T-Riot - A Different Truth (ALBORE JAZZ 2017)

A Different Truth, this is the first album for this band, entirely “studio live” recorded in one day and a half on May 2016. The band was assembled by longtime friends (who took many different musical ways in the meanwhile) in the last quarter of 2016 as “resident trio” to play regular jazz gigs and “jam sessions” two days a week in a little lovely jazz club in the town of Taranto (the “MAGNA GRECIA” side of Puglia, ITALY) Per Bacco Jazz Club. Then, the three musicians, and the audience, asked and decided to make a recording, even just trying to put on cd the freshness of sound and joy they brought in that months to their local audience. – T-Riot

Desert Highway (Pietro Vincenti)

I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free (Billy Taylor)

Libra (Gary Bartz)

Pharaoh of Love (Pietro Vincenti) ＊”Pharaoh” is correct, not typo.

Sad Devil (Pietro Vincenti)

The Long Goodbye (P. Vincenti / C. Pace / F. Lomagistro)

Sign of the Times (Prince)

Stay with Me (Sam Smith)

St Petersburg Train (Pietro Vincenti)

Willow Weep for Me (Ann Ronell)

Pietro Vincenti (piano)

Camillo Pace (double bass)

Francesco Lomagistro (drums)

Erland Dahlen - Clocks (HUBRO MUSIC 2017)

Epic cinematic soundscapes from the drummer’s drummer

Erland Dahlen’s ‘Clocks’ presents the listener with a series of epic cinematic soundscapes. Although there is no actual film to illustrate, the imaginative power and suggestive resonance of Dahlen’s compositions easily stand comparison with the work of leading film composers. As Dahlen – whose previous album, ‘Blossom Bells’, was nominated for a Spellemannspris, the Norwegian ‘Grammy’ – is a drummer, one might first think of Antonio Sanchez’s percussive score for ‘Birdman’, say, but ‘Clocks’ employs such a broad range of sound-sources and musical reference-points that it’s probably closer to the atmospheric film-work of Tangerine Dream or Ryuichi Sakamoto. Police drummer Stewart Copeland’s music for ‘Rumblefish’ and the contributions to ‘Apocalypse Now’ by the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann come to mind, too.

Rock and post-rock references are relevant, for Dahlen appears completely unapologetic about adding an echo-laden Eighties drum-thump, or a buzz-saw industrial guitar-drone alongside the avant-garde found-sounds one might associate with Harry Partch hub-caps, gongs or bells. In ‘Clocks’, what could be regarded as the usual drummer’s strategy of layering one percussive source on top of another is superseded by a complex structural amalgam of melody and rhythm where the textural detail becomes so dense that it’s impossible to tell where one leaves off and the other begins. The result is a collection of moodily anthemic, often dark-hued pieces that in a noirish thriller might be used to accompany a hit or a heist. As stand-alone music, they function perfectly as edgily ambient soundscapes with an epic widescreen feel.

The range of instruments Dahlen employs is also a world away from the usual percussionist’s standbys. Here, the ethereal, eerie sound of a musical saw or a Mellotron, or a wailing wordless vocal, provides the fragile melodic figure to set against a thick, rhythmic ground provided by a palimpsest of vintage drum-sounds, their scuffed acoustic patina further distressed by electronic processing. Indeed, Dahlen’s list of instruments for the album includes, as well as antique drums from the 1930s, various gongs, xylophones, bells, bowed instruments and strings as well as drone-boxes and electronics, plus the workaday sounds of knives and forks or marbles rolling on a plate. “Before I went into the studio to make this album I bought some Cymbells, a Mellotron, several large sheets of metal and a variety of drum machines and stringed instruments”, Dahlen recalls with enthusiasm, like a chef talking about assembling ingredients for the preparation of that evening’s menu. “It’s incredibly inspiring to explore new instruments and find new sounds.”

The variety of Dahlen’s sound-making sources is paralled by the vast range of his musical experience with different bands and projects. His discography runs to over 300 albums, plus live work with leading Norwegian artists such as Xploding Plastix, Nils Petter Molvaer, Stian Westerhus, Eivind Aarset, Hannah Hukkelberg and Anja Garbarek, together with guest appearances with John-Paul Jones and Mike Patton, among many others. He was also the drummer with the band Madrugada for a number of years. His ex-colleagues in Xploding Plastix have roles to play in ‘Clocks’: Jens Petter Nilsen mixed the album, and Hallvard W. Hagen remixed the track ‘Lizard’.

As well as writing and performing everything on ‘Clocks’ himself, Erland Dahlen also acted as the album’s producer. The recording was mastered by Helge Sten at Audio Virus Lab.

1. Clocks 7:50

2. Glas 4:13

3. Ship 7:41

4. Bear 7:46

5. Lizard 4:24

6. Wood 7:07

Drums [WFL Drums From The 30s], Cymbal [Cymbells], Bells [Blossom Bells], Bells [Hand Bells], Saw [Musical Saw], Xylophone, Slit Drum [Log Drum], Gong [Gongs], Percussion [Marbles On Metal Plates], Frame Drum, Steel Drums [Steeldrum], Tom Tom [Marching Tom], Performer [Knifes And Forks], Electronics, Drum Machine [Drum Machines], Musical Box [Droneboxes], Vocals [Vocal], Mellotron, Keyboards [Keys], Guitar [Guitars], Performer [Sticks/Mallets/Bow On String Instruments] – Erland Dahlen

Weather Report - Heavy Weather (1977, AUDIO FIDELITY 2017)

Charles Pasi - Bricks (UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP 2017)

Als in Frankreich vor anderthalb Jahren die Nachricht die Runde machte, dass Charles Pasi einen Plattenvertrag über drei Alben bei dem renommierten Jazzlabel Blue Note ergattert habe, war die Jubelstimmung in Paris groß. Pasi ist der erste französische Sänger, der von dem traditionsreichen US-amerikanischen Label unter Vertrag genommen wurde. Bevor Pasi die Blue-Note-Offerte erhielt, tourte der mittlerweile 33-Jährige mit den Songs seines letzten Albums "Sometimes Awake" durch die Welt.

Vergangenes Jahr lud ihn Neil Young persönlich dazu ein, bei fünf Konzerten in Frankreich in seinem Vorprogramm aufzutreten. Was um so verwunderlicher ist, da Pasi sein Album ohne großen Lärm herausgebracht hatte. Aber an die üblichen Gepflogenheiten des Musikmarktes hatte sich Pasi ohnehin noch nie gehalten. Er nahm sein Schicksal immer selbst in die Hand. Und dazu brauchte er nur seine Mundharmonika, seine Komponistenfeder, seine Stimme und sein überfließendes Herz.

Es ist allerdings nicht so, dass Charles Pasi über Nacht vom Himmel gefallen ist. Sein erstes Album "Mainly Blue" brachte er bereits 2006 in Eigenregie heraus. Fünf Jahre später ließ er mit "Uncaged" ein zweites Werk folgen, mit dem er einiges Aufsehen erregte. Nicht zuletzt, weil sich auf ihm in zwei der besten Nummern ("Better With Butter" und "Farewell My Love") der alte Free-Jazz-Recke Archie Shepp mit seinem Tenorsaxophon spannende "Duelle" mit Pasis Blues-Harp lieferte. 2014 erschien schließlich noch das dritte Album "Sometimes Awake", mit dem Pasi das Ohr von Blue-Note-Präsident und Produzent Don Was erreichte. Mit dem Album "Bricks" legt der 33-jährige Italo-Franzose nun also den Grundstein für seine neue, internationale Karriere.

01 – From The City

02 – Shoot Somebody

03 – All The Way

04 – Good Enough

05 – City Of Light

06 – Burn Out

07 – Don’t Be Like Me

08 – Jungle Jimi

09 – Love Me Or Leave Me

10 – End Of The Line

11 – Shoot Somebody (Unplugged)