OJP022 : Mimosa / Mimosa

Art cover by Mimosa

OJP022 : Mimosa / Mimosa

Mimosa explores through their unique instrumentation, keyboard, vibraphone, and voice with processing, various paths of improvised music. 

Touching on classical, jazz, noise and ambient musical styles, this trio always performs at a high energy, feeding the ears with rich textures, harmony, and crashing tension, sucking anybody into their journey. The keys of Rieko create repetitive patterns putting the listener in a trance state using the extreme ends of the sonic range. While Els occupies the middle frequencies on the Vibraphone creating the texture that could be mistaken for electronics. Then the vocals of Natalie fit like a puzzle piece to lay noise, and melody with the right amount of electronic manipulation. 

This recipe makes for a stellar and highly addicting music. 

You can discover more music at their Bandcamp.

Members: 

Natalie Sandtorv – vocal, electronics, wikipedia, Soundcloud.

Els Vandeweyer – vibraphone, elsvandeweyer.com

Rieko Okuda – keys, website.

 Els, Rieko and Natalie

Members‘ Biography:

Els Vandeweyer is a Belgian vibraphonist, percussionist, and composer currently living in Berlin. After studying classical percussion in Antwerp and jazz vibraphone in Brussels and Oslo, Els co-founded the IMI Kollektief, whose critically acclaimed album Snug as a Gun was released on Clean Feed in 2006. Today, Els plays regularly in Berlin, including solo performance, group improvisation, and contemporary music (including a performance of Xenakis’s Rebonds b at the A L'ARME! Festival in Berlin). Recently, her composition Landscape, a 25-meter-long textile that functions as a mobile graphic score, was performed in Berlin as part of the Kontraklang series on contemporary music. Current projects include a duo with Fred Van Hove, Quat (with Fred Van Hove, Paul Lovens, and Martin Blume); Mimosa (with Rieko Okuda and Natalie Sandtorv); Metal Illusion (a shadow play with Rieko Okuda), Spin Track (with Olaf Rupp and DJ Illvibe), and participation in two orchestras (Pascal Niggenkemper´s Vision 7 and the Serenus Zeitblom Oktett). 

Rieko Okuda is a pianist and a composer. She began with Classical music from the age of 3, in Japan. In her young age, she attended to Kaizuka city Piano Competition, and got the first prize. Later then moved to USA to study and learn Jazz music. She fell right into the Jazz scene in USA, performing with some of the great American Jazz musicians (Bob Mintzer, Jon Faddis, John Fedchock etc.) Also, she got interested in Free Jazz and Improvised music scene while she was in Phliladelphia. She performed with the great improvisers includes Marshall Allen (from San Ra Orchestra), Elliott Levine (recorded with Cecil Taylor), and Calvin Weston (recorded with Ornette Coleman). She has performed in Jazz Festivals throughout her stay in USA. Her interests in Improvised music led her to move to Berlin and perform with various musicians. Currently, she performs with Audrey Chen, Els Vendaweyer, Susanne Zapf (from Sonar Quartet), Yuko Kaseki, Axel Dörner, ect. She also performs at several experimental festivals: XChange Festival, Experymental Festival, and Art-Sound Festival to name a few.In 2014, she got to work with Japanese Pop Artist, YUZU. She arranged the song called “Amenochi Hareruya,“ which awarded Japan Record Award 2014. 

Sandtorv studied jazz, improvisational music and electronics at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and at Griegakademiet in Bergen. She is known for her exploration of different expressions within improvisational music in solo projects and with various ensembles. Sandtorv bring the experimental concept of improvised meetings between innovative vocal artists. In 2015 she released her first solo album Pieces Of Solitude. She performed a duoproject in 2015 together with the British multi instrumentalist Steve Beresford at the Blow Out! festival in Oslo, Norway. Sandtorv is the initiator of the concert series Playdate in Bergen and Jugendjazz in Ålesund. In November 2015, she released her first solo album Pieces Of Solitude on the Va Fongool label. 

Digital release on the 24th of November 2017.

Track listing:

1: Mimosa, Pt.1

2: Mimosa, Pt.2

3: Mimosa, Pt.3

And in bandcamp:



You can buy their cd at their live gigs, all handmade!

OJP023 : Haco - Kent Macpherson - Megan Berry - Jeremy Mayall / Wild Sonic Blooms

Cover art by Paul Bradley

OJP023 : Haco - Kent Macpherson - Megan Berry - Jeremy Mayall / Wild Sonic Blooms

Wild Sonic Blooms is a collaboration between Haco San, the famous Japanese composer, vocalist, electroacoustic performer, sound artist, and founding member of After Dinner (1981-1991) and Hoahio and 3 New-Zealander artists and teachers from the Wintec school of Media Arts Waikato Institute of Technology. 

They invited Haco San to perform a semi improvised one hour set which was the base for a video performance at Ramp Gallery, Hamilton, NZ - 11.12.2016, by Jeremy Mayall, Kent Macpherson, Megan Berry, and Haco. 

Kent worked with Haco first in 2012, where she was invited to collaborate with him as part of the Spark international festival of music, media, arts and design. They performed the work 'BugLoop' in Hamilton New Zealand. A multimedia sound art improvisation centred on water as its source. You can watch the full experience here.

As part of his 2016 research outputs, Kent applied for a research grant to bring Haco to NZ once again to collaborate with a larger group of musicians. They spent 2 days in Studio A at the school of music (Wintec), recording over 6 hours of music. Also 2 live performances were realised on the same day and captured on film. The afternoon performance is the recording you are experiencing through this release.

Haco San

Haco is a Japanese singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and sound artist, known for her work with After Dinner and Hoahio, among others.

Following formal studies in acoustics, electronic music and recording technology in 1980, Haco came to international attention fronting the group After Dinner (active between 1981–1991). 

Haco released her first solo album in 1995, and embarked on her first solo European tour a year later. More recently, Haco has worked with various groups and has recorded or performed with countless other artists, such as Otomo Yoshihide.

In addition to her more conventional album releases Haco has also worked in the fields of sound art or curating exhibitions and installations and establishing the sound art project View Masters. Visit her site here.

Kent

Kent Macpherson is a Hamilton based sonic artist, composer, researcher and audio technology lecturer (Wintec). His research practice includes capturing found and unfound sound, improvisation, performance and electroacoustic composition. 

His sonic art practice utilises contact microphones and hydrophones to capture the sounds emitted by large resonating structures such as bridges, turbines, aerials and buildings. His most recent sonic artwork ‘The absent sense’ is currently exhibiting in China.
He performs as a member of the avant classical soundscape ensemble ‘Dr Mesmers Private Army’ playing keyboards and octave guitar. Read more here.

Jeremy

Jeremy Mayall is a Composer/Producer/Performer originally from Hamilton, NZ. He likes to refer to himself as a “Creative Collaborator” and was the Mozart Fellow (composer-in-residence) at Otago University for 2014-2015.

His most recent work has been focussed on the exploration multimedia, multisensory, interdisciplinary projects. Various collaborations have included musicians, dancers, poets, silks performers, theatre practitioners, scientists, perfumers, bakers, authors, sculptors, filmmakers, pyrotechnicians, lighting designers and visual artists. Read more here.

Megan

Megan Berry is a composer and performer based in Hamilton, New Zealand. She has released two albums with her indie-folk band, The Heartbreak Kids. She teaches Music Theory, Performance and Songwriting in the Music Department at the School of Media Arts, Waikato Institute of Technology.

Wild Sonic Blooms Trailer from Kent Macpherson on Vimeo.

Performers:

Kent Macpherson – octave guitar, keyboard, laptop

Jeremy Mayall - keyboard, turntable, iPad

Haco - vocals, electronics, howling pot, found sounds

Megan Berry - vocals, fx, samplepad

"Wild Sonic Blooms"

Music composed and created by:

Megan Berry, Haco, Kent Macpherson, and, Jeremy Mayall.

Recorded live at Ramp Gallery (Dec. 2016)

Sound Mix - Dan Edgar Reese

Thanks to:

Wintec Music Department / David Sidwell / Brad Morgan / Wintec School of Media Arts /

Wintec Research Office / ACLX / Ramp Gallery

Made possible with the support of Wintec Research Fellowship 2016

Digital release on the 17th of November 2017.

Track listing:

1: Wild Sonic Blooms, Pt.1 - Floraison
2: Wild Sonic Blooms, Pt.2 - Saku
3: Wild Sonic Blooms, Pt.3 - Pua Pua
4: Wild Sonic Blooms, Pt.4 - Bloom

And in Bandcamp:

OCD036 : Adrian Lim-Klumpes / Yield (Preludes & Fugues for Piano)

Covert art By Briallen Lim-Klumpes

OCD036 : Adrian Lim-Klumpes / Yield (Preludes & Fugues for Piano)

Known as the frontman of critically acclaimed post-jazz bands, Triosk, 3ofmillions, and currently, Tangents, Adrian’s sound has been described as:

“ exceedingly lyrical; pianist Adrian Klumpes has found a path to the ‘sparkling water cascading down from some clear waterfall’ sound Miles Davis so admired in Bill Evans' playing” (Pitchfork)

Yield is a new collection of captivating tracks, showcasing Adrian’s unique ability to develop improvised ideas into fully rounded and complex works. 

The 52-minute album is a selection of performances captured in one six-hour session on

a Steinway piano and is awash with his signature blending of minimalism, lyrical piano, jazz harmony and electronics to create polyphonic textures that shift in mood from track to track.

Adrian describes Yield’s exploration of solo piano composition as, in part, a homage to Bach’s piano work ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier’. Certainly, with its arrangement into paired preludes and fugues, and its multi-layered harmonies, the album speaks to a classical piano tradition, yet equally we hear the influence of modern pianists such as John Cage, Bill Evans, Philip Glass, Harold Budd and Chris Abrahams.

The tracks on Yield were created in pairs, designed for the listener to hear corresponding echoes between pieces. 

The first pair of tracks, Watch and Follow , begin with a gentle, spacious melody, highlighted by glistening electronic accents. Then what are controlled washes of color in Watch become urgent brushstrokes in Follow, as the motif is taken over by pulsing rhythms and a driving tempo. 

Similarly the various pairs on the album; Caution and Chase, Wait and Rush, Process and Control, Move and Remain, reveal both the delicacy and expressiveness of Adrian's playing

alongside his skilful manipulation of the different shades that come from dramatic shifts in dynamic expression and tonal color.

To listen to the album in full is to be led through a narrative of tension and resolution. 

Across the ten tracks of Yield, Adrian explores a range of emotion, from feelings of violence, loneliness, and pain, to those of peace, warmth, tenderness and fragility. 

Yield is an album which, like a kaleidoscope, reveals new colors and dimensions with each

listen. 

Fans of his previous solo work Be Still (Leaf Label, 2006) will be satisfied by his continued push at the boundaries of post-classical, post-jazz aesthetics, and new listeners will be enchanted by their transportation into Adrian’s evocative aural world.

A great review in The Sydney Morning Herald here.

More info, bio and news about Adrian's work and bio here.

Prices

World shipping CD €15,00 EUR

A nice review from Norman records here.

The video of 'Move':

Adrian Klumpes - Move (Official Video) from James Vernon on Vimeo.

I leave Mandy Stefanakis in Musictrust.com telling you her first encounter with the album:

“Don’t venture too far in a car whilst listening to this incredible album lest you find yourself in a quite different modus operandi from which it is pleasingly difficult to return.”

"The titles of tracks are a series of verbs, action words, though some are more active, Chase, for example, than others, such as Remain. But the titles are just a tiny reminder to the listener of the kinaesthetic and temporal nature of music and if one could suggest an overall theme here, this is it – the whole body/sound/mind gestalt utterly envelopes one – which is why I got lost. On Caution, for example, Lim-Klumpes speaks of the two improvised layers drowning the listener. The two voices are at extreme ends of the piano, the growly bass notes entering first. Adrian has digitally manipulated their pitch so that they become ever so slightly raised or lowered even in the one sound. He also adds echo so that sounds connect with each other. He enhances the ring of the upper notes in this way, where harmonics do not naturally provide such resonance as with lower tones, and builds both, so one really does feel utterly immersed in sound. Indeed, sound invades the body completely."
Read the complete review here!

Adrian and his Steinway

The liner notes written by Adrian himself can be downloaded HERE.

Yield is part of a larger project of twenty-four preludes and fugues in every key.

Physical and digital release on the 10th of November.

Track listing:

1: Watch
2: Follow
3: Caution
4:Chase
5: Wait
6: Rush
7: Process
8: Control
9: Move
10: Remain

OAS007 : Endless White / Day Off - Bái rìguò jǐn

OAS007 : Endless White / Day Off  - Bái rìguò jǐn

The band was founded in April 2015 in the ancient city of Xi’an / China.

Obsessed with shoegaze and dreampop since their youth, they started to compose in that style, adding gentle or dynamic melody lines to take you into their own world of music : simple, complex and extremely poppy at the same time, full of energy and joy. 

Their ambition, through their songs, is to try to succeed to bring you the closest possible to the real yourself ! 

Lead singer: Weymi

Bass: Yifan

Guitar: Jiaxuan

Drums: Lvchou

Digital release on the 3rd of November 2017.

Track listing:

1: Bell Morning Drums

2: Bright Illusion

3: Skew the City

4: He Must Hug Me to Fall Asleep

5: Hoe's Dream

And on Bandcamp: