OJP009 / Sachiko Nagata / Le Hamon

Cover art treated pic by Kiekebiche

OJP009 : Sachiko Nagata / Le Hamon

Recorded part in studio and part live in Paris in October 2009, Le Hamon is a very original sounding album as it shares 2 very intriguing instruments with, at times, some more traditional percussions.

Sachiko Nagata (see also OJP006, website) is a percussionist and improviser mainly using the iron slit drum called « Hamon ».

She is known for her solo works and collaborations with other artists from all over the world.
She plays mostly free improvisations sets t

rying to approach the simplicity of percussion with the call from the players for the buddhist temple.

Hamon is an original instrument made by Japanese artist Teppei Saito being inspired by the sounds of the traditional Japanese garden ornament called Suikinkutsu.

She has a long love relationship with France where she went in the 70ties as a student.
40 years letter, she returned in Paris to record this album.
As she speaks French, she wrote this little piece about her instrument:

Le hamon et moi

Le hamon, objet d’art plastique mais aussi sonore,

objet qui, bien que métallique, évoque au toucher le monde végétal. La beauté très simple de sa forme procure une sensation de calme.

De même qu’un  la cloche d‘un temple ,

chacun de ses sons évoque un univers et pénètre le cœur des gens.

Aux résonnances du hamon de petite taille, j’associe  une fée.

Aux resonnances du hamon de grande taille, j'associe la terre.

Ses sonorités se fondent avec le vent, la pluie, le cri d’un insecte. 

Elles ne sont jamais en discordance avec les bruits de la nature.

Quand je joue du hamon, je fais corps avec lui

et je pars pour un voyage dans un univers peuplé d’impressions et de souvenirs lointains.

                                         Sachiko Nagata

hamonと私

音の出る造形作品　hamon

 鉄なのに植物のような感触

 その形はとてもシンプルで、佇まいは静かで美しい

寺の梵鐘のように、その音はひとつの音で宇宙を持ち、

人の内側の扉を開く

小さなhamonは妖精のように

大きなhamonは大地のように響く

その音は、風、雨、虫の音、など自然の音と溶け、けっして対立しない

演奏する私は、hamonと一体になり、ここではない、どこかへ旅立つ

遠いはるかな記憶の世界へ・・・　　

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　永田　砂知子　　

In the studio and live, she was joined on some tracks by Christophe Souron on percussions and Pierre Malbos on piano Baschet-Malbos.

The piano Baschet-Malbos was built in 2003 from the collaboration between French sculptor François Baschet and piano master builder and composer Pierre Malbos.

François Bachet is also known for his gigantic sonore sculptures he created for the Steal pavillon of the 1970 Osaka exhibition for which Toru Takemitsu composed and played 'Seasons'.

Pierre Malbos

 Christophe Souron

　　　　Sachiko Nagata

Original coved of the cd:

a video from 2009:



and from 2013:

This is a new remastered and edited version.

Digital release on the 29th of April 2016.

Track listing:

　

1: La mer profonde　　　　　　　　

2: Une mélodie venue d’ailleurs　

3: Un fleuve paisible　　

Hamon +percussions with Christophe Souron:

4: Petite conversation avec Zarb

5: Petite conversation avec Rig 

6: Petite conversation avec Daf

7: Petite conversation avec Udu

Hamon + Piano Baschet- Malbos with Pierre Malbos:

8: Prière tranquille

9: Résonance Métallique

And on Bandcamp (with bonus tracks and special tracks edits):

ODX009 : Les Boucles Absurdes / Boîtes à brains

Cover art by A.L.

ODX009 : Les Boucles Absurdes / Boîtes à brains

Finally available in one digital box, the two albums and the remix album from one of the most intriguing Belgian bands, featuring the great Pierre Vervloesem on every tracks, mixing and mastering. He played all over the basic songs composed by Jean-Pierre Jonckheere.

To discover or re discover with urgency!

The compilation includes OPV007 / Boîtes à Tartines, OPV010 / Into My Brain and OVD003 / Lines.

Original covers:

OPV007 / Boîtes à Tartines, cover art by Kiekebiche:

OPV010 / Into My Brain, cover art by Kiekebiche:

OVD003 / Lines, cover art by Patrick Pirlot:

Them:

Digital release on the 22nd 2016.

Track listing:

Cd1/ Boîtes à Tartines:

01. Purple Line

02. Dartagnan 

03. Crac

04. Pervertion

05. Pique-Nique

06. Boîte à tartines

07. Ballade pour un apprenti

08. Old complaining beast

09. Jazz de schiste ( Feat. Morgan Ägren )

10. Absurde Gunzor 

11. No place to learn ( Feat. Albert Marcoeur )

12. Foggy Morning

13. Ballade pour un expat

14. Date de péremption

15. La Petite Maison dans les cailloux ( only available on the digital release)

Cd2/ Lines:

1) Red Line : featuring Seesayle

2) Brown Line : featuring Pierre Vervloesem

3) Green Line : featuring Clémentine Collette

4) Black Line : featuring Gilles Mortiaux

Cd3 / Into My Brains:

01. Broken line                                               

02. Skeleton                                                     

03. L'angoisse du chicon                              

04. No gods needed                                      

05. Glow                                                             

06. Into my brain                                            

07. Absence  

08. Dialogue de sourds                                 

09. Left alone                                                   

10. Captagon                                                    

11. Apnée du soleil    

ORT016-Rat035-OUI017 : Warped Dreamer / Lomahongva

Cover artwork by Michaël Borremans - 'The Skirt' 2005

ORT016-Rat035-OUI017 : Warped Dreamer / Lomahongva

A “dream line-up” is possibly the best way to describe Warped Dreamer. Few quartets succeed in bowling over their audiences in such diverse ways as this quartet led by drummer Teun Verbruggen. This versatile Belgian percussionist puts together four top-notch musicians from the Belgian and Norwegian scenes, who bring out the best in each other on stage. Teun likes to be startled by collaborations with wayward musicians, musicians who inspire him because they rediscover and reinvent themselves each time again. He had already hooked up with trumpeter Arve Henriksen and with Jozef Dumoulin (Rhodes) previously. Guitarist Stian Westerhus is the right fit and perfectly complements the quartet. Include a big display of effects pedals and you get a music genre that defies any attempt at classification. 

Free improvisation, jazz residue and electronic interventions/manipulations are woven together in an organically flowing crossover that both hints at a Northern vastness and utilises a complex inner map that guides the audience past labyrinthine horizons, intricate textures and spontaneous interactions. As such, they incorporate both crackling, whirling walls of sound and claustrophobic whispers. Warped Dreamer is definitely looking forward in a way that makes the question whether it’s in or out completely irrelevant. It’s everywhere at once. The band gets its name from an Othin Spake composition, another of Teun Verbruggen’s experimental bands, and also shares the same fickle, mysterious city vibe. If you like improv, you are in for a treat! 

Cd/dvd/lp, a collaboration between Off and Rat Records.

The musicians:

The name Arve Henriksen (NO) immediately conjures up his typical husky trumpet sound. Even during his musical training at the Trondheim Conservatory, he was already active as a free-lance musician. It is therefore hardly surprising that he has already played with a solid cross-section of musicians, often under the record label ECM Records. As a result, his discography includes over 140 albums. Supersilent, Sidsel Endresen, Nils Petter Molvaer, Christian Wallumrod, Eivind Aarset, Laurie Anderson, David Sylvian, Gavin Bryars, Jon Hassell, Dhafer Youssef and Tigran Hamasyan are just a handful of examples, of the great many we could mention. Besides jazz, he is interested in Japanese music and also played with hard rock band Motorpsycho. He has composed for dance, theatre, film & various documentaries. In 2006, he was artist in residence during the renowned Moers Jazz Festival as well as at the Molde Jazz Festival in 2009. He has won several awards including the Paul Acket Award (North Sea Jazz Festival). 

“A Fender Rhodes specialist” is just one of the many phrases used to describe Jozef Dumoulin (BE). Jozef is regarded as a musician who manages to maintain his own style in any musical context, ranging from traditional jazz, improv, pop to contemporary music. Dumoulin creates a unique sound on the Fender Rhodes, which he successfully combines with electronics. In this respect, he has joined forces on numerous occasions with existing bands, including Magic Malik Orchestra, Reggie Washington Trio Tree, Octurn, Dre Pallemaerts band, Othin Spake, Benzine, Narcissus Quartet, Brussels Jazz Orchestra, Toots Thielemans, Aka Moon, Belmondo Brothers and David Lynx. 

Stian Westerhus (NO) is well-known for his experimental guitar style. He plays in bands such as Jaga Jazzist & Puma and with musicians the likes of Sidsel Endresen, Nils Petter Molvær, Arve Henriksen, Jan Bang & Ingar Zach. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in jazz with Stuart Hall at Middlesex University and his Master in the jazz programme at the Trondheim Musikkonservatorium. In 2008, he won a BBC Award for Innovation in Jazz with Fraud.

The ‘V’ in Teun Verbruggen (BE) stands for ‘versatility’. His search for authenticity, his desire to gain mastery over all possible aspects of music and drum styles, his boundless style and his continuing quest for fresher sounds as well as the freedom of collective improvisation led him to collaborations with Alexi Tuomarila (4tet and Trio), Jef Neve, Hilmar Jensson, Johann Johannsson, Mauro Pawlowski, Molo Trio, Jambangle, Rackham, Pascal Schumacher JojoBa, Streams, Silent Song, Jozef Dumoulin... In 2003, Teun founded his own record label “RAT Records”. Since then, Verbruggen organises “RAT Events”, with which he aims for increased visibility on and more concerts for free jazz and the improve scene in Flanders.

The press:

“The quartet invites the audience [...] on a roller coaster ride and repeats the process over and over again. In quiet and subdued moments, the public waits with bated breath while the band lets the tension rise slowly. Then, as the carts reach their highest point, we, humble listeners, are taken on a breakneck race downhill with Westerhus’s hefty solos, gritty interludes courtesy of Dumoulin, Henriksen’s sampled interventions and as mentioned, Verbruggen’s mighty but downright rhythmic percussions.”  Jazz&Meer

“From calm-infused passages to outbursts of musical energy, the audience is drawn into a wonderful world of free expression which at times sounds almost mystical and at others like a damned good organised chaos. The percussion sound play cannot be pigeonholed. It is pure improvisation where the musicians inspire each other from one moment to the next: improvisation built from scratch, influenced by a playful mix of jazz, electronic, noise and rock. They get the best out of their instruments.”  Written in music

‘’Warped Dreamer shares a fickle, mysterious city vibe with a few other bands these musicians are/were involved in. At the same time this project, which combines the talents of Belgian stalwarts Teun Verbruggen (drums) and Jozef Dumoulin (keyboards) with those of Norwegian experimentalists Stian Westerhus (guitar) and Arve Henriksen (trumpet), also has an entirely different identity. Free improvisation, jazz residue and electronic interventions/manipulations are woven together in an organically flowing crossover that hints at a Northern vastness and utilizes a complex inner map that guides the audience past labyrinthine panoramas, intricate textures and spontaneous interaction. As such, they incorporate both crackling, whirling walls of sound and claustrophobic whispers. Warped Dreamer looks toward the future in a way that makes the question whether it’s in or out completely irrelevant. It’s everywhere at once.’’  Guy Peters

A video live at Het Bos - February 2014:

Arve Henriksen : Trumpet , flute , voice and electronics

Stian Westerhus : Guitar and electronics

Jozef Dumoulin : Fender Rhodes and electronics

Teun Verbruggen : Drums and electronics

Lomahongva:

artwork : Michaël Borremans

Lay out : Peter Verbruggen

Live recording by Dieter Claeys 17th of January 2015 at ‚het Bos’ , Antwerp

Mixed and mastered by Stian Westerhus November 2015

Produced by Teun Verbruggen

Digital and physical release on the 13th of May 2016.

Track listing:

1: Kenda

2: Nahimana

3: Sahpooly

4: Odahingum

5: Tehya / Ogin

Prices

World shipping €15,00 EUR

CD

Option 1 Option 2 Option 3

Rat-Off DVD001:
The full concert beautifully filmed in dvd is also released now, see details here.

Prices

World shipping €15,00 EUR

DVD

DVD

OJP008: Chiharu MK / Piano Works: Piano Prizm - Waterproof

Cover art by A.L.

OJP008 : Chiharu MK / Piano Works: Piano Prizm - Waterproff

Chimera Mukaiyama aka Chiharu MK is a Japanese electronic artist born in Sapporo/Hokkaido. She works mainly in electroacoustic music and sound installations.
She is also active in the art field such as sound contributions for German contemporary artist Nina Fisher & Maroan El Sani’s visual piece and sound installations for domestic Triennial exhibitions.

Off released her third album not long ago (see OJP006), a collaboration with Hamon player Sachiko Nagata, but it's now time to rediscover her beautiful 1st album 'Piano Prizm' released in 2007 and her acclaimed 2nd album 'Waterproof' from 2009.
'Piano Prizm' was chosen and played on Radio Sakamoto by Ryuichi Sakamoto himself.

Portfolio and bio here.

A video of Waterproof live in September 2011:

Digital release on the 15th of April 2016.

Track listing:

Piano Prizm:

1: piano prizm

2: Tree of Life remix

3: style r

4: Kodama for 2 castanets

Produced & Masterded : chiharu mk

4track: 1st catanet: Yuji Shingai, 2nd castanet: Keiichi Kikuchi

Recorded & Mixed: Yoshihiro Tsukahara

---------------------------

Waterproof:

5: waterproof

6: a.N.

7: panoramic chaos

8: no.4

9: blue cave -inner mind-

10: flow

1track: guitar: yoshihiro tsukahara,  6track: cello: tomoki tai

Produced: chiharu mk

Masterded : yoshihiro tsukahara

And in Bandcamp:

ODG050 : Adam Matlock / Lungfiddle

Cover art by A.L. from a Adam Matlock pic.

ODG050 : Adam Matoc / Lungfiddle

Adam Matlock works as an accordionist, composer, and vocalist living and working in New Haven, CT. 

Matlock writes songs under the name An Historic, building narratives accompanied by musical inspirations from Balkan music and Klezmer, Soul, and various strains of rock. 

An Historic exists as a solo project, but is reinforced live and on record with the members of Dr. Caterwauls Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps, a folky/jazzy band adding trombone/fiddle/banjo and accordion to the standard rock instrumentation of guitar, bass, and drums. 

He also composes under his own name, most notably the opera Red Giant(2014) for 6 piece ensemble and three singers, and Earthseed Songs (2012) for voice and two instrumentalists.  

Matlock also began to expand his role as a performer in 2009, playing original music and interpretations with projects including An Historic, Broadcloth, Gzara, and Dr. Caterwaul's Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps. 

He has recorded, performed, or improvised with artists including Anthony Braxton, Mario Pavone, Ceschi, Vinny Golia, Sigh, and Clara Engel, and works as a music teacher in the New Haven area. See also:  anhistoricmusic.blogspot.com  and anhistoricmusic.bandcamp.com

A very nice article in CTNow about his work and a very nice review in NYCjazzrecord here:

"Accordionist, vocalist and composer Adam Matlock is based in New Haven and is mostly known for his work in the Tri-Centric orbit of composer Anthony Braxton and related ensembles (Broadcloth; Dr. Caterwaul’s Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps). Lungfiddle is his latest acappella effort, a seven-tune outlay of driving button-flecks, chewy particulars and whirling drone. Matlock is a harried technician with frenzied clarity and, unlike some of his peers, he avoids electronics entirely. In hearing the controlled panoply exhibited on this set, it’s hard to believe this constant amalgam of breath and finger motion is unadulterated— yet the music shouldn’t be entirely prized for physique, as out of pure, shapely emotion and breathtaking runs occasionally emerge fully realized structures. In the pantheon of solo recordings of any stripe, accordion or otherwise, Lungfiddle is a stunning achievement.  Clifford Allen"

Adam Matlock

Digital release on the 8th of April 2016.

Track listing:

1. Map Dilations

2. Lungfiddle Sketch 1

3. Bantonne

4.Lungfiddle Sketch 2

5. Many Worlds

6.Lungfiddle Sketch 3

7. Shudder Hymn

And in Bandcamp: