Quantum Trio

If ever a recording needed to be trumpeted from the rooftops, it's this one, and perhaps we all owe a debt of gratitude to John Zorn for making it happen. This initial trio meeting of saxophonist Anthony Braxton, drummer Milford Graves, and ubiquitous bassist William Parker is a vanguard jazz fan's dream come true. Beyond Quantum places these three modern legends in a completely improvised setting in producer Bill Laswell's studio for 63 minutes of pure inspirational, communicative fire.

Pinnacle's second CD is a quantum leap above the first. This is melodic Progressive Rock having musical hooks and natural sounding time changes. In 1997, guitarist/synth player Karl Eisenhart and drummer Greg Jones met in an East Pennsylvania coffee house where Karl was playing an acoustic gig. After clicking personally and musically, they began playing together and performing, first as Dread Pirate Roberts and then Landslide. By 2002 they draft bassist/multi instrumentalist Bill Fox and the trio begin covering progressive staples by Tull, Rush, Yes as well as the Police.

Shriekback is not an easy band to classify. They borrowed heavily from funk but had a very different agenda; their music was more suited for contemplation than for parties. They combined synthesizers and drum machines with throbbing bass lines and unorthodox vocals to evoke a primordial world where the line between human and animal was blurred. The title of their fourth album, Big Night Music, might be the most succinct summation of their work: Shriekback's music was always an appropriate soundtrack for life in the dark, but with the emphasis on the possibilities rather than the dangers. Though often haunting, it was not gothic and harbored strains of pop and dance that rose to the surface from time to time. Still, however accessible they became, Shriekback cultivated an air of mystery that made them hard to pin down. Further complicating any evaluation of their career is the fact that they never made a single, brilliant album that concentrated all their strengths in one place; their best material is spread out across a decade during which they underwent a great deal of evolution.

Contains live recordings of various concert in 2001/2002 and exclusive live studio sessions.
Initially, Free System Projekt was a solo-project of Marcel Engels. His first albums, especially the fine "Pointless Reminder", show a melodically version of the Berlin School. Since the album "Atmospheric Conditions from 2002", "FSP" is a trio when sequencer-specialist Ruud Heij (also known from Patchwork) and Frank van der Wel become bandmembers. Trio's and electronic music bring Tangerine Dream in mind. Nothing is less true with FSP because their recent albums have all the traces of classic TD-albums: fantastic sequencers, the Mellotron sounds, the strings and the effects.