Sophie Agnel has released a bevy of brilliant releases in recent years,
including the solo CD Song (Relative Pitch, 2025); two duos with John
Butcher, la pierre tachée (Ni Vu Ni Connu, 2022) and Rare (Victo, 2025); the
exploratory quartet recording Quartet un peu Tendre with saxophonist Daunik
Lazro and the electronic duo of “Kristoff K. Roll” (Fou Records, 2024); a
luminous duet, Draw Bridge, with percussionist Michael Zerang (Relative
Pitch, 2024); and the brilliant archival LP Gargorium, recorded in 2008/2009
by a trio with Lazro and guitarist Olivier Benoit (Fou, 2023).
Learning further extends that body of work. It is Agnel’s first solo
recording to be released on LP, each side devoted to a single improvisation,
but with a certain symmetry. Side A was recorded on June 6, 2023 and runs
18:42; Side B was recorded on June 4, 2024 and runs 18:47, each from an
event at Café Oto. It’s stunning playing, each side a work of continuous
evolution in which Agnel mines the piano’s every resource, whether adding
materials to the strings, plucking the interior, or producing thunderous
explosions at the keyboard. That title Learning might refer to the voyage of
discovery undertaken at the piano’s multiple continents, its exterior,
Interior and combinations thereof, its compound identity an embodiment of
her deeply traditioned and yet infinitely extensible and divisible art.
There’s an insistence here on the significance of the piano’s whole and
original name, pianoforte, the instrument as soft and loud, as sweet and
harsh as it might ever be, evident throughout 'Learning A,' whether its
factory-strength, brutalist machine sounds from prepared bass register,
subtle glissandi whispering on upper register strings, or voice-like
murmurings drawn on the middle register. One feels the whole of the piano’s
varied (and potential) resources. In one extended quiet passage there’s a
mix of keyboard articulations and violin-like sustained notes from the
strings themselves, likely owing to an e-bow. Another quiet passage has
consonant clusters oscillating in the upper register.
'Learning B' is more of the same and yet utterly different, another deep dive
into the instrument’s resources, bass clusters roaring against insistently
sweet middle-register tremolos, the quiet twittering of birds, saw-like
carpentry noises and even sounds that can only be described as the flotsam
and jetsam, lagan and derelict, that is, the varied categories of debris of
the piano’s oceanic potential. There are instances of the piano’s mystery
and sweetness, hitherto undreamt of, yet arising here, coming into audition.
There’s a lovely drone passage that might be achieved with two e-bows, a
middle register drone and a high one. The piece ends in a beautiful
assortment of little sounds, whispering, tinkling, drawing out to silence.
This is special music, all of it profound, open, glowing, generous,
empathetic, reaching.
Last year, Sylvie Courvoisier's "Chimaera" was one of our favourite albums.
The video below gives the full album, recorded live at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam in July 2024. The band are Nate Wooley on trumpet, Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet, Sylvie Courvoisier on piano, Christian Fennesz on guitar/electronics, Drew Gress on doublebass, Kenny Wollessen on drums/vibraphone, Nasheet Waits drums.
Dissonance. Abstraction. Tonal clusters. Flurries. Rolling ostinatos. Ornate
and defiant piercings. These are some of the various musical elements of
Angel Falls, a striking masterpiece of space and sound generated by
two of the best – the legendary Mississippi-born Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet
(now 83) and the always fascinating Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier. The
duo draws on a range of influences and idioms to construct their tone poems.
From the formal classical side, one can hear degrees of impressionism,
Messiaen abstractions, and Charles Ives. Then there are bouncy, jagged blues
passages (the ending of “Naomi’s Peak”) and of course plenty of
improvisatory and experimental jazz.
From this diverse palette, Smith and Courvoisier deliver striking and
challenging explorations that boggle and intrigue. To illustrate, listen to
the album’s longest piece, “Angel Falls” and its shortest piece, “Sonic
Utterance.” On “Angel Falls,” Courvoisier creates a dissonant barely
audible opening by stroking the inside of the piano. The duo proceeds to
fashion a dark meditative impression that evolves into a rolling stormy
motif. Smith always finds just the right note to craft his reflective mood
while Courvoisier goes from pianissimo to forte on the keys in short order,
creating sparkling color and deep textures. Both explore the highest and
lowest notes on their respective instruments – creating a sense of awe,
yearning, and other moods and expressions. There is a point where
Courvoisier constructs a full-blooded harmonic maelstrom and Smith responds
with hard blowing high notes to produce dramatic effect. The soul-searching
continues, as Courvoisier’s passages build into a cliff like peak underneath
Smith’s sostenuto responses.
On “Sonic Utterance,” Courvoisier generates precise jarring attacks with
tonal clusters while Smith demonstrates his breathing technique, uttering
low volume blues phrases above Courvoisier’s back and forth splashes. The
music alternates between peaceful interludes and explosions until
Courvoisier develops a wandering, repeating motif underneath Smith’s muted
trumpet. A roller coaster ride ensues, and Courvoisier really brings it
towards the end – with fierce abstractions that seem to explode off the keys
like fireworks.
The high degree of formalism found on Angel Falls does not detract
from the spontaneity and openness found within the music. It enhances it,
giving the music the foundation necessary to develop and explore impulsively
and creatively. Art can be representative and exist beneath conscious
reality. And this album most certainly is a work of art. Enjoy!
Last quarter of the year and the top seeded players enter the court: Sylvie
Courvoisier and Wadada Leo Smith together on Angel Falls, out for Intakt
Records. Should someone need to get acquainted with these two Aces, the
simple, right move to be done is to check the Free Jazz Blogs’s past pages where both
of them are hugely covered, especially Stef’s peerless reviews of Wadada,
making him the Supreme Cantor of the trumpeter. For what is worth, our cups
of tea are America along with the late Jack DeJohnette and Sacred Ceremonies with Milford Graves and Bill Laswell but get what you prefer,
even by chance, and after a couple of notes it will be perfectly clear for
you that the trumpet of our 84 years old hero is a prism refracting the
sound, opening sonic worlds or better to say, sonic galaxies. Madame
Courvoisier, Swiss born and New York based, for the sake of our sheer,
infinite pleasure, delivered in the last years a body of astonishing music,
showing to old and new listeners her palette of piano ammunitions, be alone
(To be other-wise), with her trio (Free Hoops), with Mary Halvorson
(Bone Bells) or in a larger ensemble such as Chimaera, an absolute 2024
masterpiece that sees Sylvie teaming up with Wadada, Nate Wooley, Christian
Fennesz, Drew Gress and Kenny Wollesen.
The pianist and the trumpeter first
played together in 2017 at a concert organized by John Zorn and as
Courvoisier recalls: “Right after he asked me for my number and a couple of
months later we did a recording in New Haven, in trio with Marcus Gilmore”.
The outcome of that session has yet to see the light of the day but there
have been regular collaborations since, including further trios with
drummers Kenny Wollesen and Nasheet Waits, a Smith ensemble with two pianos.
Given the love of Wadada for duos with piano (see the works with Vijay Iyer,
John Tilbury, Angelica Sanchez, Aruan Ortiz and Amina Claudine Myers), and
his admiration for Sylvie (“Whenever I’ve played on stage with her, it’s
always been a journey that has been mutual and creative. She’s got courage
and you can see it when she’s at the piano, when she is inspired to go
toward something, she doesn’t just go near it, she advances as if she’s
going there to save creation”, from the liner notes) it wasn’t a matter of
“If” but of “When” the two would have entered a studio together. This
happened in October 2024 at Octaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY for an output of
8 magnificent compositions that sound as the perfect epitome of such top
notch musicians. Wadada spacious notes don’t hide their blues roots, while
Sylvie combined upbringing of classical and jazz studies allows her to draw
sonic textures that are a real, unmatched trademark; together they’re
building a shadowplay of sounds, designing perfectly balanced geometries
around and dissolving them into the fire soon after.
As per the creation
process of the album, let’s listen to what Courvoisier says in the liner
notes: “We just played right through exactly the order of the CD and exactly
the amount of music on the CD, with no edits. We probably did that in two
hours and after we mixed it. The same day we recorded and mixed. We started
at noon and at 5 pm it’s finished”. Are you thinking about a labour of
genius? We are, too. It’s absolutely interesting to read Smith in the liner
notes about the composition process: “In composing, you got the inspiration
that comes to you as you construct the page. That inspiration comes
throughout the process, even if it takes 5 years or 27 or 37 years to
complete it. It comes off and on throughout that process. In a performance
the same thing happens. The difference is that in performance you’re
allowing those moments of inspiration to come directly through”. This record
delivers all that and more and we let Sylvie conclude about the chemistry
they’ve been able to create together: “With Wadada I feel we’re creating in
the moment and I feel something very joyful. We’re like kids discovering
things. I feel I can hear harmonically where he wants to go. Basically, I
try to erase myself and try to make him sound great”. And there is still
someone wondering why this music is floating in our bloodcells…
Wadada Leo Smith likes duets with pianists. He's performed and released albums with this format for many decades, and with great success, and with great musicians: Vijay Iyer, Matthew Goodheart, Angelica Sanchez, John Tilbury, Tania Chen, Amina Claudine Meyers.
Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier adds her own touch to Smith's music. Both musicians performed for the first time together in 2017, at a concert organised by John Zorn. Several unissued performances followed, in duos, trios or with two pianos. Of course, Smith is one of the two trumpeters on Courvoisier's brilliant "Chimaera".
Courvoisier's natural feeling of creating mysterious yet gentle sounds match perfectly with Smith's jubilant spiritual tone. On "Whispering Images", she adds an unexpected rhythm with muted piano strings, and a bluesy theme that reminds of "Chimaera". It gives me goose bumps.
Despite the incredible quality of the music and its beauty, it was recorded in one take: “We just played right through exactly the order of the CD, and exactly the amount of music on the CD, with no edits. We probably did that in two hours. And after, we mixed it. The same day we recorded and mixed. We started at noon and at five p.m. it’s finished.” says Courvoisier in the liner notes. It makes the whole process sound cheap and sloppy, yet the exact opposite is true. It says a lot about the skills of the artists, their natural symbiosis and the authenticity of their music: there is no need to change anything if it comes straight out of your very nature, if it flows organically and spontaneous, as it does here.
The title, "Angel Falls" refers to the world's highest waterfall in Venezuela, but it of course also has a double meaning of a falling angel.
Smith has always refused to be boxed into any musical category or genre, and so is Courvoisier: it's classical, free music, expansive and intimate, deeply human but with a level of abstraction that holds the compositions together. Neither Smith nor Courvoisier are iconoclasts or real avant-gardists, preferring a welcoming sonic environment that has deep roots in many musical traditions, yet lifting to a level rarely heard before.
What they present us here, is again among the best things I've heard this year.
Could it possibly be something better than good music? Yes it could: good
music with a good story behind. Take this for instance. Around 20 years ago
a patrol of free jazz aces, Jim Baker (piano, Arp synthesizer, viola), Mars
Williams (saxophones, toys), Brian Sandstrom (double bass, electric guitar,
trumpet), Steve Hunt (drums, percussion) kicked- off a new band, taking the
name from an 1841 book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions. It was an early
study of crowd psychology by Scottish journalist Charles MacKay, debunking
subjects like alchemy, crusades, duels, economic bubbles, fortune-telling,
haunted houses, the Drummer of Tedworth, the influence of politics and
religion on the shapes of beards and hair, magnetisers, murder through
poisoning, popular admiration of great thieves, popular follies of great
cities and relics (!!!). After a couple of years spent in weekly gigs at a
spot in Chicago called Hotti Biscotti, the quartet found a regular Monday
night session at the small upstairs room of Beat Kitchen, a mandatory stop
for devoted fans of Chicago's creative music scene, where they have
maintained their residency for more than 15 years.
It would be pretty
ungenerous to overlook the role they played in the contribution to pave the
road for the new generation of Chicagoan players that blossomed from the 90s
on. Separately or together, they’ve played with Muhal Richard Abrams, Fred
Anderson, Hal Russel, Nicol Mitchell, The Pharaohs, Shawn Colvin, Nicholas
Tremulis and Tortoise. Mars was an interesting artist, with his musical soul
pretty equally shared between jazz and post-punk. Son of a trumpeter, he
played classical clarinet for ten years, then moved to saxophone under the
influence of Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, attending
courses at the AACM with Roscoe Michell and Anthony Braxton. If on one hand
this upbringing drove him to play with Peter Brotzmann Tentet, The
Vandermark 5, Liquid Soul and NGR Ensemble, on the other hand he spent long
time, along the 80s, as a permanent member of The Waitresses and Psychedelic
Furs, as well as blowing the reeds for the likes of Billy Idol, Power
Station, Billy Squier, Massacre and Ministry.
Due to Mars’ absence while on
tour with his other projects, the band invited Edward Wilkerson Jr. (AACM
past president and teacher, founder and director of the famous octet 8 Bold
Souls and member of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble) to hold the reeds
garrison. After the self-titled album, released in 2007 and the sophomore
“Apocryphal fire in the warehouse, and other explanations” (2011), the Fates
entered the game. Mars Williams was diagnosed with late-stage cancer when
EPD booked a concert at Elastic Arts Foundation at the end of August 2023.
He survived less than three months more but nevertheless was on the bill,
and so was Edward Wilkerson Jr. to deploy a powerful unit of five members,
The Last Quintet. To breathe the atmosphere of such a magical and, now,
historical night, that's what the liner notes report: “Nobody expected
Williams to play the way he did. More than an honorary appearance, this was
Mars at the top of his game, playing, as it were, for his life. With
Sandstrom switching between bass, trumpet and electric guitar, Wilkerson
doubling on saxophone and clarinet as well as oud and didgeridoo, Baker on
ARP synthesizer and piano as well as violin, and Hunt on all sorts of
percussion, Williams’ table of toys and his blazing soprano, alto and tenor
saxophone were in perfect company. A band that could freely improvise open
structures and instantly compose unforeseen suites, while maintaining a
level of intensity and intrigue on par with the saxophonists’ mastery. This
Last Quintet bore the marks of a classic concert. Which it was”. Luckily for
us, Dave Zuchowski was there to record the concert in all its two-sets,
beautiful, moving glory and the usual, priceless wisdom of Corbett vs.
Dempsey made the rest. A good story, I told you.
The opening moment of Live at Terzo Mondo is quick jab in the ribs. You jolt upright, take quick stock of who just jabbed you, and reckon with your fight or flight instinct. Simultaneously hitting, saxophonist Ignaz Schick plays a short riff while guitarist Christian Kühn strikes a bottom-heavy, dissonant chord and drummer Joe Hertenstein rolls confidently along. Fight or flight, the first option seems right as the group digs in, wave after wave of attack. The pace lets up after a little, sort of, and then they are back with a thrusting velocity.
Schick is front and center, leading the assault with a sharp melodic sense and an inexhaustible supply of ideas. Kühn, an excellent guitarist who leads his own group "Kuhn Fu", provides fierce textured background as well as moments of gentle melody. Hertenstein is invaluable, adding ample energy and direction.
There is a moment where it seems Schick quotes Ornette Coleman, as a familiar, uptempo riff jumps out of the general melee. It is seamless, passes quickly and proves to be just one of many ear-catching moments in the 29-minute piece. In another moment, at about 20 minutes, the entire approach changes. Schick plays almost alone, developing a questioning melody as Kuhn and Hertenstein provide at first incidental sounds and then begin adding more and more until they are back in fighting form.
The second half of the album, encapsulated as a track called 'Shameless' (the first was 'Shameful'), starts out a little differently than the flip-side, but the effect is delightfully similar. Full, furious, and rife with ideas, the trio engages playfully, challenging each other with bold improvisations that blur the line between turmoil and cohesion.
Every journey to the Festival Music Unlimited feels like a meeting with
many known and unknown siblings from an ancestral mother, or taking part
in what the editor of the Austrian FreiStil, Felix Fellinger, called
“soziales Gesamtkunstwerk” (a term used by composer Richard Wagner and
literally means total or ideal work of art, but adding to it the social
aroma).
The sold-out 39th edition of the Unlimited Music Festival was the most
international to date, featuring more than 60 musicians from 24
countries and all five continents, who performed 19 concerts. Many
musicians and members of the audience were returning visitors, putting
their trust in the festival's artistic choices and the new musicians who
would play in the festival for the first time. And, as in every year,
the festival offered many opportunities to meet and talk with the
musicians during its three days, in the festival’s restaurant and the
beautiful photo exhibition of Italian photographer Luciano Rossetti.
First Day, Nov. 8
The opening performance was by the Vienna Improvisers Orchestra (VIO),
founded and led by saxophonist and artistic director Michael Fischer.
The VIO, in its changing lineups, is dedicated to the art of conducted
instant composition, a form of structured, real-time composition based
on Fischer’s hand-signal system in which the distinction between the
conducted cues and the improvised blurs. The 15-member VIO was divided
into string, reed and brass, and vocal sections, and the most
adventurous section, comprised of Bernhard Loibner on modular synths,
Wolfgang Fuchs on turntables, and drummer Didi Kern. Fischer gave a lot
a freedom to the musicians and maintained a fragile balance between the
eccentric female vocalists - Nika Zach, Isabell Kargl, and Claudia
Cervenca, the wild, driving force of Loibner, Fuchs, and Kern, and the
more structured improvisations of the string, brass and reed sections,
while injecting a sharp sense of irony.
American, Amsterdam-based drummer-percussionist Frank Rosaly followed
with a solo set, Bimini, that traces his Puerto-Rican ancestral roots,
with a unique drum-set of two bass drums, two gongs, two snare drums,
two cowbells, and more percussive instruments. This powerful, spiritual
set was informed by the traditions of the indigenous Caribbean Taíno and
was performed in almost total darkness. This timeless trance-like ritual
calibrated Rosaly and the audience into a collective, compassionate
frequency, but also explored Rosaly’s own questions of identity and
larger, more pressing issues of decolonization, in the Caribbean and
elsewhere.
The pan-European, multi-generational quartet Turquoise Dream - Polish,
Amsterdam-based pianist Marta Warelis, Swedish cellist Helena Espavall,
Portuguese veteran violinist Carlos Zingaro, and guitarist Marcelo dos
Reis - released only one album (JACC, 2021), and have not played
together much since then. The performance provided a unique opportunity
to experience the deep listening, spontaneous conversations of these
distinct improvisers, sketching and deconstructing loose textures with
an organic, poetic interplay, grace, and elegance, and, obviously, enjoy
the wisdom and imagination in every touch of Zingaro.
Elisabeth Harnik & Camila Nebbia
The night ended with New Quintet assembled in the last minute, after a
cancellation - American trombonist Jeb Bishop, Argentinian tenor sax
player Camila Nebbia, Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik, Brazilian
double bass player Vinicius Cajado, and fellow Austrian drummer Didi
Kern (who plays with Harnik in the DEK trio with Ken Vandermark). This
first-ever, free improvised performance stressed a reserved, often too
respectful interplay, and focused on patient, collective improvisations,
with enough space for individual aolos, with Bishop steering the intense
commotion with his quiet, commanding presence.
Second Day, Nov. 9
Akira Sakata
The afternoon performances at the local Landesmusikchule began with a
solo set of Japanese legendary reed master-vocalist Akira Sakata, who
performed his version of the Tale of Heike (originally released by
doubtmusic, 2013). This epic story is about the fight between two
samurai clans for the control of medieval Japan, and was performed in a
dramatic, vivid way, with Sakata acting like a sage telling the story,
playing the heroic characters, and reflecting on the story with his
openly emotional playing, mourning the loss of so many lives due to
arrogance, hate, and sheer evil. The duo of Czech trumpeter and
electronics player Petr Vrba and Cypriot vibes player Andria Nicodemou
was formed after a chance meeting at the Irtijal Festival in Beirut.
They presented a yin-yang dynamics. Vrba thoughtfully structured dense
textures with a pocket trumpet and live electronics, while Nicodemou
instantly abstracted his ideas into sensual, surprising sounds, often
using objects like a long coil or ping pong balls, totally possessed by
the sounds of the augmented vibes, and both fed by the stimulating
tension. The last set was by the trio Flowers We Are, featuring Serbian
harmonium player Marina Džukljev, Austrian cellist Arnold (Noid) Haberl,
and electronics player Matija Schellander, who released a self-titled
album (Klanggalerie, 2024). The minimalist, austere dynamics of this
trio correspond with the pioneering work of Morton Feldman and the
British AMM. This trio sketched a mysterious drone where Džukljev’s
hrominium soft hums resonated the overtones of Schellander’s
electronics, while Haberl reconstructed this abstract syntax into his
cello playing, but slowly the collective drone gravitated into an
irreverent, powerful spiritual meditation.
JeJaWeDa
The evening performance began with the JeJaWeDa - the initials of
American trombonist Jeb Bishop, Dutch vocal artist Jaap Blonk, and
fellow Americans drummer Weasel Walter, and double bass player Damon
Smith - a kind of super-group that collides eruptive free jazz
explosions and dadaist, absurdist sonic experiments, and already
released two albums (Pioneer Works Vol. 1 & 2, on Smith’s Balance
Point Acoustics, 2019), and stopped at the festival during its European
tour. It was a wild, intense set where Blonk provided theatrical,
eccentric texts in expressive gibberish and toy electronics, Smith was
all over the double bass with multiple bows and assorted objects, and
Walter banged his head with the cymbals, drummed while lying on the
ground, stood on the drum stool and shouted on all, and often ran across
the stage. Throughout this manic mayhem, Bishop kept his commanding calm
and charged it with some reason and direction. In one instance, he stood
closely to Blonk, listened carefully to another absurdist complaint of
Blonk, and instantly transformed it into an inspired theme.
The quartet Plüsch - Argentinian tenor sax players Ada Rave and Camila
Nebbia, Polish pianist Marta Warelis, and German drummer Christian
Lillinger - has not released an album yet, but it already sounds like a
working band. This quartet’s dynamics contrasted Lillinger’s hyperactive
drumming on an extended drumset with Rave, Nebbia, and Warelis’ more
patient, multifaceted play of structuring and deconstructing of form,
melody, and pulse, and adventurous timbral explorations, but suggested a
challenging kind of complementary interplay.
Gabby Fluke-Mogul & Mariá Portugal
The new trio Endless Breakfast - American violinist Gabby Fluke-Mogul,
Brazilian, Berlin-based drummer Mariá Portugal (who will curate the next
edition of the Unlimited festival), and Argentinian-Swiss cellist Paula
Sanchez - was formed backstage at the Unlimited festival, and its
performance there was part of a European tour. This trio has not
released an album yet, but already shaped its idiosyncratic, imaginative
form of collective and vibrant free improvisation, comprised of
vulnerable, poetic soundscapes, often furious ones (and fluke-mogul
reminded the audience of the importance of resistance), but most of the
time, introspective, fragile ones, fully possessed at the art of the
moment, and offering a highly immersive, illuminating listening
experience.
Akira Sakata returned to the stage with his working trio Chikamorachi -
double bass player Darin Gray and drummer Chris Corsano - that has been
working since 2005, as the core trio or as an extended ensemble with
such improvisers as Jim O’Rourke, Masami Akita (aka Merzbow), Keiji
Haino, Michiyo Yagi, and Yōsuke Yamashita. Gray and Corsano offered a
propulsive, attentive support to the mostly lyrical, commanding
performance of Sakata, which was highlighted with a highly emotional
delivery of an anti-war song mourning the ones who are lost.
The evening ended with Chicagoan sax hero Dave Rempis’ new quartet Archer - Rempis on alto sax, Dutch guitarist Terrie Hessels (of The Ex),
and the rhythm section of Norwegian double bass player Jon Rune Strøm and drummer Tollef Østvang (who are also the rhythm section of the
Friend and Neighbors quintet and the Universal Indians trio). The
quartet released its debut album Sudden Dusk (on Rempis’ Aerophonic
label), and was in the middle of a European tour. Its set was intense
and powerful, with Rempis and Strøm kept pushing forward, most of the
time in muscular free jazz power, speed, and intensity, while Østvang
intervened with sharp, explosive but concise contributions, and Hessels
challenged any attempt to form a linear narrative with imaginative,
disruptive rhythmic guitar augmented with assorted abjects (including
the box of famous Austrian chocolate-coated marshmallow treat called
Schwedenbomben).
Third (and last) Day, Nov. 10
Sakina Abdou
The afternoon performances at the distant Schloss Puchberg began with a
solo set of French tenor sax player Sakina Abdou, who played a series of
call-and-response chants with a raw, and powerful sound, first on stage
and then through the audience, stressing the communal, spiritual essence
of her playing and herself as a sort of a high priest who channels the
audience's energy into a prayer for a better, compassionate and peaceful
future. Then the 150-year-old duo of Dutch violist Ig Henneman (80) and
tenor sax player, clarinetist, and shakuhachi player Ab Baars (70)
decided at the last minute to play a free improvised set (and not the
program Autumn Songs, Wig, 2013). It was an inspired, deeply emotional
conversation between soul mates who know and love each other and always
find the innocent joy and inspiration in playing together. It sounded as
if all notes landed in their perfect place and none were redundant, and
articulated with captivating elegance, sheer beauty, and inspired grace.
The last set featured a trio of Taiwanese, Vienna-based guzheng player
Ming Wang, Italian, Vienna-based sound artist Isabella Forciniti, and
Austrian trumpeter Thomas K. Berghammer, who weaved mysterious, layered
textures made of the unconventional playing of Ming Wang, using objects
and bow, the extended breathing techniques of Berghammer, and
Forciniti’s otherworldly electronics.
The evening performances began with the quartet Trapeze - tenor sax
player Sakina Abdou, German trombonist Matthias Müller, drummer Peter
Orins, and Swiss turntables wizard Joke Lanz. The quartet has released
only one album (Level Crossing, Circum Disc, 2023), but already refined
its chaotic, dadaistic dynamics, propelled by the hyperactive, inventive
drumming and the constant supply of inventive cinematic, cartoonist
quotes by Joke Lanz, both charging the music with a stimulating,
subversive aroma, while Abdou and Müller keep this volatile commotion on
solid but intense ground. At one point, when Joke Lanz sensed that Abdou
and Müller refer to a jazz phrase, he immediately played and muataed a
spoken-word quote from an album on the masters of jazz, mocking such
reverent, respectful homages, and making his point by tossing this vinyl
in the air.
Oren Ambarchi
The following performance was by the Swedish power trio Fire! - Mats
Gustafsson on baritone and tenor saxes, flute and harmonica (!), bassist
Johan Berthling, and drummer Andreas Werliin, with Australian,
Berlin-based Oren Ambarchi on guitar and electronics. Fire! collaborated
before with Ambrachi (In The Mouth - A Hand and She Sleeps, She Sleeps,
Rune Gramofon, 2012 and 2016), and Ambrachi plays with Berthling and
Werliin in the trio Ghosted. The first extended piece sounded as if
continuing the hypnotic vibe of Ghosted, with Berthling and Werliin
dictating a stubborn, massive pulse, Ambrachi colors it with a
psychedelic sounds, and Gustafsson adds reserved blows, but as this set
progressed, it settled on the familiar, heavy, uplifting, and
irresistible grind of Fire! with a few surprising moments when
Gustafsson incorporates his small harmonica sound into Fire!’s syntax.
Next, Austrian pianist Ingrid Schmoliner (on prepared piano) and
trumpeter and electronics player Alex Kranabetter presented their Drank
project, which released its debut album earlier this year(Breath in
Definition, Trost, 2025), with guests - drummer Lukas König and vocalist
and electronics player Anja Plaschg (aka Soap&Skin). The stage was
dark, and the music was based on repetitive, short motifs, woven into a
layered, rich drone, enriched by hazy electronics, the processed sound
of Kranabetter’s trumpeter, Plaschg’s suggestive voice, and König’s
drums, and hypnotic grooves. It suggested an endless, Steve Reich-like
swirling effect, but with a strong psychedelic effect.
The festival ended with a wild performance of the French trio Nout -
Delphine Joussein on amplified flute, electric harp player Rafaëlle
Rinaudo, and drummer Blanche Lafuente, who describe themselves as “the
missing link between Nirvana and Sun Ra”, augmented by Gustafsson. The
trio released its debut album last year (Live Album, Trost/Gigantonium,
2024), but until experiencing this trio live, it is hard to believe how
much infectious, primal, and raw power this trio can produce, with
Lafuente drumming as if she plays in a thrash metal band, Rinaudo uses
her electric harp as an electric guitar and bass, and Joussein mutates
her amplified flute sound with countless effects. Gustafsson integrated
immediately and organically into these punkish tsunamis, and it sounded
even better and happier when Akira Sakata and Johan Berthling joined for
the encore.
The next, the 40th edition of the Unlimited festival, with Mariá
Portugal as the curator, will be in Nov. 6-8, 2026. Keep it in your
diaries.
The release of Detergent, the debut album from Ryan Ebaugh (tenor saxophone, detached mouthpiece), Matt Crane (borrowed drum kit, brought cymbals), and Cameron Presley (guitar, amps with stuff on the speakers, volume pedals), is a welcome opportunity to praise Liam Stefani’s scatterArchive label. Stefani launched it as Scatter in 1994, as a physical label, dedicated to musical improvisation in its many forms, with a particular focus on non-idiomatic free improv. Over the 30+ intervening years, this has remained the primary focus. Then there was a curated series of live “scatter“ events (late 1990s to mid 2000s). The majority of these live events were recorded (onto DAT and ADAT) and these became the source of several digital releases, and “scatter“ became “scatterArchive“, with an active bandcamp page for archival recordings and digital versions of the out-of-print “scatter“ physical releases. “As the name changed, so did the business model. It was no longer reliant on each physical release selling enough copies to finance the next physical release, no longer having to wait for payments for orders to come through from distributors and shop/mail order outlets. It was now possible to remove the commercial aspect from the label, becoming a non-profit organization“, says Stefani. Without the physical object, it also became possible to release high quality digital work quickly, more like an online periodical publishing a new weekly issue. The direction of the label has shifted subtly over recent years to include more archival releases. However, the intention of the label is to feature less-known musicians as well.
Cameron Presley - although he has been on the scene for quite some time - and Ryan Ebaugh belong to these lesser known artists. Matt Crane is possibly the best-known name in this trio. From his punk rock days in the early 1980s to his discovery of jazz and his collaboration with Ornette Coleman to freely improvised noise music with his duo Carpet Floor he has been involved in all kinds of avant-garde music. Nevertheless, it took a long time for this trio to come together. “Sometime in the late 1990s, my old band Upsilon Acrux played a show with Carpet Floor“, says Presley. “That show stuck with me.“ About 25 years later he started playing music again after a longer pause and met Ryan Ebaugh. In a way, Ebaugh’s sax reminded him of the Carpet Floor show and this is how Matt Crane came into play.
And let’s be frank: The result of their collaboration is nothing short of sensational, because musical worlds collide here. In the opener “Tongue” sounds swirl around in confusion, while a saxophone gone wild rages against this cacophony in the style of Mats Gustafsson. The guitar roars or lets fragmented tones hiss into nowhere, reminiscent of Masayuki Takayanagi’s noise attacks. For three quarters of an hour, the music roars, booms, howls, moans and groans at every turn. Every now and then, for a few seconds, it seems as if the three want to redeem us when you think you can hear a little melody. But no! Detergent is a monster. No, not figuratively speaking, I mean it literally. It grabs you by the throat with the first note, chokes you, and then whirls you around. It’s like sitting in the engine room of an ocean liner in heavy seas while hearing the death cries of someone being keelhauled by the captain. You don’t believe me? Then just listen to “Shell,” the second track. After four and a half minutes, the guitar and drums mercilessly beat everything into the ground. It’s speed metal, industrial, death disco, free jazz - all in one. It’s music that’s always at the maximum level of intensity. Not for wimps, but for fans of Painkiller, Throbbing Gristle, Napalm Death, and Test Dept. I’m sure John Zorn loves it. What a motherfucker of an album!
Detergent will be released in November, 24th. It’s available as a download and on cassette. You can buy it and listen to it on the scatterArchive bandcamp site:
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.
