Univers Zero News

March 3, 2009 — Mike

From Univers Zero:

Andy Kirk is back and Univers Zéro will be performing as a two-keyboard band from now on. We are planning to start to record our new CD, Clivages, in May.

March 2009 Concert Dates (some to be confirmed, yet)
Würzburg / Germany (CAFE CAIRO) March 17th
Linz/ Austria (POSTHOF) March 19th
Praha/ Czec Republic (PALAC AKROPOLIS) March 20 th Tickets: http://web.ticketstream.cz/czts/presentation.event.jsp?event=30020
Dresden/ Germany (JAZZWELTEN) March 21th
Wroclaw/ Poland March 22, Gothic Hall – 1 Purkyniego Street in Wroclaw. (4th Energy and Sound festival, 21-25 March)

April 2009 Univers Zéro in Mexico
Puebla Baroque Fringe Festival the 18 in Puebla (outdoors)
Teatro de la Ciudad Mexico City the 19
Ecatepec (festival) 24

June -
Les Tritonales, Le Triton, les Lilas, France
12 and 13 June, 2009
www.letriton.com
11 bis, rue du Coq Français – 93260 LES LILAS (Métro Mairie des Lilas)
tél : 01 49 72 83 13 – fax : 01 49 72 83 11 – email : contact@letriton.com
September

Univers Zéro will also be playing at RIO Festival 2009, September 20

http://www.rocktime.org/rio/

We are planning to play with Present at the end of the festival as a single band.
We hope it works out!

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Brown and Gratkowski at Diapason

March 3, 2009 — Mike

From New York’s Diapason:

Chris Brown, piano&electronics
& Frank Gratkowski, alto sax and clarinets

“WAKE,” electroacoustic duets

with an overture by the computer network band THE HUB:
“VAV”, a fixed media, multichannel work, based on the 6th letter of the hebrew alphabet

Saturday, March 28
8 PM
$10

Chris Brown, composer, pianist, and electronic musician, creates music for acoustic instruments with interactive electronics, for computer networks, and for improvising ensembles. His work also frequently involves the invention and performance of new electronic instruments. He is a Professor of Music and Co-Director of the Center for Contemporary Music (CCM) at Mills College in Oakland, California.

More info: www.cbmuse.com

Frank Gratkowski is an alto saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer based in Germany who has performed throughout Europe, the U.S. and Canada with some of the most prominent improvising musicians working today. He is featured on over 35 CD releases, including in solo, trio, and orchestral configurations. He teaches in Cologne, Berlin, and Arnhem, Netherlands, and collaborates with musicians across classical, traditional and free jazz styles.

More info: www.gratkowski.com

Celebrating the CD release of “Wake”, Gratkowski/ /Brown/Winant, Red Toucan Records. www3.sympatico.ca/cactus.red/toucan/index.htm

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KFJC Reviews

March 3, 2009 — Mike
Chris Cutler at the Hyperion Ensemble Spectrum...
Image via Wikipedia

From KFJC:

Tickmayer, Stevan Kovacs – “Cold Peace Counterpoints” – [Rer Megacorp]
A crazy cut-up tour de force of keyboards, string instruments, percussion, and sampling, all whirled together in Tickmayer’s compositional blender. Piano, organ, and harpsichord-type sounds are heard throughout, but it’s not all about keyboards; Track 7 goes heavy on electric guitar, and Track 9 features violin. Chaotic arrangements keep the surprises coming, with Tickmayer holding the throttle wide open for most of this 50-minute CD. Tracks 6 and 8 give us a bit of a breather before we dive back into the madness. Among the guests is Chris Cutler (Henry Cow, Art Bears) on drums/percussion.

Ellman, Liberty – “Ophiuchus Butterfly” – [Pi Recordings]
Album is named for the Butterfly nebula in the Ophiuchus (Oh-fee-YOU-cuss) constellation. Former Bay Area resident Liberty Ellman is a fine guitarist who now lives in New York City. This is not a guitar album, however; guitar interplays with alto and tenor saxes, tuba(!), bass, drums. Some electronics on “Snow Lips” and Borealis.

Halvorson, Mary and Walter, Weasel – “Opulence” – [Ug Explode]
Virtuoso playing from Brooklyn based composer and improviser Mary Halvorson on guitar and Oakland based Weasel Walter on drums (and clarinet mouthpiece!) makes for eight tracks of energetic, madly improvised insanity. Humorous, mostly fast-paced, genre defying – is it rock, jazz, experimental? Simultaneously strange and a good listen.

Emeralds – “What Happened” – [No Fun Productions]
Ambient drone: John Elliott (synth), Steve Hauschildt (synth), and Mark McGuire (guitar) form Emeralds, a Cleveland-based improv group who have been compared to Tangerine Dream. Shimmering synths leave you awash and “Alive in the Sea of Information”

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Bagatellen Reviews

March 3, 2009 — Mike
Wadada Leo Smith
Image by tom.beetz via Flickr

From Bagatellen:

Joe Maneri/Peter Dolger – Peace Concert
Duets between saxophonists and drummers are an important part of recorded improvisation, a distillation of action to breath and rhythm. The list is long, beginning in recorded jazz with the Sonny Rollins and Philly Jones duo reading of “Surrey with the Fringe on Top” for Blue Note and carrying on through such [...]

Wadada Leo Smith – Procession of the Great Ancestry
Trumpeter-composer Wadada Leo Smith’s second of two dates for Nessa Records is a true embodiment of the AACM Great Black Music aesthetic.Procession of the Great Ancestry is a very mature record, Smith’s concept of rhythm-units clearly defined, ripening aesthetically yet tied to a sense of history. By the early 1980s, Smith was resident in [...]

Jana Winderen – Heated: Live in Japan
Many inventions have reflected an atavistic need to aid man in his destruction of the planet, which have then developed benign, civilian applications: Radar, Nuclear Power, perhaps even Jerry Springer. And this is certainly true of a beloved device of professional field recorders everywhere: The Hydrophone.
First used in [...]

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Sonomu Reviews

March 3, 2009 — Mike

From Sonomu:

Another Electronic Musician, Patience (n5MD)
Perhaps “Another Electronic Musician” by name, but certainly not just another electronic musician by performance. First of all, few of the current younger (faster, louder) generation would take the word “patience” into their mouth, let alone title their album and practice it therein. Subtlety… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 08:20, 02 Mar 2009

Machinefabriek & Stephen Vitiello, Box Music (12k)
A collaboration that makes perfect sense, but which came about in a most unusual manner. Stephen Vitiello wrote from his home in Viriginia to Rutger Zuydervelt to order some CDs. An e-mail correspondence ensued and finally the two decided to collaborate. For two musicians so well-versed in… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 08:11, 02 Mar 2009

El Heath, A (Rather) Dead Sea Liner (CDR Dead Sea Liner)
El Heath plays sea shanties on deck of the ship of the damned, constantly struggling to be heard above the chatter and mumblings of its passangers. This five-track EP starts off sounding more like an old 78. El Heath performs on an out-of-tune piano further distorted by lo-fi recording acoustics… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 06:51, 02 Mar 2009

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Avantgarde Festival in Germany

March 3, 2009 — Mike

August 28-30 of this year will feature a German avantgarde festival focusing on Krautrock and similar musics.

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An AAJ Interview with Larry Ochs

March 3, 2009 — Mike

From All About Jazz:

Best known as a member of the Rova Saxophone Quartet, Mr. Ochs has recorded over two dozen albums in the past two decades plus with this ensemble. The material that Rova covers is diverse, challenging, and rewarding to both the band and listener alike, extending from raw, pure improvisation to complex composition (contributed by Mr. Ochs and band mates Steve Adams, Jon Raskin, Bruce Ackley in addition to Anthony Braxton, Tim Berne, John Carter, Muhal Richard Abrams, Jack DeJohnette, Barry Guy, Lindsay Cooper, Fred Frith, Robin Holcomb, Alvin Curran, and Terry Riley).

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