Cocoon Parallel Lines

Field are sound wizard, trumpeter and producer Uwe Haas plus drummer and producer Sven Kacirek. Backed up by jazz double bassist Jo Huth, they perform live in the classic, well-tried trio format. Field’s debut album “Cocoon” skilfully steers listeners through a wide range of electronic music styles. Combining the different influences of the artists who contributed to the sound, this album is truly exciting. Each track has its own style, but all of them tell a very unique story.

Jason Lindner, a keyboardist with eclectic musical sensibilities that intermesh to create a unique voice that has served as a key ingredient for numerous projects, including David Bowie's final album 'Blackstar', presents his New York-based band's third album (and first for Jazzland), 'The Buffering Cocoon'.

Maxophone, from Milan, formed in 1973 as a six-piece with an unusual assortment of instruments, due to their past experience as music students. It is a very special deluxe box set including a CD with 10 vintage tracks recovered from outtakes and alternate demo material from 1973-1975 (4 tracks are unreleased), plus a DVD with Maxophone live footage from a 1976 concert at RAI studios in Torino (RAI is the Italian national TV broadcasting company). All recordings have been carefully remastered: The songs on the CD were recorded on 4-tracks equipment. The DVD footage was professionally filmed by Italian TV in 1976, and has a bonus video track of Maxophone re-formed in 2005, playing one live track at Radio Popolare studios in Milano. The DVD also includes bonus features, such as interviews with group members.

As the '80s drew to a close, Todd Rundgren turned over a new leaf with his first album recorded specifically for Warner Bros. Not long after the release of A Cappella, he separated from Bearsville and disbanded Utopia, choosing to embark on a few years as a producer and session man. He finally returned with Nearly Human, his first album of new material in four years, in the summer of 1989. During his hiatus as a recording artist, Rundgren became fascinated with recording live music, deciding to record Nearly Human live in the studio – not nearly as flamboyant as A Cappella, but a gimmick nonetheless. If anything, the live-in-the-studio gimmick works better than the all-vocal track, not only because it's easier to execute, but because the production style complements the soul-inflected songs. Song for song, Nearly Human is his best record since The Hermit of Mink Hollow, since not only is the bulk of the album filled with charging blue-eyed soul like "The Want of a Nail" or sweet ballads like "Parallel Lines," but because there are no novelties and the cover choice (Elvis Costello's "Two Little Hitlers") is fresh and surprising. At times, his eccentricities get the best of him, as he overstuffs his arrangements or lyrics with unnecessary details, but these are minor points – Nearly Human finds Rundgren at the top of his game as a performer, producer and songwriter, sustaining his momentum in a way he hadn't for nearly a full decade.

"Two worlds become one: Classical and jazz blend with a beautiful blow." Magne Thormodsæter is an ECM-alumni, bassist, and in- demand session musician. On L’arte della persuasione, he fuses two worlds with the full force of a beautiful blow. A 35- minute story told in five acts, it pits a high-caliber classical ensemble against a jazz group. The result is captivatingly unclassifiable.