Haptikon is a set of very-electric-guitar pieces accompanied by computer. Haptikon may be heard as an outgrowth of E#’s Tectonics project. Where Tectonics was a form of psychedelic noise jungle techno played on both saxophones and guitars interacting electronically with computerized grooves and processing, with Haptikon, the focus is on a more melodic and lyrical approach. E# pays homage to improvised traditions in jazz, blues, rock, Indian music, and even country & western! The results are cinematic in scope and give the feeling of a full band. Sharp’s virtuosity on guitar and originality as a composer are in full evidence on Haptikon.

Recensione di Acid Cock di Brio, Long Song Records 2014

Da un duo batteria-chitarra, Croato, che si chiama Brio che cosa ti aspetti? Energia, potenza di impatto, improvvisazione a tutta potenza, una cascata di riff uno dietro l’altro, il tutto nel sano rispetto che le regole rockabilly/punk/hard-core/jazz hanno ormai definito. E i Brio rispettano perfettamente queste aspettative: Acid Cock, penso che ogni riferimento sia puramente casuale, è un disco dal forte impatto ritmico e chitarristico, i due musicisti ci danno dentro veramente e non tradiscono minimamente l’attesa fin dall’inizio con una batteria stile “motorik”, una chitarra ora elettrica ora acustica in grado di sfornare sia riff a raffica sia blues devianti stile John Fahey, una voce recitante che declama gli ultimi discorsi di J.F.Kennedy, overdubs e drones in sottofondo a arricchire e a caricare un suon saturo e tiratissimo.
Titolo azzeccato quindi questo Acid Cock che traduce perfettamente l’energia che questo duo, Gordan Krajacic chitarre e Neven Krajacic batteria, percussioni e voce, riesce a catturare e a trasmettere ai suoi ascoltatori. Ennesima ottima scelta da parte della italianissima Long Song Records.

What would you expect by a Croatian guitar-drums duo called Brio? Energy, power impact, frenetic improvisation, a cascade of riffs one after another, all in the healthy respect about rockabilly / punk / hardcore / jazz rules have now defined all over the world. And Brio duo perfectly meet these expectations: Acid Cock, I think that any reference is purely coincidental, it is a record with a hard high rhythmic and guitarist impact, the two musicians struggle hard and really do not betray the slightest expectation from the beginning with a “motorik” style drum, a guitar played now electric and now acoustic able to churn out burning riffs and blues in a John Fahey’s deviant style, a narrator voice who recites the last speeches of John F. Kennedy, overdubs and drones in the background to enrich and load a tight and saturated sound.
So .. we can say that Acid Cock is a perfect title for this cd, a title that perfectly translates the energy that this duo, Gordan Krajacic guitars and Neven Krajacic drums, percussion and vocals, manages to capture and convey to his listeners. Yet another great choice by the Italian Long Song Records.

Gianni Mimmo/Alison Blunt
Lasting Ephemerals
Amirani Records AMRN #037-LP1
Barrel
Live at Artacts 12
Idyllic Noise IDNO 009
Playing violin in a Free Music context calls for a certain mindset and set of novel perceptions that are unlike those in so-called classical music or Jazz. While rejecting the enforced prettiness of much popular notated music, a thematic hook has to be there, especially when the fiddler is involved in a non-solo situation. Plus, while eschewing swing for its own sake, the improvisations still have to include motion enough to propel the sounds forward to a coherent stopping point.
Kenyan-born, London-based violinist Alison Blunt, a veteran of experimental confluence with ensembles ranging up to orchestral size, explores these concepts in duo and trio form here. Generic to both programs is a redefinition of staccato techniques. Certainly she and the two other London-based member of the Barrel trio, scratch, slide and scrape so many discordant swells from their 12 strings that those who prefer sweeter tones may regard Live at Artacts 12 as an aural trip wire aimed at upsetting them.
Violinist/violist Ivor Kallin and cellist Hannah Marshall, who are also involved in Free playing with small and large ensembles, including the London Improvisers Orchestra, organize their staccato pacing with Blunt so that Barrel’s performance has an internal logic. The trio is also disarmingly communicative, with some close stropping used for humorous effect and Kallin, especially, wont to let loose with this-side-of daft vocalizing. With the fingerboards, wood finish and tuning scrolls as involved as popping strings in this paroxysm of atonal tones, Kallin’s pseudo-operatic vocals, occasionally doubled by parallel female emulations, adds a needed human element to the corrosive playing. Galloping by at a racetrack pace, the three-part tremolo cooperation frequently reaches measured crescendos. At that point, one of the trio members propels the narrative forward while angled slices from the others scratch out theme variations. By the final sequence verbal interjections have turned to whistles and expressive cries until the track reaches a climax of near-mellowness, only to slide into a forceful wood-wrenching and string-buzzing coda of herky-jerky swats as a nose-thumbing finale.
As temperate soprano saxophone trills meet measured glissandi, at first it appears that the duo of Blunt and Pavia-native reedist Gianni Mimmo is going to aim for the tranquil architecture of contemporary chamber music rather than the building-site chaos of contrapuntal improvising. That idea is soon negated with the speed of a bulldozer knocking down an older dwelling. With “Lasting Ephemerals”, the introductory, title and longest track proving the code for their interaction the piece is soon segmented into spiky and spiccato string-and-bow pops from the violinist and buzzing multiphonics and split tones from the saxophonist. No stranger to experimental sounds, Mimmo has collaborated with the likes of vocalist Jean-Michel van Schouwburg, percussionist Gino Robair in the past.
On this track and throughout however, as with Barrel’s strategy, neither the saxophone reed bites nor the violinist extended techniques ever allow the instant compositions to dissolve into atonality. For every split tone or sul ponticello run crated there’s an equal number of chromatic timbres from one or the other that organically pace the ongoing narrative. In effect even a track such as “Elliptical Birds” where the duo’s intertwined buzzing ascends to a cornucopia of piercing aviary-like textures; sweetened sequences preserve the exposition among the string sprawls and reed multiphonics
Despite the joking oxymoron with which this session is titled, the skill of Blunt and her associates on both discs substantiates the value of and excitement engendered from string-centred Free Music.
—Ken Waxman
Track Listing: Live: 1. if it could speak, it would sound no different 2. three drumlie taistealaichean
Personnel: Live: Alison Blunt (violin); Ivor Kallin (violin and viola) and Hannah Marshall (cello)
Track Listing: Lasting: 1. Lasting Ephemeral 2. Elliptical Birds 3. Scherzo
Personnel: Lasting: Gianni Mimmo (soprano saxophone) and Alison Blunt (violin)

“A sweaty summer session of radical free music!” Così cita la nota che accompagna questo Cd dalla grafica tanto insolita quanto bella, opera della bravissima Lucia D’Errico, questa volta in veste non di chitarrista ma di grafica dallo stile psichedelico e lisergico: colori accesi, disegni curiosi, perfino un gatto rosso attrezzato con un occhio solo e una rappresentazione anatomica del corpo umano minimal sorridente.
Per questo cd Piero Bittolo Bon ha ben pensato di trasferire la band (Peter Evans alla tromba, Simone Massaron alla chitarre, Glauco Benedetti alla tuba e Tommaso Cappellato alla batteria) in uno studio attrezzato a sauna (o in una sauna attrezzato a studio di registrazione) nella speranza che i vapori finlandesi ottenuti gettando acqua sulle pietre roventi migliorassero la concentrazione e innalzassero i picchi di creatività a cui i suoi sodali ci hanno da tempo ormai abituati.
Il risultato premia sicuramente la scelta saunistica: si tratta di una vera e propria session musicale ad alta intensità e temperatura. Ci danno tutti dentro di gusto, in particolare i fiati che fanno da “lame apripista” musicali coadiuvati dalla spinta generosa e tenace delle percussioni di Cappellato e dalle invenzioni di Massaron.
Ennesima scelta di qualità da parte della nostrana Long Song Records, ennesimo attestato da parte del jazz italiano. Avanti sempre così, Piero.

“A sweaty summer session of radical free music!” So quotes the note accompanying this CD characterized by an unusual and beautiful graphics, made by the talented Lucia D’Errico, this time quoted not as a guitarist but for her psychedelic graphic style: bright colors, curious design, even a red cat equipped with one eye and an anatomical representation of a smiling minimal human body.
For this cd Piero Bittolo Bon has decided to move the band, Peter Evans (trumpet), Simone Massaron the guitars, Glauco Benedetti tuba) and Tommaso Cappellato (drums), in a studio equipped with sauna (or in a sauna equipped with a recording studio ) in the hope that the Finnish vapors obtained by throwing water on the hot stones would improve concentration and permit high peaks of creativity in which his associates have long since become accustomed.
The result rewards definitely the choice of this steamy and hot free jazz sauna: it is a real musical session defined by high intensity and temperature. All the musicians struggle very hard giving a hot performance, in particularly the “brass area” supported by the thrust generous and tenacious percussion by Cappellato and the guitar inventions by Massaron.
Yet another quality choice by our italian Long Song Records, another certificate from the Italian jazz. Go on, Piero! Never Stop!

Gli Udu Calls sono Tiziano Tononi e Daniele Cavallanti (batteria e percussioni assortite/sax e ney) con l’aggiunta per l’occasione del contrabbasso di William Parker.
“Vancouver Tapes” documenta il concerto tenuto in Canada per l’International Jazz Festival nel 1999 ed è a suo modo, un piccolo classico.
Nel senso che quel che ascoltiamo, è un’espressione senza tempo, precisa e decisa, furente e ammaliante.
Un cerimoniale afroamericano, eseguito con un’energia ed una competenza (potrebbe esser altrimenti?), da far mangiar la polvere ad intere schiere di giovani leve.
C’è rispetto, infinito senso del ritmo (una tranche della seconda delle due lunghe impro proposte, è irresistibile frenesia), una spirituale e continua ascesa, tensione, un livello di comunicazione interna da far brillare gli occhi, urla, reciproci incitamenti e ben più di un’oncia di Ayler.
Ad ascolto terminato, ci si sente leggeri e rinfrancati.
Un’esibizione clamorosa.Gli Udu Calls sono Tiziano Tononi e Daniele Cavallanti (batteria e percussioni assortite/sax e ney) con l’aggiunta per l’occasione del contrabbasso di William Parker.
“Vancouver Tapes” documenta il concerto tenuto in Canada per l’International Jazz Festival nel 1999 ed è a suo modo, un piccolo classico.
Nel senso che quel che ascoltiamo, è un’espressione senza tempo, precisa e decisa, furente e ammaliante.
Un cerimoniale afroamericano, eseguito con un’energia ed una competenza (potrebbe esser altrimenti?), da far mangiar la polvere ad intere schiere di giovani leve.
C’è rispetto, infinito senso del ritmo (una tranche della seconda delle due lunghe impro proposte, è irresistibile frenesia), una spirituale e continua ascesa, tensione, un livello di comunicazione interna da far brillare gli occhi, urla, reciproci incitamenti e ben più di un’oncia di Ayler.
Ad ascolto terminato, ci si sente leggeri e rinfrancati.
Un’esibizione clamorosa.

PBB, c’est le multi-instrumentiste Piero Bittolo Bon (saxo alto, contrebasse, larsens), et son ensemble Lacus Amoenus est un quintette d’improvisation joliment anarchique. On y trouve le trompettiste de l’heure, Peter Evans, plus un guitariste (Simone Massaron), un tubiste (Glauco Benedetti) et un batteur (Tommaso Cappellato) que je ne connaissais pas. Le disque est très long, 74 minutes, mais on s’y amuse beaucoup. Impro libre déjantée, folle, qui coalesce parfois en rythmes et en mélodies instantanées (à moins qu’il y ait un degré d’écriture plus prononcé que je le crois). “Matador? Matador??” est loufoque et terriblement efficace. En fait, les pièces longues (il y en a quatre) ont beaucoup de substance, tandis que les sept autres pièces, parfois très courtes, développent des idées précises et rigolotes qui nous transportent complètement ailleurs, souvent sans avertissement. Recommandé.
PBB is multi-instrumentalist Piero Bittolo Bon (alto sax, contrabass, feedback), and his ensemble Lacus Amoenus is a refreshingly chaotic improvising quintet. Star trumpeter Peter Evans is the only member I knew. There’s also a guitarist (Simone Massaron), a tuba player (Glauco Benedetti), and a drummer (Tommaso Cappellato). It’s a very long record, 74 minutes, but it’s also a lot of fun. Off-kilter free improvisation that can coalesce into spontaneous beats and melodies, unless there’s more composition involved than I suspected initially. “Matador? Matador??” is silly and extremely effective. In fact, the long tracks (four of them including “Matador”) all have much substance, while the other seven tracks, much shorter, develop specific and often humorous ideas that take somewhere else entirely, usually without warning. Recommended.PBB, c’est le multi-instrumentiste Piero Bittolo Bon (saxo alto, contrebasse, larsens), et son ensemble Lacus Amoenus est un quintette d’improvisation joliment anarchique. On y trouve le trompettiste de l’heure, Peter Evans, plus un guitariste (Simone Massaron), un tubiste (Glauco Benedetti) et un batteur (Tommaso Cappellato) que je ne connaissais pas. Le disque est très long, 74 minutes, mais on s’y amuse beaucoup. Impro libre déjantée, folle, qui coalesce parfois en rythmes et en mélodies instantanées (à moins qu’il y ait un degré d’écriture plus prononcé que je le crois). “Matador? Matador??” est loufoque et terriblement efficace. En fait, les pièces longues (il y en a quatre) ont beaucoup de substance, tandis que les sept autres pièces, parfois très courtes, développent des idées précises et rigolotes qui nous transportent complètement ailleurs, souvent sans avertissement. Recommandé.
PBB is multi-instrumentalist Piero Bittolo Bon (alto sax, contrabass, feedback), and his ensemble Lacus Amoenus is a refreshingly chaotic improvising quintet. Star trumpeter Peter Evans is the only member I knew. There’s also a guitarist (Simone Massaron), a tuba player (Glauco Benedetti), and a drummer (Tommaso Cappellato). It’s a very long record, 74 minutes, but it’s also a lot of fun. Off-kilter free improvisation that can coalesce into spontaneous beats and melodies, unless there’s more composition involved than I suspected initially. “Matador? Matador??” is silly and extremely effective. In fact, the long tracks (four of them including “Matador”) all have much substance, while the other seven tracks, much shorter, develop specific and often humorous ideas that take somewhere else entirely, usually without warning. Recommended.