avant mix

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

Buy it here!
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/elements

Bernard Falaise - guitars, bass, keyboards, banjo, turntable
Pascal Globensky - keyboards, synthesizers, piano
Rémi Leclerc - drums, percussion, electronics

MIRIODOR "Boomerang" from "Elements" (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)

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 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)

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