The musical adventures of Gonçalo Almeida

 By Stef Gijssels

Every year, Sergio Piccirilli of the Argentinian jazz website "El Intruso" asks 60 jazz critics from around the world to make their lists of top musicians and top albums. We are very privileged to be represented by several of our "Free Jazz Collective" reviewers: Sammy Stein, Paul Acquaro, Eyal Hareuveni, Stuart Broomer and myself. This was the 17th iteration of the international list, and I can agree with many of the final artists reaching the rankings. 

This task of selecting the best of each is of course almost impossible for any reviewer, and I think we all share the sentiment that we cannot do justice to the great musicians and ensembles that do not make the list. The assessment is very subjective of course, possibly influenced too by the mood of the moment. 

In my list, Portuguese double bass player Gonçalo Almeida, is ranked on the first spot as the 'musician of the year'. I will tell you why here. 

I'll start with the music that we already reviewed in the past year. 

First, there is The Attic's latest album "La Grande Crue" (No Business, 2024), with Rodrigo Amado, Onno Govaert and Eve Risser, and with Almeida on bass. The album received excellent reviews and made many end-of-year lists. The album was reviewed by Stuart Broomer and can be found here. 

From my side, I reviewed "Tabula Sonorum Organum - Sub Aere" (Cylinder, 2024), a highly unusual duet between Bart van Dongen on organ, and Gonçalo Almeida on double bass. You can find the review here. 

My favourite album of the year was "States of Restraint" (Clean Feed, 2024), a strange, adventurous, genre-bending and avant-gardish sound exploration with Susana Santos Silva and Gustavo Costa. You can find my review here. 

Almeida is also a member of the Luis Vicente Trio which delivered their excellent sophomore album "Come Down Here" (Clean Feed, 2024). You can find my review here. 

So here are the not yet reviewed albums. 

Gonçalo Almeida & Pierre Bastien - Dialogues and Shadows (Futura Resistenza, 2024)

The album is a co-created soundscape with French sound artist and instrument builder Pierre Bastien, whom we reviewed earlier on this blog, also in collaboration with Almeida. This album is even better than the first one, more mature, less focused on effects and more on the music itself. It's eery and compelling at the same time. Mesmerising and strange. You hear a whole world of sounds with somewhat familiar sonic bites coming from unidentifiable instruments.  Don't miss this one.

Albatre – Bruxas (Shhpuma, 2024)

After six years, we get a new album by the doom jazz trio Albatre, the brainchild of Gonçalo Almeida on bass, keyboards & electronics, Hugo Costa on alto sax, baritone sax & effects, and Philipp Ernsting on drums & electronics. This is not for the faint of heart, yet it is smart and meticulously organised, with frequent rhythm changes, different accents and sonic colouring. The jazz version of death metal (or something to that extent: I get totally lost in all these 'metal' subgenres). This is as violent as other of Almeida's endeavours are gentle. The title "Bruxas" is Portuguese for witches. Don't say I did not warn you ...

Carla Santana, José Lencastre, Maria Do Mar, Gonçalo Almeida - Defiant Illusion (New Wave Of Jazz, 2024)

 

This album is also quite exceptional. We've already mentioned Carla Santana's work on electronics with the "Variable Geometry Orchestra" and the "Isotope Ensemble". Here is a rare album with her as a leader, in the company of José Lencastre on alto and tenor sax, Maria do Mar on violin and Gonçalo Almeida on double bass. This gentle chamber music is surprising and beautiful at the same time. Apart from the rather unique sound of the ensemble, the interaction between the violin and the arco bass are exceptional, with José Lencastre finding the right level to add to it - and even becoming a string instrument almost. Santana's own electronics are never obtrusive yet fully harmonic with the overall sound. Highly recommended. 

Gonçalo Almeida & Rutger Zuydervelt - Eventual (Gusstaff Records 2024)

"Eventual" is the third release by the duo of Almeida on bass and Zuydervelt on electronics. The latter was asked to create the soundtrack for a documentary, and invited Almeida to join. Even if the music was eventually not used, both musicians continued their creative collaboration. This is their first full CD. In start contrast to some of the other albums reviewed here, the sound is quiet, dark, drone-like with the bass exclusively played with a bow. It's a single track, that evolves minimalistically around one tonal center, with minor shifts in timbre and colour. 

Almeida & Jacquemyn - Encounters (FMR, 2024) 

"Encounters" is a double bass duo with Belgian Peter Jacquemyn, who is also a chainsaw sculptor. The music fits in the tradition of Peter Kowald on bass, a direct physical yet intimate dialogue of two musicians who challenge and celebrate each other's playing. Almost the entire album is played arco. 

Dávila, Almeida, Furtado - Illusions and Lamentations (Phonogram Unit, 2024) 

The trio of Pacho Dávila from Colombia on tenor and soprano saxophones, with Portuguese Vasco Furtado on drums and Almeida on bass gives us a pretty straightforward free jazz trio. The quality of the playing is excellent, with constant good quality and all three musicians in great shape. 

 

Bulliphant - Sleep (Off Record, 2024)

Almeida also performs in the Belgian-Dutch quintet Bulliphant. The other musicians are Bart Maris on trumpets, Ruben Verbruggen on saxophones, Thijs Troch on piano & electronics, and Friso van Wijck on percussion & bells. Like its predecessor "Hightailing", the album presents a mix of modern jazz styles, creative and welcoming, but with in my opinion not enough musical coherence. 

Spinifex – Undrilling the Hole (TryTone Records, 2024)

"Spinifex" is Dutch band led by alto saxophonist Tobias Klein, with Bart Maris on trumpet, John Dikeman on tenor, Jasper Stadhouders on guitar, Gonçalo Almeida on bass, and Philipp Moser on drums. This is already their eleventh album together. The music can be categorised as modern creative jazz, with very strong compositions, great unison themes, tight arrangements, steady rhythms and rhythm changes, and great musicianship, also in the improvised solos. Definitely not free jazz, yet great fun to listen to. 

In sum, Gonçalo Almeida is not only an excellent bass player - and we're really not surprised he's so much in demand in various ensembles and styles - he's especially versatile and creative in developing totally different languages of expression. "States of Restraint" has a relatively unique sound, something special and precious, but so does "Sub Aere", with its unusual duet of organ and bass, the mesmerising collaboration with Pierre Bastien, or the chamber jazz with Carla Santana. Each time Almeida is in the (co)-lead in shaping something new, and sometimes with contradictory and opposite approaches. The quiet contemplative sound of "Eventual" is almost the exact opposite of the doom jazz of Albatre. He shows himself to be a creator, an inventive adventurer, presenting us with sounds unheard, with novel approaches and interesting surprises. Many other musicians have been very prolific in 2024, but none with the same reach and innovation as Almeida. He's not only a searcher, but also a finder, not only a researcher but also a discoverer. Hence my choice. 

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Two from Paul Dunmall

By Gary Chapin

Paul Dunmall has been around for a while and has a huge discography. It’s one thing to notice that he started out in the Canterbury orbit, but he’s done much much more. This isn’t just a phenomenon of the past. After reviewing Laura Jurd and Paul Dunmall’s, Fanfares and Freedoms (Discus) a few months ago, I was looking at the lists of stuff coming out. I said, “Hey, look! Another one with Paul Dunmall! And another, and another, and two more. And, hey, would you believe another?” Here are two of those.

Paul Dunmall - Red Hot Ice (Discus, 2024) *****

Paul Dunmall comes off as a “muscular tenor” in his new recording with large band, Red Hot Ice (Discus, 2024). This is the strong first impression left by the first track, “Prepare for Peace,” which could easily be a tribute to Sun Ra, with Dunmall playing the John Gilmore role. The c. soprano shows up later (sounds like a sopranino), but the album feels like an out-there tenor concerto showpiece. The band (Percy Pursglove - trumpet, Richard Foote - trombone, Alicia Gardener-Trejo - baritone saxophone, James Birkett - electric guitar, Andrew Woodhead - synthesizers, organ, rhodes, Glen Leach - acoustic piano, lorenzo organ, voice, James Owston - double bass, Jim Bashford - drums) is stellar.

Track two, a fifteen minute journey which begins with a virtuosic bass solo frolic, and then launches into music that could accompany Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse as they pursue their arch villains. The tenor solo kicks in over an organ and swinging cymbals, guitar stabs. This is cinematic stuff, with space ships and monsters. “The Past” is a bolero-ish piece, with a fantastic baritone solo from Alicia Gardiner. The title piece is a twenty-one minute tour de force of comprovisation with some Mingus-isms in there, and the closer, “Dearly Departed,” is a ballad-ish thing that sticks the landing with beauty and even, dare I say it, tenderness. Five stars. 

Paul Dunmall Quartet - Here Today Gone Tomorrow (RogueArt, 2024)

Here Today Gone Tomorrow (RogueArt, 2024) is a quartet date featuring Dunmall with Liam Noble, John Edwards, and Mark Sanders. It’s a completely free improv affair featuring two long tracks over 20 minutes, and a medium length, 15 minute, “encore.” This is “just like it says on the tin” recording, with a fantastic set of musicians using a near-telepathic connection to move through improvised stories quiet and vulgar, angry and kind. The two long pieces are ostensible suites. Noble, Edwards, and Sanders are so strong that, occasionally, when they do a trio turn and then Dunmall re-enters, you find you’ve forgotten there’s a sax involved.

But there is a sax involved and the fourof these musicians give us an exquisite 65-ish minutes. Dunmall tends to stay in the middle and lower ends of the tenor, not spending so much time in the over-blowing stratosphere. This contributes to the sense of coherence that carries through the record. One man. One voice. The soprano sections (maybe one quarter of the record) do what soprano sections do best, but there’s a continuum of voice from the tenor pieces. That this is a great disc should surprise no one, among the best in his body of work.

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Juno3's Proxemics V

This week's Sunday Video is 'Proxemics V' from Juno 3 (the trio Han-earl on guitar, Lara Jones on saxophone and electronics and Pat Thomas - not on piano but on electronics.) The track buzzes and crackles, exuding a mysterious nervous energy and can be found on their new release Proxemics (BAF, 2025).

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PainKiller - Samsara (Tzadik, 2024)

By Martin Schray

When PainKiller gathered for a session in Brooklyn in the spring of 1991, the world was a different place. New York - especially Manhattan - was in transition from a run-down, bankrupt and unsafe crime hell of the mid 1970s to the largely gentrified mega-metropolis it is today; real socialism had lost the battle against capitalism, and the digital world was still a dream of the future - but already visible on the horizon. It was the ideal playground for John Zorn, the radical visionary, composer and saxophonist. He has never been interested in supposedly insurmountable barriers. The first two Naked City albums had shaken the jazz world with their unprecedented blend of jazz, country, hardcore metal, easy listening and film music. And his next project was meant to be even more provoking. Zorn and his friend, bassist and producer Bill Laswell, had invited drummer Mick Harris to record an album. Harris was the drummer of Napalm Death, the most prominent grindcore band in the world. And Guts of a Virgin, the result of their one-day session, was exactly that: extreme music in its purest form. The album provoked most jazz lovers (“too much metal“) and most metalheads (“too jazzy“). The music was cacophonous violence, heavily distorted bass and drum blocks and the alto saxophone were put through the meat grinder. Zorn sounded like a tortured pig most of the time anyway, squealing like he was being slaughtered live. His outbursts are agony (but in a totally positive sense) and - being paired with Laswell’s gritty dub basslines, Harris’s double-bass attacks and wild screams - it was actually a soundtrack for horror films.

Until their split in 1994 PainKiller recorded three studio albums, posthumously there were a few more. The fact that now, after 30 years, Zorn’s Tzdaik label has released a new studio album, Samsara, is both surprising and sensational. Because while the line-up is indeed the same, many things are different today: Manhattan is completely gentrified and too expensive for most free jazz musicians, democracy in the USA is on the brink and the world is primarily digital - the last aspect actually a circumstance that was decisive for the recording of the album, since the three musicians were never in the same room during its creation. Harris - whose focus has become playing electronic music for decades - contributed synthesized beats that he had recorded in Great Britain. Zorn recorded his saxophone parts Laswell’s New Jersey Studio Orange Music. And Laswell added the bass last, in a makeshift mobile studio set up in his Upper Manhattan flat by his long-time sound engineer James Dellatacoma. There was no other way, especially for Laswell, as the great bassist had been struggling with serious health problems in recent years. Diabetes and high blood pressure, a blood infection and problems with his heart, kidneys and lungs resulted in repeated hospitalisations, at times he could barely walk and he had pain in his fingers, which is why he could only play to a limited extent.

But anyone who now believes that the three of them will deliver an album that sounds more subdued and mellow with age is mistaken. Zorn may no longer sound like a pig that's been cut down, but his lines are still hard and brutal, his sound being weird and wild. Laswell’s dub lines still structure the improvisations, giving them a certain grip. The biggest difference to the earlier albums are Harris’s high-pitched pads, which sound like a sea of cymbals. However, all of this is clearly still PainKiller.

“The most important thing about PainKiller is, and this is still true today: it’s the most extreme saxophone-bass-drums group that has ever existed,“ said Zorn in an interview with the New York Times. In the same article, Laswell said that it had taken too long and that he was glad that the band existed as it did. But there were also concerns. Zorn first asked Mick Harris if he would be willing to play drums for PainKiller again. Harris was rather reluctant, as he hadn’t played regularly for years. The turning point came when Zorn saw a live clip of Harris’s solo electronic project Fret and quickly realised that Harris’s basic attitude was still the same - just on a different instrument. On Samsara Harris shifts Zorn’s improvisations and Laswell’s bass lines, creating enormous pressure. The whole thing sounds like a further development of Derek Bailey’s album Guitar, Drum’n’Bass with DJ Ninj (an album which, interestingly, was co-produced by John Zorn).

And finally, another good news: Bill Laswell expressed confidence that there will be another album by the trio in 2025.

Samsara is available on CD. You can listen to “Samsara II“ here:

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The Art of Feedback of Stefan Prins and Feedbackorchester

By Eyal Hareuveni

For most musicians, feedback is the ultimate nightmare. But not for Belgian, Berlin-based experimental composer and electronics player Stefan Prins whose recent collection of compositions, inhabit, has elevated feedback to a principal compositional method. He says that he is fascinated by feedback's uncontrollable danger and uses feedback as a metaphor for our interconnected ecological systems. Berlin-based, eight-musician Feedbackorchester (FBO) works exclusively with feedback and released a live album documenting its distinct aesthetics.

Stefan Prins - inhabit (Sub Rosa, 2024)

Prins began his music studies after graduating as an engineer specializing in photonics. He envisions the musical art form beyond the safe confines of the ‘scene’, and his music reflects on contemporary technologies and new media, thematizing its relationship with the physical, performing body and the environments it inhabits. The double album's compositions, which combine traditional instruments with feedback, electronics, and field recordings, are large-scale.

The first, short composition, "Inhibition Space #1” (2020) is for an amplified bass flute, bass oboe and bass clarinet of the Berlin-based Ensemble Mosaik and feedback. The musicians produce a wide range of feedback nuances through subtle key manipulations, pedal usage, and by varying the distance between their instrument and the speaker, creating an elusive electro-acoustic ambiance filled with mysterious, resonant overtones. This composition demands a razor's edge precision to avoid getting too close to the speaker or too far with the pedal, so things would not escalate quickly. Prins imagine that kind of unpredictability as parallel with the current ecological crisis. Processes like climate change and loss of biodiversity are also characterized by tipping points and feedback loops. If we cross a threshold, we may encounter the danger of creating an uncontrollable runaway effect. “Inhibition Space #1” transposes this looming threat into the sonic realm.

The 47-minute “inhabit_inhibit” (2019-21) is for four spatialized quartets, six feedback soloists and live electronics for EnsembleKollektiv Berlin, conducted by Max Murray. This composition expands Prins’ feedback-based sonic palette, now with four feedbacking solo woodwinds (a baritone saxophone is added to the woodwind trio from “Inhibition Space #1”, all using special mouthpieces that produce noisier sounds), and a piano and harp that participate in the feedback process through a setup of contact microphones, transducers, speakers, and custom-built software, plus four quartets consisting of strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Prins asked the violinists and cellists to play with soda cans and key rings between the strings. The percussion section was equipped with electric toothbrushes and metal socket wrenches, and the trumpeters and trombonists used toy reeds and so-called ‘pizza mutes’. Prins also arranged the musicians in a spatial manner that is inherent in performing with feedback. The soloists and quartets were positioned along the walls and in the corners, with the audience interspersed among them. In the center of the space, the piano and harp acted as a feedback chamber for the sounds of the soloists that leaked into their resonating strings. Prins created a highly immersive yet unsettling web of living sounds that embrace the listener and force the listener to feel part of this fragile, resonating sonic fabric. This composition may serve as another warning call about the vulnerability of our ecosystems.

"Under_current” (2020-2021) is for electric guitarist, Yaron Deutsch (who performs with Prins as the Ministry of Bad Decisions duo), and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ilan Volkov. This provocative composition makes the orchestra perform as an acoustic meta-amplifier for Deutsch’s expansive electric guitar playing, enhanced by a range of effect pedals and extended techniques. The orchestra translates and reflects impressively on the unpredictable, raw and ear-splitting electric guitar feedback and other roaring outbursts.

The last composition, "Mesh" (2022-23) for the Belgian Nadar Ensemble (which Prins co-directs), with five musicians playing the bass clarinet, euphonium and trombone, percussion, electric guitar, and cello, expanded by an electronic layer of feedback, live electronics, and a soundtrack of electronic sounds and field recordings from Berlin and Italy and rainforest soundscapes from the Amazon and Borneo. Prins wanted this provocative, deeply illuminating composition to deconstruct the traditional boundaries between humans, technology, and nature and highlight their ever-evolving relationship. He enhanced the spatial effects on its premiere performance by dispersing the live electronics and the soundtrack through both speakers on stage and headphones distributed to the concertgoers beforehand, allowing the audience to be immersed in a sonic 'in-between space’, where outside was simultaneously inside, distant was simultaneously near. In his idiosyncratic, unorthodox and thoughtful manner, Prins emphasizes the close interconnectedness of sonic spaces as a strong ecological symbolism and concludes the sonic mirages of this composition with a radically slowed-down ‘dawn chorus’ of forest creatures resembling a choir of lamenting human voices.

Feedbackorchester - Live at Zwingli-Kirche (MirrorWorldMusic, 2024)

Feedbackorchestra (FBO) was founded in 1999 and consists of 7 electric guitarists and one bassist and focuses on the meditative but physical and massive sonic presence. The eight musicians - guitarists Herman Herrmann, Günter Schickert (who alternates on conch), Zeppy Haus, Giles Schumm, Hendrik Kröz, Dirk Dresselhaus and Ansgar Wilken (guitar) with bassist Kerl Fieser, are arranged in a circle to ensure close dynamics while the audience can move freely and listen to the music from different positions.

Live at Zwingli-Kirche is the third album of FBO and it was recorded at KulturRaum Zwingli-Kirche, now an art space, in August 2020, using the unique acoustics of this space, as another kind of feedback. FBO produces minimalist walls of sounds, a powerful stream of vibrations and frictions that methodically accumulate power and volume. It is quite an experience to surrender to the massive waves of feedback caressing your most stubborn cells, even in the safe environment of your home.

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Representing the Free Jazz scene in North Macedonia (Part 2 of 2)

By Irena Stevanovska

Continued from part 1, here.

Macedonian Free Society – Macedonian Free Society (PMGJazz – 2024) 

Macedonian Free Society is a project that brings together many of the artists featured in the albums so far, along with other who have been part of the Mecedonia’s jazz scene for a long time. It’s a blend of young artists and jazz-veterans who have been playing since the early 2000’s. This new wave on young free jazz musicians opened up a big window for the older musicians as well, giving them freedom to express themselves in ways that weren’t as common when jazz wasn’t as widespread.

I chose this album because it’s a great example of free-form jazz. The collective allows every musician to express their individuality while coming together as an ensemble. It features a viriety of wind instruments: two saxophones (played by Ninoslav Spiroski and Vasko Bojadziski), a bass clarinet (Blagojce Tomevski), and trombone (Vladan Drobicki). These are complemented by string instruments including guitar (Filip Bukrshliev), bass (Deni Omeragic) and violin (Gligor Kondovski), with Dragan Teodosiev anchoring the rhythm on drums.

The result is a melting pot of ideas and styles, musicians following each-other in a fluid, avant-garde soundscape. This album is also tied with the city of Skopje, with titles, describing events in the city and moments that inspired the musicians to create this kind of music. The names of the album tracks lead me to believe that the album can be enjoyed during the everyday moments of life, especially if you’re a fan of upgrading your mundane daily obligations into a surreal exploration of your surroundings, with a great soundtrack playing in the background.

Roman Stoylar, Yordan Kostov, Nick DeCarlo, Dragan Teodosiev – Adventure of Doschnica’s eel (PMGJazz – 2024) 

This album is a little different than the rest that I’ve reviewed here. I typically chose more urban albums that are inspired by the streets of Skopje or the smaller towns in Macedonia. But this one, as the name implies, the Doshnica is a river in Macedonia hidden in a small part of the great mountains spread throughout the country. This one stands out with being one of the few albums featuring foreign musicians. On this album, there’s Nick DeCarlo from the US on tuba, Roman Stolyarov, a Russian composer and pianist, and of course Dragan Teodosiev and Yordan Kostov back on drums and accordion, accordingly.

I say this album feels different because it has this mystical vibe running through it. The bandcamp description captures it perfectly; just like the eel’s journey, the musicians magically came together one night in Skopje to play this. You can really hear it in the 40-minute track – parts where the instrument sounds like they’re chasing each other, pulling you into nature itself. The whole thing feels like a day out exploring. It starts with the energy of moving through concealed trails along the river, spotting plants, and feeling that rush of the unknown. Then, towards the end, it slows down, calming like the river as it flows into a different place.
The second, much shorter track feels like the walk back home after that long, spiritual day. It’s reflective, grounded, and just as meaningful in its simplicity.

Bukrshliev | Hadzi-Kocev | Spiroski – Transmarginal Beverly Hills (Live at JazZy) (Aksioma, 2024)

Transmarginal Beverly Hills is an album born from jam sessions at a bar in Skopje. It was played on a warm spring night, a place where random jam sessions often happened, sessions where musicians would unexpectedly find each other having the greatest time performing together. Some even formed bands (I know of at least one trio for sure), and great albums like this emerged from those nights. Two of the musicians on this album are already familiar from my previous reviews: Filip Bukrshliev returns on guitar and Ninoslav Spiroski is here again on alto saxophone and clarinet, joined by the pianist Konstantin Hadzi-Kocev.

This ambient album captures the calmness rarely found in the city, as a contrast to the chaos I’ve mentioned in my previous reviews. It begins with a drone-like ambient sound that sets a sorrowful tone, layered with mellow keys and a guitar that gently stretches over everything. The clarinet and saxophone drift in, carrying a weight of grief and serenity. The rawness of the recording only adds to the atmosphere, you can hear it wasn’t professionally recorded. Faint background noises slip here and there, grounding you in the exact place and moment where this happened, making it feel even more intimate.

I would place this album in the realm of 'Hauntology' – as described by Mark Fisher as “lost futures”. This album, together with its cover photo, evokes the feeling of a future that was supposed to happen but never did. That sentiment resonates deeply here, especially since this article focuses on a post-socialist country with a flourishing avant-garde jazz scene. Many of these musicians were born into a time when there was still hope that the country might become something livable, something more. That can be felt in many of these albums, and it’s present here too – the bittersweet inspiration drawn from a nation that shaped these artists. Allowing to pour their souls into every note they play.

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Representing the Free Jazz scene in North Macedonia (Part 1 of 2)

By Irena Stevanovska

The jazz scene is thriving among young people all over the world, with artists blending different genres, creating new styles, and leaving a legacy that feels alive and evolving. In Macedonia, a group of young people is doing the same. For a country with just 2 million people, it’s surprising how strong the jazz scene is. Skopje, the capital, is the heart of it – a place where you can find more than one improvised music gig per week. The unpredictability of a life in a post-socialist country somehow pushes the creativity of the people further, making the music deeply emotional. The country is seen through different perspectives by the musicians, some reflect the gray skies and cracked streets, while others catch the rare flashes of light and color. 

With so few people, there’s the challenge of not having enough musicians to dive fully into avant-garde styles, so you’ll notice many of them rotating through different ensembles.

There are three main labels for Jazz in Macedonia: SJF Records, the oldest, along with PMGJazz and Aksioma. Together, they release a surprising number of albums for such a small country. Here, I’ll focus on releases from Aksioma and PMGJazz because my aim is towards the free form of jazz – the improvised, and the completely free-jazz.

Yordan Kostov – Kichobal (Aksioma, 2024)

Yordan Kostov is one of the leading improvising musicians on the scene today. Known for his collaborations with artists from both the Balkans and around the world, he brings an avant-garde touch to the jazz genre. Playing the accordion—a rare instrument in jazz—Yordan has developed a unique style that sets him apart. With over 40 previous releases, this album sees him gather a group of exceptional musicians for an improvisational session. Later, Yordan reworked the recordings into a post-modern mashup, resulting in a dynamic and vibrant album.

The album opens with a slow and calm introduction, gently preparing you for the surreal mashup of sounds ahead. It features instruments rarely heard in free jazz, creating an abstract, post-modern experience for anyone willing to lose themselves in the music. The opening track combines accordion and taishigoto, producing a glitch-like effect on your mind. Meanwhile, the piano and guitar contribute to a dreamlike atmosphere, anchored by percussion that keeps you grounded. By the third track, a hint of melancholy begins to surface—foreshadowing the emotional depths explored in later pieces. However, before delving into this heaviness, the album shifts back to a groovier, more energetic vibe, complemented by the stunning vocals of Ayumi Saita.

Midway through the album comes its centerpiece, Rainy Season. This track captures the essence of Skopje during its rainy season—its damp, raw ambiance providing the perfect backdrop for introspection. A constant drone hums in the background, creating space for reflection, while a repetitive guitar riff and bagpipe melodies radiate emotional pain. The accordion offers a lightness that contrasts beautifully with the percussion, which gently pulls the listener back to reality. Despite the track's weighty emotions, it also conveys a sense of calm acceptance.

From there, the album shifts to playful, high-energy sounds, featuring heavy bass-lines and, at times, distorted drum patterns. The accordion, ever-present, shines with cheerful melodies, blending seamlessly with other unique instruments like the Vietnamese đàn bầu and the Japanese taishigoto, both played by Yordan Kostov.

 

Svetlost – Everything Was as It Had Been a Minute Ago (PMGJazz, 2024)

 

Svetlost is a trio that’s often seen playing live. They’ve also released music with an eleven-piece orchestra, which made it into Bandcamp’s top 15 jazz albums worldwide in 2019. Everything Was as It Had Been a Minute Ago is their first album in four years as the original trio. Their sound is usually built around heavy, repetitive bass lines by Deni Omeragić, energetic drumming from Kristijan Novkovski, and Ninoslav Spirovski’s unmistakable tenor saxophone.

This album is a bit different. All the members have experience playing in post-rock, psychedelic, and noise rock bands like Strog Post, Fighting Windmills, Palindrom, and Local Blue, those influences show here. The album starts with a melodic saxophone that quickly brings in the bass and drums. The bass and saxophone constantly follow each other, while the drums push a fast pace.  

The third track begins with a more melancholic saxophone, quieter drums, and a bass-line that holds the structure together until the drums speed things up later. The fourth and final track captures the feeling of city life. The saxophone gives it a vibe that feels like it could fit into a 90s animated crime series, maybe one based on a comic. This part of the album reflects the late-night walks through Skopje—through brutalism, pollution, and the haze of a fun night out. The saxophone mirrors this, while the drumsticks bring a Balkan rhythm. As the song progresses, the bass takes on a more traditional sound, and a clarinet, also played by Spirovski, unexpectedly joins in.

 

Taxi Consilium – Spiritual Car Wash (PMGJazz, 2022)

This is easily the best free-jazz combo on the Macedonian jazz-scene. The chemistry between the musicians is unmatched, and the atmosphere they create captures the country’s dynamics perfectly – a mix of movement and gloom. Each member brings something unique. Andrea Mircheska lays down an old-school bass line that holds the whole album together, while Dragan Teodosiev’s drumming breaks into post-modern rhythms that feel fresh and unpredictable. Blagojche Tomevski’s clarinet shifts between the sound of traditional Macedonian music and wild, stretched out tones that spiral into chaos. Filip Bukrshliev’s guitar is a fusion of post-rock and jazz, mind bending no matter how you hear it.

The track names are part of the experience, adding another layer to the surreal vibe of the album, combined with the abstract cover art, you know exactly where the music takes you. 'Consumer Hot-Line with Atilla the Hun' is one of those tracks that stays in your head long after listening, something your brain replays at 3 a.m. because it burned itself into your subconsciousness.

The album doesn’t stick to one mood, tracks like 'Nocturnal Flights' and 'Exposed Flesh' lean into noir, and dark jazz, creating a slower, shadowy atmosphere. Resembling their previous album The Essential Sunday Glooms, sharing the same mood and energy.

Listening to this album feels like watching a brilliant film. The last track is the credits, pulling you back into reality but leaving you with everything you felt during the journey – the ups, the downs, the whole experience. This album isn’t just music, it’s a trip you will remember for a long time after.

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Dave Rempis / Jason Adasiewicz / Joshua Abrams / Tyler Damon -Propulsion (Aerophonic Records, 2024)

By Martin Schray

I recently bought Ballister’s self-released debut Bastard String (from 2011), an album that is relatively rare. After listening to it for the first time, I was amazed at how much Dave Rempis still sounded like Peter Brötzmann back then. And it’s even more astonishing how varied his playing has become over the years. This can be recognised very well on his new album Propulsion. The band presents Rempis on saxophones (as usual), vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, who is known for his work with the aforementioned Peter Brötzmann, bassist Joshua Abrams (of Natural Information Society fame) and Rempis’s long-term musical partner Tyler Damon on drums.

From the very first note it’s remarkable how melodic and spiritual Propulsion is. This becomes particularly clear on “Egression“, the second track. Rempis begins with a minimalist solo, with Abrams lingering on a monotonous riff in the background (something he also likes to do with Natural Information Society), which remains dry as dust and thus forms a clear contrast to Rempis’s vibrato-laden sound and the extremely high registers the saxophonist uses here. In the second part, the rhythm section pushes Rempis up a mountain, from where his full sound then floods the land below in the most marvellous way. He sounds like Trane in his late phase, less gospel-like, more controlled instead, but just as passionate and heart-warming. The liner notes say that “this recording also catches the band at a moment of major emotional impact“, which might explain said emotionality. Propulsion also “documents the final concert of more than 900 shows that Rempis curated and produced as part of a weekly Thursday-night series of jazz and improvised music that stretched for more than twenty-one years from 2002-2023.“ This band therefore not only represents the four individual musicians, but is also representative of the state of the art of the Chicago scene. The music is not an “Ephemera“, as the third and final track is called, but a promise of what is yet to come. It’s the music of another America, not that of the neoliberal populists, but that of John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and Joe McPhee. We will need it. Perhaps more than we realize.

You can buy and listen to Propulsion here:

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Leap of Faith – Objections to Realism

It was, if memory serves, during the pandemic that Boston's David Peck, a/k/a PEK, began live-streaming his various ensemble's performances, including Leap of Faith, which has been around in evolving forms since the 1990s,  as well as his other groups like Simulcrum, Expanse and Metal Chaos Ensemble, to name a few. PEK has created a sprawling universe, regularly producing new music and holding performances since ending a several year musical hiatus in the start of the 2000s.

Here is the recording of Leap of Faith's (or is it called Turbulence?) Objections to Realism performance from January 4th:

PEK - clarinets, saxophones, double reeds, flutes, percussion
Glynis Lomon - cello, aquasonic, voice
John Fugarino - trumpets, trombone, French Horn
Tom Swafford - violin
Scott Samenfeld - bass

Joel Simches - Live to 2-track recording - real time signal processing
Paul Brennan - camera
Raffi - video mix

Leap of Faith and PEK on the Free Jazz Blog:

Revisit an interview by Nick Ostrum with PEK and much more ...

Blasting across the Alkali Flats with Evil Clown

Leap of Faith - Principles of an Open Future (Relative Pitch, 2020) ****

PEK Solo, A Quartet of PEKs - The Strange Theory of Light & Matter (Evil Clown, 2020) ****

Dancing in times of plague - the Corona Diaries (III)

The Continuing Adventures of Damon Smith

Leap of Faith Orchestra – Helix (Evil Clown, 2017) ****

Leap of Faith Orchestra - Supernovae (Evil Clown, 2016) ****

Leap of Faith Orchestra - Hyperbolic Spirals Vols 1 & 2 (EvilClown, 2015) ****

Leap of Faith w/Steve Swell - Live at New Revolution Arts,Brooklyn,8-15-15

Leap of Faith - Abstract Structures Vols 1 & 2 (EvilClown, 2015) ****½

Leap of Faith - Regenerations (Evil Clown, 2015) ****

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Nduduzo Makhathini – uNomkhubulwane (Blue Note Records, 2024)

By Matty Bannond

Music is potent stuff for Nduduzo Makhathini. The South African pianist’s compositions and improvisations are loaded with a force that he believes can heal people, connect to the spirit world and invite humanity to cultivate new ways of being. His eleventh studio album, uNomkhubulwane, is a three-part ritual that pays homage to a Zulu goddess. It’s powerful. And it sounds great too.

Makhathini is a Zulu healer, or Sangoma, and earned a PhD in 2023. His work is often described in terms of mystical messages or cerebral concepts. It seems important to mention, however, that he also has a prodigious gift for music’s rudiments—rhythmic feeling, melodic clarity, momentum. Beneath its metaphysical intent, his third Blue Note release showcases these gifts. He is joined by bassist Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere, an American of South African descent. Francisco Mela plays drums.

The first track, “Libations: Omnyama”, opens with Makhathini speaking a low-tone prayer. A pulse from piano arrives, supported by a strong-but-simple bass figure and gently cajoling percussion. That foundation stays in place throughout, even when the vocals become more strident. Rhythmic and melodic shapes are the same thing here. Every sound is part of a steady, relentless musical engine.

In the second part, “Water Spirits”, the atmosphere is hectic. Two pieces in this section are panicky and heavily improvised. “Izinkonjana”, however, has a gospel-adjacent and blues-ballad mood. When the pianist creates a stirring passage of composition, he is often content to bathe deeply and let it wash around him for a while without any restless compulsion to change the water.

“Inner Attainment” is the third section and brings the record to a peaceful close. “Amanzi Ngobhoko” is the penultimate track and features another driving beat, this time more euphoric. The final tune is a solo piece called “Ithemba”. Makhathini’s training in classical and jazz traditions is spotlighted here. His patience, timing and communicative skills are in full focus too.

There are spiritual forces and big ideas at play in uNomkhubulwane. Nduduzo Makhathini is a deep-thinker and compelling talker. He is a spellbinding composer and improviser too. Possibly, his music can heal people and connect to the ancestral realm. Certainly, it sounds great.

The album is available on CD, vinyl and digital download here .

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