Compact Disc

Improviser Jean-Marc Foussat has been appearing in these pages on a regular basis, sometimes solo or in groups, often presenting excellent releases on his own Fou Records label. Today’s double disc set Cafe Oto 2020 (FOU RECORDS FR – CD 38/39) holds a special personal place in his heart, I would assume. We’ve long known that he was drawn to free improvisation in the early 1980s, and personally made some great recordings of live music that ended up on the Incus label. He told the story of his epiphany to this magazine in 2004 (TSP 12th issue). “Travelling from Nice to Italy, because I’d read in a Jazz magazine an advert about the Florence/Pisa festival in 78 or 79, I received confirmation of the kind of music I wanted to engage with, hear, listen, do, live and love. Something was happening in this festival as a meeting between the US and the European way of music, between Jazz and Contemporary music, and the confrontation of those two spirits was marvellous…listening to the Lovens/Lytton duet I thought the music I was hearing was genuinely coming directly from the brains of those two human beings playing together.” Further episodes of the story, and connections with great musicians, are contained in the liner to today’s release; he met Daunik Lazro at Angouleme around this time, and counts him as a lifelong friend. And he met Evan Parker at that Pisa and Florence festival, confirming that “I was so overwhelmed by the power of their music that I decided on the spot throw myself into the adventure, body and soul”. Some forty years later, these musicians remain his friends, and he is still in love with the music. When invited to play at Cafe OTO in London, he was delighted at the chance and invited his two “prime friends” to play with him. The results of this 22 January 2020 concert are now ours to enjoy…the opening set is Foussat solo for 31:35, playing his Synthi AKS – an instrument he has made all his own – and adding wailing tones with his singing voice. ‘Inventing Chimeras’ is strikingly original synth music, 100% improvised on an instrument not often associated with or heard within this genre. Characteristically for this very passionate player, the music is filled with emotion, passing through numerous turbulent and stormy passages (some of them verging on the terrifying), balanced out with melancholic and still sequences of plaintive wailing. Voice and instrument merge seamlessly, and the classical imagery of the title is enough to allow us to hear other supernatural beings from antiquity, such as the Furies or dead spirits from the house of Hades. Heartfelt and haunting music for sure, and stamped with the very honest and expressive personality of Jean-Marc Foussat. It’s some way from the wild noise of his 1980 solo LP i, but the subtlety and craft of this work is non-pareil. The second disc, titled ‘Présent Manifeste’, is the trio of Daunik Lazro (tenor and baritone sax) and Evan Parker (soprano), playing with Foussat on the Synthi and voice. What makes this work so well is that it’s a glorious polyphony – four voices (effectively) all sounding at the same time and not getting in each other’s way…the circular loops, intricate repeated patterns, and inventive drones of Parker, the alienated cries and heroic warrior-shouts of Foussat, his freaky synth noises and echoed repeats, and the romantic and florid lines of Lazro. Everything overlapping and mutating in a free-form and free-floating array of ideas. Also much to enjoy in the full-on continuity of the music; no mindless droning on automatic pilot, nor is the music fractured into multiple unconnected outbursts of sputtering, restless, “free” music. It couldn’t have turned out better if the whole 44:50 had been composed and scored from start to finish; this is real interaction and telepathy at work. And yet apparently it was the first time they played as a trio. “For the past 40 years we have been dreaming the music we could make together,” writes Jean-Marc wistfully, “and finally, here we are, the three of us, for the very first time.” From 1st June 2020; an essential set.

CAFE OTO 2020 – JEAN-MARC FOUSSAT / DOUNIK LAZRO / EVAN PARKER

LP - Edition of 300 copies, handmade textile artwork w/ printed inner / CD Edition of 150 copies, handmade textile artwork Sylvain Chauveau has been releasing quiet and minimal compositions on various labels for more than two decades. ultra-minimal marks his debut for Sonic Pieces and takes the minimal approach even further, centring on reduction and limitation. The album was recorded live at Café Oto, London in March 2022 - one of Sylvain’s rare solo concerts and the first time he performed publicly with only acoustic instruments; no machines, no recorded sounds have been used, only piano, guitar, harmonium and melodica, played one at the time. While some of the compositions are completely new, others are live versions of previously released pieces which have either been performed close to their original or stripped-down, reduced to a single instrument and partly rearranged. This reveals a predilection for repetitions and variations that Sylvain shares with Jim Jarmusch, and at the same time it is a personal attempt to avoid electronic devices as a tool for live music. The artwork and track titles follow this reductionist idea and an aesthetic of miniaturization that Sylvain has developed for many years. They refer to the minimalist, concrete poetry that he writes regularly. In this context rewriting some of the original titles was a consistent implication to achieve a complete work, an album that perfectly represents Sonic Pieces’ aesthetics, both musically and visually.

ultra-minimal – Sylvain Chauveau

Switchback - Plywie Kacza 201 Paradiso Infernal - Live 2022 Schlippenbach / Johansson - The Fox Let's Go 2017 Full Blast - Moods 2007 Uruk - Live 2019 Last Dream Of The Morning - Shaken Light 2021 Snekkestad / Guy / Fernandez - Ripples 2018 The End - Translated Slaughter 2019 Schnee - No Time 2018 Jim O'Rourke - Live 2010 InAWhirl - Nido IV 2021 Joelle Leandre - Live 2013 Also - Twelve 2021 Amado / Corsano - Seeking 2019 Caspar Brötzmann Bass Totem - When Black Days Never End Part 1 2021 Bruch - Sugary 2017 Vandermark / Kurzmann / Kern - Swan Song 2021 The Thing - Live 2017 Part 4 They Shall Not Pass  /  No Pasaran!Live on planet earth - in the spirit of freedom, peace and solidarityAs we saw the horrible events going on in the Ukraine, we wanted to do something as a label as well beside donating on a personal level. many (trost related) artists answered right away and were enthusiastic to participate. the material-collecting and mastering took some time, but sadly it is still an issue and no-one knows how long this despicable war will last. the title of the compilation is "No Pasaran" (they shall not pass) translated into Ukrainian. it was a shout in the 30s to defend democracy in spain, to fight against the fascists.big thanks to all artists, bookers, venues and helpers involved.the great work of Martin Siewert and Lasse Marhaug was happening in support of this project, longtime cd pressing company Gusstaff Records made a special price and the austrian SKE fonds gave financial support.all proceeds of this compilation are donated to an artist-run Ukrainian aid organisation helping victims of the war, recommended by Ken Vandermark

VARIOUS – Вони не пройдуть - No Pasaran

Discussing this impending studio date, the indefatigable saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and intrepid vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz decided to compose new pieces for one another. The resulting tracks – which also include a hallucinogenic arrangement of “Timeless,” dedicated to its composer, the recently deceased guitarist John Abercrombie – show a markedly different side of both musicians. Quiet, at times tender, this meeting-of-like-minds evoked a new kind of tension, not one birthed out of screams and wallops, but instead one marshaling the power of restraint. Gustafsson’s work with groups like the Thing and Fire! Orchestra have made him one of the most renowned figures in contemporary energy music, and Adasiewicz’s joyous noise in his own bands and with Peter Brötzmann, Rob Mazurek, and many others have likewise earned him top status in the pantheon of today’s free musicians. On Timeless, they explore low dynamics, static soundscape, and melodic lyricism, infused with passion and intellect. One track features the wooden-keyed African balafon, coaxing a buoyant response on alto from Gustafsson, while their mutual boyhood love of highly select fusion records provided an unforeseen jumping off point for the whole record. On the cover, a painting by Charline von Heyl; across the interior, a photo portrait of the musicians. Mats Gustafsson – alto, tenor and baritone saxophones Jason Adasiewicz – vibraphone and balafon Thanks to all at CvsD Thanks to Ken Vandermark for the excellent saxophones Thanks to John Corbett for an unusual alto saxophone Thanks to Clark Coolidge for the inspiration for titles Thanks John Abercrombie for all the music!Recorded October 1, 2017, by Alex Inglizian at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago.

Timeless – Mats Gustafsson and Jason Adasiewicz

The only LP featuring a band under Peter Kowald's name, Peter Kowald Quintet comes from a vital moment in the German bassist's career. A close colleague of Peter Brötzmann's in their formative years, including the saxophonist's debut For Adolphe Sax and the classic Machine Gun, Kowald had by 1972 broadened his circle of collaborators, eventually working with a who's who of global creative music. Recorded live in Berlin, released on FMP, this date documents a tensile ensemble, with an unusual lineup featuring two trombones – Londoner Paul Rutherford and the German maestro Günter Christmann – together with the less-well-known Dutch alto saxophonist (and sculptor) Peter van de Locht and brilliant German percussionist Paul Lovens. Kowald adds to the low brass when he turns from double-bass to tuba and alphorn. Spacious and fiery, these four tracks are exemplary European free music led by one of the music's foremost originals – Kowald's rough and ready bass, which was anchoring (and de facto leading) the Globe Unity Orchestra of that period, is echoed in the take-no-prisoners music of the fivesome.Mastered from original tapes, this first-ever CD release features a facsimile version of the original cover, which featured artwork by ten non-musician friends and unique hand-additions. Track Times: Platte Talloere (13:08) Wenn Wir Kehlkopfoperier Te Uns Unterhalten (7:09) Pavement Bolognaise (14:01) Guete Luuni (2:38) Peter Kowald, bass, tuba, alphorn Paul Rutherford, trombone Günter Christmann, trombone Peter van de Locht, alto saxophone Paul Lovens, drums

Peter Kowald Quintet

LP / CD

Two masters of wind instruments blowing in from the Windy City. In 2003, as part of the seventh annual Empty Bottle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music, Joe McPhee and Evan Parker squared off for a round of intimate dialogues. The resulting recording is just the second time they had played as a duet, the previous also being in Chicago, at a studio in 1998, where the limited their instrumentarium to tenor saxophones, resulting in the Okka Disc classic Chicago Tenor Duets. In this case, they expanded their arsenal to include tenor and soprano saxophones, as well as McPhee’s trusty pocket cornet. Held in a beautiful hall at the Chicago Cultural Center, the concert was unforgettable. Fortunately, it was documented by the legendary mobile recordist Malachi Ritscher, who recorded most of the Bottle Fests with his usual rough-and-ready style. From the opening notes, Sweet Nothings was notable for the musicians’ intuitive connection. Freely improvised in seven parts, these are duets of the highest caliber performed by two musicians who are constantly seeking common ground –what you might call “agree-to-agree” improvisors. But there’s no lack of tension or productive dissonance; on the contrary, that’s part of their unity of vision, the shared ability to diverge and reconnect. SWEET NOTHING 1 (07:23) SWEET NOTHING 2 (06:32) SWEET NOTHING 3 (11:49) SWEET NOTHING 4 (6:50) SWEET NOTHING 5 (09:54) SWEET NOTHING 6 (09:32) SWEET NOTHING 7 (03:30) Joe McPhee, soprano and tenor saxophone, pocket cornetEvan Parker, soprano and tenor saxophone Recorded by Malachi Ritscher at the Chicago Cultural Center, 26 April, 2003, as part of the seventh Empty Bottle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music.

Joe McPhee and Evan Parker – Sweet Nothings

Joe McPhee’s response to the challenge of making a new CD of solo music during COVID was to go at it head on, to address the present in its starkest aspects, to reach for comfort in the music of great composers, and to speak directly to the virus in no uncertain terms.  The result is unlike any other of McPhee’s many records, a variety show of improvisations, favorite compositions, field recording, multi-tracking, incantation and recitation.  After searching for the right studio-like setting with an ideal sound, but hampered by the restrictions of quarantine, he abandoned such hope and dug out a clothes closet in his Poughkeepsie house, where he could approach the task with an unconventional intimacy.  In the dead of night, McPhee played luscious versions of compositions by Carla Bley and Charles Mingus, extrapolating on their melodies, even singing a Joni Mitchell lyric to Mingus’s “Goodbye Porkpie Hat.”  Elsewhere he plays harrowing tenor saxophone improvisations, a plaintive tone entering his melancholic melodic sensibility.  On the title track, McPhee layers a dozen aching blues lines atop a field recording of the namesake highway, and in another piece he discovers an entire drum choir in the noise of dripping water on a tin plate in his sink, something he dedicates to Ruth Bader Ginzburg, whose death was announced moments before he noticed the environmental sound.  On one of several very short, intense tracks, McPhee literally attempts to reverse the virus by intoning a spell-like chant: “Out, damned bug/Out, damned bug!”  The package includes extensive track-by-track liner notes and a poem by McPhee, with artwork and design by Christopher Wool. A Reflection On Ida Lupino [06:28] A Self Portrait in Three Colors [13:14] Route 84 Quarantine Blues [06:53] Cuernavaca ’79 [02:23] Goodbye Porky Pig Hat [06:59] Be Gone Damn Bug [01:24] Forget Paris [01:25] Do You Still Love Me? [01:22] Improvision For The End Of COVID [01:01] Im-Pro-Vi-Sation [3:01] Tzedek, Tzedek (For RBG) [05:49] Joe McPhee, saxophone Cover design and artwork by Christopher Wool. CD design by David Khan-Giordano. Produced by John Corbett and Christopher Wool.   CvsDCD081

Joe McPhee – Route 84 Quarantine Blues

One of the towering creative musicians of our time, a master drummer and multiple percussionist, Hamid Drake has anchored inumerable bands. As a hard working player, constantly touring the globe, he's collaborated with most of the major figures in improvised music and contemporary jazz, from David Murray and Peter Brötzmann to Pharoah Sanders and Don Cherry. Along the way, Drake has never had an opportunity to stop and make a solo record. Indeed, he's only performed solo on a few occasions. John Corbett began petitioning Drake to record an unaccompanied session twenty years ago. At last, after the pandemic had (just slightly) slowed down Drake's incessant travel itinerary, a plan was hatched and he entered Experimental Sound Studio during the cold, hard month of December, 2020. With Corbett, Jim Dempsey, and engineer Alex Inglizian as his audience, Drake worked through a vaguely plotted-out blueprint, however after a few months had passed, the drummer was unsatisfied with the result. He returned to the studio in July, 2021, with no pre-planned notion, and this time the Hamid Drake magic was everywhere – perched on his drum-throne, working exclusively at the kit, sometimes plying metallic percussion atop the snare, Drake recorded nine tracks, a cornucopia of rhythms and textures that touch on his love of reggae and funk but retain the openness and buoyancy that have made him such a go-to figure among his peers. In the CD's liner notes, he says: "A dedication in spirit to all those who have influenced, helped, opened, nurtured, shown love for, and cared for me along the way." These include Brötzmann's band Die Like a Dog, longterm percussion pal Adam Rudolph and mentor Fred Anderson, fellow drummers Paul Lovens and Milford Graves, Don and Moki Cherry, Big Black, and others. The record, precisely and soulfully recorded by Inglizian, has the beauty and warmth that always radiate from Drake's sticks, from his person and spirit – deep humanity in the form of an unstoppable engine room. Cover art by Christopher Wool. 1. Dedicated to Die Like a Dog [8:25]2. Dedicated to Adam Rudolph [13:21]3. Dedicated to Don & Moki Cherry [6:06]4. Dedicated to Milford Graves [8:29]5. Dedicated to Paul Lovens [9:14]6. Dedicated to Big Black [7:43]7. Dedicated to Fred Anderson and to the beauty and diversity of Chicago [5:28]8. Dedicated to Lex Hixon (Shaykh Nur) and Shaykha Fariha [8:45]9. Dedicated to Lenn Keller, Brenda Jones, and Calvin Gantt [3:56]Hamid Drake – drum set and percussion Recorded by Alex Inglizian at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, on July 12, 2020. Mixed and mastered by Alex Inglizian with Hamid Drake, Jim Dempsey, and John Corbett at ESS. Cover design and artwork by Christopher Wool. CD design by David Khan-Giordano. Produced by John Corbett and Christopher Wool.CvsDCD088

Hamid Drake – Dedications (Black Cross Solo Sessions 6)

Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson might have a separate discography for his solo records. He's investigated the possibilities of unaccompanied reed music from almost every angle. Presented with the opportunity to make a new solo record under the isolation of the pandemic, Gustafsson returned to a project he'd conceptualized but never realized: the playing-card pieces of Peter Brötzmann. Although these Fluxus-like prompts are better known through the two card sets the German saxophonist created in the 1990s, which resulted in two CDs with his Chicago Tentet, Images and Signs (both released on Okka Disk), Brötzmann had in fact been using cards since the 1970s. Recording in his home studio in Nickelsdorf, Austria, Gustafsson used two of these sets of compositional prompts, one designed for the ICP Tentet and another intended as a spur for Brötzmann's own solo work. The instrumentation on Naja includes the entire saxophone family from sopranino to bass, as well as a piece for mouthpieces; this is also a rare opportunity to hear Gustafsson play more than one horn at the same time, a Roland Kirk move that he'd long ago sworn off but was prompted to do by the cards. In addition to nine pieces using the cards, Gustafsson played one non-card composition from Brötzmann's solo FMP LP 14 Love Poems. Stunningly mixed and mastered by Martin Siewert, with liner notes by Gustafsson, photos of the card boxes and the first photograph of Gustafsson and Brötzmann. Cover art, as on all Black Cross Solo Sessions CDs, by Christopher Wool.Two boxes and a composition1. Box 1 part 1 bass sax [5:43]2. Box 1 part 2 bass sax [5:31]3. Box 1 part 3 sopranino and soprano sax, 4 sax mouthpieces [3:24]4. Box 1 part 4 baritone sax [8:05]5. Box 1 part 5 baritone sax [5:22]6. Alto sax nr 3 alto sax [4:49]7. Box 2 part 1 baritone sax [0:35]8. Box 2 part 2 soprano, alto, baritone and bass sax [9:58]9. Box 2 part 3 bass sax [6:01]10. Box 2 part 4 baritone sax [3:54]Mats Gustafsson – sopranino, soprano, alto, baritone, and bass saxophones; saxophone mouthpieces Track 6 by Peter Brötzmann (FMP – publishing/GEMA); tracks 1-5 and 7-10 by Mats Gustafsson (STIM/NcB). Recorded Dec 14-16, 2020, by Olof Madsen at Discaholic Studios, Nickelsdorf. Mixed and mastered December 17 and 18, 2020, by Martin Siewert, Vienna. Cover design and artwork by Christopher Wool. CD design by David Khan-Giordano. Produced by John Corbett and Christopher Wool. Thanx to Connor Bennett for creating a masterful alto sax mouthpiece. Special thanx to Peter Brötzmann. Special thanx to Christopher Wool. CvsDCD087

Naja (Black Cross Solo Sessions 5) – Mats Gustafsson

Okkyung Lee’s is perhaps the most harrowing of the Black Cross Solo Sessions stories.  At the onset of COVID, the cellist was called to travel to Korea to be with her dying father.  The trip was sudden and didn’t allow her to bring her instrument, but once there she was unable to return to New York because of the stringent lockdown.  For months she was stranded without her cello, unable to practice or make any music.  This intense alienation took a long time to lift.  Indeed, even after she made it back to the States, Lee found it impossible to reconnect with the music for a period.  The invitation to make a new solo CD for BCSS inspired her to jump-start her playing and in the process, she has made one of the most profound and beautiful CDs in recent memory, an almost impossible to describe amalgam of string and wood and voice and magic.  Lee does not release many records, so each one is a major event.  A stunning studio production, Na-Reul is that and more, its nine tracks, as Lee puts it, a “raw and direct” response to the traumatic events of 2020 and the turbulent emotions that accompanied it. With liner notes by the artist and artwork and design by Christopher Wool.   Ari [04:00] Drifting [05:08] Mountains [04:11] Mirage [05:00] Burning [03:54] Lorelei [04:08] Wings [03:06] Pisces [03:03] Grey [05:29] Okkyung Lee, cello Cover design and artwork by Christopher Wool. CD design by David Khan-Giordano. Produced by John Corbett and Christopher Wool. CvsDCD082

Okkyung Lee – Na-Reul