Jason Lescalleet will be in Finland this week to perform three shows and give a lecture. He will have an exclusive cassette released on Pai entitled My Machine available at those dates. Keep an eye on the label's bandcamp page for more information and the possibility of purchasing the cassette after the shows.
September 16 - Tenaji von Fersen in Suomenlinna, Helsinki
September 17 - Lecture at Helsinki Music Centre
September 19 - Sibeliusmuseum in Turku
September 20 - Validi Sekmentti in Pori
Sacrée Obsession, the new album from percussionist Will Guthrie is out now on iDEAL Recordings. This is his first album released on the Swedish record label and features two recordings taken in France. The pieces are characteristically dark but both have their own flair to them. The first piece, entitled "Timelapse", puts greater emphasis on a loud/soft dynamic and its pacing makes it sound ceremonial, even mystical at times. The second piece, entitled "Pacemaker", takes shape as a long-form drone in which the physicality of Guthrie's drums appears in the forefront. You can hear samples of both pieces here and here. Visit this link to read more info and purchase the LP. Guthrie is also on tour right now, you can check the dates below.
13 September, solo - Festival Muse en Troc, Le Landreau, FR
19 September, w/ WAV2 - Ainu Fest, Montaigu, FR
2 October, solo - Festival Send & Receive, Winnipeg, CAN
4 October, solo - Casa del Popollo, Montréal, CAN
5 October, solo - Montréal, CAN
10 October, solo - Centre Barbara, Paris, FR
15 October, w/ Oren Ambarchi - London, UK
28 October, w/ Oren Ambarchi - Berlin, DL
The ever-prolific Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) has released a new 18-minute EP with double bass player Gonçalo Almeida entitled Doze Ruínas. Zuydervelt is credited with "processing, additional sounds" here, which may perhaps not sound like much, but there's a large range to the music that's across these twelve tracks. Throughout the EP, Almeida's bass moves from jubilant to elegant to brash. And while a lot of it has to do with how he's playing the instrument, it's the careful mixing and editing that Zuydervelt does that shapes the compositions. Because of the variety of sounds here, there's a real depth to Doze Ruínas. It's one of those rare instances where an EP feels less like a teaser or quick experimental project but a fully formed album of appropriate length. You can stream the entire release and purchase it here. 3-inch CD-Rs are also available to order and will start shipping on the 20th.
The (somewhat) annual AMPLIFY festival has announced its lineup for this year. The festival will take place this Halloween weekend from October 30th to November 1st in New York at Fridman Gallery. The theme for this year is "exploratory"—five of the nine performances will come from pairings who have never played with each other before while two will be second-time meetings.
Performances will start at 8 PM at the Fridman Gallery. Tickets will be $20 per night. The lineup is below. More information on the AMPLIFY Festival can be found on the facebook page here.
Lineup:
Taku Unami/Sean Meehan
Olivia Block/Maria Chavez*
Graham Lambkin/Michael Pisaro^
Michael Pisaro/Ben Owen*
Graham Lambkin/Taku Unami*
Olivia Block/Jason Lescalleet^
Anne Guthrie/Vanessa Rossetto*
Taku Unami/ Devin DiSanto*
Kevin Drumm/Jason Lescalleet
*first-time meeting
^second-time meeting
Jason Kahn has released his new album entitled Songline on his Editions label. This new record comprises recordings taken in Zürich and marks the first time Kahn has recorded and released pieces for solo vocals. The liner notes state that this recording was a challenge for him but was a thrilling experience all the same:
This was a challenge to myself, to go through these pieces as if I stood before an audience: no stopping, re-starting. To pull through. Which, in retrospect, was much more difficult than I'd anticipated, as when performing live the energy of the audience and the dynamics of the situation tend to propel me through a performance. There is adrenalin and a certain sense of urgency. All of which I didn't have going for me on the evening I recorded these pieces. I was alone in front of the microphones. I hit the record button and that was it.
You can read more information about the album, hear snippets from it, and purchase it here. Songline is limited to 250 copies on 180 gram vinyl and features hand-painted covers on thick gray cardboard.
After having released two excellent albums earlier this year, Notice Recordings have two more cassette releases available to stream and purchase. The first comes from Jason Kahn & Tim Olive and is entitled Fukuoka / Osaka. As with Kahn and Olive's Two Sunrise on 845 Audio last year, the music that makes up this release comes from live recordingsof concerts that took place in Japan. You can stream the entire album and purchase the cassette here.
Ryoko Akama and Bruno Duplant also have a new album out entitled immobilité. Akama and Duplant have worked together before—they had an album on Suppedaneum and one with Dominic Lash on Another Timbre, both from last year. The new record can be streamed and purchased here. Both of these new releases from Notice Recordings are limited to 100 cassettes each.
The Russia-based record label Intonema have announced two new releases. The first is 1 & 2, the debut album from Songs, a newly formed quartet whose members include Lucio Capece, Catherine Lamb, Rishin Singh, and Stine Sterne. Lucio Capece had previously released the excellent Less is Less - Music for Flying and Pendulating Speakers on Intonema back in 2013 but this marks the first release on the label for the other three musicians. The album is made up of two compositions by Singh himself that make up the 46-minute runtime. You can hear a sample of the record, as well as purchase it here.
The second new release from Intonema comes from a trio made up of Gaudenz Badrutt, Ilia Belorukov, and Jonas Kocher. The three musicians had toured together around Russia last year and a recording of their performance in St. Petersburg makes up the material found on Rotonda (album cover above). You can watch a clip of their live show and purchase the album here. Both 1 & 2 and Rotonda are limited to 200 CDs.
Back in 2012, musicians from The Set Ensemble's realization of pieces by Michael Pisaro and Stefan Thut, among others, ended up on the six disc Wandelweiser und so weiter compilation. And now with stopcock, The Set Ensemble have returned with a new album courtesy of Consumer Waste. Compositions on the album come from members Sarah Hughes, Bruno Guastalla, Patrick Farmer, Dominic Lash, and Paul Whitty.
The album is limited to 200 copies and comes in a 7-inch sleeve with a booklet and letterpress insert. Consumer Waste will have ten copies that will come with the fourth issue of BORE at a discounted price. BORE is a biannual publication of scores. The fourth issue contains eight scores from members of The Set Ensemble. You can hear a snippet from stopcock and purchase the album here.
Ryoko Akama has released her new album Senu Hima on Melange Edition. Akama's previous release, Code of Silence, was the inaugural release for the small label in 2014. Senu Hima features compositions, both old and new, from Jürg Frey, Sarah Hughes, Antoine Beuger, and James Saunders. The press release for the album gives an explanation of the title:
‘senu hima’ is a traditional art concept derived from Noh culture in Japan in which where nothing is (silence, gap, space, absence etc) is explored as the most important passage of works. As if opposing to my anticipation, I was given scores that requested me to ‘perform’ actively with sequences, numbers and certain rules. It was a challenge for me to come up with my correspondence to the scores but somehow I discovered how I could propose my performance in relation to the pieces. With these propositions that score suggested, I attempted a way to establish a fine balance between where there is and where there is nothing. As a result, this has become the strangest, qwertiest and the most loving album for me. / ryoko akama
Throughout September and October, Melange Edition has a deal that involves getting a discount on the first two releases of the label when purchasing Senu Hima. You can purchase the album and hear snippets from the album here. The tracklist is below.
1. Die meisten Sachen macht man selten 10:00
2. I Love This City and its Outlying Lands (1.2) 26:50
3. touw (voor joop) 21:45
4. overlay (with transience) 15:00
Track 1 composed by Jürg Frey (1994/97)
Track 2 composed by Sarah Hughes (2014/15)
Track 3 composed by Antoine Beuger (1996)
Track 4 composed by James Saunders (2014)
Despite having released two albums earlier this year, Chilean guitarist Cristián Alvear shows no signs of stopping. Radu Malfatti's b-boim label has just announced the release of its new album entitled shizuka ni furu ame, which roughly translates to quiet, sparse falling rain. The piece was composed by Malfatti and written specifically for Alvear. Those interested in purchasing the record can do so by emailing radu.malfatti@chello.at. Malfatti also released One Man and a Fly on Cathnor earlier this year.
On September 28th, Alvear will be performing the piece later this month at Café Kino in Bristol. The show will also feature performances from Daniel Bennett, Seth Cooke, and Clive Henry. He will also be performing shizuka in Wrocław, Poland on October 6th for the 'XI Festiwal Muzyki Teatralnej' and at 'Centrum Amarant' in Poznan the following day.
Alvear will be performing numerous shows in the next few months. All those dates can be found here.