From the first stuttering moment, as bass, drums and guitar gently jostle this is different. What is this so-called music? A mathematically precise drunkard’s walk? Brownian motion made sound? A Morse-like code to whose hidden meaning we lack the key? On first hearing, it’s almost hypnotic but always with a beat ‘out of place’, a…
There was no 2018 end-of-year list for this writer, as Japanese songwriter Eiko Ishibashi’s The Dreams My Bones Dream put the button on the close of that year, being both the record that held the ear and imagination the fastest and the instrument with which he badgered friends and colleagues the most frequently by way…
In their bio and liner notes, RAIC claim various genres – noise, post rock, classical, black metal, free jazz, avant garde, film scores, big band, 70s car chase themes, and lounge – and in this release from January, they pretty much go all-in. Multiplicity indeed. The opening track – Balance Of The Three – is…
As a musician, Anthony Osborne is, in his own words, “a free jazz saxophonist and noisemaker. He likes to work in the intersections between free jazz/free improvisation, noise and drone. He is in eternal pursuit of the ecstatic.” Throw in some poetry or visuals (as in the Union Furnace or Black Howler projects) or favourite…
Anthony Osborne – soprano saxophone, Bb clarinet, harmonica, electronics, bulbul tarang, Ting-Sha, processing. On The Spiritual Dimensions of Boolean Logic Blues For Myself But Ronald, Why Are You Laughing? Japan in Autumn Sunlight On Concrete, Tree Blossom The Last Few Stars Burn Out In A Sky Of Eternal Night (32:31) Muteant Sounds Anthony Osborne should…
Archipelago tunes are sharp and fresh, treading the fine tightrope line between accessible and ‘ooh-that’s-a-bit-different!’. Beyond the deceptively straightforward surface appeal lie progressive arrangements and non-traditional sounds; and behind it all, a sense of quiet, layered experimentation that in some indefinable way (by me, at least) fits right in with the current British jazz+ scene….
Well, once again I’ve listened to far less than I would have liked to this year (excuses range from alien invasion to the lack of 25 hours in a day to pure ninja-level laziness)… and yet, I have absolutely no complaints about the contents of my ‘top ten’ (your mileage, of course, may vary). In…
Who or what is J Frisco? Experimental jazz trio? Genre/gender-fluid sonic revolutionaries? Purveyors of bloody interesting music? Why are they even called “J Frisco”? That last question they’ve answered, at least… “We originally used to be called John Frisco, this was a fictional character that we made up, he had an entire life story and…
