The Los Angeles Percussion Quartet presents a stunning double album with 84 minutes of contemporary compositions for percussion.
Performing works from Daniel Bjarnason, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Christopher Cerrone, Ellen Reid and Andrew McIntosh.
Monty Adkins he often chooses a single instrument to work with and then starts exploring its possibilities and manipulating its sounds.
And while the starting point and sounds are very different to begin with, he manages to create a ‘sound-field’ that is immediately recognisable.
“Unfurling Streams”, his recent release on Crónica, is based on recordings of percussion instruments made by Jonny Axelsson (a much praised percussionist with impressive experience in playing contemporary music by composers like Stockhausen, Ligeti and Kevin Volans) and Monty Adkins himself.
Born in 1955 and making music since he was 20 years old (inspired by Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Vangelis), Steve Roach has personally helped shape ambient music to become what it is now. He’s one of those extremely prolific artists: his discography boasts about 100 albums at the moment.
He has worked together with many well-known musicians, and though his style may vary on each different release it is also very personal and immediately recognisable.
With 40 years of musical experience, percussionist Byron Metcalf is not exactly a newcomer, either.
“Tales from the Ultra Tribe” is their latest collaboration (released in conjunction with Steve Roach’s drone album “Soul Tones” , which showcases quite a different side of his music).
The tense and suspenseful rhythms from these seamlessly mixed eight tracks immediately catch hold of the listener and don’t let go until the end, 74 minutes later.
“Deislieper” is the third release in what I like to call the “Kleefstra Wire Trilogy“.
In fact, there’s no real ‘trilogy’, but three separate albums that were presented by three independent labels on one single advertising page in Wire Magazine: “Wurdskrieme” (on Experimedia). “Tongerswel” (on Home Normal), and now “Deislieper” (on Hibernate).
“Deislieper”, by the way, is a Frisian name for the nightjar and literally it means ‘day sleeper’
Rooted firmly in the improv scene, core members Jan (poetry) and Romke (guitar, effects) Kleefstra never work alone.
With Piiiptsjilling, most of the contributors were Dutch fellow musicians (like Rutger ‘Machinefabriek’ Zuydervelt, Mariska Baars, Chris Bakker), but soon they also started playing with an international cast of musicians like Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm, Greg Haines (on the Seeljocht project).
Tongerswel presented their work together with saxophonist Gareth Davis, and now Deisleeper features the incredible percussion music by Sytze Pruiksma.
