C6Fe2RN6 - C6Fe2RN6 (Astral Spirits, 2024)

By Stef Gijssels

If you do not want to sell any music, the easiest way is to produce an album cover without text, and to invent a name that is "C6Fe2RN6". I am not sure where this name comes from, but it's sufficiently unpronounceable not to be shouted at the beginning of a concert. (AI tells me that "The elements C (carbon), Fe (iron), and N (nitrogen) would not typically bond with Rn (radon - a noble gas) to form a stable molecule in this configuration" - but since Mazurek has already released "The Unstable Molecule" in 1997 with Isotope 217, you never know ... )

The artists behind this name are Rob Mazurek on trumpet, piano, mbira, flutes, bells, synth and electronics, and Nick Terry on electric guitar, kalimba and music box. Terry is a visual artist, and the cover art is from his hand. Mazurek is also a visual artist and Terry also happens to play the guitar and a few other instruments. Both friends met at Mazurek's recording studio in Texas and recorded material that they afterwards refined and produced. The music is layered like Terry's art, with multiple techniques and materials used to produce unexpected and mysterious sceneries, that are at the same time mystifying and inviting for reflection. 

Mazurek writes in the liner notes: "I make music with the intention of placing sound in a certain way that can be exciting, invigorating, calming, destructive, cathartic, surprising, contemplative and many things in between." Or in other words: "What you hear is What you hear. Enter the room and enjoy."

I would echo that recommendation. The music is surprisingly approachable — a big change from some of Mazurek’s recent material — and has an inviting, almost “new-age” feel, with long, tranquil sounds and a reverb so deep it feels like you’re hearing it from far away, and a crystal-clear trumpet to sing and rejoice.

The album also comes in an LP version of 300 copies, and I apologise for reviewing it so late. It may be that the stock is gone. At least I hope so for the musicians. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

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Jazzfest Berlin 2025 - Part 2

 

By Sarah "Flake" Grosser and Paul Acquaro

 

Part 2 of our coverage of the Jazzfest Berlin. See part 1 here.

Saturday @ Berliner Festspiele (Sarah)

Amaryllis Sextet © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

Mary Halvorson – guitar
Adam O’Farrill – trumpet
Jacob Garchik – trombone
Patricia Brennan – vibraphone
Nick Dunston – double bass, electric bass
Tomas Fujiwara – drums  

Mary Halvorson’s Amaryllis Sextet continue to deliver. This latest repertoire on tour is some of Mary’s freshest work to date, and presented in the acoustic wunderland of the Berliner Festspiele, the sextet has never sounded so good. Mary’s virtuosic finger-work and precision effects, while at the forefront of the music, never come across as overly dominant. She effortlessly juggles the balance between subtle digital pitch bends and more traditional licks. This bendy approach is subtly mirrored with the virtuosoty of Patricia Brennan, who also employs her signature manual pitch-bending to the vibraphone. She does this along with a host of other bizarre tone manipulation methods including using her mouth on the bars - it’s hard to tell from a distance what she’s doing exactly, but it sounds great. A hypnotic, aggressive bass solo from Nick Dunston elicits whoops and cheers from a captivated crowd. The duo of Adam and Jacob bring just the right amount of spice over in the brass section and Tomas’s attentive drumming seals the deal. The synergy and friendship between bandmates is apparent and there’s no weak links. Yet another A+ performance from this immensely talented, always enjoyable bunch.

 

London Jazz Composers Orchestra, Marilyn Crispell & Angelica Sanchez: “Double Trouble III” by Barry Guy

Barry Guy © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

Barry Guy – double bass, direction
Marilyn Crispell – piano
Angelica Sanchez – piano
Torben Snekkestad – tenor and soprano saxophone
Michael Niesemann – alto saxophone
Julius Gabriel – baritone saxophone
Simon Picard – tenor saxophone
Mette Rasmussen – alto saxophone
Henry Lowther – trumpet
Percy Pursglove – trumpet
Charlotte Keeffe – trumpet
Andreas Tschopp – trombone
Shannon Barnett – trombone
Marleen Dahms – trombone
Marc Unternährer – tuba
Philipp Wachsmann – violin
Christian Weber – double bass
Lucas Niggli – percussion

Out in the lobby after the performance, I spoke with Australian Trombone player Shannon Barnett, who remarked that she had never seen a score that was so clear and easy to read. “I knew where all the cues were immediately. It was such a joy to play.” She added that despite this, for two days straight the ensemble had "rehearsed the shit out of that piece.” Fellow trombonist Marleen Dahms felt that due to the rehearsal space being smaller, the improvisers could read each other’s cues better, and claimed that the rehearsal was actually better than the performance. From where I was sitting, there was no indication that any performer was having difficulty during the show, and I cannot fathom a world in which there could've been a better performance than what I had just witnessed. 

Two enormous grand pianos were positioned at the front of the stage, i.e. "Double Trouble." These are for Angelica Sanchez and Marilyn Crispell, who had just been presented with the coveted 2025 Instant Award for Improvisational Music. Conductor Barry Guy was also out in front with his back to the audience, along with his double bass. It was thrilling to watch him gesturing and conducting with his full body, while also playing the giant instrument - something so rare, I wonder if I will ever see that again in my lifetime.

This was the third public performance of "Double Trouble." A long piece with many parts. Barry commanded the seventeen players who were so syncronised, it really felt like he controlled them with his hands. Everyone seemed to be perfectly tuned in, perhaps this was due to the crystal clarity of the score, as Shannon had said. He was confident with an obvious vision of how each passage should be executed. Loads of shifts in dynamics, and subgroupings and solos. A lot of space for improvisation which was very exciting for a group of this size. There were times when the huge room felt like it could have been mistaken for a tiny New York City basement venue, listening to some avant-garde underground explosion.

The acoustics at the Berlin Festspiele were particularly satisfying, especially during a duet solo between Mette Rasmussen and violinist Philipp Wachsmann. The tone and clarity of the saxophone mixing with the violin strings were spine-tingly good. Their combined sonic vibrations paired with their expertise caused physical sensations to arise - goosebumps - and I found this to be the case for all members of the orchestra. They are all super qualified, as musicians and improvisers, such that their combination felt like much more than the sum of its parts. Although there were moments that were busy and chaotic, it never felt overwhelming. It was very easy to hear each and every member's contribution and role in contributing to the overall masterpiece.

Amidst the more chaotic parts, there was an epic, uplifting, triumphant theme, which presented itself about halfway through the piece, played with such passion that it reduced me to tears. Needless to say, when the theme triumphantly returned near the tail end of the performance - the musicians united as one and the piece was honoured so beautifully. There were so many individual talents on the stage. When I initially saw the listing of performers, with so many big names, I was wondering how they were going to have their moment, or if they would simply just be part of the unified sound. How they would stand out. I told this to Barry’s good friend and frequent collaborator, pianist Jordina Millá, who had been watching the rehearsals. "Barry makes it work," she said. I didn't quite understand what she meant by this at the time, but I can confirm that Barry does indeed make it work. Apparently this performance was recorded. I would do anything to have a copy, because I need it in my life.

MOPCUT feat. MC Dälek: “Ryok” @ Quasimodo

MOPKUT feat. MC Dälek © Fabian Schelhorn

Lukas König – drums, synthesizer, voice
Audrey Chen – voice, analog electronics
Julien Desprez – electric guitar
Will Brooks aka MC Dälek – voice, electronics

For a particularly avant-garde aural onslaught beginning at 11:30pm, it was unsurprising that the Quasimodo was not sardine-packed for this loud, wild, experimental show. There’s so much going on – Audrey Chen’s birdlike vocal improvisations crackle and sparkle alongside MC Dälek's dark raps and effects. There are distinct grooves here, carried impressively by Lukas König's passionate drumming but if there is one unique standout amongst these beautiful freaks, it’s got to be Julien Desprez and his absurd “guitar” playing. Inspired by Brazilian tap dancing, Julien has taken to the concept using his feet to tap his effects pedals in sequence, creating bizarre rhythms and tones. He does this whilst playing the guitar, sitting atop a high chair. It’s giggle inducing because it sounds fantastic, and the performative element is undeniably fun. This is all glued together with a triggered digital bass sound from Lukas, filling in all the gaps for a lush, immersive collage. The club environment is a perfect atmosphere for this kind of avant-garde chaos, and for the passionate individuals who stick around til the very end, a quirky late-night delight!

*** 

  

Sunday @ Berliner (Paul Acquaro)

 

So here it is, the final day of the festival. Events had already transpired during the day at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche with the excellent French saxophonist Sakina Abdou performing solo along with a set from the international trio The Handover featuring keyboardist Jonas Cambien, oudist Aly Eissa and violinist Ayman Asfour. However, let us join the festivities at the Festspiele, starting with saxophonist Amalia Dahl and her expansive group*.  

 

Dafnie Extended

Cacophonous blasts merged into tumbling passages and unison explosions, then into a driving pulse from the drums and bass. In fact, two drums and two basses, joined by trumpet, trombone, sax, flute, and accordion, Dahl's usual quintet Dafnie was appearing tonight in a 12-piece extended version. Laced with highly energetic solo passages and solid rhythmic motion, Dahl's musical vision, a zestful mix of composition and improvisation, was delivered with conviction. Fragile moments provided pleasant contrast to bombastic ones, and more than once thoughts of Alexander von Schlippenbach's Global Unity Orchestra came to mind as the 12-piece veered between the unseemly and the sublime. Overheard later were quips of it being "too ambitious," to which I say, "good, keep it up!"  

 

The Moabit Imaginarium © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

The interlude that followed connected the events at the Festspiele with the community involvement that the Jazzfest engages in annually. The festival had actually begun at the start of the week and a group led by bassist Joel Grip and documented by filmmaker Chris Jonas working with school kids and community members in the Moabit part of the city on a multifaceted art project. The Moabit Imaginarium, which was the group Ouat, with Grip on bass, Simon Sieger at the piano and Michael Griener on percussion joined by community member musicians drummer Assane Seck, trumpeter Berno Jannis Lilge, gayageum player Hyunjeong Park, electronicst Elsa M’bala and rig player Hakam Wahbi. The range of instruments blended into a gentle, rhythmic piece that slowly grew denser and more melodic over 20 minutes, with the trumpet cutting through towards the end. The short piece invited enthusiastic applause.

 

Pat Thomas © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

It was also a nice intro to the eclectic solo set from pianist Pat Thomas. Thomas, who has been an active musicians for decades in Britain, has seen his profile rise in recent years along with Grip in the band Ahmed. Tonight, however, the focus was on Thomas alone as he pounded, plucked, coaxed and caressed a smorgasbord of sound from his instrument. Bathed in blue spotlights, Thomas, bedecked in a dark, flowing robe, began with a crash on the keyboard - deliberate, loud, smashing - followed by a few tumbling notes, like glass tinkling downwards. Then, it became a flowing melody, soft at first, then growing stronger. The dynamism of his playing on full display, Thomas veered from lovely voicing with a touch of danger to riveting rhythmic explosions. The dissonances were a wild spice as well as structural element of his approach.

 

Fire! Orchestra  © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

The festival closer was the most grandiose of all, the Fire! Orchestra** led by saxophonist Mats Gustaffson. While trimmed down from the 40 members that made up their last recording Echoes     (2023), the new 18-piece group featured some Fire! Orcehstra alumni favorites such as saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, bassist Johan Berthling, trombonist Mats Äleklint and singer Sofia Jernberg, it also brought in new faces like drummer and vocalist Mariá Portugal, guitarist (and vocalist) Julien Desprez and organist Kit Downs, among many others (see below). Often organized around seismic riffs and pulse-setting beats, the Fire! Orchestra can also be surprisingly lithe, which proved to be the case this evening. It is tempting to say this version was perhaps more compositionally focused with a modern classical twist to the sound. An embedded string ensemble comprised of Anna Lindal and Anna Neubert on violin and Emily Wittbrodt on cello had an extended part in the middle of the piece that seemed to highlight the composer's ambitions. At the start, saxophonist Anna Hogberg introduced the work with an extended solo, followed by a wild exchange of "words" between Portugal and Desprez. There were few other outright solos in the piece, though it ended with an extended coda by Downes and trumpeter Tuva Olsson. For an encore, the audience was treated to shades of Fire! Orchestra past, in which nearly heavy metal grooves, a fiery solo from Rasmussen and growling B3 tones from Downes shook the stage of the Festspiele.

The final concert of the festival was actually the James Brandon Lewis Quartet at Quasimodo ... undoubtedly an excellent digestive to this musical feast.

---

*Dafnie Extended:

Amalie Dahl – saxophone, composition

Oscar Andreas Haug – trumpet

Jørgen Bjelkerud – trombone

Sofia Salvo – baritone saxophone

Henriette Eilertsen – flute

Ida Løvli Hidle – accordion

Lisa Ullén – piano Anna Ueland – synthesizer

Trym Saugstad Karlsen – drums

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – double bass

Nicolas Leirtrø – double bass

Veslemøy Narvesen – drums

**Fire! Orchestra:

Sofia Jernberg – voice

Mariá Portugal – drums, voice

Anna Lindal – violin

Anna Neubert – violin

Emily Wittbrodt – cello

Mats Gustafsson – baritone saxophone, live electronics, conduction

Mette Rasmussen – alto saxophone

Anna Högberg – alto saxophone

Adia Vanheerentals – tenor and soprano saxophone

Mats Äleklint – trombone

Heiða Karine Jóhannesdóttir Mobeck – tuba, electronics

Tuva Olsson – trumpet

Lina Allemano – trumpet

Kit Downes – piano, keyboards

Mariam Rezaei – turntables

Julien Desprez – guitar, voice

Johan Berthling – electric bass

Mads Forsby – drums

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Jazzfest Berlin 2025 - Part 1

 

By Paul Acquaro and Sarah "Flake" Grosser 

 

Thursday @ Festspiele (Paul) 

 

"Where will you run when the world's on fire?" asked the slogan of the 62nd Berlin Jazz Festival, and while I have not yet come up with a satisfying long-term answer to the question, for four nights in mid-autumn, I at least found some refuge in the expansive Haus der Berliner Festspiele, ground zero of the festival. Ensconced safely enough in the impressive, mid-century modern auditorium, home to theater, dance and modern music, it felt at least temporarily removed from the raging discontent 'out there,' that is, until the Beyond Dragon's trio breathed their musical fire.

 

 

Beyond Dragons. © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

Beyond Dragon's saxophonist Angelika Niescier, along with cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Eliza Salem, lit up the stage with a welcome energy. A tough melody, eschewing any frills and niceties, bolted from the leaders horn while an intense pulse eminated from the cello. Along with the drums, the two a driving engine. Focused and ferocious, but not without an ear to melody, the trio burned up the stage for an hour, building up tension, Reid taking friction-full excursions, Niescier oscillating between tough heads and heady solos, and Salem always purposeful. 

 

Deranged Particles.© Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake 

German bassist Felix Henkelhausen's "Deranged Particles" took the stage next, and its seven piece configuration seemed to promise an expansive counter to the focused might of the previous trio. The Deranged Particles began with the hum of Valentin Gerhardus' electronics and a splatter of Philip Dornbusch's percussion. Then as layers of sound began to pile up, Henkelhausen's bass could be heard cutting through the expectant atmosphere. Particles of sound indeed - as the group came together, Percy Pursglove's trumpet and Philipp Gropper's tenor saxophone were front and center, while Evi Filippou's vibraphone and Elias Stemeseder's keyboard work formed the perimeter, the music that emerged was a loose collective of sound with a tinge of orderly chaos. Each tone was an important piece of the picture, each shift of the rhythm adding slight instability to the structure. 

 

Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

Closing out the first night was the most intimate of the configurations, the duo of pianist Vijay Iyer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. Touring their latest recording, Defiant Life on ECM, there was already a bit of an answer to the festival's motto: we live in spite of the fire engulfing our worlds, and the music that the two created showed us how to do it. The two began defiantly - sharp chords from the piano and incisive notes from the trumpet - expressive and lined with small melodic statements, punctuated with big intervallic jumps. After a passage of loose tones from the horn, the two found themselves emerging from musical mists into engrossing, emotional pastures. The sounds of Iyer's Fender Rhodes and Smith's soft and wide-ranging trumpet was poignant. Rhythmically strong with cutting melodic lines, the duo was inspired and their music cerebral but passionate. A strong ending to a strong opening night in the main hall.

 

While the main event is happening at the Festpiele, the clubs A-Trane and Quasimodo, both in the vicinity, were serving as outposts of the festival ... other safehouses in this dangerous world ... and both were featuring top-notch groups. For a quick report on these activities, we turn to Free Jazz Blog colleague Sarah "Flake" Grosser, with a panoptic view of the goings on at Quasimodo...

 
Tim Berne’s CAPATOSTA @ Quasimodo (Sarah)

 

CAPATOSTA. © Fabian Schelhorn

There's no line, but the sold-out venue is truly packed. A couple hundred patient and attentive jazz lovers stand to attention as Tim, Tom, and Gregg wail away on stage, commanding the club to take notice. Barely anyone is moving, mesmerized by the frenzy. It's rapid, and busy; crunchy guitar and high tootling sax with Tom's intuitive accompaniment on drums. It goes down a treat and the crowd whoops and cheers once it's over.

From the back, there is still a pretty good unobstructed view, even for shrimps, but the sound quality and mix are well balanced. Even through light conversation, the music is nicely audible. Tim demands attention both musically and literally, asking a few rowdier patrons over at the bar: "What's German for 'Shut the fuck up'? It's really hard to play while you're talking…" Granted, it’s quite late at night, and people have had a few drinks at this point. The crowd is not offended, even laughing along with Tim’s American bluntness. Regardless of his question being rhetorical, in true German tradition, the fans offer practical suggestions back: “Halt die Fresse?”(Shut your face?) ”Schnauze? (muzzle/snout?)." Tim’s musical response is raw and unapologetic; an anarchic breath of fresh air. 

Gregg Belisle-Chi – electric guitar
Tim Berne – alto saxophone
Tom Rainey – drums

***

Friday @ Festspiele (Paul)

 

Friday evening and the Lina Allemano Four were hitting the small stage at A-Trane. This was happening just as the main stage was heating up at the Berliner Festspiele. In an effort to keep things simple, I stuck to the main hall, but really, how unfair this burning world is!  

 

Signe Emmeluth's Banshee © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

Saxophonist Signe Emmeluth's Banshee, whose self-titled debut recordiing is out on Motvind Records, is a multi-headed, genre-bending, free-form group that is hard to categorize. Emmeluth's profile has been on the rise in recent years as a fierce, free saxophonist and with Banshee she both doubles down and confounds. Drawing on a a-list roster of Norway's young, burgeoning experimental scene, Banshee features Guoste Tamulynaite on keys, Jennifer Torrence on percussion, Guro Skumsnes Moe on bass, Heiða Karine Jóhannesdóttir Mobeck on electrified tuba, Anne Efternøler on trumpet and the scintillating Maja S. K. Ratkje on voice, electronics and violin. Everyone, in fact, is credited with voice, which proved to be a central piece of the work. The piece began promising with a blend of vocalizations and a progressive groove. Rhythmic ideas interwove as the leader interjected energetic lines. Then, following a noisy-laden musical breakdown, they group began to wander and for a little too long. Eventually, an emerging pulse helped point the way out, which culminated in the arrival of the banshee. Pained wailing at first, then an emergent, folkloric melody formed, giving new shape as a blend of zombie sounds, melodic shapes and diffuse grooves rode the piece out.

 

David Murray © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

The contrast with the next group could not have been greater. Woodwindist David Murray, a veteran of the venerated NYC Loft-Scene of the 1970s and a prolific player whose style straddles avant-garde and traditional jazz, appeared with his current quartet and provided a set to soothe unsettled souls. Murray, who plays tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, ripped on both as he presented the music from his latest Impulse! recording Birdly Serenade (2025) with pianist Marta Sánchez, bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Chris Beck. A more than capable quartet, it was perhaps Sanchez who stood out the most, with an early solo that added a bright energy to the pulsating rhythm. Murray proved spry and versatile throughout, shifting effortlessly between bopping melody and outside lines. The penultimate piece featured artist Francesca Cinelli, who also happens to be Murray's wife, dramatically reciting her lyrics to the song 'Oiseau Du Paradis' (Bird of Paradise), ending with saxophonist and poet trading-eights. 

 

Makaya McCraven © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

The final act at the main stage was a more recent ascendant to in the modern jazz scene, drummer Makaya McCraven. Another contrast to the evening, the quartet of McCraven on drums, Junius Paul on electric bass, Matt Gold on guitar and Marquis Hill on trumpet, played a CTI-reminiscent set that offered glimmers of inspiration. Stand out was Gold, whose guitar work offered interesting melodic twists and rousing solo turns. Generally groove oriented, Paul did a wonderful job interjecting unexpected rhythmic accents and impulses. Coming back for a rare festival encore, they were a crowd favorite.

However, while it is over at the main hall, the youngsters are still keeping it going at Quasimodo. We turn again to our intrepid reporter in the field, Sarah "Flake" Grosser for an update from the fringes...

 

The Young Mothers @ Quasimodo (Sarah) 

 

The Young Mothers  © Fabian Schelhorn

Back at the club across town, away from the packed Festspiele, a different kind of packed show was taking place. The atmosphere here was entirely different - adventurous, playful, and free-spirited. I’m not sure what gave The Young Mothers their special sheen. Perhaps it was the combination of instruments or the colourful combination of characters onstage. Maybe it was the uplifting, catchy melodies. When everyone sings along in chorus: “It is better if you let it,” it’s such a happy sound and I can’t get the smile off my face. The crowd is immersed in the bright aura of the beautiful music, far from the mainstream, and wonderfully creative. Jonathan F. Horne whips out a violin bow and starts going to town with it on his guitar, giving a double meaning to the term “shredding.” It’s most entertaining keeping an eye on Stefan González the percussionist, pivoting from pretty vibraphone articulations to intense black metal blast beats on the drum kit, and throaty growling. It sounds almost schizophrenic on paper, but the transitions between the metal segments were seamless and fit the mood, which also shifted via a fusion of genres from jazz, to hip-hop to rock and beyond. It felt like a party - one I never wanted to end.

Jawwaad Taylor – trumpet, rhymes, electronics, programming 
Jason Jackson – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone 
Stefan González – vibraphone, drums, percussion, voice 
Jonathan F. Horne – guitar 
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – double bass, electric bass 
Frank Rosaly – drums, electronics, programming

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Kai Fagaschinski - Aerodynamics (2025)

By Charlie Watkins 

Aerodynamics is the newest release from ‘psychoacoustic clarinettist’ Kai Fagaschinski. This record contains two tracks: the first, ‘Welcome to the 20 ^th Century’, is a 30-minute piece performed by The Paranormal Clarinet Society, although recorded in two sessions in June 2023 and January 2024; the second, ‘Surrounded by Idiots’, is a nine-part improvisation, each improvisation recorded separately by Fagaschinski. ‘Psychoacoustics’ is the best way to understand the music: it is about the sound and how it is perceived by the listener, perhaps more than the music as such.

Unlike Fagaschinski’s duo The International Nothing, ‘Welcome to the 20 ^th Century’ largely eschews extended techniques, instead focusing on the possibilities of simply putting eight clarinets in a room together – as Fagaschinski writes, to use ‘simple language’ only. But by no means does that make this a conventional recording, especially as the clarinets creep perilously close to one other, causing the frequencies to beat together furiously, before moving apart again. The music certainly requires a good set of headphones to properly appreciate: the sound of breath or clacking of keys is as much a part of the music as the notes, making you feel like you’ve walked right into the middle of a clarinet coven – which I expect is exactly the effect Fagaschinski wishes to create.

The track was recorded in two sessions, and I found the change quite jarring when it occurs (it isn’t subtle). I would have preferred to separate the two sessions, rather than suggest they form a cohesive whole, which doesn’t seem the case here. Nonetheless, the slow pace of change and intricacy of sonic detail make this an interesting listen.

The second track, ‘Surrounded by Idiots’, is an improvisational experiment. Fagaschinski recorded nine improvisations, each 35 minutes and 19 seconds long exactly, whilst imagining that he is improvising with the other eight incarnations of himself, and reacting as such to these imagined sounds. Again, it is a very intimate recording, the microphones picking up every intake of breath, the transformations taking place measuredly. The experiment itself is an exercise I have tried on occasion – although never in nine parts! – and it demonstrates how improvised music has its own recognised structures and expectations. On the whole, it works: there are moments of surprising synchronicity and textures that are unique because of their independence. But when Fagaschinski’s whole approach is so subtle, it was never likely that it would produce much incongruity, and it did make me question whether as a whole this achieves something that couldn’t be done to greater effect by actually improvising with eight other musicians.

This record is a fascinating listen for clarinet players like myself, who will want to listen closely to how Fagaschinski uses the instrument so creatively. But it is best as a psychoacoustic document, absorbing in its precision and its intimacy, that will reward any listener willing to give it their attention.

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Teen Prime - Let's Just Werewolf Them

By Richard Blute 

How could I pass on this album? It has a wildly enigmatic title with a horror movie vibe. (I’ll bet you didn’t know “werewolf” could be used as a verb.) And it has Jörg A. Schneider on drums.

I first discovered Jörg Schneider through the band Roji, a duo with bassist Gonçalo Almeida. Their first album The Hundred Headed Women is a favorite of mine, as is the follow-up Oni. Their music lives somewhere in the intersection of harsh noise, thumping metal and improvised music. It’s a pretty great intersection.

Schneider seems to especially enjoy duos with guitarists. There’s his 2025 album This Ain’t My First Rodeo, Pal! with Michel Kristof, the project The Nude Spur with Thomas Kranefeld and his pair of albums with Dirk Serries, Schneider-Serries I & II. The Schneider-Serries albums in particular are year-end list calibre good.

But perhaps his most significant drum-guitar duo is his ongoing project with Sebastian Fäth, called Teen Prime. They have 10 releases, helpfully numbered 1 through 10. Listening to some random tracks off their bandcamp page, I hear fine examples of the great variety of music that can be made with this simple combination of instruments. At times, I hear Derek Bailey in one of his many duos with drummers. Then maybe a Gang Of Four riff. Then maybe a bit of Steve Reich’s Electric Guitar Phase.

That brings us to Let’s Just Werewolf Them. Jörg and Sebastian had recorded what was intended to be a Teen Prime album. But they realized that what they had produced was a “more intimate, low-key gathering” than a typical Teen Prime recording. So they invited Yvonne Nussbaum, who had previously worked with Jörg on the projects Skim and Wolfskull, to overdub her piano playing. It was a great decision.

The track “a single life in a single body” is beautiful. Schneider’s drumming skitters in the background while Fäth’s guitar style is almost ambient. Nussbaum’s pensive and plaintive piano feels like the completion of a thought. On the final track “as for parameter”, Fäth’s guitar starts off repeating a simple, minimalist riff which he then builds up in complexity and intensity, with Schneider matching him along the way. Nussbaum’s peaceful piano is keeping the listener grounded, until eventually the album ends on her playing a final few quiet notes.

The whole album contains depths I am still finding. Highly recommended.

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Sei Miguel (1961—2025)

Sei Miguel. Photo by Nuno Martins

By Nuno Catarino, courtesy of jazz.pt 

Sei Miguel passed away on November 11 in Lisbon, aged 64. A trumpeter, composer, and bandleader, he was one of the foremost figures of the Portuguese musical avant-garde and the author of highly original music. 

Born in Paris in 1961, he lived in Brazil before returning to Paris, and later moved to Portugal, where he began developing musical ensembles from 1986 onwards. He started with the group Moeda Noise, which already included Fala Mariam (trombone), his lifelong collaborator. He became known for his use of the pocket trumpet, and his discography began in 1988 with the album Breaker, where he lead a septet that included a young Rodrigo Amado on saxophone. In the following two years, he released Songs Against Love and Terrorism and The Blue Record — these first three albums were issued by the Ama Romanta label. 

Throughout a career that never made compromises, he collaborated with musicians such as Rafael Toral, Manuel Mota, César Burago, Bruno Silva, among others, in different formations. In the orchestrations for his groups, he worked with systems of graphic notation, preparing a general score for each piece and a specific score for each musician, complete with detailed instructions. He described himself as a “jazzman”, although his relationship with the genre was not straightforward. As he said in an interview: “The ever more institutionalized jazz, the pseudo-global jazz of the European Union Rule-Spewers, doesn’t want me. And I, given what it has become, don’t want it either. What matters to me is true jazz.” 

From 2010 onwards, he established a connection with Pedro Costa’s Clean Feed label, which gave new momentum to his recording career, releasing albums such as Esfíngico — Suite for a Jazz Combo (2010), Salvation Modes (2014), (Five) Stories Untold (2016), and The Original Drum (2023). One of his most unusual albums is Turbina Anthem (No Business), a sparse and melancholic jazz/folk duo with Pedro Gomes. An important project in recent years was O Carro de Fogo de Sei Miguel, a “small orchestra of all fusions,” as he called it. They released a self-titled album in 2019 (Clean Feed), followed in 2023 by their second record, Um Um Um E Não Há Forma De Morrer (Shhpuma). His final release was Panorama (ezz-thetics), recorded in a trio with Fala Mariam and cellist Daniel Levin. 

Beyond being a profoundly original musician, Sei Miguel was also a fascinating personality — marked by deep intelligence — who left a lasting impression on all who knew him.

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Damianidis/Dikeman/Damianidis/Skoric – Live in the Balkans (noise-below, 2025)

By Fotis Nikolakopoulos

This recording coming from a tour of the Balkans (Greece, Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria) is treat to all of us that still believe in the transcending nature of the volume that free jazz incorporates. Five tracks, the first two from the gig in Thessaloniki (I was there!) and the next three from Kragujevac in Serbia.

This powerhouse quartet consisting of (order of appearance is irrelevant dear reader) Giotis Damianidis on electric guitar, Petros Damianidis on double bass, John Dikeman on tenor saxophone and Aleksandar Skoric on the drums is on top form. But what that means exactly? Obviously musicians love to play their music, especially with like minded players. But here on this CD, but also on the actual live experience, the listener can certainly find and enjoy the rapport between the players.

There’s a certain interaction going on, one that appears when the musicians are there firstly to enjoy. When you are there, confronting the music, even as a listener of a recording, you can almost always tell when the artists are really enjoying their presence in the here and now of the music in contrary to “the another day at work” feeling.

Don’t get me wrong, musicians are also workers who need to make money on a day to day basis too, but the difference lies in the Greek word pathos, meaning passion. Add energy, collectiveness, togetherness even and you have recordings like this that can easily defy the time distance and transport (transcend maybe?) you, me, the listener to that certain moment of time and space they were created.

I tend to write less and less about the individual players when it comes to collective ways of playing. This is, certainly, not a way to avoid anything. The biggest compliment coming from me, the power that, still thankfully, makes me enthusiastic about this music, is when the artists try and succeed, and that is hard work really, to play in unison.

Live in the Balkans is one of those rare occasions.

Listen here:

@koultouranafigo

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Anna Webber, Matt Mitchell & John Hollenbeck - Simple Trio2000 (Intakt, 2024)

By Stef Gijssels

This brilliant trio of Anna Webber on saxes and flutes, Matt Mitchell on piano and John Hollenbeck on drums treat us to a fantastic rhythm fest, full of complexities, surprises and well-arranged twists and turns. It’s been ten years since the trio dropped their debut album Simple, and their long-awaited follow-up is finally here. This is not free jazz, yet it's hard to call it mainstream too. It's actually hard to put it into any musical category, and at times classical avant-garde comes even to mind, with long repetitive phrases, or even some jazz fusion with its unison lines at lightning speed. 

All three musicians rank among the finest on their instruments—fully at ease with the technical demands of Webber’s compositions, and bringing even more to the table: inventive creativity, joyful expression, and an infectious energy. The music itself is anything but simple, yet the trio delivers it with such natural ease that it almost feels effortless. More impressively, the music truly shines in their hands—radiant and alive—without ever drawing undue attention to its underlying virtuosity.

The music is so meticulously crafted that it leaves little space for improvisation, which in turn slightly diminishes its emotional depth. Even so, listening to it evokes a sense of wonder and admiration—perhaps even joy and delight at its sheer precision and wild inventiveness. It's less about deep emotional expression and more about the playful exuberance of making music itself. And of course, those are meaningful emotions too.

Anna Webber is in a category of her own, and that's a great place to be. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Watch a video from a recent performance at the Bop Stop

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Camila Nebbia and Ryan Sawyer @ Downtown Music Gallery 9-30-25

It's always fun for us to drop in on the Downtown Music Gallery in New York City to check the pulse of the ever changing avant-garde scene there. The DMG is located in a basement space in lower Manhattan and offers a refuge from the world above, where people attracted to adventurous music can meet. Every week, the one-of-a-kind record store offers free gigs that attract both well known and up and coming musicians. Here, we check out saxophonist Camila Nebbia and drummer Ryan Sawyer, two musicians who have already made more than a splash on the international avant-garde music scene. 

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Das B - Love (hanatosis / Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2025)

By Ferruccio Martinotti

An ideal Mt. Rushmore of jazz should certainly show “A love supreme” as one of the figureheads carved in the rock: not even a primate (no disregard towards our ancestors…) would raise an eyebrow about and here is the last spot on earth to explain why. Along the decades, some mavericks took up the gauntlet, deciding to climb the Nanga Parbat on heels, or, in other words, to cover such a monster milestone: Alice Coltrane on World Galaxy (1971) and Live at Jazz Jamboree (1987), surely the most meaningful for obvious reasons, then, as come to mind, Ganavya, Wynton Marsalis, Turtle Island Quartet, Santana/McLaughlin, Toshiyuki Miyama. Different backgrounds, different feelings, different results. The pretty recent (2021) A Love Supreme. Live in Seattle is the last and ultimate evidence of what a hellish task it is to handle with that record. Someone else drew on the map a wholly peculiar route, subverting the didascalic notion of the tribute or songbook, but rather taking structural and dynamic cues from the original record, utilizing free improv in their own way. We’re talking of Das B and its second album, recorded and mixed at Brief Sand Studios, Berlin, in 2022, jointly released by the Swedish Thanatosis Records and Corbett vs. Dempsey. 

The lineup is deployed as follows: 

Magda Mayas, piano. Living in Berlin, she developed a vocabulary utilizing both the inside as well as the exterior parts of the piano. Using preparations and objects, she explores textural, linear and fast moving sound collage. She has recently been performing on a clavinet/pianet, an electric piano from the 60s with strings and metal chimes, where she engages with noise and more visceral sound material, equally extending the instrumental sound palette using extended techniques and devices. She has collaborated with the likes of John Butcher, Andy Moor, Zeena Perkins, Joelle Leandre, Paul Lovens, Ikue Mori, Phill Niblock, Peter Evans, Andrea Neumann, Burkhard Stangl, Christine Abdelnour and Axel Doerner. 

Mazen Kerbaj, trumpet. Born in Beirut in 1975, Berlin based now, is a musician, comics author and visual artist, widely considered as one of the initiators and key players of the Lebanese free improv and experimental music scene. He played his trumpet with Alan Bishop, Nate Wooley, Joe McPhee, Peter Evans, Pauline Oliveros, The Necks, Michael Zerang, The Ex, among others, “pushing the boundaries of the instrument and continues to develop a personal sound and an innovative language, following in the footsteps of pioneers like Bill Dixon, Axel Doerner and Franz Hautzinger”, as per his bio notes. 

Mike Majkowski, bass. Born in Australia, based in Berlin, active across a wide range of contemporary, improv and experimental music since the early 2000s, he developed a highly innovative playing style, extending and refining technical possibilities for the double bass. His musical work ranges from purely acoustic to electro-acoustic to electronic and explores relationships between stillness and pulse, spectral qualities of resonance, duration and perception of listening. He lent his fat strings to Oren Ambarchi, Marshall Allen, Tim Barnes, Han Bennink, Peter Brötzmann, Mats Gustafsson, Silke Eberhard, Satoko Fuji, Evan Parker, Sven-Ake Johansson, Alexander von Schlippenbach. 

Tony Buck, drums. From The Necks’ fame, he certainly doesn’t need to be introduced. 

As a rule, it’s always fruitful to get the primary source, and that's what they say about this project: “We are not attempting to recreate the album. Rather, we took the original album’s track timing and instrumental structure, as well as some other technical aspects, like balancing and panning, the occurrence of overdubs and timbral relationships within the original, to create our tribute. This was our process and our idea was to link our music-free improv-to its roots in jazz and free jazz”. The final outcome is amazing and puzzling. If, on one hand, we have the philological approach explained above, on the other, we see the raw material, grinded and pulverized until the molecular state, reassembled in urban, daunting, gloomy minimal textures, reminding us the likes of Burial or Kode 9 dealing with a free and improv recipe. The music is surely bringing traces of “A love supreme” but you’d need a DNA profile to track them and this makes “Love” a challenge that needs and deserves to be accepted: Trane would approve it, sure thing.

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