Organic Pulse Ensemble

Organic Pulse Ensemble our Swedish "One Man Ensemble" is back with a beautiful album. "The Light Comes Black" is an ode to the ominous season of Winter in the northern parts of the globe specially around January in this time of year when days and nights blend together in a long period of darkness. It's also about the time when the light comes back along with life and nature reviving in Spring.

Organic Pulse Ensemble approaches adventures in fields of sound as a one-man band. It is music recorded, composed and mixed by Gustav Horneij. But don’t let this fact mislead you, because the way the artist is binding together rhythm, melody and textures is highly inspirational. It is singular but with a spiritual kinship and debt owed to the torchbearers of 60s and 70s independent jazz. Intellectually unpretentious ‘Formative Stages’ takes the listener on a voyage into an organic and deep resonance. Pleasant melodies evoke a unifying and sensitive response. It shimmers with wonder.

This album fuses the intensity of free jazz , with the meditative and mystical feeling of the spiritual approach of the genre . The lengthier timing of the tracks provides the musician the chance to explore different paths in terms of composition , on many occasions focusing on the music progression on each track , containing his perfectionist zeal and accepting the value of leaving some of the mistakes and rough edges which we consider to be a very important addition in terms of personality and originality to the work. Gustav keeps pushing the boundaries of the form by incorporating influences from ethiojazz to eastern sounds , all of it in an amazing organic way that makes it hard to believe all the composition and performance come from a single artist.

Zither Suite is the fifth OPE album. It was recorded in my apartment in Kortedala, just outside of Gothenburg. No neighbours were harmed in the recording process. The title track opens with a bitter sweet bass melody that I first recorded some 10 years ago, but it's been fermenting ever since and finally reached maturity. The zither that gave name to the record (and the first track) was a find from the local charity shop. While it's not featured on every track of the album it's a crucial part of the feel of the album as a whole. It's the rug that ties the room together.

Hailing from the North of Sweden Organic Pulse Ensemble is a modern Spiritual Jazz "Onesemble" in more words the music is directed, composed and played/recorded by only one person. Since the adult age Gustav Horneij has been self taught and played all sorts of instruments, Bass Guitar, Drums, Saxophone, Piano and more. He has been making music for more than a decade and under the alias Organic Pulse Ensemble for about 5 years but "Transcending The Sum" is his first official and so debut album. His music is rich in spirituality and heavily influenced by the magical nature of the place he lives in. In the north days and night don't have the same values than for the rest of the world, the natural environment itself can also be surreal. "Transcending The Sum" is first about his music and what it represents.

“The new compilation from Massimiliano "Jazzcat" Conti called "The Congregation" is an absolute masterpiece of contemporary jazz gems.

This is the première release of Julius Eastman’s Femenine, for chamber ensemble. It is also the work’s only known recording, documenting a 1974 performance by the S.E.M. Ensemble (with the composer on piano) which has lain unheard for decades. The music of Julius Eastman (1940-1990) is enjoying an on-going period of rediscovery. Known best in the past for his work with figures like Peter Maxwell Davies, Arthur Russell and Meredith Monk, today his own formidable compositions draw increasing admiration. Joyous, insistent, and immersive, Femenine bathes the listener in surges of tonal colour from intertwining winds, piano, violin, pitched percussion, synthesizer and – uniquely – the composer’s own invention of mechanised sleigh bells, which provide the 72-minute piece with its characteristic pulse. Illuminating sleeve notes are provided by composer and author Mary Jane Leach, who is co-editor of Gay Guerrilla, the recently released collection of essays on Eastman’s life and music.

Recorded by the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and various soloists and ensembles in churches in Tallinn as well as the Estonian Concert Hall, the five compositions heard on Arboles lloran por lluvia (Trees cry for rain) give deeper insight into the unique sound-world of Estonian composer Helena Tulve, into music that is nourished by both contemporary and ancient currents. Tulve draws upon a wide-range of inspirational sources. She explores the raw fabric of sound and the nature of timbre in both analytical and instinctive ways, in compositions that are unmistakably her own, yet her work is inclusive - here incorporating aspects of Gregorian chant, melody from Yemenite Jewish tradition, and texts from Sufi, Sephardic and Christian mystic poetry. Reyah hadas 'ala (The Perfume of the Myrtle Rises) unites the ensemble of the Gregorian chant and the early music instruments. This is the only work in which Tulve has used a pre-existing melody, a song of the Yemenite Jews. Extinction des choses vues (The Extinction of the Things Seen) is an orchestral piece in which the musical ideas are derived from a text by the Jesuit thinker Michel de Certeau called Extase blanche (White Ecstasy).

The Near East Quartet has been a force in Korean music since 2010, juxtaposing elements of contemporary jazz and traditional Korean music with pure sound exploration to create new forms. Saxophonist/clarinettist Sungjae Son and guitarist Suwuk Chung have been members from the outset, and the group has been strengthened with the integration of pansori singer Yulhee Kim and highly creative drummer Soojin Suh. On their ECM debut the NEQ plays five compositions by Sungjae Son and three Korean traditionals. Near East Quartet was recorded in Seoul, and mixed at Studios La Buissonne. Producer: Sun Chung.

A meditation on the beauty of nature and the fate of the planet, “This Rock We’re On: Imaginary Letters” is a multi-movement work by the acclaimed composer Mike Holober. Written for jazz orchestra, voice, cello, and percussion, it features art songs set for chamber ensemble that take the form of imaginary letters to or from selected “protagonists” – naturalist authors, artists, and activists who dedicated their lives to appreciating and protecting the earth we inhabit. Each of the vocal works is followed by an instrumental jazz orchestra piece that reflects upon the text of the letter. Recorded and premiered by the GRAMMY® nominated Gotham Jazz Orchestra in June 2023, a double album is scheduled for release on 14th of June 2024.