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Tuesday, November 25, 2014

'Cuneiform Turns 30' a "Name Your Price" Compilation Album Celebrating 2014-- Cuneiform's 30th year.

Cuneiform Records Presents

Cuneiform Turns 30!: The Albums of 2014 –

a "Name Your Price" Compilation Album
in Celebration of the Label's 30th anniversary year





This 20 song compilation album, Cuneiform Turns 30, features nearly 2 hours of music
selected from albums that Cuneiform released in 2014.
It is available to stream or download at a price of your choosing via Cuneiform's Bandcamp page:
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cuneiform-turns-30-the-albums-of-2014

CUNEIFORM TURNS 30
TRACK LISTING
1. Led Bib - New Teles [from The People In Your Neighbourhood] 05:18
2. the cellar and point - white cylinder (a) [from ambit] 04:10
3. Present - Ersatz [from Le Poison Qui Rend Fou] 09:15
4. Dylan Ryan / Sand - Trees, Voices, Saturn [from Circa] 04:36
5. Anthony Pirog [ft. Michael Formanek and Ches Smith] - The Great Northern [from Palo Colorado Dream] 05:53
6. Sonar - Static Motion [from Static Motion] 08:02
7. Richard Pinhas & Oren Ambarchi - Washington, D.C. - T4V1 (excerpt) [from Tikkun] 05:51
8. Raoul Björkenheim / eCsTaSy - El Pueblo Unido [from eCsTaSy] 05:46
9. Rob Mazurek and Black Cube SP - Return the Tides (excerpt) [from Return the Tides: Ascension Suite and Holy Ghost] 06:56
10. The Microscopic Septet - Let's Coolerate One [from Manhattan Moonrise] 05:12
11. Mats/Morgan - Rubber Sky [from [schack tati]] 02:58
12. Thumbscrew: Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek & Tomas Fujiwara - Cheap Knock Off [from Thumbscrew] 05:58
13. Present - Promenade Au Fond D'un Canal (excerpt) [from Triskaidekaphobie] 07:30
14. Jonathan Badger - Limbec [from Verse] 06:43
15. Led Bib - Giant Bean (excerpt) [from The Good Egg] 05:06
16. Joel Harrison - John The Revelator [from Mother Stump] 05:08
17. Happy Family - Slide [from Minimal Gods] 05:01
18. Richard Pinhas & Yoshida Tatsuya - Part One - Intro [from Welcome In The Void] 04:15
19. Ideal Bread - Crops [from Beating the Teens: Songs Of Steve Lacy] 04:16
20. The Ed Palermo Big Band - Why Is the Doctor Barking? [from Oh No! Not Jazz!!] 05:49



---

Dear friends in music;

On Thanksgiving, celebrated in the USA on the 4th Thursday in November, we gather friends and family and share a traditional feast, based on the season’s harvest, in gratitude for our blessings. Many Americans’ consider it their favorite national holiday because, unlike most others, Thanksgiving embraces universals – our shared humanity and our gratitude for the earth’s bounty – and avoids focusing on any specific religion, or on any political or social cause.  It is the holiday on which ALL of us are grateful for whatever is in our wine glasses, on our plates, on our turntables, in our lives and, above all, in our hearts.

On Thanksgiving 2014, Cuneiform expresses gratitude for surviving over the past 30 years inside the music business, despite being a record label devoted to releasing music far outside the mainstream.  We’ve been blessed to exist, and to work with such wonderful artists, employees, music biz colleagues, radio and press associates, and devoted fans. Thank you for staying with us during the music industry’s challenging times; the past several years have been "interesting" for all involved in the creation and release of new music. The future of music is a vital concern to everyone, and we're grateful to all those working to ensure a sustainable future. May we work together with all of you for decades to come!

We also give thanks for this year’s bountiful ‘harvest’: Cuneiform released 20 albums of high-quality, genre-defiant music in 2014, the largest number of albums we’ve ever released in a single year! Our 2014 releases range from:
jazz / post-jazz / beyond genre
(Anthony Pirog; Dylan Ryan/Sand; Raoul Bjorkenheim/Ecstasy; The Microscopic Septet; Led Bib; Ideal Bread; Joel Harrison; The Ed Palermo Big Band; Thumbscrew[Halvorson/Formanek/Fujiwara]);
to avant-rock / Rock in Opposition / electronic-ambient-noise
(Richard Pinhas & Oren Ambarchi; Richard Pinhas & Yoshida Tatsuya; Mats/Morgan; Sonar; Jonathan Badger; Happy Family; and remastered reissues of the first two albums by Roger Trigaux’s Present).

Above all, we are grateful for our wonderful artists.  We ask you to also express your gratitude to the musicians whom you love, by considering purchasing their albums in digital, CD or lp (when available) format.

To spotlight each of our 2014 releases and to celebrate our 30th Anniversary Year, Cuneiform is digitally releasing Cuneiform Turns 30! The Albums of 2014. We invite you to celebrate with us by downloading this 20 track compilation album, and to pay what you like. Cuneiform Turns 30! The Albums of 2014 is a cornucopia of the adventurous sounds we released over the past year; there's something for everyone to enjoy.

In closing, as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, all of us at Cuneiform want to say THANK YOU to each and every one of you. Without your support – your kind words and good wishes, album purchases and concert attendance, airplay and reviews – we would not be on this wonderful planet, and certainly not for 30+ years.

Happy Thanksgiving!

With best regards;
Joyce, Director of Publicity & Promotion
for the Cuneiform Records Team

visit us online:
www.cuneiformrecords.com
www.twitter.com/cuneiformrecord
www.facebook.com/cuneiformrecords

for live shows by these & other Cuneiform artists, see Cuneiform's Tours page.

--

Cuneiform's Year in Review: 2014

Jazz & Beyond: New Recordings



The Microscopic Septet
Manhattan Moonrise
Genre: Jazz
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: May 27, 2014

Don’t tell the Microscopic Septet that there are no second acts in American life. Since roaring back into action in 2006 after a 14-year hiatus, the indefatigably creative ensemble has continued to evolve, burnishing and extending a well-earned reputation as one of the most consistently inventive bands of the 1980s. Reverently irreverent, insistently playful, unfussily virtuosic and unapologetically swinging, the band offers further evidence of its resurgence with Manhattan Moonrise, the Micros’ first project with newly composed originals in 25 years.
The strength of the Micros flows from the old-school virtue of consistency. Along with the co-founders, pianist Joel Forrester and soprano saxophonist Phillip Johnston, the seven-piece ensemble features largely the same cast of improvisers with which it emerged from Manhattan’s wild and wooly Downtown scene in 1980.

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Let's Coolerate One"
stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official - cuneiform


Thumbscrew: Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek, Tomas Fujiwara
Thumbscrew
Genre: Jazz
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: January 21. 2014
While Michael Formanek (double bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums) and Mary Halvorson (guitar) are all known for their prodigious capabilities as leaders/improvisers on the new jazz/new music scene, Thumbscrew is more of a composer’s vehicle. With each musician contributing tunes, Thumbscrew encompasses an array of textures and strategies, while maintaining a consistently open and transparent sound. Generating tremendous intensity without necessarily increasingly volume or density, Thumbscrew buzzes and crackles, burns and croons. It’s a collaboration that works beautifully, producing music greater than the sum of its parts. As DownBeat says: "...the bonds are already strong."

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Cheap Knock Off"

stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official - cuneiform


The Ed Palermo Big Band
Oh No! Not Jazz!!

Genre: Jazz / Big Band
Format: 2xCD / Digital
Release Date: February 4, 2014


Oh No! Not Jazz!! consists of two albums of musical performances. The first further explores Ed's distinctive, big band interpretations of the music of Frank Zappa and for the most part, he concentrates here on Frank's initial burst of creative works from original Mothers Of Invention era of 1966-1970. In addition, two notable pieces from later are performed here. One of Frank's most loved works, "Inca Roads," with a vocal by guest Napoleon Murphy Brock contrasts with one of his most 'notoriously difficult' works, "The Black Page #2." All of the performances and arrangements of these great pieces are fun, musically witty and masterful. The second album features Ed's own colorful compositions, which are here featured on a recording for the 1st time in over 25 years!

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Why Is the Doctor Barking?"

stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON - BANDCAMP
WAYSIDE MUSIC - ITUNES (Palermo album only)

ARTIST SITES:
official - facebook - cuneiform


Raoul Björkenheim / eCsTaSy
eCsTaSy

Genre: Jazz / Electric-Jazz
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: January 21. 2014

eCsTaSy is Raoul Björkenheim's new electric, ecstatic jazz band, which features some of the younger talents on the Finnish jazz scene. The group consists of Raoul, Pauli Lyytinen (saxophones), Jori Huhtala (contrabass) and Markku Ounaskari (drums) in a repertory of original compositions painting swirling polyrhythms with a free-tonal palette. With influences ranging from Korean and African music to contemporary chamber music, new jazz and free rock, eCsTaSy's mission is to elevate its audiences with their high energy and dedication to adventurous sound. The quartet explores an array of moods and textures, from brooding soundscapes and cinematic anthems to giddy grooves and meter-shifting steeplechases.

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"El Pueblo Unido"

stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official (eCsTaCy) - offcial (Bjorkenheim) - cuneiform


Ideal Bread
Beating the Teens:
Songs Of Steve Lacy
Genre: Jazz / Avant-Jazz
Format: 2xCD / Digital
Release Date: May 13, 2014

With Beating the Teens, Ideal Bread’s leader and baritone saxophonist Josh Sinton decided to radically question and deconstruct the notion of a repertory band. The group has existed with only two rules: 1.) Ideal Bread would be a band in the traditional sense, the same members for every album and every show 2.) Ideal Bread would play exclusively the music of iconoclastic saxophonist-composer Steve Lacy. With Beating the Teens, Ideal Bread breaks new ground both for themselves and for the creative music world. The album poses questions for musicians (“What can we do next?”) and for the audience (“What is a repertory band?”). And while the answers are varied, the methods used to ask and potentially answer these questions make for fascinating and captivating music. Ideal Bread is Josh Sinton (bari sax), Kirk Knuffke (cornet), Tomas Fujiwara (drums) and Adam Hopkins (bass).

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Crops"

stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @Youtube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official (Josh Sinton) - facebook - cuneiform


Rob Mazurek and Black Cube SP
Return the Tides: Ascension Suite and Holy Ghost
Genre: Jazz / Avant-Jazz
Format: CD / 2xLP / Digital
Release Date: October 14, 2014

Sometimes there are no words. But music can speak volumes when life requires a response to the most profound and wrenching of losses, channeling the deepest feelings, expressing the ineffable and providing emotional and spiritual succor. For Rob Mazurek, the brilliant Chicago cornetist, composer and conceptualist improviser who has honed an international coterie of collaborators, the sudden and unexpected passing of his mother set him on a quest to honor her bountiful spirit and acknowledge her transition to another realm. Not surprisingly, he found exactly what he needed in São Paulo, Brazil. Working with five sonic explorers in Black Cube SP, a sextet that builds on the celebrated São Paulo Underground, he created Return the Tides: Ascension Suite and Holy Ghost, a startlingly cathartic and magisterial modern psychedelic spiritual that’s as riveting as it is ravishing.

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Return the Tides"
[excerpt]
stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official - cuneiform


Led Bib
The People In Your Neighbourhood
[studio album]
Genre: Jazz / Rock / Progressive Jazz
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: May 13, 2014

Founded 10 years ago by a preciously talented crew of London university students, Led Bib has become a European jazz sensation, tearing up major festivals across the continent, appearing regularly on the BBC, and earning a coveted Mercury Prize nomination. The avant-populist, funk-infused band is now set to lead a new British Invasion, bringing their potent blend of big beats and surging anthems to American shores with The People in Your Neighbourhood. In many ways, The People in Your Neighbourhood captures lightning in a bottle, distilling all the elements that have made Led Bib such a successful and influential outfit. Rather than coasting on their success, the band decided to dig deeper. Honed over the three years, the music is more charged than ever, marked by the dizzying swerves, roiling textures, and raw beauty that has earned the band such an avid following.

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"New Teles"

stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

MUSIC VIDEO:
"New Teles" (official video)

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official - twitter - facebook - cuneiform


Led Bib
The Good Egg
[10th anniv. live album]
Genre: Jazz / Rock / Progressive Jazz
Format: LP / Digital
Release Date: May 13, 2014

A thrilling limited edition vinyl-only release recorded mostly at London’s Vortex Jazz Club, The Good Egg, wass captured at the Vortex after a period of band inactivity in February 2013, the music is charged with the sense of discovery, as the musicians find new ways to play with density, space, stasis and motion.

“It felt great to be playing together again, and luckily one of the nights at the club was recorded,” Holub says. “When we got the tracks from the gig, we were all really pleased and that’s when I realized I wanted to do a live album and a studio album. It felt important for me to mark 10 years with the band in some sort of significant way, and it seemed this could be the perfect combination”

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Giant Bean" [excerpt]

stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official - twitter - facebook - cuneiform


Anthony Pirog
Palo Colorado Dream
Genre: Jazz / Rock / Experimental
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: October 14, 2014


Washington, D.C.’s thriving jazz and experimental music scenes wouldn’t be quite where they are today without Anthony Pirog. With fearsome chops and a keen ear for odd beauty, Pirog has helped expand the possibilities of jazz, rock and experimentalism in a city formerly known for its straight-ahead tradition. Palo Colorado Dream—recorded with the all-star trio of Michael Formanek on bass and Ches Smith on drums—is Pirog’s debut as a bandleader, and it marks the young innovator’s entrance onto the national stage. The album has an immersive depth and understated allure that hold the listener rapt. And they illustrate all the various realms of Pirog’s artistry: the spinning fantasy-scape of his loops and the hard-nosed technical power of his soloing, his patience with a slow build and his knack for moments of fierce catharsis.

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"The Great Northern"

stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

MUSIC VIDEO:
"The New Electric" (official video)

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official - twitter - cuneiform


Joel Harrison
Mother Stump
Genre: Jazz / Americana / Blues-Rock
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: May 13, 2014

For many years, guitarist Joel Harrison claimed he had no roots. Growing up in Washington D.C., a place whose identity and values are always in drift, Harrison was convinced he had to “go out into the world with a shovel and plant something of my own.” But as we often discover, time and distance have a way of putting things in perspective. Looking back, Harrison realized that D.C. was, in fact, a town whose musical gravity overpowered whatever ephemeral political and cultural winds might blow. Mother Stump highlights Harrison’s guitar playing over his composing on covers of Buddy Miller, Leonard Cohen, Al Kooper, Luther Vandross, Paul Motian, George Russell and more. Featuring: Michael Bates (bass), Jeremy ‘Bean’ Clemons (drums), Glenn Patscha (keyboards).

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"John The Revelator"
stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official - cuneiform


the cellar and point
ambit
Genre: Jazz / Classical / Chamber Garage / Chamber Rock
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: October 14, 2014

the cellar and point is an adventurous 'garage chamber' band, developed and led by childhood friends Joseph Branciforte and Christopher Botta. They had long imagined a fluid synthesis of their wide-ranging interests: the detail of modern concert music, the improvisational sensibilities of downtown jazz and the emotional directness of rock, combined with the production values of hip-hop and electronica. Might it be possible to draw equally upon these influences, while transcending mere collage and to present it in the context of a working ensemble, not just a studio project? After 3 years spent composing and recruiting an impressive cross-section of talent from New York City's classical, jazz and new music scenes, ambit, the group's impressive debut album, is one answer to those questions.

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"white cylinder (a)"
stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @Youtube

MUSIC VIDEO:
"white cylinder (a)" (official video)'

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official - facebook - twitter - cuneiform


Dylan Ryan / Sand
Circa
Genre: Jazz / Electric Jazz / Rock
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: September 30, 2014

Los Angeles, CA is home base for one of the most inventive and musically awesome guitar power trios on the current electric jazz and rock scenes:  Dylan Ryan / Sand.  Led by Dylan Ryan, a drummer/composer with feet firmly planted in both indie rock and jazz, the group features guitarist Timothy Young (David Sylvian, Reggie Watts, Wayne Horvitz) and Devin Hoff (Nels Cline Singers, Yoko Ono, Cibo Matto). Together on Circa, the trio forge a wholly unique, emotionally-charged and stylistically omnivorous music that invokes elements of Rush, Fugazi, Fred Frith’s Massacre, James ‘Blood’ Ulmer, and more, and sonically ranges from fearlessly improvisational to tender; the abrasive to the understated. They rely on fearless musicality, and an eternal searching spirit, delivering an honest and modern take on the power trio paradigm.


PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Trees, Voices, Saturn"
stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

MUSIC VIDEO:
"Trees, Voices, Saturn" (official video)

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official (Sand) - official (Dylan Ryan)
facebook - cuneiform


Rock & Beyond



Present
Triskaidekaphobie
(remastered / expanded)

Genre: Rock / Avant-Progressive / Chamber Rock
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: February 4, 2014

After co-founding Univers Zero in 1974 and co-leading that group through their first two albums, guitarist and composer Roger Trigaux left Univers Zero in May, 1979, right after the completion of Heresie. His new ensemble, Present, was a more electric and a more compact ensemble. The band began rehearsals in 1979 and recorded their first album, Triskaidekaphobie (The Fear Of The Number 13) in January, 1980. The band began performing in the fall of 1980. Since Present only had about 35' of music written for the group, in their earliest days, the band also performed two 'covers' from Univers Zero's repertoire; "Dense" and "Vous Les Saurez En Temps Voulu". Recordings of these two covers, from a performance from 2/28/81 are included here as bonus tracks.

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Promenade Au Fond D'un Canal" [excerpt]
stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official - cuneiform


Present
Le Poison Qui Rend Fou
(remastered / expanded)

Genre: Rock / Avant-Progressive / Chamber Rock
Format: 2xCD / Digital
Release Date: February 4, 2014

Originally recorded in 1983, Present's Le Poison Qui Rend Fou (The Poison That Makes You Insane), the band's second and final album until their rebirth in the mid 90s, is a classic of complex, Rock In Opposition-style electric chamber rock.This reissue of Le Poison Qui Rend Fou includes the original album, newly transferred and remastered by the group's long-time engineer, Udi Koomran, and a 16 page booklet telling the story of the band and this album, with many never-before seen photos. Additionally, there is 25' of QuickTime movies of the group's final concert featuring bassist Christian Genet, from Livry-Gargan, France, 1/23/82, as well as a second disc that features the entire 80' concert from 1/23/82!

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Ersatz"
stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official - cuneiform

SONAR
Static Motion

Genre: Rock / Avant-Prog / Experimental
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: January 21. 2014
SONAR craft an intricate sound world in which mystery meets power on their Cuneiform debut, Static Motion. Sonar is a progressive, post-minimal band from Switzerland. Their name stands for SONic ARchitecture, a name which alludes to their intention of creating polymetric and highly structured avant-rock. Static Motion is Sonar fusing a rigorous minimal esthetic with the power of a rock band, every note and rhythm is precisely composed and performed, all of which are designed to move you from one rhythmic and / or harmonic tension to the next. Sonar is the last word in a rock band that works by building their music out of blocks consisting of slowly rising and unfolding musical tension and relief.

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Static Motion"
stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official - cuneiform


Richard Pinhas
& Oren Ambarchi
Tikkun
Genre: Rock / Electronic / Experimental Music
Format: CD/DVD / Digital
Release Date: May 27, 2014

First there was Eric Clapton and Duane Allman on Derek & The Dominos’ 1970 classic Layla, then there was Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood with the Rolling Stones. Twin-lead guitar line-ups have long had a distinguished pedigree. But nothing we’ve heard to date matches the partnership of Richard Pinhas and Oren Ambarchi for sheer synapse-adjusting sonic adventurism. At the outer-ends of its timeline, the duo’s first collaborative album, Tikkun, recalibrates the beat-driven synth-and-sequencer loops of Pinhas’ pioneering 1970s’ electronic-rock band Heldon, melding them with a newer aesthetic informed by his post-2008 collaborations with Japanese noise auteur Merzbow. Tikkun is a staggeringly powerful work which contains three lengthy musical tracks that meld the heavy, synth-driven, sequencer beats of classic Heldon with the noisier aspects of Pinhas' work over the last decade.

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Washington, D.C. - T4V1" [excerpt]
stream: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official (Pinhas) - official (Ambarchi) - cuneiform


Richard Pinhas
&
Yoshida Tatsuya
Welcome In The Void
Genre: Rock / Electronic / Experimental Music
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: May 27, 2014

Forget The Kills and The Black Keys, if you’re looking for a rock duo with a sound as big as the cosmos, try guitarist Richard Pinhas and drummer Yoshida Tatsuya. The revered bad-grandads of the French and Japanese experimental scenes have discographies stretching back decades, but Welcome In The Void is their first joint venture. A broiling mix of space-rock, electronic-rock and progressive-rock with a splash of noise, it shatters all expectations. With just two looped guitars, a drum kit and electronics, the duo creates a soundscape of both galactic proportion and infinite detail, its immensity humanized by Pinhas’ filigreed, often melody-driven playing. If you could hear the images captured by the Hubble telescope, they might sound like this. Think Wagner to the power of ten with a beat or Hawkwind with nuance.

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Part One - Intro"
stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official (Pinhas) - official (Tatsuya) - cuneiform


Mats/Morgan
[schack tati]

Genre: Rock / Fusion / Avant-Progressive
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: May 27, 2014

The album [schack tati] isn't just another batch of tracks churned out in an assembly-line studio. If anything, it's part hothouse flower and part mythical beast, grown and nurtured in the magical greenhouse that is drummer Morgan Ägren's dream studio. "I moved to a house in the Swedish archipelago. Our garden had a little house in it, which I rebuilt as a studio," he explains. The tracks he and keyboardist Mats Öberg toiled over in that idyllic garden setting have an air of endless possibility to them. In the rarefied -- one might even dare to say magical – environment, where a blind keyboardist can beat a sighted drummer at chess (see the winningly quirky album cover), it's apparently also possible for the disparate stylistic strands of the band's sound to wind together with nary a tangle. It's hard to envision another set of circumstances under which [schack tati] could have come together.

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Rubber Sky"

stream: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official (Morgan Ågren) - cuneiform


Jonathan Badger
Verse
Genre: Rock / Electronic / Experimental
Format: CD / LP / Digital
Release Date: September 30, 2014

When is a guitar not a guitar? When it's played by the inimitable Jonathan Badger. Not that he doesn't have a solid grounding in the six-string essentials -- Badger's been playing guitar since age 5, and has studied under none other than King Crimson mastermind Robert Fripp. But his astonishing approach to the guitar is so unlike anyone else's that he might almost as well be playing an entirely different instrument. On his stunning third studio album, Verse, Badger proves that if you want to make the kind of music no one's ever heard before, you've got to invent your own world from the ground up.  Nourished by Baltimore’s vibrant experimental music scene, Badger has created an artistic universe that is technologically unprecedented, radically multidisciplinary, conceptually fascinating, and musically captivating. The music on Verse, says Badger, “flows in the post-rock and minimalist veins of contemporary music.”

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Nimbus"
stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC

ARTIST SITES:
official - facebook - twitter - cuneiform


Happy Family
Minimal Gods
Genre: Rock / Avant-Prog
Format: CD / Digital
Release Date: September 30, 2014

Truly killer avant-garde rock bands—think Battles; think Zevious; Ahleuchatistas; Upsilon Acrux, Many Arms and Dysrhythmia;—all know the recipe for greatness: Two parts skill and discipline, one part inspired lunacy. On their third album, Minimal Gods, long-running Japanese instrumental quartet Happy Family seemingly take inspiration from these bands and more, as well as the 1970s Rock in Opposition movement, filter it all through their collective madness, and emerge with something utterly unique. These four ultra-talented players put their own wild spin on aggressive, instrumental rock over the course of 10 tracks, tossing metal, funk and even minimalism into the blender, and giving the results titles like “Cat Riding On Roomba.”

PROMOTIONAL TRACK:
"Slide"

stream/share: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube

PURCHASE LINKS:
ITUNES - AMAZON
BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC


ARTIST SITES:
facebook - cuneiform

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

The Claudia Quintet and Raoul Bjorkenheim/Ecstacy in Europe: November 2014

TWO CUTTING-EDGE JAZZ ENSEMBLES
ON CUNEIFORM
TOUR EUROPE IN NOVEMBER 2014:
THE CLAUDIA QUINTET
&
RAOUL BJORKENHEIM’S eCsTaSy


Two of Cuneiform’s most captivating jazz&beyond / post-jazz ensembles – The Claudia Quintet and Raoul Bjorkenheim’s eCsTaSy – are both touring Europe (separately) this November!  Led by drummer/ percussionist/ composer John Hollenbeck and based in NYC, The Claudia Quintet is one of, and perhaps the, most influential young groups in contemporary jazz & beyond-genre music. The all-star ensemble will be doing eight dates and passing through Austria, Slovenia, Germany and Italy from November 3-11. The group eCsTaSy features some of Finland’s top jazz players and is led by guitarist/composer Raoul Bjorkenheim, acclaimed as one of the world’s top post-Hendrix guitarists. Bjorkenheim’s eCsTaSy will be doing five dates around France, from November 8-14th. Both groups recently released new recordings on Cuneiform (The Claudia Quintet’s September, in 2013; and the Bjorkenheim group’s self-titled eCsTaSy in 2014), and both groups are available for press or radio interview while on tour.

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[The Claudia Quintet: l/r - Red Wierenga, Matt Moran, John Hollenbeck, Chris Speed, Drew Gress.]

The Claudia Quintet: Nov. 2014 Euro Tour Dates

NOV 3
- WIST – GRAZ, Austria
NOV 4 - KMKC Kompleks – RAVNE, Slovenia
NOV 6 - Gromka – LJUBLJANA, Slovenia
NOV 7 - Jazz Club Ferrara – FERRARA, Italy
NOV 8 - Jazzkeller im Mautnerschloss – BURGHAUSEN, Germany
NOV 9 - Jazz GUT Unterwegs Schwanenburg – HANNOVER, Germany
NOV 10 - Liveclub Telegraph – LEIZIG, Germany
NOV 11 - A-Trane – BERLIN, Germany

Led by composer, drummer and three-time Grammy nominee John Hollenbeck, The Claudia Quintet have quietly but firmly and definitively recast jazz into shimmering new shapes inflected by classical minimalism, new music, progressive rock and post-rock. They are one of the most influential stylists on other musicians in cutting-edge jazz today and the sound of jazz and what jazz can be in the in our time has changed because of their sound and stance.

Hailed by Nate Chinen of the New York Times for their “clockwork intricacy and crisp premeditation ... [striking an] accord between the factions of progressive jazz, classical Minimalism and low-glare experimental rock,” the Claudia Quintet tackles Hollenbeck’s highly demanding works with a wry improvising spirit and a backbone of surging, mesmerizing rhythm.

The Claudia Quintet: Releases on Cuneiform





September
[Cuneiform Rune 377, 2013]




What is The Beautiful?
[Cuneiform Rune 327, 2011]




Royal Toast
[Cuneiform Rune 307, 2010]




For
[Cuneiform Rune 247, 2002]




Semi-Formal
[Cuneiform Rune 247, 2007]




I, Claudia
[Cuneiform Rune 187, 2004]


[Raoul Bjorkenheim / eCsTaSy]

Raoul Bjorkenheim's eCsTaSy: Nov. 2014 Euro Tour Dates

NOV 8
- Festival Emergences, Tours, France
NOV 10 - D’Jazz Nevers Festival,  Nevers, France
NOV 12 - Festival JazzyColors, Paris, France
NOV 13 - Periscope, Lyon, France
NOV 14 - AJMI, Avignon, France

Finnish guitarist Raoul Bjorkenheim's energizing, furious playing has been featured with a wide array of well known international artists, including Mats Gustavsson, Henry Kaiser, Mike Keneally, Bill Laswell, Michael Manring, Paul Schütze, Nicky Skopelitis, Jah Wobble and many others.

eCsTaSy is his new electric, ecstatic jazz band, which features some of the younger talents on the Finnish jazz scene and which was designed to be an ensemble that will regularly go out and tour. The group consists of Raoul, Pauli Lyytinen (saxophones), Jori Huhtala (contrabass) and Markku Ounaskari (drums) in a repertory of original compositions painting swirling polyrhythms with a free-tonal palette. With influences ranging from Korean and African music to contemporary chamber music, new jazz and free rock, eCsTaSy's mission is to elevate its audiences with their high energy and dedication to adventurous sound.

Raoul Bjorkenheim Related Releases on Cuneiform





Raoul Bjorkenheim's eCsTaSy
eCsTaSy
[Cuneiform Rune 373, 2014]




Bill Laswell, Raoul Bjorkenheim, Morgan Agren: Blixt
Blixt
[Cuneiform Rune 335, 2011]




Raoul Bjorkenheim / Krakatau
Apocalypso
[Cuneiform Rune 156, 2001]




Raoul Bjorkenheim / Krakatau
For
[Cuneiform Rune 86, 1996]


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