Finnish art rock ensemble Can Can Heads have been catching wreck since the early 90s, taking up the noisy, oddly-timed gauntlet thrown down by art-minded Punks like The Ex, Minutemen and Avant-Rock pioneer Captain Beefheart. The reissue of their 2014 album Butter Life finds the veteran band continuing to delve deeply into this aesthetic, each
From Wolves to Whales (Aerophonic, 2015) Personnel Nate Wooley (trumpet) Dave Rempis (alto saxophone) Pascal Niggenkemper (bass) Chris Corsano (drums) From Wolves to Whales is the result of a collective desire of Nate Wooley and Dave Rempis to form a band which resulted in this grouping with Pascal Niggenkemper and Chris Corsano, all of whom
Dreams of Belonging Mattias Nilsson / solo piano Dreams of Belonging is a solo piano performance by Mattias Nilsson. The album consists of nine heartfelt offerings. Mattias has a strong melodic and harmonic sense and a talent for laying into the melody of each of these short compositional pieces, exploring them at his leisure. This
Being forty years old is a curious point in an artist’s — or nearly anyone’s — life. Given the advances in modern medicine, it’s just about halfway (on average) to departure and feels like one should have passed through at least one needle’s eye, though it is far from laurel-resting territory. One is neither a
Leap of Faith Orchestra – Supernovae (Evil Clown, 2016) “The full orchestra (with all 5 sub-units) had its first performance on June 4, where we played my composition, The Expanding Universe. The composition does not specify notated melodic or rhythmic information, just durations (by time indices) and English language descriptions of the overall sonority desired.
The world of creative improvised music has long been a macho one, though thankfully there have always been other voices since the art form’s first shell scratchings. It wasn’t all that long ago that in free jazz, the tough, workmanlike masculinity of reedists like Peter Brötzmann and Mats Gustafsson was celebrated as the apex of
I was sitting in a coffee shop in Baltimore City with experimental artist and founder of the nonprofit TECHNE, Bonnie Jones, listening to her talk about the lack of attention, coverage and general acknowledgement of women in jazz and experimental music. Bonnie who is Korean American and has gracefully surpassed her 20s, calmly expressed that
Dave Buddin The City of God (Dick Move Records, 2016) My interest in electronic music was ignited after seeing the science fiction thriller, Forbidden Planet. Life was never the same after hearing those alien sounds by Louis and Bebe Barron. I was first introduced to David Buddin during my tenure with Cellular Chaos. Buddin carries
Sirene 1009 Han-Earl Park (Guitar) Caroline Pugh (Vocals/Tape Recorder) Dominic Lash (Bass) Mark Sanders (Drums) Sirene 1009 is a radical improvisational quartet made up of vocalist Caroline Pugh, bassist Dominic Lash, drummer Mark Sanders, and guitarist Han-Earl Park. Their self-titled debut is a colorful, sometimes violent and revelatory listening experience that infuses modern aesthetics with
Michael Foster’s The Ghost The Hole (Tombed Visions, 2016) The Hole is the second recording of Michael Foster’s trio, The Ghost, with bassist Henry Fraser and drummer Connor Baker. If you listened to their previous recording, There’s Always A First Time For Everything, the playing on this project is much tighter. All three musicians mesh
