Monday, April 20, 2020

HARUTAKA MOCHIZUKI/KAWASHIMA MAKOTO – Free Wind Mood (LP-2018)




Label: An'archives - [An'14]
Series: Free Wind Mood –
Run by Cédric Lerouley who also run COmmA
Sublabel 情趣演歌
Format: Vinyl , LP, Limited Edition to 275 / Country: France / Released: 2018
Style: Free Jazz , Free improvisation
Side A, Recorded on June 25, 2017 at Ichibangura, Esashi
Side B, Recorded on November 18, 2017
Printed by Alan Sherry
Liner Notes by Michel Henritzi
Matrix / Runout (Side A): 1A – ANARCHIVES [An'14]
Matrix / Runout (Side B): 1B – ANARCHIVES [An'14]

Comes in a heavy old style silkscreened jacket with obi (black, dark green or grey), postcards and inserts.
Thanks for their help: Iris Nguyen Duc Long, Jean Noël Rebilly, Fergus Cullen, Jon Dale, Alan Cummings, Hideo Ikeezumi, Alan Sherry & Michel Henritzi

side 1:
A - Harutaka MochizukiUntitled (Free Wind Mood) ............................................. 18:30

side 2:
B - Kawashima MakotoUntitled (Free Wind Mood) ............................................. 17:50

Musicians:
Harutaka Mochizuki – alto saxophone
Kawashima Makoto – alto saxophone



"During the past decade, a number of free music players in Japan have fiercely, with no compromise, continued to grapple with the questions that lay at the heart of the solo saxophone recital: how to tease and tear new formations out of the interface between human breath, human flesh and skeleton, and the instrument itself, its keys, holes, pads, reed, and brass body.
With Free Wind Mood, An’archives splits one vinyl record down the middle, giving a side each to two of the most rigorous, exciting, and committed players from the scene: Harutaka Mochizuki and Makoto Kawashima.
While there are elements of their playing that places them in a history of Japanese free blowing, from Kaoru Abe through Masayoshi Urabe to now, they both have a singular voice: Harutaka more stringent and tart, Kawashima, perhaps, more melancholy. Tellingly, they’ve both intersected with rock music and free sound ensembles, with Kawashima working alongside Nishizawa Naoto of EXIAS-J (Experimental Improvisers’ Association of Japan), while Harutaka has worked in a duo Tomoyuki Aoki of psych-rock group Up-Tight, and guitarist Kondo Hideaki (also of EXIAS-J).
But both of them have made their most massive strides forward with their own solo releases, Kawashima’s potent Homo Sacer one of the final releases on PSF, and Harutaka’s Pas LP and Through The Glass CD exploring new terrain for the nexus of breath and brass. Moving on from those releases, Free Wind Mood is a devastating listening experience, blood and guts on the floor as the players fully inhabit the architecture of the space, and of the self, and play like their lives depend on it."       (By Jon Dale)




Divine, wracked solo saxophone improvisations courtesy of the magnificent An’Archives and their extraordinary new ‘Free Wind Mood’ series. Absolutely beautiful to behold too, edition of 275 housed in heavy “old style” silk-screened jacket with obi strip, postcards and inserts, including liner notes by Michel Henritzi. Monastically committed reedsmen Harutaka Mochizuki and Makoto Kawashima (whose Homo Sacer was one of the final releases on PSF) are given a side apiece to grapple with their instrument; Mochizuki’s offering is certainly engaging, but it’s the more lyrical, melancholy drift of Kawashima’s performance that we’re instinctively drawn to, the use of negative space reminding us a little bit of John Butcher at his most expansive or even the Bill Dixon of November 1981. But even at its most emollient and near-ambient, Free Wind Mood Vol.1 is serious, searching, masochistic... sonic/spiritual enquiry doesn't get much rawer, or purer, than this.


Please see here:
https://anarchiveslabel.bandcamp.com/album/free-wind-mood



If you find it, buy this album!

MASAHIKO SATO – Holography (Columbia ‎– JDX-42 / LP-1970)




Label: Columbia ‎– JDX-42
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Gatefold / Country: Japan / Released: 1970
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live at Yamaha Hall, Tokyo, June 17, 1970
Made By – Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd.
Composed By – Masahiko Sato
Liner Notes – Hisamitsu Noguchi and Jun Numata
Matrix / Runout (Side A): SX-2311 - JDX-42-A 1- A
Matrix / Runout (Side B): SX-2312 - JDX-42-B 1- B

side 1:
A - Phase 1 ............................................................................................................. 20:48

side 2:
B - Phase 2 ............................................................................................................. 17:55

Masahiko Sato – piano


One of the rarest albums ever from the mighty Masahiko Sato, a composer and arranger,as well as a key figure in the avantgarde music from Japan. Originally issued on Japan Columbia in 1970, the two sides of very free piano show a sensitivity that's really amazing – still moments of freedom that reflect Sato's connection to the avant garde of the time, interwoven with his own sense of cosmic creation, in ways that are similar to his later projects.




Born in Tokyo, in 1941, Masahiko Sato's earliest influences came from Olivier Messiaen and Yuji Takahashi, although the pianist earned his living playing in various jazz combos in Japan, Europe and the USA throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s. As a jazz soloist, arranger, free player, or even as organist on the more extreme Japanese rock LPs of the time, Masahiko Sato successfully navigated his way through it all. Indeed, in this way, Sato is probably the Japanese equivalent of German free spirit Wolfgang Dauner, with whom he played in the very early 1970s.



If you find it, buy this album!

YOSUKE YAMASHITA TRIO – Montreux Afterglow (Frasco ‎– FS7014 / LP-1976)




Label: Frasco ‎– FS7014
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Japan / Released: 1976
Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz
Recorded in live on July 9, 1976 at Casino de Montreux.
Manufactured By – Nippon Phonogram Co., Ltd.
Distributed By – Nippon Phonogram Co., Ltd.
Cover Design – Hideomi Ishikawa
Front Cover Photo – Takumi Ushida
Back Cover Photo – Yosuke Yamashita
Recording Engineering – Montreux Sounds
Re-mix Engineering – Tsuyoshi  Miyasaka
Linor Notes – Hisamitsu Noguchi
Matrix / Runout (Side A, stamped): F S 7014 A I
Matrix / Runout (Side B, stamped): F S 7014 B II

side 1:
A - Ghosts ............................................................................................................... 21:30
       Written-By – Albert Ayler

side 2:
B - Banslikana ......................................................................................................... 23:00
      Written-By – Yosuke Yamashita

Personnel:
Yosuke Yamashita 山下洋輔 – piano
Akira Sakata  坂田明 – alto saxophone
Shota Koyama  小山彰太 – drums, percussion


Possibly the most intense Yosuke Yamashita I've heard thus far. The cover of Ayler's Ghosts is... incredible. At one point Akira Sakata just starts screaming. The staggering expressive range of Yosuke Yamashita... an abstract landscape of geometrical disorder and rhythm whose arteries slowly congest and lead to a cacophonous fracture.
The B side, "Banslikana" quite as focused over its duration (the hugely underwhelming drum solo, particularly on the back of the rest of the album's monster drumming), the last five minutes have to be heard to be believed.



Good on Yamashita for being one of the few jazz cats to go into the second half of the 70s in a LESS accessible direction. Herbie Hancock and Weather Report and damn near everybody else had already sold their souls by this point. Yamashita kept busy on the sidelines playing shoji with demons.
Well worth finding.



If you find it, buy this album!

URS BLÖCHLINGER – Cinema Invisible (Plainisphare ‎– LP 1267-24/25/2LP-1986)




Label: Plainisphare ‎– LP 1267-24/25
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Switzerland / Released: 1986
Style: Free Improvisation, Contemporary Jazz
Solo bass saxophone recorded on 26-27 November 1985 at the Old Church, Boswil
Quartet recorded on 11 June and
Octet on 12 June, 1985 at the Hotel Mohren during Jazz In Willisau.
Photography By – Markus Di Francesco
Recorded By – Fanny Pfister / Peter Pfister
Matrix / Runout (Runout A, etched): LP 1267-24-A A.
Matrix / Runout (Runout B, etched): LP 1267-24-B A.
Matrix / Runout (Runout C, etched): LP 1267-25-C B.
Matrix / Runout (Runout D, etched): LP 1267-25-D B.

side 1:
A1 - Jacques Tati Privat ........................................................................................... 11:45
A2 - Line One ............................................................................................................ 1:57
A3 - Flopps Aus Der Mottenkiste ............................................................................. 11:29

side 2:
B1 - Skippy Das Buschkänguru ................................................................................. 8:20
B2 - Geppetto Und Pinocchio (Take 1) .................................................................... 11:15
B3 - Line Two ............................................................................................................. 4:25

side 3:
C1 - Geppetto Und Pinocchio (Take 2) .................................................................... 15:21
C2 - Washing Dishes, Playing War Games ............................................................... 4:07
C3 - Blues For A Turkey ............................................................................................ 3:44

side 4:
D  -  Fish-Wife / Man-Sea, Und Zum Schluss Die Coda ......................................... 22:02

Line-up/Musicians:
Urs Blöchlinger – alto saxophone, sopranino saxophone, bass saxophone
Jürg Ammann – piano, melodica
Thomas Dürst – bass
Martin Schütz – cello
Dieter Ulrich – drums, bugle
Peter Hablützel – sopranino saxophone
Hans Kennel – trumpet
Daniel Mouthon / Kornelia Bruggmann – voice

''Cinema Invisible'' double LP Plainisphare Records, 1986. with Urs Blöchlinger, Jürg Ammann, Thomas Dürst and Dieter Ulrich.
Super rare, early LP from the Swiss label Plainisphare Records.


Swiss jazz saxophonist, flutist and composer, born 4 June 1954 in Wettingen; died 3 March 1995 in Turgi, Switzerland.



''Cinema Invisible'' double LP Plainisphare Records, 1986. with Urs Blöchlinger, Jürg Ammann, Thomas Dürst and Dieter Ulrich.
Super rare, early LP from the Swiss label Plainisphare Records.




After moving from trumpet to guitar, at eighteen he decided to play reed instruments. He attended the Zurich Conservatory. In the mid-70s he collaborated with the pianist Christoph Baumann and the flutist Ruedi Hausermann with whom he combined jazz and comedy in the Jerry Dental Kollekdoof. Later, together with bassist Thomas Drust and drummer Thomas Hiestand, they proposed poetic improvisations that thrilled the audience at the 1982 Willisau Jazz Festival. He was part of the Legfek group and participated in various events...
Blöchlinger committed suicide at the age of forty.

Granted the request of numerous visitors to this blog .... ENJOY !!!



If you find it, buy this album!

MEV – United Patchwork (Horo Records ‎– HDP 15-16 / 2LP-1978)




Label: Horo Records ‎– HDP 15-16
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Gatefold cover / Country: Italy / Released: 1978
Style: Experimental, Free Improvisation
Recorded Rome, November 15 and 16, 1977, Mama Dog Studio.
Antonio Ortolan / art direction
Sandro Lodolo / cover art
Maria Tereza Tannozzini / cover design
Raul Matta / graphic design
Aldo Sinesio / producer
Gianni Gualberto / assistant producer
Raimondo Caruana / recording engineer
Joachim-Ernst Berendt / liner notes
Matrix / Runout (Runout Area Side A): HDP 15-16 - 2 A
Matrix / Runout (Runout Area Side B): HDP 15-16 - 2 2
Matrix / Runout (Runout Area Side C): HDP 15-16 - 2 3
Matrix / Runout (Runout Area Side D): HDP 15-16 - 2 4

side 1:
A  -  Via Della Luce  (Richard Teitelbaum) ............................................................... 23:24

side 2:
B1 - Fox  (Steve Lacy) .............................................................................................. 9:43
B2 - Cross Over One  (Karl Berger) .......................................................................... 2:25
B3 - Slugging Rocks  (Garrett List) ........................................................................... 6:48

side 3:
C1 - Psalm  (Alvin Curran) ...................................................................................... 14:07
C2 - What Is Freedom?  (Frederic Rzewski) ............................................................. 5:25

side 4:
D1 - Dewline  (Steve Lacy) ....................................................................................... 7:54
D2 - Cross Over Two  (Karl Berger) .......................................................................... 3:14
D3 - Cross Over Three  (Karl Berger) ....................................................................... 3:06
D4 - Sea Line  (Steve Lacy) ...................................................................................... 5:25

Musicians:
Frederic Rzewski – piano, electric piano, composer
Alvin Curran – synthesizer, piano, vocal, flugelhorn, composer
Richard Teitelbaum – synthesizer, shells, composer
Karl Berger – vibraphone, piano, electric piano, melodeon, composer
Steve Lacy – soprano saxophone, composer
Garrett List – trombone, composer



One of the most mythical experimental groups of all time, Musica Elettronica Viva was formed in 1966 by a group of American composers in Rome, its nucleus comprised of pianist Frederic Rzewski, sound improviser Alvin Curran, and the improvisatory keyboardist Richard Teitelbaum. Taking cues from John Cage and David Tudor, MEV employed open, limitless structures, using found instruments, toys, a homemade synthesizer, and the first Moog to reach mainland Europe. Improv and critical listening practices aimed to liberate listeners from the constraints of bourgeois capitalism and as their sound evolved, forms of Jewish mysticism and surrealist automaticism pointed to transcendent potential.




An abortive US tour in 1970 split MEV into three units, but the Kabbalistic Dixieland band later reformed with Rzewski, Curran, and Teitelbaum joined by saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonist Garrett List, and keyboardist Karl Berger. The resultant double album United Patchwork, a return to classic form for MEV – after some of the more tripped-out experiments of the early 70s, recorded in November 1977 at Mama Dog for Horo Records, captures MEV in all of their discordant, improvisatory glory, from Teitelbaum's side-long opener, "Via Della Luce", to the honking noise of Lacy's "Fox", the excessive keyboard meanderings of Curran's "Psalm", Berger's vibraphone folly, "Cross Over One" and Rzewski's ponderous "What Is Freedom".
But, the whole album is, thanks to a very freewheeling sense of improvisation, a stunning mix of free jazz and electronics.

Note:
Richard Teitelbaum, an electronic artist, keyboardist and composer who combined an interest in non-western musical languages with a focus on experimental practice, died on Thursday, April 9, 2020 at HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston, N.Y.



If you find it, buy this album!