reviews of releases
February 9, 2010 | Posted in Review | Tagged cities and eyes, the skein
They fill me with joy because the many ways they hop from one matter to another seem natural, they discover without effort new paths that close back after them as it always happens with enchantresses.
February 9, 2010 | Posted in Review | Tagged baggerboot, gunda gottschalk, peter jacquemyn, ute völker
They have discovered shocking and delightful new sounds on their instruments, and range boldly between contemporary classical music and anarchic free jazz. A free music recording you'll find yourself playing again and again.
February 9, 2010 | Posted in Review | Tagged gustavo aguilar, unsettled on an old sense of place
Gustavo Aguilar is a brilliant percussionist who grew up in Brownsville, where Texas meets Mexico. He now lives in New York . . . and has located himself in music at a point where composition and improvisation get into one another in extraordinary ways. . . . Gustavo Aguilar is himself a defiantly unorthodox musician - the kind we need - and this is a wonderful CD
February 9, 2010 | Posted in Review | Tagged carla kihlstedt, minamo, satoko fujii
'Minamo' is extraordinary, a series of tight, dramatic events. Even without written music the musicians have plenty of ground under their feet: vamps, patterns, echoed motions. Both play with virtuosic precision and a great range of technique, even when the music becomes gestural and built on hummingbird pulses, glassy wipes of the violin strings, dark rumbles of rubbed piano strings. The whole record, but especially the second concert, runs on its own vivid tension.
February 9, 2010 | Posted in Review | Tagged lisle ellis, marco eneidi, peter valsamis, sound on survival live
The best thing about the recording is the four pieces [ranging from 9 minutes to just over 40 minutes] are drawn out improvisations. Each of the players is permitted ample room to stretch out and show off their plentiful skills.
February 9, 2010 | Posted in Review | Tagged lisle ellis, sucker punch requiem
It is difficult in these days of post-everything to claim a form as new; that said Lisle Ellis' homage to the tragically deceased visual artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is a rollercoaster of a listen, challenging and accessible in a disarmingly direct way...It's an exciting listen, drawing heavily on several musical genres and falling neatly into none. It's far removed from what Basquiat might call "Samo Samo."
February 9, 2010 | Posted in Review | Tagged andrea parkins, cities and eyes, jessica constable, the skein
...deliciously unpredictable...Cities And Eyes is a thrilling ride; get on board.
February 8, 2010 | Posted in Review | Tagged incidental, mike olson
Olson waxes madly adventurous into cerebral territory at the same time, making music the listener can feel. No mean feat.
February 19, 2009 | Posted in Review | Tagged cities and eyes
Cities and Eyes is music in the broadest sense, made for a specific, not generalized audience, evoking the stark nakedness of metropolitan rat race life. At once industrial, futuristic, and multi-cultural, it represents musique concrète performance art taken to the extreme.