Blank Forms · Masayuki Takayanagi New Direction Unit - Fragment - VI (Mass Projection)Axis/Another Revolvable Thing is the second installment of Blank Forms’ archival reissues of the music of Japan’s eternal revolutionary Masayuki Takayanagi, following April is the cruellest month, a 1975 studio record by his New Direction Unit. Comprised of recordings of a September 5, 1975 concert by the New Direction Unit at Yasuda Seimei Hall in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, the two-part set showcases Takayanagi in deep pursuit of what he began calling “non-section music” after leaping beyond the confines of his prior descriptor “real jazz.” The quartet of Takayanagi (guitar), Kenji Mori (reeds), Nobuyoshi Ino (bass, cello), and Hiroshi Yamazaki (percussion) deftly explores the twin poles of Takayanagi’s spacious “gradually projection” and explosively virulent “mass projection” concepts across six pieces, titled Fragments I - VI. Originally issued in two individual LP volumes in rearranged order, this CD edition presents the Another Revolvable Thing concert in chronological sequence for the first time, with “gradually projection” pieces on the first disc and “mass projection” eruptions on the second.As part of his liner notes for the original records (newly translated for this edition), noted Japanese free jazz critic Teruto Soejima wrote:"New Direction Unit performances always emit the smell of blood. Fresh blood, never blood that is old or crusted. This is not the desiccated shell of music, it's sound through which pumps the blood of living human beings. Blood that seethes, that flows and counterflows, that blazes, runs, rises and congeals, blood that vomits and spurts. Vivid, scarlet blood. The ultimate beauty that Takayanagi aims at, is it not the color of this blood?Blood calls out to blood. For these four musicians, playing together means feasting on each other’s blood. It is also a summoning to a secret blood oath, to the creation of solidarity with the audience. In the moment, truly, the situation and beauty are instantaneously unified. To borrow the title of a movie by Kōji Wakamatsu: blood is redder than the sun." --- Masayuki “Jojo” Takayanagi (1932 - 1991) was a maverick Japanese guitarist, a revolutionary spirit whose oeuvre embodied the radical political movements of late ‘60s Japan. Having cut his teeth as an accomplished Lennie Tristano disciple playing cool jazz in the late ‘50s, Takayanagi had his mind blown by the Chicago Transit Authority’s “Free Form Guitar” in 1969 and promptly turned his back on the jazz scene by which he was beloved, going as far as to call his former peers and admirers “a bunch of losers” in the press. Takayanagi had found a new direction, an annihilation of jazz and its associated idolatry of hegemonic American culture. Aiming his virtuoso chops towards the stratosphere, Takayanagi dedicated himself to the art of the freakout, laying waste to tradition left and right, most notably via the all-out assault of his aptly-named New Direction for the Arts (later New Direction Unit) and collaborations with like-minded outsider saxophonist Kaoru Abe. His innovations on the instrument parallel those of Sonny Sharrock and Derek Bailey and paved the way for the Japanese necromancy of Keiji Haino and Otomo Yoshihide, but even at its most limitless hurdling Takayanagi’s playing is propelled by the dexterous grasp of his foundations, to which he paid tribute with elegant takes on flamenco and Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman.” In the autumn of his life, Takayanagi’s solo Action Direct performances made him one of the first guitarists, alongside but independent of Keith Rowe, to use tabletop guitar for pure noise improvisation.

One of the landmark albums in the British avant garde reissued on Evan's psi label. Includes 2 tracks not issued on the LP. Gorgeously reproduced. Monumental set of improvisations between Parker, Bailey, and Bennink, considered by many to be a key recording in the history of improvised music, it brought together three musicians who then continued to develop the genre in the intervening three decades : EVAN PARKER (soprano & tenor saxophones), DEREK BAILEY (guitar) and HAN BENNINK (percussion, etc).

Tracklisting: 1-1. Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Evan Parker DB-HB-EP Trio - 41:381-2. Derek Bailey - Evan Parker DB-EP Duet - 12:102-1. Derek Bailey - Han Bennink - Evan Parker DB-HB-EP Trio - 45:452-2. Evan Parker EP Solo - 11:503-1. Derek Bailey - Evan Parker DB-EP Duet - 27:403-2. Evan Parker EP Solo - 10:003-3. Han Bennink - Evan Parker HB-EP Duet - 17:184-1. Derek Bailey - Han Bennink DB-HB Duet - 39:194-2. Han Bennink - Evan Parker HB-EP Duet - 12:10 "We all owe a great debt to the great archival project of French sound engineer-producer & Fou Records label owner (and an explorer of vintage synthesizers) Jean-Marc Foussat's excellent recordings." - The Free Jazz Collective"A sequel to the legendary Topography of the Lungs that first brought together the three improvisers almost half a century ago for the seminal 1st album on Incus label. Recorded in 1981 by audio engineer and label owner Jean-Marc Foussat, the trio of guitarist Derek Bailey, saxophonist Evan Parker, and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Han Bennink are heard in an amazing evening of performance at 28 rue Dunois, in Paris, France, in duo and trio configurations, exploring material similar to Parker's "Topography of the Lungs". Absolutely essential. "This analogy between free improvisation and human nature seems appropriate. Some people, seeing a burning building, will flee for their lives, while others run straight into the building. Mention the names of any member of this trio—Derek Bailey, Han Bennink or Evan Parker—to listeners and they either give a big hoorah or make a break for it. Now that we've cleared with room of runners, let those that remain rejoice in a rare recording of these improvisation masters together. Besides Topographie Parisienne there is only the seminal trio recording The Topography Of The Lungs (Incus, 1970), which would later be a reissued CD by psi in 1986 and LP from Otoroku in 2018. Various duos can be found, Bailey/Parker's The London Concert (psi, 2005) and Arch Duo (Rastascan Records, 1999), Parker/Bennink's The Grass Is Greener (psi, 2002) and Derek Bailey & Han Bennink (Incus, 1972). Where this Paris live date from April 3, 1981 has been is anyone's guess. Needless to say, when you are running into a fire you don't ask questions."

CD 1AMM / Formanex / ONsemble1. AMM / Formanex Play  Treatise by Cornelius Cardew2. AMM / Formanex / ONsemble  Play Treatise (p. 46-47)  by Cornelius CardewCD 2Formanex / ONsemble / Christian Wolff / Keith Rowe / John Tilbury1. Two Pianos by Christian Wolff2. Edges by Christian Wolff3. Trio Rowe / Wolff / TilburyCD 3Formanex / ONsemble / Christian Wolff / Keith Rowe / John Tilbury1. For 1, 2, 3 People by Christian Wolff2. Looking North by Christian Wolff3. Edges by Christian Wolff4. Trio Rowe / Wolff / TilburyCD 4Formanex / ONsemble / Phill Niblock1. Disseminate2. To Two Tea RosesCD 5Formanex / ONsemble / Keith Rowe1. Hang UpsCD 6Formanex / Ralf Wehowsky1. Untitled 12. Untitled 23. Untitled 3CD 7Formanex / Keith Rowe1. Three Lines To Achieve Almost NothingCD 8FormanexEarly Works1. S/T2. Soulevement3. Le Langage Du Thé4. Chercher Le 2eme OeilCD 9Formanex / Kasper T. Toeplitz1. Szkic2. Demonology #11CD 10Formanex / ONsemble / Radu Malfatti / Michael Pisaro / Seth Cluett1. Fragile Being, Hopeful Becoming by Michael Pisaro2. For Formanex by Seth Cluett3. Shoguu by Radu MalfattiNantes trio Formanex celebrates 20 years of activism in experimental music with a 10 CD edition full of amazing collaborations with ONsemble (contemporary music group from Nantes and Saint-Nazaire) and composers they have worked with. The box set includes early works by Formanex’s own Julien Ottavi, unique compositions created by Keith Rowe, pieces by Kasper T. Toeplitz, Ralf Wehowsky, Seth Cluett, Michael Pisaro, Radu Malfatti, as well as other giants of contemporary music from the last 50 years; such as Phill Niblock and Christian Wolff. A rare collection of CDs, this box set represents a broad vision of experimental music from noise to electronic abstract composition, radical minimalism, contemporary and improvised music. Limited Edition of 300 copies.

DUCTUS is the latest solo project by Paul Abbott, featuring 51 minutes of audio, across 12 tracks, and a 42 page booklet featuring new writing. DUCTUS was written and recorded in Edinburgh and Porto in 2019.DUCTUS presents a playful weave of collapsing time through a number of speculative elements and fictional characters. Abbott feels his way through learning drums, rhythm and writing as fleshy research technologies. DUCTUS is the latest stage in a process considering sound, the body, imagination, and language through music. This features as part of ongoing investigations using real and imaginary drums, synthetic sounds, performance and writing.DUCTUS is an organic environment, a comedy of vibrations and signs, featuring the fictional characters DETECTIVE ENGINEER, QOSEL, and STRIKE.Moving (dancing) through DUCTUS, DETECTIVE ENGINEER and QOSEL work (play) together to attempt to learn about pulse (the wobble edge). DETECTIVE ENGINEER takes measurements, while QOSEL responds intuitively. They make 12 journeys at different angles. They listen and read, recording each journey in soot marks on fish glue (glass paper) sheets. Their notes are reproduced inside the accompanying booklet. STRIKE attempts to inscribe a single event of non-contact: a stick falling from a hand to a drum head.* Recorded 16-18 January 2019 using: Bass Drum: Yamaha Custom Absolute Maple (Blue Sparkle); Batter Head: (unknown, clear); [resonant head removed]; Dampening Foam—Snare Drum: Yamaha Custom Absolute Maple 14”x5”; Batter Head: Remo (unknown, coated); [resonant head removed]—Hi Hat Cymbals: Sabian XS 14”— &—Bass Drum: Sakae PAC-D 14” Cherry/Mahogany; Batter Head: Sakae (unknown, standard coated); [resonant head removed]; Snare Drum: Sakae 12”x5 1⁄2” Cherry/ Mahogany; Batter Head: Sakae Standard (unknown, standard coated); [resonant head removed]—Roland SPD1W; Nord Drum 2; MOTU Ultralite mk3; JHS Kill Switch; Sensory Percussion; Live, Max4L; PureData ‘Orbit Pulse Generator’; **‘3D Snare’ code by Alberto Torin; Recorded with—Microphones: DPA 4060, EV RE20, Neuman KM140, Senheisser MD421, DPA 4060, Neuman KM140, Fishman V100, Radial PZ-DI; Monitor Speaker: Genelec 1031A.•"Paul Abbott's Ductus is intelligent, complex, ludic and stern. 
As with his earlier solos - Vagus [201x] and Sphuzo [201x] - Ductus continues a study of the natural, speculative and synthetic worlds qua real and imaginary drums. Its drum ducts are durable, mysterious and revealing. Prone, the drumkit is sessile in quintessence, fixed around the drummer-on-stool-sat, increasingly stickily stuck, as music and the world (have) move(d) around it. Paul offers a possible solution through several lines of simultaneous enquiry – a gripping detection of rhythmic fact and fiction. A sleuth of several instruments, the Paul/drum/tech-kit times, beats and grows the skin and frames and stands and symbols and stuffs that stretch and swing between these facts and fictions. 
 He stories our imaginations and senses toward a progressive independence: back (in time (history near and far)); forward (in time (futures more and less speculative)); somatic (insides and on-skin) and prosthetic reach (stick, strike, spike). This pursuit and construction of events in time, through fact and fiction, realizes fictional fact. At its heart beats a new time for new times. 
 — Seymour Wright, London 2019

John Chantler — synthesizerSteve Noble — drumsSeymour Wright — alto saxophone This recording shares music from the first time public concert of a new trio formed by John Chantler — best known for his solo synthesizer recordings and work with pipe organs — and two of the most instantly recognisable voices in the scene loosely associated with London’s Cafe OTO — drummer Steve Noble and saxophonist SeymourWright. Recorded 7 May 2017 at Cafe OTO by Shaun Crook. Mix/edit by John Chantler.Mastered by Stephan Mathieu. John Chantler is a musician and organiser living in Stockholm, Sweden. Chantler’s recent recordings are characterised by headlong dives into ravishing texture and extended stretches of surface stasis that are disrupted by abrupt cuts, deft variations of density and unexpected diversions that draw on a domestic reimagining of studio based electronic music/musique concrete and 20th century minimalism and delivered with brash, revitalized energy. www.inventingzero.net Steve Noble is London's leading drummer, a fearless and constantly inventive improviser whose super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Peter Brötzmann, Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, IshmaelWadada Leo Smith, Stephen O'Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and many, many more. In the early eighties, Noble played with the Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde, Rip Rig and Panic, Brion Gysin and the Bow Gamelan Ensemble, before going on to work with the pianist Alex Maguire and with Derek Bailey (including CompanyWeeks 1987, 89 and 90). He was featured in the Bailey's excellentTV series on Improvisation for Channel 4 based on his book ‘Improvisation; its nature and practise’. He has toured and performed throughout Europe, Africa and America and leads the groups N.E.W. (with John Edwards and Alex Ward) and DECOY (with John Edwards and Alexander Hawkins). SeymourWright – saxophonist, investigator, artist – lives in London. His practice is about the saxophone – music, history and technique – actual and potential; an on-going, rigorous and exhaustive exploration of the instrument.The energy of this learning is applied to various collaborations and contexts to access/share what he has called the ‘awkward wealth of investigation’. His work is documented on two widely acclaimed self-released collections SeymourWright of Derby (2008) and SeymourWrites Back (2015). His current collaborations include lll⼈人 (with DaichiYoshikawa and Paul Abbott), GUO (with Daniel Blumberg) and XT (with Paul Abbott).

Is This Right? is Seymour Wright's third full solo record and comes as a 2 discs set in a beautiful oblong sleeve. 5 tracks recorded between 2014 and 2017 in Bologna, London and Paris. Is This Right?  continues where his last solo - Seymour Writes Back - finished, further developing a set of relationships between ideas, places, people and time, as Wright puts it, documenting 'learning about the saxophone - actual and potential - as rhthym, shadow and text'.