun Ra and his Arkestra first touched down on Planet Earth and told humanity that space (outer and inner) is indeed the place. As with contemporary Afrofuturist pioneers like cosmic jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington, post-everything beat maker Flying Lotus, R&B cyborg Janelle Monáe and dystopian noise-rappers Death Grips, she uses Afrofuturism as a platform to launch her own, unique vision. Her vast sound often encompasses contemporary classical, globally oriented fusion, gospel, spoken word, funk-inspired groove research and even brittle shards of avant-rock. Mandorla Awakening II collides dualities such as acoustic vs electric, country vs urban, simple vs complex, while also sounding through intercultural dialogue between Black, European and Pan-Asian improvisational languages. The outcome is a creative music suite that blurs musical styles into recognizable fragments that weave a unique sound fabric, where human emotion and the struggles of today swim." O'Malley, S: Dread Live LP $25.992017 limited repress. Stephen O'Malley deploys the second in a trio of documents of his improvisational prowess following his crushing Fuck Fundamentalist Pigs, which was brought forward in tribute to the November 2015 Paris attacks and released in December 2015. The minimalist electric guitar mantra Dread Live was performed at Studio Helmbreker in Haarlem, Netherlands, on September 6, 2013, and recorded by Mathijs Ton, with technical support by the great Tos Nieuwenhuizen, using a hypercardioid ribbon mic with immaculate '70s valve amp backline. The set was programmed as part of the opening of the Dread -- Fear in the age of technological acceleration exhibition at De Hallen Haarlem, curated by Juha van't Zelfde. It renders 40 minutes of Sunn O)))'s O'Malley at his most depressive and heavy and is something akin to a slow-motion baptism by waves of tarry, blackened harmonic distortion, holding the listener under its sinking pressure. How low can you go? O'Malley knows. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton. Edition of 700 hand-numbered copies. O'Malley, S: End Ground LP $25.99Limited 2017 repress. End Ground forms the 3rd and final installment in a series of records documenting the solo prowess of Sunn 0)))'s Stephen O'Malley released on Sweden's iDEAL Recordings. It was performed on electric guitar thru Sunn model T amps, and captured on zoom H4 at Centre Cultural Suisse, Bad Bonn Carte Blanche, Paris, France, on October 18th, 2013. In solo mode, stripped of his usual accomplices and collaborators, O'Malley is no less than an elemental force. His durational meditations absorb and consume with steady-handed wave after wave of charred, sustained, and sub-harmonized chords casting the mesmerizing minimalist practice of La Monte Young into the physicality of Black Sabbath's original, heavy metal die. The A-side/first half of this 45 minute performance features O'Malley tentatively coaxing out languorous riffs which turn the air around him to a pensive, vibrating mush. As the 2nd half dawns he begins to deliver more crushing blows, drawing out and subsiding the chords with a patented, gut-wrenching and vivifying power that transcends rock, avant-garde, minimalism -- all of that -- to awaken dormant senses not usually experienced with other musics or concise temporality. As with many of the most affective heavy drone recordings by Sunn 0))), among others, a modicum of patience is required in order to attain the right state for reception, but once your mind and body are malleable, the impact is deliciously visceral, primal and whelming. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton. Individually hand-numbered edition of 700 copies. O'Malley, S: Fuck Fundamentalist Pigs  2 lp  $31.99 Stephen O'Malley on Fuck Fundamentalist Pigs upon its initial release in December 2015: "On 8 January 2015, the day following the Charlie Hebdo murders in Paris (the city I have called home for the last eight years), I started a week-long tour of Norway. During this jaunt I faced the toxic reality daily of the horrible blossoming events intermittently via television. . . . The Trondheim concert on 9 January (depicted here) happened on a particularly intense day in this timeline... and was personally a true example of the purging power of immersion in music. Through a web of emotions resolving distance, disintegration, the intense power of the moment and the brutal fundamentalist, cultural and psychological aspects behind. . . Like most of us I have also sometimes fallen for the constant baiting toward anger, outrage, paranoia and fear in the daily life, often but not always misdirected, but it is not debilitating by any means. It's clear that as an experimental guitar player I have absolutely no political power (or even ability to articulate in those forms) but it's important to take the opportunity to say 'fuck you' in these situations. To the fascist and fundamentalist movements. To the absurding of the worst sides of monotheistic belief systems. And not only the perpetrators behind these events but also on other sides including the reactive and opportunistic. Those with most to gain are the underlying authoritarians in our own societies who have opportunities to implement and increase their control even further for their gains. The 'security' changes we face in fact may also result in yet further increase in the loss of liberty and freedom. The reactions aimed toward increased separation of cultures, xenophobia, nationalism, and especially racism are highly regrettable. I hope these recordings offer a small sense of solace in the time, even for the few hundred who hear them. . . . For the concert on this record we had a massive backline with beautiful vintage Hiwatt amplifiers, and two PAs (including a Funktion One) in the small venue Blæst, the night hosted by Nymusikk. . . . This record is actually the third part of a trilogy of live solo guitar records we intended to be released on iDEAL during spring 2016." Mastered and cut by Matt Colton; Edition of 700 (hand-numbered) Langhorne, Bruce: Hired OST LP $24.992017 repress. "Classic 1971 Peter Fonda film soundtrack from Dylan side-man & folk scene impresario. Beautifully melancholy score performed with guitars, tonal effects, fiddle, banjo, sitar, and more that evokes high plains drifting, lonesome cowpokes. 'It's The West seen as Purgatory, its characters endlessly moving on, but Langhorne conjures beauty from the pain." -- The Wire. Palestine, Charlemagne: Arpeggiated Bosendorfer + Falsetto Voice  LP $27.99In 1974, Ileana Sonnabend commissioned Charlemagne Palestine to create a limited edition, double LP in conjunction with a performance to celebrate the opening of her new Soho gallery at 420 West Broadway. Charlemagne made several recording attempts, first at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania where they had a Bösendorfer Imperial Piano in their theater. He recorded "Bösendorfer + Voice", "Voice Piece" as well as some Bösendorfer tests, with Mayo Thompson as producer and Kurt Munkacsi as sound engineer. These ecstatic Swarthmore recordings, recorded late at night in the big empty theater space, represented the original elements on which Charlemagne Palestine later created the piano pieces for Four Manifestations on Six Elements (ALGAMARS 004LP, MAGNE 008LP). For more than 40 years since these recordings were made, Palestine never went back to listen to them, but recently on re-listening to these Swarthmore recordings with Alga Marghen, he found several blissful, arpeggiated piano and falsetto voice studies which he feels now deserve to be heard. Included in the Alga Marghen VocSon series, this LP of two previously unreleased 1974 recordings finally see the light of day. Edition of 405. TUNES AT NOONevery thursday at 12 noon in dearborn city hall park at the corner of michigan ave and schaeferone hour of free music - bring your lunch and enjoy some fun in the sun!! 7/20 Lac La BelleLocal musicians Jennie Knaggs & Nick Schillace create music that blends history with the present via accordion, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, harmonizing vocals, and fingerpicking resonator guitar. With their separate experiences learning folk and blues in Appalachia, American roots bind Lac La Belle’s compositions with a heavy thread. For this performance enjoy some of their favorite old time, bluegrass and western swing favorites, alongside their original tunes. 7/27 Detroit Pleasure SocietyDetroit Pleasure Society plays the traditional jazz of New Orleans with a fresh twist and raucous candor. 8/3 Libby DeCamp"Libby DeCamp makes dusty folk and American Roots-inspired music with a lyrical edge and a classic three-piece energy, delivered with a haunting vocal closeness that reaches listeners of all kinds. Sweetly soulful "Broken Folk." 8/10 Michael Malis TrioMichael Malis is a pianist and composer based in Detroit, MI. Malis bridges the gap between original composed, complex material and the spontaneity of improvisation. His trio (piano, bass, drums),   featured on his latest album, has toured in the United States and Canada, and in September 2016, they performed at the Detroit International Jazz Festival. 8/17 Viands "Viands is a spontaneous collaboration between two auteurs of Detroit's underground music scene: Joel Peterson and David Shettler. The music they create is a deep, reflective and fearless alternate-reality keyboard meditation that draws on the pair's broad musical vision to explore new vistas.