Relative Pitch Records

Cellist Tristan Honsinger started improvising in Montreal more than forty years ago, prior to his decisive move to Europe (where he joined ICP Orchestra)where he’s been at the centre of improvised music activity ever since. So this group represents an oblique sort of homecoming, as well as an introduction to some of this city’s finest players today. Their rapport is obvious, the results a satisfying mixture of musical empathy and creative conflict. Tristan plays with characteristic daring from his reserves of readymade tune fragments and shards of poetry and into the protean unknown that is the foundation for the best group improvising. Josh Zubot and Nicolas Caloia don’t merely follow him there, but provoke him – and each other – in ways that are, by turns, subtle, assertive, and irreverent. A superb encounter.

Sand is a Fields composition for 20 instrumentalists, three singers, and conductor. It combines three areas in which he has often worked: modularity, manipulation of text, and integration of composition and improvisation.

Berlin trumpeters Axel Dörner and Lina Allemano team up to create experimental improvised sonic explorations, both in duo and in larger trumpet-ensemble form. The pieces' titles reference the small lesser-known objects circling around the sun in our solar system; the album’s title Aphelia being the furthest distance away in orbit around the sun.

Forbes Graham (trumpet, drum machine, laptop computer) is joined by Cecilia Lopez (analog synth) and Brandon Lopez (bass) on a session recorded at Firehouse 12 in August of 2021. Each musician is wholly distinct and themselves on this recording, but their sounds unite to create a dark and quizzical sci-fi journey.

"Together, Brötzmann and Lonberg-Holm have released two excellent prior duos … This latest CD, Memories of a Tunicate, may be the jewel in their crown. Credit is due to Lonberg-Holm's liberal use of electronics. Against Brötzmann's muscular saxophone, the cellist can bring a saturating wall of sound to parry that machine gun attack. This music is, though, not a face-off but a flow."

Comprised of tracks recorded in Münich and Oslo, this is the debut of this collaboration between improviser and doyen of the double bass Barre Phillips, British saxophonist John Butcher and Norwegian drummer, percussionist and improviser, Ståle Liavik Solberg.

This smoking album of free jazz leads the New York trio of Steve Baczkowski on saxophone, Brandon Lopez on bass, and Chris Corsano on drums to fiery playing as they burn up the stage at Hallwall, in Buffalo, New York in 2018, over seven concise collective conversations expressing both passion, restraint, and profoundly masterful skill.

We maneuver through woody sounds created by individual movements and decisions. Our cello playing is free from classical patterns, a real achievement! It is not natural to develop one's own approach to this high culture instrument. In this trio there are three multi-layered variations of personal expressive will and power.