"The three musicians seem to exchange and overlap tones, creating the feeling of a single and continuous arc extending, curving in space, a kind of bridge or thoroughfare outward." – Stuart Broomer (liner notes) ---VellumMagda Mayas pianoJohn Butcher tenor and soprano saxophonesTony Buck drums ---recorded on 30 November 2019 at ausland, Berlinengineered by Andrew Levineedited and mixed by John Butchermastered by Andreas 'Lupo' Lubichliner notes by Stuart Broomerlp design by Yaqin Siinner sleeve photography by Cristina Marx/Photomusixmanufacturing by Daniel Klotz/Die Lettertypen

Butcher is interested in particular people and their personalities. He prefers not to work in a generic situation, where there's an agreement in advance to play a certain kind of thing, and the music cannot swerve in a sudden fresh direction. As he told me a few years back: "What got me so interested in the type of improvising I ended up really spending time on was, at least at a personal level, there was a feeling you could start from scratch. Now you might well be mistaken, and rediscovering endless wheels, but it felt like there was a chance… Whatever things you do pull together from various places into that, relate more to your own personal take on – I’m not just talking about music, but how you want to live as a musician in the world, what aspects of things outside of music you’re hoping will find their way into your activity." Clive Bell John Butcher soprano and tenor saxes Angharad Davies violin Mark Sanders percussion Pat Thomas electronics

The record can be considered a sort of farewell note to one of London’s most crucial venues for improvised music and sound art after its unexpected closure in late 2023 due to gentrification. Butcher had previously collaborated with these three musicians in different contexts, but Unlockings documents a first-of-its-kind quartet line-up. »I wanted a new combination, but made of players I’d worked with over the years,« says Butcher. »Choosing is probably 75 % about the player and 25 % about the instrument—trying to imagine how it might work sonically, but also setting up a situation that is able to surprise everyone, that takes everyone beyond their personal ideas. I’m still always slightly amazed how individual approaches interact and entwine in a collaborative improvisation.« Kristoffer Patrick Cornils John Butcher tenor and soprano saxophones Angharad Davies violin John Edwards double bass Mark Sanders percussion Pat Thomas electronics

Tarab Cuts evolved from a request by the Paris-based Lebanese electronic musician, Tarek Atoui. In 2011 he invited several composers, including English saxophonist John Butcher, to create short pieces that responded to music in the collection of Kamal Kassar, who owns one of the world’s largest vinyl and shellac collections of Arabic classical music. Butcher, who is much more strongly identified with free improvisation than composition, edited snippets from Kassar’s 78s into a new piece of music, and then finished the piece with real-time saxophone responses to his construction.  This became “Between the Skies,” which is side one of the album under consideration. Butcher went on to expand the work into Tarab Cuts, a set-length piece that includes more reconstructed recordings as well as improvisations by Butcher and drummer Mark Sanders. He performed Tarab Cuts six times in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Spain and the USA. Curiously, while these presentations enjoyed some acclaim, the recorded iteration is barely known. The LP, which has “Between the Skies” on one side and an early performance of the material with Sanders called “Under the Walls” on the other, was pressed up as an audiophile 45 rpm 12”.  Whilst it takes inspiration from early Arabic classical, secular and Sufi music it is not an attempt to copy these musics.It is an interaction across decades and cultures that throws an intriguing light on the contemporary musical practice of Butcher and Sanders. A meeting of distant voices with their own, in pursuit of both common and unfamiliar ground. These pieces were later expanded into a 50 min concert presentation also called Tarab Cuts. LP purchase includes a free download code for a live performance of this.Photo: Tarek Atoui's Visiting Tarab in Sharjah, UAE. --- Side A Between the Skies - 13:56 John Butcher / saxophones and sound files --- Side B Under the Walls - 14:08 Mark Sanders / drums & percussion John Butcher / feedback, sound files ---

A. 7 Runs (in arc mental styling) Recorded March - April 2024 in the USA tour van and Berlin DE A compositional structure built entirely from constant movement creates the illusion of a stable architecture. Within this contained structural mirage, an array of sounds seep through, wrapping, camouflaging, and revealing their compositional scaffoldings, conjured up from a simple method of counting. By placing these simple counters alongside one another, different structural configurations are formed. In the fashion of Siah Armanjni’s miniature models, where a plethora of staircases reveal the architectural surface as both bidirectionally mobile and at a standstill, “7 runs” achieves a status of motionlessness through constant repetition. Is descending a ladder to nowhere the same as sitting? Are 7 pulses equally partitioned through time, no longer a discrete measure of time? B. The Third Part of the Night Recorded April-June 2024 Berlin DE Violin by Henry Birdsey A piece for piano, violin, and metal percussion, all realized through digital synthesis (with the exception of H. Birdsey’s violin textures, used to approximate a digital synthesizer noise I enjoy). This work represents a digital amalgamation of synthetic materials, spanning from copper-wound strings to cylindrical-shaped rocks. At the heart of The Third Part of the Night lies a digitally rendered choreography, where three hands slam microphones against precise nodal points on piano wire. These digital hands serve as compositional elements, moving in a deliberate dance to create a sense of “music.” Their movement generates sounds that evoke objects and substances striving to escape their own essence. Attacks and meters act as sculptors, shaping the real into the digital and the digital into an uncanny yet almost tangible reality. "On the new album 7 Runs (In Arc Mental Styling), Max Eilbacher juggles a series of electronic tones, carefully sculpted and spaced to form what the Berlin-based composer describes as “a structural mirage made from constant movement.” Following a conceptual compositional algorithm, Eilbacher’s effervescent, repetitive digitally constructed electronic tones seem to endlessly rise across two side-long climbs that bend and twist like a barber pole. It’s a quality extenuated by a series of diagrams included in the release that map the arcs, arches, and columns created by this sonic shadowplay. As tones and repeating patterns layer and imperceptibly shift in the moment, the music seems to grow more solid and spectral all at once. Eilbacher may explain the “movement” of his illusory structures and even show his work, yet we are still left in awe at the seamless magic that is generated. A debut release on OMA, a new label co-founded by Eilbacher and his bandmates in Horse Lords, 7 Runs makes for a bemusing and breathtaking liftoff. " -Miles Bowe 2025

Flying between virtuosic formalism and freewheeling openness, Andrew Bernstein’s new album Shadows and Windy Places is a gripping picture of the Germany-based saxophonist right now. Capturing recordings across the last five years and disparate sources — some are previous album sessions, others peak into Bernstein’s daily practice — they all fall perfectly into place to form an album as rich as a self-portrait and as spontaneous as a snapshot. “I often feel the pull to formalize my music, to have a reason for every decision, an internal logic that can be explained,” Bernstein says of the album. “This is countered by my lived experience, of music and otherwise, in a chaotic, improvisatory, and complex world. This music attempts to reconcile these impulses.” That tension between logical forms and chaotic, improvised flights only becomes more rewarding and joyful as Shadows and Windy Places unfolds through the hypnotic “A Shadow, Blooming” with subliminal flashes of gamelan and Ethiopian jazz, the silvery, pulsing “Of Infinite Space” and the playful, bubbling “Counting Sines.” They all revolve around the gripping centerpiece “In Blue”, an explosive performance where Bernstein doesn’t reconcile his impulses so much as fuse them entirely with his saxophone forming a fiery crucible. As both an end point for years of material and an opening statement to OMA, a new label co-founded by Bernstein and his bandmates in Horse Lords, Shadows and Windy Places is a defining work for the virtuoso saxophonist. Andrew Bernstein - soprano and alto saxophones, tenor recorder, electronics.

Joseba Irazoki - Onomatopeikoa II Very happy to finally have Joseba’s work become part of Hegoa’s family. A versatile and restless Basque musician who has an extensive discography with almost 20 albums released. Born in 1974 and based in Bera, Nafarroa, Joseba has been leaving his mark on a heterogeneous amalgam of projects and adventures leaving his most introspective and personal self in the works in which he has dared to sign with his first name. “Onomatopeikoa II” follows on from Irazoki's 2017 Gitarra Onomatopeikoa release, and that album's sense of untethered, questing curiosity is not only carried over but expanded upon even further here. Combining a fully committed approach to the guitar with an almost egoless lightness of touch, this album builds upon the already impressively scopious range of Gitarra Onomatopeikoa to dizzying effect. Irazoki makes full use of an impressively broad palette. Yet nothing feels forced, nothing is for show – there’s just a sense of open-hearted generosity. In lesser hands such a whirlwind tour of style and form might risk failing to get its hooks in deep enough, yet not only does Irazoki have the imaginative scope to tackle these varying approaches to the instrument, he has the technical chops to pull it off. Each composition seems to have an openness of intent that is utterly disarming; all cards are on the table and nothing is held back, resulting in a creative tour de force that builds, piece by piece, to a unifying cohesiveness that makes the whole far greater than the sum of its parts. Featuring contributions from long-time OTO favourites Rhodri Davies and Raphael Roginski, “Onomatopeikoa II” is nevertheless unmistakably a work of singular craft and vision.

Reinvigorated by months of shutdown woodshedding, David developed new works for guitar, as well as a piano piece and an exceptionally eerie bit of musique concrète. Inspired by the deep dive into Gastr del Sol’s duo magic that facilitated last year’s compilation box, David opened his deeply personal solo pieces for engaging conversational gambits with modern masters Rhodri Davies, Andrea Belfi, Nikos Veliotis, Nate Wooley, and Cleek Schrey

Colonia Dignidad was the settlement of a German evangelical sect.After being prosecuted for child abuse in Germany, the group fled to Chile in 1961. Like similar religious sects, it was characterized by the outward appearance of a unified, godly community with well-tempered cultural activities and social welfare, but inwardly and in its environment by oppression, sexual abuse, and exploitation. In the 1970s, it unquestioningly inserted itself into Pinochet's regime of terror, aiding in the imprisonment and torture of political prisoners, weapons production, etc. Since the end of the 1980s, there has been a legal reappraisal of the C.D.'s crimes in Chile.Its successor organization makes a living from tourism.The C.D. project uses, on the one hand, a series of documentary recordings of contemporary witnesses, and on the other, a set of melodic improvisations (MIDI files), improvised in the spirit of the impressions of terror, tension, claustrophobia and fear associated with the Colonia. CD 2 (Knochenstückchen) directly reflects this atmosphere. CD 1 (Reue?) on the other hand, is characterized by the contradictory breadth of the statements found after the dissolution of the sect: Denial of atrocities to glorification of the C.D. by leaders who returned to Germany against the professed traumas of formerly abused inmates and exploited community workers.For this purpose, the eyewitness recordings were sound-modified to a considerable extent. The MIDI files were played back with a variety of virtual instruments (piano, guitar, sax, turntable, lung machine, barrel organ, synths, etc.) in a multitude of modifications (speed, pitches, loops, harmonic and tonal variations), so that the 11 pieces from CD 1 and the 16 pieces from CD 2 each represent a closely interwoven overall composition.Ralf Wehowsky is one of the most respected practitioners of radical music of our day. He was the founding member of the seminal German group P16.D4 and ran the legendary experimental label Selektion whose ground-breaking releases influenced many working in today's experimental music scene. Previous releases have seen him collaborate with such well known and diverse artists such as Merzbow, Andrew Chalk, Jim O'Rourke, Achim Wollscheid, Lionel Marchetti, Kevin Drumm, Kouhei Matsunaga and Bruce Russell.

Maths Balance Volumes follow up their acclaimed 2020 release A Year Closer with a further and sturdier bucket of songs scraped from the dust of being. Haunted, fragile and beautiful, this is music that explores the ghostly zones of its own creation. The loneliness and vulnerability that unfolds with the opening cut Stay lays the way for exploration of sound and song with simple melodic guitar and organ whilst the subsequent Janet’s Song weaves mirror elements alongside the sound of pebbles on water.This is evocative music made thoroughly by humans with the most basic of tools. Unafraid to step away from their screens Maths Balance Volumes stroll with breezy resistance to the current thread of platform regurgitation.Tonight flips the song on its side as a barnstorming melange of concrete hustle made from shakers, animals, humans and beelzebub knows what. Egyptian Wedding sounds like they operated off the depths of a rotating well. Forming a round is a dusty scratchy heartbreaker that encapsulates the hybrid Smithsonian Folkways label approach that only MBV do.There is something enormously human about Maths Balance Volumes take on underground experimental music, one far more so than the human pitched music made in the mainstream today. In the 20th Century it was the other way around. What has happened ? I will let you contemplate that. But for me, in this case explicitly this press scribe is chuffed at the consequence of this reversal. Very happy indeed.

Filterbeds was Jim Whelan, Natalie Williams and Mark Courtney. I have typed this first sentence out so many times in my mind and broken down. Left wondering the incomprehensible fate of friendships; the loneliness of death; the staggering shock of grief. And then there’s the sheer marvel of sharing, caring, crying with laughter, revelatory joy, smiles, dancing, hugs, trips and….and….creating something from ordinary nothing.This release comes with the heaviest of hearts. The exhilaration matched by agony.If Mutualism can tell us anything, it says ‘whatever you have planned, do it NOW’. We couldn’t have done this without Jim and now we must do without him.Mutualism is where sounds bend, blur and bind. Melody is whispered like a secret, Rhythm broken and unrepentant. These pieces are singular but derive from a mutual assent.In Loving Memory of Jim Whelan 1963-2024Special thanks to Carim Clasmann for Mastering (The Fishtank, Cologne) and Test Pressing approval (Real Leyton Library, London)Released March 2025

Edition of 250 copies, remastered from the original master tapes ** Real Time is an extraordinary example of interaction between musicians coming from different worlds of new music. I had the chance to perform with those two great musicians on other occasions: in duo with Alvin Curran and in duo, trio and sextet with Evan Parker. Alvin came from the American school, full of minimalist references, melodic structures and open to all kinds of contamination. Evan had left jazz to accomplish his own instrumental language, aiming at total improvisation. The idea of getting them to put together a trio that would perform several concerts and recording was one of the most exciting moments of my career. Our three languages found a common ground of expression where different musical backgrounds came together and created a unique blend for that period of time. (Andrea Centazzo) Andrea Centazzo percussion, percussion synthesizerAlvin Curran synthesizer, piano, trumpetEvan Parker soprano & tenor saxophones Recorded live in concert Rome, Italy December 13, 1977Engineer: Nicola BernardiniRemastered from the original tapes by Matt Bordin at Outside Inside Studio

** Edition of 250 copies, remastered from the original master tapes ** Recorded live in concert. Rome, Italy December 12-13, 1977 by Nicola Bernardini and at Teatro Comunale, Pistoia, Italy December 14, 1977 by Carla Lugli. "It was a magic evening. Not only did the trio burst with a creative energy that was homogeneous and interactive, but the acoustics, usually inadequate, of the half-empty sports pavilion with a capacity of 10,000 people, gave the music an ethereal transparency and crystalline purity that the recording captured and the CD newly presents in all its singular beauty."(Andrea Centazzo) Andrea Centazzo percussion, percussion synthesizerAlvin Curran synthesizer, piano, trumpetEvan Parker soprano & tenor saxophones Recorded live in concert at Teatro Comunale, Pistoia, Italy December 14, 1977 by Carla LugliRemastered from the original tapes by Matt Bordin at Outside Inside Studio

Edition of 250 copies, remastered from the original master tapes ** This album is a historical document in several respects: echo of a creative season in its early, vigorous blossoming, it presents groundbreaking music as it was performed and listened to in a moment that now seems very distant, not just chronologically but also in terms of its cultural context. Furthermore, it serves as a testament to the initial opening of the emerging Italian free music scene to Northern European experiences, which had already been in communication for years.The collaboration between Evan Parker and Andrea Centazzo had begun a few months before this concert held in Padova on December 12, 1977. In July, Parker came to Italy, specifically to Tuscany, for a series of concerts, including a duo performance with Derek Bailey in Pisa. Then he joined Centazzo, who had organized a seminar with him (likely the first of its kind in Italy) in San Marcello Pistoiese. At that time, Centazzo lived and worked in the countryside between Pistoia and Montecatini. On that occasion, Centazzo recalls recording studio material, which, along with material collected during the concert in San Marcello, became the album Duets 71977 (CD Ictus 178). Shortly after, the duo temporarily expanded into a trio with Alvin Curran, who recorded Real Time (CD Ictus 124). By then, the Centro d'Arte had existed for more than thirty years as an association connected to the University, presenting seasons with a very open and research–oriented profile. These seasons featured classical chamber music alongside occasional but significant episodes of contemporary music, jazz, and even ethnic music.  However, it was only since 1973 that the Centro d'Arte had started an autonomous jazz series, favoring contemporary and avant–garde artists such as the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sam Rivers, Anthony Braxton, and musicians from the emerging European free jazz scene. The concerts were held in a temporary structure, a circus tent located in the area of the old slaughterhouse. The audience was quite large, ranging from 500 to over 1000 people, which may be surprising for an avant–garde jazz series, considering the size of the city, with no more than 250,000 inhabitants. At that time, Italy, and Padova in particular, was going through a particularly turbulent political period. The ideas of radical democracy that circulated among the youth masses often meant that participation in a collective event, such as a concert, was not to be simply passive. In addition, a recent series of incidents and clashes had resulted in a near–total ban on rock concerts across the country; consequently, much of the young audience had turned to whatever appeared contemporary and alternative to the commercial scene, such as the new jazz. Anything that seemed radical was generally well–received, even better if it was entertaining. But perhaps this wasn't the case. The Centazzo/Parker duo was indeed one of the most experimental episodes presented by the Centro d'Arte in those years. Parker had already developed his characteristic style, and as John Zorn observed in his introduction to Duets 71977, "during this intermediate phase between what was documented in Saxophone Solos (1975) and Monoceros (1978), Parker was still using plastic reeds that defined the sharp articulations of his early sound and was beginning to refine the circular breathing that would become a major focus of exploration in the years to come". Meanwhile, as is apparent in the cover photos, Centazzo was already working with a custom–built expanded drum kit made by the English Premier company, with cymbals and gongs that he had designed and produced in collaboration with UFIP in Pistoia. In addition to percussion, Centazzo used one of the first percussion synthesizers, the Synare, and a range of electronic sound objects, including the 'crackle box,' designed and produced in small quantities by Michel Waisvisz (a specimen that had been given to him by Steve Lacy), and also lo–fi sound toys, such as the 'laughing bag.' To many ears at the time, all of this was more astonishing than appreciated for the quality of a new and unheard–of musical practice. Some of the audience expressed their confusion, but those who made a fuss didn't seem to disapprove as much as they aimed for a 'creative' involvement with the scene, in an effort perhaps to raise the level of their intermittent interest. Under the tent, people drank, some smoked, not everyone was seated, and even a few dogs wandered around. Something of this atmosphere, so far removed from today's norms, can be heard in the residual bustling soundscape of voices in the background of the music. However, it takes an additional effort of imagination to realize the intense tension that immediately arose between the performers and the audience, ultimately determining the high 'temperature' of the improvised event. One could recall that only ten days before, in Milan, John Cage had heroically faced for almost three hours an extremely tumultuous crowd of 2,000 people challenging him to complete his solo performance of Empty Words, often reaching the brink of physical threat. The musical material heard on this album does not correspond to the entire concert but is a selection that emphasizes some particularly intense long sequences. It is worth remembering that about twenty minutes into the actual concert, some voices from the audience began to howl and even mock what they were listening to. Parker expressed his irritation through the music, but also with words in which he ironically described himself as a gladiator in the arena. In this portion of the concert, which is not included in the album, spoiled as it is by annoying distortions, you can hear him addressing the audience: "Bring back bullfighting, Bring back bullfighting... whoa... Bullfighting on ice!" and later shouting, "Bring on the lions!" Thus, the title of the album also seeks to evoke these significant aspects of the way free music was made and listened to in many situations that occurred in those epic 1970s. – Veniero Rizzardi (October 2023)

Greta Lindholm is an absolutely unique personality in the contemporary dance scene. She toured in India, Mexico, Japan, Scandinavia, Italy and France, during the '70 and '80 making known her synthetic and experimental approach in the choreographic field. Her art explores new boundaries and is essentially pure celebration of the body language and voice in its intimate relationship with the fluidity of movement. Using mainly foot drumming and vocal rhythms, she makes her body the only instrument of continuous exploration, halfway between traditional songs and rhythmic-gestural improvisation. Greta seems to treasure different vocal cultures and give them an avant-garde reinterpretation: from Scandinavian folklore to jazz scat singing, from baroque arias to the African Pygmy. Particular influence is given by the metric-vocal spelling of Karnatic and Hindustan music. All these differents suggestions serve to reinforce and accompany her plastic movements. Greta's performances are studded with imaginary phonemes, onematopeic patterns, rhythmic phrasing, phonetic articulations, breathing, spiral structures, frenetic drifts, clap handings or feet like timpani or snare drums. In this way her dance becomes "silent music" and can have analogies with other noteworthy vocal explorations, such as those of Meredith Monk. For the first time an audio document is a available on LP and CD, a co-production with our beloved friend: Sing a Song Fighter.

The explorer Walter Maioli makes his most amazing adventure, the journey to the center of the Earth. Retracing the exploits of the Platonic demiurge, he identifies in the cave the deepest meaning of myth. Primordial sounds, not shadows, are at the center of this magical path straddling geology and Paleolithic polyphony. The recordings between 1985 and 2002 capture the sonic imperceptibility of the great subterranean womb, investigate the secret dialogue between the trickling of pond waters and the faint percussive reverberation of stalactites and stalagtites. Rocky sediments are played as tubular organs, glockenspiels, xylophones or stone marimbas. Crystalline timbral variations and subtle microtonal passages recall the chimes of Tibetan gongs and bells, of the scales of Java and Bali. Amidst muffled pauses and silences, trills and rings, echoes and tremolos, hisses and pops of vibration, Maioli builds his most imaginative niche of sound, a magnetic and telluric chant that is pure symphony and archetypal synaesthesia. Co-produced with Holidays Records.

The Collective Orchestra was a visionary, short-living creative music collective led by Gaetano Liguori, who was one of the main protagonists of Italian free jazz since the early 70s. It was an important attempt to put together young musicians from the two main towns in Italy, and its respective leading figures: Giorgio Gaslini in Milan and Mario Schiano in Rome. Previous attempts to set up anything similar were, in fact, either frustrated by rivalries between the various personalities or were destined to be one-off events.Liguori's vision is simply wonderful here – even bolder and more expressive than on his previous works for PDU, and the energy which he summons and transmits throughout is just extraordinary. The near-telepathic interplay of the core set of Gaetano Liguori on piano, Roberto Bellatalla on double bass, Filippo Monico on drums, Guido Mazzon on trumpet, and young musicians Edoardo Ricci, Giancarlo Maurino and Massimo Urbani on soprano and alto saxophones, is given a richly expanded sound palette by the addition of Danilo Terenzi on trombone, Roberto Del Piano on Fender bass and Sandro Cesaroni on flute.There's something really magical about the reciprocity that occurs when he plays these exceptional improvisers - and the album's still has a "sense of the new" feel (after 40 years!) that's as gripping as anything recorded by Italian ensemble around the same time.The sound is strong and freely exploratory, at a level that's completely fresh and very striking, and handled here with a wonderful balance between playful arrangements and fierce improvisations. Filled with power and imagination and originally released in 1976 on Pdu.

1. Luna Turca - 01:44 2. Om Shanti Om - 06:55 3. Chenrezig - 11:49 4. Nana's Solo - 03:56 5. A Chi Chi Ou - 01:39 6. Koye - 06:32 7. Flute Song - 05:16 8. Dissolution - 09:29An amazing document of the life experiment that was the Organic Music Society. This super quality audio, recorded by RAI (the italian public broadcasting company) in 1976 for television, documents a quartet concert focused on vocals compositions and improvisations. Here, Don Cherry and his family-community’s musical belief emerges in its simplicity, with the desire to merge the knowledge and stimuli gained during numerous travels across the World in a single sound experience. Don's pocket-trumpet is melted with the beats of the great Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, the Italian guitar of Gian Piero Pramaggiore, and the tanpura drone of Moki. A pure hippie aesthetic, like in an intimate ceremony, filters a magical encounter between Eastern and Western civiliziations, offering different suggestions of sound mysticism: natural acoustics in which individual instruments and voices are part of a wider pan-tribal consciousness. A desert Western landscape marries Asian and Latin atmospheres. Indigenous contributions with berimbau explorations find fossil sounds of rattles and clap-hands invocations. Influences of Indian mantra singing are combined with eternal African voices or with folkish-Latin guitar rhythms , while flute and drums evoke distant dances. In the Organic Music everything becomes an act of devotion and love, an ecstatic dwell in the dimension of a sacred free-rejoice.