Downbeat From March 2017

The Akarma label continues to help psychedelic fans fill in the notable gaps in their collections with a stream of reissues of rare records, and this long-sought-after album from the British band Byzantium is no exception. Byzantium released a trio of albums across 1972-1973, and the double Live and Studio was the group's last. Fans considered it their best set, but as it was self-released, few were actually in a position to know. Now all that has changed…

Mary Halvorson - Calling All Portraits (2008) {Skycap Cap049}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 320 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 108 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 20 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2008 Skycap Records | Cap 049
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Guitar

One of improvised music’s most in-demand guitarists, Mary Halvorson has been active in New York since 2002, following jazz studies at Wesleyan University and the New School. Critics have called her “a singular talent” (Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes), ”NYC’s least-predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz—or otherwise” (Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal), and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice). The Philadelphia City Paper’s Shaun Brady adds, “Halvorson has been steadily reshaping the sound of jazz guitar in recent years with her elastic, sometimes-fluid, sometimes-shredding, wholly unique style.”

Simon & Garfunkel's first masterpiece, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme was also the first album on which the duo, in tandem with engineer Roy Halee, exerted total control from beginning to end, right down to the mixing, and it is an achievement akin to the Beatles' Revolver or the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album, and just as personal and pointed as either of those records at their respective bests…