Lucian Ban, John Surman and Mat Maneri

Lucian Ban, John Surman, Mat Maneri – Cantica Profana (Sunnyside, 2025)

Lucian Ban, John Surman, Mat Maneri – The Athenaeum Concert (Sunnyside, 2025)

By Dan Sorrells 

The folk music that so inspired Béla Bartók as he traveled Transylvania with his phonograph one hundred years ago continues to bloom, renewing in cycles, the flowers and forms of one season becoming the fertile humus that grows the next generation. In 2020, the trio of pianist Lucian Ban, violist Mat Maneri, and woodwind maestro John Surman debuted their chamber-folk improvisations on Transylvanian Folk Songs,a project rooted deeply in Bartók's own and an outgrowth of Ban and Maneri's earlier duo work. After some pandemic delays, the trio toured on the material between 2022 and 2024. From those concerts, two new releases on Sunnyside: Cantica Profana, a compilation of tracks from several European shows, and The Athenaeum Concert, a full set from the prestigious Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest (which would also turn out to be Surman's last major performance before his retirement).

Transylvanian Folk Songs originally featured nine tracks inspired by transcriptions and wax cylinder recordings Bartók made of traditional peasant tunes from the Carpathians. This is music that also imbued Ban's childhood in Cluj. Like the nine sons in Bartók's "Cantata Profana," these songs underwent a profound metamorphosis at the hands of the trio, budding melodies and motifs charged with an improvised magic that transformed them into something wilder and less familiar. Cantica Profana and The Athenaeum Concert further push this evolution, with the opportunity to hear multiple versions of songs showing how the trio continually reshapes and renews its source material.

The more upbeat pieces—"Violin Song," "Dowry Song," "Transylvanian Dance"—are driven by rhythmic motives, often delivered by Ban but liable to be traded around to any member as the moment demands. This rhythm helps structure the improvisations and allows the trio to range farther from the folk aspects of the primary melodies. These are the tracks, such as the long Athenaeum take of "Dowry Song," that can verge closest to jazz—only in brief flashes—flirting momentarily with a bluesy chord progression or syncopated figure, able to snap back at the call of the motif. But while these musicians with deep jazz credentials are creating music that isn't overtly jazzy, they bring some of its newer tools to bear on an older realm of music that was rooted in improvisation. "Carol" from Transylvanian Folk Songs develops a beautiful, rippling quality like light on water; it resurfaces in a knottier form on Cantica Profana as "Dark Woods," night music possessing the character of its new name. Ban's elegiac but resolute piano from "Bitter Love Song" becomes muted and percussive in its reimagining as "Evening in the Village," where Suman's bass clarinet and Maneri's viola are a rich embroidery of sound, stitched in braided patterns. Some songs touch only lightly upon their founding melodies, inaugural seeds that warmly house the essence and energy for the trio's new growth.

The music across these albums is held in a series of tensions: it contains that kernel of its originary material, but at the same time can feel distant from the vocal tradition that inspired it. It doesn't sound like something that would be sung in the village square, but it can also sound radical in the context of the concert halls and churches it was performed in. Too well-dressed to be free improvisation, too tousled for classical music. Maneri and Surman both work around the harmonic edges, straying into microtonal realms that are a natural component of many folk musics but can give an alien sheen to chamber music. Ban is a pianist of beautiful clarity, but he can also be slyly non-linear, even his comping at times subverting tidy resolution, like his staccato pressure building in "Violin Song II."

There's a risk, as this music resounds within the frescoed dome of the Athenaeum, that it becomes divorced from that provincial spirit that originally shaped it. This concerned Bartók, too. Alex Ross noted that he "acknowledged the gap between what urban listeners considered folkish […] and what peasants were actually singing and playing." Ban quotes Bartók directly in the liner notes, where he claims that the "harsh characters" of musical notation "cannot possibly render […] all the pulsing life of peasant-music." But Cantica Profanaand The Athenaeum Concert are not ethnographic or nostalgic exercises; the goal is not imitation or resurrection. The trio stand near a familiar old starting point and set off a different way, where the path isn't so well-defined—or is waiting to be cut. There’s often something haunting in the result, perhaps conjured in the resonance of these concert spaces, where the trio becomes a medium for something quite ghostly, tuned into an ancient and fragmented signal, orphic melodies fleetingly brought into focus, glimpses through the thickets.

As these ethereal melodies surface in the developing improvisations—just listen to the yearning when the theme finally emerges in "First Return" and "Last Return"—I find myself marveling: how does this music, abstracted so many steps from its source, so strongly retain its vital character? The trio never neglects its emotional core. Improvisation becomes the engine of that timeless emotive content. That pulsing life. It's a most difficult thing: to catch hold of those deep-rooted musical qualities that feel universal and then make them sound like something we haven't heard before.

Read More

Jon Raskin and Jon Bafus - Ultimately, It's Everything (BLALKED, 2026)

By Hrayr Attarian

Saxophonist Jon Raskin is a restlessly innovative artist. From his work with the Rova Saxophone Quartet to his graphical scores, Raskin has built a uniquely brilliant body of work. Fellow Sacramento native, percussionist Jon Bafus, also has an idiosyncratic style that perfectly complements Raskin’s. Ultimately, It's Everything, the pair’s second duo release, consists of eight vibrant, abstract pieces that brim with spontaneity.

On “Small Events,” Bafus’ sparse beats and Raskin’s brief cluster of notes build a mystical atmosphere. Raskin plays haunting melodic fragments while Bafus adds evocative chimes and clattering sounds, creating an ethereal soundscape. The ebb and flow of crystalline rhythms and angular lines results in delightful tension.

The cinematic “Ants” that follows features Raskin’s soulful growling baritone saxophone, weaving a bluesy melody over Bafus’ swaggering cadence. The warm, passionate duet is at once provocative and mellifluous. Hints of eastern influences pepper the improvisation before it embraces thrilling dissonance with controlled abandon. This seamless transition is a natural evolution of the music, resulting in a thematically unified, captivating tune.

Elsewhere, “Gravel Path” is equally vivid, with Bafus’ percolating polyrhythms providing an energetic backdrop for Raskin’s lyrical musings. The simmering conversation builds momentum into an absorbing, complex poetic dialogue. The repeating motifs change with each refrain, maintaining a cohesiveness yet remaining refreshingly inventive.

The somber “Aggregte Brush” starts with a pastoral ambience. Bafus makes his instruments darkly rustle and rumble while Raskin weaves a haunting extemporization on his sopranino saxophone. He then lets loose an eloquent solo, a mix of plaintive tones and fiery phrases, while Bafus’s muscular percussion endows the track with a primal spirituality. This incandescent, dynamic performance makes an apt conclusion to this stimulating album.

With Bafus’ elegant artwork gracing its cover, Ultimately, It's Everything is a fascinating and poignant recording that engrosses from the very first bar to the last. It is a perfect example of synergistic creativity and ingenuity. It is a major highlight in Raskin’s and Bafus’ uniformly superb discography.

Read More

Frank Gratkowski's Recent Recordings

By Eyal Hareuveni 

Frank Gratkowski's In Cahoots - Feat. Ingrid Laubrock (Klanggalerie, 2025)

German, Berlin-based woodwind player and composer Frank Gratkowski’s In Cahoots began working in 2016 as an untitled, free improvised, and non-hierarchical quartet featuring Cologne-based pianist-synth player Philip Zoubek, double bass player Robert Landfermann, and drummer Dominik Mahnig. This quartet released the live album Torbid Daylight (impakt Köln, 2020).

Soon this quartet expanded into a quintet with German-born, New York-based tenor and soprano sax player Ingrid Laubrock. This quintet had its first performance in Darmstadt in September 2023. It continued performing in 2024, when it recorded its live debut album at LOFT in Cologne in April 2024 (on its second performance), and plans more performances in 2026. Soon this quartet expanded into a quintet with German-born, New York-based tenor and soprano sax player Ingrid Laubrock, and this quintet had its first performance in Darmstadt in September 2023. It continued to perform in 2024, when it recorded its live debut album at LOFT in Cologne in April 2024 (on its second performance), and plans more performances in 2026.

Gratkowski describes In Cahoots’ raison d'être with a quote of American producer-guitarist-singer-songwriter T-Bone Burnett, relating to string theory and music: “Beneath the subatomic particle level, there are fibers that vibrate at different intensities. Different frequencies. Like violin strings. The physicists say that the particles we are able to see are the notes of the strings vibrating beneath them. If string theory is correct, then music is not only the way our brains work, as the neuroscientists have shown, but also, it is what we are made of, what everything is made of. These are the stakes musicians are playing for".

This quote makes perfect sense when you listen to the debut album of In Cahoots. The opening piece, “OKTF”, suggests In Cahoots connected by strong, emphatic fibers and almost telepathic dynamics, relying on tight rhythmic interplay and collective theme development, immediately solidifying the camaraderie between Gratkowski (on alto sax, clarinets, and flute) and Laubrock. But Gratkowski is also an ambitious composer and wise bandleader who seeks to explore free tonal ideas, enhanced by unorthodox playing techniques and microtonal concepts. The following pieces juggle with this elusive, thoughtful play with elements taken from free jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary music, enjoying the great experience of Zoubek, Landfermann, Mahnig, Laubrock, their mutual trust, and their in cahoots-like willingness for risk-taking. Their vibrations may work in different intensities and frequencies, but together they move the music into inspiring, thought-provoking territories.

Frank Gratkowski & Kazuhisa Uchihashi - Live in Japan (Innocence, 2025)

Frank Gratkowski and Japanese guitarist, daxophone player, producer, and Innocence label owner Kazuhisa Uchihashi have been working closely in recent years. Uchihashi guested on Gratkowski and pianist Achim Kaufmann’s SKEIN band, and both played in Kaufmann’s Trokaan project; Uchihashi plays in Gratkowski’s new Entertainment quartet. and Gratkowski joined the performances of Uchihashi’s Altered States trio, and Gratkowski and Uchihashi performed as a duo in Europe and in Japan. Live in Japan was recorded during the duo's second tour in Japan in October 2023.

Gratkowski plays the alto sax, bass clarinet, and flute, and Uchihasi plays the electric guitar and daxophones. The nine pieces, taken from six performances, are spontaneous, powerful, and intense conversations between close friends who enjoy experimenting and challenging each other’s sonic palette, often with unpredictable yet highly playful ideas. These conversations often become a free associative exchange of eccentric gestures when Uchihashi produces vocal-like sounds from the daxophones, and Gratkowski answers with colourful bird calls, and both Uchihashi and Gratkowski enhance their vocabularies with extended breathing, bowing, and percussive techniques. Each piece suggests a distinct atmosphere and deepens the immediate, imaginative interplay of these resourceful, great shamans of sound.

Read More

Sally Gates and Eyal Maoz live duet concert

Two guitarists with musically adventurous spirits - Sally Gates and Eyal Maoz exploring atonal avenues and shimmering streets in this instinctive improvization captured at the Downtown Music Gallery last spring.

Read More

Lawrence Casserley at 85

Photos by Charlie Watkins

Lawrence Casserley has been a pioneer of electronics in improvised music, particularly through his development of the Signal Processing Instrument. To celebrate Lawrence’s 85^th year, Charlie Watkins sat down with him to discuss a few records which have been particularly important to him and the events he has planned for 2026.

- - -

By Charlie Watkins

I meet Lawrence at his home studio in Oxford. The already small room is made even smaller by the books, CDs and audio equipment lining each wall. There are three computers, one of which is the Signal Processing Instrument (SPI), another displaying a book manuscript Lawrence is working on, and the third with various audio files open. It’s a fitting setting: even in his 85 ^th year, Lawrence is still full of ideas and as hardworking as ever. Before we’re even sitting down, he is already explaining to me how the SPI works, and I rush to start recording before I miss anything.

The first album Lawrence and I discuss is Solar Wind (1997), which he recorded at STEIM whilst developing the SPI. He explains to me how the record came about: ‘I had three weeks there [at STEIM]. Evan [Parker] was there, not all the time, but most of the time. And Barry Guy joined us for the last part.

‘After a couple of days of just getting going, Evan said “Whenever we play, we switch the recorder on,” and so we had all this stuff, lots of stuff. Sometimes I'd say to him, “Look, I've got to do some programming, I've got an idea,” so he'd go off for a walk, or practice, or do the crossword, and then I’d say “Come on, we're ready.” That's how the CD came about.’

Lawrence tells me how those early sessions at STEIM were a pivotal moment in the development of the SPI. ‘A lot of that original structure of the instrument is still here. I've tweaked various stuff and added bits, added things and taken things away, but the basic structure and the way it works was established at that time. The current version has been pretty much stable for about 10 years, so I finally stopped developing it and started learning to play it! Michel Waisvisz [STEIM’s artistic director] said to me “There comes a stage when you've got to stop changing stuff and just learn how to play it really well.”’

Solar Windwasn’t Lawrence’s first foray into live electronics. He dropped out of Columbia University to study music instead, and his first composition with live processing was in 1969, during his postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music. ‘My composition teacher at the time was Herbert Howells, who was quite a conservative. But he was really interested in what I was doing and he was very, very smart and very good. At the end of the year, I came into the lesson and he said, “I've had a letter about this electronic music course [with Tristram Cary]. I've put you down for it, of course.” That kind of encouragement was really good.’

Even in those early years, as Lawrence started to utilise electronic processing in his compositions, he had a clear vision for how he wanted to be using electronics in live performance. ‘I got this idea: I wanted an electronic instrument that was like playing the cello or something, “my instrument” in that sense. It just took 20 years for the technology to catch up! When I finally got there, I was working with people like Barry Guy, who had such a physical way of playing, and I said, “I want to play electronics like that.”’

Although there was already an improvisatory element in his early compositions, Solar Wind was really Lawrence’s entrance onto the improvised music scene. Thirty years on, I ask Lawrence how he feels about the album now. ‘It was a remarkable thing in its way. I'm certainly not ashamed of it. The whole thing gelled, and Evan was so supportive of the whole thing; that was sort of the catalyst that made it happen. It’s a very special CD. I rate it as one of the best things I've done.’

Lawrence consistently describes his duo work as what he is most proud of. ‘You can get much more involved in the integration between the player and the processing. When I work with more people, it becomes a bit more diffused; this sort of really tight, close integration comes best in duos, and some of the trios.’ That certainly comes across on his album with Philipp Wachsmann, Garuda (2016). ‘I think Garuda is quite possibly the best thing I've ever done. First of all, Phil is so amazing. The range of his playing and the range of his experience is very, very large. And his thinking is very deep, too. He always produces such fantastic material for me to work with. Again, we worked over several days, recording different kinds of things in different ways. I play some percussion as well and sometimes the percussion is processed with his sounds, and other times it's just the violin. It was a very rich sound palette that we had and we worked a long time on it and I think we formed a very special sort of integration. He inspires great things.’

Listening to Garuda, it’s clear that both musicians are having a lot of fun. I ask Lawrence how he understands the role of ‘play’ in music that can often be quite serious. ‘I don't think serious and playful are very far apart. Like a lot of things, they’re different sides of the same coin, and all these things are part of life. If you can't have fun, then part of your life is missing. And it's the same with the music, if you can't have fun, part of the music is missing.

‘Music is an expression of life. And I think for me it almost is life. It's a lot of other things as well, but music is kind of the core of everything.’

Finally, we discuss a more recent recording, Corps et Biens: Hommage à Robert Desnos (2025) with the vocalist Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg. Lawrence has worked extensively with vocals over the years, including his own; I ask whether there is a reason he keeps choosing to work with vocals. ‘The voice is very interesting because there's so much you can do with it. It's so flexible. The work I did with [performance poet] Bob Cobbing back in the 70s and 80s was a very crucial part of my life because it was Bob who really taught me to be a performer. I didn't have a way to be a performer – I wanted to be, but I didn't have an instrument that served the purpose yet. Bob pointed me towards using what there was to perform with.’

One of Lawrence’s early works was a piece called 15 Shakespeare kaku, which was a setting of poems Bob had written for the Globe Playhouse Trust. ‘He took the letters of Shakespeare's name, cut them up in different ways and stuck them all in different shapes, and he would use these as source material for vocalization. I recorded several different versions and used small amounts of pitch change and a bit of ring modulation and things like that.’

That early example of using electronics to process the voice feels a million miles away from what Lawrence and Jean-Michel are doing together now, a relationship which has developed over many years. ‘When you work with somebody for a long time there are things that seem almost permanent, but then there are other things that are always renewing themselves. If you stop renewing yourselves it becomes difficult to do any more, or you find that people move in different directions. I think that's more or less what happened with me and Evan. We've gone in different directions: it was fantastic what we were able to do while we were working together, it just came to a stage where it sort of didn't happen anymore, which is the way of things.’

In some ways, Lawrence has had a very consistent approach since he started playing improvised music, which he recognises as he looks back on his early recordings. ‘Just after we got back from STEIM, Barry [Guy] booked Gateway Studios at Kingston, and we recorded Dividuality , which is really excellent, and it kind of got lost. A little while ago, somebody said to me, ‘This is a really great CD,’ and I'd more or less forgotten about it. And actually, a lot of the things I was doing then, I can see the seeds of what went into [Evan Parker’s] Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. That's really where it begins.’ But at the same time, the need to ‘renew himself’ is clear; Lawrence has never stopped learning. ‘At the beginning I was a bit nervous about how it all worked, whether it was going to work, and how I could do it. It's very different to the way I function now. I'm much freer in how I do stuff. It’s partly self-confidence, feeling more in control, understanding the instrument so much better.’

At the end of our chat, Lawrence tells me about his plans for his 85 ^th year. He’s starting with three concerts at St Alban's church hall in east Oxford. ‘It’s a very nice space: quite intimate but big enough. The first one is on Tuesday 7 April with Emil Karlsen, the Norwegian percussionist. We had a CD out on Bead last year, Aspects of Memory . The second one will be on Tuesday 21 April with Hannah Marshall. We've long wanted to do some duo work; I worked with her previously in a trio with Alison Blunt. The third one is a very nice quartet with Dominic Lash, Massimo Magee and Phil Marks: we’ve just released an album called Livingry from a concert we did in early October at the Hundred Years Gallery. That will be on Tuesday 28 April. And Hannah and I are working towards putting something out, so they're very current things.

‘For my actual birthday, tenth of August, I'm planning to have the wonderful trio, Valid Tractor , with Pat Thomas and Dominic Lash, and Paul Lytton is coming over from Belgium to do a duo. Hopefully there will also be a quartet at the end of that.

‘Later that month, I'm hoping to get the Spanish composer and performer, Llorenç Barber, with his bell tree. Martin Mayes is coming over from Italy, a French horn and alphorn player. He will be a special guest with HyperYak , a quartet I have played with for 25 years. I want to have a concert with Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg and Viv Corringham. We were planning to do a trio in 2020, which got overtaken by COVID. Two wonderful vocalists but a really interesting contrast. For that concert I'm hoping we'll have Harri Sjöström as well. He very rarely comes to England, he hasn't been here for around 10 years, so it would be lovely to have him. The other one I want to do is some of my early electronic work contrasted with improvised electronics, with Martin Hackett.’

It’s an impressive number of concerts to organise, especially at 85. But Lawrence seems excited to be sharing his music. ‘Most of these concerts will be on a pay what you can basis. People should be encouraged to come and enjoy the music and there's no pressure to pay lots of money. I want people to enjoy the music.’

- - -

For more information on Lawrence Casserley’s 85 ^th birthday celebrations, keep an eye on Lawrence’s social media or on the Oxford Improvisers website: oxfordimprovisers.com

Read More

Christian Pouget – Maelström for improvisers (Films UtôpïK, 2025)

By Paul Acquaro

A maelstrom ... "a powerful whirlpool in the sea or a river" or "a situation or state of confused movement or violent turmoil" ... pick your definition or take both as you dive into the pool of riches that French film director Christian Pouget mixes together in a rich amalgam of sound and image. Featuring the music of 22 musicians from America to Europe to Asia, Pouget lets their own words and brilliant selections of solo playing in choice environments explore and explain improvisation. 

 

About two-thirds through the film French saxophonist Sakina Abdou explains that when she realized that she had a connection to free jazz - and wanted to be a part of it - she had to ask what it meant it to do so, now. It's different today than it was when it began, she says, a 'whole different utopia.' No, we do not get a an answer, rather we cut to seeing and hearing Abdou playing freely, but tonally, along a stream with a overpass behind her. Her tones echo out of the tunnel that the stream is passing through. Perhaps its symbolic, perhaps it is just where she is playing.

 

Maelstrom moves like this. From the start we are thrown into a qualitative research study with only an implied research question. It begins, for example, with jazz maverick, French saxophonist Daunik Lazro talking about survival as an artist in an unforgiving world, to questions of perception and being perceived by Abdou, to discussions about the variety of sound from Japanese pianist Sakoto Fujji, who posits that her country features the extremes of music - and then goes on to perform a solo piece that is spacious and abstract as well as dense and urgent.

 

Setting plays a sumptuous role. We see Lazro playing in a sort of junkyard, surrounded by the husks of discarded camping trailers, invoking the spirit and sounds of Albert Ayler on his saxophone. Later, Roberto Ottaviano blows his soprano sax while walking along a wall of sun bleached stones, like the horn is providing orientation through echolocation. Then there is Adbou playing near an urban stream, providing a juxtaposition between nature flow and mankind's structures. The most playful, and perhaps climax of imagery, is trumpeter Susana Santos Silva improvising amongst and with the macabre mechanical creatures making musical chaos in sculptor Daniel Depoutot's Strasbourg workshop. It is all rather visually striking and metaphorically compelling.

 

Throughout the film, the artists providing snippets of observation or insights gained over their years of working in the world of improvised music. The themes connect subtly - there is no title screen with the theme of say "COMMUNICATION" in bold block lettering to ground the conversation, rather, the words touch loosely on themes that shift over the course of the film, and in the end, leave an impression of the values and commonality of uncommon music making.

 

The film is one to relish both for it's imagery and the solo pieces that each musician performs - they are both exemplars of their individual styles and rich in emotion. 

 

Watch the trailer here. 

Full list of artists featured in the film:
Satoko Fujii, Gerry Hemingway, Isabelle Duthoit, Evan Parker, Susana Santos Silva, Daniel Depoutot, Kahil El Zabar, Daunik Lazro, Joe Morris, Mat Maneri, Joëlle Léandre, Christiane Bopp, Betty Hovette, Sonia Sanchez, Agusti Fernandez, Clara Levy, Roberto Ottaviano, Emanuele Parrini, Silvia Bolognesi, Sakina Abdou, Raymond Boni, and Benat Achiary.

Read More

Terrie Ex - Flaps (Terp, 2026)

By Eyal Hareuveni

Dutch guitarist Terrie Ex (aka Terrie Hessels), one of the founders of The Ex, has no formal schooling as a guitarist, no killer riffs or licks, and no technique that is identified with him. He still plays the same, almost fifty-year-old Guild electric guitar, his first guitar, which he bought before ever touching a guitar, just because Peter Hammill has the same one (and Hammill was not impressed by the gesture). Now heavily battered, stained with blood and rust, after being hit by sticks, screwdrivers, knives, and other objects, or pushed into the ground, pillars, and amplifiers (and also towards too eager photographers), it has only five strings. Ex’ Ethiopian friends call this guitar Lucy, after the skeleton of a 3.2 million-year-old hominin woman discovered in Ethiopia.

Ex played solo, free improvised concerts since the early 1990s, and performed (and recorded) many duo performances with fellow Dutch improvisers like Han Bennink and Ab Baars or with Ken Vandermark, Paal Nilssen-Love, Kaja Draksler, and Thurston Moore. But only now, the 71-year-old Ex finally releases his debut solo album, Flaps. Flaps is the name Ex’ daughter, singer-songwriter Lena Hessels, has called him since she was an infant. This family affair features cover artwork by Ex’ partner. Emma Fischer, and the album was released by Ex’ label, Terp.

The 48-minute Flaps distills the essence of Ex. It rarely corresponds with the avant-Ethio punk grooves of The Ex, and has very few rhythmic attacks, but it is unpredictable, equipped with sharp instincts, free and wild imagination, and tons of experience (only The Ex played 2060 concerts since its foundation in 1979). Ex plays the electric guitar as if it were an elastic, experimental material that he can shape and mould its poetic, noisy, and thorny sounds. It captures Ex’ stream-of-consciousness beautifully, exploring fleeting moods and eccentric sounds and soundscapes without attachment to any of these, suggesting an insightful glimpse into the abstract film in Ex’ head. No one plays like Ex, totally possessed by the art of the moment. At times, Flaps sounds as if his guitar has a mind and will of its own. Only very few can offer such an arresting, risk-taking, spontaneous, and free sonic journey.

Read More

Rempis/Adasiewicz/Corsano - Dial Up (Aerophonic, 2025)

 

By Brian Earley

 

Dial Up, Aerophonic Records’s release from December 26, 2025, encounters listeners with ambition and possibility. What begins with two unassuming vibe hits on the album’s opener “Cutups” from Jason Adasiewicz soon forms the melodic and ensemble motif for the outing. Drummer Chris Corsano responds in kind with two unassuming drum hits of his own. Dave Rempis waits, and when he sounds his first notes they arrive in a different key than the vibraphonist established at the work’s opening. The entire date, or rather dates (the album is culled from two live recordings in January and February 2025), features this collaboration of spontaneous negotiation.

An entirely improvised set of pieces, the work finds itself at home with most Aerophonic recordings of Rempis. While this album displays group spontaneity and an increasing build to a musical nexus of volume and intensity, this work is remarkable for its push-pull series of emotional exchanges. When I try to remember what January 2025 felt like, I recall tremendous uncertainty. For me, this record is a document of feeling: it holds for posterity what it felt like to be alive in the United States as the country slid into transition.

At the center of the album lies its longest work, “One Dollar Cheaper.” Adasiewicz opens calmly, playing a soft but insistent pattern of open voicings. Rempis enters on tenor, and soon is hollering, his saxophone reaching towards some yet unheard realm where all sound bursts into shattered infinity. But the horn soon flutters notes and exits, leaving Adasiewicz and Corsano to play a duet of traditional Eastern world Dixieland swing, as though such a thing existed. Mystery is here, but so is humor. When Dave returns, he forwards this joy and soon is playing rising sequences of five notes that sound like the voice of hope itself. However, within moments Jason’s vibes begin to fall in single notes and Corsano’s drums gather a slow-rolling thunder. Around the 8:30 mark Rempis is screaming over and over again, thrusting at the barriers of sonic dynamics. It is the sound of pain. The music wobbles and rights itself until it seems to stop entirely, but Corsano enters with washes of cymbals, Adasiewicz plays one and three note patterns, and Rempis rises from the ashes to swirl in harmonious unity with the others. This time there is unity only in lamentation. All is not well in the world. The song enters its darkest night of grief before Rempis continues walking, walking until new sonic landscapes suggest at least other possibilities, if not the promise of new life.

Of course Rempis and company are not actually making any of these emotions; they are producing only sound. But how wonderful it is to live in a universe where vibrations on the air produce and mimic what is central to feeling alive. It is exactly what we needed in early 2025, and it is a balm for the rising 2026.

The album is available artist direct at https://www.aerophonicrecords.com/dialup.

 

Read More

Adam O’Farrill – For These Streets (Out Of Your Head Records, 2025)

By Don Phipps

Looking at the landscape of modern jazz, one marvels at the abundance of musicians who not only perform spontaneously at a high level, but who write the kind of compositions found on Adam O’Farrill’s double album For These Streets . O’Farrill creates an ethereal and fascinating work or art that blends dreamy landscapes, holographic voicings, and poetic abstractions.

The magic of this album, though, cannot be solely ascribed to O’Farrill’s tunes or top-notch playing. Of near equal importance was his choice of bandmates, many of whom are artists of the highest caliber. This group consists of Mary Halvorson (guitar), Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), David Leon (alto saxophone and flute), Kevin Sun (tenor saxophone and clarinet), Kalun Leung (trombone and euphonium), Tyrone Allen II (double bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums). Is it any wonder why a collaboration of such talent might produce such incredible music?

There are two masterpieces – the “Speeding Blots of Ink” and “Late June.” Both approach the 10-minute mark in length, but what an exquisite 10 minutes! “Blots” opens with a syncopated and alternating trombone, trumpet, and bass. As the music develops, the musicians carve out a distinct space. For example, Fujiwara enters with light tapping on the snare, Halvorson starts up with rolling chords and progresses with rapid abstract fingerings above Brennan’s dissonant retorts. And, as on “Swimmers,” O’Farrill creates trumpet arcs that slide along high notes as if pirouetting on ice. The number evolves until every corner is filled with sound. As “Blots” concludes, there’s a sense of awe - like looking up at the night sky – marveling at the stars and their billion-year-old twinkles.

“Late June” offers warm abstract voicings chock full of intricate interplay. The piece highlights Halvorson’s gentle guitar plucks, Brennan’s vibraphone caresses, Fujiwara’s subtle cymbal play, and Allen’s rapid bowing and down low bass solo. As the number progresses, Leon and Sun’s saxes play off against O’Farrill’s trumpet, and Leung joins on trombone with a staggered line that blends perfectly with the sweet dissonant chorus of brass and saxes. Sun’s sensual sax solo sounds like a sunny day at the beach. And Halvorson’s twangy picks towards the end generate a crazy diamond shine (apologies to Pink Floyd).

While all the artists deserve applause, fans of Halvorson and Brennan should simply not pass up this chance to hear their contributions. Halvorson adopts a balalaika style on “And So On,” brings a little Narciso Yepes flamenco flurry behind O’Farrill’s sweet solo on “Streets,” and generates heat with her plucks and chords on “Blots.” Brennan’s solo and pedal work on the short “The Break Had Not Yet Come” is exquisite. Listen to how she takes over on “Migration.” And her playful back and forth with Halvorson and Allen above Fujiwara’s all over drumming on “Swimmers” and the aforementioned “Break,” and with flautist Leon on “Nocturno, 1932,” reveal a dreamy and impressionistic side to her playing – helped along by her delightful use of the pedal. And when Halvorson and Brennan join forces, for example, towards the end of “Migration,” or on “Late June,” there’s magic in the air.

One feels, with every tune, every phrase and every solo, the nuanced guidance of O’Farrill. This is his creation, and his masterful contributions and trumpet/flugelhorn explorations offer up a memorable experience. This is his world, a world that the listener can enjoy again and again. Highly recommended!

Read More

Yellow Belle Quartet - Yellow Belle (s/r, 2025)

\

By Sammy Stein 

Hugo Costa is a Portuguese saxophonist based in the Netherlands. He plays in projects ranging from modern jazz to free improvisation, such as Real Mensh, The Garuda Trio, The Land Over Water Trio, Yellow Belle Quartet, The Rotterdam Kinematic Ensemble, and others. He has performed and recorded with musicians, including William Parker, Rodrigo Pinheiro, Raoul van der Weide, Marta Warelis, Alexander Frangenheim, Sofia Borges, Han-Earl Park, and toured extensively in Europe and Japan.

In the Yellow Belle Quartet, Costa is joined by musicians from Barcelona: Clara Lai on piano, Alex Reviriego on double bass, and Vasco Trilla on drums and percussion.

Lai is a pianist and composer who plays multiple genres and is active in the jazz scene in Barcelona, leading ensembles and collaborating with many prominent musicians such as Oriol Roca, Àlex Reviriego, Ferran Fages, Albert Cirera, and more. She has released a variety of recordings on both national and international record labels.

Àlex Reviriego is a member of Phicus, Tholos Gateway, the Liba Villavecchia Trio, and The Devil, Probably, as well as being a solo artist. He has participated in a number of formations of contemporary, improvised, and experimental music. His ferocious, angular style can be heard in dozens of albums released on various European labels as well as in different live settings, ranging from solo, small formations to orchestral work. He runs the experimental tape label Hera Corp.

Vasco Trilla has recorded more than one hundred albums, ranging from free improvisation, to progressive rock and ambient music. He has released albums on Clean Feed Records, Cuneiform Records, NoBusiness, Not Two, and others, and collaborated with Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Mars Williams, Patrick Shiroishi, Elliot Sharp, Steve Swell, and more. He has toured internationally and is one of the most in-demand voices of the European free improvised scene.

From the opening track, ‘Transient Moods,’ this album creates a sense of dialogue and connection between the musicians. On the opener, the bass line is subtle and relentless, with sax, percussion, and piano interceding in every conceivable space. The sax lines are melodious while the intricate percussive motifs create a sense of contrast and interact deftly with the piano. In the second half of the track, the mood changes to a reflective atmosphere, enhanced by the almost continuous bell sound in the percussion.

On ‘Soft Buttons’, the sax line meanders across a background of sonic mesh that upholds, reflects, and enhances, creating a track of many parts, including interactive reflection and an intriguing to and fro between the bell-like percussion and the piano that emerges under the sax line to create an uplifting, deeply engaging track. The lightness of the percussion contrasts wonderfully with the depth of sonic texture created by the bass and sax.

‘Dissonancias’ is an explorative track with spiritual essences, while ‘Gracia’ is introduced with a solo from Costa, into which the other musicians drop with delightful gusto, creating an interactive soundscape. The percussion crescendos throughout the number, adding ever more intricate rhythmic patterns that, teamed with the rapid-fire sax provided by Costa, make the track completely immersive. From its opening to the quietude of the ending, this track is five and a half minutes of full-bodied, unleashed free playing.

‘A Lingua dos Passaros’ (Language of The Birds) is aptly named as the ensemble creates a percussive-led, conversive piece akin to an awakening of many different types of sound. Trilla makes full use of the deeper drum sounds to create an atmosphere of strength and power which underlies the track, offset by intricate piano and steadfast bass. ‘Yellow Belle’ closes the album and is the clarion call of the group, encompassing each musician in both solo and support roles, intertwining, and reacting as appropriate, finishing this involved musical conversation that is as relevant to the listener as it is evidently to the musicians.

Costa told me about this recording, “I wanted to play with Vasco Trilla because he's a unique drummer. I've been listening to his records, especially those with Mars Williams as a sax-drums duo, which I love. I invited Vasco to play as a duo and went to Barcelona, where he's based. At the same time, I invited Clara and Alex to play as a quartet. They are both amazing musicians. It was a perfect opportunity to play with all these musicians I admire. We went to the studio and did a session where we played together for the first time as a quartet. The music is dynamic, with everyone listening to each other. There was a great energy between everyone, with each musician bringing their unique approach. We were so pleased with the result that we decided to release it. I also recorded a duo with Vasco, to be released soon.”

Costa has brought together a remarkable set of musicians. They have achieved an album that embodies melody and includes free improvisation and musical understanding that speaks loudly to the listener. The charisma of this ensemble is enchanting, and the music superb.

Read More