Source: Reverb News.

Over the years, several artists and producers have sought out sonic inspiration from that same solitude of the desert, but few are more attuned to its landscapes—and how to transform space into sound—than Grammy-nominated veteran synthesist and ambient music pioneer Steve Roach.

As a young motocross racer in Southern California in the early 1970s, Roach was immersed in progressive electronic music through listening to the likes of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream. He began collecting synthesizers shortly after, and at the turn of the next decade embarked on a musical journey fixated on space, silence, and the suspension of time.

Source: 15 questions.

I always have been a control-freak, especially during the vidnaObmana period, a bit less during Fear Falls Burning and Microphonics but still everything was structured and mapped out. It’s when I got invited to a recording session with Tomas Järmyr and Kristoffer Lo that I got exposed to the magical side of improvisation. At least when it works.

I went to Norway with a plan, some themes I created but from the first note we played together I became motivated by Kristoffer and Tomas’ incredible sense for improvisation and it just dragged me along. Didn’t touch any of the ‘scores’ I brought and the first baby steps in improvisation became a fact. It was a blast and I truly felt liberated, free of that constant pressure of preparation and focus in advance to what would follow.

From there on this all became a rollercoaster ride for me in terms of experience, adventure and touching upon a scene in which I could feel myself fully myself.

Source: All About Jazz.

Right place, right time, your scribe caught Smashing Humans playing a late night set at the original Nublu club in NYC’s Alphabet City, 19th April 2019. Intensity ensued, via a serrated prog-jazz extremity, sharply sculpted in its dynamic schizoid turning of sharp bends, its abrasive surface causing exciting distress. Smashing Humans were assembled by the Japanese violinist Sana Nagano, who’s now been dwelling in NYC since 2010, and in the USA for two decades. At that 2019 gig she may have seemed like an amazing new discovery, but it turns out that your scribe would have probably already witnessed her amongst the swollen ranks of the Creative Music Studio or Adam Rudolph’s Go:Organic Orchestra. Nagano styles herself as a ‘noise violinist,’ and indeed her riffs and solos are often heightened by a bright neon distortion haze, but her instrument does also sound very much like a violin, most of the time.

Source: ANFTD #102: Jen Shyu.

Jen Shyu visits A Noise From The Deep Podcast! Groundbreaking multilingual vocalist, composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer and performance artist, Jen comes by with her latest recording, Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses. Catch Jen as co-founder of M³: Mutual Mentorship for Musicians and catch their NYC fest June 16–22. Great music, Dave and Jen also talk about Jen’s work with Sumi Tonooka as part of M³.

Source: 15 questions.

Sietse van Erve’s Spectrum is out via his personal bandcamp profile. About the background to the album, he notes: “Spectrum is a continuation of my interest in the perception of time, and at the same time an acknowledgement of me being on the autism spectrum. I got diagnosed with this about 2 1/2 years ago, which was quite the shock for me at that moment. But in the past 2 1/2 years I have learned so much about this. This album, with my interest in minimalism, opposed to bombastic music, is a form to embrace my autism and to accept it as it is. I didn’t change as a person, but I do know myself better.”

Source: Sun-13.

An album inspired by drone overlords Sunn O))) and Earth, Spring Stories is arguably Régimbeau finest moment yet. So far removed from his previous body of work, to the point where no artist so far this year has made a greater creative leap.

Featuring appearances from Frederic D. Oberland and The Necks percussionist, Tony Buck, Spring Stories tells a story of the last two years. Chaos in solitude with a vast range of emotions laid bare during these five compositions.

Source: All About Jazz

Alto saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos has successfully made a deep impression on the improvising scene of NYC during what amounts to almost the last decade. Still youthful, his raging complexity and conceptual attitude have the backing of a dedication to finding gigs, or even promoting his own events, and of always seeking out unfamiliar players for adventurous encounters. Stylistically, it’s virtually impossible to avoid mentioning John Zorn as an attitudinal and tonal precedent.

Source: All About Jazz.

Spinifex will make an extremely welcome return to the Moers Festival in early June 2022. This heavily international group specialises in a collective meshing, combining the precision of composed themes with ample leeway for crashing over the barriers, splattering down onto a grassy field of wild improvisatory freedom. Heavy activity over a decade’s span makes this stance so staunch with experience that any perversions of the agreed form can be confidently executed in the knowledge that Spinifex always knows where the next cooperative contusion will appear.