Cuneiform Records JUNE 2022 Newsletter

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Cuneiform Records                                      view this email online   JUNE 2022 NEWSLETTER: New Releases & Concerts click/jump to on computer, or scroll down on mobile: ~~~~~~ NEW RELEASES!! COMING OUT JUNE 24, 2022 ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS BUBBLEMATH  – TURF ASCENSION Progrock ascends to lyrical perfection and compositional precision via Minneapolis' band Bubblemath. A meme series announcing their release culminates with a video classic ~~~~~ OUT NOW! RELEASED MAY 27, 2022 IN DIGITAL FORMAT ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS NICK MACRI & MONO NO AWARE  – AMACHE Ambient music with electric & acoustic basses, electronics & percussion, recorded live at Chicago's Experimental Sound Studio CURLEW – CBGB'S NYC 1987 Live recordings from 1987 of  Curlew - renowned as THE best live band on the Downtown NY/Knitting Factory scene – from CBGB's soundboard CURLEW  – LIVE AT PHANTASMAGORIA AND WFMU Live Curlew recordings from 1997&1998 at the long-gone Phantasmagoria in metro DC and at WFMU DAVE KERMAN/5UU'S – THE QUIET IN YOUR BONES  Drummer/composer Dave Kerman's  new album of compositionally & lyrically intense, avant progressive/ rock-in-opposition-style  music  ~~~~~ OUT NOW! RELEASED APRIL 29, 2022 ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS BALUNGAN – KUDU BISA KUDU 13 piece French / Indonesian  gamelan / guitar ensemble, led by Guigou Chenevier   ~~~~~~ SNEAK PEEK!  COMING OUT JULY 29, 2022 ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS JANEL LEPPIN  – ENSEMBLE VOLCANIC ASH Washington DC based composer & cellist Janel Leppin bridges jazz and classical music with her Ensemble Volcanic Ash, which releases its debut album ~~~~~~ CUNEIFORM ARTISTS ON TOUR:   LIVE CONCERTS & TOURS ~~~~~~ A WORLD OF  MUSICAL ADVENTURE  WITH CUNEIFORM RECORDS ONLINE: • Explore Cuneiform Records'  SOCIAL MEDIA;  BANDCAMP PAGE; YouTube Channel • Purchase music from100s of labels at WAYSIDE MUSIC, our sister store estab.1980 • Missed seeing a Cuneiform Newsletter? Access prior issues at cuneiformrecord.blogspot.com/  • Find a broken or incorrect link or etc in this eblast? Tell us & we'll fix it! ~~~~~~   COMING OUT ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS ON JUNE 24, 2022: BUBBLEMATH TURF ASCENSION Bio information: BUBBLEMATH Title: TURF ASCENSION  Format: CD  / DIGITAL Label: Cuneiform Records Catalog #: Cuneiform Rune 488 FILE UNDER: ROCK / PROGRESSIVE ROCK        listen/share on Soundcloud: "Everything" from Bubblemath's Turf Ascension   credits: Blake Albinson : Guitar  Jay Burritt : Bass Kai Esbensen : Keyboards, vocals James Flagg : Drums, vocals Jonathan G. Smith : Vocals, guitar Video Announcement for Bubblemath - Turf Ascension "This is a nightmare! Dynamic song structures! Unpredictable chord changes! Time signatures that never stop! Songs that are simultaneously incomprehensible and yet infuriatingly catchy at the same time. Like pop songs swallowed by a black hole. The pretentious, festering black hole of progressive rock itself."   Bubblemath Perfectionists Produce Insanely Correct Masterpiece; It’s The Finest Prog You’ll Ever Read!     Bubblemath’s new album, Turf Ascension, is the finest progressive-rock album you’re ever going to read. This is not to short-change the music on this four-song, 49-minute collection of shifting time signatures, swirling vocal harmonies, interstellar guitars, and rippling keyboard flourishes.   Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bubblemath’s Blake Albinson, Jay Burritt, Kai Esbensen, James Flagg, and Jonathan G. Smith have taken full advantage of their hometown’s long winter nights to hone a singular style that’s at once thrilling, enthralling, and technically demanding.  Not just winter nights, in fact, but entire years. Although the members of Bubblemath joined forces well over two decades ago, Turf Ascension is only their third full-length, with a 15-year gap falling between their 2002 debut, Such Fine Particles of the Universe, and 2017’s Edit Peptide, their first for the Cuneiform Records imprint.     Asked why such a gap, keyboard player and chief lyricist Esbensen blames “happenstance” “Our first record, Such Fine Particles of the Universe, we started recording it in 1999, and we took two years to get that out,” he explains. “We were all like, ‘That took two years! That was way too long. Let’s not make that mistake again.’ So we immediately went into the studio and started recording Edit Peptide.”   The band’s obsessive attention to detail almost immediately sabotaged the chance of meeting any reasonable deadline. Once the initial budget was drained, the band members realized they had essentially paid to equip their engineer’s studio. Why not do the same for themselves? Microphones, a ProTools setup, and soundproofing were quickly obtained.   “But the punishment clause for owning your own equipment is that now you have it, there’s no longer any deadline spurring you along. No money that you will continue to owe, and no other bands coming into the space to kick you out,” says Esbensen with a rueful laugh. “So the perfectionism of Bubblemath crept in pretty quickly, and we just took forever to get our takes and arrangements just exactly, perfectly, insanely correct.”   The band’s hard-won knowledge enabled it to produce Turf Ascension in a comparatively fast-paced five years. Actually listening to the record, however, is a decidedly more luxurious experience. “With this record, we really allowed ourselves to develop themes,” Esbensen contends. “If you listen to our first record, or even Edit Peptide, it’s like we have this mantra of, ‘Why repeat something four times if you can get away with only three?’ That kind of thing. ‘Why give the listener a chance to get bored? Switch it up! Keep it going!’   “It was A.D.D. kind of stuff,” he continues. “And with Turf Ascension, we were like, ‘Well, what if we just lingered on stuff longer, and built out the themes?’ Before, we would have gone, ‘Well, we can’t, in case it gets boring.’ But here the followup question was, ‘Okay, well, what if we just work really hard to not make it boring?’ Switching up the themes quickly in order to hold listener interest is obviously our comfort zone. But in that regard it’s almost a crutch - sort of like having chocolate in a dessert is kind of a crutch. A chocolate dessert is pretty easy to make successful. But what if you had to create a dessert with cucumber and pomegranate? How do you make that good? You have to be really mindful and deliberate, if that’s not your culinary wheelhouse. So it was a fun challenge to let the themes evolve and flow in a way that we really haven’t ever done before.”       It’s tempting to call Esbensen’s lyrics the icing on this cucumber-pomegranate cake, and the idiom is not as clichéd as it might seem. While it may be easy to assume that Bubblemath’s music exists to illustrate its words, the reality is a little different. In fact, Esbensen’s detailed plot lines and well-considered meditations on existence come at the very end of the songwriting process, after the song structures and vocal melodies are already in place.   With the 17-minute, 57-second epic “Surface Tension”, for example, what reads like a science fiction novella emerged from Esbensen’s spur-of-the-moment playfulness.   “It was actually kind of a lucky break,” he says. “We had the vocal melodies already written, as we do, and one of the first things that I do when I’m writing lyrics is to fit nonsense words into the melody lines so I can feel out where the syllables should go and where the rhymes should fall. And the very first nonsense lyric I put in was, ‘In the wall of a bathroom, down the hall from the math room.’ That made me laugh, and so I started thinking what that could be about. And from there I pictured a high school, and a mysterious government computer system clicking away in the walls, with its grand purpose poised and ready for action. And then, meanwhile, the name ‘Bubblemath’ is a reference to the physics of surface tension. So once I decided to have this school burrowing into a secret underground human-race-preservation facility, I was kind of delighted that ‘Surface Tension’ could be the name of the song, given our protagonists’ longing to ascend from their bunker-compound back to the surface.”   The album title Turf Ascension, in turn, grew out of a spoonerism concocted by guitarist Albinson. It also gives a clue as to how Bubblemath operates: every aspect of the band is interconnected.   While claustrophobia, paranoia, and fear for the future are explicit in “Surface Tension”, variations on those themes underpin the other three songs on Turf Ascension. “All songs deal with ascending one kind of turf or another, whether it is literal dirt turf or figurative conceptual turf,” says Esbensen. In the song  “Decrypted”, it’s both: a dead apple tree refuses to admit defeat or even acknowledge its own death, and this anomaly opens the door, inviting the listener on a quest to decipher the mysteries of DNA. But the song can also be interpreted as referring to the onslaught of misinformation we all have to wade through, as well as to the persistence of life in the face of impossible odds.   “Everything”, meanwhile, posits that the entire universe is a simulation, a concept Esbensen traces back to the Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom’s 2003 essay, “Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?”       “I had read that, and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a fun concept for a song,’” he says. “It’s existential ennui meets meta-science plausibility. Questioning the bounds of what we know, as those very bounds subsume themselves. And it kind of goes back to the day-to-day gripes and grievances that people have, and the cortisol that people pointlessly expend being bothered by who gets food stamps and who looked at you funny when you were buying coffee that one time. It’s about how, ultimately, everything is probably fairly petty in the grand scheme. It’s like, ‘You’re worried about gas prices when the whole thing is a hologram? Choose your battles wisely, ya know?’”   On the subject of battles, more pressing existential worries are reflected in “Refuse”, a critique of unchecked weapons technology, and the contentious geopolitical border conflicts that drive it. Something that has never been more relevant than it is today.   Esbensen deflects the notion that he has a hotline to the zeitgeist, or that Bubblemath’s extra-musical mandate is to inject social commentary into the often apolitical world of progressive rock.    “Really, I just wanted to make sure that the lyrics were as good as the music,” he explains. “In so much of the music that I love, the lyrics come across like they were just kind of chucked in as an afterthought. I can roll with that for the most part, but the more I like a song’s music, the sadder I get when the lyrics don’t measure up. So I just want to make sure that the lyrics for Bubblemath deserve the music of Bubblemath.”   Nonetheless, the keyboardist is willing to counsel those perplexed by confusing times.   “Question stuff, but keep tabs on yourself,” he says. “Pay attention to what you’re questioning, as well as what you’re not questioning. And pay attention to why. Learn your biases. Self-deception is a real problem, so employ methodologies to mitigate self-deception as much as you can. You can’t eliminate it completely, but it’s important to understand that about oneself, and to be really mindful and aware of it.”   Sage advice. And nothing would help this process of self-discovery along more than the high-energy, hyper-intelligent, and tuneful tracks on Bubblemath’s Turf Ascension. pre-order Turf Ascension on BANDCAMP return to top OUT NOW!! released MAY 27, 2022 in DIGITAL FORMAT on CUNEIFORM RECORDS         TWO DIGITAL RELEASES OF LIVE RECORDINGS BY NYC'S LEGENDARY CURLEW, WIDELY REGARDED AS THE BEST LIVE BAND OF THE NEW YORK DOWNTOWN SOUND / KNITTING FACTORY SCENES CURLEW CBGB'S NYC 1987 File Under: JAZZ /  NY DOWNTOWN SOUND / KNITTING FACTORY SCENE / JAZZ-ROCK Bio information: Curlew Title: CBGS's NY, 1987 Format: Digital Label: Cuneiform Records Cat. #: Cuneiform Rune 3362 Release Date: May 27, 2022   listen/share on Soundcloud: "RAY" from CURLEW's CBGBS, NYC, 1987 CREDITS: George Cartwright - saxes Tom Cora - cello Davey Williams - guitar Ann Rupel - bass Pippin Barnett - drums   Recorded live off the board on October 15, 1987 at CBGB's, New York City, New York.  Mastering and cleanup by Ian Beabout, ShedSounds Media. "This was probably recorded less than 3 months after I saw Curlew for the first time, just after we (Cuneiform Records) released Live In Berlin. I love this show because it brings back some of the awe of what they were doing at that time. All you need to do is listen to the first song, "Ray" (their opener for years) and the incredible solos (and the incredible whooping from the audience at said solos) and YOU TOO will know." – Steve Feigenbaum, Cuneiform Records ***** "I had done the math, ok but I thought I should check my figures. I consulted my pal Rick Brown (of 75 Dollar bill, Two Mule Team, Big Feet, and more) and asked him how many gigs were done at CBGB’s in any given week. Rick said: “When I was first going there in late '75 it'd be two bands a night, alternating sets. So I guess 20 to 30 sets a week. As things got crazier they'd have 5, 6, or 7 bands a night so more like 45 or more sets.” With sound checks it adds up to a figure of 90. If a set was one hour and a soundcheck (good lord) could be, let’s say one hour then that’s 90 hours in a week. Plus all the whatever others that took place divided by 24 equals nearly four days. Total days. Four total days out of a week. God bless Hilly Krystal . At one of the first Curlew gigs there Rick and Sue Garner were standing at the left. As I walked up to get on the stage Rick looked at me, smiled, no no, he grinned looked at me, and said these fateful words: “Have fun.”  Curlew gigs there were always packed, with Tom Cora inventing the truly modern cello,  Ann Rupel hurling the bass like never before, Pippin Barnett drumming from one of the more esoteric surrealist places, Davey Williams inventing the guitar again and again, and I played sax, hung around on stage and hoped for the best. ...and for those following along: RAY: Named after author Barry Hannah's book "Ray" and coincidentally later is the name of my son Ray. KISSING GOODBYE: Came to me as a slightly sad winter day. TO THE SUMMER IN OUR HEARTS: Yeah, down there on the left or right, depending on your angle of view... BARKING: Like dogs or as in ‘…mad’ MOONLAKE: Named after the actual lake which is a 2,300 acre oxbow lake located outside the mainline Mississippi River levee about 15 miles north of Clarksdale, MS, and close to Lula, Rich, Birdie, Darling, Rudyard, Belen, Clover hill, STOVALL (Muddy Waters' 'Down on Stovell's Plantation) and Bobo ONE FRIED EGG: The title refers to to Davey’s ground breaking, startling and shocking book: ”Which Came First: The Fried Chicken or The Fried Egg? Now The Story Can be Told.” THE HARDWOOD: I wanted to choose a wood and couldn’t decide. OKLAHOMA: Refers to an unpleasant football drill we did in High School. AGITAR / THE VICTIM: Agitar is Spanish for the verb Shake while the The Victim is named for the countable and uncountable ones. Co-written with Rick Brown (see before )and guitarist and composer Mark Howell. LIGHT SENTENCE: Tom’s beautiful piece with a nice, slightly mysterious name. MINK'S DREAM: Refers to the Mink Snopes character in William Faulkner’s Trilogy: startling "The Hamlet" "The Town" and "The Mansion" FIRST BITE: Another of Tom's pithy titles. SHOATS: Young little pigs, especially ones newly weaned.” – George Cartwright, Curlew   Buy Curlew's CBGB's, NYC, 1987 on Bandcamp: "True story!  ......  ....the record [Live in Berlin] came out and I came up to see the band play at the then rather new and at that point not-yet-iconic Knitting Factory in the lower East side of Manhattan. .... 3rd or 4th song into the set. The Hardwood. Tom has finished his solo and Ann is doing the low zooooop stuff with Pippin and George and Davey before George takes the tenor solo. And she is shaking her head (watch any video of her playing) and playing REALLY low and everything and everyone is COOKING! ... A light bulb suddenly blows up and I SUDDENLY and TOTALLY GET IT! I GET EVERYTHING about this band, and I find myself yelling and cheering! And I remember thinking, "Jesus fucking Christ - somehow you backed into signing the best fucking live band in the country". – Steve Feigenbaum, Cuneiform Records  Read Steve's story in its entirety, about how Cuneiform Records decided to sign Curlew and his 1st time seeing the band perform live: https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cbgbs-nyc-1987     CURLEW LIVE AT PHANTASMAGORIA AND WFMU File Under: JAZZ / NY DOWNTOWN SOUND / KNITTING FACTORY SCENE / JAZZ-ROCK Bio information: Curlew Title: Live at Phantasmagoria and WFMU Format: Digital Label: Cuneiform Records Cat. #: Cuneiform Rune 3363 Release Date: May 27, 2022   listen/share on Soundcloud: "Autumn" from Curlew's Live at Phantasmagoria and WFMU CREDITS George Cartwright - saxophones  Davey Williams - guitar  Chris Cochrane - guitar  Ann Rupel - bass  Kenny Wollesen - drums  1-11 : Recorded off the board March 7, 1998 at Phantasmagoria, Wheaton, MD.  13-20 : Recorded for live radio broadcast June 22, 1997 at WFMU, East Orange, NJ Mastering and cleanup by Ian Beabout, ShedSounds Media. "The Phantasmagoria show was part of a small (4 dates, if I remember correctly) East Coast tour to promote Fabulous Drop, released Jan. 1998 on Cuneiform Records. I booked the DC area show; Phantasmagoria was a rock club outside Washington DC in Wheaton that's now long-gone, run by Bobby Rencher, and the band stayed with my wife and I at our home in downtown Silver Spring. The WFMU show was recorded while the NY band was rehearsing / recording the album." – Steve Feigenbaum, Cuneiform Records Buy Curlew's Live at Phantasmagoria and WFMU on Bandcamp:     "It could be cold in Maryland in the winter and so it was in Wheaton and at the Curlew Phantasmagoria show organized by Steve Feigenbaum of Cuneiform Records and put on by Bobby Rencher, owner of Phantas and former owner of Joe's Record Paradise Too. Former employee of Joes, Steve had been tasked to practice selling records. Make of that what you will you will..." – George Cartwright, Curlew “…Like its namesake, Curlew feeds on whatever seems handy. What comes out of its scavenging is quite unlike anything else… The band’s music feels like mercury… It feels natural, integrated, inevitable – the sound of joy.” – Gene Santoro Curlew attracted the attention of many, including late jazz and rock journalist and Mingus biographer Gene Santoro (Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus). Santoro published an article on the band titled “Bird on a Wire: Curlew” in The Nation on March 22, 1993, reprinted in his book: Stir it Up: Musical Mixes from Roots to Jazz (1997: Oxford University Press; pp.46-51). Santoro's article is an insightful analysis of Curlew’s role in late 20th C. popular music and an essential read, discussing the band and such releases as A Beautiful Western Saddle, Bee, The Hardwood and more. return to top DAVID KERMAN / 5uu's THE QUIET IN YOUR BONES File Under: AVANT PROGRESSIVE / ROCK / ROCK IN OPPOSITION / ART ROCK Bio information: Dave Kerman / 5uu'S Title: The Quet In Your Bones Format: Digital Label: Cuneiform Records Cat. #: Cuneiform Rune 3361 Release Date: May 27, 2022   listen/share on Soundcloud: "ROUTINE" from DAVID KERMAN's The Quiet in Your Bones "In November 2015, I decided to get back into writing music, after a 12 year break, to make this demo. It took 8 months of full-time work, between December 2015 and July 2016, to compose & record. Then a 7- month break, during which I was the musical director for a project with Theatre Basel.  February thru December of 2017 was again full-time work, rearranging much of it, replacing most of the original midi instruments with real ones, editing out parts that felt “compromising”, and fine-tuning the whole shebang, as best I could.  I initially worked in the kitchen, recording instruments onto a laptop with an old condenser microphone: my Stratocaster thru a little Pignose amp, two nylon and 1 steel string acoustic guitars, Harmonium, bass guitar, a mini keyboard controller, and anything around the house that would make noise. Usually, the microphone couldn’t generate enough signal, so I beefed it up with a tiny iPod amp. After the aforementioned break, most of the work commenced from the bedroom. I fell asleep with these songs, and I woke up to them.  The drums were recorded in a local band’s rehearsal room, except for a couple of instances, which were done in Les Reines Prochaines’ cabin.  The Harmonium was made in Stuttgart in 1846, kept in immaculate shape, and still adhering to the original tuning parameters (Diapason Normal, A435hz, seven decades before Germany was forced to adhere to A440 Standard, as part of the Treaty of Versailles).  As a result, it is a bit creepily out-of-tune with the other instruments. I could have electronically tuned it, but where’s the charm in that?  Though many parts of this recording used looping and cut & paste, most of it was played in real-time.  One thing I had in mind was that each song should display a sense of theatrics; the lyrics were written in the first person, to hopefully portray a kind of actor’s soliloquy. So, apart from a couple of instances, the singing is that of a lone voice, without any kind of accompanying harmonies." – Dave Kerman   Pre-Order Dave Kerman/ 5uu's The Quiet in Your Bones on Bandcamp:   CREDITS Dave Kerman: words and music, instruments  Michele Fuchs: vocals, trumpet, euphonium  Liesbeth Lambrecht: violas on 2  Bill Gilonis: twangy guitar and bass clarinet on 4  Dave Willey: organ solo on 5  Keith Macksoud: bass on 9  Joel Trieger: intro guitar on 9  Mostly recorded at home in Basel, Switzerland, 2016 - 2020. Stereo drums recorded by Luc Wiesner at the Ai Ca Gicle rehearsal room, in Basel. Guest artists recorded at their own abodes. Mastered by Bob Drake at Studio Midi-Pyrénées, Caudeval, France.   return to top NICK MACRI & MONO NO AWARE AMACHE File under: EXPERIMENTAL / ELECTRONIC / AMBIENT / AVANT ROCK Bio information: Nick Macri & Mono No Aware Label: Cuneiform Records Catalog #: Cuneiform Rune 3364 Format: Digital Release Date: May  27, 2022   listen/share on Soundcloud: "Without Jumping Out of your Skin" from NICK MACRI & MONO NO AWARE's AMACHE   Nick Macri - electric and acoustic basses, electronics, percussion   Bassist Nick Macri has been exploring Chicago’s slipstream of creative music for decades from collaborative, creative groups and ad hoc improvised pairings, to notable sideman gigs, and the rare solo excursion. He is a founding member of the collective trio Stirrup with Fred Lonberg-Holm and Charles Rumback and is/was a contributing member to many, varied groups including Ken Vandermark’s Audio One, Momentum 3, and Momentum 5 groups, instrumental explorers Euphone and Heroic Doses, art-pop quartet The Zincs, and the pastoral, psych-folk of The Horse's Ha (with Janet Bean and James Elkington). He has performed and toured as a sideman and recorded sessions with an eclectic list of artists including Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab, The Sea and Cake, Daughter of Swords, Nina Nastasia, Azita, James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg, Joan Shelley, Wanees Zarour, Hector Zazou of ZNR, and visual artist Bruce Licher of Savage Republic. Additionally, he has improvised in duo or group settings with various musicians including Angel Bat Dawid, Bill MacKay, Eve Risser, Isaiah Collier, Avreeayl Ra, Sylvaine Hélary, Tim Daisy, and many more. He has performed across Europe, Asia, South America, and North America including concerts at Saalfelden Jazz Festival (Austria), Festival de Musique Actuelle Victoriaville (Canada), Reading Festival and Leeds Festival (U.K.), World Music Festival Chicago, All Tomorrow's Parties (U.K.), the London Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Logan Center, and the Pritzker Pavilion (Chicago). About Amache: "My natural state as a musician has always been one of collaboration. Whether creatively conspiring with other players in a rehearsal room or on a recording session, side-mousing it (to borrow a phrase from Mike Watt) on a tour, or building something from the ground up with some long-standing comrades, I am most comfortable making noise with others. So, the opportunity to perform a solo, improvised set before a studio audience at Experimental Sound Studio was intimidating, exhilarating, and a challenge I knew I had to accept. So, thank you to Tim Daisy, Ken Vandermark, and Andrew Clinkman for the chance to be alone with my thoughts to see what came to mind and to E.S.S. for documenting it.  Amache is dedicated to The Chicago Resettlers, the tens of thousands of Japanese American citizens who reestablished their lives and communities in Chicago after being incarcerated by the United States in the internment camps of World War II."                                                 – Nick Macri Buy NICK MACRI & MONO NO AWARE's AMACHE on BANDCAMP: CREDITS All music performed by Nick Macri. Recorded live in front of a studio audience at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago on September 30, 2019 by Alex Inglizian as part of the Option Series curated Tim Daisy, Ken Vandermark, and Andrew Clinkman. Mixed by John McEntire @ Soma Studios Mastered by Matthew J. Barnhart Painting by Lisa Tomiko Macri Design by Brian Case With gratitude to Tim, Ken, Andrew, the Staff at E.S.S., Fred Lonberg-Holm, Charles Rumback, Steve Feigenbaum, Brian Case, Andrew Skwish and Lisa Tomiko Macri. return to top OUT NOW !! released APRIL 29, 2022 on CUNEIFORM RECORDS: BALUNGAN KUDU BISA KUDU Bio information: BALUNGAN Title: KUDU BISA KUDU (Cuneiform Rune 484) Format: CD  / DIGITAL Label: Cuneiform Records Release Date: April 29, 2022 FILE UNDER: WORLD MUSIC / ROCK / ART ROCK   listen/share on Soundcloud: "Kangen" from Balungan's Kudu Bisa Kudu The French / Indonesian band BALUNGAN Breaks New Musical Ground with Gamelan and Guitars   By the end of 2022, Indonesia will see the completion of its first high-speed rail line, an 88-mile-long section linking the nation’s longtime capital, Jakarta, to Java’s second largest city, Bandung.   According to the globe-trotting musicians of Balungan, however, the train à grande vitesse is already at the station. The 13-member band kicks off its debut, Kudu Bisa Kudu, with the nostalgic steam whistle and intentionally garbled boarding call of “Javanese TGV”, but as soon as Franck Testut’s driving bassline gears ups, it’s clear that we’re riding a 21st-century conveyance. Gang vocals, hairpin-curve guitars, and accelerating arpeggios played on tuned percussion also announce that this is a multicultural journey—and in fact the group is made up of seven of Java’s most open-minded gamelan virtuosos, plus six equally adventurous rock musicians from the south of France.   Gamelan—Indonesia’s national music, based on intricately subdivided polyrhythms and played on shining, lavishly decorated bronze metallophones—has been an influence on European and North American musicians for more than a century, arguably beginning with the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle in Paris. There, French composers including Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy first heard a Javanese gamelan ensemble, and immediately reconsidered their notions of what music could be—and the repercussions, so to speak, are still being felt. Artists as diverse as jazz traveller Don Cherry, pioneering minimalist Lou Harrison, and the progressive rock groups Gong and King Crimson have incorporated gamelan-like rhythms into their sound, and while the influence of European music on Indonesia has been less widely celebrated, it’s there: think of the guitarist Dewa Budjana, whom sometimes works Balinese motifs into his blazing fusion jazz.   But there’s never been a gamelan-based cultural exchange as equitable as Balungan, named after the Javanese word for “skeleton”, which is also used to describe the core melody of a musical composition. Nor has there been one as loud. The Javanese members of the band attack their gendèrs, gongs, and bonangs “like a rock ensemble,” says drummer and project sparkplug Guigou Chenevier, “and this was really great to see and to share with them.”   The Balungan project began when Chenevier — a legend in progressive-rock circles for his work with Etron Fou Leloublan, Fred Frith, and others — initially answered a call for a gamelan workshop in Marseilles. The hook was the opportunity to work with a cadre of Javanese instructors, followed by a visit to their home in Yogyakarta, the musical capital of central Java. The Avignon resident recalls that when he learned “the workshop involved making music with these people eight hours a day for 15 days" and that travel costs were covered, he said “Wow, I want to do that!’”   Following that first excursion, Chenevier invited his Javanese friends to his home town, and things grew from there. “They explained to me that they wanted to exchange their culture with something new, because they felt that if they didn’t do that Javanese music and gamelan music would just die,” the drummer notes. “So I said “Wow! Okay, let’s do something together.’ In total, we had three different times in Java and they came three different times in France, and that’s how it started.”   Once the members of the band were in place, aesthetic parameters were quickly established. Balungan wasn’t going to be about rock musicians playing gamelan, or vice versa: one singular feature of the live concert immortalized on Kudu Bisa Kudu is that every musician has written a piece, with the arrangements developed collectively. Chenevier, for example, contributes “The Guy I Am”, which frames a text from the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana, in clanging metallophones, Beefheartesque slide guitars, and clattering drums that gradually build to an ecstatically psychedelic climax. Sapto Raharjo’s “Kangen”, in contrast, opens in an almost traditional manner, but soon veers towards something that recalls pop metal, with power-chord guitars, anthemic singing, and a surging rock chorus.   What’s most impressive about Kudu Bisa Kudu, perhaps, is that the ensemble manages to be both coherent and diverse, even in the live setting. Despite its size and schizophonic nature, Balungan sounds like a band, in part because the performers, recognizing that their time together would be limited, honoured their commitment to rehearsing eight hours a day, every day. But Chenevier also points out that he and his fellow French musicians were inspired by their Javanese colleagues’ inclusive and boundary-free attitude towards art and life.   “In Javanese culture one thing that’s very important is the spiritual aspect, but not in the sense of strict religion,” he says. “For example, lot of people in Central Java, they can be at the same time Muslim and Buddhist. It’s no problem for them. And of course this way of seeing the world is very important in the way they make music and art and all that.   “When you are a musician playing gamelan in Java, you learn everything at first,” he continues. “You learn music, of course, but you also learn dance, you learn poetry, you learn puppets… all that goes into the full show of the shadow theatre. And only then do you choose a speciality. So it was very interesting working with these people, because they are very big fans of the stage, of theatre, and they know how to add often very funny stuff on-stage. So it was very alive; each performance we did was a surprise.”   Chenevier is still contemplating how his work with his Javanese counterparts will change how he approaches music in future, although he notes that it certainly reinforces his desire to operate in a collaborative way—as he has already done on his solo albums Le Batteur Est Le Meilleur Ami Du Musicien (InPolySons), an early exercise in file-sharing with musicians from all over the world, and Les Rumeurs De La Ville (Cuneiform Records), which includes performances from amateur musicians from Avignon as well as a number of virtuosi. But Balungan’s most important lesson, he offers, has to do with the “why” of making music.   “On different occasions journalists would ask us why we were doing this project,” he says. “And generally the Javanese people, they were answering in a way that a French guy never would, which was that it was just about fraternité. That was very beautiful and very simple, and at least as important as the rest of the project: the human exchange, the way they welcomed us when we were there, and also the incredible places where we played some concerts in Java. They were just amazing. I never could have imagined such a thing before.”   Will he imagine such a thing again? That remains to be seen, Chenevier admits. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, hardening racial attitudes in France, and the perils of the global economy, it seems unlikely that Balungan will have a second act—although his memories of this beautiful project and the circumstances that shaped it will remain. Even now, he says, he still dreams of all-day rehearsals in the heat and humidity of Central Java, the cooling rains that would come every night, and the hair-raising scooter rides home afterwards.   “It’s a strong memory,” he says, “a very deep impression that will stay inside me forever.” And listeners may well feel the same once they hear this music.   BALUNGAN: Guigou Chenevier – drums Loïc Guénin – keyboards Laurent Frick – vocals Gilles Laval – guitare Laurent Luci – guitare Franck Testut – bass Setyanto Prajoko – gamelan Sudaryanto – gamelan Tri Widiantoro – gamelan Setyaji Dewanto – gamelan Sutikno – gamelan Bagus Ariyanto Seputro Nasution – gamelan Desyana Wulani Putri – gamelan Buy Balungan's Kudu Bisa Kudu on Bandcamp: return to top SNEAK PEEK! COMING OUT  JULY 29, 2022 ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS JANEL LEPPIN ENSEMBLE VOLCANIC ASH Bio information: JANEL LEPPIN Title: ENSEMBLE VOLCANIC ASH  Format: CD  / DIGITAL Label: Cuneiform Records Catalog #: Cuneiform Rune  499 File Under: : JAZZ / CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL / CHAMBER JAZZ / IMPROVISATION        listen/share on Soundcloud: "Woven Forest / She Had Synesthesia" from Janel Leppin's Ensemble Volcanic Ash Virtuoso cellist and composer JANEL LEPPIN finds joy and fellowship with her  ENSEMBLE VOLCANIC ASH, an extraordinary Washington DC-based ensemble that bridges jazz and classical, combining highly detailed composition and improvisation   Out of the ashes, something strange and beautiful is born. Emanating from the capacious imagination of Janel Leppin, Ensemble Volcanic Ash materialized after years of incubation on Washington D.C.’s verdant new music, jazz and improvised music scenes. The group’s eponymous debut album on Cuneiform Records captures Leppin’s highly personal vision, a stylistically polymorphous sound that The Washington Post aptly describes as “embodying all the complexity and grace of human cooperation — that intuitive, empathetic, semi-telepathic teamwork thing that helps set us apart as a species.”   A composer and cellist who’s honed a singular synthesis of composition, orchestration and improvisation, Leppin is best known as half of the experimental duo Janel and Anthony, which she co-leads with her husband guitarist Anthony Pirog. With the chamber-jazz Ensemble Volcanic Ash she steps forward as a bandleader in her own right, delivering a gorgeous debut brimming with singular musicians. The seven-piece group melds an illustrious array of D.C. talent into a glimmering expressive organism that surges, expands, ebbs and dances in multiple directions at once.    The powerhouse cast gets plenty of opportunities to shine, but it’s Leppin’s compositions that define the group in radiant, Technicolor splendor. Elegant and raw, persuasively logical and thrumming with emotion, her lapidary themes take shape with exquisite detail. Like with jazz’s most consequent composers, Leppin’s writing flows from the idiosyncratic voices in her ensemble, players who imbue every passage with their irrepressible personalities. As an instrumental voice she’s the first among equals, laying down expansive emotional parameters with each striking solo and cello-forward passage.    On an instrument with only a handful of defining improvisers Leppin makes a forceful case for herself as one of jazz’s most original cellists. Which isn’t to say she dominates the proceedings. She creates alluring lines for Pirog, tenor saxophonist Brian Settles, alto saxophonist Sarah Hughes, harpist Kim Sator, and the commanding rhythm section tandem of bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Larry Ferguson, who all shape the music profoundly and often erase the distinction between soloist and accompanist.    "This work is a braiding together of over 32 years of classical and jazz study on the cello with more than 20 years performing in Washington D.C.,” Leppin says. “It is a distinct place to learn and try new things. I've worked with some of these musicians for well over a decade and I think it shows in the music."   Describing Ensemble Volcanic Ash’s music as cinematic is accurate, but also misleading as it’s rare indeed to find a film these days marked by such unbridled creativity and incandescent characterizations. The brief, through-composed opening track “Children of the Water” sets the scene, with its portentous theme packing tremendous emotion and drama into a minute and a half. On “Woven Forest,” Leppin’s burly cello seizes the foreground, propelled by an insistent groove. As the horns step forward, counter melodies churn behind them until the ensemble reaches a clearing, opening up space for Pirog’s guitar solo.    Many of Leppin’s tunes unfurl in two or three movements, like the mini-suite “She Had Synesthesia,” which inspires some of Leppin’s most earthy, physically imposing cello work on an extended exchange with Pirog. “I Pose,” the only track on the album with keyboards, features two main sections that suggest very different spectral encounters. The tune opens with a spaciously celestial section and builds to an incantatory cello-driven climax evoking mystery and transcendence.     In much the same way that Leppin effectively deploys contrasting passages, the album’s sequencing flows with its own internal logic. The concise, through-composed “Her Hand is His Score” feels like a moment of calm before plunging into the insistent introspection of “Silvia’s Path.” The punning title refers to the renowned poet Sylvia Plath, and the piece opens and closes with incantatory lines of minimalism. The album’s centerpiece is the nine-minute “Volcano’s Song,” a sinuous melody that rides on Stewart’s bass line. Solos by Settles and Pirog quietly torque the tension while maintaining the same tempo and hushed dynamic. Like the ensemble itself, the title comes from Leppin’s experience on a plane flight diverted during the 2010 eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano after a long European tour, but the piece was inspired by her love of John Zorn’s Masada. “I play those beautiful pieces to this day,” she says.   She pays direct tribute to another source of inspiration, Alice Coltrane, with “A Palace for Alice,” a piece suspended on Sator’s harp ostinato (beautifully doubled by Pirog’s guitar). It’s a gossamer melody carried by Hughes’ cottony alto that feels like a dispatch from Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda. Leppin closes the album with the first song she ever composed, “Leaving the Woods,” which she first recorded on the 2012 Janel & Anthony album, Where is Home (Cuneiform Records). Once again, Stewart’s bass takes the lead, maintaining a centered emotional presence as the cello and Hughes’ alto sax spiral around each other. Unsentimental but full of ache, it’s a backward glance of a tune with a melancholic melody.   If “Leaving the Woods” makes the transplantation process sound wrenching it’s partly because she’s so deeply rooted. Leppin hails from the D.C. metropolitan area where she earned a degree in cello performance from George Mason University (with minors in world music and dance). While studying the Western classical tradition, she plunged into DC’s thriving punk and hardcore scene in the 1990s. Later in college she began composing and improvising with Pirog. The pair have played hundreds of shows together worldwide and recorded several critically hailed albums as Janel and Anthony. She’s also collaborated extensively in recent years with composer and renegade pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, including curating, arranging and playing on 2020’s The Heart Sutra (Editions Mego Ideologic Organ).    In many ways, Ensemble Volcanic Ash’s expanded sonic palette and vast textural resources unleashed Leppin as both a composer and a player. “It freed me up,” she said. “Having Luke Stewart in the band gave me the chance to step out more comping-wise. I could be in the midrange a bit more and solo more often. With that kind of support I found I could play more assertively like my favorite cellists, Abdul Wadud and Pablo Casals. It was a big evolution to let go of playing the role of bassist in the group.”    Leppin is also a celebrated textile artist who transforms her onstage outfits into chromatically extravagant woven creations (the album includes Leppin’s woven portraits of each Volcanic Ash musician as well as her shimmering cover art). Comet Ping Pong, the Black Cat, and the 9:30 Club have presented solo exhibitions of her weavings. She created album covers for Des Demonas’s Cure for Love, Anthony Pirog's Pocket Poem (Cuneiform Records), and Susan Alcorn's The Heart Sutra. In form, content and spirit, there are many parallels between her fabric art and her music. Just listen and take a look.    Ensemble Volcanic Ash credits: ● Janel Leppin : Cello, Korg Polyphonic Ensemble ● Luke Stewart : Bass ● Kim Sator : Harp ● Sarah Hughes : Alto Saxophone ● Brian Settles : Tenor Saxophone ● Anthony Pirog : Guitar ● Larry Ferguson : Drums ~ ~ ~ “On a really good night, it only takes seven people on a stage to make you feel impossibly hopeful for the other 7.8 billion or so on Earth. Like on Saturday night at Rhizome, where Janel Leppin’s Ensemble Volcanic Ash created a 30-minute jazzlike surge that embodied all the complexity and grace of human cooperation — that intuitive, empathetic, semi-telepathic teamwork thing that helps set us apart as a species.” - The Washington Post return to top CUNEIFORM ARTISTS ON TOUR 2022 CALENDAR IMPORTANT COVID REMINDER: In an evolving COVID-19 world, these dates are ALL tentative. Please check with venues, close to the concert date, to confirm. We're ecstatic that live concerts are resuming in many locales, and look forward to music venues and concert halls opening worldwide, when health and safety measures allow. See also the Tours Page at Cuneiform Records.   ACCORDO DEI CONTRARI July 1 - XXVI Festival - Cortile del Castello - Castello Bentivoglio, Italy   ".“...filled with the type of blazing solos, odd-metered time signatures, precisely executed unison bridges, hypnotic riffing, and dramatic chordal hooks that fans of high-energy fusion-tinged electric prog shouldn't miss.” – AllMusic   Listen to & buy  UR           "UR is yet another thrilling ride, a beautiful ride, it is challenging then it is challenging in the most positive of ways, we’re talking flights of a Mahavishnu Orchestra nature, we’re talking beautiful details, undercurrents, counterbalances, we’re talking flow that flows against the flow and flows so well…"  – The Organ (UK) CHEER-ACCIDENT "Cheer-Accident are the quintessential Chicago post-rock band that, sadly, you may have never heard of. Too bad. They've been exploring head-scratching, creatively fucked-up time signatures and sideways guitar shenanigans for 20 years now, leaving a pronounced influence on the Windy City's art-rock scene. Their playful musical approach is a ripe aesthetic of absurdist humor." – Pitchfork June 17 - TBA - Milwaukee, WI [with Faun Fables] June 18 - The Hideout - Chicago, IL August 5 - Seaprog - The Crocodile - 2501 First Ave - Seattle, WA  CHEER-ACCIDENT storm Seaprog, Seattle's festival of progressive rock "...one of the most impressive concerts I saw was the Dragon Drop/Cheer Accident/Free Salamander Exhibit show in Indianapolis. ...Cheer Accident...had just released their 18th studio album, Putting Off Death... To put it simply, Cheer Accident blew me away... The music was innovative and powerful and brave and everything I’d hoped it would be."- Proglodytes   Listen to & buy  Chicago XX, Putting Off Death,          No Ifs, Ands or Dogs, Fear Draws Misfortune              GHOST RHYTHMS "The music here walks a wide loop around Soft Machine and Magma, Univers Zero and Henry Cow, Miles Davis and Miriodor, Van Der Graaf Generator and Art Zoyd. It's impeccably assembled and played, while freely indulging the more insane aspects of progressive rock, avant-garde chamber music, and electric jazz....Despite the musical sophistication and adventure on Live at Yoshiwara, this music is extremely accessible to a wide swathe of listeners. Its release signals the magnificent arrival of Ghost Rhythms on American shores. Get it now." – AllMusic _______________________________ June 8 - La Dame de Canton - Port de la Gare - Paris 75013, France June 17 - 38 Riv - 38 rue de Rivoli - Paris 75004, France September 3 - Festival Constellations - Jazz à la Villette Off - Parc de la Villette - Paris, France October 1 - Freakshow ArtRock Festival - Galerie 03 e.V. - Lindleinstr.8 - 97080 Würzburg, Germany   Listen to & buy:  Spectral Music  //  Live at Yoshiwara        THE GREAT HARRY HILLMAN The exuberant Swiss jazz/ pop/ beyond group - named after the American triple-Gold Medal winner at the 1904 Summer Olympics - are one of the most active groups on the European festival and club circuit, top-notch live performers ceaselessly honing their skills. October 27 - Tango Brücke - Einbeck, Germany Listen to & buy: Tilt HENRY KAISER Grammy winner Henry Kaiser is widely recognized as one of the most creative and innovative guitarists, improvisers, and producers in the fields of rock, jazz, world, and contemporary experimental musics. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– THE HENRY KAISER MONTHLY SOLO SERIES, presented exclusively on the CUNEIFORM RECORDS YouTube Channel  When Covid pandemic lockdowns began in 2020, Henry Kaiser began curating & presenting a weekly series of pre-recorded music videos exclusively on Cuneiform's YouTube Channel for music lovers isolating at home. These "live" concerts are taped beforehand and not streamed - Henry discusses the process in a Guitar Moderne interview, "The New "Live"".  Many videos in the series depict duets and larger bands, despite the program being called the "Henry Kaiser Weekly Solo Series".  While many depict new or recent performances, other videos in this series are vintage footage of performances not available elsewhere (The Valentines' 1994 concert in the Fukuoka Dome). After lockdowns began to lift In April 2021, the series celebrated its one-year anniversary and converted to a monthly format, which continues!  All 52 videos from the Henry Kaiser's Weekly Series and everything in the current Monthly Series are archived & available on Cuneiform's YouTube Channel.  We invite you to visit Cuneiform Record's YouTube Channel to see the videos that Henry presents on the first of every month. The June 1. 2022 video is Henry Kaiser Monthly Solo # 15 : Zappa + Hank Williams + Howlin’ Wolf + Froggy the Gremlin. Besides his work as a musician, Kaiser is also a scientific diver and underwater videographer in the U.S. Antarctic program. Several of his Solo Series videos on the Cuneiform channel feature Henry's stunning underwater videography in addition to his guitar playing, as in this stunning video from May 2020:  HENRY KAISER : Cuneiform Weekly Solo #2 : Under The Ice Again . Because all videos are archived on our YouTube site, you can watch anything in the series at any time.   Listen to & buy: Albums by Henry Kaiser & Friends  on Cuneiform A Love Supreme Electric [Vinny Golia / John Hanrahan / Henry Kaiser / Wayne Peet / Mike Watt]: A Love Supreme Electric: A Love Supreme and Meditations  Yo Miles!: Henry Kaiser & Wadada Leo Smith: Sky Garden & Upriver     Five Times Surprise [Henry Kaiser / Anthony Pirog / Tracy Silverman / Jeff Sipe / Andy West]:  Five Times Surprise Henry Kaiser & Ray Russell:  The Celestial Squid Henry Kaiser: Lemon Fish Tweezer; Fred Frith & Henry Kaiser: Friends & Enemies     Healing Force [Vinny Golia • Aurora Josephson • Henry Kaiser • Mike Keneally • Joe Morris • Damon Smith • Weasel Walter]: Healing Force:  The Songs of Albert Ayler                       V.A.: 156 Strings: Nineteen Totally Original Acoustic Guitarists THE MICROSCOPIC SEPTET "..the saxophone-heavy Microscopic Septet drew on a cache of sophisticated improvisers and two of the era's most sophicated and stylistically slippery jazz composers and players – the pianist Joel Forrester and the saxophonist Phillip Johnston. This reunion promises equal parts zaniness and braininess..." – The New Yorker Embracing jazz’s populist legacy, the Micros brought Uptown jazz back Downtown, where they made a compelling case that swing could look forward as well as backward. Since storming back into action in 2006 after a 14-year hiatus, the radically old-school combo, founded in mid-1980s NYC,  has continued to evolve and extend its reputation.  Don't miss this exciting show, in which co-leaders Phillip Johnston and Joel Forrester - now living in Sydney, Australia and Lyons, France - reunite with their Septet bandmates in NYC. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––   July 17 - Jazz Forum - 1 Dixon Lane - Tarrytown, NY July 21 - Smalls - 183 West 10th Street - basement - New York City, New York 10014, Listen to & buy: THE MICROSCOPIC SEPTET albums on Cuneiform: Been Up So Long It Looks Like Down to Me: The Micros Play the Blues  //  Manhattan Moonrise //       Friday the Thirteenth: The Micros Play Monk // Lobster Leaps In //       History of the Micros Vol. I: Seven Men in Neckties // History of the Micros Vol. II: Surrealistic Swing //          THE ED PALERMO BIG BAND "Twenty-first century big-band music doesn’t get more exciting and impressive than this." – Jazz Times An astounding 18 piece jazz ensemble of five woodwind players, four trumpeters, three trombonists, two keyboardists, guitar, violin, bass and drums, led by arranger, composer & saxophonist Ed Palermo, one of America's most singular arrangers who draws on jazz, pop and rock tunes for his top-notch band. There are a number of ensembles performing the music of Frank Zappa, one of the greatest American composers of the 20th century, but no one does it with the ease, skill and originality that Ed and his band do! –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The ED PALERMO BIG BAND returns to the live stage! ~~~~ June 4 - The Falcon - 1348 Rte 9W - Marlboro, NY 12542 June 27 - Iridium - 1650 Broadway (at 51st St) - NYC, NY July 25 - Iridium - 1650 Broadway (at 51st St) - NYC, NY August 6 - The Falcon - 1348 Rte 9W - Marlboro, NY 12542 August 29 - Iridium - 1650 Broadway (at 51st St) - NYC, NY September 3 - The Falcon - 1348 Rte 9W - Marlboro, NY 12542 September 26 - Iridium - 1650 Broadway (at 51st St) - NYC, NY October 24 - Iridium - 1650 Broadway (at 51st St) - NYC, NY October 29 - The Falcon - 1348 Rte 9W - Marlboro, NY 12542 December 17 - The Falcon - 1348 Rte 9W - Marlboro, NY 12542   Listen to & buy: Ed Palermo Big Band albums on Cuneiform: The Adventures of Zoyd Zundgren;  The Great Un-American Songbook Vols. 1&2;  One Child Left Behind;  Oh No! Not Jazz!!;  Eddy Loves Frank;  Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance                   RICHARD PINHAS One of France's major experimental musicians and a key figure in the development of electronic rock, guitarist and electronic musician Richard Pinhas will perform in 2021 in France and beyond in various groupings. _______________________________ November 19 - Just Drop In Records - FarGo Village -  Far Gosford Street, - Coventry, UK November 21 - Cafe Oto - 18-22 Ashwin St - London E8, UK     Listen to & buy releases by Richard Pinhas & friends on Cuneiform: Process and Reality,  Desolation Row,  Metatron,  Metal/Crystal,  Tranzition,  Event & Repetitions                 Richard Pinhas & Oren Ambarchi: Tikkun   Richard Pinhas & Merzbow:   Keio Line / Rhizome / Paris 2008           Schizotrope (Richard Pinhas & Maurice Dantec):  The Life & Death of Marie Zorn   TOMEKA REID QUARTET “Cellist Tomeka Reid has been on a serious tear lately; perhaps you noted her on the commanding new album by The Art Ensemble of Chicago, or with the chamberlike Artifacts Trio. Old New is Reid’s second album with [her] rough-and-ready [quartet].... If the title calls to mind an Art Ensemble rallying cry, “Ancient to the Future,” that’s probably not a mere coincidence.”  – Nate Chinen / WBGO In the hands of Tomeka Reid, the cello is an essential vehicle for unfettered jazz exploration. Old New, the second album by the Tomeka Reid Quartet, exemplifies why she’s quickly become a definitive figure on the 21st century jazz scene. As a composer, arranger, improviser, bandleader, and impresario, she embodies jazz’s progressive ethos. _____________________________ June 3 - Moers Festival 2022 - "Improvisor In Residence" - Moers, Germany June 4 - Moers Festival 2022 - "Improvisor In Residence" - Moers, Germany June 5 - Moers Festival 2022 - "Improvisor In Residence" - Moers, Germany June 6 - Moers Festival 2022 - "Improvisor In Residence" - Moers, Germany Listen to & buy:  OLD NEW    RAY RUSSELL "Like contemporaries Sonny Sharrock and Terje Rypdal, Russell makes it sound as if the guitar is not enough, as if he's reaching for something wilder, something that can't be contained within the 6 string cage" - Jim O'Rourke _____________________________ June 23 - Lewes Con Club - 139 High Street - Lewes BN7 1XS, UK Listen to & buy: Ray Russell: Fluid Architecture;  Secret Asylum; Goodbye Svengali       Ray Russell & Henry Kaiser: The Celestial Squid        “Russell isn’t merely a fine jazz player, but a truly original music thinker and an improvisational force to be reckoned with.” – All Music Guide SCHNELLERTOLLERMEIER "The Best Music of 2015: A Banner Year for the Bold: …here are a dozen albums released in 2015 that I savored repeatedly for their musicality, clarity of statement and courage. …“X” by Schnellertollermeier marries brutality to avant-garde rock and jazz. A classic power trio from Switzerland, the band plays with punk fury and dazzling technical dexterity to create booming, bone-rattling music that stalks, confronts and astonishes.” –The Wall Street Journal Schnellertollermeier's clear-cut approach burns itself into one's memory; audiences who have seen the trio (bassist Andi Schnellmann/ guitarist ManuelTroller / percussionist David Meier) live describe their music as “stunning”, “minimalist”, “brutal”, “decisive”, “monumental”, “angry”, “controlled”, “captivating” or “radical”.  Simply fantastic. _____________________________ June 5 - Halt Auf Verlangen Festival - Gasthaus Grünenwald AG - Grünenwald 1 - Engelberg, Switzerland June 11 - Schüür Garten - Konzerthaus Schüür - Tribschenstrasse 1 - Lucerne, Switzerland August 6 - Festival i de Marktgass - Marktgasse 33 - Bremgarten, Switzerland Listen to & buy: 5, Rights, X                 THUMBSCREW Thumbscrew is the all-star collaborative trio of Mary Halvorson (guitar), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), and Michael Formanek (acoustic bass). Thumbscrew's critically acclaimed albums, all on Cuneiform Records, have appeared on Best of Year lists worldwide. Thumbscrew perform  frequently at festivals and served numerous residencies at art centers and prominent venues in the US and abroad. I September 2022, in celebration of their 10th Anniversary, Thumbscrew wlll release their 7th album on Cuneiform Records: Multicolored Midnight. “Made up of three highly distinctive voices in the world of jazz and avant-garde music, Thumbscrew should probably collapse under the weight of its own star power but Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Mary Halvorson (electric guitar) and Michael Formanek (acoustic bass) are just too aware of the potential of this supertrio to let that happen.”  – Something Else! ________________________________ 2022 is THUMBSCREW's 10th Anniversary year!  Celebrate with them as they release a new recording – Multicolor Midnight – on Cuneiform in September, tour Europe in October, and celebrate with record release shows in NY  September 24 - tba - East Hampton, NY EUROPEAN TOUR: OCTOBER October 14 - tba - Gent, Belgium October 19 - tba - Singen, Germany October 21 - tba - Cormons, Italy October 22 - tba - Ferrara, Italy November - tentative US Midwest tour November 11 - Jazz Gallery - 1160 Broadway (at 27th St), 5th Floor - NYC, NY [record release show!] November 12 - Jazz Gallery - 1160 Broadway (at 27th St), 5th Floor - NYC, NY [record release show!] Listen to & buy:  Never Is Enough, The Anthony Braxton Project,  .    Ours, Theirs,       Convallaria, Thumbscrew         To set up press and radio interviews with Cuneiform Artists while on tour or at home, please contact: promo@cuneiformrecords.com return to top Thank you for supporting live music as venues open and festivals resume, while continuing to  enjoy music when home via ACTIVITIES ONLINE !   –JUNE 2022 –   Summer is arriving in the Northern hemisphere, and for many, the world has reopened socially as the natural world bursts into full greenery, trees and shrubs waving new leaves in the sun while lawns sprout fresh grasses.  Beautiful weather,  ebbs in the pandemic and milder variants, and high vaccination rates lure us outside and into the streets and inside clubs to hear music.  But not everyone is so lucky.  The Pandemic continues to flare unexpectedly worldwide, like an underground fire in the forest.  And War rages in Ukraine, whose citizens must hide underground while Russian bombs destroy their homes, livelihoods, and towns. Wherever you are globally or politically, please practice kindness to humanity, to mankind, in these tumultuous times.  Remember that Nature can help shield and solace our troubled hearts  in times of illness or war.  And also:  know that Music can make a positive difference in our lives, and help us survive psychologically and spiritually in evolving and uncertain times.    *** For those of us fortunate to see live music in this season: please remember to always check with the venue to make sure a concert is happening. Unexpected Covid surges can cause last-minute closures. Besides cautiously seeing live music, we'll continue to also enjoy music at home, and we hope that you also continue to enjoy recorded music on your technology of choice.  You can explore tracks from nearly 500 recordings released by Cuneiform Records since 1984 on cuneiformrecords.com, our website, or on our Bandcamp, SoundCloud or YouTube sites, and also watch recordings of recent and vintage concerts that we regularly post on YouTube.  Cuneiform Records has a treasure chest of interesting music to serve as soundtrack, inspiration and solace during these evolving and challenging times. We have a mammoth catalogue of releases by some of avant music's most esteemed icons as well as young rising stars, available for purchase at the Cuneiform Records Bandcamp store and at one of our sister companies, Wayside Music. Your CD and LP purchases support indie musicians, indie labels, and small businesses.  • Discover new music on Cuneiform Records' BANDCAMP PAGE :  support our artists & our indie label by purchasing music.   • Visit our internet store, WaysideMusic.com (established 1980!), to purchase  music from ALL your favorite labels!  We also have a ton of FREE entertainment for your enjoyment on several online platforms:   • Enjoy hours on Cuneiform Records' YouTube CHANNEL:  free music videos, videos of live shows, & samples from 400+ adventurous releases!   And we've expanded our video content during the pandemic, most notably with an ongoing video series curated  and produced by guitarist Henry Kaiser.  • Enjoy and share samples of music by releases of countless Cuneiform artists on the Cuneiform Records' SoundCloud Site. • Visit & Like & Follow our Facebook PAGE for Cuneiform Records. • Join our Facebook GROUP: Fans of Cuneiform Records. • Follow @CuneiformRecord onTwitter • Visit the CuneiformRecords.com official WEBSITE for extensive information on the artists and recordings on our label,  upcoming concerts & much more. • Media professionals: find music to LICENSE from Cuneiform for movies, ads etc via our sister site TheMusicOutpost.com. • Were you forwarded this email from a friend?  If so, make sure you sign up for the Cuneiform NEWSLETTER to  get this monthly newsletter in your email box, in addition to receiving notices for Cuneiform's weekly "$5 Friday" offers – Cuneiform selects a special album from its archive each weekend,  to be sold in download format via Bandcamp, that weekend only,  for $5. • Cuneiform Records announces all of its releases - physical (CD, LP) and digital formats - in its monthly newsletter.  Newsletters contain in-depth info on each release.  If you missed seeing an issue, Newsletters are archived on the Cuneiform Blogspot. WE  LOOK FORWARD TO  SPENDING SUMMER 2022 WITH ALL OF YOU, ONLINE!   Cuneiform Records' Monthly Newsletter is compiled by Joyce [Nalewajk] Feigenbaum, The Music Outpost–Publicity Cuneiform YouTube Cuneiform Website Facebook FanGroup Facebook Page Cuneiform Twitter Cuneiform SoundCloud Cuneiform Bandcamp Instagram Email Cuneiform return to top Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* Cuneiform Records, All rights reserved.   Washington, DC // Silver Spring, MD Our mailing address is: Cuneiform Records P.O. Box 8427 Silver Spring, MD 20907 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. Was this email forwarded to you from a friend? Subscribe to the Cuneiform Records Newsletter. Read this email online   return to top