Tarkovsky Quartet

François Couturier leads his Tarkovsky Quartet on their third album dedicated to the great film director Andrej Tarkovsky. The two previous volumes, released in 2006 and 2011, were greeted with unanimous international praise; the musical and human experience during the recordings and subsequent tours and concerts revealing the huge potential of the highly original formation consisting of piano, cello, saxophone and accordion.

Portico Quartet announce Terrain, a three-part suite drawing on American minimalism and ambient music alongside their own rich heritage as they explore new musical vistas.

Inventio is an inventive project at all levels, beginning with the instrumentation. Marco Ambrosini is one of very few musicians playing nyckelharpa outside the Swedish folk tradition, and Jean-Louis Matinier has similarly taken the accordion beyond any ‘folkloric’ frame of reference. On the present disc, the French-Italian duo plays a programme inspired by the baroque sonatas of Bach and Biber but also by the lyrical cadences of Pergolesi. They adapt and arrange works of each of these masters, and contribute compositions of their own. Following a path from ancient to modern music, they improvise together, finding new sound-colour combinations in the special blending of their instruments…

Accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier has long been a creative presence on ECM recordings, heard with the groups of Anouar Brahem (on Le pas du chat noir and Le voyage de Sahar), Louis Sclavis (Dans la nuit) and François Couturier (Nostalghia, Tarkovsky Quartet), as well as in duo with Marco Ambrosini (Inventio). Now comes the first documentation of a new endeavour, with guitarist Kevin Seddiki, whose far-reaching musical imagination matches Matinier’s own. Sedikki, who makes his ECM debut here, studied classical guitar with Pablo Márquez and has also worked with many improvisers across the idioms, from jazz to transcultural projects. The range of music addressed on Rivages runs from the traditional “Greensleeves” to Gabriel Fauré’s “Les Berceaux” to compositions and improvisations by both of the protagonists. Rivages was recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo Studio in April 2018, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

This supreme set includes all 24 performances from the two events, Ornette’s last performance at the «Celebrate Brooklyn» show and his Memorial at Riverside Church.

It’s been two years since Sonar guitarist, composer Stephan Thelen has released a follow-up with the Fractal Guitar release. Last year he had done music for the RareNoise label with the Kronos Quartet and the All-Women ensemble, the Al Pari Quartet entitled, World Dialogue, and the continuation of the second volume of Transportation with Sonar. This year he’s back in the saddle again with Fractal Guitar 2 released on the MoonJune label. Recorded at various locations between Europe and North America in November 2019 and July 2020, Fractal Guitar 2 shows Thelen a sign of bringing some hope and strong freewill to those who are going through another rocky road since everything came to a screeching halt in March of last year…

Little is known about the life of Maxim Sozontovich Berezovsky (ca.1745–1777). Almost no documentary material has survived, and biographies of the composer published in the 19th century were for the most part based on conjecture and supposition. His tragic demise, exceptional talent and short life might seem a compelling plot for romantic fiction. A novella by Nestor Kukolnik appeared in the 1840s and a play by Peter Smirnov was staged at the Alexandrine Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg.

This end-of-the-millennium quartet session probably best defines all the inherent contradictions in who ECM attracts to the label – what kind of musician records for them – and what concerns these artists and ECM's chief producer (and creator) Manfred Eicher hold in common. This set, although clearly fronted by Markus Stockhausen and Arild Andersen on brass and bass, respectively, allows space for the entire quartet to inform its direction. Héral and Rypdal are not musicians who can play with just anybody; their distinctive styles and strengths often go against the grain of contemporary European jazz and improvised music. Of the 11 compositions here, four are collectively written, with two each by Andersen and Stockhausen.

Dick Raaijmakers - The Complete Tape Music of Dick Raaijmakers (1998) {3CD Set Donemus CV-NEAR 09-10-11 rec 1959-1996}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.08 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 510 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 443 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1959-96, 1998 Donemus Composers' Voice / NEAR | CV-NEAR 09/10/11
Experimental / Musique Concrète / Electronic / Electroacoustic Music

This deluxe three-CD set, including a hardbound, 200-page book, documents the music of a major figure on the European electronic music scene since the '60s, but one who is largely unknown stateside. At its best, which is often, Dick Raaijmakers' work compares favorably to better-known composers such as Iannis Xenakis or Pierre Schaeffer. His pieces range widely, from relatively "traditional" electronic scores to ultra-abstract works like the "Canon" series from the mid-'60s, made up of static-sounding crackles derived from vinyl surface noise and with only arcane relationships to one another.