Dustin O'Halloran - Piano Solos (2004)

First solo album by Phoenix-born musician Dustin O'Halloran, who'd go on to form A Winged Victory For The Sullen a few years later with Adam Wiltzie from Stars Of The Lid.  Twelve beautifully composed and rendered solo piano miniatures make for a meditative 40 minutes of music, with perhaps some similarities to Nils Frahm's work in the same field, or even those from the prior generation like George Winston.  That's all there really is to say about this lovely record - just relax and enjoy.

link

pw: sgtg

AWVFTS at SGTG:

s/t debut

Atomos

Live At BBC Proms 2015

Jan Garbarek-Bobo Stenson Quartet - Dansere (1975)

More Garbarek-Stenson loveliness to go nicely with the turning of the seasons.  This follow-up to Witchi-Tai-To was notably different in composition - other than one arrangement of a Nordic folk tune, everything was written by Garbarek.  He regarded the 15 minute title track as "a breakthrough point for me, in trying to find the material I feel most at home with", and the album as a whole has the feeling of carving out his comfortable niche in European jazz, right down to all the track titles being in Norwegian.

After that opening trek across the rural open space evoked on the album cover, the rest of Dansere (in English, dancers) progresses in similar atmospheric form.  Svevende aptly conjures up its titular feeling over hovering above great fjords via Christensen's nimble drumming, as the winds blown by Garbarek turn to a full-on icy blast.  Bris (breeze) features the most energetic playing on the record, propelled by Stenson, then a short interlude Skirk & Hyl (cries and howls) is an aptly-described spotlight for Garbarek and Danielsson.  The record settles down again with a traditional shepherding ballad in Lokk, then Christensen heats up the groove just enough for Til Vennene (to friends) to end the album on a bit of indoor warmth.

 

link

pw: sgtg

Jan Garbarek at SGTG:
Afric Pepperbird
Triptykon
Popofoni (also includes Stenson & Christensen)

Witchi-Tai-To
Solstice: Sounds And Shadows
Sol De Meio Dia
Paths, Prints
Song For Everyone
Making Music

Neighbourhood

Richard Teitelbaum – Concerto Grosso For Human Concertino And Robotic Ripieno (1988)

Free jazz, baroque concepts and 80s MIDI experiments all rolled into one fascinating work by NYC native Richard Teitelbaum (1939-2020).  Following earlier setups to have his piano control other digital pianos, Teitelbaum expanded the concept to have a "human concertino" of piano and two wind players (Anthony Braxton and George Lewis) controlling an array of digital pianos and synths, the "robotic ripieno".  If this live music/early computer music interface sounds like it's got shades of David Behrman about it, then yep, Behrman is thanked in the liner notes for advice and inspiration.

The three-part work was recorded live at the Klaviere & Computer Festival, WDR Koln in May 1985 and released on CD three years later (perhaps as a result of the work winning a Prix Ars Electronica award for Computer Music in '87).  In each section of around 18 minutes duration, Braxton and Lewis do their thing, Teitelbaum adds some live piano, and the MIDI ensemble tinkles away in response.  Really enjoyable stuff, especially in the knottier second part with more frenetic electronics, and in some of the truly bizarre sounds generated in the third part.

link

pw: sgtg

Peter Baumann - Trans Harmonic Nights (1979)

Peter Baumann's second solo album appeared three years on from his debut: he'd been busy in the interim setting up his Paragon studio, and producing Conrad Schnitzler's Con and Roedelius' Jardin Au Fou there.  Whether or not the influence of those albums filtered through to Baumann's own music that he continued to sketch out whenever there was free time, Trans Harmonic Nights does share some surface similarities: some sparse, atmospheric electronics like the former, and sunny, melodic material like the latter.

There's also still some Berlin-school sequencing to be found that harks back to Baumann's time in Tangerine Dream, notably on Chasing The Dream and The Third Site.  A new aspect introduced here is his first use of vocals, the use of vocoder on short, repetitive phrases making them an interesting precedent to Dorothea Raukes' Deutsche Wertarbeit album.  Opening track This Day is a really lovely album highlight, with the plaintive refrain of "This day will fade away" giving it a melancholic shading.  Can't work out what's being sung on Biking Up The Strand, but the electronic vocal texture is a really nice touch on the short, catchy track.

Elsewhere, Baumann continues to delve deeper into succinct, melodic instrumental material, with occasional input from guest musicians: Wolfgang Thierfeldt from Release Music Orchestra contributes a couple of really striking drum performances on Meridian Moorland and the closing Dance At Dawn.  After this, Baumann's output would become more commercial, and then to focus on other ventures he'd put his solo career on ice until just a few years ago.  Haven't heard Machines Of Desire or the Haslinger collaboration yet - anyone know if they're worth picking up?

link

pw: sgtg

Peter Baumann at SGTG:

Phaedra (scroll past main post)

Stratosfear

Romance 76 
Encore

Jan Garbarek - Bobo Stenson Quartet - Witchi-Tai-To (1974)

Dug out this ECM classic for the first time in a long while following that post of Escalator Over The Hill a few weeks back.  Starting off with a lengthy exploration of A.I.R. from EOTH, this album saw Jan Garbarek's windswept, keening mature style begin to solidify in a half-Norwegian half-Swedish quartet.  Bobo Stenson on piano fully deserves his name's co-prominence in this group, with an early highlight being his spotlight performance on Kukka, the only tune written by a member of the quartet (Danielsson).

A firey take on Carlos Puebla's Hasta Siempre spices up the album with a propulsive performance by the late Jon Christensen, closing out the original first side in style.  Over on side two, both Garbarek and Stenson shine on the title track by Jim Pepper, then a full twenty minutes are given over to a group exploration of Don Cherry's Desireless.  A lengthy Stenson solo gives way to a full force gale of Garbarek, and so on.  One of the very best ECM releases from its mid-70s imperial heights.

link

pw: sgtg

Jan Garbarek at SGTG:
Afric Pepperbird
Triptykon
Popofoni (also includes Stenson & Christensen)
Solstice: Sounds And Shadows
Sol De Meio Dia
Paths, Prints
Song For Everyone
Making Music

Neighbourhood

Gerry Hemingway - Electro-Acoustic Solo Works 1984-95 (1996)

Over an hour of sound-shifting from composer and jazz drummer Gerry Hemingway, b. 1955 in New Haven.  As might be expected, most of his sound sources here are percussive, but manipulated extensively to create compelling worlds of sound and atmosphere.

Five works are presented in mostly chronological order, starting with Waterways (1983-4).  As the title suggests, it grew from actual recordings of the flow of a stream and isolated water droplets to representations of these textures by percussion ensemble.  The four-part evocation of life in an Arctic landscape, Aivilik Rays (1988-90) is next, creating a cinematic immersion over nearly 25 minutes with treated sounds of wind, birds, plus percussion and synthesised sound.

A couple of shorter pieces follow: Totem (1985) is a particularly ear-catching collection of tape-shifted sounds from junk percussion and broken glass, and Chatterlings (1995) brings Hemingway's sound up to date for the era of this release, with MIDI sampling/triggering of wood, metal and skin percussion.  To round off a really enjoyable collection, we get another lengthy exploration, this time of different overlapping sound groups in Polar (1990-6).  Really enjoying the way this album reveals lots of subtleties on repeat listens.

link

pw: sgtg

Peter Baumann - Romance 76 (1976)

I

Peter Baumann's solo debut was recorded in mid-1976, at roughly the same time as his final studio work with Tangerine Dream.  He'd remain on board for their 1977 tour, as sampled on Encore, but then fully re-directed his energies into setting up his own studio (and later a record label), and some more solo work to follow on from this great little album.

Romance 76, with its striking 'half Bowie-inspired' cover portrait, also audibly divides neatly into two halves.  A side of lean, stripped back melodic electronica comes first, then an ambitious orchestrated suite fills side two.  Berlin-school sequencing is present, but in short, concentrated doses, as Bicentennial Presentation, Romance and Phase By Phase allow Baumann's talent for melody and atmosphere to shine.  It's not a million miles away from the sound of Stratosfear, especially on Phase By Phase, but much more succinct.  

 

The Meadow Of Infinity suite, with its interlude appropriately titled The Glass Bridge, is a different offering altogether, with Baumann helped out by members of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.  It begins with martial percussion and choral vocals, then the 'Bridge' brings in strings and oboe (not sure if these are still real instruments or mellotron/otherwise sampled, as the MPO are only credited for Meadow Pt. 1), against minimal electronics.  Part 2 gradually builds all the elements together for a striking finale (fairly sure there's mellotron here), making for a memorable 14 minutes of symphonic prog in total.  Rather than pursue this angle though, Baumann would continue to make stripped-down electronic music, as would be seen on his second solo album - coming next week.

link

pw: sgtg

Peter Baumann at SGTG:

Phaedra (scroll past main post)

Stratosfear
Encore

John Martyn - One World (1977)

A little bit more John Martyn, from some exploring of his music I did earlier this year, and also as a bit of a tribute to the late Lee Perry.  Martyn was introduced to Scratch at the Black Ark whilst holidaying in Jamaica, and the sonic kinship between their styles went on to inform this album when Perry dropped in on the recording sessions. 

Recording at Island boss Chris Blackwell's Berkshire farm, a rejuvenated Martyn refined his echoplex-guitar genius and jazzy vocals into a first-rate batch of songs, supported by dozens of musicians from the British jazz fusion and Canterbury scences.  The resulting album has been described in retrospect as 'proto-trip-hop', a genre that to be honest passed me by in its 90s heyday, so can't comment, but I do absolutely love the sound and production of One World.  The uptempo songs are dark and dublike, with Lee Perry's surreal wit inspiring the lyrics of Big Muff.

The album's second half is for the most part much more meditative, with the sweet plaintiveness of Couldn't Love You More giving way to the Latin lilt of Certain Surprise.  The upbeat Dancing was released as a single; don't suppose it had much success as such, but with an intro that wouldn't sound out of place on a Harmonia album, it's a definite favourite of mine.  The rest of the album is taken up by one of those absolute capturing-lightning-in-a-bottle production moments: with monitor speakers being recorded in the middle of a lake for ambience, and Martyn's guitar mastery at its height, Small Hours is just incredible to listen to on headphones.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG: Inside Out

Pierre Boulez / Ensemble InterContemporain etc - Sur Incises, Messagesquisse, Anthèmes 2 (2000)

Typically engrossing Boulez, both in composition and in production.  The main event on this album is the two part, 37 minute Sur Incises, based on Boulez's earlier solo piano piece Incises.  With the addition of two extra pianos, three harps and percussion instruments, the various sonorities and textures of the solo piano are blown out into an incredible macrocosm of sound.  Messagesquisse, a shorter work for cellos, provides an interlude and a bridge to the other substantial 'revision' on the album, Anthèmes 2.  On this one, a solo violin plays against recorded and electronically-manipulated violin parts to great atmospheric effect.  I always find Boulez fun to listen to, and the whole of this album just sounds wonderful.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Le Marteau Sans Maître

Sonatine For Flute And Piano

La Visage Nuptial / Le Soleil Des Eaux (BBC Proms 2002)

Miles Davis - We Want Miles (1982)

Cautiously dipping a toe into 80s Miles Davis now (although I vaguely remember liking Tutu when I heard it years ago, but that's as far as I previously got).  This double-live set, the second album overall and first live release from Davis' comeback period, seems to have retained a good critical standing and was readily available as a cheap CD, so here goes.

The six tracks in 76 minutes that comprise We Want Miles were taken from recordings on US and Japanese tours in 1981 (I love how Recorded "Live" gets those air quotes on the album, so possibly brushed up in the studio, but that's all fine and commonplace).  The first LP of the original set is bookended by long and short versions of Jean-Pierre, a really nice earwormy take on what is apparently a French nursery rhyme, with just enough of a discordant rendering to give it an idiosyncratic edge.  In between, Miles' 1981 band turns up the heat for a couple of more firey jams, with Mike Stern sounding like a particularly spicy rock-jazz guitarist, and the presence of Al Foster providing a link back to the mid-70s fusion era.

Sides three and four of the original release, each containing a single track, are even better.  First we get a 20-minute callback all the way to Porgy & Bess in My Man's Gone Now, but of course with the sound unmistakably rooted in the early 80s.  It's a fantastic, slowly unfolding exploration of the classic tune and a definite high point of the album.  Lastly, a lengthy improv named for its venue (the Kix club in Boston) takes in old-style walking blues, a slight reggae lilt and brings it all bang up to date (for '81).  All in all, a really good album that showed Miles revitalised for having taken time off in the back half of the 70s.

link

pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 

A Tribute To Jack Johnson

Live-Evil
On The Corner

In Concert

Big Fun
Agharta

Dark Magus