Category Archives: genres

taku sugimoto | opposite (1998)

Posted on March 19, 2018 by

1997 was a pivotal year for Taku Sugimoto. He recorded two more albums in the first half of the year, further honing the gentle aesthetic he’d been increasingly exploring on his other recent projects. Though the electric album Flagments of … Continue reading →

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taku sugimoto | myshkin musicu for electric guitar (1996)

Posted on March 13, 2018 by

Taku Sugimoto’s second full-length solo guitar album (following 1988’s very different Mienai Tenshi) finds him moving more conclusively towards the spacious, searching sound that would come to define his playing through the early years of the 2000s. The 3″ EP … Continue reading →

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taku sugimoto | alto (1995)

Posted on March 8, 2018 by

After 1994’s Slub: Unaccompanied Violoncello Solo, Taku Sugimoto stopped playing the cello, to which he’d devoted the past few years, and returned to the electric guitar. The resulting 20-minute 3″ CD, again released on Sugimoto’s own Slub Music label, was … Continue reading →

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taku sugimoto | slub: unaccompanied violoncello solo (1994)

Posted on March 5, 2018 by

It’s hard to imagine now, but like many of the young Japanese musicians who contributed to the turn-of-the-millennium Tokyo-based minimalist scene, Taku Sugimoto did not start his musical career with the restraint and patience for which he eventually became known. … Continue reading →

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michael pisaro | shades of eternal night (2018)

Posted on February 28, 2018 by

The second of two new releases on Michael Pisaro’s revived Gravity Wave imprint, Shades of Eternal Night is far less startling than its companion piece – Étant donnés, on which Pisaro builds tracks around Curtis Mayfield, John Carpenter, and Dmitri … Continue reading →

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michael pisaro | étant donnés (2018)

Posted on February 26, 2018 by

Michael Pisaro’s Gravity Wave label has been dormant since the release of 2014’s 3-disc Continuum Unbound set, although the composer’s prolific output has hardly slowed in the intervening years. Nevertheless, this year finds him reviving his own imprint starting with … Continue reading →

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evan parker / derek bailey / han bennink | the topography of the lungs (1970)

Posted on April 13, 2015 by

The Topography of the Lungs is one of the crucial early documents of European free improvisation. Recorded in July 1970, this lively, inventive trio record introduced a decade in which European free jazz would increasingly splinter from its American progenitors, … Continue reading →

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max neuhaus / john cage | fontana mix-feed (1966)

Posted on April 9, 2015 by

Technically, this LP consists of four realizations of John Cage’s 1958 Fontana Mix, an indeterminate graphic score originally intended to be used for a tape piece, with or without additional instruments. To say that, though, is not really to capture … Continue reading →

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fraufraulein | extinguishment (2015)

Posted on April 6, 2015 by

Anne Guthrie and Billy Gomberg have been playing together as Fraufraulein for years now, and have recorded a number of albums, but this is my first encounter with the duo. Guthrie is a French horn player, Gomberg plays bass guitar, … Continue reading →

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radu malfatti | one man and a fly (2015)

Posted on March 31, 2015 by

Radu Malfatti has covered a fair bit of ground over the years, from his early post-jazz/free improv playing to his ’90s reinvention as a Wandelweiser composer to his various collaborations with Mattin, Keith Rowe, and many others. One thing he’s … Continue reading →

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