MUSIQUE MACHINE

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UK’s MUSIQUE MACHINE just reviewed two of our 4 new albums. TONUS’ Analog Deviation proves to be a difficult album, although one of our faves over here at the office, but luckily compensated with the 4 out of 5 stars rated review of TRANSITION UNIT’s debut album ‘Face Value’. Both albums are available here.

“4 out of 5 stars rating! Face Value is an improv album that rewardingly shifts between darting angularity, glum moodiness, and pulse-pumping manic-ness. Transition Unit is a three-piece project- bringing together two Portuguese musicians saxophonist José Lencastre and pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro, with Belgian guitarist Dirk Serries. The CD release appears on New Wave Of Jazz- a label focusing on the more difficult/ noisy/ experimental side of the improv/ modern composition/ jazz genres. The CD comes presented in a four-panel mini monochrome gatefold- on its front cover, we have a photo of a twisted & turned mosque with a dense shadow beneath, and on the back cover minimal text.  This release is Ltd to 200 physical copies and can be purchased directly from here. The album takes in six tracks in all- which have runtimes between four and ten minutes. We open with “Idea Assumption” which brings together long grating bows & jarring neck picks, tip-taping to cascading keywork, and piping-at-points- almost sassily harmonic horn work. The tracks start things off in a rewardingly off-centre tone. As we move through the record we have the tinkling key darts, manic horn honks, and jagged strum ‘n’ bay of “A Western Decorative Pattern”- a great breathtaking, and heart-pounding track- which is akin to a massive caffeine, while trying to tap-dance.  There’s the title track-  which is a mix of creaking &  atmospheric pick/ twang, moodily baying horn tones, and taunt/ fraught key cascading. With the album playing out with the nearing eleven minutes of “The Utopian Dadaist”. It opens with a tautly woven sound mat of rapidly darting keys,  busy neck picks, and this sort of semi-galloping horn piping. As the track progresses the whole thing takes off in a wonderful manic/ speeding manner, before shifting through slowing deconstruction, and moody pipes, flirts, and bounds. As far as I can gather Face Value is the first release from Transition Unit – though of course all of the members have been active within the European improv/avant-jazz movement. And I must say it’s both a wonderful engaging album, which marvellously darts, twists, and broods… Let’s hope there is more to come from Transition Unit!.” Musique Machine – UK

“Analog Deviation takes in two twenty-five-to-thirty-minute examples of wandering, sparse, at times abstract or noisy improv.  Tonus is a three-piece collective bringing together Dirk Serries- Archtop guitar, Benedict Taylor- Viola, and Martina Verhoeven- grand piano. On the front cover of this CD album, we find a monochrome picture of what looks like the stone archway/ crude flint celling of a crypt, and there most certainly is a feeling of grim tone/ mood here, though equally, we get a feeling of discord/ lo-fi noise sourness too. The two tracks featured are simply titled “Inbound” and “Outbound”. The first tack slips into awkward audio existence with a pared-back/ lose mix of angular sting fork, guitar neck grate, and inside piano pick ‘n’ knock. By the eight-half-minute mark,  we’ve certainly moved into gloomier realms- as we find bleak key hits, eerie creaks, brooding twangs, and sinister plucks.  Before later on shifting into starker/pared-back mixes of grates, sears, knocks and sudden baying fumbles/bounds/ discordant scrabs. The second track is the longest of the two at nearly half an hour mark. We open with a decidedly loose/spaced-out mix of key plucks, drags ‘n’ creaks, and brooding key strikes/slides. By the ten-and-a-half-minute mark, we find a sparse/stretched-out flow of string scrab/ bay, crude textual bang ‘n’ knock, and circling creak ‘n’ death bed twang. Before later shifting into crude key descend,  neck scuttle, and dense fiddle ‘n’ grate. Analog Deviation very much sits at the more sparse, loose, and abstract side of the improv genre. I can certainly appreciate both the player’s talents, and what they are trying to do here- but more often than not it felt just a bit too pared-back/ awkward for my tastes.” Musique Machine – UK

JOSÉ LENCASTRE & DIRK SERRIES

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Some label-related news : While José Lencastre and Dirk Serries are also member of the fine LEMADI TRIO (with Martina Verhoeven), they have been playing together in duo.  For this limited 7 inch lathe cut release José and Dirk are in prime duo form.  On alto sax and acoustic archtop guitar, and recorded at the Oude Klooster chapel in Brecht, Belgium, two beautiful examples of their interaction and ability to find an unified sound that is clearly their own, between the lyrical and warm tones of José on the alto sax and the spicky wilful style of Dirk on the guitar. 

Information : This title will be available for purchase on lathe cut vinyl between 3 November and 10 November. Any orders placed during this period will be cut and fulfilled. Afterward, the title will be deleted on vinyl. While lathe cut vinyl is beautiful, it is also expensive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive to produce. Each lathe cut record is made in real time, making every piece a unique work of art. Please note that orders are limited to one copy per person or household. After these 7 days the order will be closed and the release goes into production so get your copy now here :
https://championversion.bandcamp.com/album/arcas-callisto

MARTINA VERHOEVEN QUINTET

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MARTINA VERHOEVEN QUINTET is probably one of the most free jazz and exciting live bands on our label. Fully routed in tradition but executed by a quintet of 5 excellent free improvisers.
Dutch magazine Moors Magazine shines their light on the album with a very sympathetic and positive review.

“Het Martina Verhoeven Quintet draait rond de verbazingwekkende pianovirtuositeit van de Belgische multi-instrumentaliste Martina Verhoeven.  De musici die ze hier rond zich verzameld heeft zijn niet de minsten in de jazz/improvisatiewereld. Dirk Serries op akoestische gitaar, Onno Govaert op drums, Gonçalo Almeida op contrabas, en Colin Webster op saxofoon. Ik heb hier al eerder aandacht besteed aan een album van deze improv-superband – Driven – live at Roadburn, en nu is de opname uitgebracht die ze maakten in het Tilburgse Paradox op 12 februari 2023. Denk dan niet dat meer van hetzelfde krijgt, want dan onderschat je deze vijf topmusici schromelijk. Ik ga hier iets tamelijk ongewoons doen – ik knip maar liefst zes fragmenten van iets minder dan een minuut uit dat optreden dat drie kwartier duurde en nodig je hierbij uit tot een stukje close listening. Dat wil zeggen dat je elk fragment minstens twee of drie keer aandachtig beluistert. Dan weet je uiteraard nog niet hoe deze musici de overgangen van intieme, ingetogen stukken naar de wilde, uitbundige delen voor elkaar kregen, maar iki hoop dat ik je met deze fragmenten nieuwsgierig genoeg gemaakt heb om het optreden een keer in zijn overrompelende geheel te gaan beluisteren. Dat kan via bandcamp, waar je het album, dat in een zeer fraai hoesje is gestoken (met wonderbaarlijk mooie foto’s van Martina Verhoeven, die vele talenten blijkt te hebben, ook voor een zacht prijsje kunt aanschaffen.”

TWO MORE REVIEWS

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EYAL HAREUVENI has been reviewing our releases almost since day one, for which we are really grateful. We need these voices out there to share the word that this music is alive. For SALT PEANUTS he just wrote two short reviews on LEMADI TRIO’s Canonical Discourse and TRANSITION UNIT’s Face Value in a feature on José Lencastre’s recent albums, collaborations and works.

TRANSITION UNIT – FACE VALUE
“Transition Unit is a newly-founded trio of Lencastre, Series and fellow Portuguese pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro (who plays in Lencastre’s Nau Quartet and of RED Trio), recorded at Estúdio Timbuktu in Lisbon in May 2023. Serries traveled to Portugal to play a few duo performances with Lencastre but then Pinheiro, who runs with Lencastre the Phonogram Unit label, surprised him and initiated a recording. Lencastre was a logical addition to this session, as he and Pinheiro are kindred souls and feel at home in such a free improvised format as on free jazz dynamics. The dynamics of this trio turned out to be mostly introspective and patient, almost chamber one, as Lencastre, Series and Pinheiro also correspond with the spacious Estúdio Timbuktu, but alternate with a few eruptions that experiment with thorny and tense frictions.”

LEMADI TRIO – CANONICAL DISCOURSE
“Lemadi Trio features Lencastre with Belgian pianist Martina Verhoeven (a gifted photographer who took the cover photo) and guitarist Dirk Serries (he and Verhoeven are partners in life in music). Canonical Discourse is the trio’s sophomore album, following Tryptophan Suite (A New Wave of Jazz Axix, 2023), and was recorded at Serries and Verhoeven’s home studio in Brecht in March 2024. The atmosphere is different from the trio’s debut album where Verhoeven played the vintage electric Crumar piano and leaned toward a chamber one. The four extended, free-improvised pieces deepen the slow-cooking, often fragile and sparse, but attentive and tension-filled dynamics of the trio, attuned to each sound and the most abstract timbres of the alto sax, archtop guitar and grand piano, with all the extended, breathing, bowing and percussive techniques. Lencastre provides the melodic core of these improvisations, contrasting the spiky guitar lines of Serries and the inside-the-piano percussive-resonant sounds of Verhoeven. A challenge and a treat for the ears.”

VITAL WEEKLY REVIEWS

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Frans De Waard’s VITAL WEEKLY just reviewed our 4 new releases. Traditionally in his own perculiar way, granted VITAL WEEKLY isn’t a webzine for free jazz or improvisation in general, but at least he keeps on giving the music a platform. This we can only appreciate. Our four releases are of course available through our bandcamp store.

Not for the first or last time, there is a lot of free improvisation coming our way. If we stop at Vital Weekly 1500, which is still very possible, that is no doubt one of the reasons. It can be sooner if I come across ‘Vital Weekly – leading publication for all things jazz’. What was never our primary interest, seems to have become one. There’s a label whose releases I like very much, and I started a modern composition division, which is not my thing and who asked me: ‘Why don’t you review all my releases?’. Suppose they’d open a country & western division. Would they expect me to move along? Would the readership of Vital Weekly expect this?

For a long time, Dirk Serries’ music was very much Vital Weekly music, with the likes of Vidna Obmana and Fears Falls Burning, but also some recent solo releases. However, for about ten years, Serries is also heavily into free improvisation and free jazz, and I reviewed many of his releases, if not all. This recent bunch sees him further down that road with many musicians he works with. I don’t think I heard his trio Transition Unit before, with Serries on archtop guitar, Jose Lencastre on alto, tenor saxophone, and Rodrigo Pinheiro on a grand piano. This is a conventional release in terms of instrument approach; each instrument sounds as it should be, especially the saxophone and the piano. The guitar is the oddball here, with Serries going all wild on the strings and
the other two’s hecticness and nervousness. The saxophone takes the lead, and that’s not for the first time. Maybe it’s the way this instrument or the player’s personality (I don’t know Lencastre, so I am taking a wild guess here), but his playing is dominant all around, with Serries sometimes being a bit lost. Very free jazz, as much as I can make (the traditional liner notes by Guy Peeters no longer grace the covers of these releases) of this, and sound at 51 minutes enough for one day – I am taking these, as the doctor ordered, one a day. Each of the six pieces has an individual title, but they were challenging to tell apart.

Because Lencastre is also on another CD with Serries, it’s time for the Lemadi Trio on the second day. Lencastre only brought his alto saxophone to the Serries’ home studio on Match 9, 2024, with Serries on guitar and his partner Martina Verhoeven on piano. The saxophone is also the leading instrument, but the music is a bit different. Sure, there is a lot of improvisation here, too, but it’s sometimes with a different amount of chaos than with the Transition Unit. Especially Serries and Verhoeven do some spooky stuff on their instruments and what that is, I am not sure of, but it sounds good. The domineering saxophone is sometimes in the way of their playing, too loud, too much foreground. I say there isn’t the same amount of chaos, but that doesn’t mean it’s absent, it still is very much part of the fabric of the music. It’s the difference with Transition Unit, which I enjoyed most, mainly with the playing of Verhoeven and Serries.

Verhoeven and Serries, this time on grand piano and archtop guitar, play with various people in an ad hoc ensemble called Tonus, incidentally, also the only one I saw live. On ‘Analog Deviation’, they play with Benedict Taylor on viola and broken fiddle. Spoiler alert: it is also the only CD without a saxophone. Also, a home recording from 2023, and they recorded two pieces, in total,
52 minutes of music. The concert I heard (in 2019) was an enjoyable, quiet affair, which might be what Tonus is about. After the at times violent chaotic moves of the previous two releases the silence of Tonus is a wealth to hear. Also, the non-domineering role of any instrument is interesting. This release has more of a conversation between three equal players. And, like any good conversation or discussion, there are moments in which things get heated, and people don’t listen, which leads to inevitable chaos. But with this trio, such a discussion works quite and there and they return to a safer ground of instrument exploration. There is little free jazz going on here and more free improvisation, with the instruments not always sounding as they are supposed to, which I always enjoy.

The most extensive lineup (or the only non-trio release) is the Martina Verhoeven Quintet, with Verhoeven on grand piano, Serries on guitar, Colin Webster on alto sax, Goncalo Almeida on double
bass and Onno Govaert on drums. They played in Paradox, Tilburg, on 12 February 2023. Scratch what I said earlier about chaos, as this quintet takes chaos to the next level. Each of the instruments is played as it is supposed to be, and some of the players use other techniques – inside piano is something I may have heard here. They played 43 minutes, or perhaps that’s what is left after editing, and occasionally, they leave some room for the listener (present in concert and at home, listening to the CD) to grasp for breath before kicking off again with some more mayhem and destruction. I am sure jazz musicians don’t use these words, but that’s how it comes across. It is not my cup of tea, but once every now and month, this is something suitable and nice, offering another perspective on noise music.