Ken Vandermark: Reeds
Havard Wiik: Piano
Ingebrigt Haker Flaten: Bass
Recorded at the Claudia Cassidy Theater in the Cultural Center on August 28th and 29th, 2006
Mixed at Prole Arts, Chicago on February 27th and 28th, 2007
Mastered at Chicago Mastering Service
Design, Photography by Rune Mortensen
Executive-producer – Joakim Haugland
“There is music which is hard to describe. Double Tandem has build up music whose real expression lies below the surface. It injects an unsettling sleaziness into a funny, occasionally wild and boastful collection of tracks that walk the line between postmodernism and sincerity. The tracks are all living, breathing entities, not blank slates to project my plain ideas and desires of how to review music on. This is music about honesty and truthfulness.” -Martin Schray, Free Jazz Blog
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Ab Baars: Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet [Bb Clarinet]
Ken Vandermark: Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Clarinet [Bb Clarinet]
Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums, Percussion
Recorded live at Novara Jazz Winter Session on April/20 2012.
Mixed and mastered at dEN Studio.
Drums, Percussion – Paal Nilssen-Love
Baritone Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet [Bb], Bass Clarinet, Photography – Ken Vandermark
Recorded live in concert on June 10th 2007 at The Alchemist Theater, Milwaukee, USA
Co-producer – Joakim Haugland
Cover – Rune Mortensen
Mixed & Mastered by Thomas Hukkelberg
Producer – Ken Vandermark, Paal Nilssen-Love
Recorded by Amos Scattergood
Drums, Percussion – Paal Nilssen-Love
Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Clarinet [Bb], Bass Clarinet – Ken Vandermark
Recorded live in concert on June 11, 2007 at The Hideout, Chicago, IL. Mixed and mastered at desibel.no.
Co-producer – Joakim Haugland
Cover – Rune Mortensen
Mixed & Mastered by Thomas Hukkelberg
Photography by Ken Vandermark
Producer – Ken Vandermark, Paal Nilssen-Love
Recorded by Amos Scattergood
“When Paal Nilssen-Love and Ken Vandermark take the stage for two uninterrupted sets, you know there’s no chance they’ll take the easy route. They put themselves on the spot as a duet and as individual performers, asking telling questions about the way their instruments are played; where the boundaries are, sonically, expressively, physically.” – London Jazz News
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Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums, Percussion
Ken Vandermark:Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Clarinet [Bb Clarinet]
Recorded live at Blå on April the 1st, mixed on December the 13th 2005 at desibel.no.
Photography By, Design – Rune Mortensen
Producer – Ken Vandermark, Paal Nilssen-Love
Technician [Live Sound] – Stig Gunnar Ringen
Co-producer – Joakim Haugland
Massimo Pupillo: Bass
Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums
Terrie Ex: Guitar
Recorded live in concert at Energimolla, Kongsberg Jazzfestival on July 6, 2007.
Massimo Pupillo: Bass
Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums
Terrie Ex: Electric Guitar
Recorded at Decibel Studio, Oslo on 15th of November 2006.
Released in standard transparent jewel case with outer sticker.
Smalltown Super Jazz 147
Mats Gustafsson: Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone
Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten: Bass
Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums
Jim O’Rourke: Guitar
Recorded live on 4 February 2008 at Shinjuku Pit Inn, Tokyo, Japan by Yasuo Fujimura
Mastered by Audun Strype.
Mixed by Jim O’Rourke
Executive-producer – Joakim Haugland
Design [Sleeve] – Rune Mortensen
Smalltown Super Jazz 201
Track 3 recorded 10 May 2002 at Blue Tower Studios.
Track 4 recorded April 2002 at Studio 364 (Brooklyn, NYC, USA).
Track 5 recorded May 2002 at the Pinkhouse.
Track 6 recorded 2002 at Studio Concrete (NYC, USA).
Track 9 recorded in Tambourine Studios.
Håll Tjäften – TJÄFT 002
Jim O’Rourke: track 1 only
Leif Elggren: track 2 only
Alva Melin: bass (track 3)
Lotta Meli: electronics [Live], Turntables (track 3 only)
Mats Gustafsson: electronics [Live], Turntables (track 3 only)
Yrsa Keysendal: piano (track 3 only)
Dan Fröberg: glass (track 5 only)
Jerry Johansson: sitar (track 5 only)
Klara Bergman Fröberg: voice (track 5 only)
Rakel Bergman Fröberg: voice (track 5 only)
David Grubbs: track 4 only
Thurston Moore: track 6 only
Rozenahll: Track 7 only
Mats Lindström: track 8 only
Bob Hund: track 9 only
Elis Ernst Erikkson: track 10 only
Mats Gustafsson: Tenor Saxophone, Fluteophone, Flute
Jim O’Rourke: Guitar, Junk
Recorded at Acme Studios, Chicago, 23 September 1999
Mastered at Steam Room, Chicago
Illustration [Drawing] – Hanns Schimansky
Layout [Layout Design] – Karen Brookman
Photography By – Roland Aalto
Recorded By – Jeremy Lemos
“To Patti Smith”
David Stackenäs: Acoustic Guitar [Amplified]
Mats Gustafsson: Contrabass Saxophone
Lotta Melin: Electronics [Audiobox]
Loren Connors: Guitar
Steve Shelley: Guitar
Thurston Moore: Guitar
Lee Ranaldo: Guitar, Bells, Electronics [Live]
Kim Gordon: Voice
Lindha Kallerdahl: Voice [Processed Voice]
Recorded live October 9th, 2000 at Ystads Konstmuseum during Kulturbro 2000
[Live Mix] – Jim O’Rourke
Mixed aug-sep, 2003, at Atlantis Studios, Stockholm
Mastered jan 26th, 2004 at Atlantis Studios, Stockholm
Original recordings / Olof Bright Editions
Hidros 3 is commissioned by Ystads Konstmuseum and Kulturbro 2000
Producer – Joakim Haugland, Mats Gustafsson
Lyrics by Kim Gordon
Mastered by Janne Hansson, Olof Madsen
Mixed by Mats Gustafsson, Niklas Billström
Cover – Kim Hiorthøy
Producer [Original Recordings] – Thomas Millroth
Recorded By – Niklas Billström
Smalltown Super Jazz 080
Recorded at Kulturbro 2000 Ystad-Österlen, Konstmuset in Ystad, Sweden.
Thurston Moore: Guitar
Jim O’Rourke: Synthesizer, Computer
Mats Gustafsson: Tenor Saxophone, Saxophone, Flageolet
Guitar – Thurston Moore
Saxophone, Electronics [Live-electronics] – Mats Gustafsson
Synthesizer – Jim O’Rourke
Recorded live 6th October 2002 at Ystads Teater, Sweden by Erik Ljungberg & Ola Glans.
Mastered by Jim O’Rourke
Concert produced by Thomas Millroth and Ystads Konstmuseum/Kulturbro 2002
Recording Produced by Olof Bright Editions
Photography by Hans Permbo/Ystads Konstmuseum
Photography by Hans Permbo & Olof Madsen
Producer – DA Trio
Producer [Concert] – Thomas Millroth
Co-producer: Joakim Haugland
Cover Design: Kim Hiorthøy
Smalltown Superjazz 091
Paal Nilssen-Love: drums
Nate McBride: bass
Ken Vandermark: reeds
Recorded 25 & 26 October 2004 at the Rock Studio, Oslo, Norway, by Auden Strype.
Mixed 11 & 12 July 2005 at Strype Audio, Oslo by Audun Strype, Paal Nilssen-Love, and Ken Vandermark.
Mastered by Audun Strype.
Executive Producer: Bruno Johnson.
Design by Louise Molnar.
Sculptures by Carl Nilssen-Love.
Additional Photos by Andreas Frøland.
Okka Disk 12061
We commemorate the late Phill Niblock with this release made in close collaboration with the composer just before his passing in January 2024. His life and work have had a profound influence on many contemporary composers, performers and artists, so it is a great honour to be able to present here, together with Echonance Festival, recordings of some of his very last compositions.
The two works on this album, “Biliana” (2023) and “Exploratory, Rhine Version, Looking for Daniel” (2019) represent the hallmarks of his unique approach to composition where multiple, closely-tuned instruments and voices are used to create rich and complex sonic tapestries.
In “Biliana”, written for performer Biliana Voutchkova, her violin phrases and vocalisations carve out a deep sonorous space full of fluctuating overtones. By emphasizing the physicality and materiality of her sound, the piece gives us the sensation of stepping back to reveal a singular portrait of the musician.
The second work on the CD, “Exploratory, Rhine Version, Looking for Daniel” was recorded by two Netherlands based ensembles, Modelo62 and Scordatura Ensemble from a live recording made at the Orgelpark, Amsterdam during the Echonance Festival in February 2023. It is a complex work comprising of 20 parts, where lines seem to emerge and disappear out of a landscape of harmonies and sonic spectra. There is also a voice hidden in this mass of instruments, just like in “Biliana”, giving both works an added human element – something that always emerges out of Phill Niblock’s seemingly dense musical constructions.
The Human Geologies of Phill Niblock’s Music
By Samuel Vriezen
BILIANA
Biliana Voutchkova – violin and voice
Recorded at Akademie der Kunste in Berlin by Rabih Beain.
Mixed by Phill Niblock with the assistance of Davide Capobianco in Experimenta Intermedia, New York.
EXPLORATORY, RHINE VERSION, LOOKING FOR DANIEL
Ensemble Modelo62
Gemma Tripiana Muñoz – flute
Enric Sans Morera – bass clarinet
Justin Christensen and Chloë Abott – trumpets
Vasilis Stefanopoulos – double bass
Ezequiel Menalled – conductor and electric guitar
Ensemble Scordatura
Elisabeth Smalt – viola
Alfrun Schmid – voice
Reinier van Houdt – keyboards
Claudio F. Baroni – guest organ
Recorded 19 October 2022 at Orgelpark, Amsterdam during Echonance Festival#1 by Clare Gallagher.
Mixed by Claudio F. Baroni and Ezequiel Menalled.
All music composed by Phill Niblock.
Mastered by Yannis Kyriakides.
Liner notes by Samuel Vriezen.
Album design by Isabelle Vigier.
A selection of pieces by the great musical pioneer Robert Ashley performed by the Dutch ensemble MAE. Some of the works were especially written for the ensemble in the last few years, and have never been recorded before, namely the title work “Tap Dancing In The Sand” featuring Ashley’s voice and “Hidden Similarities”. Other works presented on the CD are “Outcome Inevitable”, “In Memoriam Esteban Gomez” and “She Was A Visitor”.
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Text and compositions by Robert Ashley
Ensemble MAE
Trombone – Koen Kaptijn
Violin – Barbara Lüneburg
Voice – Noa Frenkel
Double Bass – Jelte van Andel
Electric Guitar – Wiek Hijmans
Piano – Reinier van Houdt
Recorders – Karolina Bäter
Percussion – Hans van der Meer
Clarinet – Michel Marang
Musical Director – Yannis Kyriakides
Recorded by Sem de Jongh
Design – Isabelle Vigier
This is volume 2 in a collection created in collaboration with Echonance Festival, Amsterdam, coming just one year after volume 1 (Phill Niblock / Looking for Daniel) and just in time for the third edition of the festival in February 2025. Here is and opus centered on the piano by composer and sound artist Gabriel Paiuk. Those thought provoking pieces are rendered with exquisite precision and depth by the extraordinary musicians, pianist Reinier van Houdt, Maurice Quartet, and Paiuk himself.
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All music by Gabriel Paiuk.
Gabriel Paiuk, Maurice Ensemble, Reinier van Houdt.
Design Isabelle Vigier. Made in collaboration with Echonance Festival Amsterdam.
Kaja Draksler states that “as a person who speaks and understands different languages, I have an impression that my identity is multifaceted, I have to lose something in myself in order to let the “spirit” of a new language inside me. So in this way I am constantly becoming in otherness myself.”
In building this album pianist and composer Kaja Draksler worked on developing specific musical languages for each piece. She attempted to restrict herself to maintaining each language although as she points out “leakages” did take place, and the pieces somehow ended up influencing each other, as spoken languages do. Kaja refers to voodoo as an inspiration. Her intention is to take possession of the rhythm, pulse and melody and at the same time to allow the music to take possession of her. In that way she is influencing the context but also she lets the context have an influence on her. She is one of those musicians who are able to work out the paradox of combining composition and open improvisation sometimes within the same piece. Aware as she is that both structure and freedom can be as much a burden as an asset, she uses those parameters with brillance.
The title of the album comes from a line in the poem Aquoueh R-Oyo by Cecil Taylor, and Kaja’s objectives for this body of work resonates further with the poem: “to relate instantly, and build concomitant,” “to capture dark instinct,” or, “to play what one hears.” Draksler referencing the Afro American heritage as a European artist educated in the tradition of experimental Jazz is testimony to the complexity of her ‘languages’ and her awareness of her position in that cultural lineage. In ‘In Otherness Oneself’ Kaja Draksler creates languages and lets her identities speak.
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COMPOSED & PERFORMED BY KAJA DRAKSLER
Recorded on April 13, 2021 at Splendor, Amsterdam. Recorded & mixed by Andy Moor, mastered by Yannis Kyriakides.
The quarter-tone keyboard was programmed by Gianluca Elia, the keyboard set-up was inspired by Cory Smythe. The words on Away! are from ‘In the Clearing’ (1962), written and recited by Robert Frost, singing by Laura Polence and Björk Níelsdóttir. The words on Tenis Stołowy are from ‘Dzienniki’ (1953-56), written and read by Witold Gombrowicz. The title of this album refers to the poem ‘Aquoueh R-Oyo,’ by Cecil Taylor (1973).
Cover art: Weronika Ge ̨sicka, Untitled #2, from the Collection series, 2017–2018. Courtesy of the artist & Jednostka Gallery.
Design by Isabelle Vigier.
Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums, Percussion
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Electric Bass, Electronics
Raoul Björkenheim: Electric Guitar, Viol [Electric Viola Da Gimbri]
Recorded on 26 – 27.10.2007 in Oslo at Grand Sport Studio
Engineer – Christian Engfelt
Mastered By – Helge Sten
Producer – Rune Kristoffersen, Scorch Trio
Design – Kim Hiorthøy
Zeng! is the second duo-CD of drummer Han Bennink and guitar-player Terrie Ex. It contains nine improvisations, recorded at the Jottem Studio in Wormerveer, Holland. The pieces are wild and sweet, manic and relaxed, sonic and swinging, obnoxious and together. A story between two friends who don’t make it too easy for each other!
One of the world’s most renowned free improvisation drummers, Han Bennink just turned 65, made hundreds of CDs and played about 6,000 concerts all over the planet. In his twenties he was already famous and accompanied touring American jazz stars, including Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster, Wes Montgomery, Johnny Griffin, Eric Dolphy, and Dexter Gordon. At the same time, Bennink participated in the creation of the unique European free-improvised music. He co-founded the infamous, still going, musicians collective Instant Composers Pool in 1967. A conspicuous feature of Bennink’s musical life since the 1960s are the spontaneous duo-concerts and recordings with musicians of many nationalities and musical inclinations.
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Han Bennink – drums
Terrie Ex – guitar
Recorded October 17, 2007 by Jeroen Visser at Jottem, Wormerveer, Netherlands.
Mixed and mastered by Jeroen Visser at Fishing Bakery Labs in Zurich, Switzerland.
Ken Vandermark: reeds
Lasse Marhaug: electronics
Paal Nilssen-Love: percussion
Recorded in June 5th and 6th 2005 at Grand Sport Sudios, Oslo.
Mixed July 23rd 2007.
Mastered at Chicago Mastering Service.
Sequenced on November 27th, 2007.
“This solo album gives Baars a chance to showcase his improvisational abilities and explore his questions about tonal and multi-phonic sonances with complete abandon on clarinet and tenor and soprano saxophones.” -Thom Jurek, All Music
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Recorded:
Glorpjes: Vredenburg Utrecht 11/6/89
Asor: Vredenburg Utrecht 11/6/89
Geel en Rood: Vredenburg Utrecht 13/12/87
Madang: Bim Amsterdam 11/12/87
Spaat: Vredenburg Utrecht 13/12/87
Black Mesa: Vredenburg Utrecht 11/6/89
Krang: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 23/4/88
Ab Baars: Soprano, Tenor, and Baritone Saxophones; Clarinet
“Since I first started making music I listened extensively to ballads that were being played by the great saxophonists. These inspiring examples became part of my playing, my sound, my language. This CD is a salute to that tradition”. -Ab Baars
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AB BAARS: Tenor sax /clarinet /shakuhachi
All compositions Ab Baars
Recorded on August 21 and 22, 2017 at Studio Helmbreker Haarlem
“…Rouppe van der Voort performs miracles in dexterity on the piccolo in “E si fussi pisci”, turning it into a penny whistle sliding out of control. Stopping on a dime 45 seconds before the end of the piece, she prompts a quiet and fragile coda that is so perfect you’ll go back to the booklet to make sure it was not scored. Other highlights include the busy and playful title track, the tender “Duet for John and Bob” and “Bells,” where Baars launches into a soulful non-idiomatic tenor sax solo. Veer and Haul is a title that evokes big ships performing clumsy maneuvers, but Baars and Rouppe van der Voort’s lines are sketching a fascinating dance”.
-François Couture, All Music Guide
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First impression: a clean slate. The improvised duets on this CD sound so startingly fresh, they seem to be rootless, without any history at all. Consider the beauty of ‘Note One’: a fluttering of the tenderest sounds on alto en tenor saxophone, that almost defies description. No melody, no chords, no fixed beat, nothing whatsoever -only a rapturous aural presence. Music that just dropped out of heaven.
But of course it didn’t. Veer and Haul is the fruit of decades of hard work and dedication, with a history all its own. It began in a place called The Bunker. An ugly old spot on the Rotterdam harbor, which for a short while in the late 1970s housed a much loved jazz-laboratory. The Art Ensemble of Chicago left its footprints, Frank Wright and Julius Hemphill stopped by, and for months Butch Morris rounded up the local debutantes in workshops and sessions. A quarter century ago, this is were Ab Baars and Mariëtte Rouppe van der Voort found out they had more in common than a shared saxophone teacher.
Though Baars and Rouppe van der Voort also share a passion for jazz, they wouldn’t call themselves jazz players per se. From their first groups onwards (the Bunker Sextet and its successor Cumulus) they have striven to unite improvising techniques with what they admire in contemporary chamber music. In her own Rouppe Group, the classically-trained flutist deftly mixes improvised pieces with short compositions by Charles Ives, György Kurtág and Henry Cowell. Baars, a lover of Ellington and Stravinsky, has studied with the Afro-American clarinet master John Carter. His eerie upper register piping implicitly honors his great mentor, but may also echo Olivier Messiaen’s expeditions into ornithological territory.
Kurtág, Carter, Messiaen: just a few names to consider. Saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell’s Duets with Anthony Braxton, recorded in 1977, also comes to mind. As do the introverted meanderings of Pee Wee Russell, Jimmy Giuffre’s careful chalumeau-register intonations, or the wild flashes of Sun Ra altoist Marshall Allen. In short: as footloose as these fourteen cuts may seem, they are firmly planted in their own constellation of pioneers and predecessors.
For a collaboration that has been so fruitful (both players have shared the stage many times), it has remained strangely under-recorded. Apart from the early Carrousel (Data 841) and more recent Tentet recordings under the leadership of viola player Ig Henneman (Wig 03 and Wig 04), the duo’s discography is notable for its brevity. The short-lived, but highly talented Cumulus never recorded – a fate that will hopefully escape the Rouppe Group, a quintet which has been touring since 1993. (Baars has some great CDs himself on the GeestGronden-label, Rouppe van der Voort’s sopranino saxophone can be heard on a string of albums with the saxophone sextet The Six Winds).
This scarcity of recordings makes Veer and Haul all the more welcome. It is very much a successor to the 18-year old Carrousel (same obession with pitch deviations, for one thing), with all aspects raised to a superior level. Carrousel offered saxophone solos and duets, and a couple of trios with pianist Guus Janssen, as well as a considerable percentage of pre-meditated material. Veer and Haul is almost completely improvised. The sole exception pops up in the second half of track 13, in which Ab’s clarinet recapitulates Luciano Berio’s version of a Sicilian folk tune (‘if we were fishes’).
Among Carrousel’s highlights were Rouppe van der Voort’s ‘Vijf korte vormen’ (Five short forms). The fourth part seemed to be simplicity itself: clarinet and alto play nothing but a long, extended line in near unisono, focusing on the tiniest variations in pitch. In 1966 the Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi employed the same principle in his duet Ko-Lho for flute and clarinet, inviting players and listeners to make the most of seemingly insignificant material. On Veer and Haul’s title track, clarinet and flute create a similar sparseness and intensity – with the priceless bonus of improvisation’s immediacy and sense of risk.
Listen closely – and figure out if that can really be Ab’s clarinet that opens ‘E si fussi pisci’, or who’s responsible for that crazy klaxon in ‘Part Two’ (believe it or not, it’s Mariëtte’s sopranino). Extended techniques, alternate fingerings and multiphonics all contribute to an expanded tonal palette, precise and delicate even at its rawer edges.
Listen closely – and dig those dizzying, piercing notes in ‘Vliegers’ (Kites) or, in another universe, the serene finale of ‘Bells’, with its almost unbearably melancholy tattoo.
Can it really be 25 years?”
-Erik van den Berg
November 2002
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Ab Baars – clarinet, tenor saxophone
Mariëtte Rouppe van der Voort – sopranino saxophone, alto saxophone, piccolo, alto flute, flute
All compositions Ab Baars | Mariëtte Rouppe van der Voort BUMA | STEMRA
recorded by Dick Lucas DATA RECORDS Bimhuis, 2 march 2000 | Floratheater, Delft 3 march 2000 | Bimhuis 25 januari 2001 | Bethanienklooster 26 march 2002
Editing Dick Lucas | Ab Baars | Mariëtte Rouppe van der Voort
Cover art and photo Rob Glaser
Design Francesca Patella
Produced by Ig Henneman
Thanks to: Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst
“For years now I have been listening to the music of Duke Ellington. To me his music is a source of inspiration. The apparent simplicity, the clearness of his music and the compositional thinking in his improvisations are important to my musical thinking, they shaped my musical outlook” -Ab Baars
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Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone, Arrangements – Ab Baars
Double Bass – Wilbert de Joode
Drums – Martin van Duynhoven
Trombone – Joost Buis
Recorded on 13 June 2005 at the Bimhuis, Amsterdam
