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Ruthless Cosmopolitans – Ruthless

 

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New York’s Ruthless Cosmopolitans is a collaboration between guitarist, producer, and label-owner Jon Madof (Zion80, Rashanim, Chant Records) and underground rapper, poet, and performance artist Eden Pearlstein (aka ePRHYME of Darshan). Ruthless Cosmopolitans is a cathartic/parodic/prophetic response to the spiraling state of our nation, and the world. Music, poetry, performance and imagery are the mediums employed to spread this synaesthetic form of sympathetic magic. Word. Sound. Sign. Signal.

The first spell was cast in a spontaneous wretch of inspired revulsion on August 12, 2017 — the day of the white supremacist march and counter-protests in Charlottesville, VA, where Heather Heyer was run over by a car in cold blood. Numerous poetic actions followed. Audio alchemy ensued. Materials assembled.

The forbidden fruit of this first cycle of artistic intervention is “Ruthless,” a 6-Song EP of blistering tirades, poetic permutations, mantric banishings, improvisational invocations, and infectious grooves.

Each one of the 6 songs on “Ruthless” channels, confronts, contorts, and exorcises a clamoring host of different personalities, perspectives, and positions at play on the minefield of “civilization” in decline through a dada-esque lens.

“The Screen Age”, the first single off the upcoming EP, will be released, along with an animated short film produced by Abbey Luck and Prone Studio, on the Equinox — September 22, 2020.

Tracks:

1. Make America Hate Again
2. The Screen Age
3. Book of Ruthless
4. Gawd Hates FLaGS
5. Faux King Crazy
6. Nothing In A Good Way

Eden Pearlstein – vocals
Jon Madof – guitars
Yoshie Fruchter – bass
Manny Laine – drums

Additional musicians:
Elana Brody – vocals
Talia Madof – vocals
Greg Wall – saxophone
Frank London – trumpet
Brian Marsella – keyboards
Marlon Sobol – percussion

Produced by Jon Madof
Conceptual direction by Eden Pearlstein
All songs written by Eden Pearlstein and Jon Madof
Recorded by James Dellatacoma at Orange Music Sound Studio
Additional recording at Red Palace Studio by Brian Marsella and Jon Madof and at Chant Records Studio by Jon Madof
Mastered by James Dellatacoma

Catalog Number CR2010RU

Related:
Zion80 – Warriors
Darshan – Raza

Guillaume Gargaud – Strange Memories

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guillaume-gargaud.fr 
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Guillaume Gargaud is a French guitarist who specializes in improvised music and composition for contemporary dance and film. He collaborated with veteran pianist Burton Green on 2019’s Chant Records release Magic Intensity, and has worked with other artists including Marc Edwards, Stephen Grew, Guy Bettini, Jack Wright, Mike Majkowski and Korvat Auki Ensemble. Recorded at his home studio in Le Havre, France, “Strange Memories” is Gargaud’s eighth solo album. It features the guitarist in a beautifully intimate acoustic guitar setting, playing a collection of completely improvised pieces.

Tracks:

1. Mystery Travel
2. Free Spirit
3. Stay Away
4. Strange Memories
5. Glissando
6. No Closing
7. Curious Things
8. Leave Open
9. Old Melodies

All music written, performed and recorded by Guillaume Gargaud
Recording at Le Havre, France 26th and 27th July 2019
Cover design by Stefano Giust

Catalog Number CR2009GU

Related:
Burton Greene and Guillaume Gargaud – Magic Intensity
XOL Plays X.EN
Robert Dick and Adam Caine – The Damn Think

Germani / Boni / Genovese / Marcocci / Kim – Leave It Blank For Now

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Instagram – Daniele Germani
Instagram – Leo Genovese
Instagram – Cosimo Boni
Instagram – Francesco Marcocci
Instagram – Jongkuk Kim

What happens when five kindred musicians enter a Brooklyn studio armed with nothing but their instruments, some original pieces and a willingness to see and hear what happens? That’s the operating principle behind “Leave It Blank For Now,” a collective of improvisers who share a history of study in Boston, now rooted in the vibrant New York City scene and involved in enough bands and projects to make your head spin. The album starts out with two of saxophonist Daniele Germani’s pieces evoking the beauty and power of nature both real (“On The Edge Of Mount Kosciuszko”) and imagined (“Scylla and Charybdis”). Next is “The Brosh Anthem,” an homage to camaraderie and friendship penned by virtuoso pianist Leo Genovese. The penultimate tune, by trumpeter Cosimo Boni, is an unpredictable and deceiving ballad about false niceness called “The Pretty Beast.” The album closes with “Newark,” bassist Francesco Marcocci’s tribute to legendary jazz elder statesman Wayne Shorter. Drummer Jongkuk Kim rounds out the quintet, with all five members exhibiting a trust and pure love of music that allows them to view the wide-open unknown for what it is, a place of boundless discovery and possibility

Tracks:

1. On The Edge Of Mount Kosciuszko
2. Scylla And Charybdis
3. The Brosh Anthem
4. Pretty Beast
5. Newark

Daniele Germani – saxophone
Leo Genovese – piano
Cosimo Boni – trumpet
Francesco Marcocci – bass
Jongkuk Kim – drums

Recorded at Peter Karl Studios (Brooklyn) on July 14 2019
Recording engineer – Peter Karl
Mixing and Mastering At Sear Sounds – engineer: Jeremy Loucas
Cover Art – Lía Rivera Flaviá

Catalog Number CR2007GE

Related:
Los Autonautas – Balcón India
Eyal Talmudi – Even If

Brian Shankar Adler – For a Gallery on the Moon

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brianadler.com
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“Adler is a polyrhythmic force…” – Brad Cohan, JazzTimes

In his new solo album, For a Gallery on the Moon, peripatetic drummer, percussionist and composer Brian Shankar Adler journeys deeper into the layered topography of rhythm with a set of nine concentrated meditations representing the space between the heart and the moon. With fresh echoes of his critically acclaimed 2019 Chant Records release “Fourth Dimension” still resounding, Adler quickly pivots to create a primal percussive world: dwelling, probing, reflecting and refracting inside the very act of vibration, one that highlights subtle timbres, nuanced shifts the mesmerizing power of repetition. For the making of this album, Adler built what he refers to as a “cave” in the middle of his New York City apartment, so quiet that he could hear the faint vibrations of a whisper and so small that it fit only himself, a few small instruments, and microphones. From that place of deep stillness, Adler breathes air into a sonic world that is foreign to the ear, yet to the heart feels just like home.

Tracks:

1. Young Blood
2. Paper, Rock, Scissors
3. Game
4. Cym Drone
5. Relative(s)
6. Ghost Box
7. Flight
8. rahdarkahC
9. G a m e

Brian Shankar Adler: bowed cymbals, buddha machine, ghatam, gong, kanjira, key chimes, manjira, mridang, opera cymbal, paper, ride cymbals, river rocks, slit drum, tabla, thunder sheet
All compositions by Brian Shankar Adler (Circavision, ASCAP)
Recorded at Circavision Studios, Brooklyn, NY between 11.2017 and 8.2018 by Brian Shankar Adler 
Mixed and mastered by Brian Shankar Adler
Graphic design by Brian Shankar Adler
Produced by Circavision Productions
© 2020 Circavision Productions & Brian Shankar Adler. All rights reserved.

Catalog Number CR2009BR

Related:
Brian Shankar Adler – Fourth Dimension
Sandcatchers – What We Found Along The Way

Bartolo – Six Improvisations for Creatures and Machines

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workarchive.net
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What is it like to be human in an electronic world?
Bartolo is a Lisbon-based guitarist, composer, producer and sound artist who has worked with artists including Miguel Rio Branco, Damo Suzuki, M. Takara, Paal Nilssen-Love and Thomas Rohrer. His second album, “Six Improvisations for Creatures and Machines” is a series of instrumental improvisations along with a modular synthesizer programmed with random parameters. The unique set of unpredictable harmonies, rhythms and forms make the synthesizer a quasi-improviser, providing a musical foundation for spontaneous musical interaction and composition. As Bartolo describes it, “I chose musical partners who I have an affection for and with whom I share a rapport. In one track I play alone, a man-machine duet. In other tracks, I also have a human partner or two to interact with the machine. Analog programming carries an imprecise delicacy where it is difficult to retain absolute precision. There is something human about it, but at the same time it is the very opposite of anything human.’’ Recorded live in studio with no overdubs and complete spontaneity, the resulting album is a deep exploration of what it means to be human in an electronic world.

Tracks:

1. Cibernética
2. Sthira-Sukha
3. Além Elétrico
4. Nerves and Wires
5. Zaatari
6. Mars Mantras

Bartolo: modular synth programming and guitar on all tracks
Alberto Continentino: double bass on ‘Zaatari’
Gabriel Ferrandini: drums on ‘Cibernética’
Leo Monteiro: drums on ‘Nerves and Wires’
Pedro Sá: guitar on ‘Além Elétrico’
Renato Godoy: drums on ‘Zaatari’
Thiago Oliveira: alto sax on ‘Nerves and Wires’
Thomas Harres: drums on ‘Sthira-Sukha’
Jonas Sá appears as a voice sample on ‘Zaatari’
Composed and directed by Bartolo
Recorded at Namouche studios and Iá Studios, Lisbon, Portugal, February and March 2016.
Recorded at Rock-it studios and Casinha Studios, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, April and May 2016.
Tracks 1, 3, 6 produced by Bartolo
Tracks 2, 4, 5 produced by Bartolo and Estevão Casé.
Recorded by Quim Monte, Bartolo, Estevão Casé and Ricardo Riquier
Mixed and mastered by Gil Fortes
Cover art by Lê Almeida.

Catalog Number CR2006BA

Related:
Welf Dorr Unit – Blood
The Invisible Party – Shumankind
The Lie Detectors – Part III: Secret Unit

Santiago Leibson Trio – Little Pieces

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santiagoleibson.com
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Born in Argentina and now based in Brooklyn, pianist and composer Santiago Leibson is a mainstay on the vibrant New York jazz scene. He’s worked with a who’s who including Tony Malaby, Guillermo Klein, Michael Attias, Francisco Mela, Sean Conly and Gerald Cleaver. Also deeply involved in the contemporary classical community, Leibson made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 with a solo concert of original and classical compositions as part of the prestigious Sophia Rosoff Concert Series. “Little Pieces” is his fifth album as a bandleader and features Matt Pavolka on bass and Mark Ferber on drums. The album is structured like a novella with each of the six chapters describing a different character. But the characters never meet, each possessing a unique identity and flavor. Leibson and his trio manage to weave these individual stories together into a coherent yet multi-faceted whole that rewards repeated listening and exploration.

All songs composed by Santiago Leibson
Recorded at Bacque Studios, NYC on May 28th, 2019 by Luis Bacque. Assistant : Thom Beemer.
Mixed and mastered by Luis Bacque at Bacque Studios.
Personnel:
Santiago Leibson: piano and compositions
Matt Pavolka: bass
Mark Ferber: drums

Tracks:

1. Gall
2. Quilombo
3. Conundrum
4. Enneadic
5. Hoodwink
6. Imbued

Catalog Number CR2005SA

Related:
Los Autonautas – Balcón India
Eyal Talmudi – Even If
Jessica Lurie – Long Haul

Ben Holmes – Naked Lore

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Ben-Holmes.com
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“Sublimely craft[s] a ritualistic, old-world music but with a modern touch. Elements of Klezmer, chamber-jazz, classical, and improvised music pepper Holmes’s rollicking and ruminative compositions.” – Brooklyn Rail

Best described as “a soundtrack to the folk stories your grandparents vowed to forget,” Naked Lore is the brainchild of Ben Holmes, a trumpeter/composer who has worked with artists including Slavic Soul Party!, Vampire Weekend, Gogol Bordello and Cynthia Hopkins. His music conjures ancient sounds through the filter of 20+ years of study in jazz, klezmer, and classical music. Featuring master musicians Brad Shepik on guitar (Paul Motian, Dave Douglas, Charlie Haden, Carla Bley) and Shane Shanahan on percussion (Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, James Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Philip Glass), the trio seemingly travels through thousands of years of history while remaining firmly rooted in the present moment, veering from tightly composed occultist chamber jazz to wild improvisation with the speed of a darting snake’s tongue.

Ben Holmes (trumpet/rotary trumpet), Brad Shepik (nylon string guitar/Portuguese guitar/archtop electric guitar), Shane Shanahan (percussion)
All music composed and arranged by Ben Holmes (Svejk Music/ASCAP)
Recorded at Flux Studios on January 10th – 12th, 2019.
Recording Engineer: Damon Whittemore
Assistant recording engineer: Josh Welshman
Mixed and mastered by Damon Whittemore at ValveTone Studios.

Tracks

1. Invocation I / Snake Money
2. $43, a Smile, and Bullshit
3. Swamplands Chusidl
4. Interlude on Avenue J
5. Invocation II / The Dust of Unremembering
6. The Sunbeast Emerges
7. Two “Oh No!”s and an “Oh!”, no “No!”
8. First We Were Sad; Then We Danced
9. All Together

Catalog Number CR2004BE

Related:
Koby Israelite – The Rest of Now
Midwood – Out of the Narrows
Sandcatchers – What We Found Along The Way

Curha – II

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Curha.com
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Curha II is the followup album to Curha I (Chant Records) and the latest work of the musician known as Curha. Curha is the alter ego of Curtis Hasselbring, a New York-based multi-instrumentalist and composer who has worked with musicians including Golem, Slavic Soul Party, Banda De Los Muertos, Frank London, Anthony Coleman, the Ghost Train Orchestra, Bobby Previte, Matt Wilson, Chris Lightcap and Medeski Martin and Wood. Curha utilizes trombones, guitars, samples, synths and voices to paint a utopian yet charmingly-flawed personal vision of time and space. Opening with an Ennio Morricone-inspired desert anthem (‘Casa Grande’) and moving through chip-tunes imitating Weather Report (‘Hex Pebble Fusion’), a tribute to Mark E. Smith (‘Totally Hired’), shoe-gaze muzak (‘Blown Bubble Blues’) and trip-hop-meets-Marvel (‘History of Vistas’), Curha II covers a wide musical terrain. The album features a variety of guests including guitar wiz Brandon Seabrook (Anthony Braxton, Nels Cline), drummer Dan Rieser (Norah Jones, Rosanne Cash), dual bass clarinetists Peter Hess (Slavic Soul Party, Balkan Beat Box) and Alec Spiegelman (Cuddle Magic) and Aaron Diskin (Golem) on tambourine.

All music composed, created and performed by Curha. Additional guests include Dan Rieser (drums on #1 and #2), Aaron Diskin (tambourine #2), Brandon Seabrook (guitar solo on #2), Peter Hess (bass clarinet on #8) and Alec Spiegelman (bass clarinet on #6 and #12). Additional recording by Craig Dreyer at Mighty Toad.

Tracks

1. Casa Grande
2. Togar
3. Sick Of Ants!
4. Blimp Enthusiast
5. Blaster
6. Soap
7. Murgatroid
8. MMS
9. Totally Hired
10. History of Vistas
11. Hex Pebble Fusion
12. Blown Bubble Blues

Catalog Number CR2003CU

Related:
Curha – I
Matt Mottel – Slid City

Randi Pontoppidan & Christian Rønn – HEAD¨SPACE

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www.christianronn.dk
www.randipontoppidan.com

On HEAD¨SPACE, Randi Pontoppidan & Christian Rønn pair the organic warmth and plasticity of the human voice with the beautifully off-kilter palette of amplified Würlitzer and electronic soundscapes to generate an exquisite sound world of non-verbal language, exploring the outer limits and deepest secrets of sonic expression.

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.

Christian Rønn is a highly versatile Danish artist working with improvisation, electroacoustics, fixed composition, sound art and film music. He performs and composes in a variety of combinations and constellations with artists including Ikue Mori, P.O. Jørgens, Lotte Anker, Peter Peter and Bob Bellerue. Rønn’s energetic and out-of-body-playing-style with the free jazz trio Blind Man’s Band has been likened to both Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra. As an organist he premiered the Fluxus artist Henning Christiansen’s piece “Fluxorum Organum” in Denmark as well as his own works for organ and multi-channel electronics. Under the alter ego Ganga, Rønn produces popular downtempo electronica that has been featured on Café Del Mar and Buddha Bar compilations as well as over 200 others, along with scores for film classics including Battleship Potemkin and Metropolis.

Randi Pontoppidan (voice, live electronics, bells)
Christian Rønn (Würlitzer Piano, effects)
All music written & produced and by Randi Pontoppidan & Christian Rønn
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Christian Rønn during last half of 2018 in Trekroner Studiet, Valby, Copenhagen

Tracks

1. Blackberry
2. Waterproof
3. Plasma
4. Albedo
5. Udspring
6. Ultraviolet
7. Irgendwo
8. Gamma
9. Ocher

Catalog Number CR2002RA

Related:
Event Horizon (Greg Cohen and Randi Pontoppidan) – Space Geode
Randi Pontoppidan – ROOMS

Freakdom – Session One

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freakdom.bandcamp.com

Freakdom is the gathering of three singular musical minds: fretless guitarist David Konopnicki (leader of the Paris-based punk/improv trio AutorYno), bassist Shanir Blumenkranz (Yemen Blues, Yo-Yo Ma, John Zorn) and drummer Kenny Grohowski (Imperial Triumphant, Secret Chiefs 3, Rez Abbasi). Written in one day and recorded in New York City by 3-time Grammy winning engineer Marc Urselli, ‘Session One’ beautifully captures a boundless adventure into freedom and madness drawing on metal, punk, thrash, dub, surf and various traditions of improvised music.

Recorded 11-1-2016 at EASTSIDE SOUND STUDIO – New York
David Konopnicki – Fretless Guitar
Shanir Blumenkranz – Double Bass
Kenny Grohowski – Drums
Composed by Freakdom
Producer : Shanir Blumenkranz
Record Engineer : Marc Urselli @ Eastside Sound Studio, NYC
Mix : David Konopnicki @ 4A SoundFactory – Forges-Les-Eaux, France
Mastering : Jean-Charles Panizza @ Climax Mastering
Published by Noa Music
COVER PICTURE : David Benainous

Tracks

1. Another Blues
2. Round & Round
3. Oompah
4. Down
5. Blast From The Past
6. Nein
7. Puppy Eyes
8. Second Victim
9. Dawn

Catalog Number CR2001FR

Related:
The Lie Detectors – Part III: Secret Unit
ŪROK
John Lee – Chu Bubaloo