Semaphore is a new band organized jointly by Chicago drummer and percussionist Tim Daisy and long-time friend and collaborator Kyle Bruckmann (oboe, English horn, electronics.) Rounding out the quartet are two pillars of the San Francisco Bay Area contemporary music scene: bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and tenor saxophonist Phillip Greenlief.
Bruckmann and Daisy’s musical partnership began in Chicago in 2002 when Kyle tapped Tim to join his new avant-chamber ensemble Wrack. Since that time, despite Kyle’s relocation to the West Coast, the two have worked together in a variety of formats, rehearsing, recording, performing and touring across the United States, Canada and Europe.
The compositions on this release, four by Daisy and three by Bruckmann, showcase a wide spectrum of ideas inspired by the Creative Music Continuum. Brought to life by the outstanding contributions of Lisa Mezzacappa on double bass and Phillip Greenlief on tenor saxophone, both of whom are avid composers as well as resourceful improvisers themselves, they are evidence of the warm camaraderie, rigor and mischief that link these cross-country hotbeds of musical adventurousness.
Semaphore is a brand new ensemble with the chemistry and flexibility of a working band. This premier recorded document is only the beginning of what the musicians intend to be a regular meeting of the minds moving forward into the future.
Recorded in Vienna
in kooperation mit morr music (d)
Track 11 lasts for 15:07 and contains a hidden track (track 11.3), an unlisted cover version of Natalie Imbruglia’s „Torn“ that begins at 9:40 after 1:58 of silence.
Packaging: standard jewel case with 4 page booklet.
Design by A. Pawlik
Mastered by C. Kurzmann, C. Amann
Photography by I. Mirek
Songwriter, Arranged, Recorded by B. Fleischmann
Computer [G3] – Jim O’Rourke
Guitar – Kevin Drumm
Guitar – Martin Siewert
Computer [G3] – Christian Fennesz
Computer [G3], Clarinet, Theremin – Christof Kurzmann
Electronics, Bass – Werner Dafeldecker
Recorded live 1998 at Graz, Wels, Nickelsdorf and Bern.
“Distant Cousins,” a duo album with the legendary musician, Paul Lytton. On this recording Paul plays drums and percussion and Ken Vandermark on Bb clarinet, tenor and baritone sax.
“The music moves quickly between velocities and densities, sounds and rhythms, all connected with a spontaneity and clarity that indicates how much time Paul and I have known each other and played together, which began in Chicago at WNUR exactly 24 years ago.” -KV
“The collective experience of Icepick’s members encompasses a myriad of improvisational possibilities, and their technical acumen allows them to tackle tradition-steeped swing as easily as post-everything noise, but they keep their focus on evolving sonic narratives that resolve each knotty exchange or coarse textural exploration with a nakedly emotional tune.” – Bill Meyer, Chicago Reader
This new album was recorded in March of this year, as The Rempis Percussion Quartet made their debut in France after 15 years of touring almost everywhere else across Europe. At the generous invitation of programmer Antoine de la Ronciere at Le Petit Faucheux in Tours, the band was the test pilot for a collaborative project amongst five venerable venues for improvised music in France. In a tightly packed week-long schedule, the band performed in Tours, Poitiers, Brest, Nantes, and Lyon, while also doing a day of workshops and recording. Not surprisingly they set the room on fire that first night in Tours, energized both by their French debut, as well as by their first meeting in four years due to the pandemic! Barnburner is the only word for those two sets from Le Petit Faucheux. (Translated from French, Petit Faucheux means “little daddy long legs.” The title of this album, Harvesters, is another English word for this close relative of the spider.)
Composer and reedist Ken Vandermark premiers an ambitious new large ensemble project featuring musicians drawn from across a wide swath of the current improvised and experimental music scenes. Called, “Momentum 5: Stammer (triptych),” it is the fifth installment in his ongoing Momentum series, and the first specifically organized to utilize visual materials. The composition is inspired in part by Alvin Lucier’s piece, “I Am Sitting in a Room,” and Tony Conrad’s, “Film Feedback.”
Time is everything for musicians. Our art happens within its confines, yet most of what we do is try to manipulate it: pulling, suspending, wrenching, resisting. Time is the river we wade into each time we create music, and it does not wait for us. We dip in and we are in the flow, inviting the listener along for the journey. The plot line of time in music thickens when we consider the multiple time cycles that are part of the musical phenomenon. There’s the time the music takes to happen—yes, this is the most obvious. But there are deeper time cycles too, ones a listener may not even be aware of, but which add to the experience nonetheless. And there’s also the time cycle of the musicians themselves, the journeys they’ve taken to get to the moment of creation.
Current 23 documents such a journey for Tim Daisy and Fred Lonberg-Holm, who have been making music together for over 20 years. Each has a hazy memory of becoming aware of the other in the late 90s or early 2000s in Chicago, which was a fertile time in that city’s creative music history. They worked loosely together in one-off projects and more closely in groups led by saxophonist and composer Ken Vandermark, recording and touring extensively throughout Europe and North America with Vandermark 5 and The Frame Quartet. Working in such close proximity — literally, if we think of cramped tour vans — they developed the type of rapport that only comes through time and the belief that the journey is as important as the destination. Saxophonist Dave Rempis, a fellow collaborator with Daisy and Lonberg-Holm in countless groups, puts it well: “They are the consummate Yin Yang pairing. Tim provides a rock-solid foundation while Fred probes and pokes everything he encounters, asking the unasked. The two of them as a pair are unstoppable.”
Kilogram Records is excited to present Snapshots: Complete, a compendium of solo recordings by Ken Vandermark originally issued by the label as a series of 4 limited edition, 7-inch singles. These were released at 3-month intervals starting in March of 2021 and all sold out immediately. This is the first time the music will be available to most listeners and includes 8 additional tracks that weren’t initially released due to the time constraint of the 7” recording format.
Each 45 contained four improvisations which used Vandermark’s full instrumentation: tenor & baritone sax, Bb & bass clarinet, and included cover art from photographs that he took during his international touring schedule. The singles were dedicated to countries that have had tremendous impact on his work: Japan, Austria, Brazil, and Poland. Music for the first three editions of the “Snapshots” project were created at Ken’s home in Chicago. Volume 1 presented four “micro-improvisations” that could fit within the time limit of a 7” single. The second installment was created byoverdubbing improvisations to make duos, the third edition extending the overdubbing principle to develop trios.
In late autumn of 2021, Ken was able to return to Poland to perform for the first time after a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea of recording the final volume of Snapshots in the country whose artists helped influence the material seemed ideal and, after a solo tour in Poland, he spent a day recording in a country home outside of Gdansk, overdubbing improvisations to create new quartet music.
This newfound quartet was conceived in 2019, as a way to celebrate Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik’s 50th birthday in 2020. For the occasion, Harnik called on several longtime collaborators from Chicago with whom she’d connected at the Umbrella Music Festival back in 2008, on her first visit to the city. Since that time, she’s continued to stoke the fires she started there, not only in various collaborations with these three musicians, but also with Chicago legends like Ken Vandermark, Michael Zerang, and Renee Baker. And this new configuration – Earscratcher – was fully primed to celebrate her milestone with a May 2020 European tour.
“Works for Upright Bass and Amplifier is an emotionally charged record that deserves a lot of attention. I’m hoping that Astral Spirits, the label that put out the project on cassette in limited quantities, finds a way to release this masterpiece on vinyl one day.” – Gabriel Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn, Jazz Right Now
“Maybe I got thrown off with the whole solo percussionist thing, because I assumed there’d be a lot of to-do. (And seriously, have you seen what Neil Peart plays?) But Rousay works in miniature – they don’t bang around a massive set or even a rock set, they just work with a minimal, albeit unusual, kit. And Rousay, instead of conventional rhythmic structures, intentionally eschews them for a more abstract experience. Rousay’s percussion is the physicality of everyday life. Closing your eyes and allowing the sound to overpower you will put you in familiar situations with uncommon results.” – Ryan Masteller, Tiny Mix Tapes
“While the members of The Thing each put out enough records to keep you sated for the next group issue, each Thing record is worth the wait, and Bag It! is certainly no exception. Deftly combining the worlds of jazz, rock and noise (without falling into the dreaded “jazz fusion” territory), this record is something that anyone either curious about jazz or completely immersed in the genre should seek out ASAP.” -Adam Kivel, Consequence, 2009
Engaging crossover between free improv and ambient.
Released September 13, 2012
Rutger Zuydervelt: electronics, objects
Jaap Blonk: electronics, voice
Recorded May 17, 2012 at STEIM, Amsterdam
