The rare talents of Maddalena Ghezzi and Ruth Goller come together for the fifth in Maddalena’s ‘Minerals’ series of releases - a remarkable multilingual odyssey about the journey of water through the Tyrolean mountain range. Reflecting on grief, climate change and shared personal histories, this is improvisational music at its most beautiful. Strange, magical and earthy, ‘Dolomite’ deserves your immersion. Read / Listen.
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Champagne Dub 'Rainbow' (On The Corner Records) - a review
The artwork on this debut album by Champagne Dub seems an appropriately disconcerting image for the kind of ‘dub’ contained. Apocalyptic at times, raw, improvised and very leftfield, the misfit band pulled together by Maxwell Hallett aka Betamax (Soccer96, The Comet Is Coming etc) have delivered a heavyweight dub patchwork that is brimming with post-punk energy and wild cosmic agitation. Ruth Goller, Clive Bell, Ed Briggs (laser bagpipes) and the masked Peruvian performance artist and vocalist, Mr Noodles, have brought flammables to the party. Read / Listen
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Rave At Your Fictional Borders 'Potion Trigger' (Dave De Rose Records) - single premiere!
We are zinged to premiere the bone-rattling title track from Rave At Your Fictional Borders forthcoming E.P. 'Potion Trigger'! Dave De Rose’s collab project sees top class musicians improvising and composing on the wire, creating a moment of cosmic motorik intensity that shakes itself silly somewhere between Hawkwind and Underground Resistance. Read / Listen.
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Torben Westergaard 'The Gori Project II' (Torben Westergaard Musik) - a review
With 18 albums under his belt and over 40 years of musical connectivity at the heart of his practice, the Danish composer and educator Torben Westergaard is a musician striving to work in an egoless environment. On his fantastic new album 'The Gori Project II', his second immersion into the merging of influences between Nordic jazz and Korean folk music has come good, creating something that belongs entirely to the four musicians involved. Cinematic, theatrical and blissed out at times, the album really does take you away. Read / Listen.
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Error Subcutáneo 'Temporada Ciclónica' (Running Circle) - a review
The new 7 track E.P. that Dominican Republic duo Error Subcutáneo have released today on Summer Solstice is a provocative and wild ride of free jazz, soundscape interventions and modular experimentalism fueled by the chaos of life in the Caribbean and the wider uncertainties of our world right now. Band member Mauro Ferreiro is a frequent contributor to our magazine and this record is released on Nottingham imprint Running Circle so somehow, a kind of harmony has arrived from the chaos. A lot like the music. Read / Listen
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Tell No Lies 'Hide Nothing' (Aut Records) - a review
Tell No Lies are an Italian avant-jazz outfit led by pianist and composer Nicola Guazzaloca and they have a new studio album that traverses modal, free and South African inspired jazz with ease, fire and substance. We asked our friend Mauro Ferreiro, a producer and writer from Dominican Republic to share his thoughts on this excellent new recording. Read / Listen.
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Seljuk Rustum 'Cardboard Castles' (Hive Mind) - a review
Indian musician and multidisciplinary artist Seljuk Rustum has an astonishing album coming out in Feb on the brilliant Brighton label Hive Mind Records. Playful, surprising and joyful, alongside his fellow first take collaborators and musical freedom travellers, he explores some very strange tales. Traditional sounding Indian techniques are abstracted and repainted with sweet electronics colliding with Indian strings, guitars and synthesisers, field recordings and more. It’s brilliant. Read / Listen.
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Photo: Ash Knotek
ChicagoXLondon at The Barbican (EFG London Jazz Festival 2022) - a review
An extraordinary musical and human encounter that started at the Barbican Centre and ended the next day at the Total Refreshment Centre. An all star cast from the Chicago label International Anthem and some of the brightest talents from the UK’s jazz and improvisational music community came together for a celebratory musical communion that will be long talked about. Read / Listen
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Agile Experiments 'These Are Times For Mind And Spirit' (DDR Records) - a review
Probably my fave Agile Experiments record to date. Spacious, abstract experimental jazz with krautrock, funk and electronica in the mix played by a trio of exceptional improvisational musicians that include bandleader Dave De Rose, Jon Scott (Go Go Penguin) and George Crowley (Melt Yourself Down. Read / Listen
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Dave De Rose & Dan Nicholls 'Plants Heal' (DDR) - a review
‘Plants Heal’ is released today and is a short, beautifully weighted album of natural ambience and surprising moments of electro-acoustic tension culled from two days of constant improvisation. Meditative and impressionistic, the record is both relaxing and confrontational in the most calming way from two of the leading lights of the experimental scene. Read / Listen here
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Jan Van 'Streams' (Teranga Beat) - a review
‘Streams’ is an excellent album of cinematic noir created live by rhythmic maestro Jan Van aka Yannis Angelolopoulos and the cream of Athens’ jazz and improvisational musicians. Funky, spacious and reflective, their unique fusion of contemporary improv jazz and laïkodimotiko (local, popular music) is a fine blend indeed. Read / Listen here
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