Martin

Д.Д., the only AVA recording I have is the duo with Harry Tavitian, and it is a CD (not a CDR), but this one was released before burning CDs on your own became the commodity it is today... Considering your warning, I am no more sure about how to act now: The AVA catalogue seemingly is full of hidden gems, and in fact I already have ALL of Vapirov's Leo releases (plus one on the Russian Solyd label)... Anatoly Vapirov immediately replied to my e-mail, saying that if I order 5 to 7 CDs, postage will be around €20, which is quite expensive (much higher than postage for airmail deliveries from the USA or Japan). And in addition, there probably will be considerable bank charges for transfering money to a Bulgarian account. You have any experience with paying that way, Д.Д.? And there really isn't a less costly method of paying? And finally, what about customs/VAT? I already made a personal selection of six CDs I'd like to order from AVA (among them the sax quartet you mentioned and a duo with Vladimir Tarasov). But, hmm, the risk of paying lots of money for defective CDRs somewhat discourages me... Not that I am opposed to CDRs in general: I own the complete Duns catalogue (Paul Dunmall's CDR label) which is 43 CDRs (including two 4-CD sets and one twofer) up to the present day. There were Duns CDRs with minor defects, but Paul instantaneously replaced those by faultless ones. But hey, this is England, not Bulgaria!

Thanks a lot, Tony, for the AVA link. I was aware of the label, even have an early CD, but it came as a big surprise that Anatoly Vapirov has dozens of CDs out on AVA! I just sent an e-mail to Mr. Vapirov, asking him about line-ups of the more recent AVA discs and about postage costs. As you said, ordering directly from AVA seemingly is rather complicated (no big wonder, we're talking about ordering from Bulgaria!), but I guess there aren't any other options.

Well, Jon Morgan resurfaced briefly to issue the Sealed Knot & Le Quan Ninh discs (belatedly--both were in the can for some time); he promised to issue at least one or two other discs but seems to have gone quiet again. One of those pending Meniscus CDs was a duo disc by Georg Gräwe and Martin Blume. Too bad if this one should remain unreleased.

Bev, the Moholo/Tracey is already out? Can you supply the catalogue number, please?

A new Ogun CD by the Moholo/Tracey duo ("Khumbala") is scheduled for release in March 2005.

Lots of thanks for your warm welcomes! In fact, I have been a silent funny rat lurker for several months now...

Thanks for clarifying this, all you nice guys. Looks like a should get an intact replacement disc for my faulty copy asap. Caiman lists the Jackson/Message twofer at quite an agreeable price... I originally bought individual cd copies of A Jackson In Your House and Message To Our Folks, as I wanted to get as much as possible from the original cover art (and the photos on Message indeed are great!). OK, now I have the artwork, but paid for it with a damaged Brain...

Hello to all Organissimo guys and gals and all you funny rats! I posted this at another board, but have not got any reply to my inquiry so far. The question is a bit out of place here (but only a bit, as I think the record concerned is an excellent one). Maybe one of you AEoC fans can answer this: Please, can anyone here check their copies of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago's Message To Our Folks? On my CD copy, the track A Brain For The Seine has complete silence between 3:12 and 3:21, and to my ears it sounds unintentional - like a very long drop-out that occured during the process of transferring the LP to CD. By the way, my version is the disc on the Italian Sunspots label.[/color=blue]