Bruno Vansina - ANYR (a New York recording) December 8, 2021

This recording with Teun Verbruggen and Pascal Niggenkemper dates from 2015 and was done in New York during a tour through the USA with the Flat Earth Society Orchestra. I had met Pascal one year before at a rehearsal with Steve Nelson in preparation for my 'Stratocluster' album.

We had a day off in New York, contacted Pascal and reserved a little basement studio. I remember that after just a couple of hours we were back outside somewhere in a quiet neighborhood of Brooklyn, the sun was shining and I was chatting with Teun Verbruggen, waiting for a taxi to take us back 'downtown'. What better way to spend the afternoon? We where living the dream. I cherish that feeling with this modest album. - BV

1. Estelle 10:45

2. Guacamole 07:20

3. Triologic 08:12

4. Von Zacken 06:26

All songs by Bruno Vansina except ‘Estelle’ by Malik Mezzadri.

Bruno Vansina - alto saxophone

Pascal Niggenkemper - double bass

Teun Verbruggen - drums

Recorded by Jim Clouse at studio Park West, Brooklyn NY, 24th June 2014.

Mixed by Joseph Branciforte, New York, 16th March 2015.

Master by Pierre Vervloesem at studio Fiasco, Bruxelles, May 2015.

PRE ORDER

Gordon Beeferman - OTHER LIFE FORMS (November 13, 2018)

OTHER LIFE FORMS is an innovative avant-jazz quartet led by composer Gordon Beeferman (piano & organ), with Stephanie Griffin (viola), Pascal Niggenkemper (bass) and Andrew Drury (drums). Virtuosic, intense, and quirky, Beeferman's compositions have a unique approach to integrating complex written charts with collective improvisation. The members of O.L.F. are among the forefront of the creative contemporary music scene, and bring a wide array of experience and sensibility to the music.

Gordon Beeferman: piano, Hammond C3 organ

Stephanie Griffin: viola

Pascal Niggenkemper: bass

Andrew Drury: drums

All compositions by Gordon Beeferman

1. Get Got

2. Creep

3. Bad Strategy

4. Path

5. Hourglass Daydream

6. Puddle Jump

7. That's a Wrap

Recorded January 21 and September 21, 2015 at Peter Karl Studio, Brooklyn, NY

Edited by Gordon Beeferman

Mixed by Gordon Beeferman and Kato Hideki

Mastered by Kato Hideki

Photography: Reuben Radding

Design: Cheryl Richards

Producer: Gordon Beeferman

Executive Producer: Andrew Drury

© 2018 Gordon Beeferman. All rights reserved

All compositions BMI

Yoni Kretzmer's New Dilemma - Months, Weeks and Days (OutNow Recordings 2018)

This is a double CD set. The full album has 9 lengthy tracks. 

Second release for Yoni Kretzmer's Chamber-Improv ensemble, New Dilemma. This release sees the original group augmented from a quintet into a sextet with the addition of a bass clarinet. The investigations into the intricacies differentiating and combining the written and the improvised continue with further depth and chance.

Bedmakers - Tribute to an Imaginary Folk Band (2018)

Après s'être joyeusement confrontés à l’œuvre de Charles Mingus au sein du trio Whahay, Robin Fincker et Fabien Duscombs poursuivent leur désir de plonger dans une tradition musicale et d'en improviser la suite avec la création du groupe Bedmakers et leur "Tribute to an imaginary folk band".

Ce quartet acoustique fait irruption dans les méandres de la folk anglo-saxonne. Il fouille, gratte et creuse cette matière sonore fertile mûrie par les multiples décennies de tradition orale, pour en extraire son essence mélodique et l'observer à travers le regard d'improvisateurs sans étiquettes. Les mélodies sont attrapées au vol, ces airs que l'on aurait pu fredonner sans le savoir, que l'on croit connaitre sans pouvoir pointer du doigt leur provenance se retrouvent, hors de leur contexte d'origine, superposés, déclamés ou seulement suggérés, parfois enfouis sous une pluie de matière bruitiste ou encore égrenés dans un souffle minimaliste.

Bedmakers réunit quatre musiciens aux univers musicaux polymorphes et singuliers. Le saxophoniste/clarinettiste anglophile Robin Fincker (Whahay, Vincent Courtois' Mediums, Surnatural Orchestra) et son acolyte dans le trio Whahay, le batteur Fabien Duscombs s'entourent ainsi de deux-fois-quatre cordes avec le violoniste aux dérives électroacoustiques Mathieu Werchowski et le contrebassiste irlandais Dave Kane (Pascal Niggenkemper sur l'album).

Fort de cette instrumentation riche en couleurs "Tribute to an imaginary folk band" fait cohabiter le blues illuminé de John Fahey avec les envolées lyriques issues de mélodies traditionnelles de folk irlandaise et l'intense sobriété du guitariste écossais Bert Jansch avec la richesse de l'improvisation libre. Dans sa recherche permanente d'étendre sa palette de timbres le quartet invente un croisement imaginaire de ces différentes essences musicales et propose ainsi un répertoire aux itinéraires multiples ; à l'image de ces musiques qui, bien que profondément liées à leur racines, ne connaissent pas de frontières pour autant.

Une production Freddy Morezon, en co-production avec Banlieues Bleues et Jazzdor. Avec le soutien de la DRAC Occitanie, du CNV et de la SPEDIDAM.

1. Dying Bedmaker Suite 08:37

2. The Gardener 05:15

3. Mac Crimmon's Lament 07:32

4. Princess Beatrice 08:03

5. The Road to Lisdoonvarna 03:38

6. Smokey River 07:58

7. Some Summer Day 03:39

Robin Fincker : saxophone tenor, clarinette

Mathieu Werchowski : violon

Pascal Niggenkemper : contrebasse

Fabien Duscombs : batterie

Pistes 1 & 7 : John Fahey

2 & 6 : Bert Jansch

3 & 4 traditionnel Ecosse

5 : Traditionnel Irlande

Arrangements : Bedmakers

Enregistré au Studio Juillaguet (Angoulême) et mixé par Ananda Cherer en mars et juin 2017.

Masterisé par Alex Bonney en septembre 2017.

Visuel : Mathieu Werchowski

Pochette : Badneighbour & Sons Inc.

Label Mr Morezon (FR) et Babel Label (UK)

Distribution France : Orkhestra International

Joe McPhee / Pascal Niggenkemper / Stale Liavik Solberg - Imaginary Numbers (CLEAN FEED RECORDS 2017)

A living legend of the open-form kind of jazz he plays since the Sixties, Joe McPhee is one of the most requested players of several musical fronts besides jazz, from Pauline Oliveros’ “deep listening” approach to new music to the free rock coalition formed by The Thing and Cato Salsa Experience (he played the music of Led Zeppelin with them), going through a collaboration with the noise makers of Nihilist Spasm Band. In recent years, he’s being invited frequently to work with European musicians of the improvised music field, and this trio is one of those cases: we find him with the German-French double bassist Pascal Niggenkemper (mostly associated with people like Harris Eisenstadt, Frantz Loriot and Joachim Badenhorst) and the Norwegian drummer who initiated this trio Ståle Solberg, usual companion of the likes of John Russell, Steve Beresford and John Edwards. And free improvisation is what you have in “Imaginary Numbers”, even though the one with its inner essence derived from the tradition of free jazz – in this case, searching for a stronger connection with the source, as the piece “A Supreme Love”, dedicated to John Coltrane, testifies. Indeed, the music here seems a coming back to its original home, with the improvisatory ideas of the rhythm section making peace with all the American cultural bag we listen in the way McPhee uses the pocket trumpet and the tenor saxophone. But this isn’t the peace of the swamps: there’s tension all along the narratives, showing that a group improvisation isn’t the search of a lowest common denominator. There’s no bad record with Joe McPhee on it, but this one may be one of his best.

1. I 23:43

2. A Supreme Love (For John Coltrane) 10:19

3. Zero 9:03

Joe McPhee pocket trumpet, tenor saxophone

Pascal Niggenkemper double bass

Stale Liavik Solberg drums, percussion

All music by McPhee/Niggenkemper/Solberg (JOMAC Publishings / ASCAP – GEMA – TONO)

Recorded at JACK in Brooklyn on December 13th 2015 | Recorded by Jonathan Goldberger, mixed by Fred Lonberg-Holm, mastered by John Butcher

Produced by McPhee/Niggenkemper/Solberg | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos