I had not heard of this project previously, but it is the work of Frederick Galiay on bass and Jean-Sébastien Mariage on guitar. The first track, PÅ«jÄ, is mastered incredibly low, making you wonder if this is going to be incredibly minimalist. When Skhêma kicks in with a single bass note it is startling because, if you are anything like me, you turned the volume way up to hear the previous track. Pshat gives a pretty good indication of what the rest of the album will sound like. Minimal improvisation with a fair amount of drone, scratches on the strings and the instruments, and sparse playing of the guitar and bass. Chod is a bit of a departure in that it is considerably more noisy than the others, but still far from a wall of noise that fans of MSBR and the like would call noise. Overall this is decent minimalist improv, but I must admit that it will not be spending a lot of time in my CD player. Evidently this is more of an installation piece, as described by the label: 'Both amplifiers face each other, both musicians are in the center, the public goshawk. The principle of the installation is to establish the most direct contact between the gesture and the sound, the string and the loudspeaker. The electric sound is an organic, acoustic matter in the full sense: guitar, bass and amplifiers (without any addition of pedals of effects or digital electronics), are not separated, but are the same instrument.' Maybe you had to be there. The album weighs in at about 64 minutes.

It's true that even a white noise could speak to the listener's mind acting as a spark that manages to fire its imagination and such an ignition is even more possible with field recordings, but the production of images and even stories mostly depends from listener's sensitivity. That's why I will confine myself to merely expressing my opinion on the skills of Paris-born composer Emmanuel Mieville with microphones while grabbing some emanations from settings explored in some exotic lands he visited (Costa Rica, Hong Kong and Malaysia plus an additional insert of the field recording grabbed by Yann Van Steenbrugghe in Peru). My physical reaction in front of these realities intertwined with the one surrounding me could be the best feedback and you could guess how impressive Emmanuel's work sounds if you consider that some of them mananged to pierce my sonic space in an astonishing way: for instance I shouted my flatmate to stop playing with crockery, pots and pans before realizing she was not in the flat while listening Monsieur Mieville hitting Solumn Donas' metal and wood sculptures in the track recorded in Cahuita, Costa Rica; I've been tempted to postpone some appointments for bad weather conditions when listening to the tropical storms grabbed in Malaysia and I've literally jumped from my seat when the dog recorded in the first part of the second track started barking in the right side of my headphones (Gosh! I really run the risk of being killed by an heart attack...). But the incredible holophonic experiences Mieville provides in this sort of audio set of postcards, corroborated by a convincing academic path as sound engineering scholar at film school and musique concrete apprentice at the notorious Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), the renowned theoretical and experimental group of sound researchers founded by Pierre Schaeffer, is not the only aspect of this release, which represents realities in a more realistic way than any expensive led-lighted 3D TV set as you will easily perceive during this wanderings the constant contrast between natural forces (some of you are going to argue Mieville has an omitted passion for entomology or ornithology for the abundance of insects and birds filling the sonic space together with sonic shots on storms or winds) and human footprint, as already suggested by Valentina Reolon's artwork featuring a foggy city skyline on the external side, which looks like hiding an heavenly foreshortening inside the booklet. Envisage the possibility of envy Mieville's wandering (especially if you look for some photos of the places he mentions in the tracklist), but also his magnanimity in bringing such a sonic souvenir to us!

The first time I've tasted the talent of this proteiform NY-based Israeli pianist and composer - and in this capacity he could boast of some compositions written for important "academic" ensembles such as Bob Brookmeyer's New England Conservatory Jazz Composers Big Band, Fred Harris' MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble and the BMI Orchestra - on a release marked by Zorn's Tzadik Records as a founder of a klemer jazz quintet called Talat. His talent as a "musical scenographer" was not so evident, but it was clearer that he gave a remarkable proof of rethinking the syncretism, which already belongs to that particular kind of music, born from a fusion of different musical traditions (mainly Polish, Russian, Romani and Moldovan), known by Ashkenazic Jews during their wanderings over Eastern Europe, which, so it seems, had an important role for the development of some American jazz branches, when that tradition was transplanted in the USA by some Yiddish-speaking immigrants. Mine should not be just considered a scholarly remark, as you will easily notice that some rhythmic and melodic structures of that tradition - particularly in the "scores" for Mark Dresser's double bass, Nate Wooley's trumpet and Okkyung Lee's cello - sound like one of the most audible filler mixed with other elements in this black pudding sliced in ten parts, being the other elements some tricks taken from experimental electronics, improvisational, ambient, ritual and concrete music and even tribalism - the moments where this element sounds clearer such as in the fourth or sixth track are my favorite ones of the whole recording -. Someone could argue that such an ensemble could outshine individual skills, but I'm pretty sure that each of 11 musicians with their rich sonic stores, including two electric guitars, one double bass, one trombone, one alto saxophone, a baritone one, one cello, one tuba, one bass clarinet, one bass flute, one trumpet, involved in this obscure work will be satisfied of the highly visionary opalescence their choral performance aimed to highline a property of music, more than a concept, managed to reach thanks to Alon Nechushtan direction as the listeners will easily acknowledge.

This album from Italy's New Risen Throne try to speak of rebirth. According to the press notes "within the caves and ruins left by the destruction, there begins to form the first foundations and structures of a reconstruction that is in turn in constant evolution." The result is an album that begins with a dark and oppressive mood and slowly change into a brighter mood, at least from a dark ambient perspective :).
"Lungs into declining structures" opens this release with an invocation hidden in the mix to create the atmosphere of some crowd hopelessly confined in structure, prison or even worse. "Echoes from the loss" is an intricate juxtaposition of filtered noises. "Loneliness" is a long atmospherical track based on a relatively high frequence drone an samples of swords and film voices. The titletrack of this album deals with a soundtrack line of synth posed above, probably, field recordings a loose martial beat. "Lands filles with silence and grief" is the longest track of this album and relies on a texture drone beneath filtered gregorian chants. "A vision from the hidden" is an evocative deep soundscape while "Breath of growing structures" close this album trying to lighten the dark mood depicted in this musical journey.
This album feature also two remix: "New Risen Throne (II)" is done by northunt and try to give some resonance and space to the oppressive soundscape while "New Risen Throne (III)", made by Nordvargr, add the notorious evil touch of MZ412's mastermind to the recipe. This two remix has the unusual quality to be a reconstruction that reveals hidden possibilities of the original.
This album is, perhaps, one of the best release of this year and reveal a focused production and clear writing. Recommanded.

Listeners who follow the improvisational music scene could have already heard the names of the three talented signers of this release, including the most meaningful moments of a recording session, held in 28th November 2010 in London, mixed and mastered by Wayne Peet without overdubbing. Arguably the most notorious one of this performing trio is Steve Beresdorf, one of the most active musician not only related to this particular stylistical field, even if I remembered him for having been member of the funny combo The Melody Four together with Lol Coxhill and Tony Coe, which released some bizarre stuff on Jean Rochard's Chabada, for his collaborative work with David Toop, named General Strike, and the grotesque madness of Double Indemnity, a collaration with the cellist Triston Honsinger...you will easily find some other stuff by this many-sided musician, who's engaged in electronics on this occasion. In spite of their interesting experiences, Stephen Flinn and Dave Tucker are less known, even if the former is a very creative drummer and percussionist whose highlihgts on his CV is a collaborative experimental/industrial project called The Cutmen with the legendary Z'EV and the latter was member of the great Mark Smith's The Fall in the early 80ies, a seminal band from Manchester who brought what is known as indipendent pop into the fields of a rock who sounded genuinely clumsy, blunt and maybe unaesthetic, but it made sense so that I reccomend to check it if you missed it. In Ink Room, these grown lads scatter their tones on the score. A certain scantiness of phrasing, which is clear since the initial "At Night", as well as the gradual attainment of togetherness - quite normal for collective improvisations - don't entail a lack of expressiveness and even when the sound looks like "squeaking", this comb manages to give a kinematical appeal by evoking a sort of decadent hyperuranium, either they play little gigs (such as in "Mud Club" or "A Torn Couple") by constant decays of musical patterns (an approach which is clearer in the final collage titled "Fragments") or they seems to do their utmost into meaty progressions ("Investigations"). Repeated listenings are going to make you grab more nice preciosities than a first absent-minded one can do.