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SAM AMIDON - I See The Sign

Bedroom CommunityBeing a reviewer becomes an unenviable situation when a record like Sam Amidon’s I See The Sign appears, completely changing a day (or a whole phase of existence) by helping to bear...

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THOMAS KÖNER – La Barca

FarioFirstly released on compact disc in 2009, La Barca (also an audiovisual performance) was reissued in a limited 2-LP edition comprising the entire content of the first as well as a selection of...

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DAVID MAHLER – Only Music Can Save Me Now

New WorldDavid Mahler is not the kind of musician interested in belonging to an elite or appearing as an icon, preferring to mix with regular people – specifically, within neighbourhoods and local...

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NOAH CRESHEVSKY – The Twilight Of The Gods

TzadikDifficult to find a composer today whose music evolves with the same rapidity of Noah Creshevsky’s. With each new record, his painstaking assemblages of samples – aptly seamed to bring...

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ANTHONY BRAXTON / JOËLLE LÉANDRE – Duo (Heidelberg Loppem) 2007

LeoWhat is immediately noticed after listening to this double CD, marking a rare duo encounter between two masters, is that Léandre doesn’t seem all that much interested in her distinctive theatrics...

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DANIEL LEVIN QUARTET – Live At Roulette

Clean FeedIs writing that a music can’t be retained in the memory a compliment or a reprimand? The crow keepers of official criticism might find lots of “authorized” terms to describe and classify the...

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ANDREW CHALK – Ghost Of Nakhodka

SirenExcept for the persistently enticing title track, opening the CD at about 20 minutes of duration, Ghost Of Nakhodka is a collection of rather short sketches – seemingly cut off longer sessions,...

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MARTIN KÜCHEN / ERNESTO RODRIGUES / GUILHERME RODRIGUES / CARLOS SANTOS - Vinter

Creative SourcesA crepuscular cooperative of alto sax, viola, cello and electronics with some concession to throaty droning and a clear tendency to unveil buried aspects of the instrumental combination...

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DARREN TATE – The Night

FungalTate goes a little backwards in his own era, presenting a new work that closely recalls some of the earliest outings on Fungal, the ones where the untailored quality of the assemblages seemed to...

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CURLEW – A Beautiful Western Saddle / The Hardwood

CuneiformThis CD/DVD double whammy reclaims important documents by my favourite embodiment of Curlew (George Cartwright, Davey Williams, Ann Rupel, Pippin Barnett, Tom Cora) from unjustified shadows. A...

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KEITH BERRY – The Cartesian Plane

Elevator BathThe fallibility of a human mechanism is inversely proportional to the illusions from which it absorbs nourishment. Confidence and unsettlement, inflexibility and hesitancy are but two of...

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LISA MEZZACAPPA’S BAIT & SWITCH – What Is Known

Clean FeedBassist Lisa Mezzacappa is a liberal participant in lots of different situations gravitating around new jazz, her recognized “honorary musical godfathers” (Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Sun Ra,...

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ROSS BOLLETER – Night Kitchen

Emanem The pathos of intemperate resonance that transpires from a ruined piano is nearly visible in the work of Ross Bolleter, who makes of this kind of tool a way of living. He has amassed a number of...

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STELLARI STRING QUARTET – Gocce Stellari

EmanemThe title (Italian for “stellar droplets”) comes from Orion Nebula’s newborn stars, generated by the nuclear fusion of huge globules of gas and dust; stars are also the origin of the seven...

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IRON KIM STYLE – Iron Kim Style

MoonjuneIron Kim Style is a quintet consisting of a couple of guitars (Dennis Rea and Thaddaeus Brophy, the latter on 12 strings), plus trumpeter Bill Jones, drummer Jay Jaskot and bassist Ryan Berg....

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ORGANUM - Sorow

SirenIn keeping with the unlimited consistency that has characterized his craft over the decades (regretfully overlooked by certain specialized press when they reviewed the Sanctus / Amen / Omega...

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CREMASTER - Noranta Graus A L'Esquerra

MonotypeTurbulently logical as always, Ferran Fages and Alfredo Costa Monteiro organize a palette of noises generated by “feedback mixing board, pickups and objects on electric guitar” brilliantly, the...

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GARETH ROBERTS QUINTET – Go Stop Go

Killer PenguinAfter four years from the great Attack Of The Killer Penguins, Welsh trombonist Gareth Roberts and his comrades – trumpeter Gethin Liddington, pianist Paul Jones, bassist Chris O’Connor...

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MOSTLY OTHER PEOPLE DO THE KILLING – Forty Fort

Hot CupIf “smooth” jazz (by the way, what the hell does that mean?) is comparable to a classic seduction in lingerie frequently ending in a "sorry-darling-it-was-not-my-night" failure, Mostly Other...

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ASHER / FOURM – Selected Passages / Set.Grey

NonvisualobjectsAsher’s “Selected Passages” is fashioned after the ultimate residues of a research on acoustic materials gathered in 2008 (partially heard in the Intervals album). Following the...

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THANOS CHRYSAKIS / WADE MATTHEWS / DARIO BERNAL-VILLEGAS – Enantio_Dromia

Aural TerrainsBy disregarding any potential concern for manifestations that might be loosely associated to a notion of “tonality” (or just consonance), Chrysakis (laptop, electronics, rototom),...

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OREN AMBARCHI / JIM O’ROURKE / KEIJI HAINO – Tima Formosa

Black TruffleIn this concert, recorded at the Kitakyushu Performing Arts Centre in 2009, three distinct and very strong personalities construct a sonic edifice derived by a combination of...

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PETER WRIGHT – Bright Failing Star

Release The BatsTwo sides (yes, it is a vinyl) of chiming-and-droning grace, a modicum of found sounds and voices from the street – a matter of minutes, really – and even fewer piano notes in the...

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JOHN KING – 10 Mysteries

Tzadik“What I’m seeking to discover”, writes composer and violist John King, “is the unity of, rather than the distinction between, determinate, indeterminate and improvised music”. He refers to this...

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WE'VE MOVED

Please direct yourselves to www.touchingextremes.wordpress.com and bookmark it. All the reviews that were published here have been transferred on the new website, though they're still archived here to...

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