Founded in 2001 by the italian musician Federico Ughi along with the
legendary Daniel Carter, 577 Records (named after Ughi’s apartment at 577
Fifth Ave. Brooklyn, where he was living at the time) is one of the most
interesting independent labels around, including in its roster the likes of
Amba, Amado, Cleaver, Dunmall, Genovese, Greene, Holmes, Ishito, Jones,
Mela, Moore, Musson, Parker, Putman, Sanders, Shipp and both the founders,
among many others. Key figure in the picture is the graphic designer Sergio
Vezzali. Two sub-labels covering and enriching the artistic scope: Positive
Elevation, dedicated to experimental electronic music and avant soul;
Orbit577, the digital branch. 577 Records started the Forward Festival in
2015 and the residency program Sounds of Freedom, in which active musicians
are awarded the opportunity to develop their own sound, skills and
improvisation concept. If it’s ontologically impossible to define the sound
of New York, 577 Records is for sure part of its sonic DNA. Some fresh
Gourmandises de la Maison, as follows.
Roberto Cassani/Graeme Stephen - Pictish Spaghetti (577 Records, 2025)
Free music where moods and feelings move your mind and soul to a Spaghetti Western set? It sounds pretty unlike but it’s what happens with this record. Just, instead of the dusty Almeria desert, the landscape shows the green hills of Scotland, where Italian double bassist Roberto Cassani and guitarist Graeme Stephen put in place a recording studio in a battered rural school, deep in the Ochill Hills remote countryside. Here, in the summer of 2024, the duo recorded their first album together with the aim, says Cassano, “to capture a true, imperfect, honest beauty of a moment in music” and what came out “sounds like a Sergio Leone’s western set in Pictish territory, the soundtrack of which is left to a couple of Druids who trained for a lifetime to produce spontaneous moments, where every noise, every stumble, every dissonance is essential”. The Picts were an early Middle Ages tribe living on the hills of Perthshire, the remnants of their magic and culture can be seen today as spiraling art carved into rocks and boulders called Pictish Stones. Taking for granted, as said in the liner notes, that the mysterious and enchanting vibes influenced the duo’s recording, what we can add is that this recipe made of free textures, psychedelic nuances, rural and western atmospheres, is fully palatable, never out of focus or confused. A brave and intriguing work that could easily be a Julian Cope’s favourite.
Ayumi Ishito (Feat. Kevin Shea and George Draguns) - Roboquarians Vol.2 (577 Records, 2025)
Born and raised in Ishikawa, Japan, Ayumi Ishito spent a 3 years scholarship studying performance and composition at Berkee College of Music in Boston, then, after graduating, moved to New York in 2010 where she put in place several projects, Open Question, The Spacemen and her own quintet, among others. On this record, labelled as “the ultimate avant-punk experience”, Ayumi is teaming up with George Draguns on guitar and Kevin Shea on drums, for a Vol.2 by this unity that is actually the real debut. Bizarre, you're right. Draguns and Shea began playing together in the mid 90’s as Storm & Stress, an experimental rock band from Pittsburgh, then, relocated in Chicago, released a couple of records for the legendary Touch and Go label. Through collaborations with the jazz ensemble Mostly Other People Do the Killing and the trio Entropic Hop, the guys crossed the path with Ishito, starting a fruitful partnership that delivered our Vol.2, along with a fine-tuning of previous material written by Draguns and Shea with other musicians (Vol.1). Do we have, as it has been claimed, the “jazz Black Flack”? No, for the simple reason that you could have such a band once in a million years and we already got it, but this doesn’t affect the sheer beauty of this record: frantic free saxes, hardcore guitars, frenzy of mental pattern, combined with even tropical-tinged sounds, edgy dystopian and feral assault. All with heart and soul.
Daniel Carter/Ayumi Ishito - Endless Season (577 Records, 2025)
This time Ms. Ishito shares the duties with none other than the Maestro himself, Daniel Carter, the legendary musician, defined by The Wire as “one of the purest spirits of the New York free jazz community”, co-founder of the label, whose monster roster of collaborations measures the caliber of his art: Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Sonic Youth, Sam Rivers, Yoko Ono, Jaco Pastorius, Yo La Tengo, William Parker among others. (Authors' note: let’s hope that such an extraordinary spirit could soon be known and recognized by a wider audience, beyond our Free Jazz Conspirators Enclave, as, for instance, finally happened to Joe McPhee). To the usual Carter’s tools, trumpet, saxophones, clarinet, flute and piano, Ishito adds tenor sax, effects, synthesizer, arrangements. Different ages, cultures, upbringing and approach: how statistically high is the probability of a shapeless pastiche? Extremely high, but this record keeps far off such a risk. The deep, philosophic multi-instrumentalist talent of Daniel, combined with the young, freshly dynamic and creative blood of Ayumi, are always pushing the game in a full sense of togetherness, never shadowing each other. Originally recorded as an acoustic set, soon the project moved forward as Carter strongly encouraged Ishito to take care of the audio productions and she did it, shaping beats and sounds, delivering amazing electro-analogic textures, as well as quiet and melodic, even cosmic, vibes.
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