Jukka Pekka Kervinen & Kevin Miller – Primordial (Ramble Records, 2025)

By Guido Montegrandi

The music  on Primordial is marked by fractured sounds and noises that produce in the listener (at least in me) a kind of restless expectation that is never to be fulfilled. It is as if the focal point of each piece is shifting into a blurred horizon. What we can hear are fragments that recreate new shapes each time - deceiving, stimulating, provoking.

Kevin Miller (electric guitar) and Jukka-Pekka Kervinen (electric bass, electric guitar, trumpet and electronics) developed their collaboration on the long distance exchanging files between NYC and Finland thus creating a music that thrives in-between, in the recording gap in time and space of playing-listening-overdubbing.

Just some fragmented impressions to try to give and idea of what their music sounds to me – anyway as it is often the case, this music requires a dedicated listening to let it develop its full potential and once you do so you are rewarded with a ear and brain enriching experience.

'Dark Mantle' opens the album with an energetic guitar duo that develops assembling layers of sound that seem to fray just to recreate themselves in a new shape

'Icy pool' sounds like trio made of two people with the bass and the almost-percussion-like electronics overdubbed by the electric guitar

The closing guitar duo of 'Broken Hands' focuses on the production of contiguous spikes of sound that merge and disassemble to create changing patterns that make me think of crystal formations in collision.

As usual, for better comprehension and to form your own judgement, here is the Bandcamp link to the album.

For more information about Kevin Miller: https://www.youtube.com/@kevinmiller124, https://kevinmillerguitar.com

For more information about Jukka Pekka Kervine: https://www.facebook.com/jkervinen

Now, and I really want to thank both Kevin Miller and Jukka Pekka Kervinen who were so kind to answer some questions about their work together, here is what they said:

Guido Montegrandi: How did the idea of Primordial develop?

Kevin Miller: The music heard on Primordial comes from a duo that Jukka and I have been working on for several years. Jukka and I have actually never met or played music together in-person, and have always created music through file-sharing. Almost every track on Primordial was completed through an extremely simple process which involved Jukka sending me an improvisation, followed by myself adding an improvisation to his improvisation via the process of overdubbing.

Jukka Pekka Kervinen: It was quite simple. We have collaborated with Kevin quite a lot, I think this is our 5th album. Kevin just sent a message if I would be interested of making a new album, and I started right away. There were no titles or theme, I recorded my parts of improvisations one by one, and sent them to Kevin after finishing.

GM: To me, the music on this record inspires a sense of urgency and the titles you choose evoke a kind of precariousness. Did you decide to focus on specific themes and atmospheres or did it just happen to develop that way?

K.M.: I think one of the things I like about the particular chemistry that Jukka and I have together is that sense of urgency. I can’t speak for Jukka, but I definitely feel that the urgency and precariousness you picked up on is something I always cherish in the process of “real” improvising, where you feel like the mechanics which are allowing you to make sound with your instrument are almost separate from the part of you which is a witness to what is happening.

Nothing related to the improvisations was pre-conceived, and the titles are honestly just completely random and from a source that has absolutely nothing to do with this recording or music in general. That being said, I completely get what you’re saying about them sort of informing that sense of precariousness in some way.

J.P.K: Your impression sounds quite exactly what is happening in this album. I work in the edge of the chaos, construct systems I am not able to control, sometimes completely chaotic, mostly non-deterministic, many times so complex that I know beforehand that I am not able to control the system. That applies to instruments as well, I play several, too many to learn them “properly”, so I am focusing to produce sounds rather unconventional manners. The last gig in here Finland I played alto trombone, which I got four days before the gig, not much time to learn the instrument (I have played other brass instruments). But experimenting as much as possible, I always find something interesting, and during to gig I am so focused that I invent even more.

GM: What is your attitude when improvising and was it modified by being, in this case, in different places and time in the process of creation?

K.M.: I think my attitude when improvising always comes down to an acknowledgment that the improvisational process will always work better for myself if I try to surrender to the moment as much as possible. So, in essence, I basically just tried to shut my brain off and listen to Jukka while allowing myself to make sound with guitar. I think, if you have chemistry with the person or people you’re playing with, that’s all you have to do.

For myself, this attitude when improvising wasn’t modified by the fact that we weren’t playing together in real time since my whole mode of being was just listening and reacting to Jukka.

J.P.K.: I have done that a long time, lots of collabs where we are different places. It is somewhat similar to playing together in real life, only different thing is extended time lag, it is not fractions of seconds, it is hours, days, weeks. If Kevin sends me something, I don’t prelisten to it, I decide the instrument or electronic/digital system, and play along and record all in first take, like in real life. When sending the base/first track, I try to imagine the other one there, leave the space, create the atmosphere, something where to continue.

GM: To J.P.K.: As you are also a visual artist and the author of the beautiful cover of this work, what is your opinion about the relation between music and visual expression, do you consider it relevant to your work?

J.P.K.: Sometimes there is a relation, many times they are separated completely. Nowadays, as I mostly work only digital images, I just focus the image not thinking it relations to anything. It depends quite a lot what kind of tools I am using. I write most of the software I use myself, to make music, texts, visual images. Sometimes I use same algorithms for creating sound and images, just adjusting parameters and (digital) materials to different dimensions (time to X-axis, amplitude/events/pitches/etc. to Y-axis, for instance), others might have more open connections, or no connections at all. I have also done quite a lot of “visual music”, graphic scores not meant to be played (there are no instructions), but somewhere between imaginary visual and sound world(s), the see the sound, to hear the visual element.

Read More

Jazzdor Berlin 2025

By Paul Acquaro

One of the most compelling aspects of the Jazzdor festival in Berlin lies in its discovery potential. Each year, the program includes several well-established artists while simultaneously introducing less familiar talent - at least outside of French circles. The end result is usually a small collection of newly acquired CDs and a list of new names—evidence of the festival’s capacity to surprise and inspire through its curation. In fact, this year, it seems that the festival went even further in this direction, offering nearly a full program of 'premieres,' and in several cases, full on festival 'creations.'

 

For example, on the third night, three such 'premiers/creations' took place, pairing French and Polish musicians who had never played together as part of an initiative between curators Philippe Occhem from the Strasbourg, France based Jazzdor and Karolina Juzwa, from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute based in Warsaw, Poland.

 

Jazzdor has, of course, engaged in other cross European collaborations in recent years, notably in Hungary with the Budapest Music Center (BMC), which has resulted in festivals in Budapest and CD releases across both organizations' record labels. What was a bit different is that this time musicians were paired and given a few days to organize and develop their program before performing in the third night of the festival. Before we get to ahead of ourselves, let's circle back to the beginning.

Tuesday, June 3rd

Tuesday's opening began with a passing of the torch. Jazz journalist, festival programmer and organizer of the Paris Jazz Club initiative, Vincent Bessières is taking over from Occhem, who has directed Jazzdor for the past 36 years. The announcement was heartfelt and short, and then led quickly to the opening concert of the festival, guitarist David Chevallier's Time Machine.

 

David Chevallier - The Time Machine 

 

The Time Machine. Photo by  Ulla C.Binder

 

An absolutely unique concept to kick off the festival in which the set of French musicians each played a 17th-century ancestor of their modern instrument. Thus, guitarist David Chevallier played theorbo, trombonist Rose Dehors played the tenor sackbut, pianist Etienne Manchon was on harpsichord and cellist Atsushi Sakaï played the bass viol. Each instrument had characteristics of their current versions, but often with a dryer tone (except the bass viol, with six strings sounded like several string instruments at the same time). The contemporary composition followed the plot of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine from 1895, a first in the dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction genre, and the music captured both the idle and the dark conflict in the work. Delivered on the renaissance era instruments, the metaphor extended from the conceptual to the perceptual. Maybe most striking is that the old instruments often lack the sensitivity of their modern equivalents, thus entirely contemporary classical passages, as well as the rockier ones, were enveloped in the sounds of antiquity. It was quite a striking concept.

Sleeping Animals

Sleeping Animals. Photo by  Ulla C.Binder

Billed as a 'creation' on the Jazzdor website, the quartet of Sleeping Animals was comprised of Sarah Murcia on double bass, Bruno Ducret on cello, Christophe Lavergne drums with violist Mat Maneri. The description of the project, written before the actual creation of the group, said that the project blends micro-tonality, polyrhythms, and influences from free jazz to punk rock, blurring boundaries between written composition and improvisation. The group's general 'chamber jazz' approach was supported by compositions that stretched often in opposite directions, melody and countermelody creating strong musical tensions. Sometimes, there was a tentativeness to the parts, which however dissipated entirely during the solo spots. Murcia was a standout, and with a musican like Maneri sitting 5 feet away, this is quite a feat. Hopefully, we will be hearing more from this group.

 

Wednesday, June 4th

Outside, along the cobblestone street that runs through he middle of the former brewery complex, a cover band was doing a yeoman's job of entertaining a small crowd at an open air beer garden. Inside the large metal doors to the Kulturebrauerei's Kesselhaus space, a larger crowd had filled-in the seats. The room is large and unadorned, the venue itself is fine example of "raw industrial charm," which throughout the year hosts dance parties and musical events.

Grégory Dargent - Soleil D’hiver 

 

Grégory Dargent. Photo by  Ulla C.Binder

 

The evening began with a solo oud set incorporating electronics and video to tell an impressionistic story of a journey through nostalgia and culture. Oudist Grégory Dargent's journey starts in Algiers, which his father had left in 1962. Beginning on a boat, he then travels over land, through the city and far beyond. He is also tracing the culture of the Oud and his travels then take him through northern Africa to the Middle East. Between the grainy video and the full sound of oud, enhanced through electronics and effects, Dargent presents a pathos laden journey that is in a sense timeless - yes, there are indicators of time like the automobiles or such, but that is hardly the focus, rather it is people, buildings, landscapes, the very things that remain embedded hazily in memory. The playing was at times melancholic as well as urgent and violent. An extended section of just electronics provided an interlude of sorts, before returning to an intense ending with images of lovely sunset. The overall effect is a story that is somewhat unresolved and questioning.

 

Orchestre National De Jazz - With Carla

 

ONJ. Photo by Ulla C.Binder

 

Every year of the festival, the Orchestre National de Jazz, a jazz big band supported by the French government, has presented a new program, along with new members and often a guest musician. Last year, American saxophonist Steve Lehman presented Ex machina, a gripping combination of the orchestra with artificial intelligence processing. This year, the program was much more organic, and under the musical direction of flutist Sylvaine Hélary, presented arrangements from the late composer Carla Bley. The selection had a tilt towards Bley's more cabaret and carnivalesque pieces, drawing pieces from early works across, such as Tropic Appetites, Musique Mecanique and European Tour '77, to some later pieces. The group's sound is powerful, and each member had a chance to contribute to the expansive, cinematic work. The first solo of the night came from Hélary, a beautiful contrast between the low strings and her clear, crisp flute. Generally, the arrangements exuded a lot of motion and energy, however they also felt slightly rigid at times. At the encore, half the band left the stage, leaving mostly the strings and Hélary playing a lithe, romantic piece that then segued back to the full band performing the campy, but crowd pleasing, 'Very Very Simple' from I Hate to Sing. (You can hear a broadcast of the performance on Deutschlandfunk Kultur radio here.)

Thursday 

Karolina Juzwa and Philippe Occhem. Photo by Ulla C.Binder

Thursday was the aforementioned collaboration between French and Polish musicians, and an absolute highlight of the festival. The 'Soiree Franco-Polonaise' night recognized Poland's leadership of the European Union this year as well as the burgeoning music scene in Poland. 

 

Dominik Wania & Christophe Monniot Duo

 

Wania and Monniot.  Photo by Ulla C.Binder

The concerts began with two consummate musicians, pianist Dominik Wania from Poland and saxophonist Christophe Monniot from France. Wania's discograpy is slim, but features an album on ECM and Monniot is a celebrated player who has released numerous albums featuring across variety of styles. Together, they delivered a powerful set that was both ruminative and powerful. They began with an interpretation of a composition from the 16th century. Romantic and gentle, Minniot's melody was sharp but not harsh, angular but still gentle. Wania provided disciplined accompaniment, filled with subtle harmony and light unsettled chords. The second piece provided a stark contrast, much more intense pulsating energy from both musicians, quick melodic runs from the sax and rhythmic jolts from the piano. The two pushed each other until the ending, which took a fragile, questioning turn. The music was not all convincing, some more saccharine passages crept up in a later, but one such tune was rescued with the mash-up into Bill Frisell's 'Strange Meeting.' This set was a pleasant meeting, by all means!

 

Äether

 

 Äether. Photo by Ulla C.Binder

 

This string quartet was the surprise of the festival. Another 'creation' of the curators, the group was the collective of violinists Amalia Umeda and Aleksandra Kryńska, violist Maëlle Desbrosses and cellist Adèle Viret. The young musicians began with barely a sound at all. They scratched at the strings and produced incidental notes, as their playing slowly gained traction. Each were lobbing staccato knots of sound at the others, slowly cohering, finding a common voice. Soon, striking intervals were slicing the air. The next piece had an airier feel with a folksy component that swirled to a climax. Following pieces featured droning backgrounds ethereal vocalizations that formed haunting clouds of sound. Elements of New Music were interwoven with classical counterpoint, culminating in a final piece—a spirited burst of free jazz that had several members rising from their seats as they bowed with fervor. 

 

Ciechelski, Dabrowski, Drabek, Ber

 

Ciechelski, Dabrowski, Drabek, Ber. Photo by Ulla C.Binder

 

The last group of the evening was the very promising premiere/creation of a quartet featuring saxophonist Léa Ciechelski, trumpeter Tomasz Dabrowski, bassist Kamila Drabek and drummer Samuel Ber. The group rumbled to life in the form a welcome 'classic' free-jazz ensemble, with the always exciting set up of sax and trumpet on the front line and a piano-less rhythm section. Dabrowski and Ciechelski exchanged small melodic snippets, while Drabek and Ber provided a lively, driving rhythmic pulse. More composed pieces followed, each member of the group contributing to the writing, and each tune offered an exciting contrast to the last. While the playing was excellent, it felt like the total energy slipped a bit as evening grew late.

Friday, June 6th

Samuel Ber - Eggs, Stairs & Shells

 

Eggs, Stairs & Shells. Photo by Ulla C.Binder

 

Although I was not able to attend the final night of the festival, I did have eyes and ears on the ground. However, even those eyes and ears were not able to be at the first set of the night, so I cannot speak with any certainty to Eggs, Stairs & Shells from drummer Samuel Ber, saxophonist Bo Van Der Werf, bassist Felix Henkelhausen and keyboardist Elias Stemeseder on what was their German premier. My initial thought, looking at the list of names, is that it would be a good show. I hope that indeed was the case. 

 

Hélène Labarrière - Puzzle

 

Hélène Labarrière's Puzzle. Photo by Ulla C.Binder

My source caught most of French bassist Hélène Labarrière's project Puzzle, with clarinetist Catherine Delaunay, saxophonist Robin Fincker, guitarist Stéphane Bartelt and drummer Simon Goubert. The report was that the combination of composed sections and explosive improvisations worked very well, each musician adding a distinctive voice to the group. This set also happened to be a release concert for the album of the same name, and surprisingly was the only group of the whole program with a directly related recording - quite an unusual circumstance, but one that attests to the adventerous spirit of the festival this year. 

 

Pascal Niggenkemper - The Ocean Within Us

 

The Ocean Within Us. Photo by Ulla C.Binder

 

The festival closed with a concert by bassist and this past year's Jazzdor artist-in-residence, Pascal Niggenkemper. The bassist, known for his creative compositions and free playing, created a group that combined German, American and French players entitled The Ocean Within Us. On stage, the group, drummer Gerald Cleaver, keyboardist Liz Kosack, and saxophonist Sakina Abdou, along with Niggenkemper, took their time building the suspense, from snippets of spoken word and samples and some unusual instrumental tools - Niggenkemper deployed his industrial metal light bulb covers and Kozak had a keytar! - to a finally reaching a riveting climax of sound and tension. You can see a short video that captures their spirit here.

Read More

Torche! - 8 Notions De D​é​tente (Circum Disc/Tour de Bras, 2025)

By Stef Gijssels

A little over seven years after their debut album, the French-Canadian-Austrian quintet Torche! release their second album. The band consists of Xavier Charles on clarinet, Michel Côté on percussion and synth, Franz Hautzinger on amplified trumpet, Philippe Lauzier on bass clarinet and alto sax, and Eric Normand on electric bass, objects and loudspeakers. Readers familiar with the music of "Dans Les Arbres" and other minimalist electroacoustic ensembles will definitely like this music too. 

All musicians perform the eight improvised pieces as a group, creating sound sculptures based on minimalist sonic bits. The short and slow-paced sounds coalesce to something coherent and - strangely and miraculously - with a good sense of direction. Their art is organic in the double meaning of the word: it arises spontaneously, yet it also gives impression of being alive, like the sound of unknown creatures and plants even, growing and interacting on each other's space. 

The album's title means "six notions of relaxation", the song titles translate as "impression of outside", "subarctic manatee", "retting", "collecting ashes", "water-repellent", "spun light". The word "Lamarissage" does not mean anything, and the last title "Ronde à Retard" does not mean anything either. 

They demonstrate absurdity, impossibility or surreal images, reflecting the light and serious playfulness of the music, its inherent tension and irrational relation to reality. It stands on its own, without the need to be founded somehow in our world. It has its own logic, dynamics and meaning. It is "L'Art pour L'Art" (art for art's sake) in its purest form, without necessary reference to anything else than itself. 

It forces the listener to stop thinking, to stop looking for meaning, but to become part of the music itself. Appreciate what you hear, let yourself be overwhelmed by what you hear. Be the music. 

Intense music. An intense listening experience.

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Read More

Sven-Åke Johansson (1943 - 2025)

Photo by Cristina Marx/Photomusix

By Martin Schray

Only a drum kit stood on the wooden floorboards. Sven-Åke Johansson, as always dressed like a gentleman (which is how he saw himself) in an elegant three-piece suit and with his hair neatly combed back, began his “The Cucumber Piece” with what has become standard extended percussion playing - until he reached for two cucumbers hidden under a dish towel. Like a merchant in a Bertolt Brecht drama, he weighed them in his hands and gently slid them over the drumhead. Then he gently struck both cymbals, which trembled softly and reverently. There are many excellent drummers in the improvised music scene, but there was only one Sven-Åke Johansson. Now the great sound explorer, percussionist, avant-gardist and personified all-round artist has died somewhat unexpectedly.

Born in Mariestad, Sweden, in 1943, Johansson began as a drummer in dance bands, but turned to jazz early on and played in groups around Bobo Stenson from 1965 onwards, as well as with the American pianist Ran Blake in Spain and France. Above all, however, he quickly established contacts with the rapidly developing German free jazz scene. Johansson was involved in the first recording of the Globe Unity Orchestra and in 1967 he became a member of Peter Brötzmann’s trio with Peter Kowald, with whom he recorded For Adolphe Sax and later he also played in the saxophonist’s octet on the seminal Machine Gun. In 1968, he moved to Berlin and was involved in the development of the European version of free jazz and free improvisational music with all the alpha dogs there: Peter Brötzmann, Peter Kowald, Manfred Schoof, and Alexander von Schlippenbach. With the latter he often played in a duo, a project that lasted for a very long time. Additionally, Johansson played the accordion and recited spontaneous poetry. He was among the first percussionists who used extended materials for percussive effects. In the 1980s he was part of the Bergisch-Brandenburgische Quartett (BBQ) with Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky, Hans Reichel, and Rüdiger Carl. Carl Reichel, Wolfgang Fuchs, Radu Malfatti, Maarten Altena, and Norbert Eisbrenner, among others, were members of his Northern European Melody and Improvisation Orchestra. With Ulrich Gumpert and Axel Dörner and lots of other musicians he played in his Ol’ Man Rebop Ensemble.

However, it would be far too simplistic to reduce Johansson to his work as a free jazz drummer. He was much more interested in sound in general, calling what he explored and performed with insatiable curiosity “new new music.” To this end, he sprinkled peas on the drums and banged cardboard, he demonstrated the graininess of sandpaper and its ability to crunch, he drummed his way through the world on telephone directories and sang some of his beautiful, intricate and quirky songs with his own unique accent to the accordion strapped on backwards. He showed everyone who loves or hates ordinary drum solos that the most exciting sounds are not the ones which are played, it’s the ones that are left out, the ones we have to create ourselves. His 1996 concert for twelve tractors in Leipzig, which was performed again in 2013 at Klangspuren in Schwaz/Austria, is legendary. Together with Alexander von Schlippenbach, he initiated “Über Ursache und Wirkung der Meinungsverschiedenheiten beim Turmbau zu Babel” (On the Cause and Effect of Disagreements in the Tower of Babel), and he also created musical productions such as “Die Harke und der Spaten” (The Rake and the Spade). He has composed pieces for wind turbines, for cardboard boxes, and one of his compositions from 2020 is entitled “Komposition für 10 + 1 Eierschneider” (Composition for 10 + 1 Egg Cutters). He gave precise instructions on how to pluck them or play them with a plectrum while placing them on a wooden box open at the front. Together with Jan Jelinek, a musician and producer of electronic music, he had a duo that symbolized the successful connection between the old free jazz school and a new generation of electronic and noise musicians. As a total concept artist, Johansson tried to steer the audience’s perception in a certain direction using various means, only to then confront them with an unexpected twist in the musical or visual events. The fact that his performances always radiate into the visual realm is part of his concept. One could go on and on about him and his art. Apart from all the things mentioned he was also a photographer, a designer and a label owner (SAJ).

Sven-Åke Johansson’s oeuvre is full of outstanding music, music that has helped to define improvised music in the last 60 years. The above-mentioned For Adolphe Sax (BRÖ / FMP 1967) and Machine Gun (BRÖ 1968 / FMP 1972) belong to the European free jazz canon. His duo recordings with Alexander von Schlippenbach on FMP are superb: If you ask me I would choose Live at The Quartier Latin (1976), Kung Bore (1978), Drive (1981) and most of all Live 1976/77 (2001). His duo with saxophonist/clarinetist/accordionist Rüdiger Carl shows a different musical side of him,“Intermezzo für zwei Akkordeons“ on Fünfundreissigvierzig (FMP, 1986) is folk music in a weird and wonderful sense. With Schlippenbach, Carl and Jay Oliver on bass he recorded jazz classics, another one of his unexpected interests. Night and Day (FMP, 1985) is pure joy and a bow to the classics of the genre. A lesser known album is E.M.T.’s Canadian Cup Of Coffee (FMP/SAJ, 1974) with Alfred Harth on saxophones and clarinets and Nicole van den Plaas on piano, a very beautiful and humorous recording. The Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartet with Hans Reichel, Rüdiger Carl and Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky Free Postmodernism - BBQ with Fred Frith - USA, 1982 (SAJ, 2020) was only released a few years ago, but especially this album is a great discovery from the wild and outer fringes of free jazz at the beginning of the 1980s. Of his newer releases, Stumps (Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu, 2022) with Pierre Borel on sax, Axel Dörner on trumpet, Joel Grip on bass, and Simon Sieger on piano is worth being mentioned. For each track the “Stumps“ theme is repeated four times, forward then backward, a typical Johansson idea. Also, Rotations (Trost, 2025), his trio with Ignaz Schick (turntables) and Franz Hautzinger (trumpet) is a nice summary of Johansson’s interest in sound exploration. Finally, I’ve always liked his collaboration with Jan Jelinek, maybe because it’s very unusual for the man’s music (then again, the word “unusual“ does not really fit for Johansson’s art). Puls-Plus-Puls Edition Moers (Moers Record Store Schallplatten, 2021) is my favorite of the two albums they released.

With Sven-Åke Johansson, improvised music loses a consistent and distinctive voice that has significantly expanded the understanding of sound, form, and artistic expression over decades. It’s hard to imagine the musical world without him.

Watch the short and very insightful documentary with Johansson and the two Danish improvisers August Rosenbaum and Lars Greve:

Read More

Louis Moholo-Moholo (1940 - 2025)

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

By Martin Schray

It’s difficult to imagine the situation for black musicians in South Africa in the 1960s today. Apartheid, the racist system of legal separation between blacks and whites, determined people’s lives, including art and music. Black and white musicians were not allowed to perform, rehearse, or travel together. Concerts in mixed ensembles were illegal. Politically charged music - such as African rhythms and free jazz - was considered “subversive” and many musicians were monitored by the state, their music banned or restricted. Black musicians needed special passes to move around their own country. International tours were hardly possible, and when they did happen, they were mainly for privileged white artists. Many black musicians therefore lived in poverty and had no professional platform for their art. Louis Moholo-Moholo had to deal with this reality at the beginning of his musical career, which is why he and his band, the Blue Notes, decided to leave the country in order to be able to perform freely. It was not until a little over 40 years later that he returned to his homeland, where he has now passed away at the age of 85.

Tebogo Louis Moholo-Moholo grew up in a township in Cape Town. In the vibrant jazz scene of this neighborhood, music became a place of expression, resistance, but also joy and hope. There, Moholo-Moholo met Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), among others, and was a co-founder of The Blue Notes, a band that soon became the artistic spearhead of South African modern jazz. The Blue Notes consisted of black and white musicians, which was forbidden. Public performances were therefore dangerous, their music, which opposed restriction and racial segregation, was increasingly seen as provocative. In 1964, the band fled into exile in Europe, officially under the pretext of participating in the Antibes Jazz Festival in France. In reality, it was an escape from censorship, police surveillance, and oppression by the apartheid state. From South Africa, they traveled via France to London, where they sought and ultimately found asylum. “We played because we wanted to live - and we lived because we could play,” the drummer said in retrospect about this time.

Soon, Moholo-Moholo became part of the British free jazz scene, playing with Chris McGregor and his Brotherhood of Breath, with Dudu Pukwana, Evan Parker, Keith Tippett, and many others. He formed a particularly close musical friendship with Irène Schweizer, the Swiss pianist. In Europe, he played with all the important free jazz musicians, and several of his recordings with the West German FMP label are considered classics. His playing was explosive yet melodic, rhythmically rooted in African tradition but open to anything experimental. He combined township grooves with European avant-garde jazz - a musical act of decolonization. Logically, however, he was never “just a musician.” He understood his art as a political act, which was almost inevitable given his background. Apartheid, exile, the loss of his homeland – all of this resonated in his music. He refused to provide “entertainment”. His concerts were acoustic manifestos - loud, raw, demanding. In 2004, he received the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver, one of South Africa’s highest cultural honors, and in 2005, after more than 40 years in exile, he returned to Cape Town on a permanent basis. There, he taught, played with young musicians, and continued to fight for cultural and social justice.

Louis Moholo-Moholo was at home in all kinds of formations, and his characteristic drumming always enriched any group he played with. This makes it difficult to single out any particular albums from his extensive oeuvre. However, the first two Blue Notes albums, Blue Notes for Mongezi (Ogun, 1976) and Blue Notes in Concert Vol.1 (Ogun, 1978) are definite must haves. Almost everything he published on FMP is outstanding: The Nearer The Bone, The Sweater the Meat (FMP, 1979) and Opened, But Hardly Touched (FMP, 1981) with Peter Brötzmann on saxophones and clarinet and fellow expat Harry Miller on bass, are spectacular albums and only due to Miller’s untimely death there are just these two recordings by this trio. In general, Moholo-Moholo was great in duos with pianists - with his friend Irène Schweizer on their self titled album (Intakt, 1987), which includes “Free Mandela!“ and “Angel“, signature compositions of the two. In this context one must also mention No Gossip (FMP, 1982), a piano duo recording with Keith Tippett, and Remembrance (FMP, 1989) with the great Cecil Taylor. Messer (FMP, 1976) and Tuned Boots (FMP 1978), his trios with Irène Schweizer and Rüdiger Carl on saxophone, must not be forgotten either. A personal favorite of mine is Tern (FMP, 1983), his trio with Keith Tippett and Larry Stabbins on saxophone. But what is more, he was a great bandleader as well. Among his many recordings, Spirits Rejoice! (Ogun, 1978) certainly stands out. It’s his octet album with Harry Miller and John Dyani on bass, Keith Tippett on piano, Evan Parker on saxophone, Kenny Wheeler on trumpet, and Radu Malfatti and Nick Evans on trombone - a killer lineup that delivers everything it promises. A perfect example of his interest in teaming up with younger musicians is his quintet Five Blokes with Alexander Hawkins on piano, John Edwards on bass, and Jason Yarde and Shabaka Hutchings on saxes. Uplift the People (Ogun, 2018) is just a great album.

On June, 13th, the exceptional man died after a long illness. With this extraordinary drummer the last surviving member of the legendary Blue Notes has died. So, this also marks the end of a musical era. “Louis was more than a pioneering musician - he was a mentor and a friend. As a drummer, composer, and fearless voice for artistic freedom, Louis inspired generations through his groundbreaking contributions to South African and global jazz,“ the Moholo-Moholo family said in a statement.

“Spirits Rejoice!” the family concluded - a reference to the legendary octet album and a tribute to a life that has linked music and political resistance like few others. May he rest in peace.

Watch Louis Moholo-Moholo live with Irène Schweizer at the 29th outfit of the Unlimited Festival in Wels/Austria in 2015:

Read More

the ocean within us - Pascal Niggenkemper, Sakina Abdou, Gerald Cleaver, Liz Kosack

In this new project, the ocean within us, double bassist Pascal Niggenkemper explores groove and rhythm by weaving together tight structures and free improvisation. He’s joined by drummer Gerald Cleaver, keyboardist Liz Kosack, and saxophonist Sakina Abdou, who together form a group that brings both precision and freedom to the forefront. Here’s a short snippet of this dynamic group.  

Read More

Matthew Welch and Dan Plonsey - Eudimorphodon (Kotekan 2025)

By Gary Chapin

You may not often think of bagpipes in free jazz improv, but if you do, it’s a good idea to think of them in terms of behemothic, pre-avian termagants stomping through the primordial wetlands— unearthly ferns growing up to their shoulders, a wet-heat, high O2 atmosphere guaranteed to provoke an altered state—and that’s what piper Matthew Welch and sax guy Dan Plonsey do on this recording.

The pipes/jazz disconnect comes from the fact that pipes are a very traditional and regimented (really, there are pipe regiments) and, if played correctly are pretty dang diatonic, with only an octave +1 in its range and the two drones (a 1 and two 5s) slamming you into the tonic center. Here’s the thing, ideally there is but one way to play the pipes correctly, but Welch (and a few others) have discovered that there are an unlimited number of ways to not play correctly. Just like with a target: a limited number of ways to hit, an unlimited number of ways to miss—but when you miss the target, you're still going to hit something, and the something on Eudimorphodon is pretty magical.

Welch and Plonsey paint in jagged, vibrant, microtonal, loud, blunt, articulate smears, evoking the flying monsters of the pre-human world. Eudimorphodon is an early pteranodon, as are the other creatures namechecked in the set list. These are thematic and vibe cues to the music, synaesthetic comp and improv prompts that—when you hear the music—make all kinds of sense. Making sense doesn’t make it less unnerving, though. There’s something about the sheer quantity of sound the pipes produce—as many limits as the instrument has, only 9 pitches and three drones (supposedly), but when you stand next to a piper playing it’s infinite, transcendent. Like a strong river pushing at you, functionally never ending—just like those drones. And speaking of the drones, they may in some contexts, lock you into a tonal center, but the way Welsh plays, they create almost geological anchors with which all of the microtonal possibilities create unique relationships.

Fiercely interesting stuff. As Plonsey writes in his remarks, “The song of the soaring, swooping Eudimorphodon could not have been more eerie and thrilling than that of bagpipes and saxophone together.” Honestly, I can’t imagine any set of instruments more suited to, say, Albert Ayler’s aesthetic than these two. It’s spiritual, scientific, metaphorical, old, and new, and it cleans out your pipes. Five stars.

Read More

John Edwards / Mike Gennaro / Alex Ward - Activity (Copepod Records, 2025)

By Martin Schray

It’s amazing that these musicians have never played together as a trio before. However, they know each other well from various projects and all three have been part of the London improv scene for a long time. Alex Ward is known for playing both guitar and clarinet masterfully, in this trio he limits himself to the clarinet (but he is also part of Thurston Moore’s current London band, for example). The Canadian drummer Mike Gennaro first appeared on the free jazz scene in 1996 with a solo album, a courageous decision for a drummer, but it also testifies to his self-confidence. He became better known through Port Huron Picnic (Spool, 2000), an excellent trio with Max Gustafsson and guitarist Kurt Newman. Finally, John Edwards completes something of a first class cuvee from the London jazz vineyard: the bassist has been shaping the London improvisational music landscape as one of its most active members since 1995, and his live performances are always an event, especially because then you can see the extraordinary ideas he comes up with when he uses the body of the bass as a complete playing surface.

These three musicians don’t need any warm-up time on Activity. From a standing start, they organize an intense, lively, back-and-forth, sometimes pulsating interaction that makes use of some structural forms such as culminations and retardations, but they unfold and shape them in free communication to the exclusion of common formulas, conventions and stereotypes. The fascination of their instrumental conversation stems primarily from their openness: No melody, no meter dictates the direction here - the discourse develops freely. The wordless, direct rhetoric of this conversation, as unbound as it is coherent, also bears witness to a lightning-like grasp and extraordinary intimacy, but does not spare confrontational traits: Impulsive insistence, vehement counter-speech, disruptive interjections are all part of the repertoire in a fundamental and substantial way.

But none of this is arbitrary. As is usual in improvised music, the instrumental techniques are extended, the sound spectrum is enriched with noises. Edwards in particular always comes across as if it were not a matter of playing the instrument, but of living with it, of having a kind of conflict-laden, symbiotic relationship. Caution should also be exercised with regard to the supposedly random disposition of this music created in the moment: Everything proceeds with imaginative consistency, despite aleatoric elements and great tension in some passages. The air is deliberately let out of the improvisation, the focus is directed to the most minimalist tones and the smallest shifts. The aim, however, is to directly rekindle the fire of playing. Joy of playing, intensity, authenticity - that’s what it’s all about. Then again, it was clear that these masters would succeed in doing this brilliantly. A very recommended album.

Activity is available as a CD and as a download.

Read More

Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton

Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton- Difficult Messages Vol. 5 Live in Los Angeles (Self Released, 2024) 

Wolf Eyes x Anthony Braxton - Live at pioneer works, 26 october 2023 (ESP Disc, 2025) 

By Nick Ostrum

Disclaimer: I absolutely loved Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton’s 2006 live release Black Vomit. It was a monster. Seeing the erstwhile collaborators were at it again, I simply had to listen.

As you might expect if you’ve followed Wolf Eyes’ hundred-plus releases over the years (or if you just pick up an album intermittently here and there as I do) Difficult Messages Vol. 5 Live in Los Angelesis a different beast from Black Vomit. (Of course, the same could be said in relation to Braxton’s extensive catalog.) Wolf Eyes, now shorn to the core duo of John Olson and Nate Young, are still pummeling away into a noisy abyss, but they have evolved over the last twenty-years. The harrowing metal is gone. The wall-of-black-noise is pushed to the background in favor of clanky DIY electro-atmospherics. For his part, Braxton wails like rending steel as Olsen and Young catch, manipulate and layer his lines, apparently in real time. (Braxton’s long-term relationship with Supercollider doubtlessly prepared him well for this.) At times, such as the end of Difficult LA Three, the music sounds howling overlain with a dirge to some long-lost group of passengers caught in the steerage of a sinking ship. They have to be lost in this case, as the foggy steampunkt aesthetics take what could be punch-in-your-face harsh noise and rein it back to something more subtle, less assaultive, and less clear. The sound evokes something of memory, or the past, or some haunting present. (As I wrote that, I just heard Braxton mimic a fog-horn 3:51 into Difficult LA Four, then again and again, breaking through the hiss and thud that form the backbone of the track. There must be something to this idea of mental haze and the struggle for clarity.) At a concise 25 minutes, Difficult Messages leaves the listener wanting more.

Live at pioneer works, 26 october 2023is that more, ranging from the smoldering ambient textures to ferocious and abrasive flareups. This one, like Black Vomitbefore it, made my ears ring, but only at points. Much of this comes from Wolf Eyes, who has long basked in that extreme, though with less fervor lately. Braxton contributes his singular toolbox of clucks, honked overtones, and tight and uniquely spiny scale-runs. He also spends a lot of time off his horns, listening to the dark Lost-in-Space environments Olsen and Young scape. Olsen and Young are credited with electronics, vocals (Young) and pipes and harmonica. The latter two must account for some of the additional saxophone lines that pop up in various places to counter and complement Braxton’s. The ultimate effect, however, is much like that in Difficult Messages, wherein someone seems to be capturing and redeploying snippets of what Braxton has played. The result is disorienting, transportive and, well, cool.

So, that’s it. Two more albums from a collaboration that was likely conceived of two decades ago as a one-off event. It worked the first time, and it works on these recordings, as well, just with less abrasive combativeness. That can happen over time, as flavors settle and deepen, heads calm, and attentions shift from shock to nuance. And, as these albums attest, that evolution can be a good thing, especially when the aggressions of twenty years ago are not entirely abandoned, but, as here, harnessed and transformed.

Difficult Messages is available as a download from Bandcamp. At some point, a hand-painted box-set of four hand-cut picture disc 7”s was available, too, but those enviable days have unfortunately passed.

Live at pioneer works, 26 october 2023is likewise available on Bandcamp as a CD and download. (The LP of this release, albeit in a less elaborate package than Difficult Messages, is already sold out on Bandcamp, though other outlets seem to have copies.)

Read More

Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio - Armageddon Flower (Tao Forms, 2025)

By Sammy Stein

Imagine. The world has self-destructed. Armageddon. People were begging the powerful to think, the bullies to rein in their power, and those who have everything to share with those who have nothing. They didn’t listen. Greed, power, desire, and a compulsion to control everything continued unabated until eventually Armageddon happened. Not a surprise, not unpredictable. Now there is nothing left. All is dark and still.

Apart from a single flower. Among the dark, hidden deep within the rubble and detritus of what was once a beautiful world, is a flower – once named in binomial Latin with a genus and specific epithet, but now simply the Armageddon flower. Her body unfurls slowly, tentatively seeking the last tepid rays of sunshine that filter weakly through the dust and sediments that swirl above the Earth.

Like angel rays, shafts of light caress this delicate little flower. The rays deliver not only light but also sound. The energy the flower needs to grow relies not only on earthly components for photosynthesis – carbon dioxide and water, but also on the energy music provides. At first tiny and insignificant, her petals tightly furled, the little flower begins to bloom, striving toward the light, phototropism compelling the leaves and stem upwards, geotropism pulling the roots deep into the soil, anchoring her to the Earth, seeking out nutrients that remain, allowing the flower to grow ever stronger.

The power of this music enables the flower to grow and bloom ever larger, her golden petals casting a glow of hope and wonderful colour across the Earth.

Sound like a fairy story? Maybe, but this album was created in a dream-like state, and the musicians felt truly drawn to create something far greater than Mankind’s weaknesses and compulsions had allowed.

The music has a power of its own. Ivo Perelman and the Matthew Shipp Trio are the perfect vessels to channel this force. The Matthew Shipp trio comprises pianist Matthew Shipp (with whom Perelman has made over 40 recordings), bassist William Parker, and violinist Mat Maneri. All have performed and recorded together. The trio is teamed with Perelman, who brings the music together with his tenor saxophone, and like the others, shows fearless exploration and intuitive interpretation.

Improvised music delivered by inexperienced musicians can convey nothing to the listener but the awkwardness of a musician not understanding how they and their instrument are a vessel whose purpose potentially has a higher calling than any teaching can give, if only they immerse and subject their spirit to what happens when they interact with others. Here, then, for anyone, is the ultimate lesson in doing that.

On ‘Armageddon Flower’, each musician brings their immense experience, understanding, and connection to each other and those who listen truly. The lengthy tracks have time to develop, discuss, and seek an unfolding of the layers to enlighten and inspire.

The intensity of this music is almost shocking – and so it should be, based as it is on the possibility of Mankind’s self-destruction and seeking to understand what lies ahead in the eternity that awaits us all.

From the beginning of civilisation, Womankind (and Mankind) has been struggling with the inevitability of their death, and many philosophers have considered the destructive nature of our species. In this music, the destructive sits alongside hope, the ultimate beauty and power of even the tiniest scrap of life left, to flourish, blossom, and scatter darkness aside, as it grows in power.

All four musicians are fearless in pursuit of perfect communication. On Armageddon Flower, the impossible is possible; what is out of reach is close at hand, and what was lost is found.

At times, it feels not like the Matthew Shipp Trio with Ivo Perelman, but a well-melded quartet.

As ever, the music is not set in time or length, and the conversations differ in intensity and emotion, but each is expressive. ‘Pillar of Light’ is a non-stop confluence of different streams, patterns, timing, and responses, particularly between Shipp and Perelman – something they naturally fall into as like-minded musicians. Storytelling is their forte, and on this track, the stories are urgent and essential, but the ultimate quietude is felt by everyone.

‘Tree of Life’ is intense, with billowing waves of sound that enfold the listener, carrying them as they take various sonic pathways leading who knows where. Shipp’s intensity on piano, coupled with Perelman’s tranced screeching at one point, feels like they are going to run out of notes. Ultimately, the conversation is brought back, the other musicians are included, and Maneri’s delicately positioned phrases create a texture and depth, along with Parker’s intuitive bass, so the music becomes fulsome and rich. Shipp and Perelman achieve an almost telepathic state where the piano lines echo and then contrast with the sax lines.

‘Armageddon Flower’ sets out as a powerful track, with staccato chords pumping from Shipp alongside melodic lines from Maneri and Perelman, before it evolves into a chorale of sounds with each instrument suggesting movement, another retracting and tracing another possibility, ideas exchanged, interwoven and discussed in this intimate and intense conversation – it feels like four artists of different styles decided to create a sonic mural with the essence of each of their art. Just beautiful.

‘Restoration’ is a dream of a track, with gentleness, contemplative elements, and an overarching sense of finality, as the title suggests, of restoration to peace and a grounding of the spirit.

Armageddon Flower is an emotive album, but it is also exquisitely musical. Four musicians of this calibre could have chosen to seek solo recognition, dominate, or lead, but this is never the case. Leads are swapped, responses given, and there is a sense of true communication.

Amid the spontaneity, the quartet never loses harmonic groundings. There is not only the close relationship and symbiosis of the musicians but also evidence of their differences in approach, interpretation, and responses to sonic suggestions.

After over thirty years of playing together, separately, in duos, ensembles, and many different combinations, it is impossible not to be surprised that new perspectives can be heard in this music. It is as if the musicians, in spending time apart, then coming together, bring new learning and experiences, which are shared in music. This is deeply intense, madly evocative, and supremely well-worked music.

Ultimately, the best way to try to understand what music means to musicians is to ask them. Of this recording, Perelman says,

“This album is a landmark. I will probably not record again after this, the way I used to. I think I have reached the ultimate result with this band.

The reviews have been outstanding. Luckily, many reviewers hear the importance, relevance, and uniqueness of this band, which propelled its effectiveness. Those are words from the musicians and critics, not just mine.

The Armageddon Flower is the flower I believe will be left after self-destruction. That is how gloomy and dark I felt when I made this. Although the music brought me a lot of joy, I have been following a lot of World politics, which is awful.

Many will understand how demineralised soils are, how vegetables are poor in nutrition compared to how they were just a few decades ago, how the health of the World’s population has declined, and how World health authorities manipulate facts and studies to be able to sell medicines that are not effective at all but cause more side effects. All that. So I felt very dark, and I think the world situation, as I am describing it, propelled the session to achieve its intensity. It is so intense that it is unbearable. At the same time, it is the freest album I have ever recorded. We all agreed. Matt Shipp can’t quite believe how free this is. The rhythm is so pliable and mercurial, it is ridiculous. I have never heard anything like it. And it is not just me saying this, I wasn’t even there. It was my fingers moving, channelling forces that were beyond my control. It was a dream – I woke up and the album was done. The same goes for everybody else. We feel incredibly proud and incredulous about how this album came about. I know I am always excited about my projects, but this is the one. This is a once-in-a-lifetime project.”

Read More