Cuneiform’s New Releases & Artist News. Click For Infos.
5 NEW CUNEIFORM RELEASES (RELEASE DATE: MAY 13 2008!!!!!)
SEE BELOW for DETAILED INFO on the new releases:
UNIVERS ZERO – *UNIVERS ZERO* – CD (Rune 1313) – ROCK / CHAMBER ROCK / NEW MUSIC
LARS HOLLMER – *VIANDRA* – CD (Rune 271) – ROCK / INSTRUMENTAL ROCK
WADADA LEO SMITH’S GOLDEN QUARTET – *TABLIGH* – CD (Rune 270) – JAZZ / IMPROV
REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE – *FORKED TONGUE* – CD (Rune 269) – JAZZ [Brass Band]
COSMOLOGIC – *EYES IN THE BACK OF MY HEAD* – CD (RUNE 263) – JAZZ / IMPROV
WINTER [late JAN/FEBRUARY 2008] RELEASES
Chris McGregor’s BROTHERHOOD OF BREATH – *ECLIPSE AT DAWN* – CD (Rune 262)
[Genre: JAZZ]
BEAT CIRCUS – *DREAMLAND* – CD (Rune 264)
[Genre: ROCK / POST-ROCK / POST CABARET / NEW WEIRD AMERICANA]
MATS/MORGAN BAND – *HEAT BEATS LIVE* + *TOURBOOK 1991-2007* by MORGAN AGREN – CD+DVD (Rune 265-266)
[Genre: ROCK / JAZZ-ROCK / FUSION]
MATS/MORGAN BAND – *TRENDS & OTHER DISEASES* – CD (Rune 267)
[Genre: ROCK / JAZZ-ROCK / FUSION]
PLANETA IMAGINARIO – *BIOMASA* – CD (Rune 268)
[Genre: ROCK / JAZZ ROCK/ FUSION]
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SPRING RELEASES: MAY 13, 2008
UNIVERS ZERO *UNIVERS ZERO* [formerly 1313] (Cuneiform Rune 1313)
FILE UNDER: ROCK / NEW MUSIC / CHAMBER ROCK / CLASSICAL / EXPERIMENTAL
“It’s stunning how well Univers Zero’s 1977 debut holds up, musically and sonically, compared to…
anything else happening in so-called new music.” – Keyboard
More than 30 years ago, a group of seven unknown, mostly Belgian musicians gathered in a small basement studio to record their first album, which they released themselves in a tiny edition of 500 copies. The album was untitled, the cover bearing only the band’s name, but the catalogue number on the first, limited pressing – 1313 – would in later years be used as its name. The power and originality of this album – the first recording by the Belgian band Univers Zero – stunned listeners at the time. At some point during the album’s numerous subsequent reissues, the album was renamed 1313. Each reissue delighted existing fans and attracted new audiences; decades later, the album continues to astound. Today, Univers Zero is acknowledged to mark the birth of “chamber rock”: a new and startlingly original musical genre – a perfect hybrid of classical music and rock – that may conceivably be the Francophone world’s most significant [unique/distinctive/singular] contribution to late 20th Century New Music. Featuring music that was simultaneously medieval and modern, merging influences from early 20th C. classical composers such as Bartok and Stravinsky, with the power and iconoclasm of rock music, Univers Zero marked the debut of one of the greatest avant-garde ensembles of all-time.
This reissue by Cuneiform restores Univers Zero’s debut album to its original look – the cover reproduces that of the original pressing, with its original name – Univers Zero as opposed to 1313, while enhancing the album’s original sound – the music is completely remixed. Remixed from the original 1977 multi-track tapes and remastered, the nuances of Univers Zero’s unique, primarily acoustic, and primarily classical instrumentation come to the fore: bassoon, violin, harmonium, viola, oboe, and spinet, interwoven with guitar, bass and drums. In addition to the studio album – which featured Univers Zero bandmembers Michel Berckmans (bassoon), Daniel Denis (drums, percussion), Marcel Dufrane (violin), Christian Genet (bass), Patrick Hanappier (violin, viola, pocket cello), Emmanuel Nicaise (harmonium, spinet), and Roger Trigaux (guitar) – this reissue also includes a live, 28 minute bonus track. A 1979 performance of “La Faulx” that was recorded by B.R.T. (Belgie Radio Televisie), the live track features Berckmans (bassoon and oboe), Denis (drums), Hanappier (violin), Guy Segers (bass and vocal and noise effects), and Trigaux (harmonium and guitar). The CD reissue is accompanied by a 16pp. booklet containing a history of the band’s early years written by music historians Renato Moraes and Aymeric Leroy and illustrated with archival photos. Reproducing the original artwork, the cover features only the band’s name – Univers Zero; for the CD’s catalogue number, Cuneiform has used the number 1313. Such careful restored packaging is befitting this album’s landmark status: a seminal album in the history of rock, as well as a lodestar for the future of classical music. By the close of the 20th C., chamber rock’s influence on avant-garde rock would extend beyond the French-speaking world to the rest of Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Japan, and beyond. Today, in the 21st Century, the classical music world is discovering Univers Zero, whose music reveals a new direction for classical music, injecting new vigor, attracting new audiences and breathing new life into the scene.
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LARS HOLLMER *VIANDRA* (Cuneiform Rune 271)
FILE UNDER: ROCK / POPULAR / INSTRUMENTAL
“…Hollmer should be considered a composer in the league of Piazzola…” –All Music Guide
Swedish composer/accordionist/keyboardist Lars Hollmer – “Swedish king of all things with keys” [AMG] – creates popular instrumental music that transcends modern musical genres and evokes the heart and soul of traditional Scandinavian folk music. In a career spanning 4 decades, based in the ancient university town of Uppsala, he has recorded scores of albums and created a highly distinctive body of solo and collaborative work, that can best be characterized as a kaleidoscope of musical influences forged through a singular Nordic lens. Interweaving traditional folk musics with popular music of the present and near-past (rock, jazz, film scores, carnival and circus music) and influences from classical composers, Hollmer’s music infuses danceable melodies with complex time signatures, and invites instruments long associated with the common folk (accordions, harmoniums etc) to the fore, to dance alongside classical (bassoons, oboe) or modern popular (jazz and rock) instrumentation. The resultant sound is melodic and accessible, intelligent and complex, and above all, heartfelt and sincere, spanning human emotions from joy to despair. Revered in his native country, who awarded this “giant in the Swedish musical society” a Swedish Grammy Award for solo work in 1999, Hollmer’s music has begun to receive more widespread, popular recognition outside Scandinavia, due to his ongoing, high energy international projects. His recent projects include membership in the accordion supergroup, Accordion Tribe, the subject of an award-winning European documentary; collaborations with French Canadian (Jean Derome, FanFare Pourpour, Miriodor) and Japanese musicians (Sola, with Ruins’ drummer Tatsuya Yoshida); appearances at countless high-profile music festivals; and a series of recordings released in Germany, Canada, Japan and the USA.
This recording, Viandra – whose title, says Lars, is derived from Vi=We and Andra=Others – is Hollmer’s 12th solo album and his first to be released in the USA, by Cuneiform. It may well be the most ‘accessible’ of Hollmer’s solo recordings to date – especially in physical terms, through global release and distribution. Composed between 2001 and 2007, Viandra chronicles solo work that Hollmer felt compelled to create during one of his career’s most active periods of international artistic collaboration, and one of the most eventful periods in his personal life. As such, it is a uniquely personal and contemplative work. Speaking of Viandra, Hollmer notes that: “My music has always been a mirror of my life…and this time more than ever, I believe.” Recorded at the Chickenhouse – the Uppsala studio where Hollmer’s artistic soul comes home to roost – Viandra features Hollmer on a myriad of instruments (accordion, various keyboards, harmonium, glockenspiel and more), playing with some of his most beloved collaborators, including long-time associate (and Univers Zero member) Michel Berckmans on bassoon, oboe and French horn, and Santiago Jimenez on violin. The music is pure Lars Hollmer: defying convention while paying homage to the past, Viandra transcends modern musical genres to transport the listener on a journey through the heart of humanity, on the wings of a Nordic soul.
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WADADA LEO SMITH’S GOLDEN QUARTET *TABLIGH* (Cuneiform Rune 270)
FILE UNDER: JAZZ / IMPROVISATION
“…one of the most poetically concise improvisors in American music. … He describes his state of mind when he’s improvising in almost mystic terms, and in fact there’s probably little distinction between music and spirituality in Smith’s mind.” – Coda
Lauded as “one of the most vital musicians on the planet” by Coda, Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most visionary, boldly original and artistically important figures in contemporary American jazz and free music, and one of the greatest trumpet players of all time. As a composer, improvisor, performer, music theorist/writer and educator, Smith has devoted a lifetime to navigating the emotional heart, spiritual soul, social significance and physical structure of jazz – both free and composed – and world music to create new music of infinite possibility and nuance. Since the 1960s, when Smith became a founding member of AACM and debuted as a composer on Anthony Braxton’s 1968 *Three Compositions of New Jazz*, he has released nearly 30 albums under either his own name or his bands’ on ECM, Moers, Black Saint and other labels, including numerous releases on his own Kabell label in the ‘70s-‘80s and on Tzadik, Pi Recordings and Cuneiform (Yo Miles!) in the ‘90s and 2000s. IN 2004, Tzadik released a highly acclaimed boxed set of his early work, called *The Kabell Years 1971-79*. In 2005, Smith’s music was spot-lit as the subject of a three-day Creative Music Festival held at RedCat in Los Angeles. The crowning highlight of that festival, headlining on November 19, was a concert by Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quartet, a musical project especially dear to his heart.
This CD, Tabligh, the first release by Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quartet on Cuneiform, was taped live at the November 19th 2005 concert. The third CD by the Quartet, it is the first one to feature the group’s new acoustic-electric lineup: WADADA LEO SMITH on trumpet, VIJAR IYER on piano, Fender Rhodes and synthesizer, JOHN LINDBERG on bass, and SHANNON JACKSON on drums. Smith had brought these gifted composers/improvisers/performers together in 2004, and in the spring 2005 they did an extensive European tour. Their world premiere at the Banlieues Blues Festival was filmed for *Eclipse*, a DVD documentary recently released by La Huit Productions. In contrast with the DVD, which features the same lineup, this CD features the Quartet performing on its home turf, after it had spent time touring together. On Tabligh, the musicians converse like old friends, speaking Smith’s musical language with ease and performing four of his compositions. The music on the *Tabligh* CD is both riveting and reverent, offering breathtaking vistas across and interpretations of a jazz landscape that encompasses sound as well as silence, abstraction as well as grooves. In both its form and its content, the music on Tabligh is one of the purest expressions of Smith’s creative ideals.
This year, WADADA LEO SMITH’S GOLDEN QUARTET – with IYER–piano, LINDBERG–bass, and Art Ensemble of Chicago member FAMOUDOU DON MOYE–drums (the lineup of *Tabligh* except for the drummer) – will play on the main stage June 13, 2008 at the Vision Festival XIII in NYC – THE premier festival for improvised music in the USA.
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COSMOLOGIC: EYES IN THE BACK OF MY HEAD (Cuneiform Rune 263)
FILE UNDER: JAZZ / IMPROVISATION / FREE JAZZ
“With motivated and talented young musicians of this calibre, there’s no doubt that jazz can be a creative force. Long gone are the days when things West Coast were considered pallid in relation to anything East Coast, and for any of the doubters out there, here’s the proof positive.” – Marc Chenard, Coda Magazine
Based in the San Diego area, the group Cosmologic traverses the broad terrain of creative jazz and improvised music, integrating high-energy playing, intense introspection, rich grooves, open textures, and collective alchemy. Central to the group’s sound is a shared commitment to developing organic, original pieces that incorporate both composition and improvisation, and an ongoing pursuit of new ideas. While profoundly dedicated to improvisation, Cosmologic also performs complex, structured pieces that are composed by an individual member and then transformed through extensive group work. This process often leads the quartet into complex musical landscapes, while drawing on the individual strengths of each member.
Cosmologic was founded as a composers’ and improvisors’ collective in 1999, and still consists of the original four musicians: JASON ROBINSON (reeds) and NATHAN HUBBARD (percussion), MICHAEL DESSEN (trombone), and SCOTT WALTON (bass & piano). Cosmologic’s new CD, *Eyes in the Back of My Head*, is the band’s 4th album and first release on Cuneiform. A studio recording made in December 2006 and containing 8 tracks, the CD features compositions contributed by each of the members and improvisation contributed by all. Featuring some of the most creative, vibrant creative modern jazz produced today, *Eyes in the Back of My Head* both celebrates the band’s past decade of existence, and points towards a shining future for this group.
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REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE *FORKED TONGUE* (Cuneiform Rune 269)
FILE UNDER: JAZZ
“Musical innovator Ken Field…[drags] the brass band into the 21st century.” – Seth Rogovoy, Berkshire Eagle
Dressed a la Mardi Gras in feathered masks and multi-colored, sequined costumes, playing music that riotously combines the rhythms of New Orleans brass bands with improvisation and heaping undercurrents of funk, the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble inhabits that rare musical planet on which Sun Ra, James Brown, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic and a myriad of New Orleans marching bands jointly reside. Based physically in Boston since forming in 1990, the horn and percussion-based group is led by saxophonist/composer Ken Field, who describes it as “a funk and street beat brass band, playing New Orleans and other modern improvised celebratory styles.” The Snakes’ music is rooted in the New Orleans tradition of jazz funerals – a tradition unique to the birthplace of jazz – which began with a ‘first line’ procession to the burial ground, a brass band playing hymns in a funeral dirge. Afterwards, there was a celebration of the deceased’s life, with a ‘second line’ of musicians playing up-tempo music celebrating the miracle of life. Playing Field’s original compositions and rearrangements of traditional tunes, opening up new avenues for improvisation, the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble celebrates, expands, and transforms the brass band tradition – a tradition, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, that is now in diaspora.
The Revolutionary Snake Ensemble’s 2nd release, Forked Tongue, is their first release on Cuneiform. In the New Orleans brass band tradition, Forked Tongue opens with a New Orleans’ funeral dirge, “Just a Closer Walk”, before exploring more upbeat fare. Containing a total of 12 tunes, the disc showcases a wide range of the Snakes’ repertoire. It includes unique arrangements of traditional New Orleans marching music and spirituals and of music by such diverse songwriters as William Broad (aka Billy Idol), Ornette Colemen (this may be the first disc ever to feature both Idol and Coleman!), Norman Span, and Jay Livingston & Ray Evans, as well as original material by Field. The album features Field on alto sax, whistles and percussion; Andrew Hickman on tenor saxophone, Jon Fraser on trumpet, Lennie Peterson on trombone, Kimon Kirk on acoustic bass, and on drums and percussion, both Erik Paull and Phil Neighbors (who also contributes electric bass). Guest musicians include vocalist Gabrielle Agachicko performing Field’s stunning minor key arrangement of the traditional classic “Down By the Riverside.” Other guests include Karen Aqua (djembe, tambourine), Andy Pinkham (electric bass), and Jesse Williams (bass). Recorded in 2006 at Boston’s Mortal Music Studios with engineer/owner Andy Pinkham, it was remixed by Minneapolis’ Balanced Productions and mastered in Los Angeles by Bob Demaa.
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WINTER RELEASES: (if you’ve not already received the WINTER CDs you requested, they will be sent together with the SPRING releases)
THE BROTHERHOOD OF BREATH – *ECLIPSE AT DAWN* – CD (Rune 262)
FILE UNDER: JAZZ
Featured musicians: Chris McGregor (piano), Louis Moholo (drums), Harry Miller (double bass), Harry Beckett (trumpet), Mark Charig (trumpet), Nick Evans (trombone), Malcolm Griffiths (trombone), Dudu Pukwana (alto sax), Mike Osborne (alto sax), Alan Skidmore (tenor sax), Gary Windo (tenor sax)
In an era not known for its jazz big bands – the 1970s – the Brotherhood of Breath emerged from adversity and did the impossible. Based in London and led by white South African Chris McGregor, the Brotherhood made music that both swung in the big band tradition of Duke Ellington and Count Basie from days long past, and sqwonked in shared spirit with the new avant jazz improvising groups like the Globe Unity Orchestra – all at the same time, in a single tune. Fueling and firing it all were the rhythms of kwela, high life and other traditional African musics from the core band members’ youth. The result – joyous and jubilant, sounding like no one else – was not merely a breath of fresh air for British jazz, but a revelation. As *All About Jazz* notes: “…it can be argued that it was the arrival of the Blue Notes…and their eventual metamorphosis into the core of the Brotherhood that rescued British jazz and gave many young players…a forum to make their mark….” While now cultural fusion is the norm in popular music and audience crossover a mainstream goal in the music industry, McGregor’s work with The Brotherhood of Breath and its predecessor, The Blue Notes, a racially-mixed band based in South Africa, was groundbreaking politically, socially, and musically in its time. Cuneiform Record’s newest release by Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, *ECLIPSE AT DAWN*, continues the label’s efforts to introduce the Brotherhood’s music to a new generation of fans. Cuneiform’s releases have sparked a renaissance of interest in the vibrant jazz scene surrounding the South African expatriate musicians in London in the ‘60s-70s – a scene whose roots lay in the adversity of Apartheid.
The Brotherhood made only a handful of recordings during their lifetime. In the 2000s, to augment the Brotherhood’s scarce (and mostly out of print) recorded output and reawaken interest in the band, Cuneiform began to release previously unreleased live recordings of Brotherhood concerts. Cuneiform Record’s newest release by Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, *ECLIPSE AT DAWN*, features a previously unreleased live recording of the Brotherhood’s performance at the Berliner Philharmonie on November 4, 1971 as part of the Berliner Jazztage Festival. The CD is accompanied by a 16-page booklet containing liner notes by Marcello Carlin and historical photos of the band, taken by Roberto Masotti at the actual Berliner Jazztage Festival concert. *ECLIPSE AT DAWN* is essential listening for anyone interested in: jazz big bands, 1970s and 1980s jazz, world music, jazz & world-music fusions, the anti-apartheid movement and the African diaspora, and British jazz.
Press commentary on Cuneiform’s past Brotherhood of Breath releases:
“…a new Brotherhood of Breath live CD reminds us of what a wild party they were – and a smack in apartheid’s face. … This stuff is raw and unfiltered. It is as potent as backwoods moonshine. And it is beyond indispensable.” – Ken Egbert, *Tone Clusters*
“Theirs is a story that should be known by heart by all those claiming a scholarly interest in jazz, as it exemplifies that pain and grace that give voice to the music. For those who don’t know their story, take this disc to the woodshed.” – Bill Shoemaker, *Jazz Times*
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BEAT CIRCUS – *DREAMLAND* – CD (Rune 264)
FILE UNDER: ROCK / POST-ROCK / POST CABARET / NEW WEIRD AMERICANA
Produced by Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Swans, The Dresden Dolls, Barbez), Beat Circus’ *DREAMLAND* is an astonishing CD: a dark American epic, cinematic in its scope. It is the first part in a Weird American Gothic trilogy of song cycles written by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brian Carpenter, the leader of Beat Circus – a band aligned with Boston’s internationally recognized post-cabaret music scene (The Dresden Dolls, Reverend Glasseye and HUMANWINE). The *DREAMLAND* song cycle is based on historical fact – real people and events in the turn of the century Coney Island amusement park of the same name – interwoven with Carpenter’s fictional tale of an impoverished, alcoholic gold miner who makes a pact with the devil before fleeing eastward to work in Dreamland’s sideshows. In Carpenter’s own words: “…tis a tale of dreams and nightmares, the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, responsibility and consequence.” To bring his historical fiction to life, Carpenter created a 150 page musical score that blends Vaudeville, cabaret, parlor songs and other old-time, pre-jazz American popular musical forms with modern composition and post-rock. The resulting music is a surreal new-folk Americana, resounding and brutal in musical and emotional power. Blurring the lines between past and present, fact and fiction, nightmares and the American Dream, Beat Circus’ *DREAMLAND* exists in a perverse and magical netherworld, where reality shifts like sand on Coney Island’s shore.
Beat Circus’ *DREAMLAND* CD is filled with unforgettable melodies and dark, gripping narratives. Outside of the music, the *DREAMLAND* CD is, as a physical package, a gorgeous object in and of itself, beautifully designed and lovingly researched and assembled. It contains a 12-page, full-color booklet that provides song titles, musician credits and lyrics (where applicable) for each track, gorgeously laid out by Dave Bias amidst original artwork and historical photos whose visuals expand and augment the meaning and mood of each song. The original cover art was created by Brian Dewan, a NY-based multimedia artist/musician/filmmaker. The gorgeous visuals supplied by Bias and Dewan augment the meaning and mood of the music on *DREAMLAND*, and serve to further blur the line between historical fact and artistic fiction behind the Dreamland tale.
*DREAMLAND* is Beat Circus’ second release, and its first recording on Cuneiform. Reviewing the band’s debut, *All About Jazz* noted: “Their narrative songs evoke cabaret, Wild West saloons, circus sideshows, and Old World gypsies…but the prodigious musicianship and stylistic miscegenation is all modern; the results, refreshingly entertaining.” Beat Circus would likely please fans of Tom Waits, Carla Bley, Nick Cave, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Kurt Weill, Bernard Herman and Danny Elfman.
Beat Circus will tour the East Coast USA in February.
Featured musicians on *DREAMLAND* include: Steven Berson (cello), Holly Brewer (vocals), Brian Carpenter (vocals, harmonica, harmonium, toy piano, drums, trumpet, slide trumpet, tambourine, Mellotron, outside talker, stomping), Ron Caswell (tuba), Brian Dewan (electric zither; also did cover illustrator), Frank Difficult (electronics), DJ Hazard (chain gang, outside talker), Orion Rigel Dommisse (vocals), Curtis Hasselbring (trombone), Michael Hearst (theremin) [One Ring Zero], Käthe Hostetter (violin), Chris Jenkins (viola), Julia Kent (cello), Briggan Krauss (alto & baritone saxophones), Matt McLaren (drums, washboard, percussion/stomping), M. McNiss (chorus vocals, chain gang, outside talker). Alec K. Redfearn (accordion, jaw harp, stomping), Todd Robbins (piano) ragtime pianist & sideshow historian: Exec. Director of Coney Island USA & star of www.americancarny.com], Brandon Seabrook (banjo, mandolin), Sxip Shirey (bells, extended pennywhistle) multi-instrumentalist, Jesse Sparhawk (harp), Helen Yee (violin).
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MATS/MORGAN BAND – *HEAT BEATS LIVE* + *TOURBOOK 1991-2007* by MORGAN AGREN
CD+DVD (Rune 265-266)
FILE UNDER: ROCK / JAZZ-ROCK / FUSION
Singled out by iconoclastic genius Frank Zappa while youthful prodigies and invited to join Zappa’s touring band before his death, the Swedish musicians Mats Öberg (keyboards) and Morgan Ågren (drums) remain today one of the longest-running (over 25 years!!) and most musically successful collaborations in the universe of fusion and progressive rock. Their Mats/Morgan Band has released eight albums and played countless festivals and concerts, and the two have also played and recorded with other bands, including appearing on a Grammy Award winning 1994 release by Zappa’s Universe. In addition, both have successful independent careers; among other projects, Mats recently released a solo recording and a CD with his band G.U.B.B.. Concurrently, regarded as “Sweden’s top drummer” [Sabian Cymbals], Morgan has played with Roine Stolt’s group Kaipa, Fredrik Thordendal (guitarist for Meshuggah), Simon Steensland, Artis the Spoonman, Glen Hughes, Terry Bozzio, Mike Keneally, Dennis Walley, his own brother, guitarist Jimmy Ågren, the electrified string group Fleshquartet, and many others. Mats and Morgan’s latest collaborative release, *HEAT BEATS LIVE*, a double-disc set from Cuneiform, showcases the matured promise that Zappa saw in the Swedish wunderkinds decades before.
This new double-disc Cuneiform release contains *HEAT BEATS LIVE*, a CD featuring recent live recordings by the Mats/Morgan Band at Stockholm’s Club Fasching in May 2005 and April 2007, and in France at Le Triton, a club near Paris, in Sept. 2007. Besides Mats and Morgan, the live CD features performances by Tommy Tordsson (bass), Simon Steensland (baritone horn), Erik Steinberg (tenor sax), Martin Steinberg (alto sax), Jimmy Ågren (guitar), and Robert Elovsson (keyboards). Morgan has said in interviews that “Mats/Morgan is first of all a live band,”and *Expose* has noted that “the two most striking things when seeing them live is that keyboardist Mats Öberg, who is blind, plays like a monster, and that drummer Morgan Agren is a beast. …they are a fusion-ish instrumental band of almost impossible virtuosity and a palatable sense of fun.” *HEAT BEAT LIVE* shows the Mats/Morgan Band hot and grooving at its fiery, chopfest best. The Mats/Morgan Band would be of interest for fans of Allan Holdsworth, King Crimson, National Health, Return To Forever, Stevie Wonder and Frank Zappa.
The Cuneiform release also includes the first-ever DVD released by either of the band’s leaders, titled TOURBOOK 1991-2007, which features live and studio video footage of Morgan Ågren. *TOURBOOK 1991-2007* is a drum extravaganza: a 16-year overview of Morgan’s work. Containing nearly two hours of music in 65 tracks, it features Morgan playing both solo and with his “favorite musicians”, including the Christer Karlberg Trio, Frederick Thordendal, Fleshquartet, Simon Steensland, P. Tjernberg, Jannis Eliasson Band, and playing Beefheart and Magma tributes. Most notably, the DVD features Morgan playing with the Mats/Morgan Band on numerous tracks – these are the first-ever DVD recordings released of that band.
Mutually pleased with their collaboration on *THANKS FOR FLYING WITH US* (their first release on Cuneiform) and *HEAT BEATS LIVE*, Mats and Morgan and Cuneiform Records recently signed a deal for Cuneiform to reissue, with bonus material, Mats and Morgan’s first six recordings, originally available only in Sweden. Limited promo copies of Cuneiform’s Mats & Morgan reissues will be available to the press on special request. The first of these reissues is now available:
Also available this month: MATS/MORGAN BAND *TRENDS AND OTHER DISEASES* – CD (Rune 267) – CUNEIFORM reissue
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PLANETA IMAGINARIO – *BIOMASA* – CD (Rune 268)
FILE UNDER: ROCK / JAZZ ROCK / FUSION
Biomasa features the octet of bandleader Marc Capel Nadal (keyboards), Vasco Miguel Trilla Gomes dos santos (drums), Josep “Manre” Manresa Zafra (fretless bass), Eneko Alberdi Laskurain (guitar), and a four-piece wind section that includes The-Hien Trinh (trombone), Herman “Mehl” Baureker (alto sax), Rafa Gómez López (tenor saxophone), and Guillermo Villa Vald´s (trumpet, flugelhorn).
The band Planeta Imaginario (Imaginary Planet) is an extraordinary eight piece Spanish jazz-rock/fusion group that plays creative, genre bending electric fusions. Founded in Barcelona in 1999, the band is named after a radically creative children’s TV show from the early 1980s. In its music, Planeta Imaginario takes listeners on a magical, sonic journey to a musical Utopia, touching like a time capsule on three decades of jazz and rock and creating unique, new musical fusions of psychedelia and progressive rock. On *BIOMASA*, Planeta Imaginario blends geographically and temporally disparate musical influences, from the English Canterbury School (National Health, Gilgamesh, Hatfield and the North) of progressive rock, Chick Corea’s Spanish fusions, American guitar rock (a la The Allman Brothers Band), West African and Mediterranean rhythms into a fantastically creative, imaginative, evocative and uplifting musical brew.
A studio recording, *BIOMASA* is Planeta Imaginario’s second album and its first release outside Spain, on Cuneiform. More mature and elaborate than the band’s previous compositions, *BIOMASA*’s songs include a world of musical references – everything from A to Z, Allman Brothers to Zappa, and influences from continents ranging from Africa to North America, Europe and beyond. Fans of instrumental music (especially various fusions, jazz-rock, progressive rock and related musics) are encouraged to explore the work of this remarkable Spanish band, whose music should appeal to listeners of such diverse artists as: Anekdoten, AKA moon, Area, John Coltrane, Chick Corea, King Crimson, Avishai Cohen, Steve Coleman, Deus ex Machina, Gabriel Faure, Gilgamesh, Hatfield at the North, Pat Metheny, Nucleus, Soft Machine, Van der Graaf Generator, Frederic Mompou, National Health, Weather Report, Kenny Werner, Frank Zappa, and John Zorn.
Eurock: “If complex music is your thing, then this instrumental octet…will have your head spinning. Powerhouse fusion guitar is blended with symphonic keyboards and [a] wind section into a fusion of powerful arrangements and soaring solos…”
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CUNEIFORM RECORDS OFFICE NOTES AND NEWS – May 2008
— Don’t forget to regularly check out our online calendar:
Visit www.cuneiformrecords.com/tours.html and scroll to the bottom of the page to see tour dates listed in calendar format! You can click on a specific show to view show details and find links to pertinent information about that show. (This new calendar format supplements the listings-by-band format of shows on our webpage.)
— We are pleased to announce that Wayside and Cuneiform have hired a part-time employee to help both businesses. Jason Crawford is a student in graphic design at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland. He is currently doing lot of work with the Wayside staff, as well as helping me and Javier with the promo shipping, and with scanning and various other essential office tasks.
— Our promo department is still in transition, as Javier and I continue to adjust our activities to compensate for the staff reduction that occurred at the end of 2007. Please continue to be patient with us. With a smaller promo staff, any small disruption in-house has a large impact on the outside. My getting the flu for multiple weeks in Jan-Feb-March did not help my promo shipping.
Because of this on-going readjustment, our WINTER 2008 NEW RELEASES were not shipped to several countries outside North America on schedule. Please accept my apologies. Those countries will be FIRST in my mailing priority for our JANUARY/FEB 2008 NEW RELEASES, and will receive BOTH the WINTER 2008 and SPRING / MAY 2008 releases together/ at the same time.
— Because of the delay in shipping our Winter promos, several major changes have been instituted. Beginning with the FALL 2008 releases, I will no longer be writing the extensive artist bios/ researching the background information that usually accompanies our new releases. The time dedicated to that will instead be spent shipping and handling promo correspondence. Thus far, several journalists have told me that they would indeed prefer to get their promos faster, closer to the release date, instead of getting supplemental info that they may already know.
— In addition, eventually, we will institute a new system that will enable us to ship promos in the order of need or date requested. The system is semi-automated/ semi-manual – and thus will take a bit of time to activate…
Currently, we ship promos alphabetically within each country. I choose the order of country by need – ie what country has the most concerts by our artists that month. But within each country, unless i get an URGENT request, I ship alphabetically. Since I have a large contact list (2,000-but only a fraction get CDs), and it’s a long alphabet and a big planet, the shipping takes some time… Regarding North American radio, all of those CDs are shipped out by Javier.
— Recently, several people have mentioned that they get Cuneiform’s new releases quicker when they purchase them from Wayside Music, than when they request promo CDs from me. Their observations are correct. Wayside has staff members whose job is to receive orders, and immediately ship out those CDs. They charge for the CDs and for the postage.
Cuneiform’s promotion department does world-wide promotion for approx 270 CDs (this includes our back-catalogue) and for the artists who created them, with a pronounced emphasis on the 5 new CDs that come out 3 times a year. We ship the promo CDs free of charge – we do not charge journalists or radio for the CDs, or for the postage to ship them. In addition, Cuneiform does not charge its artists for our promo work: it does not charge for the promo cds that we send out, for the postage we use, or for our labor and time. This is a service that Cuneiform provides to its artists.
If you want CDs fast, and you want free promos (instead of purchasing them from Wayside), we will ship out quickly IF we get an URGENT request from the press. Otherwise, we ship ASAP – As Soon As *Possible* – which is not the same as shipping immediately.
— Please note my preferred Cuneiform email address: joyce@cuneiformrecords.com
I’ve discovered that yahoo.com will NOT ACCEPT some of the emails that I send to yahoo email holders. However, weirdly enough, I can read anything that comes from yahoo.com. IF you’ve written to me using a yahoo.com address, and you have asked me to respond ASAP but have not heard back from me, please send me an alternate email address that I can use to contact you.
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CUNEIFORM RECORDS ARTIST NEWS MAY 2008
The Artist News is compiled by Javier, at javier@cuneiformrecords.com
In the attached Artist News section, you will find:
A. Information on May 2008 new releases (pg. 2)
B. Artists’ News January 2008 (pg. 5)
(The following artists submitted news on upcoming activities, events, and things to look forward to in the months ahead: Ahleuchatistas, Beat Circus, Gregg Bendian (The Mahavishnu Project), Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Cosmologic, Doctor Nerve / Nick Didkovsky, Paul Dunmall, Guapo, Hamster Theatre, Hugh Hopper, Mats/Morgan Band, The Microscopic Septet, Phil Miller’s In Cahoots / Peter Lemer, The Ed Palermo Big Band, Picchio dal Pozzo, Richard Pinhas, Planeta Imaginario, Radio Massacre International, Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, Roswell Rudd, Wadada Leo Smith, Thinking Plague, University of Errors, Univers Zero & Yang)
C. Tour Dates (pg. 15)
D. Cuneiform Artists’ Homepages Listing (pg. 18)
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Thank you for your interest in adventurous music.
cuneiform records
www.cuneiformrecords.com
“You go your own way, and – eventually – people will catch up to you.”
– Thelonious Monk, as quoted by Steve Lacy
[Coda]
