Cuneiform Records Presents
– Cuneiform Records: The Albums of 2016 –
a "Name Your Own Price" Compilation Album
Celebrating Cuneiform's 2016 Releases
This 15 song compilation album, Cuneiform Records: The Albums of 2016, features over 80 minutes of simply great and utterly creative music made by musicians from around the globe; selected from albums that Cuneiform Records released in 2016.
It is now available to stream or download at a price of YOUR OWN choosing via Cuneiform's Bandcamp page:
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cuneiform-records-the-albums-of-2016
CUNEIFORM RECORDS: THE ALBUMS OF 2016
TRACK LISTING
1. São Paulo Underground - Olhaluai [from Cantos Invisíveis] 05:21
2. Richard Pinhas / Tatsuya Yoshida / Masami Akita [Merzbow] - TVJ 33 (Core Track) (excerpt) [from Process and Reality] 05:55
3. Wadada Leo Smith - New Orleans: The National Culture Park USA 1718 (excerpt) [from America’s National Parks] 12:12
4. I.P.A. - Sir William [from I Just Did Say Something] 05:46
5. Ergo - That never came [from 'As subtle as tomorrow'] 05:49
6. The Claudia Quintet - JFK Beagle [from Super Petite] 03:28
7. Bent Knee - Leak Water [from Say So] 04:41
8. Naima - Bye [from Bye] 04:56
9. The Ed Palermo Big Band - Dirty White Bucks [from One Child Left Behind] 04:39
10. Gary Lucas' Fleischerei [featuring Sarah Stiles] - The Broken Record [from Music from Max Fleischer's Cartoons] 03:07
11. Empirical - The Two-Edged Sword [from Connection] 02:32
12. Thumbscrew: Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek, Tomas Fujiwara - Sampsonian Rhythms [from Convallaria] 04:03
13. Rez Abbasi & Junction - Self-Brewing [from Behind the Vibration] 06:20
14. Richard Pinhas & Barry Cleveland (feat. Michael Manring & Celso Alberti) - Zen/Unzen (excerpt) [from Mu] 08:06
15. Deus Ex Machina - Figli [from Devoto] 06:59
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Dear friends in music;
It's Nov. 9th as I write this, the day after the 2016 US election, and the sky inside the Beltway of Washington DC is filled with dark clouds. Outside our office window, wind-blown clusters of dead leaves swirl over rooftops like flocks of ominous birds. Hours before, when I woke far too early this morning, it was raining -- the heavens grey, rain drops falling quietly, like tears. The rain - which now resumes - had not been predicted, much like the election. But we should have known. Such weather events emerge from dark currents growing in the global atmosphere. On dark days like this, in times like these, music and art and writing serve as sunshine and solace. While 2016 was notable as the nadir of American politics, marked by a level of discourse that dredged the gutter, 2016 was an especially bright year for high-quality music in the genres of both jazz and rock at Cuneiform. To commemorate and celebrate it, Cuneiform Records presents a sampler album, Cuneiform Records: The Albums of 2016. We invite you to listen to Cuneiform Records: The Albums of 2016 and explore the wide spectrum of music we recently released over the year. Each track by each artist is unique; we invite you to sample all. And then, if you've not already done so, we hope that you'll listen to full albums by the artists who most appeal to you. We released a total of 15 albums in 2016, by some of the most highly esteemed musicians on the planet, established icons of avant and contemporary musics like Wadada Leo Smith, Sao Paulo Underground (led by Rob Mazurek), The Claudia Quintet (led by John Hollenbeck), Richard Pinhas w/ Masami Akita (Merzbow) & Yoshida Tatsuya, Thumbscrew (Mary Halvorson/Michael Formanek/Tomas Fujiwara), Rez Abbasi (w/ Junction), Gary Lucas (w/ Fleischerei) – as well as fast-rising-stars like Bent Knee, Empirical, Naima, I.P.A. and Ergo. These artists came from around the world: the USA, the UK (England), Europe (France, Italy, Spain), Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden), Japan, and South America (Brazil). And as usual, Cuneiform’s releases were in a wide range of cutting-edge, progressive styles that emerged from the genres of both jazz (avant-jazz, post-jazz, jazz/rock and fusion, improv, creative music) and rock (post-rock, indie-rock, ambient, soundscapes, avant-progressive, experimental rock/noise). The majority of 2016's releases were jazz-related, and this year, two of our artists appeared prominently on the covers of leading American jazz publicans: DownBeat honored Wadada Leo Smith as a "National Treasure" on its November 2016 cover, and Jazziz celebrated Rez Abbasi on its July 2016 cover. 2016 was also notable for the high calibre of our rock albums; we released music by several top-notch bands who astounded the international rock music press, won new fans worldwide, and packed concerts. Our 2016 rock albums included Bent Knee (Say So), Deus Ex Machina (Devoto) and Richard Pinhas (Process & Reality w/ Masami Akita/Merzbow and Yoshida Tatsuya and Mu w/ Barry Cleveland). We ask all of you who are Music Press & Radio Professionals to PLEASE CONSIDER CUNEIFORM’S 2016 RELEASES when compiling your BEST MUSIC OF 2016 lists. Cuneiform Records: The Albums of 2016 may help you recall albums that recently impressed you. You can also stream entire albums from our Cuneiform Records’ Bandcamp page. Our recordings are available for sale, in various formats, via Amazon, iTunes, Bandcamp, Wayside Music or your favorite record store. Please scroll below for more information on each of our 15 releases from 2016. Heartfelt thanks to ALL of you for supporting Cuneiform and our musicians throughout 2016. In uncertain times, under stormy weather, 'a little help from our friends' goes a long way. In closing, I want to bring your attention to an incredibly positive 2016 political landmark: August 25th 2016 was the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of the Interior bureau established in 1916 to oversee America's National Parks. The concept of national parks - "America's Best Idea" - was an American innovation dating from the 1870s that eventually spread worldwide. In October, Cuneiform released Wadada Leo Smith's America's National Parks, a two-CD set honoring our nation's precious common property, America's shared public grounds. It is our duty and honor as Americans to preserve our public spaces in perpetuity: these lands are our national heritage, and whatever and whenever political, religious and/or social differences divide us -- like now-- remember that we literally, figuratively, and spiritually come together as One People on these truly Common Grounds. Best regards Joyce, Director of Publicity & Promo for the Cuneiform Records Team visit us online: www.cuneiformrecords.com www.twitter.com/cuneiformrecord www.facebook.com/cuneiformrecords |
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Cuneiform's Year in Review 2016
Jazz & Beyond: New Recordings
 The Claudia Quintet Super Petite Genre: Jazz / Post-Jazz Format: CD / Digital Release Date: 6/24/2016
Short doesn’t necessarily mean simple. Drummer-composer John Hollenbeck acrobatically explores the dichotomy between brevity and complexity on Super Petite, the eighth release by the critically-acclaimed, proudly eccentric Claudia Quintet. The oxymoronic title of the new album, captures the essence of its ten new compositions, which pack all of the wit and virtuosity that listeners have come to expect from the Claudia Quintet into a shorter time-frame. Hollenbeck’s uncategorizable music – which bridges the worlds of modern jazz and new music in surprising and inventive ways - is realized by Claudia’s longstanding line-up which has forged an astounding chemistry and become expert at juggling mind-boggling dexterity with inviting emotion and spirit.
 PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"JFK Beagle" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM TWITTER - FACEBOOK |
 Wadada Leo Smith America's National Parks Format: 2xCD / Digital Release Date: 10/14/2016
With America’s National Parks, visionary composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith offers his latest epic collection, a six-movement suite inspired by the scenic splendor, historic legacy, and political controversies of the country’s public landscapes. The spark for the project came from two places: Smith’s own research into the National Park system, beginning with Yellowstone, the world’s first national park; and Ken Burns’ documentary series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. This suite explores, confronts and questions the preserved natural resources that are considered the most hallowed ground in the U.S. – and some that should be. America’s National Parks was penned for his newly expanded Golden Quintet. Pianist Anthony Davis, bassist John Lindberg and drummer Pheeroan akLaff are joined by cellist Ashley Walters, affording the composer new melodic and coloristic possibilities.
PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"New Orleans: The National Culture Park USA 1718 [Excerpt]" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP [HD 96khz/24 bit] WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM TWITTER - FACEBOOK |
 Empirical Connection Genre: Jazz Format: CD / Digital Release Date: 2/5/2016
Empirical has become one of Europe’s top jazz ensembles by creating a bracing sound rife with roiling emotion. The quartet builds on the extroverted improvisational ethos of the 1960s New Thing, embracing oblique harmonies, translucent textures and jagged, quick shifting rhythms. Featuring Nathaniel Facey (alto sax), Shaney Forbes (drums), Lewis Wright (vibraphone) and Tom Farmer (bass), Connection is the fifth Empirical album, the first to feature only the quartet with no guests, and the first released outside of their home base of England. It captures the ensemble at its most pure and potent. Recorded after a week-long run at Foyles Bookshop London, the album captures the raw energy, brash ideas, and volatile group sound that Empirical has built upon the vast territory opened by jazz’s mid-1960s explorers.
PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"The Two-Edged Sword" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE MUSIC VIDEO: "Driving Force" (Official Video) PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM TWITTER - FACEBOOK |
 Sao Paulo Underground Cantos Invisíveis Genre: Jazz / Tropicalia / Electronic World / Psychedelic / Post-Jazz Format: CD / Digital Release Date: 10/14/2016
São Paulo Underground sounds more confident and intrepid than ever, with a program of music evoking lost haunts, enduring love, and the sheer delirious joy of making music together. Their breathtaking fifth album, Cantos Invisíveis, is a celebration of camaraderie and the spaces that allow love and friendship to unfurl. Alchemical aural conspirators for some 10 years, the group has developed its own approach to structure, with slippery forms, unabashedly beautiful melodies and lapidary textures. The music inhabits multiple planes simultaneously as "a projection of sound that celebrates as well as mourns past, present and future times," Rob Mazurek says. "The vocal quality of this particular music shouts and hollers for love and compassion, the joy and sorrows of life. It’s a street parade for everybody."
PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"Olhaluai" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP [HD 96khz/24 bit] WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM TWITTER - FACEBOOK |
 Rez Abbasi & Junction Behind the Vibration Genre: Jazz / Jazz-Rock Electric Jazz / Fusion Format: CD / Digital Release Date: 5/20/2016
Junction, the electric project that guitarist Rez Abbasi formed to bring his original tunes to life, features Mark Shim on tenor saxophone and the electronic MIDI Wind Controller, Ben Stivers on keyboards, B-3 organ and Rhodes, and drummer Kenny Grohowski. The band is a supremely maleable ensemble that has forged a poised and texturally accute group approach. While exploring a vivid palette of electronic sounds and aggressive grooves, Junction maintains the dynamics, precise calibration, and interactive imperative of an inspired jazz ‘acoustic’ combo. With this newest album, Behind the Vibration, realized via his new electric Junction, Abbasi takes another bold step, embracing his rock ‘n’ roll roots with a bear hug that encompasses post-bop, South Asian traditions, and state of the art sonics.
PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"Self-Brewing" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE VIDEO: Behind the Vibration Teaser/EPK (Video) PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM TWITTER - FACEBOOK |
 Thumbscrew Convallaria Genre: Jazz Format: CD / Digital Release Date: 5/20/2016 Creative artists aren’t subject to state persecution in the United States, but indifference can exact its own cost, just as generous support can pay steep dividends. Thumbscrew spent two weeks honing the tunes on Convallaria at City of Asylum, a residency program in Pittsburgh, and for the band the opportunity for intensive, undistracted work and woodshedding yielded a particularly striking body of music. Convallaria is the work of a true collective with all players composing and taking equal responsibility for shaping the music’s flow. While exploring an array of improvisational spaces, the band has honed a sinewy sound marked by transparent textures and astringent rhythms. It’s music that pushes outward and snaps back into unexpectedly altered forms. PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"Sampsonian Rhythms" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM TWITTER - FACEBOOK |
 I.P.A. I Just Did Say Something Genre: Jazz Format: CD / Digital Release Date: 6/24/2016
For a number of reasons, Scandinavia is currently one of the epicenters of vivid, forward-looking jazz, often marked by a tantalizing balance of form and freedom. Over the past decade, the quintet I.P.A. has come to embody the best of this volatile sensibility, which makes sense as the band draws its players from definitive Nordic ensembles. I Just Did Say Something is the quintet’s most exhilarating statement yet; it’s the work of a band fully alive to its own power, while eagerly investigating new directions. I.P.A. is strongly influenced by the seminal 1960s work of Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman. Harmonically unfettered, rhythmically unpredictable, and melodically unvarnished, the quintet thrives on live-wire interaction, with rapidly intersecting lines that swoop and collide, disentangle, divide and swing!
PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"Sir William" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM - FACEBOOK |
 Ergo As subtle as tomorrow Genre: Jazz / Electronic / Minimalism Format: CD / Digital Release Date: 2/5/2016
Trombonist, composer, and sonic architect Brett Sroka has honed an inviting improvisation-laced sound in his trio Ergo, an electro-acoustic group approach that often reveals strangely beautiful and unexpected realms. What’s not surprising about Ergo is discovering Sroka’s affinity for Emily Dickinson, the poet whose radical concision and visionary deployment of silence is unmatched in the English language. Featuring drummer Shawn Baltazor and Sam Harris on piano/Rhodes, As subtle as tomorrow captures the latest evolution of Sroka’s singular vision and is based on a brief and typically cryptic Dickinson verse. A suite in which overlapping melodies, motifs and improvisations organically evolve into and out of the music’s electronic elements--evocative and mysterious, playful and spiritually charged.
PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"That never came" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE MUSIC VIDEO: "Yet but" (Official Video) PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM |
 Naima Bye Genre: Jazz Format: LP / CD / Digital Release Date: 1/22/2016
With Bye, The Spanish trio Naima is well on its way to securing a spot as one of the leading combos on the contemporary European scene. Featuring Enrique Ruiz on piano and synths, Luis Torregrosa on drums, and Rafael Ramos Sania on double bass, the Valencia-based electro-acoustic band has honed a dramatic, darkly romantic sound marked by astringent textures, arresting melodies, and tightly coiled rhythms. Avoiding the jazz trio trope of a theme followed by a string of solos, they’ve concentrated on a group approach concerned with the ebb and flow of energy and finely calibrated inner dynamics, as well as melody and song that often erase distinctions between soloist and accompanist. Bye also features two revelatory covers, “Animal Chin,” by Jaga Jazzist and Elliott Smith's “Can't Make A Sound.”
PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"Bye" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE MUSIC VIDEOS: "Animal Chin" (Official Video) "Al Llegar Sabriamos Tanto Como Ella" (Official Video) PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM TWITTER - FACEBOOK |
The Ed Palermo Big Band One Child Left Behind Genre: Jazz / Big Band Format: CD / Digital Release Date: 1/22/2016
Over the past two decades Ed Palermo has earned an avid international following with his brilliantly executed, reverently irreverent arrangements of Frank Zappa’s tempestuous and wildly inventive music. On previous albums Palermo infused the world of Zappalogy with his own brand of incisive wit and bracing improvisation. He doesn’t neglect Zappa on One Child Left Behind but he turns his big band loose like it’s playing one of its regular gigs. Exploring an expansive array of moods and material, the band delivers an audaciously entertaining program that’s full of surprises: including a fatalistic film theme, a gorgeous Neil Young ballad, an existential Leiber and Stoller hit and an intoxicating Los Lobos classic. Palermo also throws in some beautifully crafted originals, and of course offers a generous helping of Zappa too.
PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"Dirty White Bucks" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM TWITTER - FACEBOOK |
[featuring Sarah Stiles] Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons Genre: Jazz / Musical
Next to Walt Disney, Max Fleischer is the best-known animator of the 20th century, creating the one and only Betty Boop, and bringing Popeye The Sailor to (animated) life. Guitarist Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley, Peter Hammill) has long been a fan of Fleischer's work and has wished to develop a band to present the music that was used in these cartoons. The music and era conjured up by the group is a gleaming confection from a hurly-burly era when the Jazz Age crashed into the Great Depression and Tin Pan Alley borrowed shamelessly from Harlem. Featuring: trombonist/arranger Joe Fiedler, saxist Jeff Lederer, double bassist Michael Bates, drummer Rob Garcia and Tony Award-nominated, Broadway vocalist Sarah Stiles–embodying both Betty Boop and Olive Oyl.
PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"The Broken Record" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM TWITTER - FACEBOOK |
Rock & Beyond: New Recordings
 Bent Knee Say So Genre: Rock / Indie Rock / Art-Rock / Pop / Avant-Progressive Format: CD / Digital Release Date: 5/20/2016
Bent Knee is a band without frontiers. The Boston-based group seamlessly connects the worlds of rock, pop and the avant-garde into its own self-defining statement. On its third release (and Cuneiform debut) Say So, the band focuses on the sound of surprise. It’s rock for the thinking person. The group’s lyrics are dark and infused with themes focusing on the emergence of personal demons, unwanted situations and the difficulty of conquering them. Its mercurial sound matches its subject matter. It’s a thrilling aural roller-coaster ride with arrangements designed to make listeners throw their arms up in wild abandon as they engage with them. Bent Knee is a true collective. The band operates as a democratic entity with sky-high standards and a determination to push boundaries.
PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"Leak Water" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE MUSIC VIDEOS: "Leak Water" (Official Video) "Good Girl" (Official Video) "Black Tar Water" (Official Video) PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM TWITTER - FACEBOOK |
 Richard Pinhas & Barry Cleveland [ft: Michael Manring & Celso Alberti] Mu Genre: Avant-Progressive / Art Rock / Experimental / Fourth World / Psychedelic Format: CD / Digital Release Date: 9/16/2016
Mu is often translated as “nothingness,” but as the response in Zen’s most famous koan, the gesture speaks to a truth deeper than rational dualistic thinking can obtain—therefore also resonating with the creative mindset accompanying the purest forms of musical improvisation. The music created by guitar iconoclast and electronic music pioneer Richard Pinhas and insistently inventive guitarist Barry Cleveland on Mu originated in just such a way, arising seemingly from “nothingness.” Unfettered by genre conventions, the album unfurls as a confluence of overlapping musical currents informed by art rock, ambient, electronic, avant-garde jazz, and various “world” music inflections. Joined by two longtime Cleveland collaborators, electric bass innovator Michael Manring and drum master Celso Alberti.
PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"Zen/Unzen" [excerpt] stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE PRESS MATERIALS: PRESS RELEASE (PDF) PROMO PHOTOS [ 1 | 2 ] COVER IMAGE ARTIST SITES (RP): OFFICIAL - CUNEIFORM TWITTER - FACEBOOK ARTIST SITES (BC): OFFICIAL TWITTER - FACEBOOK |
 Richard Pinhas / Tatsuya Yoshida / Masami Akita [Merzbow] Process and Reality Genre: Rock / Minimalism Format: CD / Digital Release Date: 9/16/2016
Three founding fathers of experimental music join forces to conjure an unholy serenade for a society on the verge of collapse on Process and Reality, an hourlong whirlwind of pessimistic prophecy transformed into a heady monolith of sound.
Boundary-stretching guitarist Richard Pinhas, founder of the influential French electronic-rock band Heldon, teams with two icons of the Japanese avant-garde – drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, mastermind of warped-prog legends Ruins, Koenjihyakkei and Korekyojinn, and Masami Akita, a.k.a. noise guru Merzbow – to summon a brutally honest, politically potent, sonically tumultuous reflection of the last gasps of the industrial age. Process and Reality marks the first recorded convergence of these three avant-rock giants. |
 Deus Ex Machina Devoto Genre: Rock / Progressive / Fusion Format: CD / Digital Release Date: 6/24/2016 PROMOTIONAL TRACK:"Figli (Sons)" stream: SOUNDCLOUD - BANDCAMP - YOUTUBE MUSIC VIDEO: "Locomotiv" (Official Live Video) PURCHASE LINKS: ITUNES - AMAZON BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST SITES: CUNEIFORM - FACEBOOK |
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