Emad Armoush’s Rayhan – Distilled Extractions (Afterday Audio 2025)

By Nick Ostrum

It begins with a whirl of sound, out of which Francois Houle’s clarinet rises to lead the piece into a lively Arabic dance. The rhythm, played or implied, remains, but the horns and strings swing back into a stew of improvisation that recalls, with Middle Eastern inflections, the free jazz fumblings especially of late 1950s/early 1960s Ornette and Don Cherry. They lean toward melody but are also pulled to the cacophony that would soon be realized as free improv in Europe. Here, Armoush balances that impulse with his folk and classical Arabic training to produce something that is absolutely stunning, especially when punctuated by his hauntingly emotive voice.

Distilled Extractions is Armoush’s group Rayhan’s second recording, at least as far as I can find. Accompanying the core of Kenton Loewen on drums, Houle on clarinet, JP Carter on trumpet, Jesse Zubot on violin and, of course, Armoush himself on oud, ney and vocals is cellist Marina Hasselberg, who has played everything from early music to contemporary classical to collaborations with Okkyung Lee, Ingrid Laubrock and John Dieterich. (Notably, this is the same Rayhan line-up that performed on 2023’s Electritradition, though there in duos rather than collectively.) The stylistic reach is wide, though much of that reach, especially into free jazz, is integrated along different scalar and rhythmic lines. At its core, however, lies dance music – by definition a communal undertaking - driven by a steady rhythm and eastern scales and syntax. This alone might be enough to make this album compelling, especially when performed by band this tight. The improvisations, however, the protracted pronouncements/recitations, the genuinely weird atmospherics, the unstructured improv sections truly distinguish Distilled Extractions from the crowd.

In an odd way, this reminds me of the Grateful Dead at their digressive best. The group eventually get back to the melody and the “song,” but the listener is often left wondering how it happened, and excited that things happened in the way they did. To these ears, at least, this is one of the best so far of 2025.

Distilled Extractionsis available as a CD and download on Bandcamp:

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Rob Mazurek - Nestor’s Nest (Keroxen Records, 2025)

By Don Phipps

Rob Mazurek’s solo album Nestor’s Nest is a creative sonic adventure that runs from Native American drum chants to imagined extraterrestrial settings. Known for his trumpet playing and composing skills, Mazurek jettisons bandmates on this go round, choosing instead to create his own soundscapes using Modular Synths, a Moog Sub 37, a PolyEvolver (another type of synthesizer), bells, flutes, and his own vocals.

The first cut, “Star Fruit,” serves as a kind of short celestial introduction to the explosive, propelling rhythm of “Banana Fruit,” a piece which features syncopated beats beneath an ethereal vibraphone-like voicing. The vibraphonish sounds float above rhythm and what might be described as a bit of DJ scratching. Burbles and baubles bubble up from the deep like an ocean geyser. Late in the number, Mazurek uses striking trumpet injections – his lines slicing through the rhythmic polyphonic intensity like a samurai sword through bamboo. As the music concludes, he brings what sounds like Native American chants to the maelstrom.

The short “Under the Papaya Tree” offers up a bird call flute before breaking into the funky safari of “Mango Fruit.” The music here is an elephant ride along a jungle coast, the white sand stretching outward interspersed with palm trees. The electronic legato mix hangs atop syncopated beats before progressing to a cubic light show generated by a whirling, sound-spinning decahedron.

“Papaya Fruit” is perhaps the most surprising of all the cuts. It begins like a 1950s space movie soundtrack – is this Mazurek replicating the hum of the universe? The piece migrates into an African-inspired funk. Mazurek enters on trumpet, fluttering, trilling, and roller-coasting up and down – his fantastic technique never wavers as it twists and turns. Voice and bells enter – the number radiating a galloping heat, the thunder of hooves on dry clay. As it winds down, one hears percussion instruments Art Ensemble of Chicago-style.

The music of Nestor’s Nest is clever, flamboyant, challenging. It retains a sense of immediacy – the action non-stop, the atmospheres created diverse. Mazurek pushes his listeners to confront a variety of musical environments. The strange and surreal mind travels generated here will keep most on edge. Fun stuff. Enjoy!

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Virginia Genta @ Moers 2024

The Moers Festival, or "mœrs festival," is an annual international music festival held in Moers, Germany. Founded in 1972 by Burkhard Hennen, it initially focused on free jazz but over the years has expanded its scope to include world and pop music while still inviting many avant-garde jazz musicians. One such musician was Italian saxophonist Virgina Genta - certainly known for her part in the Jooklo Duo with drummer David Vanzan - and the artist in residence at Moers last year.

Here is a video of Genta performing with guitarist Bill Nace at the festival in 2024. You can tell from the immediate furnace blast of sound that these two were in a take-no-prisoners mood. 

The Moers Festival 2025 is scheduled to take place from June 6th to June 9th. This year's artist in residence is Belgian trumpeter Bart Maris, whose own style combines melodic tendencies with avant-garde approaches. Check out a bit more here.

To learn more about the festival, the line up, and its new "Pay What You Want" pricing plan, head here. 

Check out Eyal Hareuveni's coverage of the festival last year here. (We'll be back this year as well).

Read Free Jazz Blog reviews of Virginia Genta's work here: 

• Eyes Turned Inward: An Interview with Virginia Genta
• Jooklo Roundup
• Jooklo Trio – It is what it is (Relative Pitch, 2020) ****
• Solos from Relative Pitch (Day 1/2)
• Jooklo Trio - It Is What It Is / Virginia Genta - Amplified Sopranino Sax 7
• Bill Nace Round Up (Day 2/2)
• Unlimited 30 Festival, Wels, Austria, Nov. 11-13, 2016
• Virginia Genta - Rough Enough (Holidays, 2016) ****1/2
• Virginia Genta, David Vanzan, Dag Stiberg, John Wesseltoft – Det Kristike Punkt (2015, Feeding Tube Records) ****
• Jooklo Danish Group - Mixture of Energies (Holiday Records, 2012) ****
• Jooklo Duo & Bill Nace – Scratch (Holidays Records) ****1/2

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The Vinny Golia Quintet 2024: Almasty (Nine Winds, 2024) *****

By Paul Acquaro 

 

Yes, it is a 2024 release, and had I given it proper spins at the proper time, it would have likely ended up on a best-of list of mine. That's my trope though, isn't it ... where was I when this was happening? Luckily, in this case, it still is happening and it happens to be great. LA based Vinny Golia, master of all things woodwind and renowned music educator, has created a top-notch album rife with  compositional elements and scintillating improvisation. 

 

The group is a choice selection of musicians - many of them also educators - from the West Coast. Along with Golia is trumpeter Kris Tiner, pianist Cathlene Pineda, bassist Miller Wrenn, and drummer Clint Dodson. A quick look through their bios reveals some common constellations and connections, but it seems like Almasty is a first for the group - which is certainly not ascertainable from the music - and which was followed up by a second recording, Can You Outrun Them?, released at the very end of last year.

 

Almasty begins with 'A Little Game', kicking off with a knotty harmonic clash between Tiner and Golia, their interaction exuding a hint of Coleman and Cherry, which then quickly unfolds revealing a  cornucopia of textures, tones and melodies. The song is a game of chase with ideas darting about, drums and bass providing a strong foundation, and piano smartly filling the space with supportive rhythmic comping and vibrant chords. The next track 'Requiem; a visit to the fairy room, for WS' demonstrates the diversity of the music. The ballad-like tune begins with a slightly wavering doubling of sax and trumpet, under which Pineda sly interjects chords, along with the rustle of percussion. The tune then opens up with the bass adding additional motion, and Golia begins playing a yearning melody.

 

Pineda is in the fore on 'Crocodylomphs & Theropods', at first. Her syncopated comping and melodic snippets make for an accessibly abstract approach that seems at once classically jazzy and sneakily subversive. Tiner follows up with a solo of similar appeal. The last track that I'll mention is 'That Was For Albert! #43 (it's not who you think...)' Assuming that everyone thinks just like me, the Albert would be Ayler, but who really knows. What can be definitively stated is that it is one of the more exuberantly free flowing tracks of the recording. Wrenn's bowed bass adds tense reverberations and Dodson's drumming provides a turbulent underlayer for the musical effervescence on top.

 

What an album! Rich and colorful, gorgeously played inside and outside. We haven't touched on the term 'Almasty' yet. Apparently it is a cryptid, a creature that may or may not exist like a Bigfoot - this one being a wild man in the mountains of central Asia. I cannot say that it actually means anything in relation to the music, but it could be a good piece of trivia for you to use the next time you're searching for small talk before a show.

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Albert Ayler with Don Cherry - 1964 Recordings First Visit Completed (First Visit-ezz-thetics, 2024)

By Ferruccio Martinotti

Albert Ayler definitely represents one of the ontological arguments for being, you and us, in front of a screen in this very right moment. But no worries, we’re not so dumb or arrogant to pretend to add some miserable lines of ours to explain the Man to such a gotha of colleagues and to the super skilled readers of the Only Blog That Matters. 

So, trying to keep our battered spaceship at a reasonable distance from the Sun, let’s start the trip by opening the History Book. After a first stint in 1962 along with Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler comes back to Copenhagen invited by the Cafè Montmartre, one of the most legendary jazz venues all over the globe. His trio, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sonny Murray, is on board with him, together they will join Don Cherry, already on the European soil. The trip is the usual kind of adventures for fearless mavericks like them: no food, no bucks, a light luggage made of a white shirt and a shoeshine brush, a heavy load of hopes to play as much as they can and possibly to be paid for that. In terms of discography, the outcome of that tour has been gathered in various forms along the years. Without bothering you too much, following are the releases as listed in the official Ayler Records site: The Hilversum Session; The Copenhagen Tapes; Albert Ayler Live in Europe 1964-1966; European Radio Studio Recordings 1964; Copenhagen Live 1964; European Recordings Autumn 1964 Revisited. Now, this wonderful, shining 2 CD set, allows us to enjoy one of the crucial ensembles in the history of music, delivering high-octane, pedal to metal performances, recorded from 3rd to 14th September on in Copenhagen and on November 9th in Hilversum. 

Along with Ayler’s timeless gems ('Holy Spirit,' 'Ghosts,' 'Vibrations,' 'Spirits,' among others), the beautiful Don Cherry’s 'Infant Happiness' is the icing on an already tasteful cake. Nobody better than poet Ted Joans described the emotions felt in attending the Montmartre residency, his sentence now part of the myth of our beloved music: “Their sound was so different, so unique and raw, like to scream FUCK in Saint Patric’s Cathedral during a sold out Easter service”. And more: “Some Danish answered with bad whistling, others screamed to the musicians to shut up. I sat chocked, intoxicated and surprised to what I experienced. Their music didn’t sound like anything I’ve heard before”. Asked by Danish journalists, the musicians said little about their music. If for Ayler: “My music is spiritual music”, Gary Peacock provided the ultimate, unsurpassed claim: “This isn’t music for a specific purpose, for instance to listen or dance to, it just IS”. No reason to waste ink to add that here we’re talking of a buy-or-die record. 

A final note to pay the credits due to the people who made this recordings available to us: the supreme Hat Hut Records Ltd. Founded and owned by Werner X. Uehlinger in 1975, Hat Hut started independently the series “ezz-thetics” in 2019, the name chosen to honor the exceptional recording of George Russel and the great soli of Eric Dolphy on it, then launched the new series “First Visit”, mainly for archive discoveries. The job done by such labels is more than invaluable, it should be considered Heritage of Humanity. Time to scream FUCK whenever and wherever we can is NOW. 

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Yes Deer - Everything That Shines, Everything That Hurts (Superpang, 2025)

By Eyal Hareuveni

Danish, Oslo-baed sax player Signe Emmeluth is one of the busiest musicians in the Nordic free music scene, leading her bands Emmeluth's Amoeba and Banshee, playing solo and in duos with Belgian sax player Hanne de Backer and Danish drummer Kresten Osgood, and member of Paal Nilssen-Love’s Circus, Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra, Bonanza of Doom, Andreas Røysum Ensemble, Liv Andrea Hauge Ensemble, and Jonas Cambien's Maca Conu.

Emmeluth joined the hyper-expressive free jazz trio Yes Deer - with Norwegian guitarist-partner Karl Bjorå (who plays in Emmeluth's Amoeba and with her in Bonanza of Doomin and the duo Owl), and Danish drummer Anders Vestergaard - after fellow Danish sax player Signe Dahlgreen left the trio in 2021. Everything That Shines, Everything That Hurts is the fourth album of the trio and the first one with Emmeluth.

Fortunately, nothing has changed in this supposedly fresh beginning of the trio. It still offers its raw and thunderous dynamics and explodes right from the first second with an intense, merciless ride. Displaced, distorted guitar riffs, manic saxophone blows, and libidinous drumming blend into an intoxicating, cacophonous stew that keeps boiling until it completely drains all energy out of Yes Deer.

Emmeluth, on tenor and alto saxes, has become an organic part of Yes Deer’s fiery, dense interplay with her stream of stratospheric, commanding blows. The album features only two pieces, the 14-minute “Everything That Shines” and the 18-minute “Everything That Hurts”, but you are guaranteed that its liberating power will trigger immediate, repeated listening. There is nothing that can compete with an addictive stew of such three musicians playing in one room, their super-fast instincts, clever thinking, and deep camaraderie, as well as their willingness to act stupidly, search for the sound of sabotage, and push away their sticky jazz education.

A perfect album for our current despairing times.

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James Brandon Lewis - Apple Cores (ANTI-, 2025)

By Don Phipps

“My work involves the idea of building my own molecule and then allowing myself to give meaning to it,” said tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis in a November 2023 interview with Stewart Smith of the Quietus. In the interview, Lewis expresses his interest in science – describing the DNA Helix as a model for his Molecular Systematic Music system. He expounds, saying “…the transformative experiences that can shape your artistic DNA…. My encounter with the whole idea of molecular biology continues to shape my music’s personality.”

The DNA helix is well understood in science as the fundamental building block of who each of us is – from our physical characteristics to our behavior and personality. Perhaps this is what drives James Brandon Lewis – his goal – a musical form that emanates who he is deep down – his core . Maybe that is what lies behind the album name – Apple Cores.

Lewis and his bandmates, the wonderful Chad Taylor (drums, mbira) and Josh Werner (bass, guitar) composed all the pieces which grace this effort. The trio is joined on some of the tracks by two guest artists, Guilherme Monteiro (guitar) and Stephane San Juan (percussion). Together they deliver a stunning combination of toe tapping, head nodding, angular musical geometry chockful of rolling rhythm and bass lines, lines that permit Lewis to mold the music with his soulful and seductive sax passages.

Like ocean spray on a warm summer day, the music feels almost joyful - in an abstract sort of way. The geometry of the music suggests paintings of Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky, or the fascinating landscapes of Yves Tanguy. There is tight coherence to each cut, but also a broadening that stretches outward. The three Apple Core numbers (“Apple Core #1,” “Apple Core #2,” and “Apple Core #3”) demonstrate this tight and loose feel – the rolling Werner bass arpeggios and the Taylor funky, bumpy drumwork behind Lewis’s wild and undulating sax exhortations and stutters. The music leaps from ledge to ledge like a mountain goat on a desolate Wyoming Beartooth mountain.

Then there is the expansive ballad “Of Mind and Feeling,” where the group is joined by Monteiro and San Juan. Coming in at less than three minutes, the music here is airy and hazy, a kind of peaceful morning call – and what a beautiful and introspective morning it is! Listen to Monteiro’s floating guitar lines above Lewis’s deep and resonant presentation. Werner keeps it minimal – touching only on the basics while letting the music open up. And likewise, Taylor adds a minimal approach, his subtle toms apparent at first before disappearing altogether.

Other numbers are equally impressive – the musical safari of “Prince Eugene,” the intense climb of “Five Spots to Caravan,” the New York street feel of “Remember Brooklyn & Moki,” where the music creates a collage of concrete sidewalks, wall graffiti, urban metal security shutters, dusty street signs, and brownstones.

“Broken Shadows” generates heat, lit up by Taylor’s fascinating African-infused beat. There is the hopping dance line of “D.C. Got Pocket.” Listen for Monteiro’s guitar funk and later his intense blowback intermixed with the solid but novel Taylor drumming. And on “Exactly, Our Music,” the tight syncopation is backstopped by Monteiro’s vibrant guitar. After a brief Monteiro solo, Lewis emerges with his soulful motif and San Juan jumps in late with irregular patterns that merge seamlessly.

Although all the music presented is excellent, “Don’t Forget About Jane,” may well be this album’s masterpiece. Here is where - above Taylor’s all over drumming - Lewis shows off his angular dramatic style in all its glory. As the piece progresses, Lewis becomes even more extemporaneous, deploying immense freewheeling arcs and a repetitive motif that reaches for the sky.

There is never a dull moment on Apple Cores – it is exciting to its core. This is a record that delivers Punch and Judy – a ripe bowl of apples - sweet, crisp, with plenty of juice, and ready for your pleasure.

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Isaiah Collier, William Parker, William Hooker – The Ancients (Eremite, 2025)

By Nick Ostrum

I rarely analyze cover art in reviews, but maybe I should. In this case, the cover consists of a photograph flanked on either side by a firey bundles of wheat (or carpet?) and, below, paintings of a flower and a soft blue bird. Above is the title, The Ancients, crowned by vine scrolls, all in black. This highlights the center photo, in which Isaiah Collier, William Parker, and William Hooker stand on a New York rooftop, two wearing scarves, one sunglasses, all three staring at the camera. But the photo looks like a faded polaroid, primary hued with hushed blue and yellow. It looks old. The three men look like ancients, fuzzy from memory, almost haunting the image.

In other words, the image is making a claim to lineage and the album lives up to it. Recorded over two nights of concerts – two at LA’s Arts & Archives and one at The Chapel in San Francisco – in 2023, The Ancients is both urgent and classic, reaching back to the slow methodical modal build-ups of 1970s free jazz. Collier starts with a patient layering of phrase upon phrase, which accretes tension until an eruptive release about 17 minutes in. Parker lays a propulsive bass, leaping from furrow to furrow through additive embellishments and sheer drive. Hooker plays with a concertedness that betrays not age, but wisdom and experience. He is busy and rhythmic, but with precision and crisp, discernible arcs rather than free-for-all clangor. (In that, he is on par with Andrew Cyrille right now.) With Parker and Collier’s emphasis on process and development, this works perfectly and brings me back to some of my first encounters with the music of Noah Howard, Sonny Simmons, Kidd Jordan, and, of course, late Coltrane. Then again, one would not mistake Collier for them. I am not sure what it is, exactly. Maybe it is the replacement of patience and slightly longer tones, or fewer beats per measure, for the rush of those earlier works. Collier, Parker and Hooker are dealing with similar ideas and aesthetics but developing them in different ways. Take Parker’s turn to the hojǒk, a Korean instrument akin to an oboe, at the end of the second LA night, and Collier’s adoption of various unidentified “little instruments” and the Aztec death whistle, which sounds like a human scream, as evidence. Or, take the extended, spacious bass-drum duo in the second LA night, that replaces some of that early energy music exuberance with special attention to construction.

My only real criticism is the cuts between tracks. Each set fades out rather than finishes. One wonders whether this was done to fit each set onto a side of a record. If so, that is a fine reason, but one is left wondering what is missing. Somehow 22-minute cuts just are not long enough.

Now, Collier’s own words: “free jazz is an enduring high art. its greatest expressions belong to their particular moment in history, & live on to transce-nd & refract in amaranthine ways. inside our present historical moment, we are fortunate to have the master musicians in the ancients bringing us their high level creation.” Agreed, but let us also remember the current moment, and the new generation who are building on that tradition, Collier himself foremost among them. God damn, this is good music. Cheers to the ancients, the forebearers, who established this tradition, and an extra spilled libation to those of whatever generation who are keeping it alive and relevant.

The Ancientsis available as a download on Bandcamp and as a double-CD and LP through Aguirre Records.

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Ivo Perelman and Tyshawn Sorey - Parallel Aesthetics (Fundacja Słuchaj, 2025)

By Don Phipps

Freedom is a hallmark of any Ivo Perelman album – a freedom governed only by the interaction he has with his guest artists. Case in point – his double CD recording Parallel Aesthetics with drummer/pianist Tyshawn Sorey – a masterpiece of transitions – fast to slow, soft to loud, rhythmic variations and abrupt changes at a moment’s notice, the way the two musicians listen carefully and respond to each other’s phrases and momentum. These improvs are not for the faint of heart or ear. But in their stream of consciousness approach, they explore the contours of sound in a meticulous manner, not unlike a seasoned spelunker entering an eons-old cave for the first time, the darkness pervasive but the footing secure.

Sorey enjoyed an extremely fruitful 2024. The drummer/pianist/composer won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for music for his composition “Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith).” He was also nominated for the same award in 2023 for his work “Monochromatic Light (Afterlife),” which was inspired in part by the Rothko Chapel (the Rothko Chapel in Houston, TX features 14 abstract expressionist masterpieces by Mark Rothko; Rothko painted the haunting murals that adorn the chapel walls in 1967, just three years before his untimely death by suicide). Sorey also received several best of jazz 2024 album nods for his trio recording The Susceptible Now (Pi Recordings) with pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Harish Raghavan, and his supporting drum work on two albums - pianist Vijay Iyer’s Compassion (ECM) with bassist Linda May Han Oh, and bassist Kim Cass’s Levs (Pi Recordings) with pianist Matt Mitchell [check out Lee Rice Epstein’s review of Levs] .

Like Sorey, Perelman too enjoyed a productive 2024, issuing collaborative recordings with such jazz luminaries as trumpeter Nate Wooley, saxophonists Ingrid Laubrock and Chad Fowler, pianists Matthew Shipp and Aruan Ortiz, bassists Reggie Workman, Barry Guy and Mark Helias, drummers Tom Rainey, Ramon Lopez, and Andrew Cyrille, vocalist Fay Victor, and violinist Gabby Fluke-Mogul. All of Perelman’s work feature mind-expanding improvisation done with a high level of precision and technique.

As is typical with any Perelman recording, the six numbers that grace this effort cover a range of feelings and atmospheres. Sorey plays drums on three and piano on three, which gives him an opportunity to create phantasmagoric interplay with the excitement and heat elicited by Perelman’s sax. Look no further than “CD 2 Two” for evidence of this. Sorey plays inside the piano, creating odd sounds and machinations with the strings. Sometimes he pairs this with rumbles in the lower register of the keyboard. The effect is one of interstellar space – a kind of Ligeti-like coloring behind Ivo’s pause and play method - like a dark dream – Alice down the rabbit hole. And Ivo’s climb to the summit and beyond highlights how the two interact to create strange new soundscapes.

There is also the doom and anxiety expressed on “CD1 Four,” which features Perelman’s outbursts and runs, that, over time, transition into siren calls above Sorey’s light dancing and pirouettes on the piano keys. Think balance beam or tightrope, as the music stagger-steps along what feels like a musical cliff, the rocks hundreds of feet below. Towards the end of the piece, Sorey creates ear bending tone clusters as Perelman jumps in with exclamations, hues, and cries.

On the pieces where he plays drums, Sorey exhibits what could be described as a master class of drumming skills, flipping from cymbal to snare to tom to bass drum like water storming over a rocky rapid. His fluid playing flows beneath Perelman’s whirls, swirls, and transpositions. And listen to the musicality of his bass drum pedal work on “CD2 One.” This same cut highlights Perelman’s speed to the top of the sax register and then back down – his dexterous action on the keys not unlike a high-speed racecar, bobbing and weaving through traffic daredevil style.

Perelman and Sorey bring boundless energy to “Parallel Aesthetics.” Balls to the walls. Thrilla from Manila. Captured perfectly by expert engineer Jim Clouse, such high musicianship and improvisatory excellence demands an audience. Highly recommended!

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João Madeira "Aqui, Dentro"

This week's Sunday video comes to us via Portuguese bassist João Madeira who recently streamed this multi-media performance:

"'Aqui, Dentro #3' is a multidisciplinary performance imagined by João Madeira, who invited Cláudio de Pina and António Jorge Gonçalves on this intrepid journey. João Madeira's original composition for solo double bass solo is fed through the interpretative lens of sound processing by Cláudio de Pina and real-time digital design by António Jorge Gonçalves.

"This journey intended to open clearings within the sound, to discover chambers dug into the ground, into the soil of a single note, thus unveiling the electroacoustic depth of this excavation. The instrument is thus played with four hands and in two dimensions and, in turn, the music that resonates from it gives visibility to the gestation of an imagetic narrative, an image of listening itself - the drawing." (Translated from Portuguese via DeepL). 

See more at Miso Music Portugal.

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A Spotlight: WV Sorcerer Productions

 

By William Rossi

We've all been recommended great music from a friend, a relative, a colleague, an acquaintance, a parent even; music we would never have found otherwise, music that goes under the radar, outside the Spotify algorithm recommendations or advertisements. It's the magic of word of mouth, the result of chance, interpersonal relationships and curiosity, so many variables that give the gems we find thanks to it a special quality. 

In the internet years, with so much music released every day, independent labels have taken on the mantle of curator, of that friend that recommends new and hidden music. We all have our favourites, of course, Clean Feed, Trost, Thrill Jockey, ECM, Impulse! and hundreds more for virtually every music genre, and once you find a label whose taste you resonate with a rabbit hole of great music opens up in front of you, music and artists that will be among your favourites that you might not have found had you not browsed the label's catalogue.

Over ten years ago, I came across the album San Sheng Shi by Chinese avant-garde musician Li Jianhong, falling in love with his music and his particular approach to the guitar. Ever since then I've amassed a small collection of his releases and one day, while browsing Bandcamp looking to expand this tiny heap of records, I came across a label I'd never heard of before: WV Sorcerer Productions, based in France and managed by Chinese musician Ruotan Shen. In addition to the Li Jianhong material I was looking for I found a treasure trove of music spanning most genres in the experimental domain, from free improvisation to traditional folk, most of it focusing on musicians from China and France, but not exclusively. Although some of the music in the label's catalogue falls outside the purview of the music we tackle on this site I encourage everyone to give a chance to the psych rock of Mong Tong, the tribalistic Pays du Mat or the futuristic singer-songwriter Otay:onii whose incredible vocals are in high demand lately and who, in my opinion, will be the next big thing in independent music.

For fans of freely improvised music there's a lot to sink your teeth into, I've tried to compile some of my favourites here.

Li Jianhong & Wen Zhiyong & Deng Boyu - Les trois amis de l'hiver  

 

A patient, meditative release that, through its sheer size reaches emotional highs I've rarely heard in purely improvised music. One massive live performance split into two CDs of world-class improv, with fantastic interplay and perfectly balanced peaks and valleys of energy. Li Jianhong's massive guitar never overshadows Wen Zhiyong's more delicate trumpet, sometimes exchanged for a flute and often augmented with or possibly used as a controller for synthesizers that, despite their cold and digital sound, retain the articulation and phrasing of a brass instrument. The drumming is fluid and exciting, providing a great foundation for the other instruments while also showing off Deng Boyu's talent and chops. A fantastic trio that tries something new and succeedes with flying colors, I hope this isn't the last we see of this ensemble.

 

 

ZAÄAR - Musique cryptique (Live in Liège) 

 

 

Not the only ZAÄAR release on the label but by far my favourite; the Belgian collective merges staples of western free improvisation like the tenor saxophone with middle eastern instruments like the zurna and the iranian santur without falling into clichéd orientalist faux-traditional music we can hear on some Hollywood soundtracks. They merge the organic sound of wind and hammered instruments with inorganic synths and heavily processed vocals that are more textural and ritualistic than lyrical into a mutant, alien kind of music that's simply ZAÄAR's signature sound. It's a live album and it embraces what makes a live album great: the volume, the tactile feel of the recording, the blemishes and the unmatched energy of being in a room performing in front of an attentive audience. The stage is where ZAÄAR thrives and here they're firing on all cylinders for your listening pleasure.  

P/O Massacre - Sonic Oblivion

 

This duo from Anton Ponomarev and Anton Obrazeena pushes free improvisation to its limit, bordering and often venturing into the realm of pure noise music. The album is a tour de force, a relentless assault on the senses that needs to be experienced in one sitting and at dangerously high volume. Its four pieces are purposeful exercises in tension and sonic exploration through a heavily distorted guitar, noisy electronics, samples and a screaming saxophone, all focusing on texture and volume over rhythm or melody in pursuit of pure catharsis. The final track is a more conceptual piece of contemporary music, revolving around the processed sample of the plane Obrazeena flew leaving Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. A long, loud and challenging release, that's freeing and purifying the way great noise music can be.   

 

Qian Geng & Anton Kaun & Wang Ziheng - Krakatoa 

Possibly my favourite release on the label, it prominently features the saxophone of firebrand Wang Ziheng, one of the wildest, most expressive saxophonists around today interacting in a live setting with German audio artist Anton Kaun. The album explores sound in a holistic way, remaining meditative even in its most aggressive moments, a balancing act between the electronics, the percussion and the woodwind; there's a delicacy behind the countless layers of sound. This is truly free music, little to no rules and expectations of jazz-inspired music remain, no constraints or regulations, just pure expression. And the fantastic music is only one element of this release: the physical edition includes a gorgeous 200-page art and photography book of the artists on the tour that would result in the music on the album. It's an audio-visual piece of art and, while the music is great and can be purchased digitally on its own, the book is just as important for the experience, I highly recommend purchasing the physical edition although the price can be steep.

As mentioned before, the incredibly talented improvisers on the label's roster are but one facet of the music that gets released, the latest offerings being a soundtrack for theater by multimedia artist Cheng Daoyuan and a smokey dark folk album by singer-songwriter Sophía Djebel Rose. 'Human decadence & cosmic existence' reads the label bio and all the albums they put out perfectly encapsulate this simple phrase, the push and pull of the melancholy, decay and sorrow that are part of what it means to be human with the drive to transcend, to express oneself and create something beautiful and meaningful.

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