One of his final works, Les Arythmiques finds the late musique concrète veteran Luc Ferrari engaging with the cardiac condition that struck him towards the end of his life. Inspired by the jolt of electricity that was prescribed to combat his arrhythmia, this album is a collection of all the sounds Ferrari recorded on his travels over the final few years of his life - an assemblage of images he bluntly describes: "as one says of a drowning man's life passing before him". The forty minute montage pieced together here is continually interrupted by surges of electricity and stuttering timeline edits, designed to mimic the electric jolt Ferrari experienced in hospital. Given that Ferrari passed away not long after the composition was completed, there's an extra degree of pathos installed in these recordings, and the metaphor at the heart of the work proves to be a powerful one indeed, expressing the relationships between age, memory, sickness and mortality.

"For his second album as a full leader, Nilssen-Love could not have brought together three more positive influences." -Andrey Henkin, All About Jazz — Recorded and engineered at decibel.no, at Byorkesterets Hus during the Kongsberg Jazzfestival 2002. Double Bass – Ingebrigt Håker Flaten Drums, Percussion – Paal Nilssen-Love Piano – Sten Sandell Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Evan Parker

Recorded at the Dixon's Theatre, Westcliff on Sea, Essex at 8pm on 8th August 2003 as part of the 'New Music Days' series of concerts for the 2nd Southend International Jazz Festival.

Recorded live at The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (2016) soprano saxophone – Evan Parker (tracks: 1) drum set, percussion – Roger Turner (tracks: 2) electric violin, electronics – Hideaki Shimada

Live album by saxophonist Evan Parker, bassist Barry Guy, and drummer Paul Lytton. It was recorded on June 26, 1996, at The Vortex in London, and was released by Emanem Records in 1998 Excerpts from sleeve notes: Two sets of circumstances, both too involved to be fully detailed here, resulted in the Parker/Lytton Duo of the 1970s transforming into the Parker/Guy/Lytton Trio of the last dozen or so years. The first was the 1981 duo record INCISION by Parker & Guy, which led to Guy being added to the group. (He had, of course, previously worked with one or both of the other two in various groups as far back as 1966.) The second, a few years later involved a time when Lytton's mighty percussion and electronics kit was in a different country to himself, so he had to borrow a fairly conventional drum kit. This worked out well musically, and was much more practical for club gigs, so from then on his own fairly conventional drum kit became the norm. The instrumentation thus became the same as that of certain classic Jazz and Free Jazz trios, and the music became influenced by these precursors, even though it has remained Free Improvisation. The trio has performed fairly frequently ever since, even though all three members often perform in other groups and situations as well, so there is no shortage of excellent CDs and LPs by them. This CD, however, is different in that it features longer performances moving at a more natural pace than hitherto available. The relaxed and freewheeling music reflects the situation of performing in a club before an audience of mostly hard core fans - home territory, as it were. The Vortex is an excellent, smallish club in Stoke Newington, an inner suburb of London, with an eclectic programme that features Jazz, Free Improvisation, Folk Music, Cabaret, and various combinations of these.  When it is full, as it was on the evening in question, there is literally no space between the musicians and the audience, but by contorting the mike stand, I managed to get the lone stereo microphone into a position over the front of the audience, and get a recording representing what one would hear if one stood just in front of the band. I subsequently digitally remixed it slightly to get a more acceptable balance for home listening. Since both Barry Guy and Paul Lytton live abroad, this trio is rarely to be seen in London, so that when it does play there, a large enthusiastic audience is guaranteed. Such an audience generally feeds-back to the musicians, spurring them on to even greater heights than usual, as happened on this occasion, resulting in music that is more outgoing than would probably occur in a studio situation. All of the music performed that evening is presented here unedited - a complete document of this trio working at full steam. MARTIN DAVIDSON (1998)

British sax giant Evan Parker has a good number of recordings in duo with other saxophonists, and the list of notables includes Ned Rothenberg, Peter A. Schmid, Joe McPhee, Wolfgang Fuchs, Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy, Lol Coxhill, Hans Koch, and Louis Sclavis. Now, we can add Urs Leimgruber to that pantheon. In truth, the Swiss tenor and soprano explorer was already their pair among the most inventive, skilled and individualistic reedmen in activity – finding him in the company of one of the great pioneers of free improvisation signifies a definitive and more than just recognition. Using the same tools and the same procedures don’t prevent that everything else distinguishes the two saxophone players: Parker is a physical, sometimes visceral, musician, even when his phrasings get complex and tricky, and Leimgruber is cerebral and mathematic in every situation, including the moments in which the music boils. Those differences don’t imply a lack of communication between the two improvisers, but the opposite: the disagreements, more than the encounters, are what makes “Twine” such an amazing, puzzling and defying CD. This is a music of creative dissent, not of false peace.

Real-time improvisations, to be played at maximum volume. Recorded at Eastcote Studios, London, UK, May 4th, 2008. Cover collage by Cody Brant.

Long, long ago there was a time when the gods had their say our worldly goings on and the nymphs, hetaerae, centaurs and satyrs had not yet been banned to the outer regions. In these mythic times, the goddess Athena invented the double-reed flue or Aulos. Legend has it that the Aulos was the first ever reed instrument; it was the first time a vibrating reed was ever used to make music. However, her vanity got the better of her and made her throw away the instrument: the other gods mocked her for the way her cheeks ballooned out when she played the double reed. From that moment on goddesses have never played the double reed again. By chance or rather by fate, the satyr Marsyas found Athena's double reed. Marsyas, being a shepherd, had nothing else to do the livelong day than tend his sheep and play the flute and he soon became a virtuoso double-reed player. There are conflicting reports and legends about how all this went and how it ended. According to some, Marsyas, blinded by hubris, challenged the god Apollo, the lyre player par excellence, to a match to see who could play the most beautiful music. The muses, those knowers of beauty would act as the judges. The winner could do whatever he wished with the vanquished. Others relate that it was Apollo who, in a fit of jealousy upon hearing Marsyas brilliant playing, insisted on a duel. So, it wasn't a matter of earthly overweening pride after all but the actions of a jealous over-sensitive, intolerant god. Of course, Marsyas lost the match. These muses were highly untrustworthy, biased, tendentious referees. Some sources say that it was initially a draw, after which Apollo played his lyre upside down with the same virtuosity as right side up. As Marsyas could not play his flute upside down or back the front, he lost the match for a completely unmusical circus act-like reason. Apollo's music did not sound any different or better when played upside down. Others claim that Marsyas won the competition outright from the outset, after which Apollo, feeling cornered, began to sing accompanied by his lyre. Marsyas protested fiercely: this was a match of instruments and not of singing. Apollo then argued that blowing on an instrument and singing were pretty much the same thing. Yet other sources claim that Apollo cast a spell on Marsyas such that all he could produce were raw squeaking, squawking screaming sounds... Whatever the true story may be, the untrustworthy muses declared Apollo the winner. As a result, Apollo punished Marsyas for his pride, nailed him to a tree and skinned him alive. The gods can never be trusted: they are jealous and overweening; they manipulate and cheat, to be brief nothing human is strange to them. Here is Marsyas the satyr's redress or 'Wiedergutmachung': the virtuous double-reed playing of that maestro in under- and overtones, circular breathing and multiphonics, Evan Parker, accompanied on the double bass by Peter Jacquemyn, who, next playing the strings in a variety of conventional and unconventional ways, also makes use of his own voice as the ultimate musical weapon. He seldom if ever plays his double bass upside down, however.

UK multi-reed master Evan Parker brings an all-star electroacoustic septet to the 2014 Victoriaville Festival for the massive and wonderfully detailed two part composition "Seven", performed with Peter Evans, Okkyung Lee, George Lewis, Ikue Mori, Sam Pluta, and Ned Rothenberg.    "Seven presents a compact, slimmed down, lean version of Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. The expansive, texturally rich music of the septet brings to mind the edgy feel of early free improvisation. Parker's compositional method is simple: "My art of composition consists in choosing the right people and asking them to improvise. The resulting music arises from this sequence of decisions and these are the right people". It is worth noting that in early free improvisation - say from the period of Topography of the Lungs (Incus 1, July 1970) onward - much of the tension in the music - which is the push-and-pull between known and unknown, cohesion and dissolution - was due to the players' courageous ongoing expansion of instrumental language. But players have pushed language to its virtual tipping point; so that what once sounded outrageous and demanding of innovative responses is now heard as commonplace. So presently, it seems, formal expansions - such as we hear in the collusion of logic differentials in this music - may be more the way forward. It all adds up to exceptionally stimulating music for the listener, at the center of which is an edginess we've long associated with classically great free improvisation."-Henry Kuntz

"The music comprises three extended tracks totaling seventy minutes. It bears all the hallmarks of the larger ensemble's music, but with less going on, particularly in terms of treatments of the music. There is clearly good understanding and interaction between the four players, with Parker leading from the front. When one considers that the previous album 'Hasselt' credited fourteen musicians, half of whom were using electronics and/or processing, it seems logical that the music here would be simpler and communication better. As is always the case with resonant spaces, the hall here is effectively a fifth player. To their credit, the four human players soon found the best ways to play with the space, the end results doing justice to all five. Parker's own comment on the album is both true and wittily quoteworthy: "The music here still sounds fresh and, in fact, could have been recorded tomorrow." Yes, spot on, Evan". -John Eysles, All About Jazz — 1. Ichi 26:08 2. Ni 23:16 3. San 20:30 Recorded live at Iwaki City Art Museum, in Fukushima, Japan, on October 5th, 2000

"The FIMAV performance is an extraordinary recording, an aural opportunity to hear the Ensemble exploring at length, stretching the contemporaneous studio documentation, but even with the Ensemble’s brilliant and transformative history, Sainkho Namtchylak’s spontaneous addition to Fixing is unique. Namtchylak’s intensity transcends the metaphoric. This performance is not folkloric. It is folklore. It is not shamanic. It is shamanism. The ElectroAcoustic Ensemble is one of the most significant events in the humanization of electronic music, in making it mobile and spontaneously responsive. Fluctuating, by the Ensemble itself, is more than a valuable document, it’s a major revelatory work." - Stuart Broomer

It is always a treat to see some major musical innovators in action. Especially in a mind-blowing line-up, at the top of their game and unrecorded until now on this impressive new Dropa Disc release. Evan Parker might be a member of some legendary trios – one with von Schlippenbach and Paul Lovens and one with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton – still this brilliant master of the saxophone and pioneer of free music managed to surprise us big time when he introduced his trio with John Edwards and Steve Noble to the Belgian audience in January of 2015. Together with this ultimate rhythm section – backing artists like Peter Brötzmann, Akira Sakata and Julie Kjaer, to name a few – Parker reals out a truly mesmerising demonstration, full of individual brilliance, but most of all with a collective cohesion rendered with majestic imagination and endless iridescence. Dropa Disc #004 Evan Parker – John Edwards – Steve Noble: PEN is the first release of this trio ever, fitting perfectly next to the best works in these stellar musicians ever expanding discography. Evan Parker: Tenor saxophoneJohn Edwards: Double bassSteve Noble: Drums & PercussionRecorded by Michael Huon at the Oorstof concert series, Zuiderpershuis, Antwerp 24 January 2015Edited & Mixed by Michael Huon and Koen Vandenhoudt at Odeon 120, Brussels 2016Mastered by Michael Huon at Odeon 120, Brussels 2016Live concert produced by Sound in MotionProduced by Koen VandenhoudtExecutive Producers: Koen Vandenhoudt & Christel KumpenCover Design & Layout: Pascal Cools First release for the stellar trio Evan Parker, John Edwards & Steve Noble.You can order the cd Evan Parker – John Edwards – Steve Noble: PEN (Dropa Disc#004) by mailing us here ! or go to the PayPal buy button.You want to order more Dropa Disc releases at once? Mail us for combined shipping prices here ! Extended text by Guy Peters (Enola Magazine, Gonzo Circus, Cadence … ): Without a doubt, Evan Parker belongs to the top league of free improvisers. For half a century now, he has been one of the most innovative, challenging and consistent members of the European avant-garde. Together with Alexander von Schlippenbach, Peter Brötzmann, Fred Van Hove and a handful of others, he is among the trailblazers who set and raised the bar. The best thing about it: he’s still going strong. When he appeared in the Oorstof series with the terrific rhythm section of John Edwards (bass) and Steve Noble (drums), we were in a for a memorable night. Parker is not only a legend because of his technical mastery and individual approach to the soprano and tenor saxophone, but also because he was/is a member and/or leader of several crucial bands. He was part of the legendary Brötzmann Octet that cut the Big Bang-record Machine Gun and he is a member of two of the most formidable trios in the history of improvised music: one with Von Schlippenhach and Paul Lovens, the other with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton. Also his documented trio with John Edwards and Mark Sanders is well-respected. Also his documented trio with John Edwards and Mark Sanders is well-respected. In the meantime, Parker has played with so many improvisers that it’s hard to believe his stunning trio with John Edwards and Steve Noble, until now, went unrecorded. Edwards and Noble are a tight rhythm section, appearing beside a.o. Alex Ward, Hans Koch, Alan Wilkinson, Peter Brötzmann, Sophie Agnel and, most recently, Julie Kjær. Though teaming up with Parker seemed inevitable the music generated by this trio – as displayed perfectly on this new Dropa Disc release – is stunning. There is no holding back, the musicians are not too respectful and it’s no feast of impatient fury either. No, instead we hear three masters displaying an enormous control of their respective instruments – with Parker sticking to tenor saxophone – without losing the overall cohesion of the performance. It’s rife with remarkable solo and duo moments, and even though these often belong to the highlights, you hear an exceptional solid unit. We were already familiar with the breadth of Steve Noble’s playing, as he appeared on Dropa Disc #001 (los bordes de las respuestas, by the Saint Francis Duo with Stephen O’Malley), but it’s exciting to witness his amazing dynamics, range of textures, energy and rhythm. Equally at ease within abstract expression as in inflammatory interaction, he is the guy you need for a balance of thoughtfulness and vital energy. Edwards is his ideal sidekick: a player with agility, intelligence and a physical approach that sometimes borders on harassment. Together they create an intricate, lively and surprisingly soulfulperformance, serving as foundation, trigger and sparring partner for Parker’s associative approach. As such, this exceptional concert is not about easy effects, wild climaxes or raucous energy. Instead, it’s a celebration of freedom and the direction in which it can be taken. During its best moments it sounds as if the music almost becomes self-evident in its organic cohesion. Not because the musicians rely on predictable patterns, but because the music seems to take over, flowing from three musicians in one identifiable language – something similar happened a few months later, when Ballister visited Oorstof, check the Dropa Disc #005 release. When you observe Parker in action, the man often stands there with a stoic, immovable pose, but these adjectives couldn’t be further removed from this music’s essence. The performance contained on this album is all about restless movement and ceaseless interaction. It is a celebration of the potential of improvised music.

Evan Parker: Barry Guy and I first met and played together in a version of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble in the days of the legendary Little Theatre Club. The late John Stevens, visionary prophet of the coming music was the key figure at the centre of things who brought us together. “So it goes“ – John often used this figure of speech. I was reminded of this when I was looking through Samuel Beckett’s Collected Letters, hoping to glean some titles, knowing that Barry would be happy with a Beckett quote. Somewhere on one of the three thousand one hundred and eighty two pages I recall Beckett using the same expression in signing off a letter. Two of our heroes connected by these three words in this way give us our title, which indeed expresses the very nature of creating music together. “So It Goes.”

Double concert of sax titan Evan Parker and Italian electronic musician Walter Prati. The first CD is a reissue of Hall of Mirrors released in 1991 on MM&T; label. Digitally recorded at FX studio Milan, February 1990. The second CD, Pulse, was recorded in May 2016 at the Limonaia of Villa Strozzi, Florence, during Tempo Reale festival.

A big anniversary is celebrated on this recording: Evan Parker and Paul Lytton got to know each other in 1969 and after months of rehear- sals their first performance followed in 1970. It was the time of the jazz avant-garde, which renewed and expanded the traditional ways of playing and the Parker-Lytton Duo was an active part of this process. “Over the past fifty years, they have each minutely sorted through aesthetics, methods, and protocols, maintaining an ongoing dialogue. The years have yielded a rich diversity of music, complemented by the current recording, the first to feature only tenor saxophone and a jazz kit,” writes the American jazz journalist Bill Shoemaker in the liner notes. Shoemaker, who supervised the recordings in Chicago, goes on to say: “The dynamic of free improvisation and a long personal history docu- mented on this Chicago studio session bears out what Parker told Bai- ley forty years ago: ‘In practice, the closest I would get to a laboratory situation is working with the people I know best ... the people I’ve played with the longest actually offer me the freest situation to work in.’ On the basis of this unprecedented music, that assessment has stood the test of time.”