Clean Feed Records

Jan 14 2019

Best of 2018 #18: Orquesta del Tiempo Perdido – “Stille”

 

This bizarre yet immaculately orchestrated session from Jeroen Kimman’s Orquesta del Tiempo Perdido is one of the most intriguing things I’ve heard all year.  In the spirit of the diverse expressionism of the Kamikaze Ground Crew but with an emphasis on alien eccentricities rather than terrestrial oddities, Kimman’s ensemble finds a curious convergence between the whimsy of children songs and space-age effects and all of it balanced upon a slender, fluid melody that cuts down the heart of each of these fascinating tunes.  Nothing here sounds normal, and, yet, by the time the album reaches its conclusion, there is something comfortingly, strangely familiar about it.  Were I to create a Favorites of 2018 list, it’s quite likely that Stille would earn the top spot.

Released on Clean Feed Records and the Shhpuma label.

Music from Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Read more on Bird is the Worm.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

By • Recap: Best of 2018 • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,

Jan 3 2019

Best of 2018 #48: Mia Dyberg Trio – “Ticket!”

 

It is one of the more compelling moments in jazz when a saxophonist spreads her instrument’s flames out wide in a way that transforms the ferocity into something bordering on hypnotic.  On her 2018 release, Mia Dyberg lives in that moment.  What makes Ticket! most special is that the shows of strength and power range along a wide spectrum of force and restraint.  As such, Dyberg’s trio shows that modulations of intensity are merely different paths that lead to the same captivating destination.  The fun is in following those different paths, and knowing exactly each time where they’ll lead.

Released on Clean Feed Records.

Music from Berlin, Germany.

Read more on Bird is the Worm.

Available at:  Amazon

By • Recap: Best of 2018 • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Dec 25 2018

A final Clean Feed Records rundown for 2018 (Pt.1)

 

Let’s talk about Clean Feed Records

 

Orquesta del Tiempo Perdido – Stille

This bizarre yet immaculately orchestrated session from Jeroen Kimman’s Orquesta del Tiempo Perdido is one of the most intriguing things I’ve heard all year.  In that way a Rube Goldberg contraption requires a clockwork precision to effect its insane series of events across an obstacle course of randomized components, so, too, is this inconceivable assortment of instrumentation and influences.  Post-bop, modern classical, an array of folk musics, electronic music, avant-garde, children’s lullabies are just a few of the expressions in play, as are instruments that range from lap steel to bass clarinet to accordion to concertina to trombone to bass harmonica (and so many more).  This is what is sounds like when creativity is allowed to roam wild and free.

Released in conjunction with the Shhpuma label.

Read more about the album on the Clean Feed Records site.

Music from Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

 

Mia Dyberg Trio – Ticket!

Stare long enough at a raging fire, and the tiny detailing of the flames begins to emerge… the little curls and the flickering shades of yellow and orange and black and pop of sparks disappearing into heatwave haziness.  That’s how it is with the saxophone of Mia Dyberg.  And while there’s plenty of appeal to the smoky presence of a patiently expressed melody, it’s when she unleashes her sax with all its got that the music attains an effect bordering on hypnotic.  Bassist Asger Thomsen and drummer Dag Magnus Narvesen join in the enchantment.

Read more about the album on the Clean Feed Records site.

Music from Berlin, Germany.

Available at:  Amazon

 

Zack Clarke – Mesophase

This album sounds like it is constantly undergoing a disassembly, except that sometimes all of those parts falling off to the side accidentally come together and form a brand new construction.  This never-ending cycle of deconstruction-unity is pretty damn fascinating.  Zack Clarke gives equal weight to his piano and electronic effects, and the inclusion of Chris Irvine‘s cello and Leonid Galaganov‘s percussion and shakuhachi flute add additional layers of strangeness.  Special mention of Nick Dunston on double bass and Charlotte Greve on wind instruments… their complementary textures of shadow and light provide a sense of structure to all of the moving parts.

Read more about the album on the Clean Feed Records site.

Music from NYC.

Available at:  Amazon

 

C.B.G. – Lili & Marleen

There’s something not quite normal about the C.B.G. trio of clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst, electric guitarist Guillermo Celano and drummer Marcos Baggiani.  Their catchy tempos and deep melodic reveries present an approachable demeanor, but it isn’t long before wild divergences and curious eruptions of volatility take over, leaving a paradoxical amalgamation of just what is what.  The resulting confusion is the source of this album’s charm.  The perpetual challenge of reconciling the embraceable passages with those more abrupt and acerbic is a limitless source of fun and intrigue.

Read more about the album on the Clean Feed Records site.

Music from Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Available at:  Amazon

 

Carlos Bica & Azul – Azul in Ljubljana

I’ve never hidden my adoration for the music of Carlos Bica, especially his Azul trio with drummer Jim Black and guitarist Frank Möbus.  What I find particularly compelling about this live performance recording is how it radiates much of the same mysterious presence as his finely crafted studio sessions.  And as many times before, the trio attains that seriously addictive balance between tunefulness and volatility that draws me in each and every time.

Read more about the album on the Clean Feed Records site.

Music from Berlin, Germany & Lisboa, Portugal.

Available at:  Amazon

 

By • Jazz Recommendations - 2018 • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , ,

Oct 29 2018

The Round-up: I wanted to be invisible

 

Here is some very good new music.

 

Wolfgang Muthspiel – Where the River Goes (ECM Records)

Wolfgang Muthspiel is really locked in on his latest.  There is a level of enchantment going on here that pretty much will keep you hitting the play button over and over again each time Where the River Goes comes to an end.  When lullaby melodies settle into a susurrus of rhythm are the album’s strongest moments, but when tracks like “One Day My Prince Was Gone” and “Blueshead” leap into action, it’s only a change in the delivery of the spell and not its stunning effect.  This kind of success is pretty well guaranteed when you enlist the likes of trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Eric Harland to set the thing in motion.

Artist site | Available at:  Amazon

 

La Colectiva – El Chombo, El Blanco y El Mulato Vol. 2 (El Sonido Es Tuyo Records)

This album is so much damn fun.  The trio of keyboardist and trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, bassist Jota Ortiz and drummer Tony Drums go big with the synthesizer drama, where every melodic statement is a shout to the skies and as catchy as a pop tune.  Some modern jazz, some electronica, some tipico of their native Panama, and it all comes together for big statements that flow with a motion for the dance floor.  The moog action is particularly rewarding, like how an infectious laugh pairs nicely with a wide smile.  Worth noting that Navarro is the trumpeter on the excellent 2017 release by Irreversible Entanglements.  Music from Panama City, Panama.

Artist site | Listen | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Jozef Dumoulin & Orca Noise Unit – A Beginner’s Guide to Diving and Flying (Yolk Records)

It’s an uneasy serenity maintained by Jozef Dumoulin throughout this recording.  Even though most of the album hangs in the air like a murmur, it leaves an unsettling feeling that everything could explode without warning.  Intriguingly, it never really does.  Yes, there are some disruptions of dissonance, but those are the exceptions and only slight reprieves from the simmering tension that marks the recording.  The pianist is joined by flutist Sylvaine Hélary, saxophonist Antonin Tri Hoang, double bassist Bruno Chevillon and percussionist Toma Gouband.  Music from Paris, France.

Artist site | Listen | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Sean Conly – Hard Knocks (Clean Feed Records)

Okay, let’s start running.  Everything about the latest from Sean Conly gives the impression those were the words he used to begin the recording session for Hard Knocks.  This straight-forward post-bop session is all about the interactions between trio members as they briskly follow parallel lines of communication.  The bassist is joined by long-time collaborators Satoshi Takeishi (on drums) and Michaël Attias (on alto sax), and the benefits of that relationship are best represented by their synchronicity at high speeds.  Music from NYC.

Artist site | Listen | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Brad Mehldau Trio – Seymour Reads the Constitution! (Nonesuch Records)

Look, you’re never gonna go wrong scooping up a Brad Mehldau release.  There’s a strong argument to be made that Mehldau is the epitome of the modern piano trio.  The pianist’s latest does nothing to counter that premise, displaying the solid craftsmanship and harmonic warmth emblematic of his output.  There’s nothing particularly new about his latest, but that’s not meant as a criticism nor is it a bad thing.  With drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier, Mehldau offers up some originals, some takes on modern pop tunes, and a rendition of something from the bop era.

Artist site | Available at:  Amazon

 

By • Jazz Recommendations - 2018 • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jun 6 2018

The motion is where it’s at on the latest from drummer João Lencastre’s Communion 3

 

The motion is where it’s at on the latest from drummer João Lencastre.  Whether it’s a series of free improvisations or a rendition of Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman,” Lencastre creates rhythmic flurries that are positively captivating.  It’s a very in the moment kind of thing.  The pieces of Movements in Freedom don’t ever evince a sense of shape or cohesion… except in the present moment, when everything feels interconnected and everything sounds like it falls into its right place.

Pianist Jacob Sacks is the melodic flame lit by Lencastre’s spark, and the light it produces is lively and gorgeous and enchanting.  Bassist Eivind Opsvik has long displayed a talent for adding color and tones to the melody while providing texture to the rhythm.  In the trio format, and on an album so wide open for improvisation, he’s really able to shine with an abundance of activity and still have plenty of room for nuance and subtlety.  And most of these pieces are improvisations, which really makes the cohesion-in-the-moment trait so much more impressive. All of that space to move around in and wander, a sense of the limitless horizon, and yet the trio remains insanely focused on the motion of the moment.

The rhythmic flurries are symbolic of the album’s strength, but when silence permeates a pieces, as it does on “Walk on Clouds,” the music is no less enchanting. It’s just a different type of conjuring performed by the trio.  Opsvik adding bass arco plays no small part in the music’s spellbinding nature.

I really enjoyed Lencastre’s 2014 release What Is This All About? (on Auand Records).  It had a boozy demeanor, loose and unfocused in the best of ways, where the music’s unpredictability informed both the motion and melody.  Then, too, like on his newest, Lencastre has a way on drums of giving a whisper the force of a shout.  It is the way the calm before the storm contains an electricity as highly charged as when the sky comes pouring down, but delivered with a soothing calm that draws you right in to the center of things.

A seriously beautiful album.

Your album personnel:  João Lencastre (drums), Jacob Sacks (piano) and Eivind Opsvik (bass).

Released on Clean Feed Records.

Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Music from Lisbon, Portugal.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon | eMusic

And definitely check out Lencastre’s 2014 release What Is The All About?  It features an entirely different line-up.  Sacks is on piano, but the ensemble also has David Binney, Phil Grenadier, André Matos, Thomas Morgan, Sara Serpa and more.

 

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2017 releases • 0 • Tags: , ,

« Older Entries Newer Entries »