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| Interventions #21: Doug Theriault & David Chandler - Office Products: With this disk, Doug Theriault (electric guitar) and David Chandler (electronic percussion/turntable) celebrate ten years as the duo "Office Products." Recorded live at studio Pharmacy in December 2005, the session explores a range of improvisatory styles and textures, from gritty, rapid-fire duo exchanges to lyrical transitions and even a few moments of fleeting, twisted funk. Total time: 31:06. | |||||||||
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| Interventions #22: Jeffrey Lependorf, Brian Moran, Matt Hannafin, Ravi Padmanabha - Four Ideas of Stillness: The second live release from Brooklyn's Avant Yard series, an outdoor performance event in which improvisers are encouraged to work with the ambient sounds of the neighborhood: birds, sirens, children's voices, overflying planes, etc. Featuring Jeffrey Lependorf (shakuhachi), Brian Moran (electronics), and Matt Hannafin and Ravi Padmanabha (percussion). "The Great Way has no gate. Clear water has no taste. The tongue has no bone. In complete stillness, a stone girl is dancing." -- Seung Sahn. Total time: 55:55. | |||||||||
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| Interventions #23: Jack Wright & Reuben Radding - This Is Not an Exit: Captured during a weeklong tour of the southern U.S. in 2004, "This Is Not an Exit" presents two dedicated improvisers in an extraordinarily direct set of performances, with two tracks recorded in North Carolina and a third in Virginia. The arrival of Wright (alto & soprano saxophones) and Radding (double bass) in Richmond was likened to Abraham Lincoln's in 1865, when the newly freed slaves lined the streets shouting "Glory, hallelujah!" Ten days after the president's visit, he was assassinated. Wright and Radding live on. Total time: 53:36. | |||||||||
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| Interventions #24: W.O.O.: Mambo Mantis - Head Check: What rock should have been if it could, what jazz could be if it would, this recording from W.O.O.: Mambo Mantis features Bonnie Kane (sax, electronics), Blaise Siwula (saxophones), Will Redmond (guitar, electronics), and Ray Sage (drums, sequences). Says Bonnie: "Monumental multitudes influence essential collaborators to unfold petals revealing deep spaces between knowledgeable cells, which is good . . . allowing metaphysical strains, the imaginary and obscure, to flow unrestricted by monumental multitudes thereby clearing the air and setting things straight." Total time: 32:37. | |||||||||
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| Interventions #25: Cake of Honey - Sarcastic Shamanism: An ensemble tone poem based on text by playwright Richard Foreman and a graphic score by Ty Cumbie, with Ty Cumbie (guitar), Eddy Rollin (oboe, English horn, alto sax, recorders, ethnic oboes, kalimba), Christopher Hoffman (cello), Adam Lane (bass), Kevin Zubek (drums), and Dan Jenkins (voice). Recorded live at the Vision Club, NYC, March 5, 2005. Total time: 38:05. | |||||||||
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| Interventions #26: Kelly Pratt - Solo Works for Trumpet and Flugelhorn: Cinematic solos from New York-based trumpeter Kelly Pratt. "I recorded this album with the help of a wide variety of electronic effects pedals. The majority of the compositions are simply predetermined settings on the pedals with entirely improvised music. The rest are composed structures or melodies with improvisations layered on top. The six pieces draw their inspiration from the work of some of my favorite filmmakers: Francois Truffaut, Werner Herzog, Masaki Kobayashi, Andrei Tarkovsky, Jim Jarmusch, and Terry Gilliam." Total time: 24:40. | |||||||||
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| Interventions #27: Ricardo Arias - Preludios de Latex, The Hague, 1996: "I have used balloons as musical instruments since 1987. The balloon kit came about in response to a request from Spanish composer Miquel Jordá to perform exclusively on balloons for a concert with him in Barcelona in 1992. The recordings presented here were made at a time when I was reviving the instrument after some years of inactivity as a balloonist. Since then, the kit has become my main instrument and has proven to be a versatile tool for timbral improvisation." Recorded at the Institute of Sonology in The Hague, Netherlands, 1996. Total time: 48:45. | ||||||||
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| Interventions #28: Den & BreadFast - Acoustic & Semiacoustic: Duo works from improvisers Andrea Belfi (drums) and Andrea Faccioli (guitar) of Verona, Italy. Working with a palette that combines late-period Coltrane with free-rhythm acoustic blues, the two create a free-jazz suite full of space, warmth, and energy. "Den & BreadFast loves: fast & relax, substance, acoustic sounds & sometimes electric sounds, blues feelings, storm & stress, improvisation, J. Coltrane's Spazio Interstellare & A. Coltrane's Coscienza Universale, fluctuating arpeggios, the thin (red) line between rhythm & arrhythm, the voice & the onomatopoeia as score." Total time: 34:06. | ||||||||
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| Interventions #29: Chainworks - Victory Sessions, 2002: Music from the vault, featuring Dan DeChellis (electric piano/synth), Brian Moran (circuit-bent and other electronics), and Matt Hannafin (percussion). Recorded in summer 2002 at ArtScience, NYC (Sasha Victory, proprietor), then left in the barrel to age. "Formidable . . . alchemical . . . dense and intricate. Shifts quickly from spacious, textured soundscapes to veritable explosions of noise" -- The Weekly Dig (Boston). "An intricate hubbub . . . [with] piano phrasing, scales, and contrasting dynamics that recall Stravinsky and Ludoslawski" -- All-Music Guide. Total time: 56:15 | |||||||||
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| Interventions #30: Steve Lofkin - Guitar Sculptures: Shimmering, gliss'ning, improvised solo guitar sculptures recorded between April and August 2003. "A return to solo playing on the back of disbanding an acoustic guitar/violin ensemble, this is a record of my initial pursuit to find an alternative to playing tunes. Instinctive soundscapes caught at the moment of creation, with occasional overdubs. A chance to trust the process -- and then leave it alone." Total time: 46:23. | |||||||||
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| Interventions #31: DC Improvisers Collective - Meme & Variations: Five aural views of a territory mixing jazz improvisation, contemporary composition, and electronics. By turns meditative, agitated, cerebral, and plaintive, the ensemble's playing balances open formal structures with an associative sensibility to create a real-time transmutation of disparate musical elements into coherent wholes. Featuring Ben Azzara (drums & percussion), Daniel Barbiero (contrabass), Jonathan Matis (guitar, prepared guitar, electronics), and Mike Sebastian (tenor & soprano sax, bass clarinet). Total time: 57:08. | ||||||||
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| Interventions #32: Shunyata (Brian Moran & Matt Hannafin) with Nate Wooley - 2@NYC: Mar+Apr 2007: Two live recordings from the longstanding duo of Brian Moran (electronics) and Matt Hannafin (percussion), joined by trumpeter Nate Wooley on track 2. Explores the meditational aspects of free improvisation, creating a slow-moving soundscape that alternately incorporates, silences, and acquiesces to the performance venue's ambient space. Total time: 56:40. | |||||||||
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| Interventions #33: Michel Doneda, Jane Rigler, and Andrew Drury - Clean Brook, Loose Too: Michel Doneda (sopranino & soprano sax), Jane Rigler (piccolo & flute), and Andrew Drury (snare drum, floor tom, metal, stoneware) came together one sunny winter day in Brooklyn for a little less than an hour, and this is the result: Doneda's high-precision jets of air, Rigler's liquid microtones and percussive pops and clacks, Drury's soft collisions filtered through the harmonics of drums, all mixed into a music of constant motion. Total time: 39:59. | ||||||||
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