avant mix

Cuneiform Releases for October 2015

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This special "Name Your Price" compilation album, 'The Albums of 2015', features 1.5 hours of creative and fun music over the course of 16 tracks all of which was released or reissued by Cuneiform Records in 2015. Immediately download it, right here: https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-albums-of-2015

So, what did Cuneiform release in 2015? You can hear Cuneiform’s year of releases in this compilation album, 'The Albums of 2015' featuring tracks from all 16 of our 2015 releases.

What kind of music is on it? Orchestras and Big Bands!!!! LARGE ensembles performing New/Creative Music, Jazz and/or genre-bending Jazz/Beyond including Adam Rudolph/Go: Organic Guitar Orchestra; guitarists Henry Kaiser and Ray Russell (US & UK) with a ten-piece ensemble, Rob Mazurek Ensembles’ Exploding Star Orchestra; and two albums by Michael Gibbs and the NDR Bigband, one of which features Bill Frisell's Music, along with a Frisell set list. New cutting-edge jazz & beyond recordings by bands from around the world, including The Kandinsky Effect (Paris & NYC); Le Rex (Switzerland); Pixel (Norway); Raoul Björkenheim’s Ecstasy (Finland) and schnellertollermeier (Switzerland). New recordings by experimental/art rock/avant progressive bands such as Sonar (Switzerland); Guapo (UK); Schnellertollermeier (Switzerland); and a reissue of the 1989 album, 'In This Life', by American Rock in Opposition associates, Thinking Plague. We released the first-ever vinyl-only reissue of French electronic musician/guitarist Richard Pinhas-Heldon’ 1978 'Chronolyse', which he initially conceived as a Moog tribute to Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic Dune (which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2015). We also released two previously-unreleased archival jazz recordings: a CD of 1966 and 1970 archival recordings by the late great British saxophonist Mike Osborne, and a CD/DVD set of the British avant-group Soft Machine with Alan Holdsworth, filmed and recorded live at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival. Looking over these 2015 releases, one can’t help noticing that many feature some of the world’s most acclaimed guitarists, including Bill Frisell, Alan Holdsworth, Ray Russell, Henry Kaiser, Richard Pinhas, and Raoul Bjorkenheim, to name a few.

We invite you to listen to Cuneiform's 'The Albums of 2015'.

Immediately download it, right here: 
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-albums-of-2015

We're honored to have worked with and released albums by some of the best musicians in the world in 2015.

Cuneiform Records' Year In Review: 2015

Jazz

2014

müsik

EXCLUSIVE and EXCITING!

Japan's Happy Family are back and they are back with a vengence!

This track will appear on their upcoming 2014 album, but this is the demo of the track. 

With the band's permission, it is exclusively being streamed here to give you all a taste of how good they sound these days and to build some interest towards their upcoming, new release!

Happy Family "Rodrigo" demo

Out May 13, 2014

[WATCH] The Official Music Video for "New Teles": 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rpqrTVQ7_k 

2014 sees Mercury Prize nominated rock-jazzers Led Bib celebrate their 10th Anniversary with the release of their fifth studio album, and third for American label Cunieform, 'The People in Your Neighbourhood'. On the same date the band also release a limited edition vinyl album of live music entitled 'The Good Egg,' recorded over two London shows last year. 

Led Bib retains its original line-up of 10 years ago, when the infamous five met at Middlesex University and formed the band for Mark Holub’s university project. The group are bandleader Mark Holub, drums; Pete Grogan, saxophone; Chris Williams, saxophone; Liran Donin, double bass and Toby McLaren keyboards/ piano. Looking back on a decade of music that takes in seven albums, hundreds of live shows and a string of accolades, Led Bib can feel content that they have punched through genre barriers to fly the flag for progressive music in the UK and that they forged a path where a host of new exciting bands would follow. 

Musically, the album is a coming of age of sorts – the pounding grooves are still very much in evidence, but there are more introspective moments too, showing a maturity that only ten years on the road can achieve. The album was recorded under the watchful eye of Grammy winning engineer Richard Woodcraft (Radiohead, Neil Young), with the band using monitors only (no headphones) and the result is more akin to a powerful live show than a studio album, and is perhaps the reason it has such a cinematic sound. 

The album’s title 'The People in Your Neighbourhood' is taken from Holub’s fondness for the Sesame Street sketches of the same name. The concept brought about a curious insight into Led Bib’s fans too, when the band asked ‘pledgers’ to their Kickstarter campaign (the crowd funding campaign which raised funds to make the album) what their occupations were. A fascinating array of jobs ensued and feature in the album’s artwork - from psychotherapist and roofer to philosopher and ad. executive, plus of course fellow musicians and artists.

Led Bib, "New Teles" from 'The People In Your Neighbourhood' (Cuneiform Records)

Happy Family RETURNS! 

'Minimal Gods' out September 30, 2014 on Cuneiform Records. 

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Happy Family, "Slide" from 'Minimal Gods' (Cuneiform Records)

Out december 8th, 2014 on www.elparaisorecords.com

3rd album from Causa Sui drummer Jakob Skøtt expands his one-man-band experiments into vast new territories. 

Taurus Rising is built from motoric synthesizer arpeggios and heavy duty live drumming. But rather than simply worshipping endless repetition, Skøtt reaches an impressive array of expressions on each of these five mini epics - each song is ALIVE - frequently whirling off track like the wind direction in a sand storm, leading to some mind-altering melodies and rhythms that’ll keep you on your toes. Washed currents of pulsating analogue synthesizer scores, pre-fusion jazz-sensibility and fuzz’ed out electronics all tied together by fevered rhythms.

Jakob Skøtt is the drummer in revered danish experimental psych act Causa Sui and has previously collaborated with artists from Tortoise and Sunburned Hand of the Man. In a number of different outfits he has also released thru esteemed labels such as Morr Music, Ghostly International, Darla Records. Furthermore Jakob has done exclusive live visuals and artworks for Amon Düül II, Earthless, Manual, cult actress Asia Argento as well as The Roadburn Festival.

Taurus Rising is released as a single LP as well as a 2xCD package also containing his previous album Amor Fati. All drums for each albums were improvised in a single afternoon.


Jakob Skøtt: Pleiades (Taurus Rising)

"The brainchild of guitarist Dave Miller, Algernon walks a thin line between melodically driven post-rock and instrumental unconventionality. The quintet, based in Chicago, has drawn comparisons to hometown compatriots Tortoise — thanks to a vibraphone and a few jazz-inflected melodies — but it very much has established its own voice, particularly on Ghost Surveillance, its sophomore album. This album places greater emphasis on synthesizers and sprawling song structures, but at its core is the combination of accessibility and technicality that has defined Miller’s style. Noisy, circular rock riffs transform to tranquil, wandering passages. “Timekiller,” the album’s fourth track, is a beautiful, buoyant number — and one of the band’s best creations to date. As always, the vibraphone work of percussionist Katie Wiegman offers a warm, harmonic accompaniment, but the group’s best-supporting player may be drummer Cory Healey, whose wild fills and drum-and-bass moments imbue Ghost Surveillance with explosive bursts of energy." 
– ALARM (best albums of the week) 

"Algernon draw inspiration from the jazz-tinged post-rock machinations of Tortoise, Chicago's foremost group in the genre. The group's style, however, veers into the louder and noisier elements of rock music. Led by composer/guitarist Dave Miller, Algernon uses two guitars, bass, drums and a vibraphone to combine gorgeous melodies with psychedelic effects and rock beats." 
– Center Stage Chicago 

"Algernon is one of those bands...that is pushing the boundaries of rock...and more to the perimeters. They obviously don't care if it can be pegged to a genre, they only care if it's good, and it is!" 
– Jazz Chicago

Algernon are one of Chicago's fastest rising young bands. All instrumental, they feature a unique line-up of dual guitars, vibes, bass and drums. The band is led by guitarist and composer Dave Miller. The other members of Algernon are second guitarist Toby Summerfield (who also was a member of Larval for many years), vibes player Katie Wiegman, bassist Tom Perona, and drummer Cory Healey. Miller formed Agernon as a way to combine a large number of influences of various types of music he liked in a unique way, without any one of them being the dominant sound. These influences include experimental rock (60s psychedelic rock, Jimi Hendrix, 13th Floor Elevators), kraut-rock (Harmonia, Can and Neu!), post-rock (Tortoise, Isotope 217, Chicago Underground, Godspeed!, Talk Talk) the late 70s art-punk and no-wave scene (Sonic Youth, Glenn Branca) and avant-garde jazz. A very important point about Algernon's music is despite Dave having a strong jazz background, Algernon is not a improvising band. The music that Dave writes for the group is basically wholly scored; there is a very small amount of improvisation and what improvisation there is, is more about atmosphere(s) than about solos. 

Ghost Surveillance is Algernon's third album and is their first on a label able to reach a wider audience. Their music brings a lot of influences together in surprising and entertaining ways. A quick listen to the download sample will show you why we have such great enthusiasm for this band, as they manage to be quite accessible while pushing stylistic boundaries and exploring new paths.

Algernon, "Broken Lady" from 'Ghost Surveillance' (Cuneiform Records)

The brutal-jazz power trio Schnellertollermeier doesn't screw around. Their uncompromising attitude is even apparent before you hear a note of their music -- it's right there in that deliberate tongue-twister of a name. Their fresh and uncompromising mix of jazz, punk, rock, sound and free improvised music, combined with great musicianship, interplay and a lot of energy, immediately hits the bullseye!

The three men behind the music, guitarist Manuel Troller, bassist Andi Schnellmann, and drummer David Meier, are all eclectic musicians. Schnellmann earned a degree from the Jazz School of Lucerne; Troller studied with British guitar legend Fred Frith and has collaborated with famed U.S. jazz drummer/composer Gerry Hemingway, among others; Meier's ability to bring his own voice into many different musical contexts has made him one of the most sought-after drummers of his generation and he has toured in most parts of Europe, as well as Russia, China and Japan.

In 2006, the three musicians, all around the age of 20, started the trio. Very quickly after their first concerts and their their 2008 debut album, Holz, they become something of a 'underground buzz' in Switzerland, leading to many further appearances. While Holz mostly featured traditional structures of composing revealing their eclectic influences (ranging from Tim Berne to John Abercrombie to Mr. Bungle etc.), Schnellertollermeier soon started working on new material, seeking a more personal sound, both compositionally and improvisationally. The result of this work, combined with the many concerts the group was playing, was their second album Zorn Einen Ehmer Üttert Stem, which was enthusiastically received critically and led to appearances in the most important clubs as well as festivals in Switzerland and Austria.

The group now had a more clear and more original roadmap they were traveling: the group's 'traditional jazz' elements were being subsumed by the brute energy from rock and experimental music, as well as improvisational soundscapes, minimal music and, finally, jazz in the modern, broad, experimental sense. Additionally the idea of a band sounding like one compact organism, with every element having its own importance and clear function, found its result on X. On X, the traditional function of the instruments - the classic power trio of bass, guitar and drums - have clearly been expanded, the bands energy as well as their compositional and performance qualities are even more intense and original than before. The songs, whether long or short, crushing or ambient, have absolutely no padding on them.

schnellertollermeier, "X" (excerpt) from 'X' (Cuneiform Records)

"...a mind-bending, eclectic and challenging sonic stream that doesn’t contain even a shred of pretentiousness, but is full of creativity, individuality, expressivity and outside of the box thinking." - Igloo
"Come to this show blindfolded and you’ll have a hard time believing the music is being created by just three people." – Capital Bop

"The Kandinsky Effect is an accomplished band not because they implement electronics into jazz music, but rather for how they utilize electronic configurations to make their music radiate." – Audiophile Audition

"...five solid years of recording and touring have fine-tuned their approach, stretching out beyond the confines of jazz into many directions, with electronics, funk grooves, bop, touches of punk, progressive rock, ambient and much more....not content to just re-tread what’s been done before them, but determined to break new ground at every turn, all the while keeping their sound completely listenable and satisfying." – Exposé

On Somnambulist, The Kandinsky Effect wields its musical power in a welcoming way. Their third album isn't form-eschewing free jazz, nor are the tonalities the trio employs particularly "out". The real revelation -- and revolution -- comes simply in the way saxophonist Warren Walker, bassist Gael Petrina, and drummer Caleb Dolister organize sound.

The trio is a purist's nightmare -- and not only that of a jazz purist either. Since their first, self-titled album came out in 2010, The Kandinsky Effect has been boldly blending jazz with elements of everything from hip-hop to electronic music, making for an idiosyncratic amalgam that never goes exactly where you might expect it to;  nothing can completely prepare you for its marriage of groove, atmosphere, and incendiary playing.
Bandleader Walker feels the album is the most effectively conceived collection of what he wryly calls the group's "nerd music" to date. "I feel like I had a clearer idea of what I was looking for in the sound of my compositions and how to approach writing for this group," he says, "it's a sort of coming-of-age piece."

The ability to incorporate a broad range of musical, geographical, and emotional influences into their music is at the core of The Kandinsky Effect's makeup. Formed 2007 in Paris, France, the original lineup included Petrina and Parisian drummer Gautier Garrigue. In 2010 they recorded their first album, The Kandinsky Effect. While influenced by hip-hop and electronics, the album was much more rooted in jazz and featured mostly acoustic instrumentation. Dolister joined for 2013's Synesthesia, which began to expand the band's sound, blending everything from Petrinas fondness for electronica to Dolister's love of heavy rock bands like Meshuggah, and Walker’s unique approach to composition and electronic soundscapes. 

Over the years, the group has traveled extensively, performing multiple trips and tours in Europe, Asia, and North America, perfecting what Dolister calls their "intellectual groove instrumental music." And from the slip-sliding beats and slithering sax lines of opening track "Copalchi Distress Signal" to the insistent pulse and layered, lyrical melodies of closing cut "Muji," there's a feeling of the refinement process reaching fruition on Somnambulist.

The Kandinsky Effect, "Somnambulist" from 'Somnambulist' (Cuneiform Records)

"Beautifully crafted instrumental music of the highest standard."
– Postcards From The Yellow Room

"Guapo take classic prog tropes and revivify them...brazenly and gloriously, it brandishes all the hallmarks of golden-era prog rock, but given a steroid boost and stripped of ego."
– The Quietus

"The foursome's sound is fashioned from coordinated chaos, discordant harmony, stimulating but dark auditory shades and graphic musical de-construction."
– Audiophile Audition

"...continues the upward trajectory of development for the band...this is a killer of a progressive work..."
– DPRP

"[Guapo] are conversant with the complex language of R.I.O...their trick is to add an urgent, assertive rock dynamic, which wrests their knotty harmonies and shifting time signatures from the sphere of contemporary classical chamber music towards something direct and gutsy."
– Prog

Celebrating 20 years in the game, the much-admired instrumental, experimental rock band Guapo are celebrating by releasing ‘Obscure Knowledge’, their explosive new album and tenth release!

The group started their life as a heavy bass/drums duo playing post-hardcore, noisy rock, but in the two decades since, they have expanded their instrumentation and their stylistic references to become one of Europe's most highly respected 'muscular and modern' experimental/progressive rock bands. 

Centered around founding member and extraordinary drummer David J. Smith, the group on the album also features three additional heavy-weights of British experimental rock: 

Kavus Torabi-guitar (also of Knifeworld, Cardiacs, Gong)
Emmett Elvin-keyboards (also of Chrome Hoof, Knifeworld)
James Sedwards-bass (also of Thurston Moore Band, Chrome Hoof)

The album's 43 minute long track is a dynamic, fluid beast that takes the listener on a scenic journey through loud New York minimalism, celestial drones, avant rock, kosmiche-noise, rockin' riffs and way beyond.
 
Smith, who is also a sculptor as well as drummer, looks after the aesthetic considerations of Guapo and is keen to provide a backstory for their albums. Smith explains: "The title of the piece of music and album is derived from the psychoactive rituals of various Native American people who are said to 'tap into obscure knowledge' when performing certain rituals and rites of passage." 

Guapo, "Obscure Knowledge I" [Radio edit] from 'Obscure Knowledge' (Cuneiform Records)

"Mazurek and company channel electric Miles, Sun Ra, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago to make a recording that is cosmic, spiritual, raw, and powerful."
– Avant Music News

“Inspired by years of living in Brazil, Chicago cornet player Rob Mazurek ... mixes jazz fusion influenced by Miles Davis’s early 70s output with Brazilian Tropicalia and electronica. The result is a psychedelic, spacey, multi-layered electro-acoustic trip; epic and, at times, intense and scary."
– The Jazz Breakfast

"I thought the whole band was exceptional. Very shocking, actually, to see how well they absorbed all of that Sun Ra influence and went on to do their own thing...they've absorbed all the things that are relevant so they can take all of that and make their own statement...they sound great to me."
– Amiri Baraka after hearing the music on Disc 1

Composer, cornetist, electronic & acoustic sound specialist and musical director Rob Mazurek leads his largest regular ensemble, the Exploding Star Orchestra through one of his most ambitious recordings.

While ‘Galactic Parables: Volume 1’ is a self-contained cosmos, marked by colliding melodic lines and startlingly beautiful passages, as the title indicates, it’s part of a larger work. Ever since Exploding Star Orchestra’s debut recording, Mazurek has been gradually building an epic science fiction opera inspired by the writings of Samuel R. Delany and Stanislaw Lem. With ‘Galactic Parables’ his vast speculative realm is coming more clearly into focus with an apocalyptic vision of alternate universes, machine reproduction run amuck, and the colonization of distant planets. ‘Galactic Parables’ “is the first record where we’re getting close to hitting on the libretto for this future opera,” says Mazurek, who by both inclination and geography is linked to a constellation of Chicago avant-garde pioneers.

Ultimately what makes the record so enthralling on both the flight into the cosmos and the return journey is that the Exploding Star Orchestra brings together a creatively charged cast of improvisers:

Rob Mazurek - cornet, electronics, direction (I/II)
Damon Locks - text, voice, electronics (I/II)
Angelica Sanchez - piano (I/II)
Jeff Parker - guitar (I/II)
John Herndon - drums (I/II)
Matthew Lux - electric bass (I/II)
Matthew Bauder - tenor sax, clarinet (I/II)
Chad Taylor - drums (I)
Guilherme Ganado - keyboard, samplers, synth, voice (I)
Mauricio Takara - cavaquinho, electronics, percussion (I)
Nicole Mitchell - flutes, voice (II)

All of these musicians have performed and recorded together under Mazurek’s leadership in various ensembles and configurations. In many ways, Exploding Star Orchestra is the mothership, the “conceptual, compositional and philosophical center of all my work.” Mazurek says. 
The band came together in 2005 when the Chicago Cultural Center and the Jazz Institute commissioned Mazurek to create a vehicle that could encompass the disparate styles and ideologies of avant-garde music unfolding in Chicago. Conceived as a one-off event, Exploding Star took on a life of its own, and has continued to evolve reflecting the transient nature of musicians’ lives. Each subsequent Exploding Star Orchestra project has featured an evolving cast of players. ‘Galactic Parables’ brings Mazurek one giant step closer to realizing his oversized vision.

The universe is a very big place. Rob Mazurek is doing his part to fill it with glorious sound. 


Rob Mazurek / Exploding Star Orchestra, "The Arc Of Slavery #72" from 'Galactic Parables: Volume 1'

Spaced is previously unreleased studio recordings recorded in early/mid 1969 by the "classic" Soft Machine trio line-up of Hugh Hopper [bass], Mike Ratledge [electric piano/organ] and Robert Wyatt [drums]. These heavily manipulated/ looped/etc. recordings were originally presented as the backdrop to a multi-media work entitled Spaced. After it's week-long performance, the tapes were forgotten for over two decades until rediscovered by Mike King. These recordings feature the band at their most radical, and while they would never again use the studio in such an extreme fashion, the work done here definitely influenced later works such as Third and Hugh's 1984.

Soft Machine, "Spaced Two" from 'Spaced' (Cuneiform Records)

"...a quirky, catchy blend of pop hooks and jazz-centric soloing...it's rare for a group so young to emerge with such a fully formed and distinctive concept, but Pixel seems to have accomplished just that."
– AllAboutJazz

“The first thirty seconds of this album was enough to tell me that I would probably like Norwegian band Pixel. I did...this band has something new to say musically and produces tunes that are toe-tappingly, wantonly catchy."
– London Jazz News

"...unique and compelling."
– Expose

The award-winning Norwegian jazz quartet Pixel is in the vanguard of a scene brimming with exceptional young musicians, charting an exhilarating, improvisation-steeped jazz path infused with the cathartic energy of indie rock. Pixel’s third album Golden Years captures the next step in the band’s rapid evolution.

Pixel consists of double bassist and vocalist Ellen Andrea Wang, drummer Jon Audun Baar, trumpeter Jonas Kilmork Vemøy, and saxophonist Harald Lassen (with everyone contributing vocals).

Pixel tends toward translucent textures, tight orchestration and pop-inflected songcraft. While the sound is essentially acoustic, Vemøy and Lassen increasingly employ subtle effects that provide deeper textural depth to the already charged mélange of bright harmonies and protean rhythmic thrust.

Golden Years is the result of Pixel’s bustling 2014, a year in which the quartet played nearly 100 gigs (while also each pursuing projects of their own). When they started the recording process at the end of the year, everyone brought new songs to the table, tunes documented over five intensive days in the studio. Together these extraordinary musicians created an expansive album and sound unlike any other band on the scene. Still growing and discovering what they’re capable of, the musicians of Pixel are in their prime, and the group’s third album makes a compelling case that these are the best of times on the Norwegian scene.

Pixel, "Nothing Beats Reality" from 'Golden Years' (Cuneiform Records)

Le Rex, "Le Clic" from 'Wild Man' (Cuneiform Records)

"I...was stunned by his Hendrix meets late era Coltrane approach."
– Guitar Moderne

"Despite the boilingly hot drive...influenced by Cream, Lifetime, the Jimi Hendrix Experience (and perhaps more notionally the Pete Cosey/Reggie Lucas version of the Miles Davis group), there's a lyrical side to the guitarist’s playing as well...Excellent."
– Point Of Departure

"...out jazz with lots of sass and vigor...recalls the thornier side of the ECM Records catalog, especially the works of fellow Scandinavians Edward Vesala and Terje Rypdal. Björkenheim attacks the guitar the way the late great Sonny Sharrock did - like Coltrane and Ayler “attacked” their saxophones...yet blues is never very far away. There’s also the chunky focus of pre-Mahavishnu John McLaughlin...The way RB cross-pollinates between jazz and rock recalls fellow traveler Nels Cline, and the results are similar: Oblique swing, gnarly noise, predictably unpredictable, swell."
– Icon

Ecstasy is usually an all too fleeting experience offering the briefest glimpse at transcendence. But a heightened sense of consciousness and discovery manifests throughout Out of the Blue, the transporting second album by composer and guitar maestro Raoul Björkenheim and his extraordinary Finnish quartet Ecstasy.
Featuring the celebrated drummer Markku Ounaskari, the young and dauntingly prolific bassist Jori Huhtala and saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen, Ecstasy has forged more than a signature sound. Over the course of five years the musicians have honed a supremely interactive modus operandi marked by unstable textures, rapidly shifting meters, and emotionally charged melodic flights. Earthy, pristine and unmistakably Nordic, the music evokes the grandeur of Finnish landscapes and the hothouse intimacy of a tight-knit Helsinki scene where the musicians regularly convene to refine their volatile sound.

“I always felt there’s something special about having a band,” Björkenheim says. “An all-star session can be good too, but the thing I’m missing nowadays in jazz is really good bands playing together tightly, turning on a dime together, and especially improvising together.” True to Raoul's statement, this is a band effort, and like all great bands, the sum is greater than the parts. With 2 years additional experience together for this album, everything is upped from the last one: the compositions, the improvisations, the ensemble work and the solos!

Raoul Björkenheim / eCsTaSy, "Uptown" from 'Out Of The Blue' (Cuneiform Records)

Far too many groups are described using the words "nobody sounds like them," but with Switzerland's Sonar, it's a description of rare verisimilitude. At a time when most guitarists' acumen is measured in notes per second, Sonar is, instead, the confluence of rigorously considered writing, collective restraint, and a sound instantly recognizable as much for what is not there as for what is. A musical animal that manages to engage the mind while hitting the heart and the feet (despite its disposition towards complex polyrhythms), to call SONAR "instrumental rock" is unfairly reductionist for a group whose purview extends beyond progressive rock into contemporary classicism...certainly minimalism...a subtle taste of jazz...and, on its latest album, Black Light, perhaps even a hint of surf music described by the group's primary composer, guitarist Stephan Thelen, as "Duane Eddy Meets Jackson Pollock."

Thelen may cite King Crimson, the compositional rigour of Nik Bärtsch, and minimalist composer Steve Reich amongst SONAR's more obvious touchstones but, just as its previous albums did, Black Light manages to come out of the gate sounding like none of them. An integrated team of players who place music ahead of ego, guitarists Thelen and Bernhard Wagner relentlessly eschew flashy gymnastics and even largely avoid the usual arsenal of effects beyond a touch of reverb and a bit of distortion; Christian Kuntner is a lithe, dancing and eminently intuitive bassist while, at the same time, providing a potently visceral foundation; and Manuel Pasquinelli accomplishes the seemingly impossible feat of simultaneously delivering multiple rhythms in real time.

Black Light also represents the first time Sonar has recorded with an outside producer in tow. And what a producer: David Bottrill, whose work as a producer and/or engineer, in addition to Crimson, Peter Gabriel and Tool, also includes time spent with Rush, Smashing Pumpkins and Dream Theater. "The music is at once simple and complex," Bottrill writes at his website, "polyrhythms over melodies over thunderous bass and a drummer who can seem to split his own body in half to play in two or more different meters at once." Recorded live in the studio with no overdubs, Black Light is as in-the-moment as it gets and is a perfect representation of this band and what this band does!

SONAR, "Black Light" from 'Black Light' (Cuneiform Records)

"...ranges from industrial drones (during pre-industrial times) to earth-shaking rock to pre-new age visions of beauty." 
– Alternative Press

Richard Pinhas has long been recognized as a pivotal figure in the development of combining rock music with electronics. Years before MIDI existed, Richard was creating sophisticated electronic music using vast walls of the available components of the day. Both as a solo artist and with his band Heldon, he released a number of advanced and classic albums in the 70s that set the stage for much of what is thought of as 'contemporary music'.  

Originally released only in France in 1977, Chronolyse was his second solo album. It included one side of solo, live Moog synthesizer pieces, notable for their wide, stereo field and unique sound - a product of the weeks he spent setting up and programming the sounds on his huge Moog modular synthesizer and one side with a lengthy, stormy, drone-filled, epic of mellotrons, electronics, guitar, bass and drums by Heldon. 

This is the first-ever vinyl reissue of this classic, which has been unavailable on vinyl for 35 years!

Richard Pinhas, "Sur Le Theme De Bene Gesserit VII" from 'Chronolyse' (Cuneiform Records)

album title: ONWARDS TO MARS!
release date: 15th of April 2016
release date UK: 22nd of April 2016
label: Asphalt Tango Records GmbH
14 tracks (7 instrumentals and 7 songs)
total playing time: 45 minutes
featured artist: Iulian Canaf (I put a spell on you)/ Puerto Candelaria & Koby Israelite (Fiesta de negritos)
special guests: Michael Metzler (perc) / Kai Schoenburg (drums)

track list:
1.  Crayfish Hora (comp. by Koby Israelite)
2.  Mista Lobaloba (comp. by Adrian Sical)
3.  3 Romanians (comp. by Koby Israelite)
4.  Trenul, masina mica (trad.)
5.  Out to lounge (comp. by Koby Israelite)
6.  I put a spell on you (comp. by Screaming J. Hawkins)
7.  Cucuritza (comp. by Koby Israelite)
8.  Doina pentru un frant inima (trad.)
9.  Bunica bate toba (comp. by Mihail Gincu)
10. Saints & Dates (comp. by Koby Israelite)
11. Un tigan avea o casa (trad)
12. The patron's funeral (comp. by Koby Israelite)
13. Hora strengarilor (comp. by Koby Israelite)
14. Fiesta de negritos (comp. by Lucho Bermudez)

All horn arrangements by Henry Ernst
Produced by Henry Ernst & co-produced by Marc Elsner
Recorded in Berlin (Germany), Medellin (Colombia), 
Bucharest and Zece Prajini (Romania)
Recorded by Alexei Turcan, Henry Ernst, Gabriel Vallejo C.
Mixed by Marc Elsner and Henry Ernst at Marx Audio, Berlin 
Mastered by Sascha "Busy" Bühren at Truebusyness, Berlin

Fully album released on CD, Vinyl and as download.

artist website: www.fanfare-ciocarlia.com
artist on facebook: www.facebook.com/FanfareCiocarlia
label website: www.asphalt-tango.de

Fanfare Ciocarlia / Onwards To Mars!

Tenor Saxophone – Andrew White
Bass –  Steve Novosel
Drums – Eric Gravatt
Piano – Gene Rush

from
Andrew White Quartet -Live At The New Thing In Washington, D.C.

Andrew White Qt.  Milestones II

Teo Collori presents his new project Momento Cigano with all-acoustic, all-original gypsy swing compositions, inspired by the one and only Django Reinhard.

Out now on Lowtemp Records.

The band:
Teo Collori - guitar
Matija Krečič - violin
Matej Kužel - clarinet
Metod Bank - rhythm guitar
Jan Gregorka - bass

Follow https://soundcloud.com/teo-collori
https://facebook.com/momentocigano


Hot Club Piran

Luna

One Moon No Sun

Earnie

Tony Mitraglia

Chase

Recorded for the film "Before The Music Dies"

Green Light Girl (Funk Sway Version)

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