Thursday, September 27, 2018

Marc Ribot: Songs of Resistance 1942 - 2018 (Anti- Records September 2018)


“Every movement which has ever won anything has had songs,” says accomplished New York City guitarist Marc Ribot. For his new political album Songs of Resistance 1942-2018 – with a September 14 release date on ANTI- Records - Ribot set out to assemble a set of songs that spoke to this political moment with appropriate ambition, passion, and fury.

photo by Barbara Rigon

The eleven songs on the record include a few original compositions as well as traditional songs that are drawn from World War II anti-Fascist Italian partisans, the U.S. civil rights movement and Mexican protest ballads. It also features a wide range of guest vocalists, including


Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Meshell Ndegeocello, Justin Vivian Bond, Fay Victor, Sam Amidon, and Ohene Cornelius, Tift Merritt, Domenica Fossati, Syd Straw.

At a time of such overwhelming social turmoil, finding a focus for this kind of project is challenging. Nevertheless, Ribot’s purpose remained clear. “There’s a lot of contradiction in doing any kind of political music,” he says, “how to act against something without becoming it, without resembling what you detest. Sometimes it is hard to figure out what to do, and I imagine we’ll make mistakes, and hopefully, learn from them. But I knew this from the moment Donald Trump was elected: I’m not going to play downtown scene Furtwangler to any orange-comb-over dictator wannabe. No way.”

Portions of the album’s proceeds will be donated to The Indivisible Project, an organization that helps individuals resist the Trump agenda via grassroots movements in their local communities. More info on The Indivisible Project can be found at www.indivisible.org.


1. Marc Ribot & Fay Victor - We Are Soldiers in the Army 05:27
2. Marc Ribot & Tom Waits - Bella Ciao (Goodbye Beautiful) 03:37
3. Marc Ribot, Steve Earle & Tift Merritt - Srinivas 06:09
4. Marc Ribot, Sam Amidon & Fay Victor - How To Walk In Freedom 05:44
5. Marc Ribot & Ohene Cornelius - Rata de dos Patas 04:46
6. Marc Ribot & Meshell Ndegeocello - The Militant Ecologist (based on Fischia II Vento) 04:10
7. The Big Fool 06:34
8. Marc Ribot, Steve Earle & Tift Merritt - Ain't Gonna Let Them Turn Us Round 03:23
9. Marc Ribot & Fay Victor - John Brown 05:53
10. Marc Ribot & Syd Straw - Knock That Statue Down 03:50
11. Marc Ribot, Justin Vivian Bond & Domenica Fossati - We'll Never Turn Back 04:33

Produced by Marc Ribot
1,3-11 Mixed by Kamilo Kratc @ Brooklyn Recording (Brooklyn, NY) & Soundworks Recording (Queens, NY)
1,3,4,7,8,9 Recorded by Daniel Schlett @ Strange Weather (Brooklyn, NY)
5,6,10 Recorded by Randall Dunn @ Brooklyn Recording (Brooklyn, NY)
11 Recorded by Ryan Kelly @ Studio G (Brooklyn, NY)
2 Recorded by Karl Derfler @ The School Bell (Sebastopol, CA) & Mixed @ The Shack (Crocket, CA)
Additional Overdubs Recorded by Alexis Berthelot, Chris Boerner, Bogdan Chavez, Jack DeBoe, Ryan Kelly, Gregory Smelley
Additional Editing by Jay Yow, Alexis Berthelot
Mastered by Scott Hull @ Masterdisk
Art Direction & Design by Bryan Collins
Cover Photor by Lewis W. Hine/George Eastman House/Getty Images
Photo of Marc by Ebru Yildiz
Project Coordinator & Management: Mary Ho / Noise Inc

PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT: THE INDIVISIBLE PROJECT (501c4) www.indivisible.org

SPECIAL THANKS TO: Kathleen Brennan, Jesse Bauer, Sheila Bowers, Michèle Desfrenne, Sara Fadabini, Joe Henry, Yuka Honda, Buddy Miller, Alison Riley, Andy Taub, Shanta Thake Kriegsman, Trixie Whitley


New Album Out now ANTI- Records

TORU: TORU Volume 2 featuring Mike Wilkins (October 12, 2018)


Sam Eastmond - Celeste Cantor-Stephens
Andy Watts - Trumpet

featuring
Mike Wilkins - Alto & Tenor Sax & Bass Clarinet

All Music spontaneously composed by
Eastmond/Cantor-Stephens/Watts/Wilkins
Engineered, Mixed and Mastered by Andy Watts at Chadar Shenah Studios London July 2018
Design by Mark Allender

1. Jabberschmocky
2. Unicorn In My Balls
3. The Silent Theatre Of Decaying Facades
4. ICE, ICE, Babycages

TORU: TORU Volume 1 featuring Sam Day Harmet (September 2018)


Free improvisation from a core of Sam Eastmond, Celeste Cantor-Stephens and Andy Watts on trumpet, joined by a special guest for each record TORU is an ongoing monthly series of albums created spontaneously through the alchemy of group improvisation. 

An outrageous mixture of energy, catharsis, anger and love TORU is freewheeling, free improvisation from a diverse and eclectic combination of musicians created in a single moment in time and space. 

Volume 1 features NYC artist Sam Day Harmet on Clarinet & Mandoli

Sam Eastmond, Celeste Cantor-Stephens
Andy Watts - Trumpet

featuring
Sam Day Harmet - Clarinet/Mandolin

All Music spontaneously composed by Eastmond/Cantor-Stephens/Watts/Harmet
Engineered, Mixed and Mastered by Andy Watts at Chadar Shenah Studios London July 2018
Design by Mark Allender

1. It Is Not Our Intention To Ruin Your Evening 12:44
2. Mango Mussolini 09:07
3. Suicide By Society 08:32
4. The Ballad Of Skullfuck Jones 10:18

Graham Massey & Umut Çağlar - Kicked From the Stars (Samarbeta October 15, 2018)


Back in 2017 from 22nd August - 1st September the international collaborative tour de force of Manchester based Graham Massey (808 State) and Umut Çağlar (Konstrukt) took part in a 10 day Samarbeta residency across both Islington Mill and Old Granada Studios. 

The project came from an Open Call opportunity that Samarbeta had done earlier in 2017. Both Massey & Çağlar come from a techno DJ background as their entry to the music scene and moved into the avant garde. Caglar states 808 State as one of his favourite bands growing up. 

“It’s something we have been talking about for two years, we were right on the instinct..we have a common Musical Language” - Graham Massey 

The result of the residency was a live show at Islington Mill which saw the Zelig like character of Paddy Steer join the duo to create an “Organic, Free-flowing kind of music”. The show was recorded and has been mixed by Massey and mastered by Peter Beckmann, to be released on Vinyl on October 15th 2018 on the Samarbera label. 

The record and performance aimed to be a unique blend of Exotica fusing their past experience as techno artists to build something new as current avant garde musicians; a mash of past and present, techno and jazz, dj and producer and Manchester and Istanbul.

Graham Massey & Umut Çağlar

1. Appian
2. Rabath
3. Tripolis
4. Sparta
5. Tuz
6. Galta
7. Tanta
8. Tripolis Studio

Recorded live at Islington Mill, 01-09-17
Performed by Graham Massey, Umut Çağlar & Paddy Steer
Mixed at Transmission Suite, Old Granada Studios by Graham Massey
Mastered by Peter Beckmann
Pressed by Pallas Group

Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, Sylvie Courvoisier and Tom Rainey - Noise Of Our Time (INTAKT RECORDS 2018)


It was only during Ken Vandermark's residency at the Jazz club 
The Stone in January 2016 that Vandermark found himself in the 
same vicinity as Nate Wooley, Sylvie Courvoisier and Tom Rainey. 
A year later they went into the studio with nine compositions – 
three each by Courvoisier, Vandermark and Wooley. 
These four musicians have well-documented, distinct personalities 
which, in this context, results in performances full of surprises, 
rich contrasts and shared responsibilities. The music sounds 
thoughtful, but never over-wrought. They play by in tuition, yet 
retain a vivid complexity. Their composing is transparent and 
un-clichéd; their improvising provided with a remarkable coherence 
and openness. And perhaps it is exactly this – a fresh collective 
unity that keeps their respective personalities and idiosyncrasies 
intact – that brings them success in this bold and collaborative 
performance. Art needs to pique and renew your interest, take 
you on inspiring and surprising journeys and sometimes even 
confront your own biases. Creating, not reviving as a way to 
evolve and to keep going forward in all directions.

Ken Vandermark: Saxophone, Clarinet
Nate Wooley: Trumpet
Sylvie Courvoisier: Piano
Tom Rainey: Drums Percussion

1. Checkpoint 05:03
2. Track and Field 06:39
3. Sparks 03:44
4. The Space Between the Teeth 06:12
5. Tag 04:32
6. Songs of Innocence 04:17
7. VWCR 04:00
8. Truth Through Mass Individuation 04:03
9. Simple Cut 05:41

Recorded August 17, 2017, at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon,
New York, USA, by Ryan Streber.
Mixed and mastered by Ryan Streber.
Cover art and graphic design: Jonas Schoder.
Liner notes: Guy Peters.
Photos: Christophe Alary, Daniel Sheehan, Cristina Marx, Denis Dalby. Produced and published by Patrik Landolt, Intakt Records.

Matt White - The Trumpet (2018)


Four originals (and one cover) with one rule: All sounds must originate from an acoustic trumpet. My summer 2018 challenge: Write, Record, Engineer, and Produce an album entirely done at my house. Each song is dedicated to another trumpet player important in my life. 

A few other points of interest on this album:

1. All songs were composed without using a piano (okay, I cheated once... Can you guess where?) In the true spirit of the project, I composed everything with a trumpet or by singing and transcribing. 

2. All the compositions are a combination of written material and improvised material that was later "comped" or arranged to develop the solo sections. 

3. Although there is some digital editing in the performances, all the trumpet sounds are unaffected - no EQ, no autotune. Just some reverb. All the improvised solos are complete takes. 

4. I used five different trumpets (2 Bbs, 1 C, flugelhorn, and piccolo), 8 different mouthpieces, and over 100 pieces of manuscript paper for this project.


Matt White - composer and arranger
Matt White - recording engineer
Matt White - mixing and mastering engineer
Matt White - producer

1. Stablemates (for Tim Hagans) 02:50
2. Promenade and Stroll for Jay Coble 05:00
3. Augie Haas in the Digital Age (How you like that sh*t Domino?!?) 04:44
4. Themes for Jason Carder 03:48
5. March and Dance for a T-Rex (for Alex Norris) 04:16

Dmitry Baevsky & Jeb Patton - We Two (JAZZ&PEOPLE 2018)


Rarely have two musicians given the impression of making their artistic proximity so manifest. Alto saxophonist Dmitry Baevsky and pianist Jeb Patton have known each other for many years. They met at a young age in New York, driven by a same thirst to learn the language of jazz and to make it their idiom of predilection. What better way for these two musicians to reveal their entente than in a tête-à-tête? What better context than a one-on-one, in which they elaborate the music together, privileging careful listening to one another other, a dialogue, a complementarity? The complicity is obvious between Jeb Patton’s elegant and articulated piano playing and Dmitry Baevsky’s vivid, precise and lyrical alto saxophone. The complicity is obvious between Jeb Patton’s elegant and articulated piano playing and Dmitry Baevsky’s vivid, precise and lyrical alto saxophone. Magnificently recorded, they have achieved a classic and everlasting album that marks the meeting of two contemporary jazz masters, simply called ‘We Two’.


Fred Frith Trio - Closer to the Ground (INTAKT RECORDS 2018)


With their second album the Fred Frith Trio with Jason 
Hoopes (Bass) and Jordan Glenn (Drums) continues to 
explore the dimension of the guitar trio. "Closer to the 
Ground" is all about sound, mood, texture, ideas, and 
atmosphere. Playful, intimate, and bound together, the 
Fred Frith Trio reminds us of what listening is all about. 
With a lifetime of experience across almost every field of 
musical endeavor, Frith stretches out in the company of 
two stalwarts of the vibrant Bay Area music scene who 
each have their own stories to tell. As this is also Frith’s 
touring band, many of these themes were already road 
tested so even at their most in-the-moment creative, this 
trio remains dense and tight. 

"Three extravagantly creative musicians employed in 
making music like we’ve never heard before" writes 
Canadian critic Raul da Gama.

Fred Frith

Fred Frith: Electric Guitar, Voice
Jason Hoopes: Electric Bass, Double Bass
Jordan Glenn: Drums, Percussion

Recording January 13 – 15, 2018, at Sharkbite Studios, Oakland by Scott Evans. Mixed at Guerrilla.
Recording in February 2018 and mastered at Headless Buddha, Oakland, March 8, 2018, by Myles Boisen.
Cover art and band photo: Heike Liss.
Graphic design: Jonas Schoder.
Executive production by Anja Illmaier. 
Produced by Fred Frith and Intakt Records.

1. Bones to Pick with Graveyards 05:16
2. Alle planmässigen Ziele werden erreicht 05:06
3. In the Grip of It 04:56
4. Ruhebereich 06:23
5. Stars like Trees 05:56
6. A Path Made by Walking 06:49
7. Betting on the World 02:39
8. Love and Other Embers 07:34
9. Up in Smoke 06:18