This release features an 8-page booklet with liner notes from Fred Van Hove and Hans Falb, and striking cover art by the celebrated Köln-based artist Gerhard Richter.

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nuscope  CD 1015  Burnt Sienna

       2nd Outlet

This new electro-acoustic disc, the first on the nuscope recordings label, features the trio 2nd Outlet with saxophonist/electronics master Luc Houtkamp, pianist Cor Fuhler, and percussionist Martin Blume. This CD was recorded at the LOFT in Köln, Germany during two different sessions in 2002 and 2003.

According to Thomas Lehn in the liner notes, "The resulting identity of 2nd Outlet is their finely balanced, but not too serious, act of playing with both of their identities. The traditional elements are on one hand, and the timbre work is on the other. The traditional idioms are set into the light of reflection, questioning their idiomatic meanings, by letting them co-exist with very imaginative timbre emanations, which you can hear across the entire disc in multiple shades and shapes."

In the Summer 2004 issue of Signal to Noise magazine, Bill Meyer says, 2nd Outlet's "...billing as a band is telling, for nothing about this music speaks of overweaning ego. Which isn't to suggest that they're overly reserved; each player proceeds decisively, and the collective musters a vigor that any self-respecting energy music ensemble would be glad to claim for its own."

This release features an 8-page booklet with liner notes from German synthesist Thomas Lehn and very original art from Dallas, Texas resident John Pomara.

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nuscope  CD 1016  Unearth

       Kaufmann / Gratkowski / de Joode

On September 28th, 2004, pianist Achim Kaufmann, reedist Frank Gratkowski, and bassist Wilbert de Joode performed this marvelous session at the LOFT in Koln, Germany.

According to journalist Marc Chenard, "Call them spur-of-the-moment pieces if you will, or instant compositions, these essays in spontaneous music are outgrowths of a collective playing experience. Since its inception almost three years ago, this unit has criss-crossed Europe on more than one occasion, one of its tours yielding enough material for a first recording on the Berlin-based Konnex label, a disc entitled Kwast.

Bruce Gallanter of the Downtown Music Gallery says, "This is an extraordinary trio that had a superb disc out last year on the Konnex label. With instrumentation similar to the classic Jimmy Giuffre Trio (clarinet, piano & bass) from the mid-sixties, this current trio updates Giuffre's chamber-jazz sound in different ways. If this music is mostly improvised, it certainly doesn't sound like it. It is much closer to the restraint, thoughtfulness and sublime balance of contemporary classical music, than most modern jazz. At times it difficult to tell the bowed bass from the bass clarinet and the rubbing of objects inside the piano also comes from a similar sonic section. Pieces often move in slow motion so that the combined sounds can move and explore together, between space and suspense. Even when they start to swing more quickly, they always sail together as one solid force, no matter that they are still free at times. Like all releases on the consistently great Nuscope label, the production and balance is perfect, a marvel of warmth and attention to detail in just the right studio."

According to David Dupont in Cadence magazine, "Gratkowski, Kaufmann, and de Joode demonstrate on Unearth the kind of close listening needed to create a unified collective sound. Often that means they moderate the volume of the music, forcing the listener either to fade out of the proceedings or, if they're serious, to focus more intently on the musicians' interactions...For this trio, the musical poetry is found in the sawing song of de Joode's bass, the breathy tones of Gratkowski's horns, (and) the splashes and plinks of Kaufmann's piano. To draw on the rhetoric of the session's titles, it all has its own kinky logic, yet nothing seems remotely connected to any textbook."

This release features an 8-page booklet with liner notes from Montreal-based journalist Marc Chenard, and very original cover art from Achim Kaufmann's wife, Gabriele Guenther.

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nuscope  CD 1017  Elegans

       Vinkeloe / Smith / Nordeson

Elegans, a new disc featuring alto saxophonist / flutist Biggi Vinkeloe, Bay Area double-bassist Damon Smith, and percussionist Kjell Nordeson is now available.

This trio has all of the quality of Vinkeloe's well-known trio recordings with Barre Phillips or the late Peter Kowald (both with drummer Peeter Uuskyla), but due to Smith's very original playing, and Nordeson's exciting performances on drums and vibraphone, the trio takes on a character of its own. Of course, Vinkeloe's playing is as stellar as ever.

According to double-bassist and occasional Biggi Vinkeloe collaborator Barre Phillips, "The music of Biggi Vinkeloe, with her beautiful melodies, instrumental tone and lush phrasing, the delicate, tasteful rhythmic offerings and harmonic richness of Kjell Nordeson plus the warm depth and microtonal colorings of Damon Smith all add up to a very enjoyable recording."

According to Marc Medwin of the Bagatellen web site, "I chose a late evening to audition this latest Nuscope offering for the first time, and now it never sounds quite right during the day. The duo and trio explorations exist, by and large, in afterglow, in the calm but magical world of overtone and shadow I associate with moonlight. The music is not reticent—far from it! It ebbs and flows with the quiet certainty of expectation, making the occasional moments of more extreme light and darkness more vivid.

The opening to “Kinkajou” is one such instance; Smith’s puckish arco scoops and Nordeson’s percussive twitters giving rise to one of the disc’s most overtly dramatic exchanges. Vinkeloe, far from drawn into the serio-comic fray, exudes long-toned admonishments, she and Smith seeming to have swapped roles to engage in some beautifully orchestral interplay. Her flute work on “Parish”, on the other end of the spectrum, sounds an “Oriental” clarion call amidst ominous rumbles and microtonal clusters, Smith’s shredding moans and sighs sounding like the remnants of some butchered coral. Indeed, it’s hard to tell where bass ends and percussion begins before an uneasy calm is eventually restored.

These are moments of obviously polarized unrest though, and much of the disc’s reflectivity can be gauged from the title track. What might be a military cadence, if Nordeson chose to engage stereotype, pervades the texture, his drum work a series of loosely defined in-tempo patterns that always seem to break down at the last moment. Vinkeloe and Smith dodge and weave, emerging repeatedly from Nordeson’s fractured structures only to be shoved, gently, in another direction.

Most beguiling though, bespeaking midnight, is “Today, the sun is Blue”, a gorgeously contrapuntal Smith/Vinkeloe duet; the silence surrounding each gesture is magical, each phrase leads ineluctably into the next, maintaining a perfect but fragile blend of sound and silence, a recipe for disaster in the wrong hands.

Many of the quieter moments here are so successful because the recording is absolutely first-rate. Nordeson’s subtle vibraphone is captured in a way that forms a perfect stereophonic contrast to the other players’ more sharply defined presences. The disc is a credit to Nuscope, whose output continues to be of the highest quality, and to this fine trio, from whom I hope to hear a lot more."

This disc is a stunning collection of duos and trios that is certain to have much lasting value for fans of both free jazz and free improvisation. The release features an 8-page booklet with liner notes from the great bassist Barre Phillips, and exciting new art from artist Caio Fonseca.

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nuscope  CD 1018  Distich

               Mat Maneri / Denman Maroney

Distich is a new disc featuring violist Mat Maneri and pianist Denman Maroney. Unlike many projects by each musician, the music on this disc is completely improvised, which brings in new aspects of each musician’s approach, while retaining their significant strengths.

According to Roger C. Miller, a former student of Denman Maroney and an important musician in his own right, “There are no rhythms in the traditional sense in this music.  But rhythm runs through it like the pulsing of a pond in summer.  Living, non-linear (life is constantly full of non-linearity). Try track 7, 'Span'—this is a pretty wet environment—the stability of land is nowhere to be found.  But there is plenty going on for those who have ears to hear it.

As a pianist, I have delved into the 'prepared' world, and I find Denman's technique fascinating. His Hyperpiano is, essentially, heavy metal.  There is no heavier instrument (you try moving one of those!): the soundboard, the tuning pins, the strings are all metal.  You can hear the metal in Denman's work; it is as much like machinery gone haywire as the cells in a tree dividing during the first warm days of spring.

If Denman's metallic glissandos obliterate any sense of dividing the octave into 12 discrete parts, then Mat's micro-tonalities eradicate superficial civilization every bit as much, even when he's not the one leading the glissando slides down those slippery slopes.  And the two together create an extremely pleasantly disorienting reorientation of the hearing system.”

In the Summer 2007 edition of Signal to Noise magazine, Bill Meyer says, "There are moments when this duo holds the preconceptions generated by their viola-piano line-up--close and gentle. But that's just so that they, like loving pigeon keepers, can drop their object of adoration into the air and watch it defy free-fall. Maneri has expanded his instrument's capabilities by adding an extra string, but even more by mastering the notes between the notes. Maroney works as much inside his piano as he does at the keyboard. But liberation from instrumental limitations doesn't mean that they abandon their fundamental languages.

For every moment when Maroney makes his Steinway rattle and slur, there's another where he chases a darting line across unprepared strings. And Maneri argues the chamber side of his music here most persuasively. The best moments come when the languages come together in a common tongue, as on 'Couplet,' where the commonly voiced piano passages seem to fly out of a thicket of blurred, bent metallic tones, and Maneri beats and drags on strings like a flint-chipper setting a much-needed fire. On the title tune, the duo's spontaneous counterpoint is lithe and dramatic; on 'Match,' gamelan-like sonorities both compliment and challenge bowed melancholy. The recorded sound, as usual from this label, is clear and bright as new ice in the morning."

Journalist Scott Verrastro, discussing the recording in the July/August 2007 edition of Jazz Times says, "At numerous occasions throughout the disc, it sounds as if the viola and Hyperpiano are the same instrument; their microtonal properties make it almost impossible to discern who is playing what. Maneri does play fractured melodies that can be briefly identified as Eastern European gypsy folk or the avant-classicalism of Schoenberg and Stravinsky, but mostly he just darts around Maroney and saws and plucks with abandon, refusing to settle on a rhythmic or melodic idea."

The recording, which was recorded, mixed, and mastered in the 24 bit domain, includes liner notes from Roger C. Miller, perhaps best known for his work with Mission of Burma and Birdsongs of the Mesozoic.

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nuscope  CD 1019  Chicago Approach

      Gregorio / Karayorgis / McBride

According to reedist/composer Guillermo Gregorio, this trio with pianist/composer Pandelis Karayorgis and double-bassist Nate McBride “…evidences a very consistent group.” And, from the opening strains of “Assembly” through the closing notes in “Photogram,” this is not only a consistent group, but a newborn trio – a true collective.

According to journalist Michael Rosenstein, “It’s striking how the three play off of each other, drawing on each of their strengths while bringing out new shadings as well. Karayorgis’ oblique angularities and impeccable sense of harmonic phrasing are there, only concentrated to a heady distillate. Here his playing is as much about the space around the notes as it is attention to the carefully placed angular motifs and shard-like chords. McBride is an insightful musician who is now receiving the attention he deserves. This trio setting brings out the muscular grace in his playing, as the dark timbres of his bass counter with the piano and clarinet. Gregorio’s clarinet completes the picture. Throughout, his playing is infused with the warm woody tones and phrasing of the jazz clarinet vocabulary while filtered through his structuralist sensibility.”

According to journalist Greg Buium's four-star review in the June 2007 issue of downbeat magazine, "Chicago Approach is a heady, fastidious and wonderfully vivid example of the far-flung coalitions that fuel much of contemporary improvised music. Boston-based pianist Pandelis Karayorgis joins Chicago-based clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio and bassist Nate McBride in this mélange of the impromptu and the predesigned.

What's written? What isn't? Why does it matter? It doesn't. This set sticks together so marvelously and subtly. Jimmy Giuffre's name is bound to come up with any clarinet, piano, and bass trio. Gregorio, Karayorgis, and McBride even play Giuffre's 'Variation.' But the inspirations here are vast: air-traffic controllers, discrete 'structural strategies,' new music and even geometry. It's a cerebral document, but the basic drama and color are what give it power. McBride offers husky, dominant lines. Gregorio floats and skitters from Lee Konitz to Thelonius Monk to delicious reed abstractions. Karayorgis' lines are frantic, focused and appealing. The group's modest movement resonates. To conclude the set, 'Photogram' offers mumbling piano, shearing clarinet and bass overtones. It's fragmented but also incisive, filled with a quiet beauty."

This recording, which was recorded, mixed, and mastered in the 24 bit domain, includes liner notes from Boston-based journalist Michael Rosenstein, and gripping cover art from the late László Moholy-Nagy.

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nuscope  CD 1020  Gaga

      Denman Maroney Quartet

Gaga (CD 1020), the new disc by pianist Denman Maroney's quartet with reedist Ned Rothenberg, bassist Reuben Radding, and drummer Michael Sarin, was released on Tuesday, April 15, 2008.

According to journalist Bill Shoemaker's liner notes, "the theme of Denman Maroney’s music is complexity; not a single, stand-alone complexity, but a convergence of complexities: the mathematics of pitch and rhythm expressed through partials and ratios; the historical intersections between the experimental music tradition of Cowell, Cage et al and jazz; and a period in jazz history when the impasse between its more mulish doctrines and what are arguably jazz-in-name-only hybrids threatens jazz’s relevance to the currently emerging generation that will largely set the terms for artistry and innovation in music for the 21^st Century...Maroney does not reduce complexity into pat-your-foot jazz on Gaga; rather, he makes it audible and comprehensible, no small feat."

Bruce Gallanter of the Downtown Music Gallery says, "This is Mr. Maroney's second disc as leader, his first a fine disc on New World from last year and he has chosen his ensemble most selectively...I knew from the start that this was going to be fine disc. 'Fowler's Blues' opens and is an odd minimal bluesy song with Denman playing most skeletal and Ned playing even less notes, while Michael spins more quickly on brushes. The mid-section has Denman cautiously muting the piano strings with as he plays those eerie rubbed string sounds. There is something quite elegant and charming about this piece. I love the way Denman combines the that twisted Latin-like groove on 'Frogs' while playing those bowl-rubbing notes inside the piano.

The title track, 'Gaga' is the longest and it is a spacious, haunting and minimal piece. Michael's melodic mallet work is featured as the rest of the instruments just add occasional punctuation. It is as if there is a couple of intersecting stories going on simultaneously in slow motion and then building in tempo slightly as it unfolds. When Ned finally comes in, his own playful sound to the sly, oddly funky vibe. The thing I dig most about this disc is the strange yet charming melodies that Denman has written. Each piece seems to have a theme that is quirky, unpredictable and yet, oddly charming. 'Kilter' reminds me of a merry-go-round as it accelerates and then slows back down. 'Social Security' sounds suspiciously like a Thelonius Monk theme with a theme that is instantly memorable. In a way, I can see/hear how Monk could be an inspiration for this quartet as Denman does write those quirky slightly twisted songs. This disc is not what we might have expected from an experimentalist like Denman Maroney, although it is just as engaging nonetheless."

This CD features an 8-page booklet with liner notes by Bill Shoemaker and artwork by Chris Villars, who is also known for his comprehensive website for the late Morton Feldman.

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