Oren Ambarchi – Live Knots (PAN, 2015) ****

By Eric McDowell

If among Oren Ambarchi’s staggering nonstop flood of releases you missed 2012’s Audience of One and its centerpiece “Knots,” you have not one but two more chances to enjoy the Australian guitarist’s epic composition. Live Knots, released last year on PAN, pairs two different versions of the piece, one recorded in Tokyo and the other in Krakow. Even if you didn’t miss Audience of One, you’ll want to see what Ambarchi can do with “Knots” in these varied contexts.

Side A, “Tokyo Knots,” represents what would technically be considered an abbreviated version of the piece, though it still runs upwards of 25 minutes. But even pared ten minutes down from the original and retaining only drummer Joe Talia from the 2012 line-up, this version astonished me with the hugeness and intensity of its sound. It begins with Talia’s driving accented ride cymbal, a through-line for the piece. In contrast Ambarchi builds ambient textures veined with alarming feedback whine. Here as elsewhere Ambarchi proves capable of singlehandedly producing an impressive array of sounds—YouTube footage of the gig, recorded at Tokyo’s SuperDeluxe in March 2013, shows Ambarchi seated behind a bank of electronics, his guitar obscured by knobs and wires.

Minute after minute, Ambarchi and Talia build the piece masterfully, overseeing an almost imperceptible mounting of tension and drama. Along with his indefatigable labor on the drum kit, key to this effect is Talia’s control and restraint. He adds new elements to the beat judiciously so that he always has room to match Ambarchi’s increasingly vertiginous playing, which hits a peak with strobe-lit shredding more likely to risk inducing a seizure than a trance. Inevitably but thankfully the piece comes back down in its final moments—knots coming untied?—leaving things in a distinct state of aftermath with the guitar groaning distantly and the drums methodically thinning to a shimmer.

It may be advisable to rest before starting up “Krakow Knots,” the 42-minute version of the piece that occupies sides B and C, though back-to-back comparisons offer the opportunity to consider which aspects of the composition are fixed and which depend on variable factors. “There is a clear composition and a clear arrangement,” Ambarchi says in an interview on The Quietus. But: “The intention is that it still has a very open and free atmosphere.” The obvious difference here is the number of people on stage—along with Ambarchi and Talia, there’s sound artist Crys Cole on contact mic/spring and violist Eyvind Kang, who’s also conducting the Sinfonietta Cracovia on strings (watch a similar line-up play “Knots” at Cafe OTO here). Along with providing new depth and texture, the added players help draw the composition out to its expanded length, especially towards the beginning and end, including noteworthy moments of eerie tension occasioned as swells of strings are superimposed over the fading groove.

Anyone interested in but intimidated by Ambarchi’s discography might find Live Knots a suitable point of entry, streamlining as it does the guitarist’s varying interests in ambient/electronic soundscapes and head-banging rock.

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Oren Ambarchi Week Introduction

Oren Ambarchi at Issues Project Room, Brooklyn, NY.
Photo by Peter Gannushkin

By Antonio Poscic

Australian composer and multi-instrumentalist, primarily guitarist and drummer, Oren Ambarchi is a unique and important character in today’s experimental and improvised music scene. Never confined by genre or style, he seems to be fueled by a relentless desire to shape sounds into impossible forms, dissolving them from their original patterns and recontextualizing them into contemplative yet often ominous structures that show glimpses of an emotional substrate. Analog and digital, improvised and composed, the various modes of operation he discovers in solo works—looped and sampled guitars might crash droningly into themselves—are reflected in his numerous collaborations with varied but always impressive names such Keiji Haino, Jim O’Rourke, and Fire! Unequivocally, his work shows a musician with a keen, thirsty ear to the developments in improvisational, electronic, and experimental music and a voice that never fails to narrate something new.

When artists as prolific as Ambarchi are concerned—he appeared on over ten records in the past two years—it becomes difficult to cover all of their work with due attention. Since we at the Free Jazz Blog are guilty of neglecting Ambarchi, we’re dedicating a week to his recent output. Follow us during the next few days as we review several of his solo and collaborative releases from 2016 and 2015. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

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Guus Janssen - Meeting Points (BIMHuis Records, 2016) ****½

By Eyal Hareuveni

This retrospective of Dutch pianist Guus Janssen, featuring his work as a brilliant improviser, composer for improvisers, and leader of excellent ensembles, will make you wonder why you have not heard more of him. The nine, previously unreleased live pieces selected for Meeting Points were recorded between 1989 and 2014. All emphasize Janssen smart and witty compositional and improvising skills, as a musician who likes to twist alongside the listener expectations as well his fellow musicians, a versatile pianist who is equally versed in the work of jazz pianists Lennie Tristano and Art Tatum and classical composer Franz Josef Haydn.

It is no surprise that Janssen was the natural choice to take the seat of pianist Misha Mengelberg in the Instant Composers Orchestra (ICP). Janssen acknowledges Mengelberg's seminal influence in his cover of “Peer Counting Song”, a duet with drummer John Engels, recorded in 2014. This gentle-contemplative piece sound now as a moving homage to the great pianist who retired from performing due to dementia.

The insightful liner notes of Dutch jazz scholar Kevin Whitehead shed light on the eclectic pieces, all were recorded at Amsterdam’s acclaimed Bimhuis club, close to Janssen’s home.  The earliest one, “Rondo” from 1989, is a post-modernist, surreal piece, performed by the short-lived Cluesome Quartet, with clarinet player Michael Moore, cellist Ernst Reijseger and drummer Han Bennink (soon to be incarnated as the better-known Cluesome 3, without Janssen). This kaleidoscopic, epileptic piece mocks the sound of ancient Chinese instruments, swings hard, quotes briefly Charles Ives composition and is often intruded by musique mecanique sounds.

The brilliant 1999 title-piece duet with alto sax player Lee Konitz, another disciple of Tristano, shows these two quick-eared masters at their best, inventive, surprising with their sudden switchbacks and dropouts. Both are enjoying this clever, game-like improvisation. Another duet, “April” from 2007 with the  hard-swinging Bennink suggests this long-running duo open and imaginative interplay. Bennink powerful swing enables Janssen to abstract on Tristano ideas.

Three pieces from 2011 feature the trio of Janssen with double bass player Ernst Glerum (who is also a member of ICP) and Janssen brother, drummer Wim Janssen, augmented by clarinet player Michael Moore (another member of ICP) and violinist Sanne van Hek. The playful performance of “Koto à Gogo” revolves around loose hip-hop pulse set by Wim Janssen; “Vrij naar AT” is a wise, spare salute to the hyperactive music of Art Tatum and on “Janus Bifrons” the quintet disturbs the melodic-swinging theme with typical ICP eccentric twists.

Two recent compositions from 2012 are by an impressive sextet with van Hek, Glerum, Wim Janssen, trombonist Wolter Wierbos (who also plays in ICP) and guitarist Raphael Vanoli.  Both “Pogo 1” and “Pogo 2” are an amusing, speedy pieces, full of ironic, quirky game-like twists, twisting even the artificial distinction between instant composing and improvisation.

Janssen is a one of a kind, don’t miss this fascinating retrospective.

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Sylvain Guérineau, Kent Carter, Itaru Oki, Makoto Sato - D’Une Rive A L’Autre (Improvising Beings, 2016) *****

By Nicola Negri

Sylvain Guérineau – tenor saxophone
Itaru Oki – trumpet, flugelhorn, flutes
Kent Carter – double bass
Makoto Sato – drums

This recent release on the always excellent Improvising Beings label features four masters of improvised music, gathered together in a quartet specifically created for this project. The most widely known in the group is Kent Carter, a member of Steve Lacy’s bands of the 1970s and a true jazz giant that returns to improvisation after a long absence. By contrast, the main originator of the album, Sylvain Guérineau, is virtually unknown outside France, and probably more famous as a painter there (his delicate yet incisive abstract art adorns the CD package), even if he is a long-time collaborator of French free jazz pioneer François Tusques. The group is completed by two Japanese musicians who both moved to Paris in the early 1970s: Itaru Oki, a key figure of the Japanese free jazz scene who continues to play in strikingly different contexts, and Makoto Sato, former assistant of percussionist Masahiko Togashi and a constant presence in the French jazz community.

The album is dedicated to sailors from all over the world, their often rough living conditions and the adventurousness of life at sea. The opening “Terre Neuvas” effectively illustrates the exploratory character of the album and its thematic subtext: Carter and Sato cast a wide net of different impulses, with long arco bass lines and sparse percussive accents patiently building an increasingly intense free form piece that highlights Guérinaeu’s huge tone and Oki’s lively phrasing. The following “Bateau Phare” follows the same steps, but keeps the music on a more restrained ground, with Guérineau, Carter and Sato creating a richly layered textural soundscape, until Oki’s muted trumpet brings some fresh melodic material to the collective dialogue. With “Récif” the mood changes drastically: a bouncy bass and cymbals rhythm pushes trumpet and sax into a light, humorous melodic exchange, but frequent changes of tempo challenge the soloists to continually reinvent their respective roles, with the whole band finally converging on a well structured coda. “Le Rideau De Mer” returns to a suspended atmosphere, until Carter lays down a dark ostinato that channels trumpet and sax towards a long abstract finale framed by Sato’s busy brush work.

The closing “D’Une Rive A L’Autre” underlines the continuous tension, present throughout the album, between structurally defined and open form sections. The musicians navigate these different scenarios with confidence, moving from a tight interplay to simultaneous digressions with a captivating sense of discovery. Guérineau and Oki promptly pick up each other’s ideas and develop thematic cues that are further expanded in different directions, eventually converging on beautifully crafted melodies or dense contrapuntal exchanges, while Carter and Sato are particularly effective in balancing their activity between a solid supporting role for the soloists and a completely independent voice, equally contributing to the improvisational dialogue.

Carefully conceived and beautifully played, D’Une Rive A L’Autre is a passionate, powerful example of creative music expression, bringing the excitement of early free jazz into a flexible and ultimately timeless musical dimension that highlights the unique personalities of these extraordinary improvisers.

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Lotte Anker/Fred Lonberg-Holm & Dave Jackson/Dirk Serries - Two Duos (Astral Spirits, 2016) ***½

By Lee Rice Epstein

Lotte Anker and Fred Lonberg-Holm, recorded live at the Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery in Chicago, on a split-release with Dave Jackson and Dirk Serries, recorded live at Café Oto in London. It’s almost like free jazz bingo. If you had “Astral Spirits” in the label column, you win! The title Two Duos plays like a droll joke, once you start listening. Both halves contain breadth and depth well beyond the simplicity of a duo.

Anker and Lonberg-Holm’s duet plays on all their strengths. Their extended improvisation takes a kind of narrative approach with the titling, “Ice King” / “Melt” / “The Frigid Air” / “Cold Only Hurts Those Who Feel,” and the playing is thrillingly free. Anker and Lonberg-Holm both have a way of taking tuneful lines to their scorched edges, successfully mixing atonal leaps with extended techniques.

On their live improvisation, recorded at Cafe Oto, Dave Jackson and Dirk Serries come screaming, but right around the middle of their duet, Serries swerves lightly into a solo stretch, toying with the volume knob to give his chords that echoey coming-going effect. Jackson intersects with some shockingly high-register, staccato playing that reminded me of some earlier Roscoe Mitchell solos. The whole second half, they stay in this bright and open, atonal space, creating a playful banter.

To be honest, this doesn’t have the feel of a must-have entry in all these musicians’ catalogs. Both are certainly enjoyable improvisation sessions, but I don’t feel like I can give an unequivocal buy-this-now recommendation, which frankly feels a bit odd, considering how much I enjoyed the album. I have a thing about not messing with a label’s canonical release, but you could take the digital versions and split it into two shorter, EPs, rather than leaving it as a single split. You might find yourself dipping into both more often.

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The Red Trio and John Butcher - Summer Skyshift (Clean Feed, 2016) ****½

By Paul Acquaro

Captured at the 2015 Jazz em Agosto Festival in Lisbon, Summer Skyshift is the second collaboration between saxophonist John Butcher and the Portugal's RED Trio, their first was Empire, from No Business in 2011. This new collection of improvisations runs from introspective to out of this world during the course of its four tracks.

Butcher hardly needs an introduction to readers on this blog. The unique musical lexicon that he has developed allows him the freedom to use his instrument as an extension of sound itself - the absolutely surprising the tones and timbres he creates from the saxophone blends in seamlessly with traditional ones, and he connects with the trio brilliantly. Likewise with the RED Trio, comprised of Rodrigo Pinheiro on piano, Hernani Faustino on double bass, and Gabriel Ferrandini on drums and percussion, they have consistently enthralled the writers and readers of blog. For example, going back to Dan Sorrell's review of the Trio's album Rebento (No Business, 2013):

Despite the classic instrumental lineup, we’re encroaching upon territory that’s beyond history or influence, cutting a path through the dense thicket of three overlapping minds, one that becomes illuminated when they put fingers to instrument.

Words that ring quite true here as well, though now augmented by Butcher's presence. The trio is a formidable unit that when mixed with the reed player, becomes a musical juggernaut. Track one opens with tiny splashes of chords from the piano and a smattering of tones from the saxophone, as the group embarks on a steady building of intensity. Three minutes into the 13-minute track, finds Butcher stacking phrases upon phrases atop the trio's insistent foundation. Then, shifting to more spacious phrasing, Pinheiro gives Butcher the opportunity to really let loose, which in turns cues the others to ratchet up the intensity. Track 1.2 is a study in quiet tension. Playing quietly or laying out entirely, the piano and drums allow wide berth for Butcher and Faustino to engage in a long duet, juxtaposing stretched tones and blips of sound into an evocative collage. Moving ahead to the third track (1.3), Pinheiro's keys are leaping from the board, Ferrandini keeps and extends the pulse, and Faustino's bass shifts musical tectonic plates.

It's always interesting to see how certain combinations work together and RED Trio has proven to be extremely versatile, releasing albums with Lotte Anker, Nate Wooley, Mattias Stahl, among others. However, sometimes a collaboration becomes its own thing and to my ears, that is the case here - this a quartet that has really latched onto something unique in their fiery crescendos and passionate forays. Summer Skyshift has certainly landed on my top ten lists for the year.

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Nate Wooley - Seven Storey Mountain V (Pleasures of the Text, 2016) ****

By David Menestres

Nate Wooley’s Seven Storey Mountain V is the latest addition to an interesting series of albums. The first Seven Story Mountain album was recorded live at the Abrons Art Center in 2007 (released 2009) and featured a trio of Wooley with David Grubbs on harmonium and Paul Lytton on percussion. The newest addition to the series, also recorded live at Abrons in September 2015, features a nineteen piece group. The low end is handled by Colin Stetson (amplified bass saxophone), Josh Sinton (amplified bass clarinet), and Dan Peck (amplified tuba). C. Spencer Yeh and Samara Lubelski play amplified violins. Chris Dingman and Matt Moran are on vibraphones while Ben Hall and Ryan Sawyer provide percussion. Ben Vida is on electronics. Nate Wooley plays amplified trumpet and tape. The TILT Brass Octet is also along for the journey.

From the lush brass chorale opening through the squall to the final quiet moments, SSMV is an adventurous journey over the course of almost fifty minutes. At times Wooley literally speaks through his trumpet, reading sentences from authors like Jim Harrison, Herman Melville, and Wallace Stevens, whose muffled, distorted voices push through the veil like ghosts long forgotten. There is a repeated ding that runs through the piece, like a typewriter carriage returning at the end of a line. Squalling drones drift through like sand storms deep in the desert. The feedback can be as blinding as a late Agnes Martin painting, disorienting you as you wander across the albums’ expanse.

This album requires active engagement on the part of the listener. It’ll push you through your confusion into a place satisfyingly close to enlightenment. High volume and good speakers are heavily recommended.

Looking forward to the final two installments in the Seven Storey Mountain series.

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Stirrup – Cut (Clean Feed, 2016) ****

By Eric McDowell

While there’s nothing novel in celebrating Fred Lonberg-Holm’s gift for transforming the cello into the perfect vehicle for just about any genre, it may be worth pointing out that some of his projects are better suited to capturing the full extent of his masterful range than others. Where, say, does 2005’s warm and gentle Other Valentines meet last year’s hazardously caustic You Can Be Mine? Try Stirrup, Lonberg-Holm’s trio with fellow Chicagoans Nick Macri on bass and Charles Rumback on drums. On their second studio album (check out their debut, Sewn, and their follow-up live album with trumpeter Russ Johnson) the group continues grooving, crooning, and shredding, by turns and all at once.

Cut opener “Sleep Comes to Everyone” hints at the trio’s dynamic capabilities. The rhythm section’s counterbalanced light and dark—Rumback’s fluid, bouncing drums against Macri’s rich, anchoring bass—fashions an ideal stage for Lonberg-Holm, who drifts and wheels in an almost pastoral mode before virtually welding the notes down with the help of the effects pedal. While the next track, “Rodney’s Last Ride,” takes a similar overall shape, cello skidding into blister and glitch, the gloomy tension of “Then Fall Fell” comes in part from Lonberg-Holm’s just-restrained distortion, holding off the pyrotechnics. Meanwhile slightly mellower moments like the acoustic sawing on “You May Think” keep the album from overheating.

On guitar Lonberg-Holm proves equally capable if (maybe) less singular. Near the beginning of “Six Minutes to Montrose” you can actually hear an electronic sizzle just before he climbs astride Macri’s rolling ostinato. From there: searing anti-licks, splintered feedback, and pick-melting shredding, all thinning to nothing at the end like smoke from a doused blaze. “Salt Lines” and “You ‘n’ Me,” a pair of swinging 3/4 tunes near the end of the album, feature more of Lonberg-Holm’s killer guitar work.

Though on Cut I might like to see the trio push harder against the tendency to stratify along traditional lines—Macri and Rumback establishing the rhythmic foundation, Lonberg-Holm carrying the melody and soloing—it’s obviously a formula that works, and even in their relatively restrained roles, the drummer and bassist play with intention, inventiveness, and energy (besides penning a third of the album’s pieces each). Rumback has a knack for roaming the kit without sacrificing the pulse—see for instance the opener’s Afro-Cuban groove, the measured waltz swing of “Who We Were,” or the Morello-inspired solo towards the end of the final track. While this flexibility keeps Rumback adaptable to Lonberg-Holm’s shifting shapes, it might not be as convincing without Macri’s sturdy playing, the bedrock of Stirrup’s music. (Macri is, after all, the bassist holding down Audio One’s monster jams.) Still, he surfaces when he can, as in his satisfying if brief features on “Five
Ruminations” and “You ‘n’ Me” or the glittering harmonics on the “Domi’s Dream” groove.

If you’re in Indianapolis, be sure to catch Stirrup (with Tortoise’s Dan Bitney on drums) tomorrow night, Wednesday 9/14, at the Irving Theater—with the Free Jazz Blog’s own Tom Burris helping set up the gig. (Other Midwesterners, look out for shows in Cincinnati and Detroit!)

• Wed 9/14 - Indianapolis, IN - The Irving Theater - 8 pm
• Thurs 9/15 - Crestview Hills, KY - Thomas More College
• Fri 9/16 - Cincinnati, OH - The Listing Loon - 9 pm
• Sat 9/17 - Detroit, MI - Trinosophes - 9 pm

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Adam Kahan - Rahsaan Roland Kirk: The Case of the Three Sided Dream(Monoduo Films, 2016) ****

By Paul Acquaro

I'm not sure how Rahsaan Roland Kirks's music is best considered- it's not 'free jazz' - though it has elements of it in sound and spirit, and its certainly not 'traditional jazz', though he played standards. It was tuneful, soulful, unusual, and often defined by his use of multiple horns.

It seems that it was his own music, and it came purely from a world of sound. Kirk, who became blind because of medical care carelessness as a baby, lived in a world defined by sound, and by his own account, his dreams. Politics and fashions informed his music, but not as much as his own dreams. He asserted that it was the sounds that he heard in his dreams that he wanted to recreate with his multiple horns. It's this notion that provides the framework for Adam Kahan's documentary on Kirk, 'The Case of the Three Sided Dream,' which has finally received wide release, through multiple digital channels.

We first see Kirk in action, heading to a club date in the late-1950s/early-1960s, with a voice over of him  introducing a song. Then, we backtrack to his early life. This part is quick, a brief discussion of his discovery of music, and then his move to New York in the mid-1950s. Interviews, concert footage, and snippets of candid moments are mixed with animation. Of course watching Kirk in action and getting a glimpse of the man behind the inflated tear is worth the time alone, but I kept asking myself at first, did the animation help? It lends a certain feel to the film, but aesthetics aside, I soon realized that the animation is key in evoking the imagination that drove Kirk's music making, it illustrates his dreams and provides a stream of connective imagery.

A real highlight is that the film consolidates footage from several televised concert specials by Kirk. It's a blast to see him in action with the multiple horns (even the kind of crazy nose whistle), and evolving from wearing a suit to the period fashions in the 70s. We learn a lot through interviews with people like his widow Dorthaan Kirk (who works at the Newark, NJ based powerhouse jazz radio station WBGO), and trombonist Steve Turre (who played with Kirk). Check out Turre's story about Kirk's circular breathing, and you get a sense of the mystical side of Kirk.

Recounted by friend Mark Davis, Kirk's political side also comes through. In the early 1970's, Kirk wanted to raise the stature of what he coined "black classical music" and used television - and whistles of course - as his medium. Interrupting an interview during a taping of the Dick Cavett show, his protest was parlayed into an invitation to perform on Ed Sullivan's show. Where, instead of performing the agreed upon song for this show, he assembled a band augmented by Charlie Mingus, Archie Shepp, and Roy Haynes, and performed a spirited version of 'Hatian Flight Song'. His political feelings also were expressed freely in his on stage banter and in his music, like the song 'Blacknuss', which is shown performed in a televised concert.

The impact of Kirk's first stroke, in 1975, is conveyed by Dorthaan Kirk in a moving, somewhat visually dramatized way. Kirk had just signed with Warner Brothers and his career and music, she explains, was entering a new level, when he suddenly collapsed in the family home. A video of a 1977 post-stroke performance is a stunning rebuttal to what had happened physically to the musician. Playing a modified horn which allowed the pinky of his working hand to compensate for his paralyzed one, 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' is an emotional tumult. Turre talks about how amazed he was at Kirk's ability that he would sometimes be watching him and forget to play. It was a second stroke, the day after a performance in 1977, that ended Kirk's life. He was only in his early 40s.

Kahan's film captures Kirk's character, determination, and pure musicianship through thoughtful stitching of interviews, existing footage, dramatizations and animations. It's a powerful story: a musician who did everything that he could to bring passion, politics, and feeling to the world through his music against surmounting odds.

The film is available on blue ray DVD, Vimeo, iTunes, Amazon, etc.

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The Dire State of Music Blogging - A reaction

By Stef

On the highly recommendable blog "An Overgrown Path", the author muses about the state of (classical) music blogging, some days ago, with some self-irony since that's what he does (I assume he is a man, but I might be wrong). Here is a big chunk from the author's article:

"In the early noughties new media in the form of blogs arrived offering a platform that was free from the commercial agendas of mainstream media. As lively, informed and free-thinking writing was squeezed out of the mainstream, the hope was that blogs would provide a platform for the defiant viewpoints that Deryck Cooke praised in 1964. But the dream never became reality. As traditional media atrophied, those with something to sell - and there are very many of those in classical music - realised that blogs offered the perfect platform for their sales pitches. So music blogs progressively became vehicles for scarcely hidden self-interest and disingenuous spin pandering to the foolishness of crowds.  

In a series of recent tweets Charles Downey assessed the state of music blogs by tracking those in Alex Ross' seminal 2004 listing, and concluded that "Year of last update often somewhere around 2014. Some completely disappeared. Some with one post so far this year. #itsover" Elsewhere attempts have been made to explain the slow and painful death of music blogging, with everything being blamed except the real reason. Music blogs are dying because with very few exceptions they are not worth reading. They are not worth reading because they have become just another expression of the compromised ethics and scarcely disguised self-interest that pervades classical music. In fact most music blogs, like so much social media, are no more than selfies in print posted by a new breed of prosecco activists .

Music blogs are now just another part of a tacky global marketplace where people have principles, but are prepared to change them if the price is right. There is no place in the blogging community for the rich range of independent viewpoints that Deryck Cooke cherished or the constructive debate that such richness of opinions fosters. Charles Downey is right when he observes that music blogging #itsover. Classical music desperately needs a wider and more diverse journalistic constituency. However it is not to be. A golden opportunity has been squandered by music bloggers, and I am in that group. But given the dire state that music blogging is in today, its demise will be regrettable but not a major loss". 

I am sure he has a point, yet at the same time we are happy to say, that with our 10th anniversary in view, we can still claim with great emphasis that we managed to avoid all commercial interests, while steadily growing our readership. In August - last month - no less than 112,000 pageviews (yes!) came to our blog, with a similar figure in July. And these people (you!) read our reviews only because of the informative value they offer. Sure, we get albums from the music labels, or directly from musicians, and from our friends at Instantjazz and Downtown Music Gallery, who only give us CDs with no strings attached. Yet we also buy music, at concerts, from digital outlets, and from regular music stores (although it's rare that they sell the music we review). And for sure, labels and musicians send us emails asking to be reviewed, yet the music and the quality of the music remains the number one criteria for writing posts. We'd like to think we are fully independent, even so independent that our writers wield their own pen based on their own opinions. And that is what explains our success : enthusiastic writing, with critical interest in the music, and - I need to repeat this - only reviewing the music we like, the music we would like to recommend our readers to explore themselves. 

He also has a point when he says that some music blogs, especially when they are independent and when they cover other than mainstream music, have a hard time to continue existing. It requires daily efforts by a team of dedicated people who listen and write just for the fun of it, because they love the music and they love to share what they hear, spending valuable time with their ears glued to the music, and with their fingers on the keyboard, finding out more information about the musicians, browsing through catalogues to place the music in the development of the band or the artists, going through their own archives, listening again to earlier recordings by the musicians, reading liner notes and listening again, and again and again, to absorb the music, to listen again with an analytic mind, to listen again with a vivisective mind, to listen with a synthetic mind, to listen without rationality again, letting your whole person be overwhelmed by it, letting the music sink in and reach the entire person, or not. I started this blog like a maniac, reviewing albums on an almost daily basis. Today, we have a whole team of people who contribute, more knowledgeable and better writers than myself, and maybe that is the key to our success, that it's the result of a team of individuals with their views and preferences and style, but we all share the same love for the music. 

To end my long litany, one more point : the music we write about deserves a wider audience, and often we write for the converted, but at the same time listening and writing about it has widened my musical horizons, and together with the evolution of the music itself, our readership has gradually expanded too, reaching more people. We are reaching 'only' some tens of thousands to read our blog posts every month, and maybe that's our 'universe' as marketeers would call it. We hope to expand and inform, and include more people in this community. He writes that "a golden opportunity has been squandered by music bloggers" and "given the dire state that music blogging is in today, its demise will be regrettable but not a major loss". I hope that we have demonstrated the opposite. 

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