Cuneiform Records OCTOBER 2025 Newsletter

CUNEIFORM RECORDS OCTOBER 2025 NEWSLETTER New Releases & Concerts   read this newsletter online    LAPTOP/ COMPUTER: navigate email via colored links or scroll down   MOBILE:  scroll email  or read online if images don't open ~~~~~~ COMING OUT OCTOBER 31, 2025 TRINARY SYSTEM – THE HARD MACHINE ROCK Third release by Trinary Systems, current rock band led by former Mission of Burma guitarist Roger Clark Miller  [USA] – Official Video for The Hard Machine: "Monkeys (On Your Back)" – Video: Trinary System at the 9:30 Club, Washington DC – Other Roger Clark Miller releases on Cuneiform Records ~~~ COMING OUT OCTOBER 13, 2025 HAPPY FAMILY – WALKING THROUGH THE MIRE / THE DARK FOREST  NEW MUSIC / CLASSICAL MINIMALISM Japan's Happy Family second single featuring composer/pianist Kenicho Morimoto releases Oct. 13, when tickets for their December Tokyo concert go on sale. [JAPAN] – Additional Happy Family releases on Cuneiform Records ~~~ OUT NOW! RELEASED SEPTEMBER 26, 2025 REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE – SERPENTINE JAZZ Ken Field's long-running New Orleans-influenced jazz party combo - the REVOUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE - return for a new album filled with great music and great fun. [USA] – Other Cuneiform releases w/ Revolutionary Snake Ensemble and/or Ken Field  ~~~ OUT NOW! RELEASED AUGUST 29, 2025 LED BIB – HOTEL PUPIK JAZZ Award-winning UK Jazz stalwarts LED BIB, now a quartet (drummer Mark Holub, bassist Liran Donin,  saxophonists Pete Grogan & Chris Williams) release new studio album [UK] – Additional Led Bib releases on Cuneiform Records ~~~ OUT NOW! RELEASED AUGUST 1, 2025 HAPPY FAMILY – FLOWING YET CUNNING / FORT OF RESPONSIBILITY  NEW MUSIC / CLASSICAL MINIMALISM Japan's Happy Family surprise and delight with a new single of tracks composed by Kenicho Morimoto, feauring Morimoto on piano and Takahiro Izutani on guitar. [JAPAN] ~~~~~~ SNEAK PEEKS WITH SOUNDS COMING OUT NOVEMBER 21, 2025 GILLES LAVAL – 100 GUITARS SUR UN BATEAU IVRE [100 GUITARS ON A DRUNKEN BOAT] AVANT ROCK / EXPERIMENTAL French guitarist, composer and spectacle organizer Gilles Laval's immersive project, inspired by Arthur Rimbaud's poem and performed by 100 electric guitars [FRANCE] ~~~ SNEAK PEEKS OF WHAT'S COMING OUT LATER IN 2025 & 2026 A LIST OF UPCOMING JAZZ , ROCK, & EXPERIMENTAL/ ELECTRONIC RELEASES ~~~~~ CUNEIFORM ARTISTS ON TOUR: LIVE CONCERTS & TOURS   ~~~~~ ENJOY A WORLD OF MUSICAL ADVENTURE with  CUNEIFORM RECORDS ONLINE:   • EXPLORE Cuneiform Records'  SOCIAL MEDIA //  BANDCAMP PAGE // YOUTUBE CHANNEL //  SOUNDCLOUD PAGE ~~~~~ • Purchase music from 100s of labels at WAYSIDE MUSIC, our sister store, estab.1980 ~~~~~ • Missed seeing a CUNEIFORM NEWSLETTER? Access prior issues at cuneiformrecord.blogspot.com/    ~~~~~                                                                                    read this newsletter online return to top COMING OUT  OCTOBER 31, 2025 ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS TRINARY SYSTEM THE HARD MACHINE Bio information: TRINARY SYSTEM Title: THE HARD MACHINE  (Cuneiform Rune 540) Format: CD / DIGITAL Release date: October 31, 2025 www.cuneiformrecords.com FILE UNDER: ROCK   On THE HARD MACHINE, TRINARY SYSTEM’S Third Release and First on Cuneiform Records, Guitarist ROGER MILLER Takes His Post-MISSION OF BURMA Rock Band Full Throttle, Do or Die “Trinary System continues the elegant, abstract, agitated firestorm tradition of Miller’s Burma songs, with an unmistakable swagger…" – Dusted Magazine   listen to/ share "Monkeys (on Your Back)" on Soundcloud, from TRINARY SYSTEM's The Hard Machine “I think of Trinary System as my third, and last, really good rock band.” – Roger C. Miller                             1969: Sproton Layer (With Magnetic Fields Disrupted)                             1979: Mission of Burma (Vs., The Obliterati, etc.)                             2012: Trinary System (Lights in the Center of Your Head;                                                                  The Hard Machine) photo by Bruce Rogovin Trinary System is Roger Miller’s current rock band. He plays guitar, sings and composes, accompanied by Larry Dersch (Binary System, A.K.A.C.O.D., etc.) on drums and P. Andrew Willis (the Web, Crappy Nightmareville, etc.) on bass, vocals and electronics.  Roger Clark Miller (Roger Miller, Roger C. Miller) was born in 1952 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He began studying piano at age 6. Inspired in 6th grade by seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, he picked up guitar and bass guitar in middle school, and played french horn in the orchestra to avoid study hall. He was profoundly affected by the psychedelic movement which was full-blown by 1967 - here was real mind-altering music. He did psychedelic lettering for the Ann Arbor rock club "The 5th Dimension", which allowed him to get into the club for free (he saw Jimi Hendrix there on the "kicked off the Monkees" tour). Miller found his voice as a song-writer, composer and improviser in 11th grade (1969/ Sproton Layer).   Disillusioned with the conservative state of rock music in the 1970's, Miller studied composition at CalArts and Thomas Jefferson College (see Cuneiform Records’ release of 1975 by The Fourth World Quartet). There he accompanied dance classes on piano. Adapting his musical skills for dance paved the way for his later soundtrack work (four films at Sundance, multiple silent film scores premiering with Alloy Orchestra at the Telluride Film Festival).   In 1978, Miller moved to Boston, where he co-formed the highly influential post-punk rock band Mission of Burma on guitar and voice in 1979. He continued playing keyboards and other instruments during and after Mission of Burma, starting with Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. Under his band leadership, Miller has recorded over 60 albums, all of which push various envelopes and have generally received high praise (NY Times, Rolling Stone, Boston Globe, Spin, Pitchfork, Pop Matters, etc...).  His music tends to vacillate between the two poles of "rock" (guitar, small bands) and "modern" (prepared piano, chamber ensembles), often combining the two with open improvisation. His chamber music has been performed at the New England Conservatory, Tufts University, and other institutions. He is also a visual/conceptual artist, where his art installation "Transmuting the Prosaic" and his drawings have shown in many art institutions/galleries.   When Mission of Burma inexplicably reformed in 2002, things took an amazing turn.     photo by Tim Bugbee But by 2012, Miller was looking for a way to free his guitar playing from the confines of a post-punk environment and conceived of Trinary System. He had played with Larry Dersch in Binary System, and knew that Dersch’s drumming would keep him on his toes. Miller met multi-instrumentalist P. Andrew Willis while Willis was engineering an Alloy Orchestra  (now Anvil Orchestra) score. He found his comments intriguing, and, never having seen him play a note, asked him to join Trinary System on bass and synthesizer. It was the right decision. Trinary System began loosely based on previous non-Burma Miller compositions, but covering Miles Davis' "Black Satin" and Can's "You Doo Right" were turning points. Once the value of each player became clear, Miller began composing for the group in earnest.   Trinary System released its first recording in 2016 on Fun World Records, a 5-song EP called Amplify the Amplifiers. Reviewing it, Boston’s The Noise noted: “There is skronk, feedback, flash, psyche, R & B vamps, classical and more. It is also a very rock ’n’ roll record, with choruses and everything. It just rocks a little weirder, and a lot better, than almost anything else you’ve ever heard in your life.”   The band really found its voice just before recording its first full-length album, Lights in the Center of Your Head (Feeding Tube Records, 2019). In it, Trinary System integrated minimalism, psychedelia, and post-prog structures into a raw indie aesthetic. The album was met with significant attention from MAGNET Magazine and other music publications. DUSTED Magazine, Aug. 2019 remarked that: “Trinary System continues in the elegant, abstract, agitated firestorm tradition of Miller’s Burma’s songs, with an unmistakable swagger. “Infinity in a Box,” is a Rubik’s Cube of a song, full of sharp, shiny, colorful edges that align in abrupt, unexpected ways and then, just as suddenly, go out of joint. “Lights in the Center of Your Head” is a surprising amount of fun, intricate when it needs to be, but solidly anchored in rock-hard foundations of rock, funk and blues.”    And this brings us to Cuneiform Records’ release of The Hard Machine where Trinary System is in full maturity mode, full-throttle, do or die. What else is there?  photo by Bruce Rogovin ~ ~ ~ “If Burma at its best had the jostling, bounded chaos of a really physical basketball game, Trinary System is a bit more like pro soccer.” – Magnet Magazine ~ ~ ~                                                                                                                                   PRE-ORDER / listen to THE HARD MACHINE in HD 24/26 PRE-ORDER /  listen to THE HARD MACHINE on Bandcamp:         ~ ~ ~ CREDITS: Roger C. Miller : guitars, vocals P. Andrew Willis : basses Larry Dersch : drums  All compositions by Roger C. Miller except "On The Ground (Complete the Circle)" by Trinary System. Recorded and mixed July 2022-December 2023 at Guilford Sound, Guilford, VT.   ~ ~ ~ In addition to Trinary System, Miller is currently musically active in The Anvil Orchestra [formerly Alloy Orchestra](silent film accompaniment), and his Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble (2 full-length albums on Cuneiform Records). Miller tours and plays festivals nationally and internationally. He also remains active in the visual arts. Miller currently lives in Vermont.   www.rogerclarkmiller.com   Larry Dersch played in bands in his hometown of St. Louis, MO, before moving to Boston in 1986. He played on Miller's 1988 album Win! Instantly!, and then in Miller’s Binary System (1995-2002). He is currently the second percussionist in Miller's silent film accompanying ensemble The Anvil Orchestra. He has collaborated with Mark Sandman of Morphine, and toured Europe in the acclaimed A.K.A.C.O.D with Morphine sax player Dana Colley. He remains active in the Boston scene and in high demand, and he has won “Best Drummer” awards from the influential local zine The Noise three times.   P. Andrew Willis is “an ex-pat from the Louisville sub-underground” (Byron Coley, 2019), playing in the Web, Azuza Inkh and other improv/noise bands there. He moved to Boston in 1998 to study film scoring. There, he saw Binary System - and knew he'd be playing with them one day. When Miller began putting together Trinary System in 2012, Willis was the only person auditioned. The Hard Machine is a result of those decisions. Willis remains active as a soundtrack composer and improviser in Boston.   photo by Tim Bugbee return to top "...One projects, like Rorschach's dream. One projects, in an ink blot's dream, onto the words."             You could be a country.               You could be a corporation.              You could be the blooming edge of               A new revolution ..."            – Roger Clark Miller, lyric excerpt from "Monkeys (on Your Back)"   Trinary System - "Monkeys (on Your Back)" (Official Video) from The Hard Machine return to top Trinary System performing three songs at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC on January 7, 2018. Trinary System at the 9:30 Club return to top ADDITIONAL RECORDINGS ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS FEATURING ROGER CLARK MILLER ROGER CLARK MILLER SOLO ELECTRIC GUITAR ENSEMBLE "From Mission of Burma to one-man guitar orchestra, Roger Clark Miller remains one of the most quietly influential guitarists of the post-punk era, working to the calendar of his own creative impulses." –  Bill Murphy, "Mission of Burma’s Roger Clark Miller: Guitar Dreamscapes," PREMIER GUITAR photo by Jesse Kreize   Curiosity for Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble “(the closing track) ‘Curiosity on Mars’…is the most rockist...its guitar-derived rhythms pinging to and fro as Miler delivers some deep spindly lead action. Evoking images of a barren and dystopian landscape that might not be so far off in our future, it’s a logical conclusion to this highly visual and visceral body of work.”  – The Wire, May 2025  “His compositions emerge like carefully constructed hallucinations – somewhere between 20th-century avant-garde, post-punk experimentalism, and a tape-delay séance with the ghost of Morton Feldman… It’s part science fiction, part lucid dream, and entirely Roger Clark Miller.” – Chain D.L.K.   Eight Dream Interpretations For Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble "[Miller's] skills as a guitar player and his bottomless imagination have collided in a perfect encapsulation of the two traits, bringing forth a third strand that just can’t be imitated by anyone else, no matter how hard anyone should try. The technically proficient has officially met the sonically fearless on Eight Dream Interpretations for Solo Electric Guitar, a project that deserves to be considered more than just a Mission of Burma offshoot. Rating: 8/10."                    – Popmatters "These dream songs demand that Miller cross the borders of rock, jazz, and orchestral music, a cross-fertilization of genre he has been exploring since the ’70s with an array of celebrated projects, including Mission of Burma, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Binary System, Trinary System, and Alloy Orchestra. " – The Arts Fuse     ___________________________________________________ BIRDSONGS OF THE MESOZOIC ''Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic has found a common ground amoung garage band rock, classical, minimalism, UK progressive rock, and it's own favorite noises.'' - The New York Times   Miller on far right; photo by f-stop Fitzgerald   DAWN OF THE CYCADS                                                                                   THE FOSSIL RECORD 1980-1987 “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘Thank You,’ that would suffice.” So yeah, thank you. Because who could resist the stately and surprisingly plump pieces on this comprehensive Ace of Hearts anthology with superadded bonus outtakes and live tracks? " – The Noise ''...fantastically innovative music.'' -– Exposé ___________________________________________________ FOURTH WORLD QUARTET 1975   "The resulting series of ... sessions, collected here for the first time, reveal how the amalgam of volatile styles the brothers ingested during their varous sonic encounters fused together and caught fire...Although The Fourth World Quartet was a short-lived project, this remarkable discovery reveals a group who were knocking over some serious creative barriers." – Edwin Pouncey, Jazzwise    photo with Miller at piano by Deborah Randall Fisher return to top COMING OUT  OCTOBER 13, 2025 ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS HAPPY FAMILY WALKING THROUGH THE MIRE / THE DARK FOREST Bio information: HAPPY FAMILY Title: WALKING THROUGH THE MIRE / THE DARK FOREST  (Cuneiform Rune 4039) Format: DIGITAL Release date: October 13, 2025 www.cuneiformrecords.com FILE UNDER:  NEW MUSIC / CLASSICAL MINIMALISM JAPAN'S HAPPY FAMILY RELEASE  – WALKING THROUGH THE MIRE / THE DARK FOREST – THEIR SECOND SINGLE IN A SERIES OF STUNNING PIANO WORKS BY COMPOSER / PIANIST KENICHI MORIMOTO –  The new single releases October 13, in celebration of ticket sales opening for Happy Family's December 13 2025 concert at Tokyo's Silver Elephant –  the quartet's first live show in a decade! HAPPY FAMILY shares its news: SINGLE RELEASE The second installment of Happy Family’s piano series is here! We are excited to share two new piano versions of upcoming Happy Family tracks. These interpretations offer a raw and intimate glimpse into the core of our latest compositions—currently being developed into full-band arrangements through ongoing rehearsals. To celebrate our return to live performance, these two songs will stream beginning October 13. CONCERT IN TOKYO: December 13, 2025 The Happy Family quartet will perform a headline show in Tokyo on Saturday, December 13, 2025 at the Silver Elephant. For more details and updates, please visit our official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HappyFamily.music Tickets for this performance - our first live show in 10 years - will go on sale starting October 13: www.silver-elephant.com/progre ABOUT THE SINGLE WALKING THROUGH THE MIRE / THE DARK FOREST Kenichi Morimoto discusses his compositions: "Walking Through the Mire" The title “Walking Through the Mire” comes from a recurring nightmare of mine—where no matter how much I walk, my steps feel painfully slow and I never really get anywhere. That sensation mirrors the rhythm of this piece. The track itself was nearly finished around the same time as “The Flying Man” (from Happy Family's 2025 Cuneiform Records album, 4037), and they share many of the same chord choices, making them feel like sibling songs. Another subtle influence may have come from Dutch keyboardist Jasper van ’t Hof—one of the leading figures in the European jazz-rock scene of the 1970s. The opening track “BAX” from his 1974 album Eyeball captures precisely that feeling of being bogged down in heavy ground, and I suspect it left a trace on this composition as well. "The Dark Forest" The title “The Dark Forest” comes from a chilling idea in speculative thought: when encountering an alien civilization, the only way to ensure one’s own survival may be to strike first and erase the other. If the opposing civilization were less advanced, or if we could detect them before they detected us, Earth might still stand a chance. But the most effective survival strategy may simply be to erase every trace of ourselves — hiding in silence, unnoticed, like prey concealing itself in a dense jungle from predators. This is the essence of the “Dark Forest” theory: intelligent life may be widespread in the universe, yet we do not encounter it because each civilization has learned to mask its presence as completely as possible. This ballad is written from the perspective of the prey — holding its breath in fear of being discovered. And yet, here on Earth, we have sent the Voyager probes carrying messages of our existence, broadcasting ourselves into the cosmos. Perhaps it is already too late.  BUY / listen on Bandcamp to: WALKING THROUGH THE MIRE / THE DARK FOREST   CREDITS Kenichi Morimoto - piano written by Kenichi Morimoto mixed and mastered by Takahiro Izutani ~~~   ADDITIONAL HAPPY FAMILY RELEASES ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS   4037  "It's 2025 and HAPPY FAMILY are back! ...It took an offer from Cuneiform Records boss Steve Feigenbaum to participate in Cuneiform's 40th anniversary celebrations to ignite that spark. The spark became "4037" a 21plus minute Ep... The "40" stands for Cuneiform Records 40th anniversary, while the "37" is how many years that HAPPY FAMILY have been in existence. ...this small package is dynamite. ... This is such a consistent band. Every recording they have put out is of the highest quality. Whether you like them or not is another story, but here's another one that keeps up their standards. A solid 4 stars." – Progrchives "In just four tracks, 4037 is a powerful reminder that Happy Family’s fire hasn’t dimmed with time – it’s only grown weirder, heavier, and more compelling." – AvantMusic News   Each of the four members contributed one composition, but there’s a remarkable continuity between the pieces, showing four musicians totally on compatible wavelengths. …it’s a welcome return for a great band." – Expose                             MINIMAL GODS  "Skewered blasts of noisome, Red metal shatters through rough and tumble landscapes of shuddering percussion, ominous, gravelly basslines and wheezing synths. An all-instrumental bulldozer of an album..." – i/e                                                      "Happy Family make no bones about their desire to create off-kilter, highly complex music with a savage nature....This is blistering, awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping stuff, a must hear for anyone into instrumental prog, avant-garde, and jazz-fusion. 4.5 / 5 stars"   – Sea Of Tranquility "influenced by the likes of Magma, Univers Zero and heavy metal. … the music is loud, raucous, and uncompromising. … the drive is similar [to Magma]. However, while Vander’s inspiration comes from Coltrane, Nagase’s seems to come from Black Sabbath.  … this visceral music is intriguing and grows with every listen.” - Option                                  TOSCCO "...a fully formed & highly individual voice. Tossco is a real find. (5 stars (highest) rating)" – Alternative Press "This Japanese combo has once again delivered a shock to the progressive music world. The instrumental inventiveness and aggressiveness of this band are things that must be heard to be believed. Highly recommended.” – Exposé HAPPY FAMILY "Monster Japanese Zeuhl; the spirit of Magma, Univers Zero, Weidorje and King Crimson locked together in a furious fusion..." – Audion   "An all-instrumental bulldozer of an album that doesn’t just redirect Crimson’s current - it nukes the circuit.” – Music in Flux   return to top COMING OUT  SEPTEMBER 26, 2025 ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE SERPENTINE Bio information: REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE Title: SERPTENTINE  (Cuneiform Rune 549) Format: CD / DIGITAL Release date: September 26, 2025 www.cuneiformrecords.com FILE UNDER: JAZZ  Reveling in its 35th year, KEN FIELD's celebrated REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE delivers another blast of brass-powered jazz, funk and New Orleans street rhythms with the blazing live album  SERPENTINE!   listen to/ share "PRESENT" on Soundcloud, from REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE's SERPENTINE   The ouroboros, a serpent swallowing its own tail, is an ancient symbol of infinity and the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth. The omnivorous Revolutionary Snake Ensemble isn’t quite eternal, but the brass-powered Boston combo devoirs and reinvents a panoply of irresistible grooves, and with Serpentine the sextet is poised to gracefully undulate into its fifth decade. RSE’s fifth album is a joyously uproarious live session recorded in 2024 at the Regattabar as part of the group’s 35th anniversary run.   Led by inveterately inventive alto saxophonist, flutist, and composer Ken Field, the RSE is a musical insurrection with enviable longevity. As NYC Jazz Record noted, the group has earned a devoted following with “its unique and somewhat twisted twist on the New Orleans brass band tradition…hard-partying avant-funk, with boisterous soloing.” Almost a decade after the release of the band’s last album, 2016’s critically hailed I Want That Sound!, the group boasts the same potent line up, with Dave Harris on trombone and tuba, tenor saxophonist Tom Hall, bassist Blake Newman, trumpeter Jerry Sabatini, and drummer Phil Neighbors, “whom I’ve been playing with the longest - he's an amazing drummer,” Field says.   “The concept of not having a chording instrument in the band allows for tremendous freedom on the part of the horn players. The arrangements are usually spontaneous, decided by me on stage based on the group vibe and on my vibe at the moment!”   Spirits were obviously high at the Regattabar, one of the Boston area’s leading jazz venues. The RSE sounds loose and limber, delivering one thrilling piece after another, enviably undaunted by the prospect of making a new album with Field changing up arrangements on the spot. “I told the guys, ‘Don’t worry about the fact that we’re recording,’” Field says. “‘Don’t hold back. Take chances.’ Jazz is an experimental form. If you do the same thing every night you’re not doing jazz right, in my opinion.”       For longtime fans of the RSE, Serpentine is a welcome dispatch from the frontiers of New Orleans-inspired funk, and for newcomers it’s an invitation to expand your rhythmic consciousness. As New Orleans Jazz Museum curator and longtime WWOZ host of “Freaknologist Lunatique” David Kunian declared, “All hail the mighty Revolutionary Snake Ensemble. They have blessed us with another great record of jazz that you have to dance to, but without losing the complexity and sophistication of the music itself. There's some Sun Ra, some New Orleans second line, some Afrobeat, some Zappa, and other mystical ingredients that combine into a musical spell that will envelop the listener. This is jazz for young and old and new and veteran.”    The album opens with “The Skunk is D'Funk'd,” a furiously grooving piece that Field originally conceived for the Good Trouble Brass Band, a politically-charged community combo that has provided an incendiary soundtrack for Boston-area protests since the 1980s. At a Martha’s Vineyard gathering the group encountered “a skunk that was defunct,” which Field says inspired the tune’s particularly potent funk. “We also do this with an 80-100 person pick-up band I lead in Australia at the HONK!Oz Festival” he says. “It works really well with a large group and also scales down. I like writing material that’s simple in terms of construction, with two or three sections, bass and melody lines, and not a lot of chord changes. Both less is more and more is more.”   This seemingly contradictory aesthetic makes perfect sense in the RSE, which provides elemental pleasures via dance-inspired syncopation. In the case of “Buck,” Field rides the serpent into Balkan territory, a satisfying detour for the Crescent City-steeped band. The reverent arrangement of the folk song “The Water is Wide” serves as a balladic deep breath, with a hymn-like rendition featuring a series of striking solos by Sabatini and Harris. From the beatific to the boisterous, Field revamped his solo sax piece "Berrendo" for the group as “Berrendo Road,” complete with capricious melody and bounding bass line delivered with Newman’s typical agility.   While “Berrendo” was originally created during a residency in a subterranean space, “Strange Cults” plumbs the depths of human experience with a descending melodic line that Field wrote back in the 1970s when Rev. Jim Jones and the People’s Temple were in the news.  Which isn’t to say he gravitates to human folly. With “Nezalezhnist” (the Ukrainian word for independence), Field wrote a minor-key anthem that evokes the strength and fortitude of a people fighting for survival. And with an affectionate cover of Frank Zappa’s “Son of Mr. Green Genes” (from the 1969 album Hot Rats), the RSE soars through a very different kind of fanfare, grandiose, witty, and ready to rumble, with a beautifully authoritative, wide ranging, and exploratory solo from Hall on tenor sax.   “Present” is a quintessential Field piece, with graceful harmonic motion defined by lapidary lines, and beautifully calibrated interlocking parts. His solo is a master class in maintaining intensity with supple dynamics and slippery phrasing. He displays his command of the flute on “Xonk,” a minimalist tour de force co-written with the Hungry March Band’s Jason Candler. The album closes with a second-line setting of James Cleveland’s gospel standard “Never Grow Old,” a respectful hat tip “in recognition of where the band is coming from,” Field says. “We’re still focused on New Orleans second-line music. It’s a triumvirate of elements, New Orleans, free improvisation, and funk.”   Born January 26, 1953 in Red Bank, New Jersey, Ken Field grew up next door to a club frequented by Bruce Springsteen in his early days with the trio Earth (he didn’t find out about his hometown’s most famous native son, William “Count” Basie, until much later). Starting on clarinet at 10, he made quick progress, playing in marching band and orchestra, and put in some extracurricular time on tenor sax in a high school rock band. An accident his freshman year at Brown University knocked out his front tooth, which brought his clarinet playing to an immediate end. Turning his attention to the flute, Field started to teach himself to improvise while managing the Providence folk/blues venue Big Mother Coffee House. While studying applied mathematics, he fell in with some local musicians who introduced him to innovators like Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Weather Report, and Frank Zappa. “I started jamming with them on flute, and it was a whole educational thing for me, being exposed to all this great music,” Field says.   Working as a computer programmer, he turned his attention to the alto sax, and started commuting to Boston to study with legendary teacher Joe Viola. Eventually he took time off from his day job to attend Berklee from 1977-79, which led to his move to Boston. He spent several years playing with the psychedelic funk band Skin, and ended up replacing saxophonist Steve Adams (who was moving to the Bay Area to join ROVA Saxophone Quartet) in Birdsongs of Mesozoic, a new music/chamber rock ensemble that spun off from the storied band Mission of Burma.   “That was a transformative experience,” Field says. “Birdsongs is an avant rock band that’s compositionally based. I learned a lot from all those guys, pushing all kinds of musical limits.”   Field continues as a member of Birdsongs, while also maintaining a busy solo career as a player and composer with a half dozen solo releases, including Subterranea (O.O.Discs), Pictures of Motion (sFz), Tokyo in F (Sublingual), Under the Skin (Innova), Iridescence (Ravello Records), and Transmitter (Neuma Recordings). Field has written scores for animation, film, modern dance, and television, including music for Sesame Street. But it’s in the RSE that he truly lets his freak flag fly. Decked out in feathered and metallic finery that evokes Sun Ra’s Arkestra as much as the Mardi Gras Indians, the RSE has always honored the essential role of New Orleans brass bands in providing succor and uplift to mourners accompanying loved ones for burial (while also fulfilling the celebratory imperative for the promenade back from the cemetery). He founded the group in 1990 when he assembled an improvisational horn and percussion group with trumpeter and cartoonist Scott Getchell for a pagan women's ritual celebration. The response was so positive that he decided to continue the project as a vehicle for the region’s skilled free improv set. But as Getchell moved on to other projects, Field gradually developed a book featuring his originals and rarely played tunes by John Scofield, Sun Ra, and Ornette Coleman set to New Orleans street grooves. Part workshop and part improvisors’ clinic, the band attracted a revolving cast of players. “The material was very improvisational and the arrangements tended to be spontaneous,” Field says. “I’d direct on the spot, which started as a very stressful role. Over time I learned a lot about how to do that and it’s still the way the band works.” The result was a moveable music feast from which everyone wanted to partake. “The late NOLA sax player Charles Neville joined us for a number of years for our annual Mardi Gras concert, as did the late NOLA sax player Amadee Castenell,” Field notes. “Drummer Kenny Wollesen and sax player Matt Darriau played with us in New York City when some of my band members couldn't make the trip from Boston due to a snowstorm, and they ended up on Live Snakes, along with New York trombonist Josh Roseman. Trumpeter Jason Palmer, sax player Godwin Louis, and drummer Brian Richburg Jr. have guested with us at various times.  And Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews was our guest soloist at a performance at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.”   The regular Snake ranks have been equally formidable. Over the years, the RSE has featured a host of stellar musicians, including saxophonists Russ Gershon (Either/Orchestra), Dana Colley (Morphine), Charlie Kohlhase (John Tchicai/Leroy Jenkins/Anthony Braxton), Noah Preminger, and Gregory Groover Jr., bassists Jesse Williams (Al Kooper/Duke Robillard), Kimon Kirk (Aimee Mann, Session Americana), and Jim Prescott (G Love & Special Sauce), trumpeter Scott Getchell (Lars Vegas, Skull Session), trombonists Scott Flynn, Bob Pilkington (Chandler Travis Philharmonic) and the late Danny Heath, percussionist Ken Winokur (Alloy Orchestra), and drummers Eric Paull (DJ Logic, Clem Snide), Lee Fish, Matt Williams, and the late Stanley Swann.   The band’s acclaimed debut album, 2003’s Year of the Snake (Innova Recordings), brought national attention. The following year the RSE began playing regularly at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, a sojourn made possible by a singular arrangement with Amtrak’s Crescent train in which the band performing their music en route. On arrival, the Snake Ensemble regularly marched with the all-women Krewe of Muses, an experience that “legitimized the band to me,” Field says.    “We would get down there, play a little party, and people assumed we were from New Orleans, and that meant a lot to us. At the same time, we were doing something different. It gave us the experience of meeting and playing with some New Orleans musicians, and they always encouraged us to keep doing our own thing.”      With its second album, 2008’s Forked Tongue (Cuneiform), the RSE continued to expand its already far-flung repertoire, ranging from hymns and spirituals to traditional New Orleans parade anthems and tunes by everyone from Billy Idol to Ornette Coleman. The group first unleashed its fierce, live-concert energy on 2014’s Live Snakes. Serpentine marks yet another shedding of skin, offering a further glimpse into the RSE’s improvisational brio and gritty splendor.   ~~~                                                                             BUY /  listen to SERPENTINE on Bandcamp:                                                                                                     BUY /  listen to SERPENTINE in High Definition 24/96 on Bandcamp:     credits: Ken Field - alto saxophone and flute Tom Hall - tenor saxophone Dave Harris - trombone and tuba Phil Neighbors - drums Blake Newman - acoustic bass Jerry Sabatini - trumpet return to top Listen to & buy other Cuneiform Records releases by REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE Click on album art to hear samples & buy    Forked Tongue  "Sacred songs, conducted by the Serpent. If you can imagine Bunk Johnson's brass band, not playing in George Lewis' back yard but in a modern Charlestown and not refreshed with gin but slowed and spooked on snake-juice. It's all as inauthentic and as anachronistic as hell, but unlike most modernisations of supposedly 'traditional' concepts, this one has an informing logic that carries it through and by the time you get to Minor Vee" and "Under the Skin", both written by saxophonist / leader Ken Field, you're a voodoo convert."  – Brian Morton, The Wire, 296 / October 2008 NIGHT LIFE PICK OF THE WEEK: "The Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, a writhing, horn-heavy group led by the Boston-based saxophonist and composer Ken Field, dresses in feathered masks and sequined robes and covers a broad range of funk- and New Orleans-inspired music... A seasoned collection of horn and percussion players, the group, which is closing in on two decades of music-making, puts a funky spin on everything from Billy Idol to Ornette Coleman." – The New Yorker, May 19, 2008 "They've...modernized the traditional concept, and they've spun it into a singular sound that's very unique and very vibrant. They went past the tried and true. They managed to do it all with a very distinct musical persona."  – Glenn Astarita on NPR's Morning Edition. "One of the most successful combinations of booty-shaking & brain-stimulating music to be released this year!" – Splendid "I love the disc" – Scott Borne, Music Director, WWOZ New Orleans "The album is GREAT! [It] touches all the right cornerstones of jazz, but also funks my socks off." – Kyle Press, WKDU Philadelphia "Their most focused, adventurous, and rollicking effort yet.  Ken Field's Snakes march their jazzy New Orleans-style second line in slinking, swaggering new directions"  – Boston Globe, May 29, 2008     BIRDSONGS OF THE MESOZOIC  recordings on Cuneiform Records featuring KEN FIELD   Click on album art to hear samples & buy                                                         LIVE BIRDS                 PYROCLASTICS.                             THE IRIDIUM CONTROVERSY              FAULTLINE                                                 PETROPHONICS                                   DANCING ON A'A   EXTREME SPIRITUALS (BIRDSONGS OF THE MESOZOIC with ORAL MOSES) return to top !! OUT NOW !! RELEASED AUGUST 29, 2025 ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS LED BIB HOTEL PUPIK Bio information: LED BIB Title: HOTEL PUPIK  (Cuneiform Rune 541) Format: CD / LP / DIGITAL Release date: August 29, 2025 www.cuneiformrecords.com FILE UNDER: JAZZ  AWARD-WINNING UK JAZZ GROUP LED BIB CONTINUES EXPANDING JAZZ TOWARDS NEW FRONTIERS, WHILE EXPLORING NEW SOUND-WORLDS AS A QUARTET    listen to / share "IRON ORE" on Soundcloud from LED BIB'S HOTEL PUPIK   Before we get into the specifics of Led Bib’s brilliant new record, Hotel Pupik, let’s try a small thought experiment. Imagine, if you will, that you’re in possession of a gigantic LP record, one big enough to contain all of the 104 pieces that the British group has recorded over its 22-year career.      Got that?   Now let’s imagine that you’re dropping the needle at random. You might wind up with a track like “Call Centre Labyrinth”, from Led Bib’s 2009 Mercury Prize–nominated release, Sensible Shoes. With its skronking yet carefully harmonized horns, Saturnine keys, and massively fuzzed-out bass, it’s beautifully brutal. Lift the tonearm and repeat; now you’re on to “Clatter”, the opening track from the group’s 2005 debut, Arboretum. The sound might be less polished, the energy even more brash, but Led Bib’s singular blend of jazz adventure and 21st-century drive is already fully present.    So now let’s try one more track. But what’s this? Female vocals? Pensive and poetic lyrics? By chance, you’ve hit upon “To Dry In the Rain”, from 2019’s It’s Morning, a radical departure for the band. Singer Sharron Fortnam’s wistful soprano nudges Led Bib into something that might reasonably be called soulful jazz-prog—which makes sense, given that Middlesex University in North London, where drummer Mark Holub formed the group, is only a short distance away from Canterbury, and this track would sit comfortably alongside efforts from such U.K. icons as Robert Wyatt or Hatfield and the North. It’s an anomaly in the Led Bib catalogue, yet Pete Grogan and Chris Williams’ saxophones still swirl and joust, while bassist Liran Donin keeps the steady pulse around which all the other elements coalesce.   Led Bib’s ability to retain its core identity while surveying a wide swath of musical terrain is remarkable, and on Hotel Pupik the group faced its biggest challenge yet: the departure of keyboardist Toby McLaren, a vital part of the ensemble since its inception. At first, successful evolution seemed like a distant hope, especially as Led Bib’s first post-Covid quartet gigs  without McLaren were problematic. “They weren’t easy ,” Holub admits. “I think we were trying to play as a quartet, but in the same way that we’d always played. And it just felt like there was something missing.”   And what were the missing elements? Nothing more than time, and luck.   photo by Oliver Brunbauer    Hotel Pupik—the place, not the latest Led Bib record—is housed in the outbuildings of a ruined castle on the outskirts of Scheifling, Austria.  Overlooked by steep hills and nestled in a grove of deciduous trees, it’s a complex of dwellings and open, loft-like spaces; in the summer artists are invited to experiment there, attracted by the promise of free accommodation, attractive scenery, and a supportive environment.  Holub—an American who has been living in Vienna for the past several years—had already been an artist in residence at Hotel Pupik and thought this could be a great place to develop a Led Bib quartet edition. After discussing with the band, they put together an application for the project with Arts Council England and somewhat to all their surprises, the application was accepted.    “The idea,” he explains, “was that we would take a week and just play, and really try to reassess the sort of language we’re using.    “Obviously it’s connected to what we’ve done before; it’s not completely alien to the catalogue,” the drummer adds. “But it was really a thing of going ‘’We were 22, 23, 24 years old when we met. Now we’re 44, 45, 46.  What will we do now?’”   And, more particularly, “What will we do without a keyboard player?”   Holub notes that Led Bib considered adding a new member, but decided not to mess with the obvious and intimate chemistry between the four remaining players and the social bond created through twenty plus years of working together.     “It did force us to rethink what we’re doing, in a really positive way,” Holub notes. “When you break up with a girlfriend or a wife or whatever, somehow you have to reassess who you are without them. It’s like ‘We’ve been together for so long, your identity is intrinsically linked with that person, or in this case, with the band. Who am I if I’m not with that person?’ Who am I as a musician, if I was never in this band? ‘How much are the choices that I make in Led Bib, sonically, to do with the other people in this band and our experiences together and how much of them are to do with what I would choose myself?’ So in some ways doing this record was a way of imagining that we’d never played together before. Where would we go if we were to start again?’       photo by Heimo Wallner   All of these questions have been satisfactorily answered on Hotel Pupik, the record. The leisurely pace of the week-long session allowed Led Bib to explore a huge range of ideas and emotions, and while only a small part of what was recorded was used, the group took a similarly relaxed approach to assembling the final product. Over weeks of Zoom chats and email exchanges, Led Bib shaped Hotel Pupik into what Holub calls, with deliberate emphasis, “a record”.   “We were thinking about classic rock albums, like [Pink Floyd’s] Dark Side of the Moon,” he explains. Creating something where the album itself is a story, and in this case, really considering the LP format of 20 minutes to each side.     The closest Hotel Pupik comes to classic rock is on kickoff track “Iron Ore”, a Liran Donin composition that strikes a perfect balance between avant-jazz freedom and metal bombast. It’s great fun. From there, the record diverges, scrolling through the memorably melodic “A Tin Teardrop” and the birdsong-laced atmospherics of “Dawn Chorus”, before arriving at the intellectual exfoliation offered by the one-two punch of “Pure O” and the title track. “Pure O” begins with quiet contemplation before leaning into a fierce passage of sustained high harmonics from the horns; this, in turn, leads into “Hotel Pupik”, a long and beautifully sustained collective improvisation created on the last day of the Austrian sessions.   “It’s not free improv, like capital-F free improv, or Derek Bailey improv,”  Holub says. “It’s improvising within the sound-world that Led Bib occupies. but there wasn’t a lot of structure in the sense of ‘This is how this tune’s going to go.’ Previous Led Bib material was almost always about a more traditional jazz way of working: head, solos, head. That tended to be what we did, and the solos were always free but somehow related to what we had played before. While some things we played at the session were done in this way,what ended up on the record is mostly not, the compositions are somehow evident throughout, rather than just at the beginning and end. So, to us, it feels quite different.”   Different, yes, but also fresh. That Led Bib feels renewed is especially evident on Hotel Pupik’s final track “Till Next Time”. It’s a surprisingly sweet and gentle benediction that clearly offers the promise of more—and more from this band will be a very good thing. photo by Heimo Wallner CREDITS: Pete Grogan – saxophones Chris Williams – saxophones, effects Liran Donin – bass, effects Mark Holub – drums Compositions by Liran Donin (1, 5), Chris Williams (3), Mark Holub (2, 4, 7), and Led Bib (6). Recorded by Oliver Brunbauer at Hotel Pupik, Scheifling, Austria, June 3 – 7 2024. Mixed by Chris Janka at Janka Industries Studio, Vienna, Austria, October 7 – 8 2024. Mastered by Chris Janka at Janka Industries Studio, Vienna, Austria, November 11, 2024.   ~~~  photo by Oliver Brunbauer                                                                                BUY /  listen to on Bandcamp:                                                                                                     BUY /  listen to HOTEL PUPIK in High Definition 24/96 on Bandcamp:       return to top Listen to & buy additional LED BIB albums on Cuneiform Records Click on album art to hear samples & buy "Led Bib strut their genre-defying music…it packs a powerful punch. … This is engaging, urban, 21st-century music that has seen the band dubbed "the future of jazz". That is only partly true. Rather, their musical concept is the future of jazz because instead of the music being defined by the past, ...Led Bib show what it can become. Their attractiveness is in their openness to new lines of input. Pete Grogan is a northern soul freak while Chris Williams, who hails from Israel, adds sinewy, Middle Eastern melodic lines to his work. The whole band are into Metallica, while Holub, from New Jersey, is into Bob Dylan and the old downtown sounds of New York City jazz. The result is music that's teeming with references, hand-holds that audiences can grab so the music doesn't pass them by. There's the energy of rock, but even rock, like jazz, has become a term too small to contain the music within it. Both terms are now limiting, leaving music free to break out of the rigid formatting… This is Led Bib music, and…the old nostrums of the punk and post-punk critics, who sneered at instrumental virtuosity, suddenly seemed out of date.... Enter Led Bib, with powerful saxes and dynamic live drumming, and audiences find it exciting and new. …in an ailing music business the underground music scene and bands like Led Bib are showing that Britain really has got talent.” – Stuart Nicholson, “Bold urban virtuosos who play down the ‘j’ word”, The Observer     THE GOOD EGG                                                                                                             “Part free improv, part art-rock, the band’s uncompromising formula puts them in the vanguard of the new school of British jazz.” —The Sunday Times “We need bands like Led Bib to make the world safe for dangerous music.” – Observer Music Monthly “Proof that groovy dirty jazz isn’t just the preserve of downtown New Yorkers” – BBC Radio 3 “In-your-face urgency of a live album and the punch of a much bigger band...It's Led Bib's best album so far.” —The Guardian   THE PEOPLE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD “London quintet Led Bib is one of a succession of new millennial British bands…who are tearing up the jazz rule book with an enthusiasm which renders the description “iconoclastic” inadequate.…the band continues its mission of taking jazz by the scruff of the neck, punching it in the face and watching the blood flow. …paradigms need regularly to be challenged and subverted, lest atrophy set in.” – Chris May, All About Jazz   “…raw collisions of free jazz, avant funk, brooding sax and sheer noise…Best listened to with the volume up and the neighbors warned…this infectiously witty group…sounds like a gale of fresh air.” – John Fordham, The Guardian   BRING YOUR OWN  “A whole range of new colours and harmonies have been woven into the originals, and their headlong rush is inflected with unexpected turnings and digressions - though interestingly this multiplies the energy, rather than lessening it." –The Telegraph "…deliciously mutilated (4 stars)" – Uncut ”Gritty, raunchy jazz from a group who deserve to be checked out.” – The Wire SENSIBLE SHOES “…an electrified 21st century Fire Music.” – Daniel Spicer Jazzwise  "Splattering you against the wall with their broadsides of punk-jazz" – John Fordham – The Guardian   "They represent a new generation of jazz musicians, blessed with the technical know-how of a music college degree and the sexiness of rock n' roll." – Blues and Soul  "One of ‘25 Live Acts you MUST see this Summer’ (placing above Bjork, The White Stripes and The Arctic Monkeys) – Observer Music Monthly    "Anyone intrigued by the sonic possibilities explored by Ladyland and Polar Bear or the leading lights of the New York Downtown scene should check it out.” – The Scotsman   return to top !! OUT NOW !! AUGUST 1, 2025 ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS HAPPY FAMILY FLOWING YET CUNNING / FORT OF RESPONSIBILITY Bio information: HAPPY FAMILY Title: FLOWING YET CUNNING / FORT OF RESPONSIBILITY  (Cuneiform Rune 4038) Format: DIGITAL Release date: August 1, 2025 www.cuneiformrecords.com FILE UNDER:  NEW MUSIC / CLASSICAL MINIMALISM JAPAN'S HAPPY FAMILY DELIGHT WITH A NEW SINGLE OF STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL TUNES COMPOSED BY KENICHI MORIMOTO, WITH MORIMOTO ON PIANO AND TAKAHIRO IZUTANI ON GUITAR – a tantalyzing taste of new directions the Happy Family quartet explores in their next album –     HAPPY FAMILY shares its news: SINGLE RELEASE The second installment of Happy Family’s piano series is here!   We are excited to share two new piano versions of upcoming Happy Family tracks. These interpretations offer a raw and intimate glimpse into the core of our latest compositions—currently being developed into full-band arrangements through ongoing rehearsals. CONCERT IN TOKYO: December 13, 2025 We’re also thrilled to announce that tickets for our first live show in 10 years will go on sale starting October 13. We're also thrilled to announce an upcoming headline show in Tokyo. Happy Family will perform a solo live set on Saturday, December 13, 2025. at Silver Elephant in Tokyo. For more details and updates, please visit our official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HappyFamily.music ABOUT THE SINGLE FLOWING YET CUNNING / FORT OF RESPONSIBILITY "Flowing Yet Cunning" The moment the "flowing" 7/8 phrase at the beginning of this piece came to Kenichi Morimoto, he felt confident it would become a strong composition. From there, the rest of the music unfolded almost unconsciously, with little deliberate effort involved in the writing process. The result was a beautiful piece that didn’t quite resemble anything in his usual musical vocabulary. The contrast between its "flowing" beginning and its unexpectedly "cunning" nature is what gave rise to the title. "Fort of Responsibility" Kenichi Morimoto, who works mainly in the legal field, once came across a thought-provoking statement in a professional journal—a response to the growing claim that experts in specialized fields will soon be replaced by AI. The author argued that the key difference between human beings and artificial intelligence is not just intelligence, but the human ability to take responsibility for decisions and actions. Inspired by this idea and encouraged by what it suggested, Morimoto turned to the piano. The result was this composition, completed in just seven days—the shortest writing time of his career. Released August 1, 2025 BUY / listen on Bandcamp to: FLOWING YET CUNNING / FORT OF RESPONSIBILITY   CREDITS Kenichi Morimoto - piano Takahiro Izutani - guitar   1 "Flowing Yet Cunning" written by Kenichi Morimoto 2 "Fort of Responsibility" written by Kenichi Morimoto mixed and mastered by Takahiro Izutani   ~~~   "We already have...a full album's worth of brand new material...composed by Kenichi Morimoto...The upcoming album will centre around his piano and focus on expressing the 'beautiy' of Happy Family. ....Before, Happy Family had two sides of musical direction: comical, fun melodies, and the dark, heavy side of music. Now, we are thinking about how to make a great, beautiful kind of music. That's a new perspective [facet] of ourselves." – Takahiro Izutani, quoted in Daniel Spicer's article "Happy Family," The Wire  496, June 2025   Happy Family photograph by Ryohei Obama for The Wire Read the full 4-page (pp. 26-29) article on Happy Family by Daniel Spicer in The Wire (#496), June 2025 return to top ! SNEAK PEEKS WITH SOUNDS! COMING OUT NOVEMBER 21, 2025 ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS GILLES LAVAL 100 GUITARS SUR UN BATEAU IVRE [100 GUITARS IN A DRUNKEN BOAT] Bio information: GILLES LAVAL Title: 100 GUITARS SUR UN BATEAU IVRE  (Cuneiform Rune 535) Format: CD / DIGITAL Release date: November 21, 2025 www.cuneiformrecords.com FILE UNDER: AVANT ROCK / EXPERIMENTAL / ART ROCK / LIVE SPECTACLE French guitarist, composer and spectacle organizer GILLES LAVAL presents large-scale musical events in cities across Europe. His work 100 GUITARS SUR UN BATEAU IVRE (100 GUITARS IN A DRUNKEN BOAT) inspired by ARTHUR RIMBAUD's symbolist poem, was composed for and performed by 100 electric guitars listen to/ share "Roches" on Soundcloud, from Gille's Laval's "100 Guitares Sur Un Bateau Ivre"   return to top SNEAK PEEKS OF DISTANT TREASURES   COMING OUT IN 2025, 2026 & BEYOND ON CUNEIFORM RECORDS (Listed in alphabetical order. Sound samples to come out in future newsletters) ~~~~~ JAZZ ~~~~~ GHOST RHYTHMS – MISSING TIMES  (New studio album by young French avant progressive ensemble) [FRANCE] ~~~~~~ JANEL LEPPIN / ENSEMBLE VOLCANIC ASH – TBC (Third studio album by composer / cellist/ bandleader Janel Leppin's Washington DC-based jazz group, Ensemble Volcanic Ash) [USA] ~~~~~~ DENMAN MARONEY – MEAN TIMES (Previously unreleased live recording from 1995 at The Knitting Factory by composer Denman Maroney on sampled hyperpiano, with Herb Robertson on trumpet, Ellery Eskelin on tenor saxophone, Mark Dresser on bass and  Phil Haynes on drums ) [USA] ~~~~~~     ROCK ~~~~~~ ACCORDO DEI CONTRARI – TBC (A new studio album by the acclaimed Italian avant -progressive ensemble) [ITALY] ~~~~~~ BOUD DEUN – LIVE ORION APRIL 5, 1997 (Previously unreleased live concert recordings by '90s DMV/suburban Washington DC avant progressive fusion quartet led by Sean Persinger) [USA] ~~~~~~ CHEER-ACCIDENT – TBC (A new studio album and a DVD of live performances by Chicago's fave longstanding alt-rock / post-pop group) [USA] ~~~~~~ FRENCH TV – THE SPANISH CAPER (A double album by French TV: one album of new compositions, and one of covers of '60s and '70s "deep-cuts" that had influenced the band. This double feature will be the band's 16th & 17th album(s)! ) [USA] ~~~~~~ MIKE JOHNSON – GARDEN OF LOSS (Mike Johnson, leader/ composer/ guitarist of Thinking Plague, releases an album under his own name featuring orchestration - strings, brass reeds, etc - combined with rock instrumentation.) [USA] ~~~~~~ HENRY KAISER / GLENN PHILLIPS – GUITAR PARTY (reissue of 1990 studio album featuring Henry Kaiser & Glenn Phillips, two uniquely great, American rock guitarists) [USA] ~~~~~~ FREDERICK L’EPEE – TBC (Solo studio album by French guitarist Frederick L'Epee) [FRANCE] ~~~~~~ NEBELNEST – LIVE AT PROGDAY 1999 (Hard hitting, French instrumental, zeuhl / dark symphonic rock ensemble)  [FRANCE] ~~~~~~ NEBELNEST – unreleased fourth album  (Previously unreleased 4th album by this hard hitting, French instrumental, zeuhl / dark symphonic rock ensemble) [FRANCE] ~~~~~~ THE LUCK PUSHERS – TBC (New studio recording by guitarist/ composer Shawn Persinger’s current, Connecticut-based band) [USA] ~~~~~~ YANG – TBC (Fifth studio album by French composer/ guitarist Frederick L'Epee's longstanding progressive ensemble) [FRANCE] ~~~~~~ return to top CUNEIFORM ARTISTS ON TOUR 2025 - 2026 CALENDAR IMPORTANT REMINDER: In an evolving (and now endemic) COVID-19 world, and with adverse weather "events" happening in increasing frequency, these dates are ALL tentative. Please check with venues, close to the concert date, to confirm. We're ecstatic that live concerts are happening worldwide, but we remain aware that emergent variants - as well as severe weather - can unexpectedly affect schedules. See also the Tours Page at Cuneiform Records.   FRENCH TV American progressive ensemble French TV, based in Louisville, KY, perform at one of Europe's premier festivals of alt-rock / avant progressive music while planning a new release for Cuneiform Records.  _______________________________ October 4 - Freakshow Artrock Festival - Felix-Fechenbach-Haus - Gutenbergstraße 11, 97080 Würzburg, Germany   Listen to & buy A Ghastly State of Affairs    HAPPY FAMILY Japan instrumental ensemble  Happy Family celebrate their longstanding collaboration (37 years!) and Cuneiform's 40th anniversary by releasing two recordings on Cuneiform in one year - the EP 4037 and two singles – and an upcoming cncert at Tokyo's Silver Elephant. Walking in the Mire / The Dark Forest Flowing Yet Cunning/  Fort of Responsibility 4037 December 13 - Silver Elephant - Tokyo Japan Listen to & Buy Happy Family                        Tossco   Minimal Gods           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 QUARTERLY SHOW is presented on a regular basis, exclusively on the CUNEIFORM RECORDS YouTube Channel  When Covid pandemic lockdowns began in 2020, Henry Kaiser began curating & presenting a series of pre-recorded music videos exclusively on Cuneiform's YouTube Channel for music lovers isolating at home. These "live" concerts – which initially were released on a WEEKLY basis – were taped beforehand and not streamed; Henry discusses the process in a Guitar Moderne interview, "The New "Live"".  Many videos in the series depicted duets and larger bands, despite the program then being called the "HENRY KAISER WEEKLY SOLO SERIES".  While many depicted 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). Kaiser continued presenting his popular video series on Cuneiform Records' YouTube Channel after the pandemic, but on a new schedule; it is now THE HENRY KAISER QUARTERLY SHOW. In addition to these quarterly releases, he presents additional videos marking special events or tributes.  All 52 videos from the initial Henry Kaiser's Weekly Series, the entire two year Monthly Series and all current quarterly videos are archived & available on Cuneiform's YouTube Channel.  We invite you to visit and follow Cuneiform Record's YouTube Channel to see the videos that Henry regularly presents. A must see: the WINTER 2024 video is HENRY KAISER QUARTERLY #4: BARITONE GUITAR SPECIAL, featuring Henry's awesome guitar work along with Special Guests: Luciana Bass, Jim Clark, Janet Feder, Sandy Ewen, Vanessa Gould, Sandor Nagyszalancy, Anthony Pirog, Gregory Stephen, Sid Stephen, & Carl Weingarten. Just released, the SUMMER 2024 video , HENRY KAISER QUARTERLY SHOW #6 : You Can't Get There From Here, features Morgan Ågren  Jennifer Burnes,  Jaya Drats, Trey Gunn, Killick Hinds, Michael Manring,  Ed Petterson, Damon Smith, Jim Thomas, and Bill Walker. In addition to his video series, Kaiser occasionally presents special videos:  some focusing on current events and guitar legends, and some providing free guitar lessons, focusing on tunes associated with legendary guitarists. For instance, his September 2022 guitar lesson video, focusing on the whole tone scale and Sonny Sharrock, is titled The Whole Tone Scale! Sonny Sharrock’s DICK DOGS lesson with Henry Kaiser.  His video for 2025's 1st quarter, HENRY KAISER QUARTERLY SHOW #8 : The Backwards Guitar Solos Lesson, is both instructional for players and highly entertaining for non-musicians. 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 the Cuneiform Records' YouTube Channel, 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 JANEL LEPPIN A composer and cellist who’s honed a singular synthesis of composition, orchestration and improvisation, Janel Leppin is an avant-jazz luminary. Besides performing as half of the experimental duo Janel and Anthony, which she co-leads with her husband guitarist Anthony Pirog, she leads the seven-piece chamber-jazz Ensemble Volcanic Ash, as well as performing and recording with other jazz, rock, and experimental  groups. In June 2024, Cuneiform released Ensemble Volcanic Ash's second album, To March Is To Love "An Absolute Virtuoso - 4 Stars" - Downbeat Magazine, reviewing the first EVA album "Leppin is a rarity..ahhh-vant garde at its finest." - Capital   JANEL LEPPIN WITH ENSEMBLE VOLCANIC ASH  October 18 - Martin Luther King Library - 901 G St, NW - Washington DC   JANEL LEPPIN RESIDENCY May 19, 2027 - The Stone - Stone Residency - 55 West 13th St - NYC, NY May 20, 2027 - The Stone - Stone Residency - 55 West 13th St - NYC, NY May 21, 2027 - The Stone - Stone Residency - 55 West 13th St - NYC, NY May 22, 2027 - The Stone - Stone Residency - 55 West 13th St - NYC, NY   Listen to & buy: Janel Leppin Ensemble Volcanic Ash  To March Is To Love                 Ensemble Volcanic Ash Janel & Anthony New Moon In the Evil Age,   Where Is Home          ROGER CLARK MILLER Roger Clark Miller is a guitarist, pianist, bassist, composer, singer, percussionist and occasional cornet player. His career officially began in 1979 when he co-founded the influential post-punk band Mission of Burma on guitar and vocals. He formed Birdsongs of the Mesozoic on piano in 1981, and from 1983-1989 he began his Maximum Electric Piano work. Miller joined the Alloy Orchestra in 1998 - "the best [orchestra] in the world at accompanying silent film" says Roger Ebert – which continues today as The Anvil Orchestra. In February 2025, he releases his second album of solo looping-based music structured on dreams on Cuneiform - Curiosity for Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble. Boston Globe: "Less a recital than a musical minefield... Miller is a man in constant motion, a one-man symphony."     Roger Clark Miller performing Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble   October 9 - Revolution Gallery - Buffalo, NY October 10 - Concert House - Toledo, OH October 11 - Elastic Arts - Chicago, IL October 12 - LoLoBees - Bay City, MI October 15 - Ziggy's - Ypsilanti, MI October 16 - Trinosophes - Detroit, MI October 17 - Fuse Factory - Columbus, OH October 18 - Government Center - Pittsburgh, PA   Roger Clark Miller performing with The Anvil Orchestra [new music for silent films] October 3 - BAMM - Bethel, ME [The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari] October 24 - AFI Silver Theater - Silver Spring, MD [Nosferatu] October 30 - The Ross Theater - Lincoln, NE [Phantom of the Opera] October 31 - The Ross Theater - Lincoln, NE [Nosferatu]   Listen to & buy: Roger Clark Miller Curiosity for Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble   Eight Dream Interpretations for Electric Guitar Ensemble           --------- The Fourth World Quartet, 1975 ---------- Birdsongs of the Mesozoic Dawn of the Cycads // The Fossil Record      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! –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Don't miss seeing the ED PALERMO BIG BAND live!  THEIR SHOWS SELL OUT, so buy your tickets well in advance. ~~~~ October 25 - The Falcon - 1348 Rte 9W - Marlboro, NY 12542 November 24 - The Iriidium - 1650 Broadway, NYC  (featuring Napoleon Murphy Brock) December 20 - 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                               ANTHONY PIROG "[Palo Colorado Dream] covers a sprawling musical terrain–avant jazz, atmospheric soundscapes, earthy Americana, math-rock...with an arsenal of effects hardware and studio production techniques..." – JazzTimes "One of jazz’s most reliable conduits to a living, breathing audience is electric-guitar heroism, and Anthony Pirog, from Washington...seems poised to become a hero of the instrument." – The New York Times ________________________________ Anthony Pirog [featured with  Joel Harrison's Guitar Choir]   October 19 - Stages Music Arts - 10 Stenersen Lane - Cockeysville, MD Anthony Pirog with Dave Chapell in "D.C. Great Guitar Series"  November 20 - Blues Alley - 1073 Wisconsin Ave. N.W. - Washington, DC   Listen to & buy: Anthony Pirog: Pocket Poem  // Palo Colorado Dream .       Janel & Anthony    New Moon in the Evil Age //     Where Is Home            in other groupings: Location Location Location: Damaged Goods Five Times Surprise: Five Times Surprise The Spellcasters, Music from the Anacostia Delta   Janel Leppin/ Ensemble Volcanic Ash To March Is to Love  //  Ensemble Volcanic Ash            REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE Since 1990, Boston's fun & fantastic Revolutionary Snake Ensemble has expanded the parameters of brass band with influences ranging from free jazz to New Orleans second line to contemporary funk to experimental. In September 2025, the band releases a new recording on Cuneiform Records:  SERPENTINE October 4 - Regattabar - 1 Bennett St - Cambridge, MA 02138 [new release show for 'Serpentine'] November 7 - Wellfleet Preservation Hall - 335 Main Street - Wellfleet, MA November 29 - Famouth Jazz Presents RSE - The Gallery On Main - 317 Main St - Falmouth, MA February 21 - Scullers [Mardi Gras show] - 400 Soldiers Field Road - Boston, MA 0213   Listen to & buy: Forked Tongue LUKE STEWART / SILT REMEMBRANCE ENSEMBLE "Luke Stewart’s "The Order", released in April 2025 on Cuneiform Records, is a masterful convergence of two of his prominent ensembles: the Remembrance Quintet and the Silt Trio. This fusion brings together a formidable lineup - Daniel Carter, Jamal Moore, Brian Settles, and Chad Taylor - culminating in the Silt Remembrance Ensemble....a sonic experience that is both deeply rooted and forward-looking....4/5 stars" – Chain D.L.K.      December 14 - Catalytic Festival - Rhizome DC - 6950 Maple St. NW - Washington, DC Listen to & buy: Silt Remembrance Ensemble The Order     Luke Stewart's Silt Trio The Bottom SWRM SWRM, the duo of Providence singer/ songwriter/ bandleader Alec  K. Redfearn (analog synthesizers, vocals) and Matt McLaren (drums), celebrate SWRM's debut album Lights Out, coming out July 2025 on Cuneiform Records, the longtime label of the band Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores.     October 31 - Halloween with SWRM! - Myrtle - East Providence, RI To set up press and radio interviews with Cuneiform Artists while on tour or at home, please contact: promo@cuneiformrecords.com return to top SPEND 2025 WITH MUSIC & VIDEOS ONLINE !     CUNEIFORM RECORDS has a treasure chest of interesting music to serve as soundtrack, inspiration and solace during these evolving and challenging times. Our mammoth catalogue of over 500 releases by artists from around the world includes many of avant music's most esteemed icons as well as young rising stars, and is available for purchase in digital and physical formats at the CUNEIFORM RECORDS BANDCAMP store, and in physical formats at one of our sister companies, WAYSIDE MUSIC as well as in RECORD SHOPS worldwide (see our DISTRIBUTORS).  Your purchases of our CDs, LPs, and digital downloads supports or indie musicians, indie labels, and small businesses.    • VISIT the official CUNEIFORM RECORDS WEBSITE  for extensive information on the artists and recordings on our label,  upcoming concerts & much more.   • WATCH VIDEOS on Cuneiform Records' YOUTUBE CHANNEL Cuneiform Records has an extremely active YouTube Channel which you should bookmark as a favorite:  free music videos, videos of live shows, & samples from 500+ adventurous releases!   And we began expanding our video content during the pandemic, most notably with an ongoing video series curated  and produced by guitarist Henry Kaiser.  • PURCHASE & LISTEN to releases on CUNEIFORM RECORDS BANDCAMP PAGE  Discover new music on our Bandcamp Page, and support artists & our indie label by purchasing music.   • PURCHASE music from100s of LABELS from around the world at  WAYSIDE MUSIC, our sister store.  At our internet store, WaysideMusic.com (established in 1980!), you can purchase hard-to-find CDs and LPs from ALL your favorite labels!  • ENJOY and SHARE SAMPLES of music by releases of countless Cuneiform artists on the Cuneiform Records' SoundCloud Site. • VISIT, LIKE & FOLLOW  Cuneiform Records' Official FACEBOOK PAGE.  • JOIN the Cuneiform Records FACEBOOK GROUP:  FANS Of Cuneiform Records.  • FOLLOW @CuneiformRecord on TWITTER (now X) • LICENSE music from Cuneiform for movies, ads etc via our sister site TheMusicOutpost.com. • SIGN UP for the CUNEIFORM RECORDS NEWSLETTER if you're not already one of our subscribers, and  get BOTH this monthly newsletter in your email box AND receive 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 half price. • VISIT our TOURS PAGE for upcoming concerts WORLDWIDE by our artists.   • ACCESS PRIOR ISSUES of the CUNEIFORM RECORDS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER at cuneiformrecord.blogspot.com/     Cuneiform Records' Monthly Newsletter announces and gives in-depth info on ALL of the label's NEW RELEASES - both physical and digital formats - and also provides TOUR / CONCERT info from its artists.   ~ ~ ~ return to top CUNEIFORM RECORDS SOCIAL ONLINE Cuneiform YouTube Cuneiform Website Facebook FanGroup Facebook Page Cuneiform Twitter Cuneiform SoundCloud Cuneiform Bandcamp Instagram Email Cuneiform return to top Cuneiform Records' Monthly Newsletter is compiled by Joyce (Joy) [Nalewajk] Feigenbaum, DIRECTOR OF THE MUSIC OUTPOST – PUBLICITY EMAIL: joyce@themusicoutpost.com FACEBOOK PAGE: MusicOutpostPublicityAndLicensing TWITTER: @TheMusicOutpost     STOP WARS         Photo on left of Ceasefire Now banner unveiled 1/24/2024 by Greenpeace & Unmute Gaza at Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum. Poster image by US visual artist Shepard Fairey "Obey" based on photo by Palestinian photojournalist Belal Khaled. Museo Reina Sofia is the home of Picasso's iconic 1937 Guernica painting, photo above/right.   return to top Copyright © 2025 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