Raise your glass high!

Half the year gone . . . half t’go!

Yesteryear . . .

The Process . . .

#ambient/#experimental/#classical/#techno

Happy New Year

Wishing you all the best in 2022!

Focus on 2022

Twenty-twenty-two will be dominated, from a studio perspective, by a new #ambient series.

Debuting on January 3rd, posting every other month & running into 2023 . . . it has all the makings of an ethereal barn-burner!

elements_short stories (remix)

elements_short stories | Jazz & Ether Jazz | 76:07

Short (under 77″), sweet (REAL Jazz!) & sassy (can you dig that?).

My world is driven by leadership training & its corresponding audios. As a result, when I have time to listen to music, I want it to sound “just right” (and when it’s not, I tweak it!).

This is a re-working of a mix from 2014 with a new opening gambit (tracks 1, 2 & 3), track 9 & the track 12 closer); I also swapped out track 4, previously Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, to a solo piano version by Bärtsch of the same composition.

With so many mixes under our collective belt, I had forgotten about this one and, tripping across it in my “Jazz” file, decided it needed a little dusting & refurbishing — I had just ordered the Jakob Bro album, Uma Elmo — and decided to give him the #3 spot (after the Marc Johnson track) for the remix.

I personally like this version better.

01 Ayumi Tanaka Trio – Ichi
02 Marc Johnson – Nardis
03 Jakob Bro, Arve Henriksen & Jorge Rossy – Music For Black Pigeons
04 Nik Bärtsch – Modul 13 (solo piano)
05 Pat Metheny, Dave Holland & Roy Haynes – Old Folks
06 John Scofield – Jeep on 35
07 Van Morrison – The Eternal Kansas City
08 Miles Davis – It’s About That Time
09 Stefano Battaglia & Michele Rabbia – Sundance In Balkh
10 Stanley Jordan – Freddie Freeloader
11 Pat Metheny – Sariel
12 Sonar – Sonic Blue

Live At Lokerse Jazzclub: Peter Jacquemyn / Dirk Serries

Released on Raw Tonk Records; more squelchy goodness & cacophonous din as you embark upon an extended, avant-garde musical “conversation” between Dirk Serries’ guitar ramblings & Peter Jacquemyn’s double bass plucks & slides (and a few string-bending squeaks & groans!).

This live outing embraces both moments of quietude as well as gale-force instrumentation and is quite satisfying for the avant-noise aficionado.

It’s fascinating what Dirk Serries & Raw Tonk (along with Mr. Serries’ Jazz label, A New Wave of Jazz) have done to transform the improvised jazz space in just a few short years!

Get thee hence & procure a copy!

elements_strands

elements_strands | Jazz, Ether Jazz & Stuff | 78:46

‘strands’, i.e. strands (or threads) of composition –an example of design driving the final output; built around the cover image and the Fur/Torn compositions . . . we just kept adding/shuffling, [etc.] tracks until we had something we liked!

Is this “Jazz”? You bet your ass it is!!
Guitar & Trumpet heavy, the push was back towards the zig-zag, eclectic editions of the ‘elements’ series, which was accomplished via the placement of the Torn, Summers & Webster/Serries pieces. We originally went with a different Big Vicious track — but teased that out (and completely reworked the 2nd half of the mix) when we heard ‘Fractals’.

An online trip (or 2) to ECM Records & Amazon (sampling is SUCH a great tool when mixing!) yielded the completionary tracks needed to cement the project . . .

. . . and then it was done!
BTW . . . the respective Scofield & Summers pieces end/begin on the same note!

(file under eclectic, avant-garde & ether-jazz).

#PianoInPianoOut

Listen via Mixcloud

.
01 Goncalo Almeida – Monólogos a Dois II
02 Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin – Modul 59
03 Sonar – Slow Shift
04 Soft Machine – Broken Hill
05 Yaz Ahmed – The Space Between the Fish & the Moon
06 Avishai Cohen & Big Vicious – Fractals
07 John Scofield, Steve Swallow & Bill Stewart – In F
08 Andy Summers – Harmonograph
09 Art Ensemble of Chicago – 597-59
10 Colin Webster & Dirk Serries – Spring
11 David Torn – Balet Pentru un Orizont Disparut
(Ballet for a Missing Horizon)
12 Miles Davis – Miles Runs the Voodoo Down (treated)
13 Kenny Barron & the Dave Holland Trio – Pass it On
……(featuring Jonathan Butler)

elements_f u s e

elements_fuse | Avant Garde Jazz/Ether Jazz/Ambient Noise | 78:13

A powder keg of refractive, multidimensional Jazz-ish din (and cacophonous aural calamity), gathered from disheveled locations across a fractured internet. This edition focuses on the New Wave of Jazz record label. Additional info here.

Mixed May, 2021. Got a match? Light with care . . !

Listen via Mixcloud

01 Fabio Perletta – 9_23_(excerpt)
02 Asmus Tietchens & Dirk Serries – Air Akkordeon
03 Goncalo Almeida – Monólogos a Dois I
04 Pierre Gerard – En Plein Rose D’un Bois Lisse
05 Serries-Vanderstraeten-Verhoeven – Stasis
06 Benedict Taylor & Anton Mobin – Minimal Muck
07 Dirk Serries – Factor
08 Arvind Gang & Riccardo Marogna – The Limp Leaves Waited for Rain,
……While the Black Clouds Gathered, far Distant, over Himavant
09 Alan Wilkinson & Dirk Serries – HYG 2
10 Kodian Trio – II, 4

Martina Verhoeven, solo piano

Premiered May 2, 2021