JOHN BELCHER - THE SOUND ACCORDING TO JOHN
A Sound is Worth A Thousand Pictures
[4:27]7.1 Mb
Hide and Seek (Further Adventures of A Search for Self)
[5:57]6 Mb
Collapse
[1:18]2.1 Mb
Half of My Time
[5:46]9.5 Mb
Expansions Combinations Contractions
[4:49]7.5 Mb
High Capacity
[8:49]9.1 Mb
Balanced Forces
[4:48]7.7 Mb
Just Say No
[4:22]4.8 Mb
Pandoras Revenge
[4:57]7.5 Mb
John Belcher "The Sound According to John" Album Review
Album Description
The tracks on "The Sound According To John" have elements of swing, samba, old-school rap (think Last Poets and Gil Scott Heron), West Aftrican, Indian and Balinese music traditions, and mathematics. Along with being a musician, Belcher is a mathematician. Ultimately, this is music about rhythm; the life of rhythm; the power of primordial sound, and where it can take you. These are just a few of the reasons that choreographers can't get enough of him.
BURNT FRIEDMAN AND JAKI LIEBEZEIT - SECRET RHYTHMS 2
Sikkerhed
[4:20]5.6 Mb
The Sticks
[8:16]13.1 Mb
The Librarian
[8:14]12.9 Mb
Mikrokasper
[3:39]5.6 Mb
Niedrige Decken
[8:12]12.4 Mb
Broken Wind Repair Kit
[4:59]6.7 Mb
Fearer
[6:53]9.2 Mb
Caracoles
[4:28]7 Mb
Burnt Friedman and Jaki Liebezeit "Secret Rhythms 2" Album Review
round 2 on the secret of the rythm
another great burnt friedman album. burnt returns to the secret rythms with jaki the original can drummer. this time around they keep it more simple, not relying on the extremally groovy side to the secret rythm but more structure & less improv, but still groovin. their are excellent guitar by american Tim Motzer. & always excellent horns. secret 1 also explored more of the dub reggae flava (Rastafahndung) which this one does not. the effects are much more suddle & sceems to have much more from the guitar & horns & vibs than burnt's keys & programmin, but he still processes the rest of the clan. the effects are much more present in the last 2 songs fearer, caracoles. but not to fear every second sounds like classic friedman, just be more of the play love songs form than just landing. the album is still filled with amazing bass, drums, guitar, horns, vibs, & burnt not friedman. the version of librarian with david sylvian is better than the original. i own all burnts pieces except the nonplace records, so i can tell you this is absolutelly excential if a fan of any of his works, burnt friedman is the second most prolific musician ive heard in 20 years, he is truelly an absolute original & will never be rivaled with or come close to his masterfull understanding of sound, & manipulation.
this review below is from the nonplace.de website burnts home check it out. enjoy
Total playing time 50:00
Just what is a Secret Rhythm ? Well, this probably can't be answered without first having a quick look at that most un-secret of rhythms, the 4/4 bar. From Easy Listening to Heavy Metal, from church bells to Drum'n'Bass club tunes or from Country music to Raggamuffin, the steady pace and symmetry of the Four-to-the-Floor riddim structure seems to hold our fragile global existence together. Or does it ? Friedman & Liebezeit wouldn't like to think so. To these long-time collaborators and life-long activists in the exploration of musical forms and possibilities, the 4/4 bar is what they tend to call a "fearer", for the term sounds just like the German word for a 4/4 bar - and the English word for what should be left aside while searching for those Secret Rhythms. And finding them, too. It doesn't take long to discover that the "fearer" isn't everything. Many original cultures have employed various rhythm cycles at the very core of their music - and still do so. Friedman & Liebezeit, sharing a mutual interest in traveling as well as all things on- and off-beat, try to unearth those natural born grooves and, through their own music, bring it to a bigger audience. An audience often unaware that these uncommon grooves, these Secret Rhythms, even exist.
Since their first collaborative album "Secret Rhythms" (1) came out on Nonplace in 2002, Friedman & Liebezeit have been playing live all over the world, improving their cyclic grooves and creating new ones. The 8 tracks on Secret Rhythms 2 are no overt spectacular high-brow arrangement hellraisers - while being tight and containing a large amount of curious suspense, these Secret Rhythms are playful, open, transparent, sequential, hypnotic even. In this respect, Friedman & Liebezeit lean to the World Music side, without giving in to the temptation of any Jazz instrumentation or even improvisation.
The first two pieces on Secret Rhythms 2 were released in May 2005 on a teaser vinyl "Out In The Sticks" and appear here in completely new versions. The only vocal track on this album "The Librarian" is a collaboration with David Sylvian. The song appears in a different version on the album "Snow Borne Sorrow" of the band Nine Horses, consisting of Sylvian, Steve Jansen and Burnt Friedman on the label Samadhi Sound.
In addition to Friedman and Liebezeit, guitarist Tim Motzer weaves funky touches all the way through. He has resided in Philadelphia, U.S. since 1985 and has been busy working with a virtual who's who of Philadelphia artists over the years including recordings and world tours with poetess Ursula Rucker, King Britt, the French duo Les Nubians and the Sister Gertrude project. Lined up for the group's live appearances and studio recordings is Hayden Chisholm, clarinet and melodica. Originating from New Zealand, he studied in Germany and India and has since performed all over the world. Although only 29, he has spent 7 years of his life on the road giving concerts and is currently preparing a book about his musical travels. Other guest musicians are Morten Grønvad, vibraharp, Daniel Schroeter, bass guitar and Joseph Suchy, electric guitar.
reviews:
This is the sequel to the very successful collaboration between two of the best German musicians of their respective generations. The mood hasn't changed much: the volume never goes too high but each track beckons the listener with novel sounds and percolating patterns. "Sikkerhed" opens with a waltz of wah guitar, mellow horns, discreet laptop work and a shifty and compelling drum pattern. The heavily polyrhythmic "The Sticks" comes next, picking up from the dying notes of the previous tune. It features gorgeous slide guitar and what sounds like hand-drumming anchored by clipped guitars weary from a non-stop flight from Central Africa. As with all the tunes on Secret Rhythms 2, it's uncertain whether Liebezeit is even playing a kit, or whether he's contributing bits and pieces to Friedman's omnivorous production technique. No matter, because the rhythmic content, as befits the title, come from everywhere; from the tiniest glitch to the step rate of the flangers (Flanger being Friedman's main working ensemble). Special guest David Sylvian gets his, um, groove on as vocalist on "The Librarian," sounding more morose than ever singing its moody melody. After a few spins, Secret Rhythms 2 reveals a multiplicity of rhythmic approaches. There are definitely many influences from rhythm patterns around the globe but for the most part the instruments and ambience associated with these patterns is completely subsumed into Friedman and Liebezeit's highly programmed inner world music. (review by David Dacks / Exclaim, Canada 2006)
"... this album may cross-over to fans of dub and ambient. It's difficult to categorize, but easy to enjoy." (review by Jacob Arnold / gridface.com)
Even before putting on Secret Rhythms 2, we're sure about one thing: with long-time Can member and frequent Jah Wobble collaborator Jaki Liebezeit occupying the drummer's chair, there's clearly no need to worry about the possibility of dull 'rhythmning.' The tunes on this sequel to his and Burnt Friedman's 2002 outing, however, aren't hell-raisers but languorous atmospheres of nuance and mystery. Still, though the feel is loose, the songs are far from aimless; what in lesser hands might be noodling, here becomes compelling exploration. The duo treats their tunes and rhythms elastically, stretching them out to accommodate a guitar texture or melodica shading here and a vibes or clarinet theme there. The set's 'world music' ambiance emerges immediately in "Sikkerhed," an African-flavoured folk-jazz march enriched by Hayden Chisholm's clarinet playing, while the dub style of Friedman's Nu Dub Players is revisited in "Fearer" and "Caracoles." The album's also distinguished by David Sylvian's vocal appearance on "The Librarian," his relaxed singing a natural complement to the others' similarly laid-back delivery (a different version appears on Snow Borne Sorrow, the Nine Horses album produced by Sylvian, Steve Jansen, and Friedman). Call Secret Rhythms 2 sophisticated mood music that, more 'invisibly' than Superstructure, merges electronics with acoustic instrumentation, even if the material clearly emphasizes the latter throughout. (review by Textura.org / February 2006)
JOSEPH HOLBROOKE TRIO - THE MOAT RECORDINGS
Orchard
[11:30]16.7 Mb
Condensation
[8:54]13.1 Mb
Crookesmoor
[16:53]24.7 Mb
Campo
[6:52]10.2 Mb
Fermata
[11:42]17.2 Mb
Radio Bossa
[8:03]12.3 Mb
Mappin
[4:56]7.3 Mb
Holderness
[12:52]18.3 Mb
Cord
[9:55]14.1 Mb
Tenter
[8:24]12 Mb
Edinburgh
[12:12]17.4 Mb
Cortical
[10:23]15.7 Mb
Chiuso
[5:00]7.6 Mb
From Bar Seven
[11:45]16.3 Mb
Matilda
[2:48]3.9 Mb
Joseph Holbrooke Trio "The Moat Recordings" Album Review
Release at last of the Derek Bailey, Gavin Bryars and Tony Oxley Trio '98 studio recordings.
The Joseph Holbrooke Trio was the legendary group of guitarist Derek Bailey, bassist (later composer) Gavin Bryars and percussionist Tony Oxley. They started in 1963 as a jazz trio inspired by such as the Bill Evans-Scott LaFaro-Paul Motion Trio and the Miles Davis modal period and developed into a group that played totally non-idiomatic improvisation before they went their separate ways in 1966. As they primarily played in the Northern UK area in Sheffield there were very few people who actually ever heard them until a rehearsal single titled Joseph Holbrooke '65 Rehearsal Extract 10'26" of Miles Mode (John Coltrane) was finally released by Bailey's self-owned Incus Records label in 1999. An earlier reunion attempt in 1995 failed to happen due to illness but the group finally got together again on the occasion of a Tony Oxley retrospective organized in Cologne, Germany in 1998. The German radio recording was also subsequently released on Incus as Joseph Holbrooke '98. The group then met in the studio under the sponsorship of Gary Todd and his Cortical Foundation (issuer of a few dozen unique recordings including the archives of composer Terry Riley, some Derek Bailey reissues, and audio/visual works by the extreme composer Hermann Nitsch)
This double CD has had a long gestation period since those recordings at Moat Studios at Stockwell, London in November 1998.
Originally planned as a double CD with 9 tracks on the Cortical Foundation's Organ of Corti record label, the project was delayed due to a tragic fall suffered by producer Gary Todd in 2001 who has been hospitalized ever since. Bassist Gavin Bryars explains in his very thorough liner notes that the project was taken over by John Zorn for his Tzadik label in late 2005. Then, guitarist Derek Bailey passed away in December 2005 from motor neuron disease. So the CD release now has more of a tribute aura about it as there will never be any further new recordings by the visionary guitarist Bailey and it is unlikely that there will be further productions by experimental music proponent Todd.
As of this writing in late March 2006, you can still read Gavin Bryars' original liner notes intended for the Cortical Foundation release at Bryars' website. Those original notes have been considerably expanded in the Tzadik edition and also brought up to date with a Bryars note about Bailey's participation in the final editing of the production and on his passing. Bailey's own notes from 1999 are included which contain primarily some anecdotes of the Trio's early days.
The original planned double CD's 9 tracks (now CD One's 1,2,3,4,7 and CD Two's 1,3,4,8) have been expanded with 6 more. The notes also state that future releases are expected and these will likely be at least the Moat Studio Concert held on the evening of the last day of the sessions in front of a small invited audience and the final '98/'99 reunion concert in Antwerp, Belgium in January 1999.
Fans of Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley will find their music making here to be of their usual high sensitivity, compatibility, surprise and humour. Fans of Gavin Bryars's compositions who may not know about his earlier participation on the UK improvisation scene or with experimental groups as the Portsmouth Sinfonia may be the most surprised to find him here, but if they approach this with no preconceptions and take it in the spirit of Bryar's various early process or collage explorations such as Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet (the original UK release of which Bailey played on) and The Sinking of the Titanic they should not be disappointed, and this will open their listening experience to a whole other world of music that is out there but not commonly known.
Tzadik always has high production values but often minimal or non-existent notes, so this release is even more recommended for giving background on this little known group that was at the forefront of the UK free non-idiomatic improvisation scene.
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