quête:quartet

Legendary DJ, producer, radio host, and founder of the Acid Jazz and Talkin' Loud labels, Gilles Peterson, has curated another exceptional collection of tracks and rare versions from the renowned Dutch Timeless Jazz label, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025. The Timeless Jazz Classics Vol. 2 double album features tracks and standout performances by Louis Hayes, Machito And His Salsa Big Band, Mike Nock Quartet, George Adams - Don Pullen Quartet amongst others. Notably, it includes two special tracks, the previously unreleased version of "Morning Song" (Live In Bremen 1978) by Eric Kloss & Barry Miles and bonus track "La Placita" (Live In Willisau 1978) by Marion Brown Quartet.

Timeless Jazz Classics Vol. 2 is available on black vinyl, includes an insert with liner notes, track-by-track information by Gilles Peterson and affixed on the protective sleeve is the 50th Anniversary Timeless Jazz sticker.

,Ruin Everything" ist das fünfte Studioalbum der Stockholmer Psychedelic-Rock-Pioniere Les Big Byrd. Seit ihrer Gründung im Jahr 2011 hat das Quartett seine Mischung aus Space Rock, hypnotisierender Psychedelia und diszipliniertem Krautrock perfektioniert. Angeführt von Songwriter und Produzent Jocke Åhlund Byrd um die ganze Welt getourt und sich dabei eine begeisterte Fangemeinde aufgebaut, wobei sie abwechselnd zu Hause als eine der größten Rockbands Schwedens und im Ausland als Underground-Psych-Act auftraten. Nach dem experimentellen und stark instrumentalen ,Diamonds, Rhinestones and Hard Rain" (2024) kehren Les Big Byrd auf ,Ruin Everything" zu einem stärker songorientierten Ansatz zurück, der an ihren Klassiker ,Iran Iraq IKEA" aus dem Jahr 2018 erinnert. Da die abenteuerlichsten Tendenzen der Band zugunsten eines strafferen, fokussierteren Sounds zurückgenommen wurden - der von dem dystopischen Epos ,Big Flood" bis zum Vollgas-Space-Rock von ,Hökvind" reicht -, ist ,Ruin Everything" Les Big Byrd in ihrer bisher besten Form.

,Ruin Everything" ist das fünfte Studioalbum der Stockholmer Psychedelic-Rock-Pioniere Les Big Byrd. Seit ihrer Gründung im Jahr 2011 hat das Quartett seine Mischung aus Space Rock, hypnotisierender Psychedelia und diszipliniertem Krautrock perfektioniert. Angeführt von Songwriter und Produzent Jocke Åhlund Byrd um die ganze Welt getourt und sich dabei eine begeisterte Fangemeinde aufgebaut, wobei sie abwechselnd zu Hause als eine der größten Rockbands Schwedens und im Ausland als Underground-Psych-Act auftraten. Nach dem experimentellen und stark instrumentalen ,Diamonds, Rhinestones and Hard Rain" (2024) kehren Les Big Byrd auf ,Ruin Everything" zu einem stärker songorientierten Ansatz zurück, der an ihren Klassiker ,Iran Iraq IKEA" aus dem Jahr 2018 erinnert. Da die abenteuerlichsten Tendenzen der Band zugunsten eines strafferen, fokussierteren Sounds zurückgenommen wurden - der von dem dystopischen Epos ,Big Flood" bis zum Vollgas-Space-Rock von ,Hökvind" reicht -, ist ,Ruin Everything" Les Big Byrd in ihrer bisher besten Form.

Kronstad 23 returns with Dodehavet, the Norwegian quartet"s third album and first release on Batov Records. Continuing their instinctive, analogue-led approach, the record sits between cinematic jazz and psychedelic rock, threaded with Scandinavian folk and wider global influences. Recorded live to tape with minimal preparation and no modern studio intervention, Dodehavet captures a band working on feel, interaction and momentum rather than polish or precision.

Forever – Jazz steht für zeitlose Eleganz und die Essenz eines Genres, das Generationen geprägt hat. Diese stilvolle Vinyl-Ausgabe vereint ausgewählte Meisterwerke und schafft eine Atmosphäre zwischen sanfter Melancholie, swingender Leichtigkeit und virtuoser Improvisation.

Mit unvergesslichen Interpretationen von Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong und Ella Fitzgerald uvm, entfaltet sich ein Klangbild, das sowohl entspannt als auch inspirierend wirkt. Instrumentale Höhepunkte von Miles Davis und Dave Brubeck runden das Hörerlebnis ab.

Forever – Jazz ist mehr als eine Sammlung – es ist ein stilvoller Begleiter für besondere Momente und ein Muss für alle, die echten Jazz in seiner schönsten Form genießen möchten.

Thirteen years later, building on everything they had learned about capturing the purest sound, Guttenberg returned to produce The Ultimate Demonstration Disc Volume 2. Designed to bridge the gap between technical terminology and the listening experience, this collection serves as a practical guide to the audiophile lexicon. On each track, Guttenberg "spells out" exactly what to listen for, providing clear musical examples of concepts like "transparency" and "soundstage depth." By using a custombuilt recording chain and avoiding dynamic range compressors, equalizers, or overdubbing, the album captures a "live" session exactly as the microphones heard it - resulting in a sound so neutral and natural that it can be used to reveal the subtle differences between high-end speakers, electronics, and cables.

Das Indie-Pop-Quartett Veps aus Oslo ist zurück mit seinem dritten Album ,ChurchyardStreet 8B", dem ersten beim schwedischen Indie-Label PNKSLM Recordings (ShitKid, Clutter, Vegas Water Taxi etc.). Die Band hat sich als eine der interessantesten Indie-Bands Nordeuropas etabliert. Helena, Laura, June und Maja kennen sich schon seit der Grundschule und gründeten die Band im Alter von 14 Jahren. Ihre brillante Debüt-EP ,Open The Door" (veröffentlicht 2021 bei Kanine Records) ebnete den Weg für ihr ebenso großartiges Debütalbum ,Oslo Park" und den Nachfolger ,Dedicated To". Mit gerade einmal 22 Jahren auf diesem Planeten stehen Veps erst am Anfang ihrer Karriere, haben aber schon eine Fülle von Erfahrungen gesammelt, während sie weitermachen, mit ihrem neuen Album "ChurchyardStreet 8B", ihrem bisher besten Werk.

Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. (formerly Ducks Unlimited), the bright jangle-pop duo of Tom McGreevy (lead vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming), accomplish the impossible. The pair craft songs that play to very specific inspirations without drowning underneath them—immediately evidenced on their critically acclaimed EP, Get Bleak, and sharpened on Modern Fiction, their debut LP. “The Servants, The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Television Personalities, Felt,” Evan rattles off. “Look Blue Go Purple is one I reference a lot with our production.” Echoes of ‘80s indiepop abound, but they never overwhelm. This is not a nostalgic record, after all, nor is it a derivative one. Instead, across 10 cheery-sounding songs, Ducks Ltd. explore contemporary society in decline, examining large scale human disaster through personal turmoil (hence the title, taken from a university course called Gnosticism and Nihilism in Modern Fiction, influenced by Graham Greene novels. Bookish indie fans, look no further.)

Writing the album was intimate. Tom drafted the nucleus of a song on an unplugged electric guitar and brought it over to Evan’s apartment, where the pair sat in his bedroom, placing percussive beats from a drum machine under nascent melodies, passing a bass back and forth, adding organs and bridges where necessary. “It’s computer music trying extremely hard not to sound like computer music,” Tom jokes. Fearful that limited and expensive studio time would kneecap the project creatively, eroding their charming naivete, the pair re-recorded the album in a storage space owned by Evan’s boss. Ornamentation through collaboration followed: there’s Aaron Goldstein on Pedal Steel in the Go-Betweens’ “Cattle and Cane”-channeling interlude “Patience Wearing Thin,” Eliza Niemi on cello (“18 Cigarettes,” a song loosely inspired by a 1997 Oasis performance of “Don’t Go Away”), and backing harmonies from Carpark labelmates The Beths (on an ode to friendship at a distance, “How Lonely Are You?,” “Always There,” and on the sped-up Syd Barrett stylings of “Under The Rolling Moon.”) While in his native Australia due to covid-19, Evan worked closely with producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture in Helsinki) on Modern Fiction’s finishing touches—at one point, in the mountains of the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, recorded a string quartet (featured on “Fit to Burst,” “Always There,” “Sullen Leering Hope,” “Twere Ever Thus,” “Grand Final Day.”)

It’s danceable, depressive fun, with some relief: in “Always There” and “Sullen Leering Hope,” Modern Fiction’s faithful heart. “There’s a tendency in my writing, because of my world view, to be very bleak.” Tom explains. “A quality I don’t always see in myself and really appreciate in others is the courage to go on.” And yet, the record manages resiliency—enough for pop fans to fall in love with.

DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present MEGATON SWORD’s highly anticipated debut album, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire, on CD, cassette and vinyl LP formats. It was but November of last year when MEGATON SWORD unleashed their glorious debut EP, Niralet, via DYING VICTIMS. Arriving fully formed, virtually without warning – no prior demo recordings existed, at least not publicly – this Swiss quartet evinced an ages-old sound that was wise (and wizened) well beyond their young years. Already, MEGATON SWORD knew the mystery of steel…and wielded it with a startling confidence. And no one knew just how high they could fly, only that they were just getting started. Now, with the arrival of their imminent debut album, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire, MEGATON SWORD are marching into the halls of greatness, with no one to stop them. Retaining the same, well-named lineup – vocalist Uzzy Unchained, guitarist Chris the Axe, bassist Simon the Sorcerer, and drummer Dan Thundersteel – MEGATON SWORD maximize the strengths of the EP and then some, revealing new twists to that mystery of steel whilst retaining the charisma and crunch that endeared them to the true-metal underground the first time around. Indeed, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire is aptly titled, almost ridiculously so: this is true-as-steel HEAVY METAL drunk on high fantasy and the enduring themes of conquest and valor, triumph and tragedy, but rendered in a form even bloodier and possessing more bravado. It’s also more dynamic, maximizing drama between notes and from one passage to the next, each movement a narrative crucial to their conquest.

When Hot Mulligan took to social media to declare themselves #1 Hot New Band, it would have been easy to write off the terminally online emo quartet’s proclamation as yet another irreverent entry into their bag of tricks.

But it turns out Hot Mulligan have a way of manifesting things into existence, whether it’s name-dropping Michelle Branch and Mark Hoppus in song titles and netting responses from both (only one got the joke) or, true to their word, becoming synonymous with the newest waves of pop-punk and emo – err, post-emo, the genre Hot Mully have claimed responsibility for inventing. (Go ahead and fact-check it; they’ll wait.)

When Hot Mulligan took to social media to declare themselves #1 Hot New Band, it would have been easy to write off the terminally online emo quartet’s proclamation as yet another irreverent entry into their bag of tricks.

But it turns out Hot Mulligan have a way of manifesting things into existence, whether it’s name-dropping Michelle Branch and Mark Hoppus in song titles and netting responses from both (only one got the joke) or, true to their word, becoming synonymous with the newest waves of pop-punk and emo – err, post-emo, the genre Hot Mully have claimed responsibility for inventing. (Go ahead and fact-check it; they’ll wait.)

Sie machen keine großen Worte, hampeln nicht 24/7 auf allen Social-Media-Kanälen herum, verzichten auf Werbung und große Worte jeglicher Art und spielen nicht wahllos an jeder Steckdose. Eigentlich ein Unding in der heutigen Zeit. Geschäftsschädigung in eigener Sache, quasi. Und dennoch ist die im Jahr 2009 gegründete Formation aus Tübingen mit jedem ihrer immer stoisch und schlicht mit dem Bandnamen betitelten Alben stets aufs Neue in vieler Munde, genießt mindestens Respekt, bei etlichen Fans gar unantastbaren Kultstatus - und das nicht nur innerhalb der Punk(Rock)-Basis, sondern auch bis tief in die Alterna- und Metalszene hinein. Große Riffs - mal episch, mal punkruppig, mal schmissig, und so gut wie immer nackenbrechend - und der zuweilen zweistimmige Gesang sind die Kerntrademarks des Vierers, dazu spartanische, aufs Bitternötigste reduzierte englische Lyrics sowie ein magnetisierender Groove, für den unzählige andere Musiker töten würden: HYSTERESE at it's very best. Auch mit Album Nummer fünf pflügen HYSTERESE durch eure Herzen. Wie nicht anders zu erwarten, walzt das Quartett seinen schwermütigen Punk-Rock in die nächste Metamorphose. Die riesigen Melodien sind getragen von krachigen Breitwand-Gitarren, mal Shoegaze, mal 80s Rockismus, zeitlos und integer. Und hat da jemand tatsächlich Manilla Road gesagt?

It happens very rarely that you can praise a records without any reservations, this is the case here!!!



A lot of ink has flowed across the page since the Vogue/Swing release (1955) of that founding solo record. The repertoire was made up of pieces that Thelonious was playing in New York over that period, but in trio or with a quartet, here his music shows nakedness, i should say crudeness, whisch is completely overwhelming. It is a balck and white photograph of what is happening inside Monk's head; its sharpness is enthralling, as everyone has known for more than sixty years.



We enter the world of one of the most original artists. Monk, at 37, is at the peak of his art.

Seit fast zwei Jahrzehnten verbreiten der King und seine Cumberland Three ihren Rhythm & Punk-Spaß in der ganzen Welt und bringen jede Menge ausgelassene Energie, Albernheiten, gute Laune und Schweiß mit! Mit diesem Quartett ist jede Show eine Party! Anlässlich ihres 20-jährigen Jubiläums, in dem sie unermüdlich weltweit auftraten und Dutzende von Platten veröffentlichten, haben King Salami & The Cumberland Three tief in ihrem umfangreichen Katalog gegraben, um 16 ihrer besten Tracks auszuwählen. Das Ergebnis ist diese energiegeladene Zusammenstellung, ein Album voller Spaß, das verrückte Klassiker wie ,The Pulpo Dance", ,Pineapple Mama", ,Shake it Wild" und ,Do the Wurst" enthält, neben ihrem weniger bekannten Instrumentalstück ,Itch!", das kürzlich in der Dreamies-Katzenfutter-Fernsehwerbung zu hören war. ENG For nearly two decades, the King and his Cumberland Three have been spreading the Rhythm & Punk grease all around this big old world, bringing along with them buckets of fun, raucous energy, silliness, smiles and sweat! With this quartet, every show is a party!! To mark their 20 years anniversary of relentlessly playing shows around the globe and releasing dozens of records, King Salami & the Cumberland Three have dug deep into their extensive catalogue to select 16 of their most killer tracks. It makes for a fun-packed album which contains wacky classics such as `The Pulpo Dance', `Pineapple Mama', `Shake it Wild' and `Do the Wurst, alongside their lesser-known instrumental `Itch!' that recently featured on the Dreamies cat food TV ad.

VERVE ACOUSTIC SOUNDS SERIE: komplett analog von Ryan K. Smith bei Sterling Sound von den
Originalbändern gemastert, QPR-Pressung (180 g), stabiles Tip-On-Gatefold (Stoughton Printing), wattierte Innenhülle.
McCoy Tyner - Inception
Als Pianist McCoy Tyner im November 1962 sein Debütalbum für Impulse! Records aufnahm, wollte er ein
eigenes musikalisches Statement setzen und sich damit von der modalen Musik abgrenzen, die er damals
mit John Coltrane spielte. Bei den Aufnahmesessions mit Bassist Art Davis und Schlagzeuger Elvin Jones
- beide Kollegen aus dem Coltrane-Ensemble - setzte er deshalb vor allem auf eigene Kompositionen, in
denen er seine unverwechselbaren Voicings und seinen rhythmischen Drive in den Vordergrund stellte. In
der AllMusic-Rezension von Alexander Gelfand heißt es: “Dieses Album gibt Hörern die Möglichkeit zu erfahren, wie ein sehr junger Tyner außerhalb der Grenzen des klassischen John Coltrane Quartet der frühen
60er Jahre klang; es offenbart einen lyrischen Ansatz für das Jazzpiano, der weit entfernt von Tyners reifem
Stil zu sein scheint.”

Considered the most accomplished modern jazz harpist, Dorothy Ashby (1932-1986) established the harp as an improvising jazz instrument, beyond earlier use as a novelty or background orchestral instrument. She proved the harp could play bebop as adeptly as the instruments commonly associated with jazz. Presented here is one of her best albums, Dorothy Ashby Plays for Beautiful People (Prestige PR7639 - also issued as In a Minor Groove), a 1958 quartet session featuring venerable players Frank Wess, Herman Wright, and Roy Haynes.

REPRESS ON SILVER VINYL . COMES WITH 24”x24” POSTER + DOWNLOAD CARD + GATEFOLD JACKET.


On The Beths’ album Expert In A Dying Field, Elizabeth Stokes’ songwriting positions her somewhere between being a novelist and a documentarian. The songs collected here are autobiographical, but they’re also character sketches of relationships – platonic, familial, romantic – and more importantly, their aftermaths. The shapes and ghosts left in absences. The question that hangs in the air: what do you do with how intimately versed you’ve become in a person, once they’re gone from your life?

The third LP from the New Zealand quartet houses 12 jewels of tight, guitar-heavy songs that worm their way into your head, an incandescent collision of power-pop and skuzz. With Expert, The Beths wanted to make an album meant to be experienced live, for both the listeners and themselves. They wanted it to be fun -- to hear, to play -- in spite of the prickling anxiety throughout the lyrics, the fear of change and struggle to cope.

Most of Expert was recorded at guitarist Jonathan Pearce’s studio on Karangahape Road in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand) -- and sometimes in the building's cavernous stairwell at 1am -- toward the end of 2021, until they were interrupted by a four-month national lockdown. They traded notes remotely for months, songwriting from afar and fleshing out the arrangements alone, the first time they’d written together in such a way. The following February, The Beths left the country for the first time in more than two years to tour across the US, and simultaneously finish mixing the album on the road. That latter half felt more collaborative, with everyone on-hand to trade notes in real time, until it all culminated in a chaotic three-day studio mad-dash in Los Angeles. There, Expert finally became the record they were hearing in their heads.

Expert is an extension of the same skuzzy palette the band has built across their catalog, pop hooks embedded in incisive indie rock. The album’s title track “Expert In A Dying Field” introduces the thesis for the record: “How does it feel to be an expert in a dying field? How do you know it’s over when you can’t let go?” Stokes asks. “Love is learned over time ‘til you’re an expert in a dying field.”

The rest is a capsule of The Beths’ most electrifying and exciting output, a sonic spectrum: “Your Side” is a forlorn and sincere love song, emotive; while “Silence is Golden,” with its propulsive drum line and stop-start staccato of a guitar line winding up and down, is one of the band’s sharpest and most driving. “When You Know You Know” skews a bit groovier, pure pop and a natural addition to the band’s live set. “Knees Deep” was written last minute, but yields one of the best guitar lines on Expert. There’s a certain chaos across the 12 tracks, the palpable joy of playing music with long-time friends colliding with the raw nerves of pain.

Stokes strings it all together through her singular songwriting lens, earnest and self-effacing, zeroing in on the granules of doubt and how they snowball. Did I do the wrong thing? Or did you? And are we still good people at the end of it? She isn’t interested in villains, but instead interested in just telling the story. That insecurity and thoughtfulness, translated into universality and understanding, has been the guiding light of The Beths’ output since 2016. In the face of pain, there’s no dwelling on internal anguish - instead, through The Beths’ music, our shortcomings are met with acceptance. And Expert In A Dying Field is the most tactile that tenderness has been.

Der Altsaxophonist und Flötist Alan Braufman trat erstmals in den 1970er Jahren in der New Yorker Loft-Jazz-Szene als einzigartige Persönlichkeit in Erscheinung. Sein Debütalbum ,Valley of Search" aus dem Jahr 1975 wurde später als Meilenstein des Spiritual Jazz und Free Jazz anerkannt. Nach Jahrzehnten außerhalb des Rampenlichts kehrte Braufman mit einer neuen Welle der Anerkennung zurück und veröffentlichte 2020 und 2024 zwei hochgelobte Alben, die ihn sowohl als unverzichtbaren Veteranen als auch als wichtige zeitgenössische Präsenz neu etablierten. Anthem for Peace wurde an einem einzigen Tag im Herbst 2025 aufgenommen und ist ein völlig neues Studioalbum, das Braufman in der Gegenwart einfängt. An der Spitze eines Quartetts mit der Vibraphonistin Patricia Brennan, dem Bassisten Luke Stewart und dem Schlagzeuger Chad Taylor präsentiert er prägnante, eingängige Kompositionen, die fließend zwischen spirituellen Hymnen, beschwingtem Post-Bop und Free Jazz wechseln. Brennans Vibraphon - akustisch schimmernd und gelegentlich elektronisch bearbeitet - verleiht dem Ganzen Tiefe und Farbe, während Stewart und Taylor eine eng verzahnte, reaktionsschnelle Rhythmusgruppe bilden. Das Ergebnis ist Musik, die ,verspielt und leicht, aber dennoch texturreich" (NPR) ist: optimistisch, fokussiert und von einem klaren Gefühl der Vorwärtsbewegung getragen.

Equal Vision Records, Dine Alone Records, and The Flatliners are thrilled to announce the release of Cold World, the Juno-nominated Canadian punk quartet’s brand new studio album, arriving Friday, May 8. The album is available now for pre-order / pre-save / pre-add. Where 2022’s New Ruin wrestled with the inherited damage left behind by the previous generation, Cold World confronts that legacy as something more distant — a ghost, a fading memory. If New Ruin captured the rage of realization, Cold World lives in the aftermath of clarity. Welcome to the future. Leading the charge is first single “Good, You?”, a snotty, tongue-in-cheek anthem that takes aim at toxic masculinity and the all-too-familiar fear of opening up about our feelings. Fans can watch the Jeff Powers-directed music video on YouTube and stream the track now on all platforms. Light Grey Marble available limited to 250 Rude Records Exclusive.

LP aus der ”Luminessence” Serie.
Ein wesentlicher Meilenstein des europäischen Jazz der 1970er Jahre und zugleich eine Aufnahme, die
auch heute noch großartig klingt: Balladyna übte einen nachhaltigen Einfluss auf nachfolgende Generationen improvisierender Musiker aus – vor allem in Polen und Finnland, aber auch darüber hinaus. Wie
Tomasz Stańko selbst einmal sagte: „Mein internationaler Name wurde durch Balladyna geprägt.“ Auf der
Aufnahme wird der polnische Trompeter von seinem engen Weggefährten Edward Vesala am Schlagzeug
begleitet („Wir waren wie Brüder“, sagte Stanko später), sowie von Saxophonist Tomasz Szukalski und
Basslegende Dave Holland, den Produzent Manfred Eicher zu der Session eingeladen hatte. Obwohl es das
Debüt des Trompeters für das Label war, präsentiert die Aufnahme Stankos unverwechselbare melodische
Stimme bereits in einem ausgereiften Rahmen, während seine früheren, freieren Einflüsse noch im explosiven
Unterstrom der Band mitschwingen. Das Quartett erkundet die sieben Eigenkompositionen des Albums
mit großer rhythmischer Dynamik und melodischer Neugier. Balladyna wurde 1975 im Tonstudio Bauer
aufgenommen und von Manfred Eicher produziert.
Neu aufgelegt im Rahmen von ECM’s Luminessence-Reihe, erscheint Balladyna in einer Tip-on-GatefoldHülle mit neuen Linernotes und Fotos aus dem Archiv

OXXON, drittes Album nun auf Vinyl! 1995 von Sänger und Gitarrist Ralf Lisson gegründet und stehen OXXON seit jeher für kompromisslosen Punkrock und Rock'n'Roll. Gemeinsam mit Sascha Riegger (Leadgitarre), Brösel (Bass) und Guido (Drums) vereint die Band eingängige Melodien mit kraftvollem Drive unddirekter Attitüde. OXXON transportieren Wut, Energie und Leidenschaft in Songs, die zwischen schnellen Punkhymnen, treibenden Midtempo-Nummern und rauen Straßenballaden pendeln. Zahlreiche Konzerte führten die Band quer durch Europa, wo sie sich die Bühne mit Szenegrößen wie Donots, Spermbirds, Sonny Vincent oder den Lurkers teilte. Aus dem einstigen Punkrock-Trio ist längst ein eingespieltes Quartett in klassischer Rock'n'Roll-Besetzung geworden - seit 15 Jahren konstant, laut und unabhängig. OXXON funktionieren auf jeder Bühne: nahbar, intensiv und mit der Fähigkeit, ihr Publikum nachhaltig zu begeistern. Nach der CD-Veröffentlichung 2024 erscheint das Album im April nun LP - konsequent, laut und wie gemacht für die Rille: 180g red/ black marbled vinyl, 500 Stück handnummeriert mit Einleger

The album Brubeck Digs Disney features the classic Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond , Norman Bates , and Joe Morello performing a set of songs from Walt Disney movies. This special edition includes two songs from the same sessions not included on the original LP. This was Norman Bates' last album as the bassist with the quartet before his replacement Eugene Wright took on the role. "Inspired by a trip with his family to Disneyland, Dave Brubeck recorded eight songs taken from Disney movies. The funny part is that while all of these songs were already in the Brubeck Quartet's repertoire, the results are still pleasing." - **** Scott Yanow, AllMusic

[a] Alice In Wonderland [from Alice In Wonderland]
[b] Give A Little Whistle [from Pinocchio]
[c] Heigh-Ho [from Snow White]
[d] So This Is Love [from Cinderella]
[e] When You Wish Upon A Star [from Pinocchio]
[f] Someday My Prince Will Come [from Snow White]
[g] One Song [from Snow White]
[h] Very Good Advice [from Alice In Wonderland]

"DEFIANT is an atude. Music that reacts, challenges the rules, and burns with creave fire.
Inspired by the renowned internaonal series The Mood Mosaic, this collecon captures the
most provocave side of jazz: the heat of hard bop, the risk of the avant-garde, spiritual
excursions, and fearless experimentaon.
Every track dares, every voice communicates something authenc: no safety nets, no surrender.
Defiant Jazz is for listeners who don't follow the path, but collect the music that rewrites it."

PISS in collaboration with The state51 Conspiracy is excited to release a limited 7” pressing of “three demos”.
In the span of two years, PISS has gone from a complete unknown in the Vancouver underground scene to an international touring act. The noise punk quartet has never released a full-length record; their reputation grew from their frenetic, intimate live show and three self-produced demos.
These demos were recorded in Paterson’s basement apartment. For the vocal tracks, Paterson and Zantingh drove an old camper van to an industrial neighborhood of Vancouver to avoid disturbing their neighbors. They were mixed by Paterson, with drums for two of three tracks engineered and tracked by Chris Bede.

Nonesuch Records releases Let X=X, by Laurie Anderson with Sexmob. This triple-LP/double-CD set was recorded live during a 2023 tour by Anderson and the jazz band Sexmob – Steven Bernstein and Briggan Krauss on brass, Kenny Wollesen on percussion, Douglas Wieselman on winds and guitar, and Tony Scherr on bass. Its cover and interior packaging feature paintings by Anderson. The album features 23 songs, including many favourites from throughout Anderson’s career, performed in new arrangements – plus one by Lou Reed and Metallica, ‘Junior Dad’. Anderson and Sexmob play more US and international dates this spring and summer (details below).

The New York Times said Anderson and Sexmob’s concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) ‘wasn’t a historical recreation of past recordings; Sexmob’s sound is a beefier one than on Anderson’s albums. With musicians who can double on electric guitar and bass clarinet, its members offered a rich range of textural variation throughout the evening.’

Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for more than 40 years. In a recent 60 Minutes profile, Anderson Cooper said she ‘is a pioneer of the avant-garde, but... that doesn’t begin to describe what she creates... It’s experienced by audiences who come to see her perform: singing, telling stories, and playing strange violins of her own invention... she blends the beautiful and the bizarre, challenging audiences with homilies and humor. She blurs boundaries across music, theater, dance, and film.’ The Washington Post has said she ‘doesn’t just tell stories; she draws out every word with a kind of physical pleasure, tasting its flavor as she probes the everyday mysteries of life.’

Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records, the critically lauded Life on a String, in 2001. Her subsequent releases on the label include Live in New York (2002); Homeland (2010); the soundtrack to her acclaimed film Heart of a Dog (2015); and her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Landfall (2018). Nonesuch released a re-mastered edition of Big Science in 2007 for its 25th anniversary, followed by a vinyl LP re-issue in 2021; the album includes Anderson’s beloved, surprise hit, song, ‘O Superman’, which also is featured on Let X=X. Her recent Nonesuch release was 2024’s Amelia, about renowned female aviator Amelia Earhart’s tragic last flight.

Anderson’s virtual-reality film La Camera Insabbiata, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience, and, in 2018, Skira Rizzoli published her book All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code, the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date. Recent exhibitions and installations of Anderson’s work include Habeas Corpus at New York’s Park Avenue Armory; her largest exhibition to date, The Weather, at Washington, DC’s Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art; and Looking into a Mirror Sideways at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, which was her largest European exhibition to date.

Laurie Anderson was awarded the 2024 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, along with Christopher Nolan and David Attenborough, and the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet in her honour: Asteroid 270588, Laurieanderson. That same year, she was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Following the two EPs "Epoxy Plains" and "Wipe Clean", which were released in 2024, the debut album from the Glasgow Post Punk/Rock quartet and currently the only British band on DevilDuck is finally here... "Human Poultry" is an observation of the situations, emotions and characters the band encountered during their first two years together in Glasgow. It questions how we spend our time and how that decision is influenced by external factors. Conscious Pilot are Joe Laycock (vocals & guitar), Emmy Leishman (guitar & vocals), Jack Sharp (bass & vocals) and drummer Chris McCrory, who recorded and mixed the album together with Seth Evans (Black Midi, Shame, Geordie Greep) and Adele Phillips (Fontaines DC) at Rak Studios in London - Felix Davis (Geese, The Vaccines) then put his masterful touch on it. The artwork is by Scottish painter Keiti Forbes.

Zusammenarbeit von Khruangbin und dem malischen Gitarrist Vieux Farka Touré zu Ehren von Vieux' Vater Ali Farka Touré. Der "König des Wüstenblues" galt als einer der renommiertesten und talentiertesten Gitarristen, die Afrika je hervorgebracht hat. Das Rolling Stone Magazin wählte den 2006 verstorbenen Musiker unter die einhundert besten Gitarristen aller Zeiten. In Alis Sound verschmolzen traditionelle malische Musikstile mit verschiedenen Elementen des Blues, wobei er in den lokalen Sprachen Songhay, Tamasheq, Fulfulde und Bambara sang. Das Ergebnis war die Schaffung eines bahnbrechenden neuen Genres, das heute als "Wüstenblues" bekannt ist und Ali drei Grammy-Auszeichnungen, weltweite Anerkennung und den Spitznamen "afrikanischer John Lee Hooker" einbrachte. Die Kollaboration zwischen Khruangbin und Vieux Farka Touré zollt Alis Vermächtnis Tribut, indem sie einige seiner wirkungsvollsten Werke neu interpretiert und mit verschiedenen Sounds experimentiert, ohne die Integrität des Originals zu vernachlässigen. Das Ergebnis ist eine würdige Hommage an eine Legende, die eine erfrischende westafrikanische Mischung aus musikalischen Referenzen schafft. Die acht Songs auf "Ali" sind Vieux' Favoriten und repräsentieren viele verschiedene Abschnitte in Alis Karriere - darunter bekannte Songs wie das ursprünglich mit Ry Cooder aufgenommene "Diarabi", obskure Titel wie "Alakarra" und alles dazwischen. "Ali Hala Abada" ist ein langsames und meditatives Instrumentalstück, das durch die Leadstimme von Vieux hervorgehoben wird, in die Lee ihren verankerten Begleitrhythmus perfekt einfließen lässt. Mit "Ali" schaffen die Künstler eine respektvolle Erinnerung an Alis Leben. Highlights und B-Seiten werden aus seinem Katalog gleichermaßen gewürdigt. Dabei bewahrt sich das Quartett die natürliche Improvisation seiner Musik und bringt auch ihre eigene ein. Es passt, dass Vieux das texanische Trio auswählte, um das Erbe seines Vaters zu ehren. Der psychedelische Funk von Khruangbin findet inzwischen weltweiten Anklang.

Die Traumstimme von Joshua Redmans Album „where are we“ mit ihrem Blue-Note-Solo-Debüt!
Als Saxofonist Joshua Redman 2023 sein Album „where are we“ veröffentlichte, ließ nicht nur er damit
aufhorchen, sondern auch die Sängerin auf allen Tracks: Gabrielle Cavassa. Das weltweite Echo war imposant, in Deutschland hieß es “Top-Sängerin“ (Stereoplay) und “bringen die Luft im Studio zum Flirren“
(Süddeutsche Zeitung). Bei der darauffolgenden Welttournee des Redman Quartet begeisterte die Sängerin
erneut das Publikum auch in Deutschland.
Mit ”Diavola“ gibt Gabrielle Cavassa jetzt ihren Einstand bei Blue Note. Dort kann sie erstmals auf
großer Bühne ihr Können als Sängerin und Songwriterin zeigen, sowie als Interpretin von Jazz-Standards
(z.B. “Prisoner of Love“) und klassischem Pop (“Could It Be Magic“) bis hin zu brasilianischen Songs (“To
Say Goodbye“ von Edu Lobo). Cavassas Stimme ist sinnlich und intensiv, obwohl sie mit den Melodien
und Tempi spielt, bleiben Seele und Aussage der Songs intakt.
“Diavola“ wurde koproduziert von Joshua Redman und Don Was und überzeugt auch durch brillante
Arrangements und exquisite Musiker: Jeff Parker an der Gitarre, Paul Cornish am Klavier, Larry Grenadier
am Bass, Brian Blade am Schlagzeug und Joshua Redman bei zwei Titeln am Tenorsaxofon.

Die US-Kultband veröffentlicht ihr viertes Album.

Als die Idee für ein viertes Album (zum zweiten Mal) aufkam, war American Football klar, dass es düsterer werden würde. Nach einer einjährigen Welttour mit ausverkauften Konzerten zum 25-jährigen Bandjubiläum und der Veröffentlichung eines Coveralbums (mit Songs von Iron & Wine, Ethel Cain, Blondshell, u.a.) tat sich das Quartett mit Produzent/Toningenieur Sonny Diperri (My Bloody Valentine, M83, Kurt Vile) zusammen, um sein bis dato essentiellstes Album aufzunehmen. LP4 verbindet atmosphärische Soundlandschaften mit emotionaler Katharsis im Post-Rock-Stil. Anders als alles, was American Football bisher aufgenommen hat, fügt sie sich dennoch nahtlos in ihren stetig wachsenden und beeindruckenden Katalog ein. LP4 ist ein ambitioniertes künstlerisches Statement einer Band, die die Grenzen von Genre und Kultur immer wieder neu definiert. Es ist ein wunderschönes und vielschichtiges Album, das sich Zeit nimmt, seine Schönheit zu entfalten, während es gleichzeitig die dunkleren Seiten anklingen lässt, die sich so gut wie möglich verbergen. Das Album enthält Gastvocals von Brendan Yates (Turnstile), Wisp und Caithlin De Marrais (Rainer Maria).

Nach einem turbulenten Jahrzehnt, in dem er häufiger im Gefängnis als auf der Bühne oder in einem
Aufnahmestudio anzutreffen war, begann Tenorsaxofonist Dexter Gordon mit einem neuen Vertrag bei
Blue Note Records eine erstaunliche Karriere-Renaissance. Mit den im Mai 1961 im Abstand von nur drei
Tagen in Rudy Van Gelders Tonstudio in Englewood Cliffs aufgenommenen Alben “Doin’ Allright” und
“Dexter Calling” untermauerte er seine Rückkehr zu alter Form mit Bravour. Hervorragend unterstützt von
einem fein besetzten Quartett, wechselte der spielfreudige Saxofonist auf “Dexter Calling” mühelos von
energiegeladenem Swing zu atemberaubenden Balladen.

In this context Jeroen Swinnen and David Martijn needed to find a musical concept to go hand in hand with the story. They opted for a string quartet and an arsenal of old analogue synths (of the series’ era). Thé perfect match as it turned out. Emphasize the beauty, hope and respect on one hand. Translate the elusive, unjust feeling that is addressed in the series on the other. Apart from these 2 central instruments, an old muted upright piano, played by Jeroen, and a guitar, played by David, were also used to express emotion even more.

Humanity from Japanese saxophonist and composer Kazuki Yamanaka contains both turbulence and tranquillity, freedom and discipline, an embracing of uncertainty with a deeply spiritual sense of resolution. The recordings were made in a single day in New York City with a team of extraordinary musicians. He"d already established a firm creative partnership with bass legend Cameron Brown and award-winning pianist Russ Lossing over the past year during their time as recording artists in NYC, and he renewed his fruitful association with outstanding drummer Billy Mintz (Lee Konitz, Charles Lloyd, Alan Broadbent) to complete the quartet. These three have been vital to Kazuki"s compositions that tell the story of his enforced absence from the scene during the pandemic and how he sought to centre himself in the midst of the disruption through contemplation and the development of an inward strength.

Released in 1979, Tete Mbambisa's Did You Tell Your Mother delivers the ultimate blend of African groove with American modal grace, making it one of the all-time classic albums of South African jazz. With Mbambisa presenting original compositions at the piano alongside Basil "Mannenberg" Coetzee on tenor sax and flute, the acoustic quartet featured here is rounded out by Zulu Bidi from the band Batsumi on bass locking in with Dollar Brand drummer Monty Weber. This 2026 reissue presents a flat transfer of the master tapes with album artwork restored using illustrator Hargreaves Ntukwana's original ink drawing.

A self-taught musician, it was as leader of the vocal group The Four Yanks in the early 1960s that Tete Mbambisa’s music career took off. With encouragement from Abdullah Ibrahim, he dedicated himself to the piano and went on to record with The Soul Jazzmen in 1969. Mbambisa's solo recordings from the 1970s, produced by Rashid Vally for the independent As-Shams/The Sun record label, document his creative peak as a recording artist and have contributed to earning him an honorary doctorate and a place among the figureheads of South African jazz history.

Onna Last Live 1983 includes the final performance by the original line-up of Onna, the psych-rock project of revered Japanese manga artist, Keizo Miyanishi. Onna’s legend has largely rested, until now, on one self-released and self-titled seven-inch from 1983. Reissued by Holy Mountain in 2009, its rediscovery, along with several archival live and studio sets that leaked out across the 2000s, signalled to a wider audience the power of Miyanishi’s strikingly hypnotic songwriting. With Onna Last Live 1983, though, we hear the group’s perfect line-up performing at its peak.

While Miyanishi was the core member and conceptualist of Onna, the other members of the group would also go on to make significant contributions to the Japanese underground. Guitarist Michio Kurihara would eventually be known for his membership of YBO2, Ghost and White Heaven, and collaborations with the likes of Boris and Damon & Naomi. Drummer Ken Matsutani formed Marble Sheep & The Run-Down Sun’s Children and The Mickey Guitar Band, while also running the Captain Trip label. Joined by the late bass player Yasui Yutaka, to whom the album is dedicated, this quartet only performed live in 1983; the live set here was recorded at Silver Elephant.

It’s a different line-up to the Onna duo that’s documented on their single. After Miyanishi and fellow manga artist Mafuyu Hiroki recorded that material, Miyanishi decided he wanted to start playing gigs; Hiroki left, and Kurihara, Matsutani and Yutaka joined soon after. This line-up allowed Miyanishi to significantly expand Onna’s powers, leading to a sound that Kurihara once described to Ptolemaic Terrascope magazine as “repetitive and heavy, yet quite orthodox.”

The songs here are simple yet deeply effective in their repetitive power, generally revolving around two or three simply strummed chords for guitar. Bass and drums repeatedly lock into mantra-like grooves as Kurihara’s guitar scales the walls, with Miyanishi’s consumptive moans and sighs sent torquing through FX. The cumulative effect of the seven songs here is very heavy indeed; if the prologue “Always…” drifts beautifully through five minutes of placid, beseeching melancholy, the epilogue, “Never Seen A Light Like This”, spirals out into sixteen minutes of glazed-over psych-rock, completely monomaniacal and thrilling in its slow-motion tumult.

Throughout, you can hear Miyanishi and co. reaching for something ineffable, something beyond and between the notes. It’s a phenomenal performance; it’s also no surprise that the group disintegrated after this show, given its intensity. Matsutani and Yutaka left after the Silver Elephant show, with Miyanishi and Kurihara continuing through the first half of 1984 firstly as a duo, and then a trio with new drummer Yoshiki Ueonyama. Kurihara left soon after. But Onna Last Live 1983 is proof plenty of the powers of the original Onna quartet, sending their Rallizes/Velvets dream-mantras off into darkened, stormy skies.

VERVE ACOUSTIC SOUNDS SERIE: komplett analog von Ryan K. Smith bei Sterling Sound von den
Originalbändern gemastert, QPR-Pressung (180 g), stabiles Tip-On-Gatefold (Stoughton Printing), wattierte Innenhülle.
“Africa/Brass”, im September 1961 veröffentlicht, war Coltranes erstes Album für das noch junge Label Impulse! Records. Das Werk markierte einen Wendepunkt in der Karriere des Saxofonisten und gilt laut dem
“AllMusic Guide to Jazz” als “Schlüsselwerk für das Verständnis des Weges, den John Coltrane in seiner
letzten Schaffensphase mit seiner Musik einschlug”. Für das im Studio von Rudy Van Gelder aufgenommene
und von Creed Taylor produzierte Album erweiterte Coltrane sein Quartett zu einem großen Ensemble mit
bis zu sechzehn Musikern. Coltranes leidenschaftliche, freie Improvisationen auf dem Tenor- und Sopransaxofon stehen dabei in reizvollem Kontrast zu dem kompakten, rhythmischen Sound des Blechbläser-lastigen
Orchesters unter der Leitung von Cal Massey. Die Arrangements für die Big Band wurden von Eric Dolphy
und McCoy Tyner erst während der Proben im Studio angefertigt

Compare the best of British jazz circa 1963 with American sounds from labels such as Prestige, Tangerine and World Pacific. This album captures the period when rhythm and blues is emerging as the dominant club sound, forcing Soho jazz clubs to change their music policy in order to survive. On the British side, you’ve got Ronnie Scott’s arrangement of Last Minute Bossa Nova; Bang!, taken from Dick Morrissey Quartet’s first session for the BBC’s World Service, recorded around the time of the release of their first album Have You Heard? The version here is take two. You can hear take one along with the rest of the eleven-track session on R&B18 Jazz For Moderns.
Early In The Morning is a Ginger Baker/Jack Bruce arrangement of the traditional work song realized as a repeated blues riff, and is the first ever recording that is recognizably British Blues. Graham Bond features on alto sax along with Bruce and Baker together as members of the Johnny Burch Octet heard playing live at a BBC staff party from March 1963. Side Two features Jazz Stateside, such as West Coast guitarist Johnny Hartsman, Gene Ammons veering into proto jazz-funk on Jungle Soul, aka Ca' Purange plus a couple of top notch Hammond workouts from Terrell Prude and Charles Kynard.

These two very different sessions involving John Surman and Mike Osborne have much in common. They both share a wonderful sense of liberation, of the joy of making music together and of finding collectively new ways of making jazz happen. And even more importantly, they speak volumes about the eclecticism and openness of British jazz in those years of the mid- to late-sixties and about the creative ambitions of John Surman. In the current absence in the market of his first LP, this is an essential purchase for Surman fans. Notes by Duncan Heining with suggestions from John Surman. These sessions have never previously appeared officially in any form.
Side One 26.2.67 - Mike Osborne (as), John Surman (ss, bs), Harry Miller (b), Alan Jackson (d) - Side Two 17.7.68 - Sterling Betancourt for Alan Jackson and add Russ Henderson (p)

April Records proudly presents the new album from Danish trombonist and composer Lis Wessberg. Her most personal album to date, In The Wake of Blue is a song-driven work exploring transience, love, and transformation. Expanding her writing while remaining rooted in her distinctive instrumental voice, Wessberg creates an intimate musical landscape where lyric, melody, and texture carry equal weight. Wessberg has established herself as a leading voice on the European jazz scene through her band Yellow Map and a series of acclaimed releases on April Records. Her previous album, Twain Walking (2024), marked her first step into English-language songwriting and earned a Danish Music Award nomination in 2025 for the track Behind the Walls. In The Wake of Blue develops this direction further. The album draws on images from nature - sea, tides, clouds, mist, and birds - used as emotional anchors rather than abstractions. These elements frame songs that move from uncertainty and loss toward openness, connection, and renewal. The title reflects this arc: "blue" as melancholy, depth, and memory, and what emerges in its wake. Vocalist Veronika Rud is central to the album"s sound, bringing vulnerability and clarity to the songs. Rather than a traditional singer-led project, the music unfolds as a dialogue between voice and trombone, with Wessberg"s warm, airy tone mirroring and extending each song"s emotional core. At times the two move in close unison; elsewhere, they diverge and reconnect. The core ensemble - Steen Rasmussen (piano and keys), Lennart Ginman (bass), and Jeppe Gram (drums) - provides a responsive, understated foundation, while string quartet Live Strings appear on two tracks, expanding the ensemble"s depth and resonce. In The Wake of Blue offers a quietly assured statement from an artist continuing to refine a voice that speaks as clearly through brass as it does through words.

With Dispersion, Loom & Thread return to the volatile architecture of the expanded piano trio - and quietly fracture it from within.

Daniel Klein (drums), Tobias Fröhlich (double bass) and Tom Schneider (keys, sampler) remain the sole agents on stage and in the final recording. The triangle holds. And yet, the field has expanded. For their second studio album, the trio fed their improvisations with the timbral signatures of guest saxophone and vibraphone players - not just as additional voices to be featured, but also as material to be absorbed, atomized and redistributed. The result is not augmentation but thorough refraction.

Where the debut album explored the recursive labyrinth of Schneider's live sampling of his own piano, Dispersion introduces an external grain into the feedback system. Breath and metal. Reed turbulence and struck resonance. The trio sampled extended improvisations by saxophone and vibes players: Victor Fox, Asger Nissen, Volker Heuken, and L&T's own Daniel Klein; dissected their attacks, overtones and decay curves, and integrated these fragments into the trio's internal circuitry. What emerges is a play of presences without bodies - instrumental ghosts circulating through the dense weave of rhythm and keys.

At first, one might hear the familiar relational tension: Klein's polyrhythmic elasticity interlocking with Fröhlich's tensile double bass figurations, Schneider poised at the hinge between tonal field and percussive impulse. But soon, the surface splinters - again. A vibraphone shimmer appears, yet no mallets are visible. A reed multiphonic surges through the texture, bending space between bass and drums. These events are neither quotations nor overlays; they are redistributed energies, dispersed across the trio's grammar. A digital multidimensional interplay ensues.

If the first album unfolded as a two-tiered game - live phrase and sampled reflection - Dispersion adds a further axis. The sampled materials from other improvisers are stripped of their erstwhile two-way interaction and reconstituted as malleable particles. Signifier detached from origin, resonance detached from gesture. The trio navigates a constantly shifting topology in which acoustic memory and electronic manipulation are indistinguishable.

Crucially, the album never abandons the physical urgency of three musicians reacting in real time. The additional timbral layers do not thicken the texture into opacity; rather, they introduce stark points and arrows of diffraction. Density opens into prismatic clarity. Lines splinter and regroup. What seems like a quartet or quintet collapses back into three bodies negotiating an expanded field.

Dispersion is not about addition but about distribution - of agency, of timbre, of temporal perspective. It is an album in which the trio setting becomes a site of multiplicity without surrendering its immediacy. A dissolution not only of the divide between present experience and memory, but between inside and outside, self and other.

Three musicians. Countless vectors. A music that fractures in order to cohere.

CREDITS:
Tom Schneider: piano & sampler
Tobi Fröhlich: double bass
Daniel Klein: drums & percussion

sample sources:
Victor Fox: tenor saxophone
Asger Nissen: alto saxophone
Volker Heuken: vibes
Daniel Klein: vibes

Recorded by Martin Dressler at Bauer Studios, Ludwigsburg.
Mixed & mastered by Martin Ruch.
Artwork by Viet Hoa Le.

First time reissue of JP free jazz rarity, pre-Seikatsu Kōjyō Iinkai group.

The single album self-released by the quartet Shūdan Sokai in 1977 is one of the most vital documents of mid-seventies Japanese free jazz, documenting Tokyo’s free scene at the precise moment when it began to shift to a handful of tiny venues on the western fringes of the city. In Free Jazz in Japan, Teruto Soejima identifies the extant venue Aketa no Mise in Nishi-Ogikubo as the pioneer of this decamping from the centre: a cramped basement beneath a rice shop, seating just 20 people. Musician-run, operated on a shoestring, these spaces offered a vital site for community, creativity, and a small measure of financial independence — “even though it was in a basement, in spirit it was a loft.”

Among the most active of the new venues was Alone in Hachiōji, nearly an hour from Shinjuku, in a district shaped by universities, lower rents, and a thriving counterculture. Originally opened in 1973 as a jazu kissa, Alone was unusually spacious and equipped with a stage, grand piano, and drum kit. Around 1974, Junji Mori and Yasuhiro Sakakibara began working there, booking free jazz players on weekends and establishing the venue as a crucial hub. Mori recalls early appearances by figures including Kazutoki Umezu, Toshinori Kondo, and others who would define the scene.

In early 1976, Umezu and pianist Yoriyuki Harada — recently returned from New York’s loft jazz environment, where they had played with musicians such as David Murray and William Parker — formed Shūdan Sokai with Mori and drummer Takashi Kikuchi. The name, meaning “mass evacuation,” pointed to their self-chosen exile in Hachiōji. With Alone as their home base, the quartet developed a music characterized by an infectious sense of enjoyment and a willingness to integrate free jazz with elements of song structure. Harada switched between piano and bass; the group experimented with rap-like vocal pieces, jabbering nursery rhymes over bass rhythms.

They returned to Alone on December 24 to record Sono zen’ya (Eve), releasing it on their own Des Chonboo Records, partially funded by advertisements from local businesses printed on the rear cover. The closing “Ballad for Seshiru,” dedicated to Harada’s newborn son, unfolds over a delicate piano melody that moves into emphatic chords as intertwining alto lines rise and spiral.

Alone closed in September 1977, and Shūdan Sokai soon dissolved, later morphing into the expanded Seikatsu Kōjyō Iinkai Orchestra. What remains is a recording rooted in a specific place and moment: a fiercely independent scene sustained by small rooms, close listening, and collective commitment.