Cuneiform Releases for May/June 2016

THAT :: CONCERT CHAMPÊTRE
Unpopular Classics (Poulenc)
Live at QUEERING SOUND, 06 June 2021
Rhizome DC, Washington DC USA

THAT :: JS Adams + Christopher Mathews-Larsen
RECORDING :: Steve Sanford
MIX :: JS ADAMS

THAT :: CONCERT CHAMPÊTRE :: LIVE

Am7 CHORDS! MOTORIK BEATS! CICADAS! BUZZSAWS! KAZOOS!

LIVE @ QUEERING SOUND 2021 :: 13 JUNE 2021 :: RHIZOME DC :: WDC

CK BARLOW :: SAMPLER / ELECTRONICS
CHRISTOPHER MATHEWS-LARSEN :: GUITAR / DRUM PROGRAMMING / AZTEC DEATH WHISTLE
JS ADAMS :: PROCESSING + EFFECTS / FIELD RECORDINGS / LOOPS / AZTEC DEATH WHISTLE / AUDIO PLAYBACK
JEFF BARSKY :: GUITAR
JOSH MAXWELL :: BASS
+
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION :: KAZOOS
AUDIENCE COORDINATOR :: CHRIS VIDELL

RECORDING :: STEVE SANDERS

ONE CHORD PONIES :: A LIFE OF INDETERMINATE REWARD

DECONSTRUCTION/RE-ADAPTATION OF LA VOIX HUMAINE (THE HUMAN VOICE), AN OPERA BY FRANCIS POULENC BASED ON THE ONE-ACT PLAY BY JEAN COCTEAU. HELLO? HELLO!

LIVE @ QUEERING SOUND 2021 :: 15 JUNE 2021 :: RHIZOME DC :: WDC

[ live performers ] 
CK BARLOW :: SAMPLER / ELECTRONICS
CHRISTOPHER MATHEWS-LARSEN :: GUITAR
JS ADAMS :: PROCESSING + EFFECTS / FIELD RECORDINGS + LOOPS / SAMPLES / CALIFONE + PREPARED VINYL / AUDIO PLAYBACK
JEFF BARSKY :: GUITAR
JOSH MAXWELL :: BASS

[ digital contributitors ]
BLEEDINGBLACKWOOD . {AN} EEL . JASSIE RIOS . ROSHI NASEHI . SARAH O’HALLORAN . KATIE MACYSHYN 

RECORDING :: STEVE SANDERS
MIX :: JS ADAMS

LA VOIX HUMAINE :: 13 JUNE 2021 :: LIVE

Buy it here
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/other-worlds

Andrew Niven – drums, percussion, synth, sequencers
Eric Klerks – bass, 8-string guitar, synthbass
Max Kutner – electric and acoustic guitar

with
Mike Keneally ¬– keyboards, guitar, samples
Jonathan Sindelman – keyboards, organ
Daniel Rosenboom – trumpet
Jessica Lurie – baritone sax
Gregg Bendian ¬– vibes

Produced by Mike Keneally and Android Trio

Concentric Lines

ANDROID TRIO "Concentric Lines" from "Other Worlds" (Cuneiform Records)

From our upcoming release "Somnambulist" coming out on Cuneiform records January 20th! Preorder is available now here: https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/somnambulist

The Kandinsky Effect  - Somnambulist

X (Part 1)

Gyp The Blood

A junction is the point at which several things converge. For the visionary and award-winning jazz guitarist Rez Abbasi, his new band Junction weaves together musical currents he’s spent his career navigating. Abbasi has been at the center of some of the most enthralling and culturally expansive music of the past two decades, and his Cuneiform debut Behind the Vibration introduces a bracing new body of music, a sinewy 21st century approach to jazz-rock inspired by his far-flung influences. 

“Everything I do musically is stimulated by call and response,” Abbasi says. “I did the Acoustic Quartet project of covers from the ‘70s jazz-rock period and that impacted me to want to do an electric project of all originals. The new album reflects a continuum of what I’ve been doing all along – finding fresh orchestrations to present my music through. In some ways this project connects me more directly back to my first love, the energy that comes out of rock music. I wrote new tunes for this band and it was time for all these musical worlds to collide.”

Junction, the electric project that Abbasi formed to bring his original tunes to life, features Mark Shim on tenor saxophone and the electronic MIDI Wind Controller, Ben Stivers on keyboards, B-3 organ and Rhodes, and drummer Kenny Grohowski. The band is a supremely maleable ensemble that has forged a poised and texturally accute group approach. While exploring a vivid palette of electronic sounds and aggressive grooves, Junction maintains the dynamics, precise calibration, and interactive imperative of an inspired jazz ‘acoustic’ combo.

Sonically surprising, the album opens with “Holy Butter,” a piece inspired by a collaboration with classical South Indian dancers. In the first of many sonic feints, what sounds like a deeply funky bass solo is actually Shim getting down with his MIDI Wind Controller. Indeed, not having a defined bass player is a significant element of Junction, opening up the band’s sound as Stivers and Shim alternate low end responsibilities. 

Inspired by the Arab Spring, “Groundswell” is a slowly ascending tune that, while originally written for another ensemble, comes home in Junction, with Stivers on B-3—“the first electric keyboard instrument,” Abbasi notes—and a searing Abbasi solo followed by Shim’s oragami-angular tenor.  If that piece evokes the mounting of external pressure, “Uncommon Sense” suggests a wending internal spiritual journey with a hypnautically sinuous opening guitar line. As Abbasi puts it, “The title refers to a ‘sense’ that’s beyond our five and one that’s more difficult to connect to due to the clutter in our minds.” Before long, the becalmed lyricism gives way to a frantic search powered by Grohowski’s exceptionally deft trap work. 

A sparsely decorated noir scene that emerges and departs without pausing for a solo, “And I You” is a brief, cinematic mood piece that arrives mid-album like a shimmering urban oasis. “Self-Brewing” is one of the album’s most fusion-y pieces, with a steeplechase theme introduced by Abbasi and Shim on Midi Wind Controller. The album closes with “Matter Falls,” a mid-tempo anthem that hints at South Asian cadences. Both grand and invitingly intimate, it’s a crunching tune that points to further explorations. Clearly, Junction is just one stop on a spectacularly rich and incident-filled sojourn. 

With this newest album, Behind the Vibration, realized via his new electric Junction, Abbasi takes another bold step, embracing his rock ‘n’ roll roots with a bear hug that encompasses post-bop, South Asian traditions, and state of the art sonics. “More than anything that I’ve ever recorded, this album is the convergence of everything I’m interested in,” he says. “The musicians I’ve chosen are versatile enough to pull it off. It’s not only all of the influences that have come up to this point, it’s also the process of merging it with the technology of today. This is music that could’ve only happened now.” 

Rez Abbasi & Junction, "Self-Brewing" from 'Behind the Vibration' (out May 20 on Cuneiform Records)

Deus Ex Machina, "Figli" from 'Devoto' (out June 24 on Cuneiform Records)

The Claudia Quintet, "JFK Beagle" from 'Super Petite' (out June 24 on Cuneiform Records)

Bent Knee, "Leak Water" from 'Say So' (out May 20 on Cuneiform Records)

Thumbscrew (M. Formanek, T. Fujiwara, M. Halvorson), "Sampsonian Rhythms" from 'Convallaria'

Nice Day for a Lynching-Kenneth Patchen

The bloodhounds look like sad old judges
In a strange court. They point their noses
At the Negro jerking in their noose;
His feet spread crowlike above these
Honorable men who laugh as he chokes.

I don’t know this black man.
I don’t know these white men.

But I know that one of my hands
Is black, and one white. I know that
One part of me is being strangled, 
While another part horribly laughs.

Until it changes, 
I shall be forever killing; and be killed.

Recorded by The Claudia Quintet +1 with Special Guest-Kurt Elling


The Bloodhounds

Recorded at Avatar Studios NYC May 2012 (Katherine Miller)
Mastered at Pinch Recording NYC May 2020 (E. Scott Lindner)

Personnel:
Matt Steckler - alto/soprano sax, flute
Curtis Hasselbring - trombone
Todd Neufeld - guitars
Dave Ambrosio - bass
Satoshi Takeishi - drums & percussion

01 Night Cravings - Master A 44

Cuneiform Records is an independent record label releasing adventurous, boundary-bursting music by artists from around the world. Founded in 1984.

Bent Knee, "Leak Water" from 'Say So' (out May 20 on Cuneiform Records)

Cuneiform Records

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