D

A new release by the wonderful Amy Denio will always make ME cry “EUREKA!”.

“Amy Denio is a Seattle-based multi-instrumental composer of soundtracks for modern dance, film and theater, as well as a songwriter and music improviser. Often called an unclassifiable avant-garde jazz musician, her main instruments are voice, alto saxophone, clarinet, accordion, acoustic and electric guitars, electric bass, and theremin.
Her new album Eureka consists of songs of various stlyes, some were written...

''A master player of Bajan, a Russian type of accordion. Choosing from traditional repertoire of Russia and Eastern Europe, Vladimir performs exquisite melodies and songs in which he is joined by the violin of Jnos Hasur and by the voices of Moni Ovadi...

If you dig the accordion, this is a quite charming album of original music performed on accordion with additional music from vocalists, trombones and trumpets, bass, guitar and percussion, all influenced by the Eastern European tradition. "Guzulka is t...

A quintet of albums by the legendary British singer packaged together in a slim-line slipcase. Includes
The North Star Grassman & The Ravens
Sandy
Like An Old Fashioned Waltz
Rendezvous
Gold Dust : Live 1977

Nicely done remaster with five bonus tracks.

"Sandy Denny's second post-Fairport solo offering, produced by (then-future) husband Trevor Lucas, is a beautiful blend of the traditional style with which she is most often associated and a slightly more lavish sound that would become more prevalent in her later work. Lucas does an excellent job of balancing the two and creating an exquisite backdrop for Denny's gorgeous songs and majestic voice. Nearly every track has the radiance and timelessness of...

Nicely done remaster with four bonus tracks.
"Following the breakup of the short-lived Fotheringay, Sandy Denny returned with her first post-Fairport solo album, The North Star Grassman and the Ravens. Produced with ex-bandmate Richard Thompson and longtime engineer John Wood, who would go on to produce the bulk of Thompson's work with Linda Thompson, the record consists of eight evocative Denny originals, along with the traditional "Blackwaterside" and a pair of borrowed rockers. There's a looseness...

Composer, theoretician, inventor and instrument builder Frank Denyer is a legendary figure in the Harry Partch/Scelsi tradition. His music is utterly unique and intensely personal, often requiring specialized new instruments of his own design and radic...

Harry Sokal Tenor & Soprano Sax, Effects
Heiri Känzig Bass
Martin Valihora Drums

"The new album by the trio DEPART contains highly explosive, groove based music. Three very talented musicians form the new line-up: saxophonist Harry...

Very extraordinary, very modern big band featuring a large number of very skilled players, none of whom I have ever heard of! Recommended.

“Los Angeles composer/trombonist Nick DePinna releases Nexus Music, Vol. 1, a distinctly modern vision for the traditional big band ensemble, and the first in a series of releases on the forward-thinking and genre-defying label, Orenda Records.
This first EP release features three of DePinna’s compositions written over the past ten years amidst...

“Der Blutharsch and the Infinite Church of the Leading Hand came into existence in 2011. Prior to that, mastermind Albin Julius had worked under the name Der Blutharsch, which in itself was his follow-up project to The Moon lay hidden beneath a Cloud.
While The Moon lay hidden was part of the then-strong neofolk scene, Der Blutharsch started as a Martial Industrial project, showing similarities to Laibach or Autopsia. It gradually changed into a more rock oriented group, and in 2011 the extra name...

I dig Der Plan, but this label hype sounds like (a) bullshit and (b) like they are trying to channel the annoying bullshit that The Residents perfected.

“Shrouded in myth, Save Your Software is the long-lost album by Der Plan. Back in the mid-1980s, Moritz Reichelt, Kurt Dahlke (Pyrolator) and Frank Fenstermacher initiated the Fanuks project with the aim of making themselves immortal as Mensch-Maschinen or Man-Machines. "Fanuks" would produce music for all eternity, embarking on a never-ending....

Frantz Loriot viola
Antoine Chessex tenor saxophone
Cédric Piromalli prepared piano
Christian Wolfarth percussions, cymbals

"Der Verboten is a new version of the partnership between violist Frantz Loriot and pianist Cédric Piromalli originally called Treffpunkt, the German word for “meeting point”. Originally they had the contributions of Mikko Innanen and Christian Weber. When the guests became Sam Kulik and Brad Henkel, the name changed to Kaijo, which is, simply, the term...

“In the early '70s, after the breakup of Blind Faith and his departure from Delaney & Bonnie, Eric Clapton made a last attempt at being "just one of the boys in the band" with Derek and the Dominos.
From these meager beginnings grew his greatest album. Duane Allman joined the band shortly after recording began, and his spectacular slide guitar pushed Clapton to new heights.”

“People know Hauke Harms as founding member and driving force behind the cult band Girls Under Glass. Also in the previous band Calling Dead Red Roses, DerHarms was holding the electronic reins. Despite his extensive band activities, he has always had the desire to publish a solo project under his artist's name DerHarms. However, the first attempt in 1994 resulted in a successful collaboration with GUG companion Volker Zacharias under the name TRAUMA. This liaison resulted in 3 albums. But the second...

Jean-Derome + 10 musicians, including Pierre Tanguay, Martin Tetrault, Joane Hetu, Tom Walsh, and others. "Canot-camping is a vast territory filled with 'things to know' and 'things to do'; animals, birds, lakes, and rivers, explored here by 11...

11 musicians (multiple reeds, piano, bass, drums & voice) perform compositions & improvisations that are dedicated to the spirit of gagaku. [Victo]

Le Magasin de Tissu (The Fabric Shop) sews together 69 short textural pieces, all completely improvised in random order."


One of my very favorite Ambiances Magnetiques groups is this ongoing project by Jean Derome. This has a crack band and is another winner from les Dangereux Zhoms. Jean Derome : flûtes et saxophones Tom Walsh : trombone Guillaume Dostaler : piano Pi

''The basis of our work is songs & improvisations; two saxophones, two voices, two mighty figures agitating, whistling, shrieking, scraping....it is not easy to accurately describe what we do while improvising. It is very close to the human beast that...

"This album basis of our work is songs and improvisations . Our songs speak of our life. They are ordinary (like us) but not easy going (like her). We really love to improvise together. It is not easy to describe accurately; it is very close to the...

''A significant & essential testimony about improvised music.''

Dual reeds (Sclavis, Derome), Bruno Chevillon-bass and Pierre Tanguay-drums. Recorded live at, and called one of the highlights of the 2001 Victo Festival, this has these two fine reed players and composers performing in a program both 'raging and refl...

Nathalie sings her songs, backed by synths, Fender Rhodes, guitar & saxophone.

It makes me very, very happy to see this album released. This is one of the major one-shot Quebeçois progressive releases of the 1970s, maybe the major one. Recorded in 1972 while he was dying of cancer, and with the album dedicated to the doctors who...

5{$ly excellent version of Terry Riley's landmark classic, performed by a French guitar-centric ensemble led by Erik Baron. It includes seven classical guitarist, nine electric guitarists, seven bassists, a harpist, two cellists, percussion....

''22 poems performed by their author. An adventure in poetry & music produced & directed by Ren Lussier.'' This comes in a unique, spiral bound book. With Rene Lussier, Jean Derome & Pierre Tanguay. [Ambiances Magnetiques]

A wonderful, noisy, poppy, avant-garde, punk, theatrical & arty band from Mexico who put on an unbelievably entertaining show. See them if you possibly can!

“Mexico's superb noise rock cabaret troop, Descartes A Kant, unleashes their 2017 album! It’s a concept album that questions all aspects of modern love through a series of dark tales of woe, limerence, break-up and grief. The band calls it an, "emotional porn album." The story’s narrative is represented by two characters that personify the...

Nick Millevoi - guitar
Johnny DeBlase - bass
Jason Nazary - drums

“[Desertion Trio] hits the sweet spot between Neil Young's exploratory Crazy Horse jams and a spaghetti western soundtrack. – NPR

“...the band’s tunefulness and delicate touch—even during its most punishing passages—have a universal profundity that I’ve been unable to resist. – Chicago Reader


From the first notes of Numbers Maker , the third album

"Now listeners can enter the heart of the Paul Desmond/Jim Hall sessions, a great quartet date with Gene Cherico manning the bass (Gene Wright deputizes on the title track) and MJQ drummer Connie Kay displaying other sides of his personality. Everyone...

Randal Despommier - alto saxophone
Ben Monder - guitar
“Alto saxophonist Randal Despommier returns with A Midsummer Odyssey, a captivating duo session with guitarist extraordinaire Ben Monder. The central focus is the highly accessible yet always enigmatic music of Swedish baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin (1928-1976). Alternately boppish, cool, bluesy, folkish and chamber-like, Gullin’s pieces afford the Despommier/Monder duo endless opportunities for fresh reinvention.
“The goal of this...

"Composers drawing on visual arts or literary works for inspiration and guidance are nothing new. Think Mussorgsky’s “Picture at an Exhibition” or even Scott Fields’ Clean Feed release “Beckett.” This CD by trombonist Michael Dessen and his trio continues

Michael Dessen, trombone and electronics / Christopher Tordini, bass / Dan Weiss, drums.

"Though outside the New York spotlight, California-based trombonist Michael Dessen has crafted a unique body of music, garnering a steady stream of acclaim..

Michael Dessen, trombone and electronics / Christopher Tordini, bass / Dan Weiss, drums.

"California-based trombonist Michael Dessen has been quietly but steadily collecting accolades for his expansive work as a composer and improviser, which...

Michael Dessen trombone and computer
Christopher Tordini bass
Dan Weiss drums

"Praised as a "musician for this moment" (Downbeat) for his imaginative work with music technology, trombonist Michael Dessen culminates over a decade with his electro-acoustic trio in this fourth Clean Feed release, an homage to the late Yusef Lateef.
After studying with Lateef for several years and making his debut as an improviser on one of Lateef's albums in 1996, Dessen has since carved his own...

Frode Gjerstad: tenor and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet, alto flute
Eivin One Pedersen: piano and keyboards
John Stevens: drums

"If anybody deserves to be called a living legend in Norwegian free jazz it must surely be saxophone...

“Strut and Art Yard present the culmination of a 5-year project researching the archives of author, DJ and activist John Sinclair with the first ever retrospective of the influential Detroit Artists Workshop spanning 1965 to 1978.
“In the mid-‘60s, Detroit was nowhere,” explains Sinclair. “A decaying jazz scene, no community of poets, painters or writers so a group of young Detroit artists, most of us students at Wayne State University, got together in the late Summer of 1964.” Led by Sinclair and...

A sextet of violin, analog keyboards, guitar, bass, drums and vocals, Deus ex Machina's sound is a unique and unequaled blend of aggressive jazz-rock mixed with complex rhythms, 1970s-style hard-rock guitar and hints of Rock In Opposition-style avant...

"Deus Nuvem is an experimental Brazilian band, located in Rio de Janeiro city, formed in 2010. On their debut "Waving at Us, We've Provoked", Deus Nuvem makes its path through many different territories, using cello, sax, trombone, distorted electric...


Six cosmiche/Berlin-style synthesizer pieces by syntheisist Dorothea Raukes, with 1981-type digital touches. Overall, this is a very, very solid electronic music album.

"There are times when the name of a musical project is in perfect harmony...

Two really great, ambient-progressive/proto-shoegaze-pop albums albums from the early 1980s. Only Silence & Wisdom has been available on CD before and it has been out of print for something like 20 years. Read the amazing story of these releases below (an expanded version, with interviews and rare photos is in the booklet), laugh, and realize that this was the official story for years and people did believe it, and, after you've had your laugh, then buy this; they are terrific albums of their time....

Luís Vicente trumpet / Théo Ceccaldi violin, viola / Valentin Ceccaldi cello / Marco Franco drums.

"The avant-jazz/improvised music scene is very much alive in Europe. One superlative example is this new quartet project reuniting two French and..

"Dan Blacksberg is the mastermind behind Electric Simcha, and his newest project is an ecstatic trip thru the world of Hasidic nigunim as seen through the intense lens of Doom Metal. Inspired by bands such as Earth, and Sunn O))), the music on this...

Band-produced CD covers their entire rambling, gigging, rubbing-shoulders-with-a-multitude-of-famous-bands in the legendary San Francisco psychedelic scene of the late 1960’s existence.

"Devil's Kitchen Band was a four-piece rock and roll band that lived and performed in San Francisco from the spring of 1968 through the summer of 1970. They were the “house band” at Chet Helm’s “Family Dog on the Great Highway,” opening for, and often jamming with, many of the most well-known groups of the times...

“So this debut CD answers the question - what happens when you let a bunch of math nerds loose in the studio. Turns out they cook up one hell of a prog album!
The Devil's Staircase is an international consortium of musicians that include Luis Nasser and Tim McCaskey (Sonus Umbra), Aaron Geller (Might Could), and Mattias Olsson (ex-Anglagard, Pixie Ninja), and Ramses Luna (Luz de Riada).

"The Devil's Staircase is an international group of musicians who play rock inspired by math and science...

DeWolff are a very young band from The Netherlands consisting of a trio who use keyboards, guitars and drums. The sound is extremely retro protressive/proto-progressive rock and for some reason, these guys are getting really big in Holland and beyond!...

“When it first appeared in 1986, the Desert Equations: Azax Attra album was greeted with enthusiasm, awe and disbelief: nobody had done anything quite like it before, and this dizzying, inspired blend of Persian tradition, New York avant-garde and electronic music remains incomparable, powerful and mesmerizing to this day.
Combining the sublime voice of Iranian vocalist Deyhim and the electronic wizardry of US composer Horowitz, this haunting and futuristic album prompted writer Paul Bowles...

DWIKI DHARMAWAN - Acoustic Piano, Mini Moog, Fender Rhodes, Harmonium, Occasional Vocal & Ambient Noises
BORIS SAVOLDELLI - Vocals, Vocal Effects, Live Electronics
MARKUS REUTER - Touch Guitars® AU8, Live Electronics
ASAF SIRKIS - Drums, Cymbals, Occasional Ambient Noise

“In May of 2017, a ship of mighty musical warriors joined forces for a meeting of kindred spirits. Departing from the La Casa Murada launchpad (adjacent to nearby Barcelona, Spain), they embarked on a....

"Indonesian keyboard star Dwiki Dharmawan returns following his 2015 MoonJune Records debut, the more fusion-heavy So Far, So Close, offering the even more ambitious Pasar Klewer. Recorded at London's EastCote Studio, in June 2015, this vibrant, acoustic piano-driven two-CD set features the cream of Britain's younger expat crop, blending with Indonesian musicians to create a passionate, seamless cultural cross-pollination.
... the net result of which is a modern progressive epic!
Backed by the....