Charles, Barnacled's new full-length, and first outing for ESP-Disk', is a rollicking, propulsive offering featuring the band in some of its most intricate formations. This deftly arranged record follows Barnacled as it tightens itself into high corners, only to purposely fall down, find new ground, and pick itself back up again. This work is highly playful, even at its most intense—and it does get intense, with saxophone battles surging over electronics and highly distorted accordion fire offerings. Then all of a sudden the sound drops out, save for a plaintive lone bassoon call, or static from a short-wave radio that sounds soothing by comparison. Intertwining rhythms and melody lines then revolve around a pulse that creates a new frame of reference while also complicating it. This music invites deep listening, and rewards the curious. Often it is simply mesmerizing—essentially what adventurous minds have come to expect from the legendary ESP-Disk' oeuvre.

Personnel

Frank Difficult: electronics/keyboard
Michael Jeffries: bass/baritone saxophone/modified Speak & Spell
Jason McGill: alto saxophone/percussion/shortwave radio
Matt McLaren: drums/percussion
Alec K. Redfearn: accordion
Ann Schattle: horn in F
Erica Schattle: bassoon 

Track Listing

All Songs (Lindlism ASCAP).

Credits

Produced by Barnacled. Mixed by Barnacled and John Jacobson. Recorded by John Jacobson at Sound Station Seven, Providence, Rhode Island. Cover Photo by Paul James, band Photos by Allison Mowrer, other Photos by Jason McGill. Production Manager: Tom Abbs. Tape Transfer & Mastering by Steven Walcott. Design & Layout by Miles Bachman and Fumi Tomita.

Press Quotes

"...the impressive musicianship and consistently fearless choices made by Barnacled turns this album into one of the more intriguing and enlivening modern-day fusions of recent memory, and perhaps for all time." 
- Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide

"Barnacled's music is like taking the phrase "square is the new cool" one step further. They recycle some of the older, simpler, or baroque kinds of music into something that's miles ahead of everyone else." - Pico, Blogscritics

"The music Barnacled makes is fun, free-form hilarity." - Sam Adams, Philadelphia Enquirer

MUSICIANS: FRANK DIFFICULT / MICHAEL JEFFRIES / JASON MCGILL / MATT MCLAREN / ALEC K. REDFEARN / ANN SCHATTLE / ERICA SCHATTLE

Rejuvenation is the first studio recording from Flow Trio, a powerful tenor sax/bass/drums trio in the tradition of 60s free jazz with an up-to-the-minute sense of universal awareness. Flow Trio consists of tenor saxophonist Louie Belogenis, bassist Joe Morris and drummer Charles Downs (Rashid Bakr), all well known in many and varied groups and recordings. Their combined energies create innovative and contemporary improvisation informed by everything from Albert Ayler to Olivier Messiaen.

Personnel

Louie Belogenis: tenor sax
Joe Morris: bass
Charles Downs: drums


Track Listing

All tracks by Belogenis/Morris/Downs except Track 1 by Belogenis (Boundless Music BMI)

Credits

Recorded on October 4, 2008 at Context Studios, Brooklyn, NY. 
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Steven Walcott. 
Production manager: Tom Abbs. 
Design & Layout: Miles Bachman & Fumi Tomita
Artwork and photography by M.P. Landis

Press Quotes

"[Louie Belogenis] tracks a direct lineage dating back to free jazz forefathers like Coltrane and Ayler, illustrating the cyclic replenishing nature of the tradition." - Derek Taylor

"[Joe Morris is] one of the most profound improvisers at work in the U.S." - Will Montgomery,The Wire

MUSICIANS: LOUIE BELOGENIS / JOE MORRIS / CHARLES DOWNS

Recorded 8/8/08 in Portland, OR, The Naked Future is a quartet of four drunken wizards conjuring up a heady brew.  Their diverse backgrounds – from the classical, rock and experimental realms – forge a release modernist in its construction with more than a pinch of old time alchemy.  ESP is proud to welcome them to its circle with their first CD release, Gigantomachia.

                  
After several solo albums and many shared projects pianist Thollem McDonas lays the unrelenting line on which futures can be built.

Delirious percussion is provided by John Niekrasz, a drummer and composer from Chicago. He is a disciple of Indian tabla master Pandit Lachu Maharaj and performs with Ecstatic Peace recording artists Poor School, syllabic-structuralists Why I Must Be Careful, and tight improv trio Thicket. He has collaborated and performed with such artists as John Wiese, Wally Shoup, John Gruntfest, and Doug Theriault.

Greg Skloff's "powertool" school of bass-fiddling is well refined, having graduated from such diverse groups as cloaca clock, Captain's Daughter, Thunder! Thunder! Thunder! and Counterfeit Monsters.

From his first solo works on Pine Cone Alley, his continuous work with the Old Time Relijun and solo work on K Records, Arrington de Dionyso has followed a trajectory to land him here, squarely in the Naked Future, handling the duties of conductor and bass clarinet.

Personnel

Arrington de Dionyso: bass clarinet, contralto clarinet
Thollem McDonas: piano
John Niekrasz: drums
Greg Skloff: bass

Track Listing

All compositions Pine Cone Alley (ASCAP)

Credits

Recorded and mixed by Nicholas Taplin at the Silo, Portland, Oregon on 8/8/08
All pieces recorded as improvised by The Naked Future according to the conceptual direction of Arrington de Dionyso

Producton Manager: Tom Abbs
Mastered by Douglas McGregor
Artwork by Arrington de Dionyso
Band photo by Lucy Greene
Design & layout by Miles Bachman & Fumi Tomita
Spcial thanks to Robert M. Keefe

Press Quotes

Whether it's Tuvan throat singing, the bass clarinet, or yet-unnamed homemade instruments—which all share familiar deep drones and free-jazz runs—Dionyso is consistently and ferociously breathing out. "It's a step away from hyperventilating," he says. "It's a very lucid, aware kind of space." The exertion becomes trance-like. - Andrew R. Tonry  (The Portland Mrcury)

And his (Thollem McDonas) music cannot be categorized. He could easily be the next underground indie-folk star or the next hip jazz experimenter. But fortunately for McDonas, none of that matters. The work he produces is varied and original; his influences are incredibly disparate. One minute he is running through a Tom Waits sounding piano and vocal piece. The next minute drops into a grooving samba tune. And best part is that through all these styles, McDonas manages to keep an almost entirely original voice.
 - Ryan McDermott (One Final Note)

Thollem McDonas, a fresh, disciplined avant-pianist with classical chops and an attractively extreme viewpoint. - Greg Burk (LA Weekly)

MUSICIANS: ARRINGTON DE DIONYSO / THOLLEM MCDONAS / JOHN NIEKRASZ / GREG SKLOFF

In 1964, Sun Ra asked the young tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders to join him, while Arkestra mainstay John Gilmore was busy working with Paul Bley, Andrew Hill, and Art Blakey. Before the recording's original release in 1976, Sun Ra stated: "It should be very interesting to the world to show what the pre-Coltrane Pharoah Sanders was like."  Also appearing on "Featuring Pharoah Sanders & Black Harold" is the little-heard flautist, Black Harold (Harold Murray), who takes the lead on the track "The Voice of Pan," continuing into "Dawn over Israel." Bassist Alan Silva (ESP  1091) also does some fine bass work on the release. 

"Featuring Pharoah Sanders & Black Harold" is notable not only for its unique lineup, but also for the first known recording of the composition "The Shadow World," here titled "The World Shadow," which was featured on later Arkestra  albums. This release contains an additional 45 minutes and 36 seconds of unreleased material.

Personnel

Sun Ra: keyboards
Art Jenkins: space vocals
Pharoah Sanders: tenor
Black Harold: flute & percussion
Marshall Allen: alto saxophone
Danny Davis: alto saxophone
Pat Patrick: baritone
Chris Capers: trumpet
Al Evans: trumpet, flugelhorn
Teddy Nance: trombone
Bernard Pettaway: bass trombone
Robert Cummings: bass clarinet
Alan Silva: bass
Clifford Jarvis: drums 

Track Listing

Tracks 1-5 - Stereo - Previously unreleased
Tracks 6-11 - Mono - Issued as El Saturn - JHNY - 165
All compositions Enterplanetary Koncepts (BMI)

Credits

Presented by the Jazz Composers Guild's Four Days In December
Recorded at Judson Hall, New York on December 31, 1964
Photo by Raymond Ross

Music research and compilation by Michael D. Anderson
Production Manager: Tom Abbs
Digital remastering by Douglas McGregor
Design & layout by Miles Bachman & Fumi Tomita

Press Quotes

"This album is a curiosity not just because of the presence of Pharoah Sanders, but because of the absence of John Gilmore...After a noisy intro, Alan Silva does some nice arco playing before Sun Ra sets a piano vamp for the horns. There's tons of percussion and some great space voice courtesy of Art Jenkins, and they slip briefly into "Rocket Number Nine." "The Voice of Pan" is a feature for Black Harold where he is either doing a Rahsaan Roland Kirk thing on flute or in a serious mind meld with Art Jenkins' space voice. Either way, it's pretty wild...." - Sean Westergaard

MUSICIANS: SUN RA / ART JENKINS / PHAROAH SANDERS / BLACK HAROLD / MARSHALL ALLEN / DANNY DAVIS / PAT PATRICK / CHRIS CAPERS / AL EVANS / TEDDY NANCE / BERNARD PETTAWAY / ROBERT CUMMINGS / ALAN SILVA / CLIFFORD JARVIS

All songs/words by Talibam! (Talibam Music BMI)

The Brooklyn duo Talibam!’s first ESP Disk’ release, Boogie in the Breeze Rocks, is a narrative earful as warped and wonderful as spicy pasta, fresh grapes and caramel crunch.  An ensemble record joining 2008’s Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute winner, Jon Irabagon (tenor sax); Peter Evans of Sparks (trumpet); guitarists Chris Forsyth from Peeesseye, Anders Nilson and Chin Chin’s Jeremy Wilms; along with Mostly Other People Do the Killing’s Moppa Elliot on upright bass; all filtered through Talibam! to make music of one voice and cohesion.  It is ensemble playing that goes beyond personal choice to capture a mood and the deep anthropology of the strange beauty of contemporary opposing and debt-maxed-out stimuli.

In a time of pre-set, auto-massage aesthetics and formulas dampening all the peripheries into a gazillion false platonic dichotomies, Talibam! pops out a boogie-set quest of delirious energy within a montage of causes and effects, failures and successes, heroes and robber baron scumbags,...

Talibam! deconstructs the message behind the oncoming jellyfish populating the waterways, analyzes the purpose of human choice and expectations. Gems of pop nonchalance tug and pull against a break down of musical morality. The international attention span crisis obliterated within the borders of a single album statement - a moral reckoning against slack albums with the same bland back beat and fuzz tone on every tune.

BOOGIE IN THE BREEZE BLOCKS captures a mood and filmic capacity to create an anthropological exploration into the strange beauty of contemporary opposing and debt maxed out stimuli. In New York City, these forces exist everywhere; punjabi cab driver food across the street from luxury loft condo scum. Talibam! wants to re-mythicize this world with an album that explores a range of emotions, genre, feel, time and space. BOOGIE IN THE BREEZE BLOCKS is a record beyond the greed of deliberate, singular aesthetic commitments. We know you aren't a stupid listener... as we ride the blues, into a chafed reggae, to polka, noise onslaught, sweetened afro pop, the epiphanies arise from effacing styles of their precious natural habitats. The stylistic adventures organize themselves into motion without remembering their initial meaning. Music has become a desert of unfortunate desolation -- single whole albums too dedicated to the sweet pop, or the groove, or the rap... the sweet and salty have over saturated the soil of the musical landscape, to the point of unfarmable, undiversified plots of historical embarrassment and destruction for future heirloom genres and approaches.

Matt Mottel (synthesizer) and Kevin Shea (drums) have been performing and recording together for six years for the sake of music, for the sake of integrating critical reevaluation into the idea of what a band and music can be. Their enthusiasm for sound and the desecration, humiliation of its conspicuous commercial applications has led to the dissolving of their own self contained borders in order to broaden their musical vocabulary and heighten stylistic shifts into an overarching manifesto on the state of music -- this critical awareness is the sum of BOOGIE IN THE BREEZE BLOCKS.

BOOGIE IN THE BREEZE BLOCKS, self produced, conceived, and edited by TALIBAM!, is an ensemble record for which Talibam! recruited the finest working musicians; ensemble playing that goes beyond personal choice and into a border that makes music of one voice and cohesion. Jon Irabagon (tenor saxophone) winner of 2008's Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute award, Peter Evans (trumpet) plays with Brotzmann, Bennink, Jim Black and leads his own quartet, and duo SPARKS. To hear Evans play with Talibam!'s energy and electro magneticism is a crucial addition to his growing discography. The guitarists on this album are bronze blasted tone. Chris Forsyth (PEEESSEYE) and Anders Nilson are guitar slingers who warp tone with both free basing noise tonality and melodic harmony. Jeremy Wilms, also on guitar, is celebrating his own band Chin Chin's debut album on DEF JUX. Moppa Elliot (upright bass) is the distinguished leader of Mostly Other People Do the Killing whom have received numerous accolades from magazines such as Jazz Times and All About Jazz.

Talibam! is proud and excited to join forces with ESP Records, of whom Talibam! have had great admiration and respect. ESP Records has smartly recognized Talibam! as one of the few contemporary bands that fully deserves to join a catalog as rich and diverse as Albert Ayler, The FUGS, Sun Ra and the The GODZ.

Talibam! have proven themselves through tireless touring (8 European tours since 2006), released several albums of critical acclaim (Ordination of the Globe Trotting Conscripts), and collaborated with exceptional musicians such as Rhys Chatham, Jean Francois Pauvros, Alan Wilkinson, Daniel Carter, PEESSEYE, Sam Kulik and many more.

Personnel

Matthew Mottel - piano, Fender Rhodes, Mini Moog, glamor box oscillator, Roland Juno-1 Alpha synth, banjo, organ, Alesis Nano synth, voice

Kevin Shea - drums, objects, Roland SPD-S, voice

Tim Dahl - electric bass (2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11) 
Moppa Elliott - upright bass (6)
Michael Evans - percussion (4)
Peter Evans - trumpet (2, 4, 6, 11), voice (2)
Chris Forsyth - guitar, voice (2)
Jon Irabagon - saxophone (2, 4, 6)
Danielle Kuhlmann - voice (1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12)
Sam Kulik - trombone (2, 4, 6, 11), voice (2)
Robbie Lee - Renaissance instruments (4)
Anders Nilsson - electric guitar (4, 6)
Mike Pride - vocals (4)
Jeremy Wilms - electric guitar (4, 11), fretless guitar (11)
Bird field recordings from "Ornithology-Shadows" by Michael Pestel & Jeroen van Westen (11)


Track Listing

1.Predetermined to the Master Plan

2.Ghost Cloud
3.Slap Yr Boots On! Oysters Await
4.Entertaining the After Beast
5.Jim O'Rourke
6.Schroeder Meets Jagger
7.Not Just Any Kind of Fruit and Veg
8.Movement of Ta! People
9.Roosevelt Island: I Can't Do It.
10.Mao Mix
11.Nike Rim Johb
12.Herodiade
 

All songs/words by Talibam! (Talibam Music BMI)

Credits

Produced/arranged by Talibam!

Recorded & mixed by Josh Clark at The Seaside Lounge, Brooklyn
Recorded & mastered by Mitch Rackin at Tone Floast Studios, NYC
Live recordings by Jocelyn Soubiran at Zebulon Cafe Brooklyn & Joseph Frivaldi at Club Rehab NYC
Photos by Herve Goluza (cover/back) & Syeus Mottel (inside)
Producton Manager: Adam Downey
Design by Miles Bachman

Press Quotes

"...a brain-rattling demolition of the entire avant lesson plan, as those with a more academic criteria might be inclined to teach it. " - Mike Lupica, Dusted Reviews

"Ornette Coleman playing on Soft Machine's Fourth in hell... Talibam!'s brand of shitstorm skronk is grounded in more intelligent thought and dynamic group exchange than many of the more hyped transmissions from the contemporary American 'noise' underground." - Tiny Mix Tapes Dot Com

"Mottel is like Keith Emerson on a serious PCP bender, spitting out thick snarling sheets of synth buzz, spraying it like machine gun fire, melodies are tangled and complicated little knots hurled into the fray like cannonballs made out of steel string and roof nails. The sax is all over the place, adding tonal color, mad squawking, chittering chirps and deep fuzzy moans, this is a massive chaotic free for all." - Aquarius Records

"Gonzo jazz rock fusion at its most inspired." - Paris Transatlantic

MUSICIANS: MATTHEW MOTTEL / KEVIN SHEA / TIM DAHL / MOPPA ELLIOTT / MICHAEL EVANS / PETER EVANS / CHRIS FORSYTH / JON IRABAGON / DANIELLE KUHLMANN / SAM KULIK / ROBBIE LEE / ANDERS NILSSON / MIKE PRIDE / JEREMY WILMS / MICHAEL PESTEL / JEROEN VAN WESTEN

Joe Morris returns both to the guitar and to ESP-Disk' with the long form improvisation album 'Colorfield'. Much as the Colorfield painters simplified their compositions to evoke emotion with color, this trio emphasizes harmony, phrase, tempo and rhythm to electrifiying results. Morris has been called the preeminent American jazz guitarist of our time, and on 'Colorfield' his playing is characteristically intense, eloquent, and melodic. The ranks of the trio are filled out by two of the most talented and skillful Free Musicians on the scene today, Steve Lantner and Luther Gray. Lantner's soloing on this recording has a state-of-the-art fluidity, energy, shape and dynamic variety while Luther Gray, a master of the school of Free Music drumming, provides a constantly shifting but still driving groove that punctuates each moment with precision and invention. To see musicians of this caliber fuse their talents to create an original, dense and deeply contemplative work such as 'Colorfield' is extraordinary. As a result, the album gets better with every listen.

Personnel

Joe Morris - guitar
Steve Lantner - piano
Luther Gray - drums

Track Listing

All songs/words by Joe Morris

Press Quotes

"[Colorfield] asks more of the listener than Morris’ comparatively streamlined quartet recordings on Hatology and Aum Fidelity. But just as you’ll only perceive a painting’s subtle variations of tone and hue after extended contemplation, the closer you listen, the more Colorfield’s music deepens, expands and ultimately envelops you." - Bill Meyer, Downbeat

"One of two new recordings featuring Joe on the guitar. The new quartet date on Aum Fidelity is excellent as well. But this one, in a trio with Steve Lantner on piano and Luther Gray on drums, is a bit more wide open and gives a great opportunity to hear Joe not only solo but dig into some nice group interplay with his partners." - Pat Frisco

"One of the most profound improvisors at work in the U.S." - Will Montgomery, The Wire

"... the most exciting and original jazz plucker to emerge in the last decade" - John Corbett, Downbeat

"... a guitarist whose sound is completely his own, oscillating between deadpan sweetness and dangerous, shrapnel-like caprice." - K. Leander Williams, The Village Voice

"... he sounds like no one else." - Art Lange, The Wire

Upcoming Live Dates

Joe Morris 
June 26 @ Outpost 186 - Cambridge, Massachusetts w/ Steve Lantner Quartet
July 10 @ ESP-Disk' Albert Ayler Festival - Roosevelt Island, NY w/ Flow Trio 

Steve Lantner 
June 26 @ Outpost 186 - Cambridge, Massachusetts w/ Steve Lantner Quartet
July 24 @ Outpost 186 - Cambridge, Massachusetts solo piano
October 18 @ Outpost 186 - Cambridge, Massachusetts solo piano

Luther Gray 
June 26 @ Outpost 186 - Cambridge, Massachusetts w/ Steve Lantner Quarter
June 28 @ Outpost 186 - Cambridge, Massachusetts w/ David Maxwell Quintet

MUSICIANS: JOE MORRIS / STEVE LANTNER / LUTHER GRAY

Tsigoti is an international band combining revolutionary politics and intelligent semi-acoustic avant-punk fervor. Private Poverty Speaks to the People of the Party was recorded with a group of players that have run the gauntlet of life experience and musical explorations and you can hear it in the vitality and urgency of the music. Private Poverty Speaks to the People of the Party still holds the same raw improvisational qualities of their debut recording, The Brutal Reality of Modern Brutality (Edgetone Records). Straying from the typical notion of political commentary, Tsigoti delivers a clever, experimental, driving, AND fun accessible work of art that is true to the ESP mission: forward thinking and forever changing.

Personnel

Thollem McDonas - Beat-up Piano, Vocals 
Andy Cap - Drums, Backing Vocals 
Ben Itchy- Electric Bass, Backing Vocals 
Jack Andrews - Electric Guitar, Backing Vocals

Plus Guests Edoardo Ricci, Samuele Venturin, Francesco di Mauro, and a choir of a dozen friends.

Track Listing

Press

TSIGOTI's "The Sickofwar Train" was included in The Wire's 2010 comilation The Wire Tapper 23.

"The customary digital riddles characterizing the genius of this master pianist are all but forgotten here, for this sounds more as a semi-acoustic punk album. Beaten-up instruments, muttered vocals, rhythms and keys often disrespected; the exclusive wish is crying out loud that 'we can’t do this to ourselves anymore', as per one of the tracks titles. When we compare the fusion of these sensations to a sort of feverish pagan ritual and listen to this set with the same attitude of, say, looking at a shaman dressed like a young Joe Strummer, the honesty of intentions begins to clash (pun definitely intended) with our previous ideas pretty hard. Bizarrely frank stuff. - Massimo Ricci, TouchingExtremes, Italy

"Thollem Sickofwar revs up his beatup piano and throws down on war. The results are edgy, uneven and sometimes disquieting. All in all, a rollicking success." - J. Worley, Aiding & Abetting

video by Tuia Cherici (more)

MUSICIANS: THOLLEM MCDONAS / ANDY CAP / BEN ITCHY / JACK ANDREWS / EDOARDO RICCI / SAMUELE VENTURIN / FRANCESCO DI MAURO

Best known for his collaborations with Paul Flaherty, Michael Flower and Thurston Moore as well as a year-and-a-half stint as the drummer for Björk's Volta tour, Chris Corsano is widely considered to be one of the most adaptive drummers of his generation. Equally prolific is UK saxophone giant, Paul Dunmall, who has worked disparately with jazz greats like Alice Coltraneand Evan Parker as well as funk and folk acts like Johnny Guitar Watson and Dando Shaft. 

After a chance meeting in a taxi line at Lisbon Airport, a surreal intertwining of tours emanated. In between the lasers, confetti and face-painted fans at Plymouth Pavillions and Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Chris left the Björk mega-tour to get down to business alongside the imaginative Dunmall for some vital improvisation at Slak Bar in Cheltenham, England. 

This wonderfully recorded live set begins with Dunmall swirling away on the border pipes (he may be the preeminent improvisor using bagpipes). What follows is an impulsive and lyrical improvisation, alternatingly sparse and impossibly textured. Corsano's skittering marries perfectly with Dunmall's rapid-fire lines. The melodies are expertly uncoiled so that they remain charged whether the tempo is at full speed or crawling. The set ends furiously, leaving no doubt that this duo was fated to work together.

Personnel

Paul Dunmall : tenor saxophone, border pipes
Chris Corsano : drums

Track Listing

Press Quotes

"Chris Corsano is one of the most immensely talented drummers to have emerged from the recent past. Those who have witnessed the giganticism of his formal leaps in the jaws of post-avant-garde power surging, have been left slack w/ the wonder & hilarity of it all." – Byron Coley

"Chris is the hottest drummer on the planet" - David Keenan

"Paul Dunmall is one of the most accomplished reedists on the planet" - Jazz Weekly

"Dunmall is eclectic, capable on several instruments and full of wonder for the improvised form" -All About Jazz

MUSICIANS: PAUL DUNMALL / CHRIS CORSANO

Following up the critically acclaimed 2008 release, Stéphane Furic Leibovici and Chris Cheek return for this second volume, produced by Jim Black and featuring the alto saxophone giant Lee Konitz. An achievement in balance and taste, the resulting music is so thoughtful, intent and vibrant that it need not be forced upon you. The music unfolds for the listener in the subtlest of ways, as if the composer is challenging our very notion of what will come next. Like a mediation on color and space, you begin to let go of your assumptions and allow the harmonies and structures wash over you. The interaction of Konitz with his bandmates is a delicate dance of lyrical brilliance. Criss-crossing saxophones glide through Furics intense and wide open bass work. Furics compositions fuel extended interplay as the musicians seem to bounce from one musical theme to the next. This music is the epitome of finesse. Effortless and deep at the same time.

Personnel

Lee Konitz: alto saxophone
Chris Cheek: tenor saxophone
Stéphane Furic Leibovici: double-bass
Jim Black: glockenspiel, vibraphone, chimes
Dan Dorrance: alto flute, bass flute, piccolo
Joy Plaisted: harp
Maria Garcia: celesta
Chris Speed: clarinet

Track Listing

Press Quotes

"Double-bassist Stephane Furic Leibovici avers that he likes to be gentle with sounds and to listen to the inside of them. He is true to this philosophy on Jugendstil, where he finds solace in the quiet and the meditative; getting inspiration from classical and chamber music and using them to the full in his writing." - Jerry D’Souza

"Everything about this extraordinary album, Jugendstil, is deliberate and attains its own level of perfection." - Raul d’Gama Rose

MUSICIANS: LEE KONITZ / CHRIS CHEEK / STÉPHANE FURIC LEIBOVICI / JIM BLACK / DAN DORRANCE / JOY PLAISTED / MARIA GARCIA / CHRIS SPEED

In 1966 Bernard Stollman put together a multi-artist tour of five New York colleges and sent audio engineer David B. Jones on the road with it. When they returned, just 39 minutes of music was chosen to be released as the original Sun Ra LP Nothing Is... (ESP1045). Forty-four years later, after extensive research, Sun Ra archivist Michael D. Anderson pieced together some missing parts of the New York College Tour. Recorded on May 18th 1966 at St. Lawrence University in Potsdam, NY, this illuminating document represents the full 70-minute first set, from which Nothing Is... was taken, including an introduction by ESP artist Burton Greene. In addition, Anderson uncovered a partial second set from the same evening and some rare rehearsal footage recorded during a sound check before the concert. With over 90 minutes of additional material, this two-disc set allows a close-up look at the band's repertoire and sound over an entire evening, including the rarely performed "State Street" and alternate versions of "Theme of the Stargazers" and "The Second Stop Is Jupiter." Remastered from the original tapes and presented in superb quality, College Tour Volume One is a vivid snapshot of the mid-Sixties Ra and his intergalactic band.

Personnel

Sun Ra: piano
John Gilmore: tenor sax
Marshall Allen: alto sax
Pat Patrick: baritone sax
Robert Cummings: baritone clarinet
Teddy Nance: trombone
Ali Hassan: trombone
Clifford Jarvis: drums
Ronnie Boykins: bass, tuba
James Jackson: log drum, flute
Carl Nimrod: sun horn, gong


Track Listing

Press Quotes

"The vitality that made this music invigorating and challenging is as palpable today as it was almost forty years ago." - Jerry D'Souza, All About Jazz

"...the band takes its bouncy postwar songbook and transforms it with a fierce and expansive concentration...." - Richard Brody, The New Yorker

"The closing moments of CD 2 are given to a breathtaking version of 'The Exotic Forest,' which smoulders quietly as it breathes like fire and song all rolled into one. Although the song never veers too far from the Pan-Africanism that Ra also stood for, it swings seductively and is almost like a dirge like chant (although no voices are heard).... It also bears out pianist Thelonious Monk's classic defence of Ra music, when it was chided for being too far out: 'Yeah,' said Monk, 'but it swings.'" - Raul d'Gama Rose, All About Jazz

MUSICIANS: SUN RA / JOHN GILMORE / MARSHALL ALLEN / PAT PATRICK / ROBERT CUMMINGS / TEDDY NANCE / ALI HASSAN / CLIFFORD JARVIS / RONNIE BOYKINS / JAMES JACKSON / CARL NIMROD

Side A
Eli Keszler : drums, bowed metal, crotales, guitar, prepared/riveted 4 x 10 foot sheet metal, contact microphone, spring harp, bass board, motor, prepared piano
Ashley Paul : clarinet
Andrew Fenlon : trumpet, tuba, french horn, trombone

Side B
Eli Keszler : piano, motors, cymbal, crotales, snare drum, microphones
Sakiko Mori : prepared piano

Digital Only Bonus Track
Eli Keszler : crotales, snare drum, configurations
Ashley Paul : clarinet

ESP-Disk' has released some far-out albums in its 47 years, but Eli Keszler’s Oxtirn raises the bar. Keszler is a percussionist and composer like no other; some connoisseurs of outside music will know him from his work with the singular guitarist Jandek.Oxtirn is Keszler’s ESP-Disk' debut and most widely distributed album after prolifically self-releasing micro-edition CDRs, tapes, and vinyl via his label REL Records.

On Oxtirn, Keszler plays drums, guitar, piano, prepared piano, motors, cymbal, crotales (bowed and unbowed), snare drum, prepared/riveted sheet metal, spring harp, bass board, and microphones. He’s joined by clarinetist Ashley Paul (his partner in Aster) on two tracks, plus Andrew Fenlon (trumpet, tuba, French horn, trombone) and Sakkiko Mori (prepared piano) on one track each.

There are few musical analogies to what Keszler is doing here. It might sound like freely improvised noise, but it’s actually meticulously composed – and if you don’t believe it, you can check out his graphical-notation score for all three tracks, included on a six-panel fold-out. The Italian Futurists of the 1920s would have loved this magnificent din, so full of startling timbres and arresting textural combinations, like a cross between Xenakis and free jazz.

The LP received rave reviews:

ESP-Disk's initial limited LP release of Oxtirn sold out immediately, prompting the label to issue Eli’s masterwork for the first time on CD for global distribution. The beautifully packaged CD recreates the original album art executed and designed by Eli. Additions to the gatefold package include that six-panel foldout showing the intricately detailed musical score to Oxtirn; the other side features a new piece of original art dedicated to the CD reissue, one of Keszler’s beautiful abstract artworks. Musically, Oxtirn has never sounded better, as it was remastered for stunning high-quality digital sound. Oxtirn now includes not only the two tracks originally released on the vinyl but also the rarely heard third movement featuring Keszler plus Mori on prepared piano, making this CD the most complete-in-one-place edition of Oxtirn available.

MUSICIANS: ELI KESZLER / ASHLEY PAUL / ANDREW FENLON / SAKIKO MORI /

ESP 4063 Joe Morris– Camera

Cello– Junko Fujiwara Simons
Drums– Luther Gray
Guitar– Joe Morris
Violin– Katt Hernandez

1. Person In A Place 9:39
2. Street Scene 7:29
3. Angle Of Incidence 6:45
4. Evocative Shadow 8:05
5. Patterns On Faces 8:48
6. Reflected Object 9:43

Notes

The great improvising guitarist, Joe Morris, returns with Luther Gray on drums and adds the masterful string section of Katt Hernandez on violin and Junko Fujiwara Simons on cello for his follow up to 2009's ESP 4056 Colorfield. Drawing inspiration from the assembly of tones in film and photography, Morris leads his quartet in stopping time to highlight the value and unpredictable sensation that each moment offers and the pleasure in exploring the layers of experience and form contained within them. "As improvising musicians we function somewhat like a camera, displaying the moment in sound." Joe Morris, July 2010

Press Quotes

MUSICIANS: JOE MORRIS / LUTHER GRAY / KATT HERNANDEZ / JUNKO FUJIWARA SIMONS

ESP 4066 Frank Lowe - The Loweski

This previously unreleased recording features the remaining music from the legendary concert that produced Lowe’s ESP-Disk’s debut as a leader, Black Beings. This recording features Art Ensemble of Chicago saxophonist Joseph Jarman in perhaps his first New York appearance, with the future Cecil Taylor bass and drum team of William Parker and Rashid Sinan and violinist Raymond Lee Cheng (The Wizard) on his only known recording. High Energy Music in its purest form.

ESP 4068 Frank Wright - Blues For Albert Ayler

Recorded live in 1977 at Coltrane drummer Rashied Ali’s Studio 77 – Ali’s Alley upon his triumphant return from an extended European sojourn the previously unreleased date features Wright paying tribute to his mentor Albert Ayler on his birthday with a luminary quartet including Ali, Ornette Coleman Prime Time guitarist James “Blood” Ulmer and bassist Benny Wilson. The Right Reverend Wright at his most Holy Ghost-est!.

Press Quotes

"It's pure, nakedly emotional music. " 

--Ed Hazell, Jazziz

ESP 4069 Pharoah Sanders - In The Beginning: 1963-1964

This four CD set documents the first recordings of the iconic tenor saxophonist, prior to his well known association with John Coltrane. Beginning with two previously unreleased sessions with Ornette Coleman alumni Don Cherry and Paul Bley, followed by Pharoah’s debut date as a leader for ESP-Disk’ and concluding with the first issue ever of the complete the December 30 and 31, 1964 Sun Ra at Judson Hall concerts, Sanders only known recordings with the Arkestra the set also includes rare recorded interviews with Sanders, Cherry, Bley and Ra by ESP-Disk’ music producer Michael D. Anderson.

Press Quotes

"Sanders sounds natural...maneuvering with agility and purpose, gamely sparring with Bley's Ivories and Motian's crisp cymbal patterns " 

"These sets [with Sun Ra]...are the only known recordings from Sanders' brief tenure with Sun Ra, revealing a match made in heaven (or perhaps Saturn?)... "  

-- Scott Verrastro, Jazziz

"Pharoah Sanders fans are advised to pick up this intriguing compilation."

-- Scott Yanow, Los Angeles Jazz Scene 

For his first release for ESP-Disk, we present a 1994, HIGH ENERGY performance of Charles Gaylerecorded live in Santa Barbara, California playing total FIRE MUSIC. The unique complementarynuance of the group brings forth (5) incredible performances featuring Charles playing tenor sax, bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Michael Wimberly. Liner notes are written by journalist Russ Musto.

Kevin Shea: drums, spds, voice

Matt Mottel: synthesizers, voice

 ONLY SEVEN COPIES LEFT! Cosmoplitude is a sexy, ultra-limited-edition 45rpm 7" single co-released by ESP Disk' and Electric Cowbell Records. This historic album not only marks Talibam's first-ever single and 20th record, but also ESP's first single since the '70s.

Side A's 'Cruisin the Cooke Isle' and side B's 'Cosmic Attidude' are ready for DJ spins on Milano fashion runways, in Brooklyn punk basements, or at hot tub parties from Vegas to Tibet... Ka-ching + Ohm = KA-BONE!

Cosmoplitude is a transcendent, compassionate cosmic attitude emanating from and permeating through everything -- space/places/animals/stimuli/desires/gut feelings. If you can catch on to the cosmop, the obstacle course of notated expectations, shifting brightness and energy standards, daily costume changes, uber-media-mind-chip commentary, and cultural/political flux will all suddenly transform into an inspired/extinguished altered state of disjointed iconic impressions giving birth to positive urban countenance and lavish peace.

Talibam's Cosmoplitude will improve your own personal cosmoplitude, GUARANTEED.

Personnel

Kevin Shea: drums, spds, voice

Matt Mottel: synthesizers, voice

Track Listing

Press Quotes

"Talibam! venture up and down every block of jazz’s past, present, and future, dragging out every inspirational sound to repurpose as their own. " Justin Spicer

"...a brain-rattling demolition of the entire avant lesson plan, as those with a more academic criteria might be inclined to teach it. " - Mike Lupica, Dusted Reviews

"Ornette Coleman playing on Soft Machine's Fourth in hell... Talibam!'s brand of shitstorm skronk is grounded in more intelligent thought and dynamic group exchange than many of the more hyped transmissions from the contemporary American 'noise' underground." - Tiny Mix Tapes Dot Com

"Mottel is like Keith Emerson on a serious PCP bender, spitting out thick snarling sheets of synth buzz, spraying it like machine gun fire, melodies are tangled and complicated little knots hurled into the fray like cannonballs made out of steel string and roof nails. The sax is all over the place, adding tonal color, mad squawking, chittering chirps and deep fuzzy moans, this is a massive chaotic free for all." - Aquarius Records

"Gonzo jazz rock fusion at its most inspired." - Paris Transatlantic

MUSICIANS: KEVIN SHEA / MATT MOTTEL

• 音源著作権℗ – ESP Disk
• 著作権© – ESP Disk
• 録音 – Orange Music (5)
• ミキシング – Orange Music (5)
• マスタリング – Turtle Tone Studios
• デザイン – Randesign