Avant Music News

Tompkins Square Records is offering new music from Ran Blake.

Ran Blake Releases New Album ‘Driftwoods’ on January 27, 2009

Ran Blake is an iconoclast. Since his 1961 collaboration with Jeanne Lee on RCA, Ran Blake has released 35 albums on such labels as ESP, Soul Note, Arista and hatOLOGY. His 2006 album on the Tompkins Square label, ‘All That Is Tied’, received 4 stars in Downbeat and earned top honors in the 2007 Penguin Guide to Jazz. Penguin’s editor Brian Morton and Wire Magazine hailed the record as a “masterpiece.”

For his new solo piano outing, ‘Driftwoods’, Ran salutes his favorite singers, interpreting songs popularized by Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, Hank Williams, Nat King Cole and more.

To celebrate the release, Ran will play a rare live solo piano performance on Eric Jackson’s ‘Eric in the Evening’ program on WGBH on March 18th, airing locally on 89.7FM Boston and streaming globally via wgbh.org.

For more on Ran Blake, visit www.ranblake.com

From Other Electricities Records:

Aether Obelisk is the fourth release in the Baja saga by prolific composer Daniel Vujanic. It arrives at a broad musical horizon, touching the borderlines of forms ranging from chamber music and psychedelia, to pop/jazz-infected electronic music. Aether Obelisk is a polymorphous monolith, unpredictable as ever, but definitely exploiting more vocal and repetitive elements than its predecessors. The overall mood is also less melancholic and nocturnal than previous Baja offerings. Some almost-tender sequences add more harmonic depth to the fractured signature sound of Vujanic´s suite-like compositions.

The sound is emotionally charged in a way that is as tightly woven as it is free-flowing at times. It’s loaded with acoustic and electric guitar textures ranging from folk to improv, synths, panoramic electronics, reverberating piano bits, horn sections, vibes, glockenspiel and multi-layered percussion – both live and programmed. Some various toys and small plastic objects left their mark as well. The recording process took place for almost a year. Vujanic’s goal was to create an electroacoustic environment with a soul, and provide various melodic counterpoints to the sometimes seemingly enigmatic changes, breaks and song developments: a coherent, thematic album rather than a mere compilation showcasing sonic diversity.

Assophon Records is a newly-launched label with three releases so far.

The Sea Donkeys-Live At The S.S. Marie Antoinette

” … a divinely ragged live blast that combines a more garage rocking taking on the communal folk breakdowns of The Cherry Blossoms with killer Shaggs/Godz style drum violence, drunk choir vocals and the kinda fidelity that makes it all sound like a great VU Bootleg. There are inspired covers of material like “It’s A Rainy Day” by Faust and Albert Ayler’s “Ghosts” (which wins out over countless lame indie free jazz versions by re-staging it as a melancholy avant rock dirge as played by Don Van Vliet and the Maher Shalal Has Baz orchestra) and the more rocking sections are a near perfect amalgam of primitive avant brut, stumble punk oblivion and beautiful melodic chord solos. Recommended. “David Keenan -volcanic Tongue

Spider Trio- Rendezvous

Spider Trio are Wally Shoup (alto sax), Jeffery Taylor (guitar) and Dave Abramson (drums). Wally Shoup is a legend in the free jazz/improv scene. He has been well documented over the years, releasing records with Thurston Moore, Chris Corsano, Paul Flathery, Nels Cline, Bill Horist and many others in various combos. Jeffery Taylor and Dave Abramson are key players in the ever incestuous Seattle subunderground musical community. Taylor is one half of Climax Golden Twins and Abramson leads the Diminished Men. This LP is a live document that blew all the minds in attendance. Take your BYG/FMP/ESP/ SUN/ America/AKBA imprints and the sounds they represented and you’ll have an idea of the force and power of this amazing trio. This is some of the finest free jazz of the modern era!

Factums- Future Primitive OST

Primitive Future indeed! Its 4000 a.d. and human kind’s fate from a binge of manifest destiny has finally collapsed on itself. Now we’re back to the basics. The jungle is in charge again. The Factums have crafted a soundtrack to this dark and mysterious place. A world where the listener is the prey and this record is the hunter. This is exploratory music, a melding of rusted out kraut debris, dead c. carnage and lost in time sci-fi rock moves.