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Zu - Carboniferous (2009)
math/punk/jazz trio | 1CD | MP3 Average 320 Kbps | 104 Mb
Ipecac Recording | [RS] [MU]

Zu, the Roman metal/math/no-wave/free noise/punk/jazz trio, is perhaps best known in the US as a band who have had an unbelievable line-up of recording partners which includes The Stooges’ Steve Mackay, Fugazi’s Joe Lally and Guy Picciotto, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Can’s Damo Suzuki, jazz masters Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustafsson, percussionists Han Bennink and Hamid Drake, improvisationalist Eugene Chadbourne and the like-minded Nobukazu Takemura. Now making their Ipecac debut, Carboniferous follows a year of performing overseas with label owner Mike Patton and features contributions from both the aforementioned Patton and The Melvins’ King Buzzo. Further cementing the Ipecac – Zu relationship is the rumored new BigBand, this one coupling Zu and dälek.
The Italian trio of Jacopo Battaglia (drums), Massimo Pupillo (bass) and Luca T. Mai (saxophone) formed in 1999 after having worked together in local theater. Driven by a punk rock work ethic, Zu have played an astounding number of over 1,000 gigs worldwide including Europe, North America, Asia, Russia, and even Africa. The have released fourteen albums to date.

"…combining the abstractions of Sonic Youth with the out-there explorations of the best free jazz" – The Times

“Musically they’re one mind only, ever-so-slightly inconvenienced by the necessity of being spit into 3 bodies. Their post-human tightness and devious compositions have carried them across the world’s ocean, and attracted collaborators ranging from free-jazz legends to the godfathers of experimental sludge” Rock-A-Rolla

Source on Ipecac
Band Website

This is an important document, not least because what is actually captured on these discs is the first performance of this work since 1772. The score is presently housed in the archive of the Berlin Sing-Akademie after its discovery in the Ukraine. C.P.E.’s version of the Christ story is a dynamic one, with plenty of drama and much interaction between the various soloists and the chorus - a chorus that represents the Jews as well as performing the chorales.

Have you ever wondered what or who is the missing link between the Passions of J.S. Bach and the more ‘enlightened’ oratorios of Josef Haydn and his contemporaries? For that matter how did things come to change so quickly? I have recently reviewed some cantatas by Gottfried Homilius (1714-1785) on Carus 83.183 and he is certainly a link. But really it is C.P.E. Bach, that great reactionary and under-estimated genius, who is ‘yer man’.

You might see it in the stars or the root of a tree. It can be the flickering fluorescent light in the corner of a room or dew settling on a leaf in the early morning hours. It is overwhelming, yet barely there. Terminalia Amazonia, the new, subdued and momentous instalment of Zu, is the sound of a long, slow journey in pursuit of a moment. For the past four years the band’s members have regularly visited an undisclosed indigenous village on the Ucayali River close to the border between Peru and Brazil. They’ve immersed themselves in the local Shipibo-Conibo culture’s ancient knowledge, teachings and rituals, some of which stretch back millennia.

Stubbornly free from genre classification, Italian trio Zu have been proud to follow their own musical pathways for some twenty years now. Throughout their highly diverse career the band has cultivated the art of collaboration, joining forces with luminaries such as Mike Patton, Damo Suzuki, Mats Gustafsson and Nobukazu Takemura. Their new album – and first on House of Mythology – is no exception, featuring guest musicians such as Jessica Moss of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Kristoffer Lo of Norwegian pop sensations Highasakite, among others.