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Dörner/Lea/Lyregaard – Huckleberry Friend

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At a time when musicians the world over are only beginning to think about returning to the pre-pandemic days of live music, the next best thing might just be a brand new album of music created completely in the moment in front of a live audience. Recorded just before the pandemic began at The Monday Club and Klub Primi in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 17 and 18, 2020, ‘Huckleberry Friend’ is a document of three master European improvisers doing what they do best: feeding off the energy of the audience and each other to make spontaneous music in their own unique language, never to be repeated again. Vocalist Birgitte Lyregaard (Alain Jean-Marie, Brice Soniano, Toma Gouband) brings a unique palette of sound to free improvisation. Having studied voice since early childhood, she has developed her own unique style of imitation, poetry, timbres and an exploration of the outer limits of vocal expression. Trumpeter Axel Dörner (Otomo Yoshihide, Paul Lovens and Phil Minton) has over 150 albums to his name and is the 2019 recipient of the Jazzprize of the City of Berlin. Rounding out the trio is tenor saxophonist Marthe Lea (Trilok Gurtu, Bugge Wesseltoft, Alasdair Roberts), a musician with wide-ranging influences including free jazz, Norwegian folk music, Moroccan gnawa and traditional Indian music.

Tracks:

1. Three Rivers, One Flood
2. Multiplicities
3. Paddle Screamer
4. Monday Stove
5. Shifts Adrift
6. Waiting for Tom
7. A Crack in the Hull
8. Onto the Moon
9. Firefly
10. Pine Tree Flicker
11. Pursuits
12. Huckleberry End

All music performed and created by the Dörner/Lea/Lyregaard Trio
Axel Dörner: Trumpet
Marthe Lea: Tenor Saxophone
Birgitte Lyregaard: Vocals

Recorded Live at The Monday Club and Klub Primi in Copenhagen, February 17 & 18, 2020
Recording: Thomas Vang, The Village Recording
Producing and editing: Claus Poulsen and Birgitte Lyregaard
Mix and Master: John Fomsgaard, Karma Music
Cover Layout and Design: Julija Morgan
Cover illustration: Birgitte Lyregaard
Vinyl Print: Nordsø Records Pressing Plant

We wish to warmly thank Kresten Osgood and everyone at the Monday Club and Morten Lerhard and everyone at Klub Primi – for receiving us so kindly.

This album has been realized through the kind support of Koda Cultural Funds, Danish Composer’s Society, The William Demant Foundation, JazzDanmark and Norwegian Jazz Forum. 

Catalog Number 
CR2104DO

Related:
Robert Dick and Dan Blake – Laugh and Lie Down
XOL – XOL Plays X.EN
Burton Greene and Guillaume Gargaud – Magic Intensity

Alfred Kpebesaane & Brittany Anjou – Nong Voru / Fake Love

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Nong Voru, translated from Dagara as ‘Fake Love’, captures the journey of xylophonist Alfred Kpebesaane’s (pronounced Kway-Beh-SAH-Nay) origins from the Upper West Region of Ghana to New York City, channeling a novel and eclectic collaboration blending traditional Ghanaian xylophone (gyil) with computer processing and electronic synths by keyboardist and producer Brittany Anjou. On Nong Voru / Fake Love, Kpebesaane’s characteristic vocal eccentricities are shouted atop his masterfully-played xylophone, Anjou’s melodic and at-times-detuned mirroring keyboards playing the traditional role of support xylophone, and the rarest of rare: gyil sampled into electronic sounds of ping pong fractals by Brooklyn-based electronic musician Michael Clemow.

Tracks:

1. N Saa Kuuna Veso (The Orphan Song)
2. Gandaakpina Yangmaa Domme (The Landlord Passed Away)
3. Yuor Na Nume (Sweet Problem)
4. The Women Are Taking Over The Men
5. Nang Nyong Me (Be Poor and See)
6. The Impossible Song

Alfred Kpebesaane – vocals, gyil (Ghanaian xylophone)
Brittany Anjou – Nord Electro, Casio 1000P
April Centrone – drums
Oren Bloedow – bass on 3, 4, 5
Michael Clemow – live computer processing on 4, 5, 6
Rich Bennett – recording engineer, mixing engineer, sound design compositor
Kevin Reeves – mastering engineer
All music and lyrics by Alfred Kpebesaane. All tracks recorded on May 28, 2017 by Rich Bennett at Acme Hall Studios in Brooklyn, NY. Additional recording sessions with Michael Clemow and Brittany Anjou at Acme Hall Studios, and Oren Bloedow at The Owl Music Parlor completed in 2018. All tracks mixed at Acme Hall Studios by Rich Bennett. All tracks mastered at Universal Music in NYC by Kevin Reeves.

Catalog Number 
CR2103AL

Related:
Yemen Blues – Live
John Lee – Chu Bubaloo

eXpanseplane – Hymn to The Endless Creator

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Hymn to The Endless Creator is a new collection of abstract sound imaginations from eXpanseplane, the alter-ego of virtuoso Philadelphia-based electronic composer and producer Jesse Berg. On his fourth album for Chant Records, Berg balances an idiosyncratic palette of electronic sounds with various musical instruments and influences including contemporary jazz and classical music to create a collection of songs that are simultaneously melodic, dense, evocative and deeply personal.

Tracks:

1. Ozymandias
2. Kors
3. nōn
4. Exzisus
5. Beltane
6. The Art of War
7. Bone
8. Ezra
9. Castor
10. Guna
11. Maneless
12. Meraud
13. Paracelsus
14. Morrow of Returns
15. Rex
16. Sweet Spirit Near My Prayer
17. Synastry
18. Hymn to The Endless Creator
19. Dream Within a Dream

Programmed, played, and composed by Jesse Berg

Catalog Number CR2103EX

Related:
eXpanseplane – Tranzjenik
eXpanseplane – Deviate Vol. 1
eXpanseplane – Deviate, Vol. 2

Olson St. Clair – Western Free

 

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Artist Links
Olson St. Clair Facebook
Olson St. Clair Instagram
Jeffrey Olson website
Mike St. Clair website

On their debut EP “Western Free,” Texas-based free-jazz combo Olson St. Clair explores the boundary waters between genre and anti-genre music. Composers Jeffrey Olson and Michael St. Clair capture the poetic settings of American “western” music – the sweeping emptiness of the high plains, rolling Texas hill-country, blistering desert heat, urbanesque bustle of driven cattle – without relying on genre idioms that would chain the music to time or place. At the same time, they seek to subvert the sonic fabric of early free-jazz recordings while respecting the precedent set by Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and Pharoah Sanders. The key timbral departure is the addition of monophonic synthesizer to the early-Ornette two-horns-bass-and-drums paradigm. Wiley Greene’s swirling Moog acts at times as a third horn conversing with St. Clair’s trombone and Dave Sayers’ saxophone, while also pulling the band farther afield with brooding textures and soaring gusts of modulated wind. On compositions like Olson’s “Bodies in Motian,” – a tribute to the late great Paul Motian – Olson and bassist Sam Pankey skirt around each other playfully before settling into a trance-like groove, while “Cats in the Garden” brings the quintet together as a single, though fragmented, voice as they navigate St. Clair’s morose and searching melody.

Tracks:

1. 54127
2. Bodies in Motian
3. Entropy Peak
4. He Lurches Across the Room
5. Cats in the Garden

Michael St. Clair – trombone
Dave Sayers – tenor saxophone
Wiley Greene – moog subsequent-37, yamaha cp-25 on track 5
Sam Pankey – double bass
Jeffrey Olson – drum set
Bob Hoffnar – pedal steel guitar on track 5

produced by Jeffrey Olson and Michael St. Clair
engineered and mixed by Spencer Garland
recorded at the Olson Family Compound, January 2019
mastered by Justin Douglas at King Electric Recording Co.

Catalog Number CR2102OL

Related:
Eyal Talmudi – Even If
Bartolo – Six Improvisations for Creatures and Machines

Randi Pontoppidan & Thomas Buckner – Voicescapes

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Artist Links
Randi Pontoppidan website
Thomas Buckner website 
Randi Pontoppidan Instagram
Randi Pontoppidan Facebook
Randi Pontoppidan YouTube

Randi Pontoppidan and Thomas Buckner started singing together almost immediately when they met in 2017. From a serendipitous session at Pontoppidan’s home to performances at Copenhagen’s Monday Club, they discovered a shared language of improvisation, musical invention and spiritual connection. In 2018, they recorded at Karmacrew Studio with engineer John Fomsgaard, on the beautiful island of Møn, Denmark. With no preconceived musical material, no overdubs and no sound sources other than voices, “Voicescapes” documents the spontaneous music of two kindred souls.

Randi Pontoppidan is an internationally acclaimed Danish vocalist, improviser and composer working with free improvisation, jazz, performance art, electroacoustic composition and sound poetry. She creates vast sonic landscapes full of organic warmth and poetic sensibility and is known for her extended vocal techniques, often mixed with live electronic processing. She works with jazz luminaries including Greg Cohen, Joëlle Léandre, Sissel Vera Pettersen and with Danish poet Morten Søndergaard. Pontoppidan is also an in-demand vocalist in the contemporary classical world, working with Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices and performing works by Steve Reich, David Lang, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage and others. Pontoppidan was a nominee for the 2020 Steppeulven award for best vocalist in Denmark.

Thomas Buckner has dedicated himself to the world of new and improvised music for more than 50 years. In collaboration with a host of prominent composers and improvisers, Buckner continues to commission and perform numerous chamber works, orchestral pieces and song cycles, as well as developing new approaches to solo and group improvisation, spontaneous musical invention, a full spectrum of extended vocal sounds and new forms of opera. Long term collaborators include multi instrumentalist and composer Roscoe Mitchell (with whom Buckner has worked every year for 40 years), Robert Ashley (in whose opera company he sang leading roles and toured the world for 35 years), Annea Lockwood, Alvin Lucier, Wadada Leo Smith, Muhal Richard Abrams, Bun Ching Lam, Petr Kotik, Christian Wolff, Earl Howard, Matthias Kaul and many others.

Tracks:

1. Greeting
2. Balancing*
3. Sustaining
4. Floating*
5. Evening*
6. Let it Out**
7. One Mind
8. Longing
9. Hide*
10. Blessing*

Randi Pontoppidan – voice & live electronic processing of her voice
Thomas Buckner – voice
* with live electronic processing of Pontoppidan’s voice.
** Pontoppidan solo with live electronic processing

No overdubs and no sound sources other than voices.
Produced by:Randi Pontoppidan & Thomas Buckner
Recorded September 27th 2018 Karmacrew Studio , Møn, Denmark
Recording, Mixing & Mastering by John Fomsgaard
Cover – Sigrún Gudbrandsdóttir
Photos: Klaus Holsting

Made with financial support from Koda culture funds and Danish Art Foundation.

Catalog Number CR2101RA

Related:
Event Horizon (Greg Cohen and Randi Pontoppidan) – Space Geode
Randi Pontoppidan – ROOMS
Randi Pontoppidan & Christian Rønn – HEAD¨SPACE

Robert Dick and Dan Blake – Laugh and Lie Down

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Artist Links
Dan Blake website
Robert Dick website 

“[Robert Dick is a] flutist whose technical resources and imagination seem limitless.” – New York Times

“Thank you Daniel Blake for un-packaging the avant-garde gracefully and soulfully.” – Esperanza Spalding

“Laugh and Lie Down” documents an unlikely pairing of flute and soprano saxophone, recorded at Brooklyn’s Scholes Street Studio. The result is a complete musical study of the treble clef. Robert Dick and Dan Blake are both committed to exploring the unknown corners of their instrument, what the late Steve Lacy (with whom both artists have a history) referred to as the “strange relatives” that live in parts of town people rarely go visit. As the premier flutist of his generation who literally wrote the book cataloguing new sounds achievable on his instrument, Robert Dick brings an authority to these performances that is unparalleled. Dan Blake’s adventurous attitude on the soprano saxophone offers a percussive, crunchy-yet-lyrical foil to the proceedings.

Tracks:

1. Laugh and Lie Down
2. Red Corner
3. 500 Forks

Robert Dick, flutes
Dan Blake, soprano saxophone

Catalog Number CR2101RO

Related:
Robert Dick and Adam Caine – The Damn Think
Meg Okura, Sam Newsome, Jean-Michel Pilc – NPO Trio Live At The Stone
Los Autonautas – Balcón India

Matteo Ciminari – Fried Hippocampus

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Artist Links
matteociminari.com
Facebook
Instagram

Matteo Ciminari is a London-based composer, guitarist, keyboardist and player of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact via two metal antennas that sense the relative position of the player’s hands. The instrument’s sound, often described as “eerie,” has been used in countless film soundtracks including Bernard Herrmann’s The Day the Earth Stood Still. Ciminari weaves the unusual instrument into a soup of avant-garde jazz, film music and an iconoclastic sense of composition with influences ranging from Thelonious Monk to Frank Zappa to Igor Stravinsky. Recorded remotely during the coronavirus lockdown by musicians in the UK and Italy and mastered by three-time Grammy winner Marc Urselli, the album title and all song titles on Fried Hippocampus are inspired by Ciminari’s love of food as well as the limbic system, the set of structures in the brain that deal with emotions and memory, and – in Ciminari’s words – where “all of the archetypes are recorded.”

Tracks:

1. Pizzammano
2. Spiced Amygdala
3. Narni Underground
4. El Serpiente
5. How I Feel Today
6. Psalm
7. ForNiche
8. Mr Distraction
9. A Woman

All songs written by Matteo Ciminari
Recorded during the Covid-19 lockdown in various home studios between Italy and the United Kingdom.
Mixed by Matteo Ciminari
Mastered by Marc Urselli

Matteo Ciminari: Electric Guitar, Theremin, Keyboards
Mattia Borraccetti: Double bass
James Boston: Piano on “Spiced Amygdala,” Electric Piano on “Psalm”
Maurizio Moscatelli: Alto Sax on “Pizzammano” and “Narni Underground,” Flute on “Spiced Amygdala,” Bass Clarinet on “ForNiche”
Luca Orselli: Drums on “Pizzammano,” “How I Feel Today,” “ForNiche” and “Mr Distraction”
Michele Sperandio: Drums on “Spiced Amygdala,” “Narni Underground,” “El Serpiente” and “Psalm”

Catalog Number CR2012MA

Related:
Sonata Islands Kommandoh – Zeuhl Jazz
Jessica Lurie – Long Haul
John Lee – Chu Bubaloo

Strength in Numbers vol 4

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Chant Records’ ‘Strength In Numbers’ returns with volume four of the series! The compilation features fourteen songs, one from each album released between December 2019 and December 2020. From forward-looking jazz to psych-rock improv, idiosyncratic electronica to klezmer chamber-jazz, meditative percussion soundscapes to 21st century avant protest music and a whole lot more, ‘Strength in Numbers vol. 4’ is a landmark in the ongoing life of a one-of-a-kind, musician-run record label with a steadfast commitment to uncompromising, adventurous music made by an international community of artists.

Tracks

1. Brian Shankar Adler – Nuearth
   
2. Freakdom – Nein
   
3. Randi Pontoppidan & Christian Rønn – Waterproof
   
4. Curha – Sick of Ants!
   
5. Ben Holmes – First We Were Sad; Then We Danced
   
6. Santiago Leibson Trio – Gall
   
7. Bartolo – Nerves and Wires
   
8. Germani / Boni / Genovese / Marcocci / Kim – The Brosh Anthem
   
9. Brian Shankar Adler – Young Blood
   
10. Guillaume Gargaud – Mystery Travel
    
11. Ruthless Cosmopolitans – Book of Ruthless
    
12. Xander Naylor – Riddlin’
    
13. Sonata Islands Kommandoh – Aphantasia QBB
    
14. Matteo Ciminari – El Serpiente
    

Catalog Number CR2102CH

Related:
Strength in Numbers vol. 3
Strength in Numbers vol 2
Strength in Numbers vol 1 – free with mailing list signup

Sonata Islands Kommandoh – Quasar Burning Bright

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Artist Links
Sonata Islands website

Sonata Islands Kommandoh is a Milan-based, hyper-eclectic ensemble founded by flutist and composer Emilio Galante in 1998. Switching genres, approaches and even core members with each project, the ensemble explores far-reaching territory from the worlds of jazz, classical, rock, experimental and – especially on their latest album “Quasar Burning Bright” – electronic music. Some of Sonata Islands Kommandoh’s ambitious past projects include “Torre Aquila,” a multimedia project with soloist Markus Stockhausen, “Sonata Islands goes RIO” with music by avant garde veteran Fred Frith, a jazz rewriting of “Das Lied von der Erde” by Gustav Mahler, and their first release for Chant Records, “Zeuhl Jazz,” dedicated to the spirit of legendary French progressive rock band Magma. “Quasar Burning Bright” finds the ensemble in top shape, seamless weaving modal sounds and free jazz with deep-groove funk, a touch of metal and a healthy dose of synthesizers and other electronics. The resulting sound is hinted at by the album’s title, the dazzling luminescence of an invisible and far distant star surrounded by both vast space and unexpected explosions.

Tracks:

1. Aphantasia QBB
2. Susac Casus
3. Mod-D QBB 115 bpm
4. Think Atomic
5. Mod-5 QBB 125 bpm
6. It Ain’t Necessarily So

Emilio Galante, flute
Giovanni Venosta, keyboards and singing
Alberto N. A. Turra, electric guitar
Stefano Grasso, drums
Stefano Greco, programming and electronics; monochord & choir (track 6)
special guest: Fabio D’Ambrosio, choir (track 6)

Recorded & mixed by Stefano Greco at Blau Studio, Milan, January & February 2020
Mastered by Emilio Pozzolini at Blau Studio, Milan, March 2020
Graphics & layout by Jacopo Sacchi
Produced by Sonata Islands Kommandoh
Special thanks to Fabio D’Ambrosio, Chant Records and ADN Records and for their support

Catalog Number CR2007SO

Related:
Sonata Islands Kommandoh – Zeuhl Jazz
Alberto N. A. Turra – The TAAN trio Live at Easy Nuts Lab
Alberto N. A. Turra – It Is Preferable Not To Travel With A Dead Man

Xander Naylor – Continuum

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Artist Links
xandernaylor.com
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“Some of the most refreshingly unhinged guitar recorded in this century.”
New York Music Daily

Xander Naylor is a guitarist, improviser, and composer living in New York City, who gathers the vocabularies and core energetic forces of avant jazz, post-rock, and Indian classical music, into a singular new sound, described by The Critical Masses as “a language all his own.” Rooted firmly in the culturally-rich NYC music scene, his music has brought him to perform all over the world, including the South by Southwest Festival (Austin, Texas, USA), Assomniak Festival (Brest, France), and the Chhandayan Annual Concert (Kolkata, India). Born of his own spiritual journey, and deep study of multiple Eastern and Western traditions, Naylor’s music gives vital breath to the most fundamental questions we face today as a culture, and as human beings. Naylor is a ground-breaking guitarist, and a fearless searcher, forging new techniques, extended sounds, and employing rhythmic acrobatics, all in service of a visceral experience which fosters and promotes greater understanding.

Naylor’s new album Continuum features all-new compositions which are all about breaking through the barriers of digital screens and facing others eye-to-eye, as well as facing the problematic discourses of our time with the knowledge that “there still are people who still stand for respect and the ideal of common good.” Seasoned from two years of touring, Naylor’s band Sound Machine’s current lineup features Elijah Shiffer (alto saxophone), Nicholas Jozwiak (electric bass) and Raphael Pannier (drums). Continuum also features an all-star lineup of some of today’s most sought after voices, including Alec Spiegelman (baritone sax), Alex Asher (trombone), Angelica Bess (vocals), Cole Kamen-Green (trumpet), and Sarah Pedinotti (vocals). These superb musicians have toured the world, studied many of its musical cultures, and recorded with such diverse acts as Beyonce, Boy George & Culture Club, Lorde, Okkervill River, Anais Mitchell, Samir Chatterjee, Tyshawn Sorey, and Peter Evans. Continuum is the ultimate invitation into Xander Naylor’s unfettered vision of the spiritual and physical worlds that music can embody.

Tracks:

1. Lunar Acropolis
2. Export For Screens
3. Surrender
4. Pursuit
5. Phone Zone
6. Riddlin’
7. Who Laughs Last?
8. Leverage

Alex Asher – trombone (1, 2, 6, 8)
Angelica Bess – vocals (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Nicholas Jozwiak – bass
Cole Kamen-Green – trumpet (1, 2 6, 8)
Xander Naylor – guitar, synths
Raphael Pannier – drums
Sarah Pedinotti – vocals (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Elijah Shiffer – alto sax
Alec Spiegelman – bari sax (1, 2, 6, 8), bass clarinet (3)

All compositions by Xander Naylor, published by Little Volcanoes Music (ASCAP)
Recorded at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, NY March 2-3, 2019
Engineers: Jacob Bergson and Ian Hersey
Mixing and additional tracking by Ian Hersey at Carefree Studios, Brooklyn, NY
Mastered by Alex Syner
Album artwork by Michael Kerschner

Catalog Number CR2010XA

Related:
John Lee – Chu Bubaloo
Sonata Islands Kommandoh – Zeuhl Jazz
Laushaus