Manafonistas

„Es hat einen ganz anderen Effekt, wenn man sich im üblichen, meinethalben erprobt-analytischen, Jargon, über die Band The Mountain Goats auslässt, oder ob man, in Bezug auf ihr  Werk „Dark In Here“,  die vier Texte allein den Songs voranstellt. Dann spürt man erst mal, wie diese Diskrepanz sich anfühlt, von geschmeidig vorgetragenen Liedern, und ihren abgründigen Stories. Eine andere Art von Verfremdung, und die Stimme ist der „go-between“ zwischen beiden Welten.“

 

SIX KINDS OF DARKNESS

 

These „six kinds of darkness“ refer to the six records of hour one handling that thing called darkness in various, even illuminating ways. Again, apart from „Dark in Here“, no album would be regarded as patricularly „dark music“, and even John Darnielle’s song cycle has its uplifting moments. Thrilling it is anyway, from start to end.

And the safari of the North Men, well, they must have a decent amount of light sources on board for their special mission. By chance, days ago, I saw that old John Carpenter movie „Dark Star“, a low-budget sci-fi noir classic with a touch of humour and some bossa nova – always a joy, in fantasy or real life, to see what the astronauts‘ choices are when listening to music on their missions to unknown and distant worlds. In  case of Eivind Aarset‘s forthcoming work, Mojo writes: „However far out Aarset travels, he never loses touch with melody, and his ninth album as leader could be his best.“

 

 

(This photo was shot on a dark star safari by Susanne Berndt. „Spider and i sit watching the sky / in a world without sound“). One of the darkest albums of the night will be the new record by Schwalm & Reuter, full of rare noise (to name-drop their label), a duo that will be part of the second night hour, and that has already earned critical praise, with a vocabulary oscillating between „nightmarish“, „black hole music“ and „Swans-esque blocks of sonic fear“. „For listeners willingly or not in the throes of this spellbinding trip, Schwalm & Reuter morph from the deeply cerebral to an equally penetrating visceral, then back again; that range of dynamics depends on the natural proclivity of the listener or a spontaneous surrender to temptation, to turn up the volume.“ Even that can be a joyous ride, and why so? Cause, in every second of listening to „Aufbruch“, you feel very, very awake. Call it survival instincts! Safe journey. 

By the way: The 81-year-old drummer Andrew Cyrille deploys crisp cymbals, hushed snares and even brushes on newspaper for this entrancing set alongside Bill Frisell, Ben Street and David Virelles – „The Guardian“ just called „The News“, produced by Sun Chung for ECM, their „jazz album of the month“. Marc Johnson‘s bass solo masterpiece „Overpass“, another ECM highlight of 2021, will be featured in the theme hour of the night, no idea yet which version of „Nardis“ I will finally chose. The darkest one may be the one from Bill Evans, a long time ago, during a night in Paris. Marc Johnson was there!

 

 

Dark Star Safari
Eivind Aarset
lyrics by John Darnielle
The Mountain Goats
Andrew Cyrille Quartet: The News
The Mountain Goats
lyrics by John Darnielle
Eivind Aarset
OTON Marc Johnson
Marc Johnson

 

 

SINGING IN CAVES

 

Not every Mountain Goats album is shooting the stars from the sky, but this one does. For me „Dark In Here“ is, in all its elegance, understatement and intensity, one of their very best, in a broad collection of good, great and excellent albums. In the beginning The Mountain Goats were John Darnielle himself (I fell in love with this music when listening to „The Coroners‘ Gambit“, a long time ago, pure lo-fi shangrila of primitve equipment, and my love grew stronger, when John turned to crystalline chamber music solitudes on 4AD longplayers) – meanwhile they are a band that, in my decent opinion, are one of the most profound units on the planet. They can perform with the intricate charms of Steely Dan, the poignant sharpness of early Talking Heads, and the poetic depth of Leonard Cohen. „This time the band hones in on catastrophe; characters are never quite at the centre of disaster, but find themselves either in its anticipation or aftermath.“ The album has a  subtitle: „12 Songs for Singing In Caves,  Bunkers, Foxholes, And Secret Places Beneath The Floorboards.“  Good company guaranteed. And if you ever asked yourself recently, how Brian Eno’s „lighthouse radio station“, his co-operation with Sonos, might look like, here it is, in all its glooming glory:

 

 

STERNZEIT

Talking
Dark Star Safari
J. Peter Schwalm & Markus Reuter
lyrics
The Mountain Goats
Moritz von Oswald Trio
The Mountain Goats
lyrics
J. Peter Schwalm & Markus Reuter
Talking
Brian Eno – from a collection of hidden gems
Brian Eno – from The Lighthouse
Brian Eno and Roger Eno at the Akropolis

 

A SHINING ABSENCE

 

Nardis ist einer der schönsten Jazzsongs überhaupt, eine Erfindung von Miles Davis. Er hat seine Komposition wohl nie selbst eingespielt. Bill Evans erschuf das umfassendste Kompendium dieses wunderbaren Stückes – eine Welt für sich. Niemand hat die tiefe Melancholie dieser Melodie so freigelegt wie Bill Evans in fast balladesken Versionen, in verzweifelt ruppigen up-tempo Variationen wie jener aus Paris vom 26. November 1979 mit seinen Partnern Marc Johnson und Joe LaBarbera 10 Monate vor seinem Tod. (HDK)

 

there is no other composition by miles davis that in spite of its early recognition as an instant classic of modern jazz composition and countless versions played by others he himself didn’t breathe life into at all stunning no single performance no bootleg discovery just an empty page in a huge discography just a piece of paper with perhaps skeletal notation maybe he listened to bill evans one night and thought bill should own it kind of dance around it in his own peculiar ways maybe a gift for bill for putting his magic into kind of blue the album  think of all the other dancers who followed jackie terrasson john abercrombie ralph towner to name a few who added a dance a picture a ripple of time in my false memory nardis was played on one of those famous albums we know so well from the miles davis quintet or well well just another radical example for miles‘ less is more approach a shining absence imagine

 

 

Opening words
Marc Johnson‘s Bass Desires (second album)
OTON Marc Johnson (on Whorled Whirled World)
Marc Johnson: from Overpass
OTON Marc Johnson (on Dave Holland‘s Emerald Tears)
Nardis (version from Ralph Towner‘s „Solo Concert“)
Marc Johnson: Nardis (from Overpass)
Nardis (version from Jackie Terrasson‘s „Smile“)
OTON Marc Johnson (on the recording in Sao Paolo)
Marc Johnson: from Overpass
OTON Marc Johnson (on Marc Wade‘s cover)
Marc Johnson‘s Bass Desires (second album)
Closing words
KALENDERBLATT

 

THE LONG PARTY AT THE BREAK OF DAWN

 

Over the last years, I called the fourth nightwatch „the strange hour“, that surreal zigzging between eras, sounds and memories in the time travel department. Dream logic as (un)reliable company in sequencing atmospheres. At times, it all falls into place, and then again, it falls apart like apparitions in nowhere land. I really don‘t know how the final sequence of the fourth nightwatch will work. At least, i once fell under the spell of its single components – later on, I took a second look and decided that, as the old saying goes, less is  more, and now looks like much more focussed journey: a buried treasure from „Made to Measure“ (kudos to Marc Hollander), and the adventures of Annette, Alice and, last minute decision, Laurie, now joining „The Wonderland Trio“. 

 

 

In case of „Douzième Journée: Le Verbe, La Parure, L’Amour“… NME called it “an album of mesmerising strangeness, an exotic, surreal trip. Elusive and fasctinating” and Glenn O’Brien wrote these nice lines : “You might say that this record is an acquired taste. Like raw sea urchin, methadone or Colt 45. No, this is a pure and immediate taste because it’s beautiful. A brilliant achievement, a great record.” 36 years later Pitchfork didn‘t go wrong when re-evaluating this classic from the margins: “Stunning surreal debut, dreamlike, both earthy and ethereal”. Newly remastered, this album will be available again on September 17, and  one of the highlights in my strange hour between 4.05 and 5.00 a.m. Btw, the radio night of „Klanghorizonte“ can be heard afterwards, seven days long, on the Deutschlandfunk‘s „audiotheque“. 

 

Surprise, surprise, the final hour, the long party at the break of dawn, two trumpet legends (always thinking outside the limits of their instrument’s history) – no second thoughts required here: Jon Hassell, his voice from an old interview, tropical London, summer 1990 (sweet dreams are made of this,  The Pearl Hotel, the hum of the city invading the open windows of Jon‘s appartement in South Kensington) – and Don Cherry in France, 1972. Two celebrations of life, the urban jungle, the countryside.

 

In case of Don and Moki: „The couple called the project Organic Music Theatre, as evocative a name as one can imagine for the holistic mystical experience they worked to create. A recovering heroin addict, Don hoped to forge a new way to present and experience music well outside of the jazz clubs and bars where he had formed his worst habits. Organic Music Theatre represented not just artistic inclusivity and openness, but a way of life encompassing health food (it’s not for nothing that his most revered record from this period is called Brown Rice), children’s education, and whatever else their cohort viewed as essential to a better life.“

 

NIGHTWATCH FOUR: Benjamin Lew & Steven Brown: from Douzième Journee: LE Verbe, La Parure, L‘Amour (1982) –   / talking /  Alice Coltrane: from Kirtan Turiya Sings (1982) / Benjamin Lew and Steven Brown / Annette Peacock: from The Perfect Release (1979) / Benjamin Lew & Steven Brown / Laurie Anderson: from Bright Red (1994) / talking / Benjamin Lew and Steven Brown

NIGHTWATCH FIVE: In memory of Jon Hassell and City: Works of Fiction (1990) / excerpt from my old radio portrait of the fourth world wanderer / Jon  Hassell: City –  Works of Fiction / / Don Cherry: Organic Music Theatre – Chateauvillon 1972

 

An hour of time travel activities on August 19. Japanese music of the past can still surprise. The latest offering is a wonderful mix of melodic lightness and experimental touch. In those old days „Made to Measure“ wrote music history made to measure unfamiliar horizons: „La douxième journée“ by Lew & Brown was instantly regarded as a classic of its own kind with its audacious melange of north african modes, jazz sensibilities and twilight zones in between. From Bruxelles with love! No doubt Alice Coltrane and her Ashram singing of more or less improvised Hindu chants has a deepness to it that transcends its once-upon-a-time target group of religious devotion and now can easily be perceived as a profound, human meditation on yearning and loss. In the middle of it all we’ll see, on the cover of „The Perfect Release“ a woman (Annette Peacock) on a couch (looking slightly indifferent) – and then there is this vocal delivery  on the state of the world, with a casual performance that doesn‘t outnumber at all the simple truth of all its lines and verses. A stone cold groove keeps her company.

 

Leftfield Japanese Music from the CD-Age / Benjamin Lew & Steven Brown (a classic from Made to Measure) / Alice Coltrane: Turiya Sings / A spoken word classic from Annette Peacock / Alice Coltrane again / Benjamin Lew & Steven Brown again / Leftfield Japanese Music again (closing all circles)      

Die Nacht der Klanghorizonte am 19. Juni beginnt mit einem langen Musikstück, ich sage vorher kein Wort. Wenn man die ersten Minuten davon gehört hat, weiss man ohnehin, wo der Bartel den Most holt in dieser Nacht. Es gehört zu einem Genre, das gar nicht so fest umrissen ist, und von Nik Bärtsch „ritual groove music“ genannt wird. Damit verhindert er die üblicherweise ins Spiel gebrachten Wörter mit langen grauen Bärten, wie „Jazz“, „Minimalismus“, „Ambient“ und „Klassik“. Klassik hat den längsten Bart, historisch gesehen – um ihn zu stutzen, beschränken sich einige auf „Zeitgenössische Klassik“. Wörter wie „zeitgenössisch“ halten sich auch nur noch im Feuilleton wacker aufrecht, sie sind massiv einsturzgefährdet, so obsolet wie heutige Parteitage der von Gerhard Schröder abgewirtschafteten SPD, auf der man sich immer noch feuchtfröhlich als „liebe Genossinnen und Genossen“ anredet. Zur „ritual groove music“ könnte man leichterhand The Necks zählen, „Joshua Abrams & The Natural Information Society“, Nik Bärtschs Ronin sowieso, und das wunderbare Album, das meine Radionacht einleiten wird. Interessant, das ich bei dem ersten Stück der CD hier und da an die feinen repetitiven Wirbel der „ride cymbal“ von Eberhard Webers Album „Yellow Fields“ dachte! Ein Album, das man „organische Puls-Musik“ nennen könnte (wenn das nicht zu sehr nach veganem Lebensstil klingen würde), und bis heute nichts von seiner Magie verloren hat. Mein erstes Album der Nacht ist ein Werk, dem man daheim am besten von Anfang bis Ende lauscht. Es ist, nebenbei bemerkt, exzellent aufgenommen, und muss keineswegs laut gehört werden. Die Musiker leisten sich den Luxus, ihre Tableaus in oft recht hohen Tonlagen anzusiedeln, ohne schrill zu werden. Die Luft ist halt dünn in solch entlegenen Terrains (und Nachtlandschaften), über denen das  beste Opus, das diese Bande Gleichgesinnter je gemacht hat, schwebt, in all seinen aufregenden Perspektivwechseln, Eindunklungen, und Verwirrspielen. Ich verleihe dem Album 4 1/2 Sterne. Soviel, wie John Green in seinem tollen Essayband über das Anthropozän den Höhlenmalereien von Lascaux gibt. A strange, strange world, und, for sure, one my 33 favourite albums of 2021. Dim the lights, and follow the tapestries. 

 

1 – Am Ende eines Gespräches

 

„In my next radio night I will play a long track from Robert Ashley‘s masterpiece „Private Parts“. A special voice tells a story full of apparently marginal things (but nevertheless a meditation on life), accompanied by interesting „background music“. Recommended for your ears, Kurt, also,  because of the way you are working with  language on Showtunes.“

“The  name rings a bell, Michael. Special background music – that was the  case, too, when Bob Dylan read his speech for the Nobel Prize, just being accompanied by a piano.“

“A propos piano. In a review of Showtunes, I put your album alongside some other albums from different genres that, for me, have a similar kind of nakedness, intensity and intimacy. And one of them was a piano solo album by Paul Bley: „Open, to love“.  Go for that, Kurt, it‘s awesome midnight music.

„I will, Michael. I love ECM“.

 

(transcribed from memory, from yesterday‘s Zoom-interview with Kurt Wagner (Lambchop) in Nashville, Tennessee)

 

 

 

 

2 – Einige dieser Sommerabende

 

Der Sommer, der morgen beginnt, und obwohl er schon ein paar Tage offenkundig war, rasch wieder von einer Regenfront und kühlen Winden verprellt wird, hatte genug warme Wiesen parat, um sich darauf zu räkeln, in die neuen Kurzgeschichten von Haruki Murakami abzutauchen,  oder sich vom feinsinnigen Humor der Essays von John Green entführen zu lassen – und obendrein gab es die angenehm kühlen Abende mit verlangsamten Blicken zu den Restlichtern dieser Tage (Laternen, Abendrot, Grillkohle), sowie Alben, die, wie in alten Zeiten, zur Nacht hin, abwechselnd den Plattenteller blockierten: immer wieder „Showtunes“ von Lambchop, „Promises“ von Floating Points, und das Album mit mehr als einem Hauch einer alten Stadt der Mayas. „Every repetition is a form of change“ (Oblique Strategies, oder Heraklit, ganz wie man will).

 

 

3 – In bester Gesellschaft von „Showtunes“

 

Mark Hollis’ solo album, Joe Lovano’s „Trio Tapestry“, Nico‘s „The Marble Index“,  Paul Bley‘s „Open, to Love“, Brian Eno‘s  „Another Day On Earth“, Prefab Sprout‘s „I Trawl The Megahertz“, John Cale‘s „Music For A New Society“, and the last album of Jacques Brel, the one with a pale blue sky and pale white clouds

 

 

4 – Nachspiel

 

Trio Tapestry‘s sense of melody, space and  letting-go  is immaculate. I will always remember their first record, one of the jazz miracles of 2019. For me, it was the best album Joe Lovano ever made, with Manfred Eicher’s perfect sequencing of the tracks. Listen to the vinyl: suspense, sound and silence in perfect union. It is quite natural that this follow-up lives up to the high standard of the first meeting in New York. Now with a deeper touch of Provence pastel and colours at dusk. You can think of every jazz writing cliche of praise, from „filigree“ to „elemental“, and be sure that Lovano, Crispell and Castaldi are breathing new life into it. After the first three pieces of pure baladry (written by soul, not by the book), the appearances of sound take more and more adventurous side steps, from moments of pianistic unrest and upheaval, to an exploration of metal and sound in Castaldi‘s drum figures. A zen-like purity‘s bold pairing with an adventurous spirit. „Garden of Expression“ delivers everything with grace, selflessness and the most nuanced sense of  tempo, time standing still and a flow of undercurrents. If this sounds slightly over the top, let the music take over, dim the lights and follow the tapestries!

 

The new songs comprised guitar tracks that were converted into MIDI piano tracks, over which Wagner laid Broder’s grand piano, Olson’s assorted sounds, horns by CJ Camerieri, turntable work from Twit One, some free-jazz drumming from Eric Slick and, finally, double bass from James McNew. “I always thought this kind of record needed this upright bass element,” says Wagner. “Very much like some classic jazz piano-trio record and James was always on my mind with that.”

(From Uncut, 2021)

 

Eine Freude, wenn in die Jahre gekommenen Wegbegleitern immer noch Bereicherungen gelingen, und sie sich nicht darin erschöpfen, mit jeweils neuen Alben allein das Feld unserer Erinnerungen hübsch aufzubrezeln. Ach, weisst du noch – das ist nicht die Haltung Entdeckungsreisender in Sachen Musik.

Und so hat Kurt Wagner, als Lambchop-Mastermind und ruheloser Erforscher von Songhorizonten, auch in den letzten zehn Jahren weiterhin erstaunliche Arbeiten abgeliefert, und mit „Showtunes“ nun ein sicher nicht unmittelbar griffiges, aber rundum geglücktes Meisterwerk, experimentell und tiefgründig zugleich. Es bewegt sich in solch einsamen Höhen wie Mark Hollis‘ Soloalbum, oder Prefab Sprout‘s I Trawl The Megahertz. Eine gute halbe Stunde lang, mit keinem einzigen verschwendeten Moment, garantiere ich (natürlich ohne Gewähr und Reiserücktrittsversicherung) aufregende Erlebnisse mit jedem neuen Hören. Es gibt das Album auch, in einer Sonderedition, auf weissem  Vinyl, in einer Gatefold-Ausgabe mit 45 rpm (!). „Showtunes“ ist eines unserer Alben des Monats Juni (s. Kolumne rechts), und es ist ganz sicher eines meiner Top 5 Alben des Jahres 2021. Ich bin restlos begeistert.

Ich habe Brian dazu eine Mail geschickt, u.a. auch den substanziellen, grossen Artikel über Kurt aus der Juli-Online-Ausgabe von Uncut („The Conceptualist“). Es würde mich sehr erstaunen, wenn Eno nicht Feuer und Flamme wäre, was Kurt Wagners neue Arbeit beitrifft, entstanden in fast mönchischer Zurückgezogenheit, zuhause in Nashville, Tennessee. In den Klanghorizonten am 19. Juni werden zwei Songs aus „Showtunes“ auftauchen, in bester Gesellschaft von Marianne Faithfull, Robert Ashley, Stephan Micus, und, ähem, Brian Eno. Ein „phoner“-Interview wird angefragt, mit Kurt Wagner. Es wäre so ungefähr unser fünftes Interview. 

playlist of nighthawk‘s late night radio in June:

Brian Eno: instrumental track
talking 1 – Michael (on this hour, on Showtunes and She Walks In Beauty)

Marianne Faithfull: from She Walks In Beauty
Lambchop: from Showtunes
KURT WAGNER SPEAKING (possibly)
Stephan Micus: short instrumental track from Winter‘s End (ECM)

short story by  Martina Weber on Robert Ashley‘s Private Parts
Robert Ashley: The Park, from Private Parts (1977 – Lovely Music)
short story by Michael on Robert Ashley’s Private Parts

Stephan Micus: short instrumental track from Winter‘s End
KURT WAGNER SPEAKING (possibly)
Lambchop: from Showtunes
Marianne Faithfull: from She Walks In  Beauty

talking 2 – (Michael on everything)
Brian Eno:  instrumental track 

 

As Soul Jazz Records HQ (London) announced in 2020, the duo from Tucson, Arizona, Trees Speak,  sees their project „as much a sound laboratory as a rock and roll band.“ Combining elements of experimental rock, electronic avant-garde, Krautrock and Miles Davis „Bitches‘ Brew“ era jazz. They construct abstract improvisational jams into coherent compositions in the „sound lab“ of the studio. The result is a collection of dynamic songs, as the band described them, „translucent jams for a virtual autobahn“.

 

Philosophically, the members of Trees Speak also draw inspiration from the philosophy and creative process of the Surrealist, Dadaism, The Avant-Garde and Vanguard movements from the 1920s. So far, so good, or even better – with the release of „PostHuman“ at the end of May, Soul Jazz Records will have published three albums of this highly creative duo of the Diaz brothers. „Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz from Tucson, Arizona and their music often draws on the cosmic night-time magic of Arizona’s natural desert landscapes. ‘Trees Speak’ relates to the idea of future technologies storing information and data in trees and plants – using them as hard drives – and the idea that trees communicate collectively.“ (SJR HQ)

 

 

 

 

I discovered their music with the second album, „Shadow Forms“, and was particularly thrilled by their ways of keeping diverse spirits of „the golden era of kraut rock and beyond“ alive, alive and kicking – and pushing them into new landscapes. It was not a short affair, I went back to the albums again and again. Nostalgia is only a small part in the game of digging into the world of Trees Speak.

 

We exchanged some mails, and sending them some of my night hours and ideas, they obviously appreciated my ways of curating music, and are now in the mood to be virtual, real, really virtual guests on my „Moon In June“- radio night in Cologne, giving their first interview ever (which came as a surprise for me, looking at the high critical acclaim of their music). They will speak about all of their three albums and their special approach to sounds from distant eras and distant horizons. Improvisation is one of the tools of their modus operandi. Excerpts of or „trance-atalantic“ conversation will be part of the first hour, and the fourth one (the first time travel section of the June 19).  Make a mental note, don‘t miss the show for your own good. Get high without drugs – trees speak!

„… and then you’re left in this wonderful area of floating which i love so much“  (David Darling, 1994, in that old radio show)

 

 

 

THE FIRST HOUR 

Pino Palladino & Blake Mills: Just Wrong (from Notes With Attachements)  / Thomas Stronen, Marthe Lea, Ayumi Tanaka: Varsha (from Bayou) / Sinikka Langeland: Wolf Rune (from Wolf Rune) / Simon Goff: Wooden Islands (from Vale) / Nik Bärtsch speaking / Nik Bärtsch: Modul 55 (from Entendre) / Ballaké Sissoko: Kora (from Djourou) / Daniel Lanois: Every Nation (from Heavy Sun) / Valerie June: Stardust Scattering (from The Moon and Stars: Prescription for Dreamers) / Balmorhea:  …  (from The Wind)

 

 

THE SECOND HOUR

 

Sternzeit – /  A Winged Victory for the Sullen: Total Perspective Vortex (from Invisible Cities) / Daniel Lanois: Under The Heavy Sun & Mother’s Eyes (from Heavy Sun) / Lana del Ray: Chemtrails over the Country Club (from Chemtrails Over The Country Club) / Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, London Symphony Orchestra: Movement 7 (from Promises) / Joshua Abrams speaking* /  Natural Information Society with Evan Parker: Part III (from: Descension (Out Of Our Constrictions – out now on Aguirre Records, promoted in Germany at least, by Werner and Klaus, no kidding) / Balmorhea: some more quiet moments from The Wind)

 

Joshua Abrams (transcript of his special „solo speech“): „At the time of this recording we had performed descension (Out of Our Constrictions) 17 times in concert over a period of 5 months. i wrote the music in February of 2019 for the current touring incarnation of Natural Information Society made up of Lisa Alvarado, Mikel Avery, Jason Stein & myself. Lisa plays harmonium amplified with effects, Mikel – drums, Jason Stein – bass clarinet & i play guimbri.  The guimbri is a 3 string bass lute sometimes called a sintir or a hajhouj. It is Gnawan instrument that can be heard in sacred & secular music. I like to think of the guimbri as a sophisticated form of soundmaking technology for focusing & guiding concentration.

The music i write for Natural Information Society is interwoven & multilayered. we are all weaving a sound together. With time & experience performing the piece we find new paths, resting places & occasional detours.  it is the woven nature of the composition that gives descension (Out of Our Constrictions) its hypnotic qualities. The music encourages the band’s members to find variation & embellishment & is written with room for mutability & improvisation.  

From time to time we have the pleasure of having guests join the group.  when we last played in berlin, a couple days before this recording, Tony Buck, Magda Mayas & Theaster Gates all joined us at Arkaoda.  other guests have included Chris Abrahams, Josh Berman, Hamid Drake, Alexander Hawkins,  Tomeka Reid, Dave Rempis & Helge Sten.  In most cases guests are free to improvise along with the group and respond to the vibration and context of the piece (music)

Evan Parker needs no introductions for his contributions & innovations to free improvisation, the saxophone & music in general.  Far be it for me to tell him what to play or say.  he’s a free agent.  It is always a challenge & an honor to try to rise to what he brings to the music.  What you will hear is side C of a recording from a concert we presented at Cafe OTO in London. The piece is about 1/2 way through a 70 something minute performance.  The music is opening up, Jason is soloing a little, trying to catch up to Evan and the band is fully in.  CAFE OTO is one of the group’s favorite places to play & this night was no exception. The audience was crowded & the room was full of good energy bouncing off the walls.  playing the concert was a thrilling experience & and the hang (was) a fine time to boot.“ (translated by Deepl. in comment 3) 

 

THE THIRD HOUR 

 

This theme hour on DAVID DARLING will be quite a surprise. Deep in the archives Odilo C. found two portraits I did about the music of the late composer and cello player, from the years 1994 and 2001. – what a joy, to listen once more to Darling’s voice and musical confessions, not to forget the days in the studio with Manfred Eicher working on „Cello“. The second show has the better title: „Mr. Darkwood und die Langsamkeit der Steine“, but I will broadcast  „Das Herz der Dunkelheit“,  which is more centered around his primal inspirations, with music mainly from the solo cello albums JOURNAL OCTOBER and CELLO. And some excerpts from Darling‘s duo album with Terje Rypdal, EOS, and his album as band leader, CYCLES. 20 years of  great achievements, produced by  Manfred Eicher between 1979 und 2000. Here the old show in its entirety, without introductory and closing words  from the radio broacast yesterday … 

 

 

 

THE FOURTH HOUR 

Beverly Glenn-Copeland (from Keyboard Fantasies)
Various Artists:  Made To Measure, Vol. 1 (Minimal Compact)

Die Welttraumforscher: two tracks  from DIE RÜCKKEHR DER ECHTEN MENSCHEIT: DIE JAHRE 1981-1990

Grandaddy: He‘s Simple, He‘s Dumb, He‘s the Pilot (from The Sophtware Slump….on a wooden piano)

Die Welttraumforscher: two tracks from WIR ARBEITEN FÜR DIE NÄCHSTE WELT: DIE JAHRE 1991-2012

Various Artists:  Made To Measure, Vol. 1 (Aksak Maboul)
Beverly Glenn-Copeland (from Keyboard Fantasies*)

V.A. – Soul Jazz Records presents Studio One Dub Fire Special 

 

*Re-release of Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s rural Canadian  suite for DX7 and TR707 …keyboard fantasies… with new carefully reconstructed glasswork design by Alan Briand.  Beverly Glenn-Copeland is already known amongst collectors and music heads for two sought-after albums of folky jazz in the key of Joni. But it was this album, originally self-released on cassette in 1986 that really caught our attention. The album, entirely recorded on DX-7 and TR-707, lies somewhere between digital new-age and (accidentally) early Detroit techno experiments. The inimitable style of BGC here is both peaceful and meditative while simultaneously rhythmic and bass heavy. The album was recorded in the northern Canadian town of Huntsville where BGC was living at the time and is a beautiful fusion of personal vision, technology and place.

 

THE FIFTH HOUR (PART 1) 

 

Eduardo Ramos: Vocacion Revolucion / Groupo Mounmental: Hasta Los Cuantas / Los 5 U 4: Solo Esta Musica / Grupo de Experimentacion Sonora del ICAIC: Concion Con Todos / Orquestra Los Van Van: Yo Se Que Van Van / Grupo Monumental: Nadia Se Siente Cansado / Orquestro Ritmo Oriental: Maria, Baila El Son / Juan Pablo Torres Y Algo Nievo: Rampe Cocorioco (all tracks from the Soul Jazz Records compilation:  V. A. – Cuba Music And Revolution – Culture Clash in Havana Cuba – Experiments In Latin Music Vol. 1)*

 

THE FIFTH HOUR (PART 2) 

 

Omar Khorshid   (from Omar Khorshid with Love)**
Ayalew  Mesfin: Mot Aylerim (from Tewedije Limut)
Marcos Resende & Index: My Heart (from Marcos Resende & Index)

 

*Like Manna from the heavens, this superb collection heralds in the New Year and has to be one of the most significant compilations for many a decade.  Released as both a heavyweight 3 x vinyl LP and deluxe 2xCD set, this Soul Jazz Records album is the culmination of some 20 odd years of research and crate-digging by compilers Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker. Featuring a number of legendary Cuban artists who flourished in the 70s and 80s, for example Los Van Van, Grupo Irakere and Pablo Milanés,alongside other lesser-known performers, such as Grupo De Experimentación Sonora Del ICAIC, Grupo Monumentaland Orquesta Ritmo Oriental, who remain unknown outside their native country, virtually none of the tracks appearing on the collection have ever been heard outside of Cuba.

 

** „With Love“ released by the Beirut-based Voice of Lebanon label in 1978 is a testament to Omar Khorshid’s greatness and encapsulate the unique sound of his guitar playing over modern arrangements establishing him as one of Arabic music’s true innovator. Featuring reworkings of such favourites as Mohamed Abdel Wahab’s „Ahwak“, Farid El-Atrache’s „Hebbina Hebbina“ (a Brian Eno Favourite), and the Rahbani Brothers‘ „Rahbaniyat“, the album is a fascinating example of modern arabic music that aimed at fusing traditional influences with the more contemporary ones, and has become highly sought-after by lovers of this Middle Eastern sounds around the world.“

 

 
 

Trio Tapestry‘s sense of melody, space and  letting-go  is immaculate. I will always remember their first record, one of the jazz miracles of 2019. For me, it was the best album Joe Lovano ever made, with Manfred Eicher’s perfect sequencing of the tracks. Listen to the vinyl: suspense, sound and silence in perfect union. It is quite natural that this follow-up lives up to the high standard of the first meeting in New York. Now with a deeper touch of Provence pastel and colours at dusk. You can think of every jazz writing cliche of praise, from „filigree“ to „elemental“, and be sure that Lovano, Crispell and Castaldi are breathing new life into it. After the first three pieces of pure baladry (written by soul, not by the book), the appearances of sound take more and more adventurous side steps, from moments of pianistic unrest and upheaval, to an exploration of metal and sound in Castaldi‘s drum figures. A zen-like purity‘s bold pairing with an adventurous spirit. The record delivers everything with grace, selflessness and the most nuanced sense of  tempo, time standing still and a flow of undercurrents. If this sounds slightly over the top, let the music take over, dim the lights and follow the tapestries!

 

 
 

After duo works with Robert Fripp, Harold Budd, David Byrne, brother Roger, Peter Schwalm a.o., Brian Eno started another creative duo with Underworld maestro Karl Hyde in the year 2014. In fact, the teamwork ended in the same year, within three months roundabout: a short span of time for two great albums, Someday World, and High Life. One more on the song side, the other freewheelin‘, rougher. I was there in the studio of day one of High Life. The first two improvisations didn’t end up on the album. Fully enjoying this „concert for one“, Brian asked what I was thinking. I answered something like: „Quite hypnotic, something Arabian, a distant echo of the more anarchic sounds of Embryo.“ On this blog you can find my long interview with the two lads, in which they looked back on Someday World. The interview and the old card game titled „Oblique Strategies“, inspired two excellent Frank Nikol „one picture stories“. What you see above is just a photo of mine in mono comic mode. (Brian Eno‘s „Film Music (1976-2020) is no. 2 of my year‘s end list of archival discoveries / reissues.  Brian will speak about this album and his classic „Music For Films“ (1978) in my edition of the radio night „Klanghorizonte“ on Dec. 26, between 3.05 and 4.00 am)

 

 

„Hanging words such as “atmospheric,” “evocative,” or “lyrical” on this Christmas tree would only topple it in a shower of withered needles. One might say the title refers not to the music itself, which if anything feels drenched, but rather to its lingering effects. I sometimes imagine the synthesizer here as a substitute for an unavailable orchestra, the presence of which would have created an entirely different, Eberhard Weber-like, experience. As it is, its sedation lends a potent archival ascendency and distills the soaring solos within. Rypdal’s keening guitar percolates through the album’s semi-porous cloth like sunlight through the veil over a face of one who has seen the world only through the wavering screen of tears, and never in the clarity of day. It is a style of playing that falls even as it rises. At his profoundest moments, Rypdal inspires a humbling lack of vocabulary with which to describe what one hears. In which case, After the Rain is filled with silence.“

(Tyran Grillo, ECM reviews)

 
 

Wer nicht alphabetisch archiviert, kennt das Phänomen: eine alte Lieblingsplatte hat sich unauffindbar gemacht – so ist es mir just mit „After The Rain“ ergangen. Irgendwie werde ich das Teil auftreiben für die Themenstunde der „Radionacht Klanghorizonte“ am 17. Oktober zwischen 3.05 und 4.00 Uhr. Da geht es um die Alben von Terje Rypdal aus den Siebziger Jahren. Zuvor zwei Stunden voller aktueller Produktionen, von „Paradise Cinema“ bis „Belbury Poly“, von Ed Harcourt bis Anja Lechner, von Bill Callahan bis Sufjan Stevens. Und, unglaublich, aber wahr, richtig guter „PostKrautRock“ aus Osnabrück! In den Zeitreisen bis 6.00 Uhr in der Früh gibt es dann einen Trip durch ausgewählte nordamerikanische Song- und Soundlandschaften (von Bobbie Gentry bis Van Dyke Parks) – später wandert ein gewisser Jah Wobble durch die Docklands, und Miles Davis ist mit seinem „elektrischen Septet“ von anno 1971 zu hören, von einer Tour, die auch in München Station machte. Zu den Zuhörern dort, auf welche die Musik einen immensen Eindruck (mit Folgen) machte, zählten Herr Klinger und ein gewisser Manfred Eicher.