Álvaro Domene - The Sword Still Hangs Upon The Wall (July 2021 Iluso Records)

Iluso Records is delighted to release Álvaro Domene's new solo album, The Sword Still Hangs Upon The Wall, which is in continuation from his orchestral inspired solo works for electric guitar captured on Illustris 2020, and The Compass 2018.

"We might well ask upon whose wall this sword hangs, this sword Álvaro Domene testifies to in his music. It is a simple comparison to link the guitar and the sword and to ask which bodies and minds might be set free by each. Both are part of a techne that captures vectors and arcs which force-multiply through other systems- separating them, clarifying them. Domene’s sound sculptures pose questions of emotion, spirit, intellect, the cosmos- and in the end, these questions of sound invite us to act in some way. The sword hangs upon all our walls and in ringing metal it leads to one destination in unison. A ‘land of song’, puissance, voices raised in glorious clamor. In unison against a falling power. ‘This machine ends all fascism.’

Domene’s work on this album explores the outer limits of engagement with the instrument itself and is in dialog with a broader milieu of guitarists who operate in the New York orbit and beyond. He deploys a galactic array of forms that include jazz, various species of metal, palettes of sonic texture from inside and outside the instrument’s techniques, experimental guitar which we can trace emerging in part from the 70s NYC downtown scene [and in Alvaro’s other collaborations with a key protagonist in that NYC scene, the magister ludi Elliott Sharp]. Domene joins a project which has been underway for many decades and accelerates it forward.

There is an underlying engagement both across the music and in his thinking. Beyond transport through joy, intricate formal unfoldings, ecstasy: how can sound take on a set of ethical, moral and political responsibilities? Perhaps by an openness to pure chance in the midst of an articulate structure; a commitment to texture, timbre; a set of extended techniques conjuring vast spaces dancing through the boundaries of carefully programmed delay matrices. Across and beyond a terrain of post-minimalism and the aesthetic positions minimalism held, Domene’s work jumps epochs, fusing myriad styles and an epic, almost symphonic form with his personal vocabulary of guitar. It exists in a tension between the given and the discovered, a structure and the evolving patterns and living sound. Like the scintillation of life itself.

And in this life-sound a core is revealed. Electromagnetic flux wrings it out, flattens it, folds it back upon itself. Layer upon layer rewrought. A core capture, a heat birth, an edge a molecule wide and a parsec long arcs out across our system. Information cascades, swarms again, dancing blades warding off the energy. Bow shock. A bubble. Inside, the denser matter becomes an encoding system. 
A position. A gesture, a supplication. The bubble grows. The bubble is gone, and we float in emptiness. Silence. The dark. And then a sudden light. All flows down. The roots of the ash tree. Æ. Star food, light, blood. The leaves burst forth.

Fiat Lux

The Sword Still Hangs Upon the Wall 18:12

Cascading ice in nacreous, luminescent sunlight. Light from an evening star, a falling star.

A Great Filter. A transmission. A halo of refractions, crystal revelation, sound writ large on the skies. Crumbling, smoldering. A thousand arms thrown up, swarming, to block the heat and light. Time lost; Starless we coast as the future wraps around us. Lensed unto the end. The end of all things. The end of all. Things themselves. The core again. Mother. Core resistance. Uplift against a fallen angel. A slight wingbeat, a feather in the void.

Moving Beyond the Misnomer of Chaos 11:38

A falls falling, as the falls falling. A hand grasping at signals. A wave, a wave. Metallic foam on the crest, a wave of liquid light. In the deeps, the refrain holds. A shadow casts its own diamond shadow. The waves race across themselves. The abyssal. Crystals tumbling down the slope, free fall into darkness.

Albatera 07:39

A saccade across the surface of the sun. Time compression. Stutter, We. Why, the below, the above, the hum sawtoothed upon itself. Iridescence, putrefaction, rebirth. The core returns. I, Thou. We. The saw-edge. Force. I turn to face the sun. My eyes run black. Seeing within sight, I see again. I turn to myself. My eyes run white. A swarm, an arc, a blade against the plasma saws. Devour all. Kali, your arms swarm. Your foot holds the enemy. Darkest mother, your necklace. Fire. 
I, Thou. We. Our water on the barkless branch. Only faith. Only faith for life. ‘Love is the law, love under will.’

The Veriest Delusion 06:06

A walk forward and backward. A falling, falls falling. The transmission again, a deep rumble below. A whirling. Hands blur. A thread of blood through the depths. The geometry of the phrase is liquefied. A bell in motion. The clay. The ore. The furnace cold. The bell cools. The bell’s architecture flows. Time. The crack. A liquid whistle, a hum.

Unsheathed Again 11:26

Axiom. Echo. A Law. The waves intersect. Axiom. Echo. A desert fire, a wind, a tornado, a whirlwind lifting dust. Explosion of the forward wave. Dust in our eyes, the wave behind. A river of glittering dust. A flame upheld. A core breach. A pressure inversion. The dust scatters. Wings afire, we hold the cup high. Dust. On fire. Dust whirling in glittering flame. A pillar of gold in the conflagration. Unity. Echo. A Law. A body laying in the desert snow. An eye slowly blinks. The cave. The bell.

Puerta al Sur 09:21

Seeking. Seeking. An attempt to articulate. A whirlwind, a lashing. The bodies in phase.

A gate standing. Sleeting hail of electrons. Time compression, orbit. An attempt to articulate. A whirlwind, a lashing. The bodies phase again. Phase shift, sleeting light. Erosion, torsion, flux.

Seeking, seeking, the point of collapse. A tight coil, a glittering. An eye forms… electron flux. The eye collapses in. A position. A gesture, a supplication. The bubble grows. The bubble is gone, and we float in emptiness. Silence. The dark. And then a sudden light. All flows down. The roots of the ash tree. Æ. Star food, light, blood. The leaves burst forth.

Fiat Lux - Ed Keller

Álvaro Domene: compositions, seven string electric guitar, live electronics.

Recorded (January-March 2021), mixed, and mastered by Domene at Singularity Studio, Kingston (New York).

Ed Keller: liner notes

Published by Dometone Music BMI 2021

High quality audio files, 24-bit/96kHz. Better than CD.

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Álvaro Pérez & Álvaro Domene - ZODOS (April 2, 2021 Iluso Records)

Iluso Records is delighted to be presenting the first duo recording by Madrid based alto saxophonist-composer Álvaro Pérez and New York based guitarist-composer Álvaro Domene.

On “Zodos”, their first recording together since Zöbik-3’s 2013 debut, longtime collaborators Pérez and Domene present an original collaborative repertoire of exploratory creative music for alto saxophone and seven string electric guitar which delves into and beyond the wide spectrum of functions and textures that these two instruments can adopt individually and with each other.

Their chamber-like, and mostly algorithmic, compositional structures are perfect vehicles that assist in catalysing their telepathic interplay during improvisatory passages, which are filled with highly detailed contrapuntal statements, rhythmic propulsion, and a crystalline elegance that this well recorded session makes salient. There is a certain level of eeriness and menacing tension that permeates throughout the entire recording, giving it a solid sense of cohesiveness, direction, and personality.

The duo brings virtuosity to the sensitive requirements of this remarkably labyrinthine music, which calls for deep instrumental dexterity and an acute awareness for leveling out all of the components of their language to generate a singular aural result that, often times, feels as if it had a three-dimensional tactile element to it.

The six pieces that form "Zodos" reveal two performers in peak form, each of whom displays his abilities to the fullest, at the vanguard of repertoire development for this particular instrumentation.

Play loud and enjoy.

1. Z-I: Sonata

2. Fractal Structure I

3. Z-II: Nocturne

4. Orbit: For Alto Saxophone

5. Fractal Structure II

6. Z-III: Elegy For The Neglected

All compositions by Álvaro Pérez (alto saxophone) and Álvaro Domene (seven string electric guitar and live electronics), except Track 4 by Pérez.

Recorded by Álvaro Domene & Álvaro Pérez, November-December 2020. No overdubs.

Mixed by Álvaro Domene at Singularity Studio, Kingston (New York).

Mastered by Dane Johnson at Asbestos Head Recording in Kingston (New York).

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Michael Bisio / Kirk Knuffke / Fred Lonberg-Holm - Requiem for a New York Slice (March 2021 Iluso Records)

"This recording is dedicated to Mike Panico (August 30,1965 - October 2, 2018), co-owner and producer at Relative Pitch Records, he was also a wonderful friend. I met Mike through his volunteer work a both the Vision Festival and The Stone. He was open, friendly and had a deep respect/love for this music. When he started RP he invited me to be on the label. From 2011 - 2018 Mike produced a half dozen recordings that I took part in either as leader or collaborator. As a producer Mike showed the same love and respect for the process that he did for all things ...people included. 

As our friendship grew I learned Mike's enormous ability to love extended to pizza! Whether it was after a gig or an arranged daytime adventure the search for the best slice was often the central theme, man o' man Mike knew where to find that slice! 

His untimely departure is a great loss. This music, recorded three days after his death, is a tribute to his life." Big Love, Michael Bisio

Iluso records presents Requiem for a New York Slice by Michael Bisio (bass), Kirk Knuffke (cornet) and Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello).

Comprising five spontaneously composed pieces, Requiem for a New York Slice is a yearning and deeply emotive homage to the life of the late Mike Panico. From heart-wrenching anguish to joyous exaltation this trio of master improvisers open their hearts with a performance that is ethereal and transcending, traversing the breadth of human emotion with prolonged moments of intense and introspective solitude interspersed by episodes of shimmering buoyancy, boundless joy and humour.

Equally exhilarating and reflective, Requiem for a New York Slice is a truly breathtaking and transcending statement by a group of improvisers at the forefront of the creative music world.

Michael Bisio is one of the world’s most virtuosic and imaginative performers on the double bass. He has over eighty-five recordings in his discography, including most notably his collaborations with modern piano icon Matthew Shipp and the great Joe McPhee. Nate Chinen in the New York Times writes, "The physicality of Mr. Bisio's bass playing puts him in touch with numerous predecessors in the avant-garde, but his expressive touch is distinctive..." Bisio has performed with Charles Gayle, Connie Crothers, Whit Dickey, Ivo Perelman, Barbara Donald, Newman Taylor Baker, Rob Brown, Sonny Simmons and Sabir Mateen.

Cornetist Kirk Knuffke has been described as “one of modern jazz’s most skilled navigators of the divide between inside and outside, freedom and swing." Accolades for Knuffke include NPR’s Best Jazz Album of the Year for 2017’s Cherryco (SteepleChase) and winner of DownBeat Magazine’s “Rising Star” critics poll in 2015. Described by the New York Times as “one of New York City’s busiest musicians,” Knuffke has released 18 recordings as leader or co-leader and is featured as a sideman on over 50 recordings with leaders Matt Wilson, Allison Miller, Butch Morris, Uri Caine, Pierre Dorge and Michael Formanek. He has performed with Roswell Rudd, William Parker, Myra Melford, Steve Swell, Marshall Allen, Tootie Health and Billie Hart.

Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm is one of the most acclaimed and prolific musicians in the new music world. A former student of Anthony Braxton, Morton Feldman, Bunita Marcus and Pauline Oliveros, his primary projects are his Valentine Trio and The Lightbox Orchestra.  He also currently plays in groups led by Joe McPhee (Survival Unit III),  Peter Brotzmann (Chicago 10tet) and Ken Vandermark (Vandermark 5, Frame 4tet, Territory Ensemble).   Fred has perfomed with Jim Baker, John Butcher,  Mats Gustafsson, Peter Kowald, Nicole Mitchell, Jim O'Rourke, Jeff Parker and rock groups Califone, Freakwater, God-is-my-co-pilot and Wilco.

 1. Introit et Kyrie 12:36

2. Sanctus 10:22

3. Pie Jesu 18:12

4. Agnus Dei 07:49

5. In Paradisum 09:38

Michael Bisio · contrabass

Kirk Knuffke · cornet

Fred Lonberg-Holm · cello

Recorded (5 October 2018), Mixed and Mastered by Jim Clouse at Park West Studios, Brooklyn, NY

All music composed by Michael Bisio AMB Music ASCAP, Kirk Knuffke BMI, Fred Lonberg-Holm BMI, except Agnus Dei, Michael Bisio AMB Music ASCAP

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Álvaro Domene - HEPTAD Volume I (March 2021 Iluso Records)

"Heptad is stunning! Vivid, rich in sound and emotion, and packed with ideas." - Elliott Sharp

Iluso Records are thrilled to release a new solo recording by guitarist-composer Álvaro Domene

Heptad is the first volume of Domene’s new works for seven string electric guitar which, instead of being a continuation of his monolithic sounding solo pieces heard on Illustris (2020) and The Compass (2018), it signifies a tangent in Domene’s solo works. If the two previous albums were conceptualized as new orchestral-inspired music performed on electric guitar, Heptad is the chamber equivalent, on which Domene’s seven notated, but spontaneously interpreted pieces, evoke the enveloping sonorities of small string ensembles.

All the pieces were conceived to be performed and recorded live, with no overdubs, and, to achieve this imaginative sound, Domene meticulously programmed over two dozen pitch delay algorithms that assisted him in shaping the harmonic and melodic palette of each compositional framework, which, along with his angular approach on guitar and dazzling energy, allowed him to weave nets of contrapuntal statements, eerie chordal textures, and chilling harmonics.

Heptad Volume I is a serious solo guitar recording, pivotal in Domene’s solo output, and presented with all the meticulousness and imagination that these exploratory and unearthly pieces deserve.

Play loud and enjoy.

1. Particle Seepage 04:23

2. Attrition 09:11

3. Theoretical Clutter 07:07

4. Where The Universe Is Set On Cold Fire 05:03

5. Entropy Maximizers 05:29

6. Power As Capacity: The Expansion Of One’s Options. 08:22

7. Power As Control: The Suppression Of One’s Options. 04:57

All music composed and performed live by Álvaro Domene (seven string electric guitar and live electronics). No overdubs.

Recorded and mixed by Domene on different sessions between November 2020 and January 2021 at Singularity Studio, Kingston (New York).

Mastered by Dane Johnson at Asbestos Head Recording (Kingston, NY).

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Killick Hinds & Álvaro Domene - Hocket Pulsar (March 2021 Iluso Records)

Iluso Records are proud to present Hocket Pulsar, the first long-form aural collaboration between Domene and Hinds, on which clouds of pitches, harmonies, and metallic strata quake like veering tectonic plates, and guitar strings gleam with overtones and hypnotic pulsations.

Avant-guitar pioneer Henry Kaiser was the common link between Athens (Georgia) based Killick Hinds and Kingston (New York) based Álvaro Domene.

Having worked with both artists in different contexts, Kaiser suggested the two connect for potential collaboration based on similar interests and aesthetic sensibilities. The simpatico was immediate as manifested in their first piece together, the audiovisual composition titled "Uplift" at the end of October 2020.

After finishing that first joint effort, the two decided to pursue the documentation of a duo album that would take inspiration from natural phenomena such as precipitation events, fauna and flora sonorities, and also meditation and shamanistic rituals, on which sound can turn into an overwhelming but healing physical experience where it's no longer music as entertainment but the entrance to another dimension of perception and state of consciousness.

Grab a good set of headphones and enjoy the experience.

1. Hocket Pulsar 10:14

2. Voces Magicae 08:40

3. Kinesis in Unlimited Dimensions 05:26

4. Chthonic Regions 05:22

5. On Ecdysis 07:28

6. The Diaphanous Membrane 04:12

7. Meditation on Mediation 07:08

8. Pulsar Hocket 11:44

Álvaro Domene: compositions, seven string electric guitar and live electronics

Killick Hinds: compositions, stringed instruments and computer

Recorded by Álvaro Domene & Killick Hinds, November-December 2020.

Mixed & mastered by Killick Hinds at H(i)nds(i)ght Studio, Athens GA.

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Anker · Pat Thomas · Flaten · Solberg - His Flight's At Ten (ILUSO RECORDS April 19, 2018)

Iluso Records presents His Flight’s At Ten, a stunning live concert recording by free music luminaries Lotte Anker (saxophones), Pat Thomas (piano), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (double bass) and Ståle Liavik Solberg (drums and percussion). 

Copenhagen-based Lotte Anker is a saxophone player and composer of unsurpassed reputation in the creative music world. She works in the field between experimental jazz/improvisation and contemporary music and leads acclaimed trios with Craig Taborn/Gerald Cleaver and Sylvie Courvoisier/Ikue Mori. Anker has performed with Tim Berne, Okkyung Lee, Joelle Leandre, Raymond Strid, Sten Sandell, Andrew Cyrille, Phil Minton and many others. 

Electronic experimenter and piano player Pat Thomas is a unique voice in the UK/European creative music scene. Embracing improvisation, jazz and new music, his significant contribution has included performances and recordings with Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley’s Quartet and Celebration Orchestra, Lol Coxhill, Steve Noble and Alex Ward. 

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten is an internationally sought after double and electric bassist in the jazz, free jazz, and improvised music worlds. He is most known through his work in the hard-hitting bands The Thing, Atomic and Scorch Trio. Flaten has worked with Joe McPhee, Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilssen Love, Neneh Cherry, Thurston Moore, and Ken Vandermark. 

Drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg is a central part of Oslo's thriving improvised music scene. Working with ensembles VCDC, Will it float? (with John Russell, Steve Beresford & John Edwards), Silva-Rasmussen-Solberg trio and in duos with Fred Lonberg-Holm and John Russell. His endlessly creative drumming is renowned in the world of free jazz/creative music. 

His Flight’s At Ten comprises three long form pieces of spontaneously improvised music by this quartet of acclaimed improvisers in an encapsulating concert performance at the 2016 Blow Out! Festival in Oslo. 

Departure begins as a cacophony of crash cymbals and sustained cluster chords. Anker’s growling entry bulldozes through the clutter, lifting the band to a dizzying height of frenzy. Long tones segway into a sparse and lineal movement of minimalism and delicately suggestive interspersions before Anker’s multiphonic experiments inspire a pedalling down beat and oozing groove. Thomas’ succinct piano solo offers sparse resonating statements before barrelling drums and bass and tongue-slapping reeds morph the music into a closing hypnotic rumble underlying short motivic statements spat from Anker’s saxophone. 

In Flight commences cautiously with each performer delicately layering plink plonking statements in a swiftly rousing conversation. Anker’s short bursting phrases reach across the group-talk before a series of impromptu stop-start moments begin a passage of gleeful expressions realised through virtuosic extended technique. Thomas’ unhinged montuno inspires long notes and scattering drums at which point the band are truly in full flight. Dissipating squeeks and short running phrases by Thomas on piano lead into a Solberg cymbal solo. Piano and saxophone join with high scraping glissandi, this delightful interplay carrying the group through to the end. 

Arrival, the third and final piece, begins with percussively bowed bass joined by breathes, whistles and intricate dealings from within the bowels of the piano. A stunning suspense is patiently created by the group’s innate spatial awareness. Gentle and ghostly, Thomas and Flaten dance in synchronised wave-like motion luring the band into the same before together embracing a violent and thrashing dance that cascades gracefully to a final moment of reflection. 

All the energy and nuance of this captivating convert are captured in this stunning live recording. Both exhilarating and hypnotic, the album is a cutting edge release traversing the worlds of contemporary classical music and avant-garde jazz by a group of improvisers at the forefront of the creative music world.

1. Departure 16:59

2. In Flight 14:50

3. Arrival 10:40

Lotte Anker (saxophones)

Pat Thomas (piano)

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (double bass)

Ståle Liavik Solberg (drums and percussion)

Recorded by Stig Gunnar Ringen at Blow Out! Oslo on 1 March 2016. Mixed by Lasse Marhaug. Mastered by Sardi at Sugarland Studios

All music by Anker / Thomas / Flaten / Solberg (KODA/PRS/TONO)

Artwork and design by Adam J Bragg

Musicianer - Slow Learner (ILUSO RECORDS 2017)

“Sinton's Barisax has a lot to say about all this existential jazz stuff: whether the universe is actually devoid of meaning or form, what to do when the glorious monster comes to you hard in your dreams.” Greg Tate 

Brooklyn-based baritone saxophonist, bass clarinetist and creative musician Josh Sinton has played an integral part in the renaissance of musical activity thriving in Brooklyn’s creative music scene today. He has performed with countless leading figures from NYC and around the world and has been nominated to the Downbeat Critics' and Readers' Polls, the Jazz Times Poll and El Intruso International Critics' Poll every year since 2012. 

Musicianer (the word used by Sidney Bechet for a fellow musician) are a band that escape the pigeonhole etched by their instrumentation. Their album ‘slow learner’ was born from Sinton’s long yearning to write songs to be played with two of his longest standing musical companions; Chad Taylor (drums and percussion) and Jason Ajemian (acoustic bass), whose deep musical connection traces back to their time living and performing together in Chicago in the 1990s. 

Reaching into the worlds of Sinton’s vast musical influence - from Sonny Rollins to Stevie Wonder, Charlie Parker to Jimi Hendrix, ‘slow learner’ is an open and trusting conversation between three life-long musicianers, effortlessly traversing subject matter - from whimsical jibe to defiant fits of protest – totally unrestricted by that uncomfortable awkwardness often encountered by the unacquainted. 

From the infectious groove of ‘pork bueno’, the hypnotic and sweet tempered ‘can’t really say’ through to the aching sentimental breathiness of ‘fail beautiful’, Sinton’s songs are enchantingly approachable and speak with a comforting lyricism assuring you that, despite it all, everything is going to be alright. ‘slow learner’ is, quite truly, an anecdote of our age - an antidote for these times. 

Aside from musicianer, Josh Sinton leads the innovative Steve Lacy-repertory band Ideal Bread (with Kirk Knuffke, Tomas Fujiwara and Adam Hopkins) and is a long-standing member of the Nate Wooley Quintet and Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra. Drummer Chad Taylor is the founder of the Chicago Underground ensembles. He leads his own band Circle and has played with Jeff Parker, Marc Ribot, Derek Bailey and Peter Brotzmann. Jason Ajemian is one of the Chicago areas most in demand bass players. He leads the groups Folklords and High Life and is Helado Negro’s musical director. He has performed with Jeff Parker, Tony Malaby, Marc Ribot and Matana Roberts. 

‘Slow learner’ was recorded in February 2017 at Greenwood Underground, Brooklyn, NY and mixed by the inimitable Eivind Opvisk (leader of Overseas and member of Opsvik & Jennings), whose role as co-producer made a significant contribution to the album’s innate sensibility. 

The album includes liner notes by famed Village Voice contributor and iconic critic, Greg Tate, providing a unique insight into Sinton’s creative process and the album’s message – informing and enhancing the listening experience. 

1. Outside (today) 4:40

2. Can't Really Say 4:31

3. And then It came To me 5:21

4. Sunday's Rehearsal 3:28

5. Pediments 2:52

6. JiMmY 4:00

7. Evening of Mourning (Ferguson Goddam) 3:58

8. Pork Bueno 5:04

9. Devoid of Form, Devoid of Meaning 5:49

10. Left-Side Paralysis 3:37

11. Fail Beautiful 3:47

Josh Sinton baritone saxophone

Jason Ajemian contrabass

Chad Taylor drums

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