Funny Rat

[Д.Д.]

The Brotzmann/Miller/Moholo is what needs to be reissued

A dreamin' back up for BRÖTZ.

The only recording of this trio avialble on CD is one track on the DIW Hell's Kitchen / Live from Soundscape compilation - correct? Gotta go back and listen to it attentively.

I am actually curious to hear what Brötzmann sounds like with Fred Hopkins and Rashied Ali (on Songlines (FMP)).

[.:.impossible]

The real Funny Rat crew: (From left to right) D.D., king ubu, John B, Chaney, J.A.W.

This is more or less the way I imagine you.

John, you look like you've been pumping some iron since I last saw you. You been working those triceps? Everybody's looking good. Hans, any thoughts of getting the crew back together?

[John B]

I left the crew a while ago, though...

You can take Hans out of the Funny Rat thread but you can never take the Funny Rat out of Hans.

(Plus you still have the fifth highest post count in this thread. Gokhan is nipping at your heels but still has quite a ways to go.)

.:.impossible - My triceps are so well-developed because I am constantly moving the can of hairspray around my head, flexing and pressing the button to spray more onto my startlingly large explosion of multi-colored hair. After a few hours I've got a nice burn both in the muscles of my arm and in my eyes, from the mist of spray that surrounds me at all times.

[Д.Д.]

I left the crew a while ago, though...

After a few hours I've got a nice burn both in the muscles of my arm and in my eyes, from the mist of spray that surrounds me at all times.

This explains this wistful and sligtly unfocused gaze.

[Guest Chaney]

Unless I'm mistaken, two or three newly listed items from hatART:

hatOLOGY 591

Pauline Oliveros

The Roots Of The Moment

Total time 58:19, ADD, Barcode: 752156059127

For more than 50 years, Pauline Oliveros has been on a continuing mission: “... to explore new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.” If those words bring to mind the voyages of the Starship Enterprise from the television series Star Trek, the parallels are more than coincidental. In fact Pauline would be as able a captain of any Starship in the fleet of the United Federation of Planets. A bit of a difference here though, for Pauline Oliveros, space is not necessarily the final frontier and the barrier at the end of the universe is just another interesting challenge. For Pauline Oliveros, like Sun Ra, Space is the place. — Joe McPhee

hatOLOGY 629

Russ Lossing

All Things Arise

Total time 61:19, DDD, Barcode: 752156062929

For Lossing, improvisation is clearly a special act, a study in transparence and transformation, a creative exchange among the elements. One hears fresh relations of time and space. His acute sense of time connects inevitably to its absence. Space is heard in his sense of density, the room he can make around a note even at high speed, the contrasts between counterpoint and elegant strings of single notes. Space is also vertical in Lossing’s music--in the ways that wide and tight intervals interact in his chords. This solo CD seems almost two-sided, like the LP of tradition. There is a side of free improvisations followed by treatments of largely familiar themes. We might think of it as a voyage inward and a voyage outward; a journey forward followed by one into the past. — Stuart Broomer

hatOLOGY 633

Polwechsel

Archives Of The North

Total time 51:35, DDD, Barcode: 752156063322

The Polwechsel project has been exponential in defining new approaches to the composition/improvisation paradigm and in doing so have created a music that defined, examined and radically reassessed its own genre. Each phase of Polwechsel has been marked by a defining document and the releases of their recordings have frequently book-ended trends and movements in improvisational and experimental music – Polwechsel has had a direct and profound influence on the agenda of a genre coined “electro-acoustic improvisation” for example… On Archives Of The North, Polwechsel has switched again. The unit has transformed itself by adding the two percussionists, and these works all deal the application of percussion as centrifuge. This is a generative music which stems and blooms from a controlled and deliberate structural center. This work ascends from common notions of musicality and sound production, where obliteration, feedback and the extraneous are emancipated into a fully blown dialect which could be defined as expanded technique. — Dean M. Roberts

[Chalupa]

hatOLOGY 591

Pauline Oliveros

The Roots Of The Moment

Total time 58:19, ADD, Barcode: 752156059127

For more than 50 years, Pauline Oliveros has been on a continuing mission: “... to explore new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.” If those words bring to mind the voyages of the Starship Enterprise from the television series Star Trek, the parallels are more than coincidental. In fact Pauline would be as able a captain of any Starship in the fleet of the United Federation of Planets. A bit of a difference here though, for Pauline Oliveros, space is not necessarily the final frontier and the barrier at the end of the universe is just another interesting challenge. For Pauline Oliveros, like Sun Ra, Space is the place. — Joe McPhee

That's interesting that you mentioned Pauline Oliveros. She is playing in town - twice - this weekend....

http://arsnovaworkshop.com/frame_perform.html

[Д.Д.]

Unless I'm mistaken, two or three newly listed items from hatART

And a reissue of McPhee, and one from Lacy band... and I understand that Warne Marsh's "Ne plus ultra" is here as well.

This Polwechsel disc looks good.

---------------------------

Listened today for the first time to Charlied Haden Montral concert with Joe Henderson and was shocked to discover how much I didn't enjoy it. I listened two times in a row, just to be sure. Henderson sounds like a master of clichés (his own ones, but still clichés). No flow of ideas, no development, just a set of licks played one after another. His solo on "Round midnight" does not go anywere, and just consists of variations on a theme - I can hardly even call it improvisation. I was taken aback by how un-free, confined and... well, boring it all sounded.

Understand, I have considered Henderson one of my favorite jazz saxophonist. I now need to go back to (A LOT of) Henderson's CDs I have to check whether this is just a exceptionally-weak disc (could this be why it was not released at the time with other Haden Motreal sets?), or I have gone through a fundamental reappraisal of Henderson's talents.

I wonder if this evil Abbey man's music (which I've been listening to and enjoying all day today :rsmile: ) has anything to do with this.

Edited March 28, 2006 by Д.Д.

[jon abbey]

yep, looking forward to that Polwechsel disc, it's supposed to be out next month sometime.

I wonder if this evil Abbey man's music (which I've been listening to and enjoying all day today :rsmile: ) has anything to do with this.

glad you're enjoying that stuff! any specifics, pro or con, yet?

once you go eai, you can never go back.

[David Ayers]

The real Funny Rat crew: (From left to right) D.D., king ubu, John B, Chaney, J.A.W.

I left the crew a while ago, though...

So how is the solo career going?

[Д.Д.]

yep, looking forward to that Polwechsel disc, it's supposed to be out next month sometime.

I wonder if this evil Abbey man's music (which I've been listening to and enjoying all day today :rsmile: ) has anything to do with this.

glad you're enjoying that stuff! any specifics, pro or con, yet?

once you go eai, you can never go back.

Jon, to be entirely honest, I listened to non-Erst stuff from your package. Are you still interested in my opinion ?

But today I'll tackle Duos for Dorris and poire_z+.

----------------------

Finishing listening to Duos for Doris (for those not in-the-know: this is a duo of Keith Rowe and John Tilbury, released on Erstwhile).

I am stunned. I haven't listened to anything this beautiful for a long time.

-----------------------

Anybody heard Tilbury's duo with Evan Parker Two Chapters and an Epilogue on Matchless?

Edited March 28, 2006 by Д.Д.

[gnhrtg]

Anybody heard Tilbury's duo with Evan Parker Two Chapters and an Epilogue on Matchless?

It's been quite a while (more than a year maybe) since my last spin. Neither budges much (and Parker even less than on Dark Rags, for example) and there is very little of the charged ping-pong improv here you might expect Parker to bring in - as Tilbury maintains a background typically unconducive to such improv (interestingly, he also contributes a number of uncharacteristically busy and fleet fingered passages). It's a fine disc though once a year is probably how much I'll return to it. Over the weekend, once I'm back in Fontainebleau and have access to it, I will play this album and see what I make of it.

edit: One closer to Hans.

Edited March 28, 2006 by gnhrtg

[jon abbey]

Anybody heard Tilbury's duo with Evan Parker Two Chapters and an Epilogue on Matchless?

I never liked this one too much, and when it came out, I was a much bigger fan of Parker than I am today.

[John B]

So how is the solo career going?

Better than expected, thanks!

When I posted that picture I didn't realize there really was a Funny Rat / Kajagoogoo connection. From Limahl.com:

"Limahl has just signed a new recording/production deal with successful German producer Thorsten Brötzmann. The brand new single 'Tell me why' (co -written by Limahl/T Brötzmann/A. Geringas/Ivo Mohring) is scheduled for release in early 2006 by Germany's ZYX Music. "

I wonder if there is any connection between Thorsten and Peter Brötzmann? Funny Rat 2 - Shoji Hano, Peter Brötzmann and Limahl. Now THAT would be an album!

[John B]

I listened to non-Erst stuff from your package. Are you still interested in my opinion ?

Which discs did you get?

I just received Trio Sowari - Three Dances and Tomas Korber - Effacement. Both are very good, on first listen.

[Д.Д.]

I listened to non-Erst stuff from your package. Are you still interested in my opinion ?

Which discs did you get?

I just received Trio Sowari - Three Dances and Tomas Korber - Effacement. Both are very good, on first listen.

Here is what I ordered this time:

Bernhard Günter/Graham Halliwell/Mark Wastell (+minus)-A Rainy Koran Verse [uK Live] (Trente Oiseaux)

Graham Halliwell-Recorded Delivery (Confront Collectors Series)

Serge Baghdassarians & Boris Baltschun-13:46\11:04\25:09\\ (Charhizma)

Dieb13-Restructuring (Charhizma)

Efzeg-würm (Charhizma)

Werner Dafeldecker/Christof Kurzmann/Christian Fennesz/Jim O'Rourke/Kevin Drumm-orange (Charhizma)

Werner Dafeldecker/Christof Kurzmann/Kevin Drumm/eRikm/Dieb13/Jerome Noetinger-green (Charhizma)

Kai Fagaschinski/Michael Renkel-Rebecca (Charhizma)

Christof Kurzmann-The Air Between (Charhizma)

Andrea Neumann/Annette Krebs-Rotophormen (Charhizma)

Damion Romero-You Can Tell By The Blur (Orange) (Chondritic)

Doug Theriault/Jeph Jerman-Red, Water (Fargone Records) (CDr)

Bhob Rainey/Jon Mueller/Jim Schoenecker-No Title (Crouton)

eRikm/Martin Tetreault/Otomo Yoshihide-Trace Cuts (Musica Genera)

It will take me till the end of the year to go through all of them (I have a waiting list, you know ), so if there is any one in particular you want me to listen to and report on here, let me know.

I think I have the vast majority of the Ersts by now. Of what I listened to, I liked about 50% (of the top of my head: "Bart", "Particles and smears", "The world turned upside down", "La voyelle liquide", "Wrapped Islands", "What a wonderful world", "VHF"), didn't care for the rest ("We are everyone in the room", "Too beautiful to burn"), and actively disliked a few ("Live at LU", "Do", "Weather Sky", "Fire song", the one with Kelley). Duos for Doris overshadows everything else I've heard in the Erstwhile catalog so far.

Edited March 28, 2006 by Д.Д.

[.:.impossible]

Duos For Doris is incredible, regardless of my limited exposure to this world of music. I've also listened to Too Beautiful To Burn on numerous occasssions and enjoyed it more each time. Have you heard The Hands of the Caravaggio?

I think I just need more Tillbury.

Anyone care to comment on Cosmos Tears?

[Д.Д.]

Duos For Doris is incredible, regardless of my limited exposure to this world of music. I've also listened to Too Beautiful To Burn on numerous occasssions and enjoyed it more each time. Have you heard The Hands of the Caravaggio?

I think I just need more Tillbury.

Anyone care to comment on Cosmos Tears?

Cosmos: "Tears" is one of the few Ersts I decided to skip - this M lady with her sinister waves is driving me bananas.

I think I also need more Tilbury. Amazon.de has this little thingy:

Feldman. Tilbury. That's a 4-CD set, mind you. Any thoughts?

---------------------------------------

Too beautiful to burn is nice but a bit too pretty, IMO.

---------------------------------------

On a tangential subject, Duos for Doris has an inscription:

"This music is respectfully dedicated to the memory of my mother Doris, who died on January 5, 2003, in her 96th year, just two days before this recording was made".

John Tilbury

I was thinking about this. There is obvioulsy a whole depth of emotion associated with somebody's mother passing away. It is touching that the music is dedicated to her. But is this "respectfully" really necessery here? What is the importance of Doris being in her 96th year? Don't these words just belittle the subject, grand enough in itself not to require any explanatory detials? I feel that the shalloweness (IMHO) of this dedication contradicts to the both its subject and the astonishing depth of the music.

Edited March 29, 2006 by Д.Д.

[.:.impossible]

I think I'll be buying that Feldman/Tillbury set. I've never ordered from an overseas Amazon. Anything I should know?

[jon abbey]

that Feldman Tilbury box is among the most essential items in my collection, the last two CDs are as good as music gets. I doubt Amazon.de actually has one, they're hard to find these days, although I believe you can still get them from Matchless directly.

On a tangential subject, Duos for Doris has an inscription:

"This music is respectfully dedicated to the memory of my mother Doris, who died on January 5, 2003, in her 96th year, just two days before this recording was made".

John Tilbury

I was thinking about this. There is obviously a whole depth of emotion associated with somebody's mother passing away. It is touching that the music is dedicated to her. But is this "respectfully" really necessary here? What is the importance of Doris being in her 96th year? Don't these words just belittle the subject, grand enough in itself not to require any explanatory detials? I feel that the shallowness (IMHO) of this dedication contradicts to the both its subject and the astonishing depth of the music.

wow, there's a new one. her sudden illness and subsequent death, all in the few days before this recording session, was obviously a pretty large part of John's mindset during these recordings (we cancelled one of the originally planned two days, and probably would have cancelled both if myself and Brian Olewnick weren't already in France), so afterwards Keith and I suggested dedicating the record to her. so those guys chose the album name, and John wrote the dedication. maybe the word "respectfully" was chosen because John knows she wouldn't really like the specific music so much, but it's not some kind of rebellious thing, it's genuine.

as for "What is the importance of Doris being in her 96th year?", it's a mini-obituary, for crying out loud. do you realize you're critiquing the word choice made by a son (and an accomplished writer, his Cardew biography is supposedly nearing completion) in his mother's memory, a woman you know absolutely nothing about? do you really feel comfortable doing that?

[jon abbey]

FWIW, I think the Sachiko/Toshi Ersts (do, Weather Sky, Cosmos, Good Morning Good Night) are some of the strongest releases on the label, those would probably all be in my personal top 10 or 12. I wouldn't expect them to be big favorites around these parts, though.

Cosmos will be making their US debut in late September at ErstQuake 3 in NYC, I'm really excited about that, haven't seen them since 2002.

[Д.Д.]

as for "What is the importance of Doris being in her 96th year?", it's a mini-obituary, for crying out loud. do you realize you're critiquing the word choice made by a son (and an accomplished writer, his Cardew biography is supposedly nearing completion) in his mother's memory, a woman you know absolutely nothing about? do you really feel comfortable doing that?

Jon, I realize that, and no I am not comfortable bringing this up. But I am uncomfortable with this inscription either. And this is precisely the point that this dedication is written for the attention of the people who know nothing about Tilbury's mother.

[Д.Д.]

I think I'll be buying that Feldman/Tillbury set. I've never ordered from an overseas Amazon. Anything I should know?

You will get the German VAT deducted, so with shipping to the US (€14) your total will be €67. You might be able to find it cheaper in the US.

Amazon.de does not have this set in stock, so it will take them two months or so, but they will most likely get it - they are very reliable in this regard (unlike amazon.co.uk for example). Otherwise, ordering process is the same as at amazon.com.

[Guest Chaney]

New Potlatch CD will be available in the first week of april 2006.

The Contest of Pleasures

Albi Days

John Butcher (tenor and soprano saxophones), Xavier Charles (clarinet), Axel Dörner (trumpet)

Recorded by Laurent Sassi at GMEA, Albi, in march/april 2005.

Potlatch P205

The trio The Contest of Pleasures first performed at the Musique Action festival (in may 1999).

They were recorded live the following year at the Mulhouse festival for Potlatch.

They have toured mainly in France and played in festivals in other countries too.

During spring 2005, they had a one-week recording session in Albi (southwestern France) at GMEA studios where sound engineer Laurent Sassi recorded them in different situations.

Afterwards, each musician mixed pieces selected from the recordings. Their music has significantly changed after all these years and moreover, these pieces can be considered as compositions made from improvisations. As John Butcher said : « We made pieces, edited from the many hours of music. Music concrete, composition maybe, that still, most of the time, to me anyway, sounds like musicians improvising together. »

[P.L.M]

I think I also need more Tilbury. Amazon.de has this little thingy:

Feldman. Tilbury. That's a 4-CD set, mind you. Any thoughts?

Don't have the reputation to be the best interpretation of MORTON FEDMAN piano music mostly because the quality of the piano.

If you want to hear more TILBURY, try his duo with EDDIE PREVOST call DISCRETE MOMENTS (MATCHLESS MRCD58) and their duo version of AMM also very beautifull NORWICH: AMM AT UA (MATCHLESS MRCD64).

You can buy all of this (and the TILBURY/ FELDMAN) directly from MATCHLESS

(www.matchlessrecordings.com).

[jon abbey]

Don't have the reputation to be the best interpretation of MORTON FEDMAN piano music mostly because the quality of the piano.

I've never heard that personally, sounds like a classical geek opinion. I know dozens of people who consider this set one of their favorite recordings of any music.

If you want to hear more TILBURY, try his duo with EDDIE PREVOST call DISCRETE MOMENTS (MATCHLESS MRCD58) and their duo version of AMM also very beautifull NORWICH: AMM AT UA (MATCHLESS MRCD64).

Discrete Moments is a pretty awful record (IMO), Norwich is decidedly better. you can hear much more Tilbury on the recently released duo with Marcus Schmickler, Variety (A-Musik), which is about 80 percent Tilbury, a very nice record.

Edited March 29, 2006 by jon abbey