SQUIDCO/SQUID'S EAR NEWS January 22, 2009

With the inauguration of a new president it's been a great if distracting week... but we still have 40 excellent new releases listed in this mailing!

We start with seven new CDs on Creative Sources (!) including Canaries on a Pole, Paura with label leader Ernesto Rodrigues, lowercase improvisers Toshimaru Nakamura & Mark Trayle, Taxonomy's Graziano Lella as ARG, and Luca Mauri's gorgeous solo guitar works; several releases on Bug Incision including a CD of Jack Wright with Hell & Bunny; and the trio of Akiyama, Corcoran & Kieferi. Also note the vinyl teaser for the next large NotTwo Ken Vandermark set, Resonance.

In rock & related, four new Cuneiform titles lead, with NY's Gutbucket, The fourth Forgas Band Phenomenon, a new Fast and Bulbous CD with Gary Lucas, Cheer-Accident, and Univers Zero's 80s archive; Haino Keiji, Kawabata Makoto and Yoshida Tatsuya join forces for an incredible new Magaibutsu DVD and mp3 release; and Doubtmusic has two new releases: solo woodwind from Umezu Kazutoki, and a CD/DVD from Imai Kazuo.

Xenakis, Cornelius Cardew, and John Cage on Mode lead compositional music; Alga Marghen also releases two vinyl LPs, one by Charlemagne Palestine and one from GOL with Ana-Maria Avaram and Iancu Dumitrescu. There's a new operatic work from Anthony Davis, Amistad, on New World Records, who also release a 4 CD MEV set, and Larry Polansky's electronic Theory of Impossible Melody; and INA GRM releases Luc Ferrari's Presque Rien.

Last but not least, at the end of this mailing are 16 new reviews on The Squid's Ear.

Improvisation:
$13.95  Buy  listen	Akiyama, Tetuz / Corcoran / Kiefer: Low Cloud Means Death (Digitalis)
	The trio of guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama with Christian Kiefer and Kevin Corcoran in a series of sea-inspired improvisations, sparse yet varied and rich voyages.
$14.95  Buy  listen	Foschia / Irmer / Wissel / Goyvaerts: Canaries On The Pole #2 (Creative Sources)
	The improvising quartet of Canaries on the Pole (Foschia / goyvaerts / Irmer / Wissel) in their second release after their self-titled debut on the Free Elephant label.
$14.95  Buy  listen	Heule / Lindsay / Dryer: Idea Of West (Creative Sources)
	Quiet and static acoustic musical territories explored through the pragmatic application of compositional and improvisational structures from these West coast improvisers.
$12.95  Buy  listen	Khoury + Hall: Battlefield Medicine (Bug Incision Records)
	Detroit's Mike Khoury and Ben Hall create sparse music with a formidable density: impossibly long tones from strings, drums and enhanced percussion, hanging bell tones.
$14.95  Buy  listen	Mauri, Luca: between love and hate (Creative Sources)
	Guitarist Luca Mauri (I/O) in a gorgeous record of solo guitar work, semi-ambient drones and effected works of beautiful tonal atmospheres.
$14.95  Buy  listen	Paura: The Construction Of Fear (Creative Sources)
	Excellent, fun and slightly twisted free improvising quintet with Dennis Gonzalez, Mark Sanders, Alipio Netom, and father/son team Ernesto Rodrigues and Guilherme Rodrigues.
$12.95  Buy  listen	Traum: Tanto Impresos Como Sistemas (Bug Incision Records)
	Detroit based Traum is a guitar/percussion duo that often becomes a trio with the addition of cello, playing free improv somewhat like a sped-up AMM.
$19.95  Buy  listen	Umezu Kazutoki: plays the ENKA (Doubtmusic)
	Solo woodwind from Umedu Kazutoki, performing in the Enka song style, the Japanese equivalent to the American blues, the French chansonor the Italian canzone.
$12.95  Buy  listen	Wright, Jack with Hell & Bunny: Over the Transom (Bug Incision Records)
	The well-traveled saxophonist Jack Wright in a well-balanced trio with cellist Hans Buetow and percussionist Ben Hall, a mind-melding and impressive set of improvisations.

Electro-Acoustic/Electronic:
$16.95  Buy  listen	Angel: Hedonism (Editions Mego)
	5 years in the making, "Hedonism" is a collision of urban and rural settings, five blistering tracks with a sci-fi punk sound in grainy and bristling soundscapes.
$14.95  Buy  listen	ARG (Graziano Lella): animali (Creative Sources)
	Graziano Lelli (Taxonomy) composed this incredible organized & acousmatic work from the musical theatre opera "ANIMALi", with gestures and voices from Julio Cortazar's "Rayuela".
$12.95  Buy  listen	Fleischhaker-Munro: German Witchcraft (Bug Incision Records)
	The debut studio recordings from Calgary, Canada's Mark Fleischhaker and Scott Munro, electronically manipulated vocals with a loose sense of the word.
$49.95  Buy	Lopez, Francisco: Nowhere: Short Pieces 1983 to 2003 10CD BOX (Blossoming Noise)
	A 20-year collection from this pioneer of absolute concrete music, the centerpiece to this prolific artist's catalog in a stunning black on black embossed box.
$52.95  Buy  listen	MEV (Musica Elettronica Viva): MEV40 (New World Records)
	4 CD set covering the years 1967-2007 of one of the pionerring electroacousti-improvising bands started by Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzweski, Richard Teitelbaum, &c.
$14.95  Buy  listen	Nakamura / Trayle: Stationary (Creative Sources)
	lowercase improvisations from no-input mixer Nakamura and laptop artists Mark Trayle (The Hub, Wadada Leo Smith), three long and complex works from sound, static and feedback.
$13.5  Buy  listen	Novi_Sad: Jailbirds (Sedimental)
	Microsound artist Thanasis Kaproulias in a dense work of sound presenting a multiplicity of action to the listener, not as auditory 'sound effect' but as music with depth.
$13.95  Buy  listen	Polansky, Larry: The Theory of Impossible Melody (New World Records)
	James Tenney adherant Polansky in electronic compositions weaving together mathematics, intonation theory, cybernetics, systems theory, artificial intelligence, musicology.
$13.95  Buy  listen	Stars Of The Lid: Music For Nitrous Oxide (Sedimental)
	Sedimental's first release from 1994 was this amazing release of organized sound and noise, droning guitar feedback, and garbled voice transmissions.
$14.95  Buy  listen	Verga, Giampaolo: Fadensonnen (Creative Sources)
	"Fadensonnen" presents 7 minimal electronic pieces for electronics, violin and voice, nuanced and subtle pieces that use timbre and spatial properties to great effect.

Rock/RIO/Prog:
$14.95  Buy  listen	Cheer-Accident: Fear Draws Misfortune (Cuneiform)
	In existence for 20 years, Cheer Accident makes creative, complex and consistent instrumental and vocal rock, drawing on guests like Carla Kihlstedt, Fred Lonberg-Holm.
$14.95  Buy  listen	Fast 'N' Bulbous: Waxed Oop (Cuneiform)
	This remarkable Captain Beefheart tribute band is led by Gary Lucas and Phillip Johnston, with Joe Fiedler, Jesse Krakow, Rob Henke, &c., with Robyn Hitchcock as guest vocalist.
$14.95  Buy  listen	Forgas Band Phenomena: Axis Of Madness (Cuneiform)
	Drummer and composer Patrick Forgas' improvising chamber rock band in his 4th Phenomena band release, inspired and melodic compositions with room for his great soloists.
$14.95  Buy  listen	Gutbucket: A Modest Proposal (Cuneiform)
	The decade old New York art-rock / avant-squonk / jazz-core quartet of Gutbucket play a ferocious form of music with tremendous musical ability and a strange sense of humor.
$29.95  Buy  listen	Imai Kazuo Trio: Blood (CD + DVD) (Doubtmusic)
	Guitarist Kazuo (Taj Mahal Travellers, Takayanagi's New Direction) in a CD/DVD release of his rock/electronic trio performing tracks by Annette Peacock, Monk, Porter, &c.
$14.59  Buy  listen	Univers Zero: Relaps (Cuneiform)
	"Relaps" presents a peek into the recorded archives of one of the founding members of the Rock in Opposition (RIO) movement, the great avant-rock ensemble Univers Zero.

Compositional:
$14.95  Buy  listen	Cage, John: Music For Merce Cunningham (Mode Records)
	2008 re-master of these Cage compositions for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company: "Five Stone Wind" and "Cartridge Music", performed by Takehisa Kosugi, David Tudor and Jim Pugliese.
$21.95  Buy  listen	Cardew, Cornelius: Treatise (Prague 1967) 2 CDs (Mode Records)
	A double CD of a 1967 Prague performance by the Quax Ensemble (Petr Kotik) of Cardew's "Treatise" for any number of musicians with any instrument performed whole or in part.
$26.95  Buy  listen	Davis, Anthony: Amistad (New World Records)
	Amistad is an opera with music by Anthony Davis and a libretto by Thulani Davis based on the successful slave ship uprising, the Amistad Rebellion.
$14.95  Buy  listen	Gerdzewski, Nikolaus: Ordinary Music Volume 3 (Creative Sources)
	Violinist Gerszewski developed an individual form of notation to create his "ordinary music", a continuation of abstract visual thinking by means of sound.
$14.95  Buy  listen	Xenakis, Iannis: Electronic Works 2 (Mode Records)
	The 2nd Xenakis volume with 2 of his multi-channel works from the 70s - "Hibiki Hana Ma" was designed to be played on a tape loop in a hall with 700 specifically placed speakers