Catching up with Impakt Records: Part II

By Nick Ostrum

Impakt Records is a label dedicated to documenting Cologne’s free improvisation scene, much of which revolves around the club Loft Köln. The imprint has been in operation since 2016, and, since those early days, has accumulated nearly 40 releases. In a two-part series, I review the five released in 2024 and so far in 2025.(See part one here)

Sylvain Monchocé and Daniel Studer – Duo (Impakt, 2024) 

Although rare combinations are becoming increasingly common in free improv, I have not encountered many, or maybe even a single, other gayageum-bass combo. Leave it to Daniel Studer, who has released a string of boundary-pushing releases over the years, to partake in such an experiment. His partner on this recording, Sylvain Monchocé, is new to me, though admittedly I am familiar with few other gayageum players apart from DoYeon Kim.

The music on the modestly titled Duois measured but powerful. Studer lays into his rubbings, stabs and fat-snap pizzicato, but also holds tones, which allows Monchocé space to scrape and strain his strings. I am not sure what traditional gayageum technique is, but Monchocé seems to be stretching that beyond its limits, offering no melodies and few crisp notes (Sixth Dialog being an exception for both musicians), but (figuratively) turning his instrument on its head, much as Studer does to his bass. Sometimes this results in harsh but beautiful moments of convergence, such as four minutes into the Fourth Dialogue. Even then, however, the instruments remain separate. I rarely mistake one for the other even among all the muted pizzicato, scrapes, various contortions, and other opportunities for the strings to blend. Instead, the timbres balance one another. I am not sure I am surprised, but Duois certainly a unique but wonderfully complementary pairing that shuns the classical European and Korean idioms in pursuit of non-traditional, denationalized, and particularly fertile common ground.

T.ON – T.ON Meets Sarah Davachi (Impakt, 2024) 

Recorded at the church/gallery/concert hall Kunst-Station Sankt Peter Köln, T.ON meets Sarah Davachi captures the trio of Matthias Muche (trombone), Constantin Herzog (double bass) and Etienne Nillesen (snare drum) in collaboration with the wonderful, and wonderfully patient, organist Sarah Davachi. The former have appeared on Impakt releases numerous times in various combinations. Canadian-turned-Angelino Sarah Davachi is quite active in the modern classical scene and has 30-some releases under her belt.

Meets Sarah Davachiconsists of one track of wonderful long drones, layering, entwining, enveloping and subduing each other. This makes sense with Much, Herzog and Davachi, but Nillesen must be in there somewhere. It seems he uses his snare more for reverb or subtle rubbings than anything conventional. The result is a cauldron of hollow, harrowing sounds of overlapping tones, wind and friction. What distinguish Meets Sarah Davachi are the fine variations, the subtle gurgles and pitch oscillations, the implications but absence of synthesized sound, and the skillful, patient and generally monodirectional development of the composition. This is insistent and exciting music, precisely because of its fine shades of monochrome. A dramatic downturn in the last couple minutes, moreover, reveals the space of the church, as the organ gives way to bird sounds, soft scrapes, and vaulted reverberation and tonal decay. This, of course, only adds to the mystery of it all.

Marlies Debacker and Salim(a) Javaid – Convolution (Impakt, 2024) 

Convolution is a duo between Belgian pianist Marlies Debacker (here also on clavinet) and Pakistani-Czech saxophonist Salim(a) Javaid, both of whom have worked for significant periods in Köln, most notably in the augmented contemporary chamber trio Trio Abstrakt. Given their history of collaboration, one would expect strong communication and responsivity. And, well, this album delivers on those fronts.

From the first notes, then silences, one gets a sense this will be an intimate and patient affair. Debacker plays soft, enigmatic tones likely elicited from playing inside the piano and Javaid whisps in reply. Both musicians exercise masterful control of their instruments, likely derived from their contemporary classical backgrounds. Although these compositions (three by Javaid, two by Debacker) would fit in such a setting – the sparsity allows for resonance that would shine beautifully in a proper concert hall – they also wend and surprise enough to point to influences from the freer musics, less jazz than free improv and contemporary extended-technique experimentation. Maybe this blending and blurring is what the album title and the track Convulted, one of the busiest on the album, reference. The latter roils and gurgles with the best of that non-idiomatic European tradition. Compulsive, the following track, consists of harsh, contorted swipes over a piano that veers from Schoenberg to Jacques Demierre to who knows where. Amplfied, one of two live tracks, transitions from Debacker rubbing her piano strings to a series of glissando striations backed by fuzzy, heavy chords to a near blow-out. Dusky, the concluding piece, consists of long piano chords and saxophone tones, possibly augmented and elongated by electronic manipulations, or just expertly rendered acoustically.

Convolutionis unassuming and understated, but entirely captivating in its technique, concentration, and emotion. Simply (but quietly) put: wow.

With that, we are all caught up. All releases are available on CD and as downloads at Bandcamp via the links above.

Catching up with Impakt Records: Part I

By Nick Ostrum

Impakt Records is a label dedicated to documenting Cologne’s free improvisation scene, much of which revolves around the club Loft Köln. The imprint has been in operation since 2016, and, since those early days, has accumulated nearly 40 releases. In a two-part series, I will review the five released in 2024 and so far in 2025.

Simon Rummel On Water Orchestra – Der Zauberlehrling (Impakt, 2025) 

Der Zauberlehrling (English: the sorcerer’s apprentice) is German composer Simon Rummel’s first release as leader on Impakt. The On Water Orchestra he has gathered is a 34-musician strong ensemble of musicians who deploy instruments ranging from the conventional (clarinet, trumpet, various strings) to, in the orchestral world, the unconventional (accordion, recorders, glass harmonica.)

The first composition, the titular 'Der Zauberlehrling', starts slowly but soon gives way to a jumble of long high-pitched tones that wafts and waxes, in the process revealing various textures and timbral variants. At certain peaking moments, it sounds as if one of the glass harmonicas (I think) is going to break into the upper reaches of Morten Laurdisen’s 'O Magnum Mysterium' but the drone quickly pulls any valancing strands back. A close listen reveals subtle pitch changes, but nothing that distracts from the forward-moving hum. Then, after several minutes, the various elements begin to distinguish themselves, not necessarily into easily identifiable instruments but discrete units, which take over the charge propelling the drone forward. This very much sounds like an exercise in building and harnessing energy, with stray musical electrons shedding here and there but the continued gradual surge forming the unifying element. Shimmering, engrossing, and hauntingly gorgeous.

Much of the same could be said for the next piece, 'Musik für den Lehrling des Zauberlehrlings' (music for the apprentice of the sorcerer’s apprentice), though the drone here quickly gives way to flights of clustered melodies, pulses of sound, and an interesting reinterpretation of more traditional compositional structures. Whereas the first piece enchants with its patience, this one moves, periodically opening into truly radiant passages and often bobbing just beneath that. Maybe this composition is the more sprightly study for the less experienced apprentice’s apprentice before they get to the disciplined practice that the sorcerer’s apprentice (rather than the sorcerer’s apprentice’s apprentice) must go through. One is left to wonder whether the sorcerer’s own piece would be even more focused and sparing than the first composition, or if by then the lesson is learned, and he would be free to explore new structures of rival splendor. 

Stefan Schönegg - Enso: On the withered tree a flower blooms (Impakt, 2024)

Impakt’s final release of 2024 was Stefan Schönegg’s Enso: On the withered tree a flower blooms. (The title itself is a fitting if optimistic tribute to what in terms of politics and warfare, at least, was an abysmal year for many.) On it, pianist Marlies Debacker (see 'Convolution' below) and drummer Etienne Nillesen, here solely on snare, join bassist Schönegg in a 44’ realization of his composition referenced in the title. Schönegg and Nillesen have released several albums of the former’s compositions in his Enso project. Debacker joined them, it seems, for the first time on the previous release, 2023’s Enso: A Simplified Space.

The base of Enso: On the withered tree a flower blooms is a heavy ribbon of oscillating drones provided firstly by Schönegg’s arco, but also a background of mellitic churning that seems to come from either internal piano or drum and cymbal bowing, and more likely both. The various drones fade in and out, though Schönegg’s bass is the insistent trunk to a tree otherwise limp. To extend the metaphor, it is this continued repository of life on which the flowers – the twangs of resonance, whatever is going on with the percussion and piano – bloom. The analogy is imperfect. Twenty-eight minutes in Schönegg hands the leadership to what sounds like a soft organ, which picks up the tone as the bass ceases. Slowly other glimmering sounds enter, as well. But, then comes the bass again, playing lower than before and adding a different vibrational wavelength that seems to quietly ring Nillesen’s cymbals. That is, unless Nillesen himself is performing this delicate task.

I swear I hear electronics in this piece, but I have been assured all this acoustic. In that, all the more power to Schönegg, Deback, and Nillesen. This piece shows incredible control in its strange and patient sonic layers and fusions, and in that it also shows an attractive vision of music that pushes the listener to confront the mutually constitutive dialectic between stasis and movement, convention and perception, and deterioration and blossoming.

Sarter Kit - Time Got Relative

German saxophonist Tara Sarter's video for her song 'Time Got Relative' features a cat driving around endlessly in a parking garage. It somehow does a nice job of capturing the mood of the circuitous and jaunty tune. When the cat makes it out, there is a palpable sense of relief.

The track is the latest cut from Sarter's upcoming debut album What I am and What I’m Not, with
Elias Stemeseder on piano and synths and Lukas Akintaya on drums.

 

Benjamin Lackner - Spindrift (ECM, 2025)

By Don Phipps

The set of exquisite tone poems found on pianist and composer Benjamin Lackner’s album Spindrift create pastel colors and the hazy ambience of autumn in a cloud-shrouded forest. The subtle lines and development that give life to this introspective outing can be found in the soft, poignant, and graceful readings of Lackner, trumpeter Mathias Eick and tenor sax player Mark Turner. And the sympathetic rhythm section of bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Matthieu Chazarenc provide a solid yet buoyant bottom. The effect – a respite from the turbulence and combustion of an unsettled world.

Lackner wrote all but one of the pieces that grace the album (the exception being Chazrenc’s “Chambary”), and each of them highlight unhurried atmospheres, like breathing deep while viewing a panorama from a mountain ridge. Each song seems to reflect a natural setting. For example, the title cut “Spindrift” moves like a raft along a slow river current. Or the early morning mysterious quality of “Mosquito Flats.” Or the rocky musical perch of “More Mesa.”

There is also a sense of perspective. Take “Murnau,” where Eick and Turner, who eschew tonguing their instruments in favor of gentle slurs, create just the right tough of melancholy before Oh takes over, her wooden bass plucks carefully crafted above Lackner’s chordal backing. And on “Anacapa,” Eick and Turner’s dual voicings skip lightly above Lackner’s fingerings, creating rays of tuneful sunlight that seem to float down from a forest canopy. These tandem voicings, usually with Eick taking the melody and Turner providing the harmony, can be heard on “Fair Warning,” “Out of the Fog,” and “Chambary,” and the two players illustrate how the sounds of trumpet and sax can be cooly blended to create impressionistic soundscapes.

“I seek solace in music and the process of composing is a form of meditation for me,” says Lackner in the liner notes. “There may be bleaker undercurrents on this album, coloured by underlying sadness, perhaps even fear. But I do hear hope in there as well.” That said, one can also think of Spindrift as a warm blanket on cold early morning – a set of tunes you can wrap around yourself, alone in thought, drinking chamomile tea with just the right amount of honey to sweeten the taste, readying oneself to face the coming day. Enjoy.

Mark Dresser & Paul Nicholas Roth – signal_Blur (Earwash Records, 2024)

By Guido Montegrandi

- **signal_Blur** >> arhythmic compositions for saxophone and double bass, messed with and put back together again. written by roth, co-arranged by dresser & roth -

This is what the bandcamp page says about this record made by Mark Dresser (double bass) and Paul Nicholas Roth (alto sax), not much but it gets directly to the point - it is a collection of terse compositions in which the two of them test many different possibilities offered by the duo environment deconstructing melodies and harmonies, offering fascinating small abstract pictures.

Melody (even if fragmented) is a key feature - in a long interview in which Paul N. Roth speaks among other things about this record, he stresses the importance of melody as an element of connection with the listener even in an experimental and free context like this one.

The first track 'ready play' is a game of unisons, imitations and clashes on the edge of the sounds both instruments can produce. This game, played on the various registers and with different dynamics, will be a marking feature of the whole album. The following piece 'Dance' is more relaxed, Dresser stays on the low register and the initial unison dissolves in a free counterpoint-like development. Broken pieces of melodies are scattered around then a moment of silence introduces to the conclusive unison.

Silence is another distinctive element,

It is as if music is trying to make its way around silence. Often the pieces offer moments of complete silence thus creating a sort of catalyst for the music to develop. While almost all of the pieces have a theme–improvisation–theme structure, this classical form is striped to its bare bones to expose such stuff music is made of.

Echoing the words of Paul N. Roth in the fore mentioned interview, his music develops following the inspiration of Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman, trying to return melody its primacy but also to develop a complex and rich environment.

It is a subtle record and repeated listening offers new nuances and a clearer vision of the weaving of the voices. Dresser has a whole career of experimenting and trying new solutions (if you insert his name in our blog search engine you will find plenty of examples) and this record represent a new interesting chapter written with an equally interesting fellow musician.

You can buy the vinyl or download the album on Bandcamp

Duo Falak – Tira-Tira (TOPOT Records, 2024)

By Fotis Nikolakopoulos

Duo Falak is Denis Sorokin on electro acoustic guitar and Shohin Qurbon on doyra (a kind of frame drum) and voice. What they mostly tackle and struggle within their music is something that really concerns me too: how to incorporate my (theirs in this case, having to do with Tajik traditional falak songs) tradition with what goes on today, both in musical and aesthetic terms. One of their answers is improvisation.

Improvisation, of course, is not, and never was, a privilege of western music. It is a practice rooted deep in numerous traditions around this beautiful planet and, in this case, is the main vehicle the two musicians use so to develop their ideas about this music. Even though the orientalist (if we see it from the western eyes) divide between East and West never ceased to exist, the war in Ukraine made it totally clear that this situation is not a walk in the park.

Listening and understanding recordings like Tira-Tira (with its beautiful handmade covers) can serve as a way to fulfill the Utopia of a unification of the people and not the fascists in power. Tira-Tira is beautiful, melodic, aggressive and full of energy music. In all six tracks of the CD there’s a religious aspect that channels images and feelings from the highlands of Pamir. The aforementioned instrumentation might be unusual (as you can read on the Bandcamp page) for this music, but it serves it right, I believe.

The two-stringed dutar is replaced by the guitar. I surely cannot make the comparison between the two, but I have to guess that even though they are both stringed instruments, Sorokin’s approach offers a new glaze to the music. This makes an equally playful and serious antithesis with Qurbon’s voice, one that feels like it is coming from centuries back, transporting the listener to the vast plains of former Soviet Republics.

Reading some of my remarks on this CD, it feels like some clichés are present…But this live recording, from September, 2023 in Tashkent, brings the listener back to the basics. Modern music that is informed by an old tradition by two musicians that want to react against the burden of this tradition but love it at the same time. There’s a western aggressive, rock element in the music, but as it is deeply rooted in the geography of these areas, you can certainly feel a trance elevation, a feeling of transcendence.

Listen here:

@koultouranafigo

Mathias Eick - Lullaby (ECM, 2025)

By Don Phipps

Poignant, embracing, a panorama of restless solitude, the music of Mathias Eick’s Lullaby is, in a word, arresting. Eick surrounds himself with empathetic band mates – pianist Kristjan Randalu, bassist Ole Morten Vågan, and drummer Hans Hulbækmo. Known primarily for his skillful trumpet playing, Eick adds his voice and keyboard playing to this mix. He also composed all the numbers that grace the outing.

Eick opens the album with “September,” a sedate, melancholy opus – not unlike a cool afternoon, the breezy air fresh with the scent of trees and grass. Randalu’s piano shines – the running, tripping lines float easily above Vågan’s transitionsand Hulbækmo’s quiet drumming. The bluesy title cut, “Lullaby” demonstrates Hulbækmo’s sympathetic brush work and Randalu’s ability to take the theme of the song and harmonically rework it. Eick creates a spacious atmosphere on “Partisan,” first trumpet, then morphing into haunting vocals, then returning to trumpet.

“My Love” strikes a happier tone. The tune is buoyed by Eick’s upbeat straight-ahead trumpet and the gentle, prancing touch of Randalu’s piano. The remarkable ballad “May” might be the zenith of the material presented. Its gentle lilting theme gives Eick a chance to display his full-throated, introspective technique. “Hope” follows and is simultaneously sad and stately. More importantly, it reveals the delicate interactions of Eick’s trumpet and Randalu’s piano.

Eick uses his voice in an almost spiritual manner on “Free,” and it is here that you can hear Vågan’s bowing. The song has an airy mood of isolation – like one alone looking up at the blue sky above a towering canyon. As the piece progresses, one senses a momentum – an energy – at once peaceful and on edge. The final number, “Vejle (for Geir),” pushes forward more strongly than others on the album. It seems like Eick wanted to leave listeners with the will to continue – to persevere no matter what – his trumpet soaring effortlessly atop the rhythm section’s propelling efforts.

The beautiful ballads on “Lullaby” are striking. Eick’s compositions are about feeling alive, even when one is beaten down by the daily drudge or unexpected circumstance. He seems to be saying that despite the down moments we all experience, beauty is abundant and plentiful. One need only move forward to experience it.

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

By Nick Ostrum

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

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

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

Distilled Extractionsis available as a CD and download on Bandcamp:

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

By Don Phipps

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

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

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

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

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

Virginia Genta @ Moers 2024

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Paul Acquaro 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

By Ferruccio Martinotti

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

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

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

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

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

By Eyal Hareuveni

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

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

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

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

A perfect album for our current despairing times.

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

By Don Phipps

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Nick Ostrum

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Don Phipps

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

João Madeira "Aqui, Dentro"

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

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

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

See more at Miso Music Portugal.

A Spotlight: WV Sorcerer Productions

 

By William Rossi

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

 

ZAÄAR - Musique cryptique (Live in Liège) 

 

 

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

P/O Massacre - Sonic Oblivion

 

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

 

Qian Geng & Anton Kaun & Wang Ziheng - Krakatoa 

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

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

Moses Yoofee Trio – MYT (LEITER, 2025)

By Irena Stevanovska

Another standout band from the young wave of nu-jazz, pushing the boundaries of traditional jazz by blending it with R&B, hip-hop, and soul. As they reshape the genre's foundations, many of these artists are creating a new tradition within jazz itself. This trio is one of those examples, crafting what I’d call Urban Jazz – a sound deeply rooted in the new jazz generations. Based in Berlin, the trio quickly developed a unique style of their own. Even though their debut mini-album only dropped in 2023, they’ve already made a name for themselves among the neo-jazz fans, performing in clubs around Germany, and now they’re even touring parts of the world, spreading their sound further.

On their debut mini album, Moses Yoofee’s keys occasionally took a more classical tone – grounded, down to earth. But on this one, the signature style of the band becomes clear right from the start, diving headfirst into the playful, wicked, liquid sound. Beside the spirited piano, breakbeat drums by Noah Fürbringer pulse through, while Roman Klobe-Barangă crafts deep bass lines, tying the tracks together. This combo births the Urban vibe I mentioned earlier – a late-night city feeling resembling those from the 90s. When the music scene was completely raw, in its purest form and free from distractions.

The greatness of the album is that there’s something for any type of listener. For the musicians there’s the great technical aspect of the album, hip-hop drums combined with the old school jazzy, yet at times contemporary and bewildering piano. For the instinctive listener, it has the groove that makes your body move. But for the more imaginative one, it has everything needed to slip into a state of losing yourself – forgetting everything and just getting lost in the music.

Rob Mazurek - Exploding Star Orchestra - Live at the Adler Planetarium (International Anthem 2024)

By Don Phipps

The music on Rob Mazurek’s Live at the Adler Planetarium is beautifully crafted and striking – a dramatic mix of emotions and abstractions. Mazurek directs the ensemble, plays cornet, trumpet, and bells, and composed the music. He even adds his voice to the proceedings. The band, aptly named Exploding Star Orchestra, is comprised of a multitude of incredible talents: Nicole Mitchell (flute, voice, electronics), Damon Locks (voice, samplers, electronics), Tomeka Reid (cello, electronics), Craig Taborn (Wurlitzer electric piano, moog, electronics), Angelica Sanchez (Wurlitzer electric piano, moog), Ingebrigt Haker Flaten (bass), Chad Taylor (drums), and Gerald Cleaver (drums). Wow… what a crew!!!

Mazurek has been creating music for the orchestra since 2005 and recorded with the group first in 2007 on We Are All from Somewhere Else (Mitchell was also on this album). The group has at times featured jazz luminaries such as Bill Dixon (on the 2008 Bill Dixon with the Exploding Star Orchestra - sadly, Dixon’s last recording), and Roscoe Mitchell (on the 2009 live recording Matter Anti-Matter).

While Locks, Sanchez, and Taylor played on the group’s last three albums (beginning in 2015 with Galactic Parables: Volume 1), Reid and Flaten joined the unit for 2020’s Dimensional Stardust, and Cleaver and Taborn made their debut with the band on the unit’s last outing, the 2022 album Lightning Dreamers. Live at the Adler Planetarium is a live version of the compositions recorded on Lightning Dreamers .

The New Jersey born and Chicago schooled Mazurek presently lives in the remote artist colony of Marfa, TX, about 60 miles northwest of the Mexican border. A visual artist (painter and animator) as well as musician, one can understand Mazurek’s attraction to Marfa, a small desert city known for its “Marfa Lights,” orbs in the sky that emanate from automobile headlights distorted by warm desert air. Furthermore, one can understand why Mazurek seems fascinated with celestial imagery and why this album was recorded in a planetarium.

Those who have traveled the remote back desert of southwest Texas know how stunning the night skies can be, and the music on Live is full of mystery and awe – a kind of masterful interpretation of the overwhelming sense of being one might experience looking at the vast night sky. The album is also noteworthy for its pervasive and ubiquitous use of electronics. It is as though Mazurek has tapped into the radio wave emissions of such entities as pulsars and quasars – combining the imagined sounds of space with an almost Indigenous point of view.

Locks’ poetry can be heard at times above the music:

• “Imagine a timeline opening up.”
• “Floating in the current.” 
• “Accept the invitation to feel; accept the invitation to dance.”  
• “In the dark, we fade away.” 
• “Toes touch first upon the star dome!” 
  

The first three cuts, “Dream Sleeper,” “Black River,” and “White River” merge together like rivers flowing toward a junction and then out to a wide oceanic expanse. Movement is conveyed by the electric piano and bass lines, which float like buoys above fluid drum lines. Mazurek creates some striking notes on trumpet, and Michell’s flute and Reid’s cello lines rise to the foreground.

The sweeping theme of “Underneath the Star Dome” sounds visual. There is a dance quality to the music – modern ballet weaving and bobbing. Listen to the precision Cleaver and Taylor bring to the trap sets as they spin atop the esoteric electronics. When the group reaches the flex point in the number, the music become looser and freer – unglued – as Mazurek’s trumpet roars. Voices join in, and the theme dissolves into a bluesy abstraction.

On “Spiral Parable,” there is a forward momentum, like a jostling safari, a vehicle bouncing along a dusty road on a great plain. In the distance are plateaus and buttes that front a blue and red sky. Great birds take flight via Mitchell’s flute arcs. The drummers generate heat, their off beats and rhythmic flourishes stretch and sway – creating the equivalent of a giant drum circle around a huge bonfire, the flames lapping high into the evening sky.

The concert (album) closes with “Parable 3000,” a funky exposition featuring a repetitive yet interesting piano motif. Mazurek’s trumpet is a tour de force and Reid’s cello lines splice neatly into the Sanchez/Taborn chordal structures. There is an almost hallucinogenic quality to this number - very trippy indeed.

Mazurek and crew deserve a major tip of the hat for this outing. What we have is a synergy of great musical beauty and intensity that seems to stretch time, like one momentous singularity, reaching out to the forever darkness from the sands of an infinite desert.