Sunday, February 19, 2017

Chicago / London Underground - A Night Spent Walking Through Mirrors (CUNEIFORM RECORDS February 24, 2017)


Celebrating 20 Years as Sonic and Spiritual Brothers,
Chicago Underground Duo-mates
Rob Mazurek & Chad Taylor
Team with London Improvisers
Alexander Hawkins & John Edwards
for the Exploratory, Boundlessly Inventive and Genre-Shattering
A Night Walking Through Mirrors


At a time when the world is mired in divisiveness, a time of wall-building and fear-mongering, of Brexit and Trump, it takes visionaries to build bridges rather than tear them down. “This is protest music,” insists Rob Mazurek. “It always has been. That’s why it’s called ‘Underground’  it’s not just called that for fun. We really believe in it. The world has become so homogenized and leans so far towards the right, and this music expresses complete freedom and lack of borders. Our music is all about the obliteration of any kind of oppression, the tearing down of any kind of wall - freedom and equality, both sonically and spiritually.”

For the last two decades the Chicago Underground Duo Rob Mazurek on cornet and electronics and Chad Taylor on percussion, electronics and mbira have created music meant to open minds and explore alien territory.

Now, on A Night Walking Through Mirrors, they’ve created a new Transatlantic partnership in the form of Chicago / London Underground, inviting a pair of renowned British improvisers – pianist Alexander Hawkins and bassist John Edwards into the creative fold. The result is an expansive sonic adventure where every unexpected note and alchemical reaction runs counter to the limited imaginations ruling social media name-calling and clannish provincialism.

A Night Walking Through Mirrors, released on Cuneiform Records, documents the first meeting of these four artists, recorded live at London’s Café Oto in April 2016, during a two-night run that marked the Chicago Underground Duo’s first performances in the city in a decade. To celebrate the occasion, Mazurek and Taylor invited two London-based artists with whom they’d never collaborated but they deeply admired to perform with the duo.

“We love their playing and thought they’d be a nice complement to what we do,” Mazurek explains. When it comes to the rare occasions when he and Taylor do bring other musicians into the fold, he continues, “The only criteria is people who are completely open to anything, no matter how outlandish or crazy the idea is. They just have to be 100 percent into the moment and what we’re doing.”


The London contingent of the Chicago / London Underground certainly fits those requirements. Alexander Hawkins is a pianist, organist, composer and bandleader whose highly distinctive soundworld is forged through the search to reconcile his love of free improvisation with his profound fascination with composition and structure. He’s recorded or performed with a vast array of contemporary leaders of all generations, including the likes of Evan Parker, John Surman, Mulatu Astatke, Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Han Bennink, Taylor Ho Bynum and Matana Roberts, and frequently performs in the bands of legendary South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo.

John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Evan Parker, Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Lol Coxhill, Peter Brötzmann, Mulatu Astatke and many others.

“Alexander Hawkins is a very dynamic player,” Mazurek says. “His harmonic and melodic sense as well as his phrasing and his approach to playing, whether songs or free playing, are very interesting and wide-ranging. John Edwards plays the most amount of bass I’ve ever heard anybody play. He plays a lot but nothing is wasted; it all means so much. They could go anywhere, so it was just a matter of being in the moment and letting the instincts roll. It was powerful, elegant, noisy, melodic, rhythmic, free - it had all the elements that usually come up when you think about making a complete and interesting set.”

Hawkins and Edwards are newcomers to one of Mazurek’s longest-running musical partnerships. The duo of Mazurek and Taylor stretches back more than 20 years to their work together in various iterations of the Chicago Underground Collective, founded by Mazurek and guitarist Jeff Parker at the famed Chicago nightclub, the Green Mill. Since spinning off from the collective in 1996, the Chicago Underground Duo has released seven remarkably creative recordings and expanded to form Trio and Quartet incarnations with the likes of Parker and bassists Noel Kupersmith and Jason Ajemian.


“We’re sonic and spiritual brothers,” Mazurek says of his profound partnership with Taylor. “It’s a special relationship, one of those cosmic things where it just works. It’s amazing that we’ve kept it going this long and hopefully we’ll continue for another 20 years.”

The critically acclaimed drummer and percussionist for the Chicago Underground ensembles, Chad Taylor has been featured in Modern Drummer magazine, performed at major rock and jazz festivals worldwide, and played with a wide range of artists on both the Chicago and New York rock and jazz scenes. He has a BA from the New School of Jazz, where he studied with Joe Chambers, Yoron Israel, Pheeroan Aklaff and Lewis Nash, and a MA from Rutgers. Chad has performed on over 50 recordings and has worked with such artists as Roscoe Mitchell, Tortoise, Jim O'Rourke, Charles Gayle, Derek Bailey, Jeff Parker, Marc Ribot, Mary Halvorson, Malachi Favors, Henry Grimes, and Cooper-Moore.

Composer, improviser and multi-media artist Rob Mazurek has drawn inspiration from a multitude of audio and visual styles and sources over the past three decades. Augmenting his cornet playing with computer programming, electronics and an assortment of keyboards, Mazurek's broad electro-acoustic palette defies simple categorization. His visionary work is garnering ever-increasing critical acclaim and public attention; in recent years, he appeared on the cover of The Wire magazine and was voted MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR by Italy's top jazz magazine, Musica Jazz. When not touring the world with various groups, Mazurek now lives in Marfa, TX, after having relocated back to Chicago following an extended stay in São Paulo, Brazil. In addition to Chicago Underground Duo and new Chicago / London Underground, he leads, collaborates with and composes for a wide variety of ongoing ensembles, among them Pharoah & The Underground (featuring Pharoah Sanders) and Black Cube SP. His three-piece São Paulo Underground transplants the collaborative and boundary-bursting Underground model onto a Chicago/Brazil axis, combining Brazilian influences from samba to maracatu with the interstellar jazz consciousness of the Sun Ra Arkestra and Mazurek’s own large ensemble, Exploding Star Orchestra.

It’s hard enough to categorize all that transpires within the confines of a single Underground piece, let alone trying to delineate a single unifying thread that binds the various iterations together. What does distinguish all of the ensembles’ work, including this latest Chicago / London variation, is their fearlessness, a willingness, even eagerness, to venture into the unknown and find the spark of the new.

“Anything is possible,” Mazurek states simply. “Whatever direction in which things go, no matter how outlandish - or the opposite of that, no matter how much it makes sense we trust each other, and that trust is integral to why this group works in all its different formats.”


That trust, despite the novelty of never having played together before, is evident from the opening moments of this recording. “A Night Spent Walking Through Mirrors” begins with abrupt smears of sound from Mazurek’s cornet, which conjure sparse replies from Taylor’s mbira and Hawkins’ piano. Over the course of the next 20 minutes, the interplay builds in chaotic intensity until the ground seems to fall away and leave the listener adrift in a gauzy haze. Jittery explosions burst in, from which emerges Mazurek’s voice intoning a sort of primal chant.

Voice has become increasingly important to Mazurek’s work in recent years, and recurs throughout A Night Walking Through Mirrors, as when he urgently pleads the mantra-like title phrase of “Something Must Happen,” making literal the desperate crises underlying the album’s political urgency. “Voice is about breaking down barriers, breaking down walls, breaking down inhibition,” Mazurek says. “I want to use it more and more for my own possibilities.”

“Something Must Happen” is notable for its perpetual, agitated tumult, with aggressive electronic bursts engulfing Hawkins’ frenetic piano, which finally relents in the closing minutes to dissipate in a shimmering curtain of sound.

“Boss Redux” is a reimagining of a piece from the 2014 Chicago Underground Duo release Locus, beginning with the original’s infectious electronic groove and breakbeat rhythms before smashing those elements apart and refracting them into an abstracted landscape. Edwards’ creaking strings and resonant, percussive tones seem to guide the listener through a dense, mysterious jungle of startling voices, only to come out – in what may be the album’s most unexpected moment in an intimate interpolation of the jazz standard “It Might As Well Be Spring.”

Finally, “Mysteries of Emanating Light” grows from a bold Taylor improvisation, first spawning a knotty turn from Edwards in which he almost seems to be wrestling his strings into gnarled, craggy shapes, until Mazurek and Taylor engage in a captivating mbira/cornet duo. Mazurek’s voice returns, this time echoing and distorting as Edwards and Hawkins parry the ricocheting sounds. It all ends in dissolving calm, an ambiguous but thoughtful moment of leave-taking.

The album’s title, A Night Walking Through Mirrors, is an evocative fit for this exploratory set, capturing the sense of alluring disorientation, of sympathetic worlds upon worlds echoing into infinity. “It really felt like we would be playing and somebody would take a left turn and we’d be in another dimension,” Mazurek recalls. “Another person would take a right turn and we’d be in yet another dimension, but everybody was right there. It really did feel like a night spent walking through mirrors in that respect.”


Atmospheric, exploratory music that creates worlds as it progresses.” BBC

“Mazurek is a player of great poise and elegance, while Taylor’s deftness, imagination and formidable technical skill make his playing a joy to listen to...from the densest meshes to the sparsest near silent passage, each sonic cypher, beat and note seem to be leading somewhere, to have been made with a purpose.”  The Wire

“Following the work of Mazurek and Taylor remains a near-requirement for those invested in modern creative music.”  Tiny Mix Tapes





EYOT - INNATE (NINETY and NINE RECORDS 2017)


Album release date - February 20, 2017

EYOT has recorded three albums since 2008—all critically acclaimed and commercially well received. What followed were concerts and tours in more than 20 countries all over the world.

Their fourth album INNATE is coming out from the kitchen of legendary sound engineer STEVE ALBINI (Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Pixies, Mogwai etc..) who recorded and mixed it at Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago.

INNATE is going to be released on February 20, 2017 for an independent New York label - Ninety and Nine Records

"The proud representative of a new generation of European musicians, this Serbian quartet breaks all temporal, geographical and cultural boundaries of Balkan Jazz, explosively blending classical music, art-rock and traditional melodies. In its quest for new creative sound combinations,  Eyot restlessly explores the limits between tradition and innovation and leads European Jazz off the beaten track. Known as the "Nirvana of Jazz", the four musicians light up the stage with outstandingly fresh and electrifying sounds. The quartet brings to life a music of unique creativity which strikes a pleasant balance between simplicity and sophistication, and is both coarse yet delicate."  Cully Jazz Festival

*Winners of the Umbria Jazz Balkanic Windows competition 2009 and MIDEM OFF Showcase 2012 (Cannes, France)

"This is just simply quite stunning." Mike Chadwick - SoulandJazz.com

“electro jazz rock fusion - you name it they play it - full of energy and invention - a top class act” Tim Dickeson, Jazzwise

"a future-minded, exciting collision of various genres creating happening music " Gilles Quinnell , PIAS, Harmonia Mundi World Village

“This highly original quartet unites jazz, classical, folk and rock elements in an intoxicating mix that is at once meditative and invigorating.” Ian Patterson, All About Jazz

Discography

2010 HORIZON / Ninety and Nine Records; Magnatune; Constantinus
2013 DRIFTERS / Neuklang
2014 SIMILARITY / Ninety and Nine Records
2017 INNATE  / Ninety and Nine Records


Important performances: Midem – Cannes, Jazz Café London, Sunset Sunside Paris, Cully Jazz Festival, Garana Jazz Festival, Umbria Balkanic Windows, Dubai International Jazz Fest, Nisville Jazz Fest, Vicenza Jazz Fest, DOKfest Munich, Hong Kong Jazz  Fest, Belgrade Jazz fest, Brasov Jazz and Blues Festival, Jazzy Colours Paris, Jarasum Jazz Fest, Preveza Jazz Fest, Alarma Punk Jazz Sofia, Kozlov Club Moscow, b - flat Berlin, Panic Jazz Club Marostica, JZ Club Shanghai...


About INNATE

Composed and arranged by Dejan Ilijic & EYOT

Recorded and mixed by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio Chicago

Mastered by Shelly Steffens at Chicago Mastering Service

INNATE has 7 compositions of eclectic genres, putting jazz, rock, ambient, punk, classical and conceptual music into one and tremendously leaning on traditional music from Balkan and eastern European music. Most of them (precisely five) are in an odd time signature, thus, the listener can hear traditional scales and harmonies all over the album. It is a perfect mix of old and new, east and west, which by the way has been one of the EYOT’s signatures from the moment they arrived on the scene in 2008.

VEER - to change direction; shift, turn, or change from one course, position, inclination; you can hear melody moving and rhythm changing in the tune.  When read in the band’s native language, Serbian, VEER is pronounced the same, but it becomes VIR /WHIRL/. This is of paramount importance, for this composition is dedicated to the famous archaeological site in Serbia, LEPENSKI VIR, one of the oldest traces of human settlements in the world (5300 BC).

HELM is an old Slavic word for BALKAN, and this composition has an odd timer rhythm and themes played by the guitar, bass and piano at the same time, all mixed into one melody at the end, describing in a way the intricate nature of HELM/BALKAN. 

MOUNTAIN stands for an aim; to climb to a mountain’s top has been a goal of countless people, both literally and metaphorically. We all have a mountain to climb...

PERUN is the old Slavic god of thunder, like Zeus, Jupiter or Thor, so you can hear his thunders coming out from the drum solo, followed by a pagan dance at the end of the composition, only to disappear into a mystic remote place...as an ancient ritual.

CANNON OF INSOLATION is dedicated to one of the greatest Serbian scientists of all time, Milutin Milankovic, who wrote a famous scientific research “Canon of Insolation and the Ice-Age Problem”, an interdisciplinary work between mathematics, astronomy, geophysics and geology. 

RAMONDA SERBICA refers to a Serbian “Phoenix” flower, which, if dried and dying, can revive with only few drops of water. Furthermore, it is dedicated to the centenary of one of the greatest tragedies in human history- the First World War, and to its heroes from Serbia and other countries. The piano solo covers a fragment of a poignant Serbian traditional song “Tamo daleko”, written in memory of the said atrocity.


INNATE - the title composition is defined as “originating in or arising from the intellect or the constitution of the mind, rather than learned through experience.” Another association correlates again to the Serbian language; namely, if read imaginatively, in Serbian, INNATE is pronounced INAT, /SPITE/, a situation when a human being, against all odds and other people’s lack of support,  decides that they can do it, and that, despite everything, they are going to give 120%.





Yonatan Levy - YONATAN (ODRADEK RECORDS 2017)


"When I make music, I look for magic. For moments that change the colour of the light in the room."

Yonatan Levy


YONATAN
Guitar

Give Yonatan Levy a guitar and he will immediately react to how it feels. Sometimes he will pick up a bass and it feels so natural that every note leads to the next without effort. Before long, an idea emerges. Many of the tracks on this disc began life in this way.

Yet Yonatan is refreshingly honest about what follows. Rather than perpetuating the myth of music as a divine revelation unencumbered by effort, he admits that forming those easily-found ideas into something truly worth listening to takes dedication. The fruits of that dedication are audible throughout this, his first solo album, with its finely-crafted textures forming the perfect framework through which the initial freedom of his ideas can breathe. The result is a series of tracks which exude a relaxed tenderness that is quite irresistible, each one distinct yet coming together as a coherent whole

For Yonatan the ultimate goal is to alter the atmosphere of a room with his music. As he puts it with characteristic poetry: “When I make music, I look for magic. 

For moments that change the colour of the light in the room. Combining many things from my past musical experiences: dirty rock ‘n’ roll, dreamy lullabies, low bass pulsating to shimmering guitar melodies. I feel this album does that. When you play it, the colour of the room changes.”


Yonatan is an Israeli musician currently living in New York City. He is one of Israel’s leading bass players and music producers, and since 2002 has been a member of the highly-regarded Izabo music band which has toured all over Europe, and which was chosen to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest despite its unconventional sound. He has recorded and played with the country’s most popular artists, produced much-admired albums, won awards and performed worldwide.