Dedicated to the music lovers of the Punktfestival 2021, all of them who came by boat, by feet, by car, by airplane, by train, to dig and dive deep into the music played on the highest floor of Hotel Norge and elsewhere in town.
(ONE) Mathias Eick: Arvo (from: When We Leave) / Big Red Machine: Birch (from: How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last) / Catherine Graindorge: Butterfly In A Frame (from: Eldorado) // Haiku Salut: Entering (from: The Hill, The Light, The Ghost)* / Gaspar Claus: Une faule (from: Tancade) / Dark Star Safari: Murmuration (from Walk Through Lightly) / Ayumi Tanaka Trio: Ruins (from: Subaqueous Silence) / Trond Kallevag: Amerikabaten (from: Fengelsfugl) // Villagers: Full Faith in Providence (from: Fever Dreams) / The Grid & Fripp: Fire Tower (from: Leviathan)
* Engagingly wistful fifth album from Derbyshire Dales instrumental trio. Starting life as a series of field recordings captured in charged locations – an abandoned house in Germany, the birdsong-framed Peak District countryside – The Hill, The Light, The Ghost is pitched as “a miniature exploration of sound in relation to memory”. From this near-Proustian premise, multi-instrumentalists Louise Croft, Sophie Barkerwood and Gemma Barkerwood conjure nine wordless, shape-shifting essays using keyboards, electronics, guitars and orchestral instruments.
(David Sheppard)
(TWO) – STERNZEIT – // ToiToiToi: Never A Dull Moment, Whimsical Waltz, Kuckuckswalzer (from: Vaganten) / Villagers: Fever Dreams (from: Fever Dreams) / Haiku Salut: Trespass (from: The Hill, The Light, The Ghost) // Michael Mantler: Folly Suite (from: Coda (Orchestra Suites)* // Low: More, The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Of) (from: Hey What) / Jo Berger Myhre: Everything Effacing, Smallest Things, Part 1, Aviary (from: Unheimlich Manoeuvre)
* Austrian trumpeter-composer Mantler makes music that can move from shadow to light in a moment. The mercurial moods of this accomplished and articulate set are its strongest suit, and the stylistic breadth of the writing and arranging serves notice of an artist who has duly fulfilled the potential he showed way back in the late ‘60s as a member of the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra. […] While the shape-shifting nature of much of the material is impressive the emotional charge of the strings, which are icily seductive and seductively icy, is strong, and greatly enhanced by the interplay of Mantler and guitarist Bjarne Roupé, a skulking presence for much of the performance. ‘Coda’ makes a very convincing case for Mantler’s gifts as a composer, and stands as work that has considerable appeal for the role of improvisers, including himself, who are woven into the scored materials in a highly disciplined way that does not make their individual flourish any less engaging.
(Kevin Le Gendre, Echoes)
(THREE) – „Open the Gates – a Rhapsody in Dub (and Jazz)“ – a discreetly hypnotizing mix of Various Artists – Studio One Dub Fire Special, The Congos: Heart of The Congos (40th anniversary edition), Lee Perry and The Upsetters: Black Ark In Dub & in the middle, surrounded by waves and waves of Rastaman chants, John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme Live In Seattle* – KALENDERBLATT (Vor 175 Jahren – die erste Vollnarkose)
* „You have to get a bit used to the „stage presentation“ of the instruments here: the saxes „leftfield“, and the biggest space reserved for Elvin and McCoy (left to center, and right) – somehow funny, because the two did leave soon, being not too happy with Coltrane‘s quite radical departure! After a while it all works – the saxophones never buried in the mix!
In the world of John Coltrane, even „A Love Supreme“ was not carved in stone. To experience, how the whole band is opening all gates, leaving no stone unturned, is such a delight. Young Pharoah didn‘t need long to find the right chemistry.
Here I have to smile a bit: it is Mr. Sanders‘s second appearance in 2021: in Seattle, being part of a crew that set „A Love Supreme“ on fire (without doubt one of the most adventurous archival discoveries of the year), and, as a master of less-is more, on Floating Points‘ fantastic album „Promises“ (not so much loved by the readers of TheBlueMoment:))
P.S. I always found „Live At The Village Vanguard Again“ being the best entrance to Coltrane‘s late years. „Coltrane in Japan“ is gorgeous, too, though only in ancient mono!
(Michael Engelbrecht, comment on Rirchard Williams‘ review in his music blog The Blue Moment)
(FOUR) Rhythm & Sound: (from: Rhythm & Sound) / Rip Hayman: Waves for Flutes (from: Waves Real And Imagined)* / Leonard Cohen (from Thanks for the Dance) / Thomas Köner: Takla-Kahan (from: Aubrite, reissue 2021, Mille Plateaux) / Leonard Cohen (from Thanks for the Dance) / Rip Hayman: Seascapes (from: Waves Real And Imagined)* (excerpt) / Gas (aka Wolfgang Voigt): Königsforst 2 (from: Königsforst)
* „Archival and new work from student of John Cage, Ravi Shankar and Philip Corner Rip Hayman. Pastoral multitracked flute music on one side and chilly nautical field recordings on the other: quite lovely. ‚Waves: Real and Imagined‘ is another solid release from Sean McCann’s Recital imprint. A founding editor of Ear Magazine and boss of NYC’s oldest bar, Hayman is a fascinating character. This release collects a piece he recorded back in 1977, a decade before his debut „Dreamsound“, and pairs it with a piece he recorded last year. The two compositions work astonishingly well together. ‚Waves for Flutes‘ is calming and delicate, with multi-tracked flutes reminding fondly of Mary Jane Leach or Hayman’s Recital labelmate Sarah Davachi. The track sits completely out of time, sounding as transcendent and otherworldly as ambient music and as spiritually rousing as sacred music. ‚Seascapes‘ achieves a similar goal, but uses only environmental recordings. Hayman recorded it in two sessions last year on the Pacific ocean, and the fizz of the waves effortlessly lull us into a meditative state. It’s not far from Irv Teibel’s iconic „Environments“ recordings, and that’s about the highest praise we can give.“
(FIVE/1) Robert Wyatt: Old Europe (from: Cuckooland) / Barney Wilen: Harlem Nocturne / Besame Mucho / Goodbye (from: La Note Bleue)* / Barney Wilen: All Blues, live with young Jackie Terrasson)
* Dear Micha! Very good to hear from you. Thanks for letting me read your piece (on Barney). There should be a Barney Wilen Appreciation Society for people like you and me… he had such an interesting life and seems never to have played an unworthy phrase. All best. Richard (Williams)
(FIVE/2) Bob Marley and The Wailers: Rastaman Chant (from: The Capitol Sessions 73)* / War: The World Is A Ghetto (from: The World Is A Ghetto)**
* „Sometimes we look back on things we did when younger and cringe. Sometimes we laugh at ourselves. Sometimes, as with War, and particularly this important album, we can knowingly nod and say, „I knew it all along.“ Even as a zit-faced white kid growing up in Arkansas, it was abundantly clear to me that this music was far more interesting than most of what I could hear on the radio; its racially homogenous, heavily percussive sound with „boys night out“ group vocals still, to this day, hits the spot like none other. Along with the sounds of similarly themed and likewise wonderful bands like Santana and El Chicano, with the music one could practically taste, smell, and get a tactile feel of what they were all about.“
(Brian Hulett)