A grand reunion of sorts in Berlin on the first day of November, 1996. Under the auspices of Free Music Production, Cecil Taylor, the great pianist and one of the premier musical minds of the 20th century, joined forces with his early comrade, drummer Sunny Murray, for a set of improvised duets. Murray was part of Taylor’s important groups starting in 1959, including the trio with alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, with which Taylor toured Europe in 1962 and 1963, recording the seminal Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come and Live at the Café Montmartre. On the latter tour, Murray met Albert Ayler when the saxophonist joined Taylor’s group for some concerts; they would go on to record one of the greatest free jazz records in history, Ayler’s Spiritual Unity. Thirty-six years later, Taylor and Murray were back together and better than ever. Never to do things a straightforward manner, Taylor began the concert by inviting eight members of his band to kick things off with an intonation choir, the master himself leading the sound poetry incantation. Taylor and Murray then moved into a 48-minute exchange of energies, peaks and valleys of expressive intensity rolling along, the two veteran improvisors slipping back into sync as if the decades had simply vanished. This extraordinary music has never been publicly released on CD. Gorgeously recorded, with action photos by Dagmar Gebers and a cover painting by Jacqueline Humphries, the music is issued under license from FMP. And yes, the title was all Taylor’s, as if he knew his music would be released during a virus of the same name.   All composition by Cecil Taylor. Recorded in Berlin on November 1, 1996, by Holger Sheuermann. Cover Image: Jacqueline Humphries, Pile, 2008, oil on linen, 80 x 87 inches (Courtesy of the artist and Greene Naftali, New York). Photographs: Dagmar Gerbers. CD design: David Giordano-Khan. Production: Jost Gerbers. Under licnense from FMP. Exectuive production, CvsD: John Corbett.

What could possibly happen when two ultimate masters of soprano saxophone square off for their only recording of duets?Chirps is the only place to find out. Steve Lacy – the one who planted the flag for soprano saxophone in the ground of modern jazz, who established its iconic status, who devoted himself to the axe with monkish devotion, who brought shakuhachi breath and stairstep melody into its upper-register antics. Evan Parker – arguably the one who pushed the instrument the furthest post-Coltrane, the technical marvel, the polyphonist, the one willing to immerse in the instrument’s harshest environs and find things of radiant beauty. Performed in Berlin at the Haus am Waldsee in July, 1985, it was every bit the chamber concert – super intimate and interactive, gorgeously recorded by FMP’s Jost Gebers in an ideal acoustic room. Rather than alternate between one and the other, Lacy and Parker explore middle-terrain the whole time, perhaps skewing a tad more Lacy’s funky-tuneful direction, becoming a single soprano entity made of fragments of sound sometimes accreting into perfectly imperfect lines. Two long tracks, “Full Scale” and “Relations,” are completed by a final four-minute coda aptly titled “Twittering.” Indeed, the whole program has the joyous interactivity of Paul Klee’s painting “Twittering Machine,” birds aligned on a line, proposing and picking up lines, nothing cruel or mean-spirited, free play all a graceful twitter. This CD reissue restores the original Tomas Schmit design from the initial release on SAJ Records. Licensed directly from FMP. Limited edition of 500 copies. Full Scale (21:01 minutes) Relations (16:30 minutes) Twittering (4:10 minutes) Steve Lacy (soprano saxophone)Evan Parker (soprano saxophone)All music by Steve Lacy and Evan Parker.

Originally released in 1979 as a double-LP on Hat Hut, Stamps was Steve Lacy’s first for the legendary Swiss label, and it remains one of the strongest statements of what he termed the “scratchy seventies.” With the classic lineup of Lacy’s soprano saxophone, Steve Potts on soprano and alto sax, Irene Aebi on cello (and singing on one track), Kent Carter on bass, and Oliver Johnson on drums, the recording catches the band live, performing Lacy’s angular, intervallic compositions, using arrangements that leave the rough patina, rather than buffing things to a smooth shine. This is the first time the important music has been reissued on CD, adding a bonus track, all remastered from the original tapes. The double-disc package sports a facsimile reproduction of the gorgeous artwork by Klaus Baumgärtner, with action photographs from the concerts on the interior. A must for Lacy fans and for anyone interested in creative music. Steve Lacy, soprano saxophone and Japanese bird whistle Steve Potts, alto and soprano saxophone Irene Aebi, cello, violin, voice, bells Kent Carter, bass Oliver Johnson, drums Originally released on hat Hut Records (hat Hut K/L, 1979). Track 4 is previously unreleased. CD 1 recorded by Walter Troxler, August 27, 1977, at Jazz Festival Willisau, Switzerland. CD 2 recorded by Philippe Quinsac, February 22, 1978, at Jazz Au Totem, Paris. Production coordination by Craig Johnson, CjR Productions. Mastered by David Crawford at Masterdisk, New York. Cover art by Klaus Baumgärtner.

A special 2-CD reissue of the hyper-rare El Saturn LP, recorded in 1963, early in the Arkestra's NY period, paired with a full disc of extra material. Loaded with John Gilmore, one of the greatest & rarest slabs of Sun Ra vinyl, on disc for the first time! Recorded March 10, 1963, Choreographer's Workshop, New York City. Remastered from the original tapes by Michael D. Anderson. Design by Sonnenzimmer. Reissue produced by John Corbett and Adam Abraham. 2CD, released 2013 cvsdcd009

Recorded in 1977, the Instant Composers Pool’s Tetterettet is the first classic of the band’s larger incarnations. Assembled out of elements recorded live in Uithoorn, Utrecht, and the band’s home base of Amsterdam, with Misha Mengelberg using a cut-and-paste collage method akin to Teo Macero’swork with Miles Davis, the record features an all star lineup that added three leading lights of free music: bassist Alan Silva and saxophonists John Tchicai and Peter Brötzmann. In this period, Brötzmann made the long train trip from Wuppertal, Germany, to A’dam on a weekly basis to rehearse with ICP, bassist Silva coming in from Paris. Well known for his work in pioneer creative music ensembles such as the New York Art Quartet and the New York Contemporary Five and on John Coltrane’s Ascention, Tchicai was the Paul Desmond of free jazz, with a softer, more subtle phraseology than many of his peers. These international figures joined pianist Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink – whose ICP co-founder Willem Breuker had broken off to form what would be come his long-time working band, the Kollektief – and their outrageous, hyper-inventive big band. Michel Waiswicz, who invented the crackle box, a user-friendly, portable electronic instrument, is a defining presence on Mengelberg’s multipart “Tetterettet,” and along with the heavyweight outta towners the band includes composer, oboist, and saxophonist Gilius Van Bergeyk, whose sequence of compositions nestle perfectly into Misha’s, Han’s gifted brother Peter Bennink on saxes, trombonist Bert Koppelaar, and cellist Tristan Honsinger, who has continued to work with the ensemble even after Misha’s death in 2017. One of the landmark records of Mengelberg tunes, with classics like “Rumboon” and “Alexander’s Marschbefehel,” Tetterettet presents a program full of musical surprises, intelligence, and ICP’s own brand of uproarious humor. A shaggy masterpiece, available here for the first time as a stand-alone CD, remastered from the original tapes, with Han Bennink’s original cover design and a contemporaneous photo from the archives of Gérard Rouy. 

Okkyung Lee’s is perhaps the most harrowing of the Black Cross Solo Sessions stories.  At the onset of COVID, the cellist was called to travel to Korea to be with her dying father.  The trip was sudden and didn’t allow her to bring her instrument, but once there she was unable to return to New York because of the stringent lockdown.  For months she was stranded without her cello, unable to practice or make any music.  This intense alienation took a long time to lift.  Indeed, even after she made it back to the States, Lee found it impossible to reconnect with the music for a period.  The invitation to make a new solo CD for BCSS inspired her to jump-start her playing and in the process, she has made one of the most profound and beautiful CDs in recent memory, an almost impossible to describe amalgam of string and wood and voice and magic.  Lee does not release many records, so each one is a major event.  A stunning studio production, Na-Reul is that and more, its nine tracks, as Lee puts it, a “raw and direct” response to the traumatic events of 2020 and the turbulent emotions that accompanied it. With liner notes by the artist and artwork and design by Christopher Wool.   Ari [04:00] Drifting [05:08] Mountains [04:11] Mirage [05:00] Burning [03:54] Lorelei [04:08] Wings [03:06] Pisces [03:03] Grey [05:29] Okkyung Lee, cello Cover design and artwork by Christopher Wool. CD design by David Khan-Giordano. Produced by John Corbett and Christopher Wool. CvsDCD082

Recorded at the ICP Jubileum, a festival in Uithoorn, Holland, in 1978, Yi Yole brings together the core of the Instant Composers Pool – pianist Misha Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink – with legendary South African alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana. Longtime member of the Blue Notes, Pukwana was a beloved figure in European free music after he left South Africa in the mid-sixties and settled in London. There he worked with all of the leading lights of free improvised music, recording extensively with the Brotherhood of Breath and eventually releasing LPs under his own leadership before his untimely passing in 1990 at the age of 51. What the three tracks on Yi Yole make clear is how surprisingly well the Dutch and South African sensibilities fit together, an overall relaxed vibe leading to unforeseen directions in the music. Han Bennink ranges far beyond his drum kit and its metallic add-ons, playing trombone, clarinet, and viola; his collage design for the record, as with all ICP productions, is brilliant and perfectly matched to the music. This is the only time these three prime movers of free music would record as a trio, hitting just at the moment when the Instant Composers Pool was gaining momentum and South African jazz was growing in international stature. Released on ICP, Mengelberg/Bennink’s self-produced label, Yi Yole saw limited distribution and attention in its time, but it remains an absolute classic of improvised music, presented here in all its glory with Bennink’s design, remastered from original tapes, the box of which is reproduced on the interior spread, replete with never-seen hand notations. 

Hailing from the Germantown section of Philadelphia, well known as the site of the Sun Ra Arkestra communal homestead, Sounds of Liberation were at the forefront of seventies black liberation music. After a series of gigs in elementary schools, prisons, and community centers, in 1973 the band travelled along with their manager George Gilmore (father of Linc Gilmore of Breakwater fame) to NYC for a recording session at Columbia University. This five-song session has never been heard until now. Had it ever been issued, it would have followed on the band’s debut, New Horizons, released in an edition of 500 copies on Dogtown Records, now a highly prized item in creative music collector circles. Sounds Of Liberation formed in early 1970, initially lead by vibraphonist Warren Robert Cheeseboro, aka Khan Jamal, but it wasn't until the eventual arrival of Byard Lancaster that the band’s prospects started to take off. Lancaster was a master at making a deal (with or without the band’s approval). This deal-making lead to more gigs and more recognition, especially from local newspapers. Sounds Of Liberation was more of a community than a band at times and because of that spirit there was a strong desire by the entire group to work with schoolchildren as well as inmates. They did just that, and continued to do so throughout the early to mid-seventies. Released briefly last year as a special edition of 100 copies by Brewerytown Beats, who have forged positive working relationships with the living members of the band and the estates of those passed, the music on Sounds of Liberation has never been heard before, which is especially strange given how wonderful and accessible it is. Shoulder-deep in groove juice, it’s a record with heavy ostinati and beautiful backbeats, including the mellowing influence of Jamal’s vibes and the incisive guitar of Monette Sudler, the final track featuring an unidentified vocal group singing a stone-cold soul hit, also featuring some searing saxophone courtesy of Mr. Lancaster. A treasure for fans of so-called spiritual jazz and free funk, Sounds of Liberation is a snapshot of its era and equally an inspiration in ours. The package comes with never seen photos of the band and a cover design by artist LeRoy Butler, who worked with the SOL in the era, at the same time he was designing records for Sun Ra. With music lovingly coaxed from long-unplayed original tapes, Sounds of Liberation is a new line item in the soul improvisation pantheon.

For a performance at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in spring of 1966, percussionist Milford Graves invited pianist Don Pullen to play duets. The two musicians had worked together in a band fronted by saxophonist and clarinetist Giusseppi Logan, with whom they had recorded two LPs in 1965 for ESP Disk. Graves was already a daunting presence in free music. One step at a time, he was busy transforming the role of drumming in jazz, introducing a new way of dealing with unmetered time and accomplishing this task with technique that was almost inconceivable. His experience playing timbales in Latin bands had been formative, suggesting that the snare could be used as accent rather than beat-keeper, but by the mid '60s he'd worked up a holistic approach to sound and energy that was the most radical of his improvising percussion contemporaries. And with a simpatico accomplice like Pullen, who would go on to have an illustrious career with Charles Mingus, co-fronting a band with George Adams, and as a soloist and bandleader. This early setting finds Pullen is at his most hard- hitting, and his piano concept as heard here lays to rest dubious claims of Cecil Taylorism. Inspired by their performance, Graves and Pullen issued an LP, In Concert at Yale University, Vol. 1 on their own Self-Reliance Program imprint. The vinyl is impossibly rare, especially its first copies, which sported hand-painted covers by the musicians. A second volume titled Nommo was subsequently issued, and it too is a highly prized platter. None of this music has ever been available digitally. The tapes were lost, so in putting this production together – in the works for 10 years – virgin copies of the LPs were used. One CD includes the two complete LPs together with original cover designs, a gallery of hand-painted LPs, and a photo of Graves and Pullen selling them at a Nation of Islam convention. An insert modeled after the original one presents an interview with Graves about the production of the records. This is beyond the holy grail of free music. It is as vital and challenging today as it was more than five decades ago. CvsD is honored to have collaborated with Milford Graves on this historic reissue.

Glasses was recorded in October, 1977, during a highly significant period in McPhee's work, as he was pioneering the transatlantic, collaborative spirit that has helped to define the last three decades of his career. Documented in Tavannes, Switzerland, the set contains sensational tenor work, including the title piece, which finds McPhee ringing out a rhythm on a half-full wine glass, from which he extrapolates a melody on the saxophone, as well as a stunning version of John Coltrane's "Naima." The final 15 minutes are spent in duet with the Swiss percussionist Reto Weber, who was so inspired by McPhee he asked to sit in and did so with his quite extensive battery of drums. This record come from a year-long run during which McPhee recorded and released four very different, extremely wonderful solo records, of which only Tenor has ever been reissued on CD. Along with the LP Variations on a Blue Line/'Round Midnight, this reissue was produced in collaboration with the seminal Swiss label Hat Hut Records and their chief, Werner X. Uehlinger, and was originally released in 1979.

Recorded at the height of their powers as the leading free jazz trio in Europe, 1971 includes some of the hottest and heaviest music ever made by Brötzmann, starting with an inflammatory, incandescent 26-minute live track recorded at the New Jazz Meeting auf Burg Altena. Only available on a nearly-impossible-to-find LP sampler issued at the time by the festival, this marks "Just for Altena"'s first appearance on CD. Two more tracks come from pristine studio recordings made shortly before the festival, and they show an entirely different side of the trio, with delicate and harmonically intricate work by the Belgian pianist van Hove and typically wide ranging and mondo offerings from Bennink, at the time when the Dutch percussionist was using a huge, ragtag setup with metallic flotsam and jetsam augmenting his traditional kit. Peter Brötzmann, tenor saxophone Fred van Hove, piano Han Bennink, drums, percussion

Globe Unity is available on vinyl CvsDLP003 and CD CvsDCD091 In 1966, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach assembled his first large ensemble to play his compositions “Globe Unity” and “Sun.” This 14-piece band, which brought together some of the leading figures in European improvised music, would eventually expand – incorporating not only Europeans but also American and Asian musicians – and assume its rightful name: Globe Unity Orchestra. In its nascent outing, beautifully recorded at Ariola Studio in Cologne, Schlippenbach’s band was already sensational, performing at various festivals and solidifying the reputations of some of its star players. Most notably among these was a 25-year-old saxophonist named Peter Brötzmann, whose whole band – saxophonist Kris Wanders, drummer Mani Neumeier, and bassist Peter Kowald, the latter of whom would for a period assume nominal leadership of Globe Unity – was incorporated into the large Schlippenbach group. Globe Unity was Brötzmann’s first outing on LP. Kowald’s too. And future drum heroes of the krautrock genre, Neumeier (with Guru Guru) and Jaki Liebezeit (with Can) constitute the incredible rhythm section. If you factor in German early-free-music mainstays Gunter Hampel (here on flute and bass clarinet, no vibes), trumpeter Manfred Schoof, bassist Buschi Niebergall, and tenor saxophonist Gerd Dudek, Dutch saxophonist and clarinetist Willem Breuker, French trumpeter Claude Deron, the enormity of the band’s potential becomes apparent. Add Schlippenbach himself, an absolute cyclone on the piano as well as prominent tubular bells and gong, and the global scene is set. Schlippenbach’s unique position at the time, as one of the foremost players in German free music, but also as a rising young composer who’d studied with Bernd Alois Zimmermann, allowed him to serve as exactly the right conduit for several approaches to creative music, from introducing his graphically notated scores to making a perfect context for the debuts of future star improvisors Brötzmann and Kowald.Schlippenbach’s Globe Unity was first issued on SABA in 1967, then MPS a couple of years after that. It has long been out of print and has only ever appeared on CD in a tiny Japanese version published in 1999. Corbett vs. Dempsey is reissuing this classic record in a special, strictly limited edition of 500 vinyl LPs and 1000 CDs, with a faithful facsimile of the original LP’s gatefold cover. The music was remastered from the original tapes and is licensed directly from MPS. Anyone interested in the history of improvised music needs to hear Globe Unity, which retains a sense of urgency 56 years after it was waxed. Track List: 1. Globe Unity 20’122. Sun 20’34 Musicians: Manfred Schoof Claude Deron Willi Lietzmann Peter Brötzmann Gerd Dudek Kris Wanders Willem Breuker Gunter Hampel Karlhanns Berger Buschi Niebergall Peter Kowald Jaki Liebzeit Mani Neumeier Aleaxander von Schlippenbach Produced by: Joachim E. Berendt Recording director: Willi Fruth Engineer: Gert Lemnitz Recorded December 6th and 7th, 1966 at Ariola Studio Cologne Cover painting: “C 12” by Henry Garde Photos: Uwe Oldenberg Cover design and layout: Gigi Berendt Compositions by Alexander von Schlippenbach

CD 1, Unitarian Chapel, Warwick, 1994 and 2023:“Andy Isham organised a concert in the Unitarian Chapel, Warwick on 29 June 1994. As part of a longer concert I played a solo piece on soprano which is the first track on CD 1.  It was not long enough to issue on its own and things moved on. Since then I have kept coming back to it because I think it is some of the best solo playing I have ever done. The idea came to me that I should go back to the chapel and see what it was about the space which drew that playing out. As the idea took shape, the saying of Heraclitus about not being able to step in the same river twice started swirling around too. And there it was – I had the title. The “concept”, even – or at least, the conceit … ”CDs 2-4, a sequence of solo recordings made at Arco Barco, Ramsgate, 2018-24:“I was introduced by Matt Wright, the other half of Trance Map, to Filipe Gomes and his Arco Barco studio in Ramsgate on the Kent coast. The studio is located in the upper floors of one of the former chandlers’ work spaces overlooking the harbour. A loft space with control room, a live main room and a smaller, less reverberant room. The acoustic response of the live room and Fil’s passion for sound recording has made Arco Barco my favourite studio and I have recorded there as often as possible.
 Over the many visits Fil has tested various microphones and their positioning. The variation means that some recordings are noticeably “dryer” and/or “closer” than others. Much of the thinking was inspired by the work of the late Michael Gerzon and his pioneering ambisonics. What I brought to the occasions was variability in reed behaviour and embouchure and perhaps most importantly my state of mind.”
THE HERACLITEAN TWO-STEP, etc.
BOOK CONTENTS:-- Writing by John Corbett (writer, curator, producer; Corbett vs Dempsey Gallery, Chicago), Filipe Gomes (Arco Barco, Ramsgate), Richard Leigh (writer), Stephen C. Middleton (writer/poet) and Robert Stillman (musician).-- An extended interview with Evan Parker by Martin Davidson (Emanem label).-- An email exchange between Evan Parker and Hans Falb (Konfrontationen Festival, Nickelsdorf).-- Writing and visual artwork by Evan Parker. 

Helping to mark Evan Parker’s 80th birthday in 2024, the book compiles both historical and contemporary perspectives on Evan’s work, by a range of contributors as well as Evan himself. The book also includes a selection of Evan’s visual collages, which are shared publicly for the first time. 

Henry and Evan improvised together for the first time as part of the Free Range series in Canterbury, Kent, on December 2, 2021. For the performance, Evan played soprano saxophone, and Henry developed a new electronic instrument called the Stage Cage, to both process Evan’s live sound as well as generate its own sounds.The Stage Cage includes four valve test-oscillators, a pair of ring modulators, frequency shifter, chromatic zither, and a variable tape delay system (consisting of two quarter-inch tape machines, eight feet apart – the first machine records, and the tape runs past moveable playback heads to the second machine, allowing several replays). Henry's main performance interface is a ‘dynamic router’: a five-key controller, which is the bridge between most of the components of the Stage Cage.Towards the end of the performance, the tape machines were stopped, their reels reversed and set to play: the improvisation from then on was overlaid by a reverse reproduction of what Henry and Evan had already been performing, with the reverse recording itself also being subjected to various treatments.The live recording was subsequently developed by Henry for this 56 minute album. Evan notes in the accompanying booklet interview: “I would say it will sound better now, because of the post-production work that Henry’s done, using the live recording as – basically – tracks to be part of a new mix, a new project, which obviously overlaps hugely with what we did in the room, but it should be more detailed and better balanced in certain parts. Some post-production decisions that technology makes possible, where they led to improvements, Henry used those possibilities. It should be better than being at the event …”For the CD and digital release, the recording has been mastered by Adam Skeaping, and a conversation between Henry, Evan and performance artist Karen Christopher is included in a 20 page booklet.______________________________________________________“This 56-minute improvisation demonstrates the fearless sonic imagination of both Parker and Dagg, always searching for unchartered territories and with great attention to detail and a totally free and unpredictable spirit, but their own way of suggesting a cohesive and coherent improvisation. Its arresting atmosphere visits abstract musique concrète, otherworldly, deep-space ambient journeys, and a careful but sometimes subversive and kaleidoscopic investigation of the soprano sax tones and overtones, live and processed ones.”— Salt Peanuts, on THEN THROUGH NOW______________________________________________________Music by Henry Dagg and Evan ParkerOriginal recording by RouteStockProduction by Henry DaggMastered by Adam Skeaping Photographs by RouteStockDesign by David Caines Gatefold sleeve, with 20 page bookletOriginal live recording: Fruitworks/Fond Coffee, Jewry Lane, Canterbury, as part of the Free Range series, December 2, 2021. freerangecanterbury.orgAlbum launch event & benefit for the venue:The Hot Tin, Faversham: November 20, 2022

Evan Parker and Matthew Wright’s Trance Map project has included improvised live events across Europe and the US, involving other invited guest performers, with various Trance Map+ recordings released on psi, Intakt and FMR Records. Since 2020, Trance Map+ have undertaken ambitious streamed and networked performances, connecting with musicians around the world from The Hot Tin venue in Faversham, Kent, UK. In 2022, this resulted in Transatlantic Trance Map, a simultaneous performance between seven musicians in Kent and six musicians in Roulette, New York City, which is profiled on this album release. Transatlantic Trance Map helps to mark Evan Parker’s 80th birthday in 2024. It is the second Evan Parker release on False Walls, following THEN THROUGH NOW by Evan and Henry Dagg (2022). In November 2024, False Walls will also release THE HERACLITEAN TWO-STEP, etc., a 4 CD set of solo, improvised recordings by Evan Parker, along with a 128 page book, including writing by John Corbett, Richard Leigh and Stephen C. Middleton; an extended interview with Evan Parker by Martin Davidson; along with writing and visual artwork by Evan Parker. --- THE HOT TINFaversham, UK, 8pm GMT:Evan Parker: soprano saxophone
Matthew Wright: turntable, live sampling and processing
Peter Evans: trumpet, piccolo trumpetRobert Jarvis: trombone
Hannah Marshall: celloPat Thomas: live electronicsAlex Ward: clarinet ROULETTEBrooklyn, USA, 3pm EST:Sylvie Courvoisier: piano, keyboardMat Maneri: violaIkue Mori: laptop live electronicsSam Pluta: laptop live electronicsNed Rothenberg: clarinet, bass clarinet, shakuhachiCraig Taborn: piano, keyboard, live electronics  

This record is a collection of rare and unreleased material, mostly recorded between the release of her second and third album. As such, it can be seen as the missing link between the rather droney second record, and the starker Jessica Bailiff record. This is more than ,,just’’ a collection of older material: this records explains why it took her so long to finish her third record: she was also working on these gems which form a regular full length on their own. Songs like Your sounds make patterns in my eyes or Maybe tomorrow have the familiar sound of her first records, but already hint in the direction of the more folky current sound. Whereas a song like Let time breathe definitely is an example of her more direct approach, it still echoes her freeform guitarsongs. The best of two worlds. Most of the songs were recorded by Jessica at home. Jesse Edwards, with whom she also records as the duo Northern song dynasty, plays on two songs. Crush was recorded by Alan Sparhawk (of Low), who also plays electric 12-string guitar on that track.

Klein Eiland comes as a suprise: the past decade, the ROT-members (Benjamin Francart, Bram Borloo, Christophe Piette, Laurent Cartuyvels) have been playing less shows, and their record output had come to a halt. Not sure why: there has been the occasional gathering and recording session. (this one happened to be the last one feat. Floris Vanhoof as a band member) But: R.O.T. proves that they still manage to capture a specific time and place like no one else does. This session was recorded in a now demolished building in the south of Brussels, and is now replaced by the apartment block (as seen on the back sleeve). The only thing that remains is the name of the building, and the captured sounds.

At the beginning of the 1960s, at the Berklee College of Music, Byard Lancaster met some feisty friends: Sonny Sharrock, Dave Burrell and Ted Daniel. It is easy to see why he rapidly became involved in free jazz. Once he was settled in New York, he appeared on Sunny Murray Quintet, recorded under the leadership of the drum crazy colleague of Albert Ayler. In 1968, the saxophonist and flutist recorded his first album under his own name: It’s Not Up To Us. The following year he came to Paris in the wake of… Sunny Murray. He would come back to France in 1971 (again with Murray) and in 1973 (without Murray for a change). This is when he met Jef Gilson, the pianist and producer who encouraged him to record under his own name again. On Palm Records (Gilson’s label), he would release four albums: Us, Mother Africa, Exactement and Funny Funky Rib Crib. The recording of “Exactement” required two sessions in the studio: February 1st and May 18th 1974 – in between the two dates, Lancaster recorded, alongside Clint Jackson, the excellent “Mother Africa”. Two names appear on the cover of “Exactement”: Lancaster (Byard) and Speller (Keno). Byard Lancaster wanted to be precise, moving regularly from one instrument to another: first on piano, which was the first instrument he learned. On “Sweet Evil Miss Kisianga”, his inspiration is first and foremost Coltrane (even if leaning more towards Alice than John), this announces the storm to follow. It is Lancaster’s horn-playing which really stands out: on alto (the sound of which is transformed by an octavoice on one track, "Dr. Oliver W. Lancaster") or soprano saxophones, as well as on flute or bass clarinet, the musician walks a tightrope making the most of all the risks he takes. Using the full register of his instruments, he has fun with the possibilities. Then, Lancaster invokes or evokes Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and even Prokofiev, before going into a danse alongside Keno Speller on percussion. Above all, he has a unique sound. Byard Lancaster, on whatever instrument he plays and by continually seeking, always ends up hitting the right note… ends up by playing exactement the note he had to play.