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

By Stef Gijssels

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

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

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

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

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

Intense music. An intense listening experience.

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

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Sven-Åke Johansson (1943 - 2025)

Photo by Cristina Marx/Photomusix

By Martin Schray

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Louis Moholo-Moholo (1940 - 2025)

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

By Martin Schray

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Matthew Welch and Dan Plonsey - Eudimorphodon (Kotekan 2025)

By Gary Chapin

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

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

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

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

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

By Martin Schray

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

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

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

Activity is available as a CD and as a download.

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Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton

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

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

By Nick Ostrum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Sammy Stein

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Ivo Perelman: Leo Records Backcatalog Reissue

By Paul Acquaro 

 

With the reissue of Leo Records catalog digitally by Burning Ambulance, a total of of 68 albums that saxophonist Ivo Perelman released with the label will eventually be made available. To explore the bounty, or at least to get a taste, I asked the saxophonist to do the dubious task of picking out five recordings that he felt stood out in some way and to talk about his picks and what they mean to him. 

1. Sad Life (1997) 

 

Paul Acquaro: The first one is Sad Life from 1997 with drummer Rashid Ali & bassist William Parker. What struck me immediately is that this is the rhythm section from the FMP release Touchin' on Trane from 1993 with Charles Gayle. How did this recording come to be and what does it mean to you now?

 

Ivo Perelman: I used to see Rashied at Bradleys (an East Village piano bar in the 90s) but never dared talking to him as I was so in awe of his playing. One day, I bumped into him on 14th street and started to talk and couldn't help but ask if he would do a trio CD with me and William, with whom I had been playing for a while. He promptly agreed.

 

The studio session was transcendental! I traveled back in time when Coltrane was alive and felt that creative powerful energy that fueled many of his sessions with Rashied.

 

 

 

2.  Seeds, Vision and Counterpoint (1998)

PA: Next, we have Seeds, Vision and Counterpoint from 1998 with Dominic Duval on bass and Jay Rosen on drums. I suppose one thing that sticks out to me is that Duval and Rosen are a tight duo and with say Joe McPhee perform as Trio X among other configurations. On listening, I noticed that your tone is a little different here, a bit sharper and concise than on Sad Life, am I just making this up? Anyway, how did you get involved with this duo and what sticks out to you about the album?

 

IP: Seeds Vision and Counterpoint took place at a tiny rehearsal/recording studio in Long Island and the idea was to just get together with Duval and Rosen and play some since we had never played before. They had spoken to me a few days before the session and we decided to do it in Long Island near Duval s home.

 

This session was explosive from the get go and it started a long series of concerts and CDs. We had an instant, natural exchange and non-stop flow of ideas (the sharp tone of the sax was duo to a series of sound studies I was interested at the time). 

 

3. The Edge (2013) 

PA: Third, we have The Edge from 2013 with pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Whit Dickey. This is like the crème de la crème of the New York creative music scene. I couldn't help notice the explosiveness of the opening track 'Clarinblasen.' What was it like playing with these three and why did you choose this album for the short list?

IP: I chose The Edge with Bisio, Dickey and Matthew Shipp to be in this short list because it started a series of albums investigating Matthew Shipp in quartet situations. Whenever Matthew Shipp is in a quartet classical quartet with sax, piano, drums and bass, he turns it into a Matthew Shipp Quartet experience, and it's a beautiful thing. He plays slightly differently depending on the members of the quartet. That one in particular is the classic Matthew Shipp Quartet, I would say, and we did a second one because I felt that was very fertile terrain for further investigation and it was me testing my powers, I would say against, like you say, a classic creme de la cremecreative group of musicians in New York.

So, keeping up with the concept of Matthew Shipp and a jazz quartet, I changed one at a time. Instead of Michael Bisio, I had another bass player, and then instead of Whit Dickey, I had Gerald Cleaver and I kept moving around, but what triggered that investigative period was that first album, The Edge. 

 

4. Reverie (2014)

PA: Now, we're looking at the expressive Reverie from 2014 with vibraphonist and pianist Karl Berger (who works only the piano on this album). You have at least one other recording with Berger, The Hitchhiker. Berger was a very influential figure in the improvisational music world, including with his organization Creative Music Studio which continues today under the direction of Billy Martin. What was it like working with Berger and what about this recording helped make this wonderfully subjective list?

IP: The duo with Karl Berger on piano disarmed, me, disarmed. I was ready for more notes, more harmonies, density, but his playing was so light and lyrical and beautiful that I dropped my guns and just gave myself to the music and surrendered to the simplicity, the lyrical beauty of his notes and phrasing. It led me, like never before, to a kind of a lyrical pursuit in that gorgeous doesn't mean corny or commercial. Gorgeous is just gorgeous. The melodies floated around like snowflakes on a beautiful, sunny winter afternoon. He was truly remarkable musician, very generous, very open minded. We just shook hands, said nice to meet you, and started playing. And there were some pieces, some of them were in C-minor that I still remember the feeling of and how they affected me. That particular session changed, changed my playing forever.

Whenever I feel a Karl Berger moment with whomever else I'm playing, I let it flow. I let it take possession of my playing, and I honor and cherish it. He taught me that, he was a great master and a great teacher even when he was only playing. 

 

5. Callas (2015)

PA: The album Callas from 2015 with Shipp is one of the many duo recordings you have made together. Our former contributor Colin Green wrote about this album when it came out, writing "There’s no doubt that on this album Maria Callas has inspired a heightened sensitivity to things that are often overlooked, providing a springboard for some truly remarkable playing. It’s a masterclass in the control of dynamics and subtle shading." Can you tell us about the importance of Maria Callas to your playing and what this album means to you?

IP: Callas played a very important role in my development as a musician because at the time I was suffering from uh throat problems, I was over practicing the altissimo register and doing it wrong.

I had the sessions with the therapist who suggested I start to study vocals and opera singing with someone specialized in opera singers who had the same problem. I did get rid of the problem, and I also learned a lot about music. I started to play Callas’ music and got into some various arias, and it added a lot of subtlety to my playing. So, I phoned my partner Matthew Shipp, who is always the best counterpart to share my discoveries with, because Matthew is so open to anything. He's such a wonderful wide-ranging musician, and his music covers the whole gamut from Maria Callas to Charlie Parker to everything in between.

So, this was the beginning of a very important segment of my career. Callas is remarkable because I was listening to her day in day out and even though I didn't exactly play the arias or the melodies, one is reminded of her pieces in someway. Somehow, I played like she sang. It is a truly remarkable album. 

 

 

While it is nice to have this chance to look back, Perelman is an artist always moving forward. Tomorrow, Sammy Stein will review his next release, Armegeddon Flower with the Matthew Shipp String Trio.

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Blurt - The Mecanno Giraffe

Blurt, under the auspicious leadership of Ted Milton, has released a single, 'The Mecanno Giraffe', ahead of a new album. 

A combination of steady beats, Milton's spoken poetic lyrics, sublime free sax playing, and deliberately off-kilter guitar that adds nuance to this music that lifts the soul.  

As ever, Blurt remain outside genre classification, but blend rock and free jazz in ways that reach into the depths of all that is good about music that refuses classification and remains resolutely unique. The only guarantee about this music is that Blurt will make you smile. - Sammy Stein

 

Ted Milton on saxophone and vocals 
Steve Eagles on guitar 
David Aylward on drums 
Video provided by Sam Britton (Coda to Coda) 

All things BLURT 

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