Gordon Grdina 'Pendulum' & 'Klotski' / Two releases on October 22, 2021 Attaboygirl Records

Guitarist, composer and oud master Gordon Grdina launches Attaboygirl  Records with a wide-ranging trio of adventurous new albums

The new label, created in partnership with his partner, photographer and visual artist Genevieve Monro, will make its official debut with its first two releases on October 22, 2021

Inaugural releases include a new solo album for classical guitar and oud along with the studio  debut of the quartet Square Peg with Mat Maneri, Shahzad Ismaily, and drummer Christian Lillinger

 

“Gordon Grdina Makes Music that is Important for Humanity.”

– Eyal Hareuveni, The Free Jazz Collective

“(Nomad) presents the restless spirit of jazz that refuses to be still, searching for a home and never settling down…”

– Jon Davis, EXPOSE

“The prevailing ambience is one of dark mystery, but the ruggedness of Grdina’s tone makes for a palette of rich contrast.”

– David R. Adler, JazzTimes (review of Think Like the Waves)

KLOTSKI

The prolific Vancouver-based guitarist, composer, improviser, and master oud player Gordon Grdina has long been tireless in his pursuit of new possibilities and partnerships for his expansive musical imagination. Seeking a new outlet that can keep pace with his ever-expanding roster of ongoing projects and new collaborations, Grdina has announced the launch of Attaboygirl Records. The endeavor is being undertaken in collaboration with his partner, photographer Genevieve Monro, who will curate the distinctive visual style of the label. At the outset Attaboygirl will begin strictly as an imprint for Grdina’s own efforts, though the founders have plans to eventually expand to include other artists as well.

 

Attaboygirl Records will make its official debut on October 22, 2021, with the simultaneous release of the first two entries in its catalogue. Pendulum is Grdina’s third solo album and the second composed for classical guitar and oud. Klotski, meanwhile, marks the studio debut of Gordon Grdina’s Square Peg, an exploratory quartet featuring Grdina on guitar and oud, Mat Maneri on viola, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and Moog, and Christian Lillinger on drums.

 

A third new release will follow in January 2022, with the meeting of guitar innovator Marc Ribot with Grdina’s Arabic music ensemble Haram. Grdina will also continue to record for other labels in the new year; in May 2022 the much-anticipated second outing by Grdina’s explosive Nomad Trio with pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Jim Black will be released via Astral Spirits.

 

“I seem to be putting out more music than other labels can handle,” jokes Grdina about the new effort. “The label is a project that Genevieve and I have wanted to take on for a while now. It allows us to release projects when we want and to create a cohesive visual style for these disparate releases.”

The label’s name stems from a favorite saying of Monro’s late father, serving as a personal dedication while alluding to the two partners at the helm. “It's also a positive, encouraging sentiment,” Grdina adds, “which is important when taking on something new like this.”

01 Impending Discomfort 7:22

02 Escherian 6:09

03 Bacchic Barge 7:39

04 Sulfur City 9:21

05 Kaleidoscope 5:41

06 Microbian Theory 8:07

07 Sore Spot 4:13

08 Joy Ride 4:38

Gordon Grdina  guitar / oud

Mat Maneri  viola

Shahzad Ismaily  bass / moog

Christian Lillinger  drums

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PENDULUM

Pendulum builds upon the success of Grdina’s previous solo releases. The first, 2018’s China Cloud, featured his usual arsenal – electric guitar and oud – won a Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy) for Instrumental Album of the Year. His Juno-nominated 2020 follow-up, Prior Street, shifted into more of a chamber-jazz concentration with pieces designed for classical guitar and oud. The new album continues in that vein, intricately exploring the harmonic possibilities of the instruments in ways that bridge their Western and Arabic origins.

Square Peg brings Grdina together with Ismaily and Maneri, both longtime members of New York’s downtown scene, and German drummer Christian Lillinger, an award winning player in the European avant- jazz and improvised music world. For Klotski, Grdina penned a number of short, modular compositions that could fit together like puzzle pieces to form a free-ranging but focused setlist. The album’s single, nearly hour-long piece moves through eight of these cellular pieces, each able to be initiated by any member of the group and bridged by captivating improvisations, vividly blurring the lines between the written and the spontaneous.

 

Grdina founded Haram in 2008 with two purposes in mind: to further evolve his work with traditional Iraqi and Arabic folk music, and to convene several of his favorite Vancouver improvisers into one large ensemble. The follow-up to the ensemble’s 2012 debut, Her Eyes Illuminate, features the addition of legendary guitar wizard Marc Ribot, whose fabled career has included influential work with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant and John Zorn among countless others, as well as his own projects like Ceramic Dog, Los Cubanos Postizos, Spiritual Unity and the Rootless Cosmopolitans.

 

“Ribot's been a hero of mine for a long time,” Grdina says. “He added a whole lot of energy and excitement as well as a punk rock aesthetic to these pieces.”

 

Finally, next May will bring the release of Boiling Point, the second outing for Grdina’s Nomad Trio with Matt Mitchell and Jim Black, two of the most inventive and technically audacious artists in modern jazz. “I can write anything for this band,” Grdina touts. “It's very complex music, rhythmically, harmonically, melodically, and in the way every piece fits together, those guys really can do anything. Since the last album, the group has solidified its unique sound, which is exciting to hear develop on this second record.”

1 Koen Dori  8:02

2 Contra 6:52

3 The Chase  6:53

4 Benbow Blues  8:32

5 Wayward  9:22

6 Pendulum  6:02

7 Always Been The Song II 5:15

Gordon Grdina  classical guitar, oud

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Charnett Moffett Trio Set To Release Live EP Following Internationally Acclaimed “New Love” (Motéma Music)

Veteran bassist Charnett Moffett is following up his June album New Love with the release of a Live EP this October 22, 2021. Originally recorded at Yoshi's on July 25, 2021, Charnett Moffett Trio: Live, features vocalist Jana Herzen and drummer Corey Garcia.

Out on Motéma Music:  DIGITAL EP: “LIVE” drops 10/22/21  |  SINGLE: “Summertime” Out Now! 

“The interplay of this trio is stupendous and breathtaking.”

– JAZZ’N’MORE (Switzerland)

Renowned jazz bass virtuoso Charnett Moffett is set to release his first live trio recording in October, furthering an exciting, unpredictable and richly artistic jazz journey featuring guitarist/vocalist Jana Herzen with drummer Corey Garcia.  The chemistry of this trio has deep roots. Moffett has collaborated with Herzen for over 12 years now, and Garcia has joined them for many live performances since 2018 and recorded with them on Herzen’s 2021 Live quintet album produced by Moffett, and also on Moffett’s internationally acclaimed studio project, ‘NEW LOVE’, released by Motéma in June 2021.  

“Whatever the musical moment, there’s a tight synchronicity at play.”

– DOWNBEAT

Recorded at Yoshi’s on July 25th, 2021, CHARNETT MOFFETT TRIO: LIVE features Moffett’s legendary virtuosity on both fretless and fretted electric basses, Herzen’s warmly nuanced guitar and vocal musicality, and drummer Corey Garcia’s melodic, symbol-driven swing in a vibrant program of concert highlights that opens with an outstanding rendition of the Gershwin classic “Summertime” and journeys through four exceptional Moffett compositions (two reprised from New Love, and two which make their debut on LIVE).

“There’s something special whenever Charnett Moffett and Jana Herzen play music.”

– AMERICAN SONGWRITER

The musical marriage of Moffett’s long-seasoned bass artistry with Herzen’s instinctive yet refined guitar work and signature warm vocal sound, has inspired repeated press observations about a certain “magic” that arises when these two make music together. Whether performing together in their eclectic duo project, or in Herzen’s folk/rock/jazz projects, or in Moffett’s ensembles which fuse free-jazz, swing, post-bop, world, classical and psychedelic rock, the pair are gaining increasing acclaim as partners who complement each other on the front line.  While each of their projects has its own merits, Moffett’s power trio featuring Herzen and Garcia hit a special vein of jazz gold on the first five tracks of his trio/quartet project ‘New Love’ prompting critics on both sides of the Atlantic to call out this trio’s exciting chemistry.

The trio’s artistic connection becomes even more evident in live performance as Herzen and Garcia instinctively turn-on-a-dime together in response to Moffett’s creative and rapid-fire mercurial lead.    Moffett, who’s storied career includes collaborations with many of the world’s greatest jazz artists including drummers Charles Moffett, Art Blakey, Elvin Jones and Tony Williams realized a long-standing dream in assembling and grooming this trio. In 2018 he  discovered a valuable gem in the young, deep-swinging and sensitive drummer Corey Garcia who’s musical lineage as a protege of Eric McPherson, primed him well to learn Moffett’s musical language fluently. (McPherson, was a protege of Moffett’s father Charles, whom the famed bassist to this day claims as his most important influence.)  Charles Moffett was not only a great jazz drummer, he was also a multi-instrumentalist who innovated in Ornette Coleman’s 1960’s trio and went on to become an influential music educator who notably groomed Charnett and his sibs into The Moffett Family Band, a 1970’s phenom that first rose to fame in Oakland, California with an 8 year old Charnett charming crowds as he grooved hard on both upright and electric basses.

As for Herzen, although an accomplished thespian and singer/songwriter for over 35 years, and the legendary label leader of Motéma Music for the past 18 years, it was Moffett who first encouraged her to stretch out as a jazz instrumentalist by inviting her to play guitar in his band in 2018. No one was more surprised than Herzen to discover her talents in this arena, but to Moffett it was a natural choice to add her on guitar as the two had developed their own musical language over the many years that she had supported his artistry at Motema, and he had supported her artistry by playing bass on her acclaimed singer/songwriter recordings.

“[Herzen’s] feather-light guitar proves to be the ideal sparring partner for this music”.

– JAZZTHING  (Germany)

“The pair put out a rich sound full of spirituality and positive emotion.”

– ALL ABOUT JAZZ

Due to the nature of this trio, and his choice to select and groom these particular musicians, the dual legacies inherited from his namesakes Charles Moffett and Ornette Coleman (Char-Nett) showed up more palpably on NEW LOVE than on his prior albums, and became even more pronounced at Yoshi’s as Moffett’s instinctual showmanship led the trio on a new adventure that he looks forward to continuing.  

The EP opens with a unique and beautiful free-form rendition of the Gershwin classic “Summertime” featuring Jana Herzen’s soulful angelic voice flying heavenward as it entwines around, dances with, and is lifted up by Moffett’s dramatic and melodic bass lines. 

Next is “Remembering Your Love,” a spiritual, danceable and swinging new  ‘jazz standard’ with a Brazilian/Latin tinge penned by Moffett and Herzen on which Herzen’s rich vocals ride the syncopated inter-locked swing of the bass, drums and guitar. Midway, the instruments engage in some fun call-and-response interplay. 

A spontaneous trio rendition of Moffett’s “Flying in the Air,”a composition which debuted on New Love, follows next.  In this live version, Moffett begins with a freely improvised raga in D that expands in several directions before suddenly morphing into the “Flying in the Air ” theme at the 2:25 mark. The spirituality and showmanship flowing through this track, and throughout the set can be recognized, in part, as a legacy of Moffett’s seven years in the trio of the great McCoy Tyner, one of the most successful runs in jazz. 

Moffett’s spirited Ornette Coleman inspired composition “Higher Dimensions” in true harmolodic form, (or perhaps we should say “Charmelodic” form) is also reprised from New Love and takes on entirely new dimensions in the live setting. Moffett uses effects and a Wah-Wah pedal to emit his signature ‘voice-like’ sound from the fretless bass; Herzen improvises long soaring guitar lines in counterpoint to his high octane bass; Garcia swings with power and finesse throughout and takes a fantastic solo feature. 

Closing out the program with fire and passion is “Inside Outside,” Moffett’s newest composition. Using multi-effects, he delivers a fretless bass opus that only he (with this trio) could deliver.  The driving synchronized theme takes off with power then quickly evolves into a freely-improvised modal excursion. Moffett’s bass romps through multiple realms from nursery rhymes to overdrive outer-space sci-fi sounds to high speed funk thumping and plucking. All the while Herzen’s sustained melodic guitar joins with Garcia’s driving swing symbols to provide a harmonic and rhythmic framework to both contain and elevate Moffett’s firework improvisations. 

“Engaging… feels connected to bands like Mahavishnu Orchestra and the ’70s work of artists  like Pat Metheny and Larry Coryell.”

– ALLMUSIC.COM

In a Moffett show, the band never knows what will happen next, a trait he first picked up from his days with free-jazz innovator and Pulitzer Prize winner, Ornette Coleman. “One time Mr. Coleman rehearsed us for a month on one set of compositions, then threw them all out at show time handing us an entirely new set to play!” The “surprise the band” at any moment approach ensures true improvisation on the band stand, and evokes fresh playing. It also requires fearlessness on the part of the band and is certainly not for the faint of heart!

“Moffett’s fretless electric bass is a remarkable lead instrument”

– ★★★★ – JAZZWISE (UK)

1. Summertime

2. Remembering Your Love

3. Flying in the Air

4. Higher Dimensions

5. Inside Outside

Charnett Moffett: Fretless Electric Bass

Jana Herzen: Electric Guitar/Vocals

Corey Garcia: Drums

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Nubya Garcia - SOURCE ⧺ WE MOVE (Hi Res) October 22, 2021 Concord Jazz

London-based saxophonist and composer Nubya Garcia, whose critically-acclaimed album, SOURCE, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Prize, returns with a new remix album to be released on October 22, 2021. Through musical collaboration, Nubya has teamed up with an exciting and innovative array of artists including Dengue Dengue Dengue, Kaidi Tatham, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Moses Boyd, for a reimagined look at her award-winning album. The remix album, SOURCE ⧺ WE MOVE features 9 original remixes.

SIDE A:

1. La cumbia me está llamando feat. La Perla (Kaidi Tatham remix) (5:05)

2. Together Is A Beautiful Place To Be (Nala Sinephro remix) (2:25)

3. The Message Continues (DJ Harrison remix) (2:56)

4. Inner Game (Blvck Spvde remix) (1:28)

5. Boundless Beings (Georgia Anne Muldrow remix) (3:07)

SIDE B:

1. Stand With Each Other (KeiyaA remix) (3:22)

2. La cumbia me está llamando feat. La Perla (Suricata remix) (5:27)

3. Source (Dengue Dengue Dengue remix) (5:35)

4. Pace (Moses Boyd remix) (5:12)

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Michael Feinberg’s HARD TIMES (w/ Orrin Evans, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts) is out October 22 via Fresh Sound

Bassist Michael Feinberg Releases Provocative New Album HARD TIMES, due out October 22, 2021 via Fresh Sound

Bassist and composer Michael Feinberg issues Hard Times, out on October 22, his eighth album as a leader spotlighting a fiercely integrative sound. At once stark and uplifting, the Fresh Sounds release expresses his layered response to the pandemic that, “offered some challenging opportunities,” according to the New York-based artist, who contends Hard Times “is the culmination of those challenges and opportunities.”

Primed for spontaneous expansion, the collection of largely original compositions reflects an aesthetic containing multitudes. “It’s a pretty diverse album in terms of the music,” he says. “It’s pretty eclectic.” Serving as co-producer alongside Jordi Pujol, Feinberg booked David Amlen to record the music at Sound on Sound Studios in Jersey, and Michael Perez-Cisneros to mix and master the album at Big Orange Sheep. 

For Feinberg and his collaborators, Hard Times offers room to wail and room to contemplate and, at its core, room to stretch. As a result of the lockdown, he seized an opportunity to assemble a band of perennially touring artists, including Leo Genovese on keyboards and synths, Billy Buss on trumpet, Godwin Louis on alto, Noah Preminger on tenor, Gabriel Globus-Hoenig on percussion, Orrin Evans on piano and special guest Randy Brecker for one texturally lavish, melodious track. 

Once he secured Jeff “Tain” Watts for the studio date, Feinberg began composing much of the music as well as the arrangements with the drummer’s nuanced expression in mind. “He’s someone who I’ve listened to for so long and have such deep respect for,” says Feinberg. “I wanted to bring out elements of his playing I really like.” 

Partly for Tain, partly in service of his own expression, Feinberg sought to create a groove-driven album that welcomes dualities and apparent contradictions. “A lot of the interest I have in music comes from disparate worlds combining — the order in the chaos,” he says. “Not that it’s always chaos [laughs]; it can be beautiful, tranquil.” Hard Times presents structured concepts of patterns and groove, allowing Feinberg and his fellow artists to respond with an elasticity and a pervading freedom to take scripted music and spontaneous melodies wherever they mean to go. “It creates the tension and release within the ensemble,” he says, “rather than just with the notes on the page.” 

Photos of Michael Feinberg courtesy of the artist

From opening colors on track one’s dedication to master forgers Pei-Shen Qian and Rudy Kurniawan, Hard Times reveals inquiry within the music. In addition to his strength and subtlety on the kit, Tain’s attention to leaving and creating space for idea development persists across the album. Through his arrangement of “Nardis,” Feinberg seeks to honor the pivotal apprenticeship gig with Russell Gunn he landed when he was coming up in Atlanta. Full on the low-end, the groove swells and recedes, arcing the music from one section to the next. “Husafell Stone” hits the listener with a fullness up front. Taking the first solo, Evans allows the composition’s syncopated melody to serve as point of origin before Buss delivers his own swinging response. 

Twin McCoy tracks “Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit” and “Three Flowers” pay tribute to a recently departed hero of Feinberg’s, the latter piece featuring a dualism is his bass solo characteristic of the entire record: strength in sensitivity. “These performances are intended as a tribute to him, as well as keeping the flame lit for those who love his music,” he says in his album notes. Written as a feature for Louis and Buss, “Janky in the Middle” spotlights the artists’ interplay, offering each opportunities to play with, alongside and against what the other proffers. The resulting dialogue creates smaller arcs in the music that punctuate the movement of the tune. Feinberg has played together with both artists for the past decade and a half. “We have that comfort to take those chances,” he says, “knowing we can find our way back once we get out there [laughs].” 

Flush with lamentation, “Every. Damn. Day. (Burn it down blues)” acknowledges and honors the continued generational trauma inflicted on the Black community as a result of racism, police brutality and gun violence. “Lauren’s Song” features another of Feinberg’s beautiful and tender melodies. In his signature language, Brecker speaks in full voice on “Monkeys Never Cramp.” Concluding on a note of jubilance and healing, “Hard Times” features Feinberg’s resonating walk and swinging melodies. He admits, however, he can only make suggestions; in the moment, sound is fluid. “Everything’s always in flux in the music,” he says. “It can go anywhere at any time, and everyone in the band knows that so we’re ready for it.” 

Fresh Sound Records Website

Guitarist Eric Hofbauer and Drummer Dylan Jack's PERIOD PIECES is due out on October 22, 2021 via Creative Nation Music

Guitarist Eric Hofbauer and Drummer Dylan Jack Present Period Pieces, due out on October 22, 2021 via Creative Nation Music

Creative Nation Music is delighted to announce the release of Period Pieces, the latest artistic offering from Boston-based guitarist/composer Eric Hofbauer and drummer/composer Dylan Jack. Working in constant dialogue with pulse, form and ‘freeness’, this album represents a joyous return to collaborative creativity after a dearth of opportunities for improvisers to meet face-to-face during the pandemic. A collective effort from the very start, Hofbauer and Jack are joined by two Boston compatriots – Tony Leva (bass and electronics) and Jerry Sabatini (trumpet).

Over the past twenty-five years, Hofbauer has established himself as a key force on the Boston jazz scene, leading to nominations for both the 2019 and 2017 DownBeat Critics’ Poll for Rising Star – Guitar. Hofbauer’s shape-shifting work (from solo guitar through combos to large ensemble projects) has brought about relationships with several highly creative improvisers; as well as close work with Han Bennink, Roy Campbell Jr., John Tchicai and Cecil McBee. Period Pieces brings together a quartet of musicians with a long history of creative collaboration. 

Period Pieces also resembles the line-up of the Dylan Jack Quartet, a project that has recently focused on recording Jack’s own compositions. Here, it’s shimmied around to create a wholly different sound. Four musicians come together, first and foremost as listeners, and each brings a distinct musical personality to the party.

Though it might not seem it at first, at the record’s heart is a joyful sense of letting go. “Dylan organized the studio date and presented this idea to reunite and just improvise. At the core, this made the album a collaborative session, where everybody brought ideas and a willingness to experiment to the table,“ says Hofbauer. But it wasn’t just the case of everybody bringing a dish to this musical dinner party – during lockdown “everyone had been practicing in the kitchen, mastering a new cocktail or a fancy new dessert.” For Hofbauer, the space afforded by the Covid-19 pandemic encouraged a foray into the world of pedals and electronics, opening up a world full of gnarly possibility and transmuting his clean sound into something capable of more gory, overdriven timbres.

Dylan Jack, Eric Hofbauer - courtesy of Creative Nation Music

The compositions that result all orbit around ideas of pulse, moving in and out of focus as a way of generating tension, release and eventual consonance. “Spontaneous arrangement” might be a way of describing the loosely planned structures, although considerable efforts are made in post-production to shape the whole sound. The group also borrows closely from cinematic aesthetics – “we do consider carefully the process of creating these vignettes – spaces for atmosphere that run parallel to a more visual perspective where one establishes mood in a shot then cuts to another scene to create drama.” 

Two short snippets encapsulate the album’s essential aims. Shortly into ‘Awake Again’, “the listener thinks ‘ah, we have arrived at the solid grooving center of this piece’ – then it goes through several more surprise rhythmic contractions of pulse before the beat drops in again for the guitar solo.” Elsewhere, ‘Finding Baraka’ captures the collage-informed process of cutting, looping and combining parts of their all-day session. “Dylan found these sonic moments from across the session that fit so seamlessly together to the point that post-production was an extension of the composing and arranging pre-baked into the improvisations”.

“The whole album creates a longer narrative – its almost a suite more than a collection of tracks,” says Hofbauer, as ‘Sighs in the Millions’ immediately sets the scene; ambiguous pulses crop up through the spacious opener. That scene flips as ‘Awake-Again’ begins, bringing the quartet’s conversational improvised lines within the confines of a noir groove, breaking down even further as Hofbauer’s frenetic soloing shines and harmonica-like growls of Sabatini give a long-lasting anguish to proceedings. ‘Tread Lightly’ picks up that deconstruction, based on a premeditated drone loop, and featuring his own modified slide that casts in many musical directions from Robert Johnson to Penderecki’s squealing white noise. ‘Tread Lightly’ is paired with its answering couplet – ‘With a Purpose’, a funereal duet between Hofbauer and Sabatini full of morose feeling.

By the time the album gets to ‘Rational Instability’, “this is the sound of the ensemble peaking.” Driving grooves and fast bebop lines cascade through the lucid textures, snapping through a number of different feels to give a wholesale chaotic feel. ‘Finding Baraka’ (from Sufi meaning ‘a vessel through which force flows’) establishes an introverted reflective base level; restless grooves are stacked on top. It also captures a lot of the small-group dialogue key to the collective’s philosophy on arrangement – moving away from what Hofbauer dubs “orchestrational drones” by exploring the possibilities of ultra-intimate combinations. Grunts of excitement in Leva and Sabatini’s duelling opening on ‘Restlessness’ eventually morph into screams of tortured extended techniques, characterful improvising and scuttling ricochets, culminating in a tongue-in-cheek bass finish. ‘Galumphing Demons’ sees the album’s rhythmic orbit come full circle, driven by Jack, in a high-octane frenzy of distorted lines. In a word – a ruckus.

“It’s an album of dialogue between listeners, as we pit space against density to create drama and momentum through the album,” says Hofbauer of the album. But there’s an inescapable human aspect to proceedings too. “It’s a communion, a coming together of colleagues and close friends that truly missed each other, and who missed creative music-making, and the excitement of those intersections.”

1 Sighs In The Millions (5:59)

2 Awake-Again (7:00)

3 Tread Lightly… (8:36)

4 With A Purpose (6:58)

5 Rational Instability (7:30)

6 Finding Baraka (9:40)

7 Restlessness (8:58)

8 Galumphing Demons (5:02)

All Songs Composed and Arranged by Eric Hofbauer (Spice-E Music, ASCAP), Dylan Jack (Helmet Cat Music, ASCAP), Tony Leva and Jerry Sabatini (BMI)

Produced by Eric Hofbauer (erichofbauer.com) and Dylan Jack (dylanjackmusic.com). Recorded, Mixed, Mastered by Warren Amerman at The Rotary Records (rotaryrecords.com). Design by Benjamin Shaykin (benjaminshaykin.com). Liner Notes by David R. Adler (adlermusic.com).

Creative Nation Music

Beth McKenna - Beyond Here (Friday, October 22nd 2021)

Born in Nova Scotia and a Montrealer since 2008, Beth McKenna is one of Montreal’s most versatile saxophonists, bandleaders, and composers. A Prix Opus Laureate (Concert of the Year – Jazz/World Music) and a 2-time finalist for Revelations Radio- Canada (Jazz), Beth has studied with a wide range of jazz music’s top voices, including Christine Jensen, Darcy James Argue, Jim McNeely, Rémi Bolduc, John Roney, and Chet Doxas.

Written almost entirely prior to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, McKenna’s new album Beyond Here was inspired by the impact we as humans have on the world around us. From conflict and climate change, to the fusion of North American culture with global influences, Beyond Here is pure energy from start-to-finish, pushing a sense of urgency to reflect on where we stand with our planet, and how our actions can echo far beyond the present.

This album mixes a wide range of influences: from Pat Metheny to Brad Mehldau, Snarky Puppy to Jacob Collier, and from Pink Floyd to the Brian Blade Fellowship. As a composer, McKenna writes with plenty of room for improvisation and spontaneous musical conversation, with a diverse pallet of colours and shifting rhythmic textures in each piece. As the album weaves from darker to more upbeat moments, McKenna’s unique through-composed approach to writing breaks through traditional jazz forms, creating a strong narrative that runs through the album from start to finish.

Beyond Here will be released worldwide on Friday, October 22nd 2021. The release will be celebrated with a concert - in person and streamed online - at L’Astral in Montreal on October 27th. Tickets: www.bethmckenna.ca.

1. Intro: Spaces Beyond Here 1:48

2. Perspective 6:20

3. Interlude: Not Alone 2:31

4. Streets of Mexico City 6:34

5. Interlude: Finding a Place 2:03

6. Far From Familiar Ground 4:51

7. Divided to One 5:07

8. Interlude: Indifference 1:24

9. Letting Go 5:58

10. Tides 6:42

11. Interlude: Human Malfunction 2:31

12. Running Out 5:44

13. After the Storm 8:02

14. Ele(ctro)phant 5:54

Beth McKenna - Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet

Guillaume Martineau - Piano, Rhodes, Wurlitzer

François Jalbert - Guitar, Effects

Olivier Babaz - Electric and Upright Bass

Peter Colantonio - Drums

Sarah Rossy - Voice

Recorded at Studio MixArt (April 2021)

Recording Engineer: Boris Petrowski

Mixing/Mastering Engineer: Brett Leonard

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www.bethmckenna.ca

Dan Phillips / Hamid Drake - L’avventura di Vivere (October 22, 2021)

“L’avventura di Vivere” is the second duo collaboration between Dan Phillips and Hamid Drake after 2017’s “Trail of Inevitability” and their fifth work together overall. Other collaborations have included Chicago Edge Ensembles’ “Decaying Orbit” and “Insidious Anthem”as well as the Quartet Next “Dutiful Dissent” album. This eleven track album features Drake and Phillips in a wide variety of moods, shapes textures and colors. From intense duo improvisations to layered minimalist pieces.

Dan Phillips is an American guitarist, composer educator and band leader who has worked professionally in New York, Chicago, Bangkok and Tokyo as well as touring globally. Dan is the leader of the critically acclaimed Chicago Edge Ensemble, Quartet Next, Dan Phillips Trio, Dan Phillips Quartet. Dan has performed with jazz musicians such as Hamid Drake, Gerald Wilson, Danilo Pérez, Hugo Rasmussen, Avreeayl Ra, Matt Darriau, Jim Black, Michael Zerang, Dave Rempis, Jeb Bishop, Mars Williams, Jim Baker, Ben Street, Chris Speed, Mike Sarin and Ed Thigpen and many more.

Hamid Drake is an American jazz drummer and percussionist. By the close of the 1990s, Hamid Drake was widely regarded as one of the best percussionists in jazz and improvised music. Incorporating Afro-Cuban, Indian, and African percussion instruments and “L’avventura di Vivere” is the second duo collaboration between Dan Phillips and Hamid Drake after 2017’s “Trail of Inevitability” and their fifth work together overall. Other collaborations have included Chicago Edge Ensembles’ “Decaying Orbit” and “Insidious Anthem”as well as the Quartet Next “Dutiful Dissent” album. This eleven track album features Drake and Phillips in a wide variety of moods, shapes textures and colors. From intense duo improvisations to layered minimalist pieces.nfluence, in addition to using the standard trap set, Drake has collaborated extensively with top free jazz improvisers. Drake also has performed world music; by the late 1970s, he was a member of Foday Musa Suso's Mandingo Griot Society and has played reggae throughout his career. Drake has worked with trumpeter Don Cherry, pianist Herbie Hancock, saxophonists Pharoah Sanders, Fred Anderson, Archie Shepp and David Murray and bassists Reggie Workman and William Parker (in a large number of lineups). He studied drums extensively, including eastern and Caribbean styles. He frequently plays without sticks, using his hands to develop subtle commanding undertones. His tabla playing is notable for his subtlety and flair. Drake's questing nature and his interest in Caribbean percussion led to a deep involvement with reggae.

1. L'AVVENTURA DI VIVERE Part 1

2. L'AVVENTURA DI VIVERE Part 2

3. L'AVVENTURA DI VIVERE Part 3

4. L'AVVENTURA DI VIVERE PART 4

5. L'AVVENTURA DI VIVERE PART 5

6. L'AVVENTURA DI VIVERE PART 6

7. L'AVVENTURA DI VIVERE PART 7

8. L'AVVENTURA DI VIVERE PART 8

9. L'AVVENTURA DI VIVERE PART 9

10. L'AVVENTURA DI VIVERE PART 10

11. L'AVVENTURA DI VIVERE PART 11

Dan Phillips - Guitar

Hamid Drake - Percussion

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Benjamín Schnake Ensemble - The Joy of Playing (October 22, 2021)

Musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger. Originally from Santiago, Chile and currently located in New York City. Inspired by different styles, my music combines elements of latin American folk, Andean music, jazz, classical music, among others, following my goose bumps in an endless search for beauty and expression in sound.

1. Marisol

2. The Joy of Playing

3. Fragment

4. She's Gone

5. Ajú 06:05

6. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat

7. Lakitas

Dave Pietro – alto sax (tracks 1, 4)

Sunhyun Yoo – alto sax, soprano sax (tracks 2, 3, 6)

Tim Struven – tenor sax (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6)

John Blevins – trumpet (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6)

Eric Quinn – trombone (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6)

Jennifer Wharton – bass trombone (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6)

Ammon Swinbank – flute (track 7)

Benjamín Schnake – nylon-string guitar, electric guitar, mandolin

Santiago Leibson – piano

Gui Duvignau – bass

Paul Shaw – drums

Produced by Benjamín Schnake G.

Recorded by Hai Li and assisted by Peter Fedak at Dolan Studios in Manhattan, New York, on February 2, 2019

Edited by Benjamín Schnake G. and Brian Montgomery

Mixed by Brian Montgomery

Mastered by Fred Kevorkian

Composed by Benjamín Schnake G. © ℗ 2021 Benjamín Schnake G., except “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” composed by Charles Mingus, Adams Avenue / Flying Red Rhino / Jazz Workshop Inc / The Mingus Music Werkshop (BMI), arrangement by Benjamín Schnake G., and “Ajú” from the Chilean Folklore, arrangement by Benjamín Schnake G.

Photography by May Meng

Recording session photography by Alex Cherney

Photography of Ammon Swinbank by Charlotte Ryckeboer

Design by Jamie Breiwick B Side Graphics

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Octurn / Magic Malik - XPs (live) October 22, 2021 Onze Heures Onze

En septembre 2006 octurn invite magic malik pour une résidence de 5 jours / malik va transformer cette session de travail et d’enregistrement en une expérience vertigineuse pour le groupe : il distribue aux souffleurs un ensemble de contrepoints mélodiques et harmoniques, et à la rythmique un ensemble de talea color avec comme règle du jeu un modus operandi unique :  les tempos sont libres et fluctuants, toutes les matières sont conçues pour cohabiter ensemble tranquillement, les formes se construisent sur le moment, les flux d’improvisation sont spontanés, aucune prévisibilité, c’est un saut collectif dans l’inconnu et les surprises permanentes, l’acceptation des collisions et la jubilation des juxtapositions éphémères orchestrées et dirigées  par malik, qui découvre en temps réel la fascination qu’exerce sa proposition de lâcher-prise sur les musiciens / ‘xps (live)’ documente 5 journées d’apnée collective autour de la naissance d'un concept arborescent qui vécut heureux et eut beaucoup d’enfants /

1. xp27 (part 1)

2. flash

3. xp23

4. talea color

5. xp26

6. irian

7. xp28 (part 1)

8. xp28 (part 2)

9. xp27 (part 2)

10. xp24

11. eleonore

12. xp25

13. Idriz junior

Magic Malik : flute, voice

Bo van der Werf : baritone sax

Laurent Blondiau : trumpet, flugelhorn

Guillaume Orti : alto saxophone

Fabian Fiorini : piano

Jozef Dumoulin : fender rhodes

Nelson Veras : guitar

Gilbert Nouno : electronics

Jean-Luc Lehr : electric bass

Chander Sardjoe : drums

All music by Magic Malik, except xp26, xp27 and xp28 by Bo van der Werf / Magic Malik

Recorded live at de Meent, belgium, by Alexandre Fostier, 1-5 September 2006

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Fred Thomas / Aisha Orazbayeba / Lucy Railton - Three Or One (J.S. Bach) October 22, 2021 ECM

Here is Johann Sebastian Bach in transfigured light: with organ chorale preludes, vocal cantata movements and orchestral sinfonias – 24 pieces in all – transcribed for trio and solo piano by Fred Thomas, and threaded into a compelling new sequence by Manfred Eicher. On Three Or One, Bach’s idiom is respectfully explored by three innovative players, a process Thomas describes as “quietly joyful,” and the trio pieces, primarily drawn from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein, acquire a fresh character in the hands of Kazakh violinist Aisha Orazbayeva and British cellist Lucy Railton, musicians more often associated with contemporary composition’s cutting edge. Fred Thomas, who makes his ECM New Series debut here, has always worked across contexts and genres, and considers the trio’s wide-ranging experience “an incitement to creativity. Bach often re-used his own material and it is no surprise it came out differently each time. With his imaginative, technical and improvisatory powers, do we really believe that Bach would play the same thing the same way twice?” It’s a good question, and the key to the approach taken on Three Or One.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - SCHÜBLER CHORÄLE

1 Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 649 02:34

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - ORGELBÜCHLEIN

2 Herr Christ, der ein'ge Gottes Sohn, BWV 601 01:59

3 Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639 02:22

4 Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt, BWV 637 02:22

5 ERBARM DICH MEIN, O HERRE GOTT, BWV 721 (Johann Sebastian Bach) 04:46

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - CANTATA 'DER HERR DENKET AN UNS' BWV 196

6 Sinfonia 01:54

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - ORGELBÜCHLEIN

7 Alle Menschen müssen sterben, BWV 643 01:39

8 Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich, BWV 605 01:15

9 Christe, du Lamm Gottes, BWV 619 01:23

10 Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 633 00:02 - 03:48

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - CANTATA 'HERR, GEHE NICHT IN'S GERICHT MIT DEINEM KNECHT' BWV 105

11 Aria 04:59

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - CANTATA 'WEICHET NUR, BETRÜBTE SCHATTEN' BWV 202

12 Aria 02:51

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - CANTATA 'O HEIL'GES GEIST- UND WASSERBAD' BWV 165

13 Aria 02:09

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - CANTATA 'ALLEIN ZU DIR, HERR JESU CHRIST' BWV 33

14 Aria 03:58

15 PARTITA 'WENN WIR IN HÖCHSTEN NÖTEN SEIN', VERS III, BWV ANH. II 78 (Johann Sebastian Bach) 00:54

16 GELOBET SEIST DU, JESU CHRIST, BWV 723 (Johann Sebastian Bach) 02:10

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - PARTITA 'O GOTT, DU FROMMER GOTT', BWV 767

17 VIII 03:09

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - ORGELBÜCHLEIN

18 O Lamm Gottes unschuldig, BWV 618 04:11

19 Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 610 02:59

20 ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖH SEI EHR, BWV 711 (Johann Sebastian Bach) 02:30

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - ORGELBÜCHLEIN

21 In dulci jubilo, BWV 608 01:10

22 Gott, durch deine Güte, BWV 600 00:44

23 Das alte Jahr vergangen ist, BWV 614 02:17

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - SCHÜBLER CHORÄLE

24 Meine Seele erhebt den Herren, BWV 648 03:04

Fred Thomas   Piano

Aisha Orazbayeva   Violin

Lucy Railton   Violoncello

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Parker Quartet / Kim Kashkashian - Gyögy Kurtág: Six Moments Musicaux & Officium Breve / Antonín Dvořák; String Quintet OP. 97 (October 22, 2021 ECM)

On their ECM New series debut, the Boston-based Parker Quartet, hailed by the Washington Post for “exceptional virtuosity and imaginative interpretation,” play music of György Kurtág and are joined by violist Kim Kashkashian, one of the quarter’s early mentors, to play Dvořák. In this powerful programme of contrasts, Dvořák’s outgoing String Quintet No. 3, composed in America in 1893, is framed by two of Kurtág’s concentrated, meticulously-shaped works – the Six Moments musicaux (2005) and the Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky (1988/89). Throughout, the Parker Quartet’s feeling for colour and texture is in evidence. The quartet’s insights into Kurtág’s soundworld have been developed through extensive work with the Hungarian composer. The album was recorded at Zürich’s Radio DRS Studio.

GYÖRGY KURTÁG - MOMENTS MUSICAUX OP.44

1 Invocatio [un fragment] 01:30

2 Footfalls ... mintha valaki jönne ... 02:46

3 Capriccio 01:32

4 In memoriam Sebõk György 03:35

5 Rappel des oiseaux... [Étude pour les harmoniques] 02:31

6 Les adieux [in Janáceks Manier] 02:48

ANTONÍN DVORÁK - STRING QUINTET NO.3 IN EB MAJOR OP.97

7 Allegro non tanto 09:30

8 Scherzo, Allegro vivace 05:58

9 Larghetto 10:05

10 Finale, Allegro giusto 08:34

GYÖRGY KURTÁG - OFFICIUM BREVE IN MEMORIAM ANDREAE SZERVÁNSZKY, OP.28

11 Largo 00:25

12 Più andante 00:44

13 Sostenuto, quasi giusto 00:40

14 Grave, molto sostenuto 00:32

15 (Fantasie über die Harmonien des Webern-Kanons) Presto 00:42

16 (Canon a 4) Molto agitato 00:20

17 Canon a 2 (frei, nach op.31/VI von Webern) Sehr fliessend 00:39

18 Lento 00:38

19 Largo 00:56

20 [Webern: Kanon a 4 (op.31/VI)] Sehr fliessend 02:21

21 Sostenuto 02:39

22 Sostenuto, quasi giusto 00:41

23 Sostenuto, con slancio 01:06

24 Disperato, vivo 00:48

25 Arioso interrotto (di Endre Szervánszky) Larghetto 01:14

Parker Quartet   

Daniel Chong   Violin

Ken Hamao   Violin

Jessica Bodner   Viola

Kee-Hyun Kim   Violoncello

Kim Kashkashian   Viola

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CONCERTS

October 10 Parker Quartet Ashmont Hill Chamber Music Dorcester, MA United States of America

October 14 Parker Quartet University of South Carolina Recital Columbia, MA United States of America

October 17 Parker Quartet University of South Carolina Family Concert Columbia, MA United States of America

October 21 Parker Quartet Music Toronto Toronto, ON Canada

November 19 Parker QuartetBlodgett Chamber Music Series, Paine Hall, Harvard Univ. Cambridge, MAU United States of America

November 21 Parker Quartet CU Presents Boulder, CO United States of America

November 22 Parker Quartet CU Presents Boulder, CO United States of America

Roman Miroshnichenko & St. Petersburg Studio Orchestra - Plays Daniel Figueiredo (October 22, 2021)

Prominent Russian guitar-virtuoso Roman Miroshnichenko's album «Plays Daniel Figueiredo», featuring 25-piece St. Petersburg Studio Orchestra and pianist Rannieri Oliveira. The album includes 10 tracks, composed by 2-time Latin Grammy Winner Daniel Figueiredo.

"This recording is very special to me. Having a reputation as a «guitar shredder», I recorded (what I call "slow motion") an album that will surely surprise many by the absence of a hurricane of passages typical for my playing. And this is a real revelation! Daniel's music is very poignant and helped me show another of my own musical facets. Daniel and I agreed that acoustic and electric guitars in the album drive the orchestra. And we developed our own conception. This incredible musicianship is extraordinary, and this is very special album!” - Roman Miroshnichenko noted.

1. Acreditando [03:41]

2. Pianino [04:19]

3. Salto [04:29]

4. Fluir [05:03]

5. Oitava [03:36]

6. Agridoce [04:12]

7. Confiar [03:57]

8. Fluente [04:01]

9. Solitude [03:39]

10. Planar [02:55]

Roman Miroshnichenko – acoustic and electric guitars

Rannieri Oliveira – piano

St.Petersburg Studio Orchestra:

Violins – Mikhail Krutik (spalla), Irina Danilova, Leonid Osipov, Georgy Mnazakanian, Filipp Saulin, Nadezhda Ostrikova, Alexandra Zubova, Viktoria Velkova, Vyacheslav Grikurov, Fedor Shalaev, Anton Borisov, Olga Alexeeva

Violas: Mikhail Sokolov, Sergey Zarubin, Ilya Elagin, Igor Bereznev, Dmitry Chernyshenko, Zanda Akisheva

Cellos – Vsevolod Dolganov, Kirill Kurshakov, Igor Botvin, Yulia Rozovskaya

Double basses – Guy Davtyan, Kirill Grigoryev

Director of strings recording – Kleber Augusto

All songs composed by Daniel Figueiredo

All songs produced by Daniel Figueiredo and Roman Miroshnichenko

String arrangements: Kleber Augusto and Diogo Marques

Recorded in studios: RM Studio Moscow (Russia), St.Petersburg Record Studio (Russia), Los-Angeles (USA)

Mixed by Roman Miroshnichenko

Strings mixed at MusicSolution Studios

Recording Engineer: Kira Malevskaia

Strings track mastered by Fabiano Vieira – RTK Estudio

Mastered by Paulo Jeveaux

Roman Miroshnichenko uses: Wechter Florentine (5, 7, 8), Jerónimo Pérez (2, 6,) and Saiko Yasuyuki (1, 6), custom made acoustic nylon string guitars, Paul Reed Smith electric guitars (2, 4, 8, 9), Gibson Les Paul (10), Ovation Custom Legend 1619 (3), AXE I/O, T-Racks S5, Amplitube 4 by IK Multimedia, D'Addario EJ16, EJ44 strings, cables and extra heavy signature picks,

Cover design by Philip Massi/Heisler Mulano

Photo credits: Andrei Kireev(cover)

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Fartyg 6 - Osmund (October 22, 2021)

Osmund is Fartyg 6's third record released at PACAYA records. This album combines odd metre groove with intimite ballads.

The music was recorded in early 2021 at Elementstudion+Studio Glasfågeln by Gustav Davidsson and was mixed/mastered byhim as well. The portraits on the cover is made by Ylva Holmdahl and the cover graphic was made by Emelie Zetterberg and Matilda Andersson.

1. Tvetydig 05:59

2. Galaxers energi 00:12

3. Tankens vind 03:39

4. Osmund 04:36

5. Jag känner nog mer än jag borde 01:55

6. Kalla Nätter 06:27

7. Översvämning 03:45

8. Meckeluring 03:52

9. Molnkväll 05:28

10. Ta mig härifrån 03:40

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Monocled Man (Rory Simmons) - Ex Voto (October 22, 2021 Whirlwind Recordings)

Trumpeter, producer and composer Rory Simmons summons his iconoclastic musical vision on the latest genre-blurring Monocled Man album, 'Ex Voto'. Here, the omni-appreciative trio (Simmons, Chris Montague and Jon Scott) travel down a groove-adjacent pathway in search of solemn industrial soundscapes.

Simmons’ cultural inquisitiveness forms a treasure-trove of musical touchstones, which he uses to sculpt a sound that’s truly his own. 'Ex Voto' (‘an offer given in order to fulfil a vow’) represents another idiosyncratic journey, this time inspired by Victorian novelist Samuel Butler and his work of the same name. The themes found in both Ex Voto and Butler’s magnum opus Erewhon punctuate the album, as the trio conjure visceral musical excitement from base ideas on dystopia and politics.

'Ex Voto' is an opportunity for Monocled Man to tread new ground. Close collaboration between Simmons and Scott prompted a creative shift with more emphasis on both groove and production value. “A lot of the touchstones for the record are cinematic, ambient, industrial soundscapes,” Simmons explains. “I still wanted it to sound English too, whilst tipping European noir.”

‘End Signs’ opens; solemn and dark, it’s partly inspired by Mexican author Yuri Herrara’s novel ‘End Signs Preceding The End Of The World’. A noisy bedrock rumbles, while Kenny Wheeler meets Tomasz Stańko in the melody flying overhead. Russian explorer Nikolay Przhevalsky inspires the second track, as Simmons pits M-base, Prince-like neo-soul against glitching samples and synths. ‘Gem’ is more angular, but groove still features in industrial-sounding looped beats – “melodically, it’s like a Dave Douglas track wrapped in noisy industrial samples.”

Butler’s eerie influence is never far away, not least in ‘Tin Skulls’ (as close to a ballad as Ex Voto gets). Here, Montague finds a brittle, county/post-rock acoustic sound that becomes one of the album’s essential timbres. ‘Heksen Romance’ references a different aspect of Butler’s work – a nod to the imagery of 20th Century Scandinavian witchcraft and early Swedish cinema, the psychedelia of Can and Tortoise comes to the fore on a track driven by Scott’s powerful playing.

Expansive production gives ‘Siler Woods’ unexpected depth, hazily wafting along with notes of Mary Halvorson. Montague’s high-intensity soloing climaxes on ‘Sense’ (“this is Chris’ moment to tear it apart”) – and more gnarly guitar sounds emanate through ‘Shores’ – “this started like a contemporary jazz track, that gradually returned to contemporary production.” ‘Natural 93’ conjures more vivid cinema – think ‘This is England ‘90’ – where breathy autotuned voices are weirdly distorted, evolving almost indiscernibly. ‘Amongst the Machines’ relates back to Butler’s writing on technology, and the album closes with ‘Siler Woods Reprise’ – Montague’s wild, Bailey-like acoustic shredding as snatches of sound are stitched together, edges exposed.

“I wanted to make a record that was darkly cinematic and ambient but with big washes of industrial sound,” Simmons says. “I didn't want to make a record based on how I would play it live, I wanted to make something I could sculpt, and create something really original.” Simmons continues to find new ground through his thought-provoking, uncategorizable music.

1. End Signs

2. Przhevalsky

3. Sense

4. Gemstones

5. Tin Skulls

6. Heksen Romance

7. Siler Woods Pt. 1

8. Cellarius Shores

9. Natural 93

10. Amongst The Machines

11. Siler Wood Pt. 2

Rory Simmons - trumpet/flugelhorn electronics/synths

Jon Scott - drums

Chris Montague - electric guitar acoustic guitar

Mixed by Rory Simmons & Jon Scott

Mastered by Red Red Paw

Produced by Rory Simmons, Jon Scott

Executive Producer - Michael Janisch

Graphic Design - Lewis Kay Thatcher

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Alberto Braida / Silvia Bolognesi / Cristiano Calcagnile - Cats in the kitchen (October 22, 2021 WE INSIST! Records)

Three cats on the wire, seemingly on the verge of falling and unexpectedly and surprisingly find themselves standing firmly on their feet. Music that is only apparently simple, like the children's drawings, but then reveals itself to be rich in details and particulars. The three cats play with the same ball of wool and they leave each other, the ball of wool seems to have disappeared, each one seems to go his own way but the ball of wool reappears in the middle of the game. The game is ball, the ball is thread, the thread is the cats and the cats are ball: what a wonderful tangle!

1. hiking 04:59

2. Proust 04:50

3. la giostra 04:38

4. cane e gatto 03:10

5. cerchio 04:11

6. dedalus 04:39

7. campanile 05:04

8. un po in certo 05:33

9. marcia 04:18

All Compositions by Alberto Braida

Liner notes by Alberto Braida

Cover photo by Cristiano Calcagnile

Recorded at Shape Shoppe Paradiso Studio, Monteriggioni (Italy), on July 20, 21,and 22, 2020

Recorded by Griffin Alan Rodriguez

Mixed by Griffin Alan Rodriguez

Mastered by Gianmaria Aprile

Design by Maobi

Produced by WE INSIST! Records 2021

Distributed by Goodfellas

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