Out of stock
3 CD box
DDK Trio (Demierre / Dörner / Kocher)
“A Right to Silence”
On the impulse of Jacques Demierre, DDK trio was created in 2014 at the Festival Météo Mulhouse, France. Made up of three major figures on the international music scene, this trio plays music that is totally oriented towards the present moment. It continues the tradition of "instant composition" - going back to Lennie Tristano and passing through the legendary Jimmy Giuffre trio - and deploys an expressive palette ranging from silence to massive acoustic eruptions, while paying particular attention to the great precision of the articulation of musical discourse. An extreme care for sound and listening constitutes the core of this music, which draws from the sources of today's inventive music where multiple sound universes intersect.
The trio's third album, "A Right to Silence," consisting of three CDs, was recorded by Benjamin Maumus at Théâtre Le Colombier, Les Cabannes, France, June 21-25, 2021, on the occasion of a recording residency at GMEA-Centre National de Création Musicale d’Albi-Tarn. In choosing the music to be released, the three musicians decided to apply the principle of non-influence-in-each-other's-choice that they have been practicing for years as a trio. From there, they each made their own album from the same raw recordings, separately, each on their own. A previously unpublished text by researcher and sound artist Thibault Walter accompanies the 3-CD boxed set, highlighting the process carried out by the trio and described above.
30,00€
Out of stock
CD
Maeda YASUYUKI / Li SONG
“28th Dec, Arakawa”
Maeda Yasuyuki and Li Song are musicians and computer programmers based in Nagoya and London, respectively. They both improvise with their computers through code using SuperCollider, a real-time sound synthesis system. They first connected online in 2017 through OSC Hub, a computer music program for remote collaboration created by Tadashi Usami.
They self-released Two Laptops in February 2022, and later released it as a tape on Karma Detonation. It was recorded during Maeda's trip to London in the summer of 2019.
This release was recorded during Li's visit to Tokyo in the winter of 2022, all in one afternoon. One recording took place under a bridge by the river around 2 p.m., and the other in a small community park in the area around 5 p.m. They placed the portable recorder between two laptops. Along with the sounds coming from the laptops' built-in speakers, the sounds of the surroundings were also recorded, including the passing cars on highways, motorboats, waves, birds, and people passing by. One of the recordings captured someone saying "Stop it" in Japanese, though neither recalls hearing it during their time in the park.
10,50€
Out of stock
CD
Atsuko HATANO / Ryotaro MIYASAKA
“Dinosaur and Gems”
Atsuko Hatano plays viola, violin and cello; she also uses electronics. She has released numerous albums and attracted a great deal of attention both inside and outside Japan. Hatano also creates music for movies, TV dramas and commercials. She frequently collaborates with other musicians and artists, including Jim O'Rourke and Eiko Ishibashi.
Ryotaro Miyasaka, a percussionist active in genres ranging from pop to experimental music, has been extremely busy of late. In 2022, he released the CD Odd Jobs Are the High Road of Work (ftarri-967), an improvised duo performance with guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama, on the Ftarri label.
Dinosaur and Gems documents a duo concert held at Ftarri on February 27, 2023. The two tracks on this album (21 and 29 minutes) show Hatano (viola and electronics) and Miyasaka (percussion) crossing swords furiously, but at times playing calmly and in perfect synch.
10,50€
In stock
CD
Kanon AONAMI / Sean COLUM / Fumi ENDO
“Kanon Aonami Composed Works”
Born in Yokohama in 1994, Kanon Aonami is an alto saxophonist and composer who plays jazz and improvised music at performance venues mainly in Tokyo and Yokohama. She is also a talented composer, and at Ftarri she often performs her own compositions in addition to improvised music. In June 2021 Aonami started appearing periodically at Ftarri; she has performed with musicians including pianist Fumi Endo, alto sax player Masahide Tokunaga, and British guitarist and Tokyo resident Sean Colum.
Focusing on her compositions, this album includes performances of three of Aonami’s composed works. Two of them (1, 3) were performed by Aonami and Sean Colum, while the other (2) is a duo performance by Sean Colum and Fumi Endo. The bonus track at the end (4) is an improvised trio performance by Aonami, Colum and Endo. All were recorded live at Ftarri on February 6 (3) and April 24 (1, 2, 4), 2023.
10,50€
Out of stock
CD
Akira SAKATA / Toshimaru NAKAMURA / Raiga HAYASHI
“Kinjo no Tabibito”
Three musicians of different generations came together to form this unusual free jazz trio. Comprised of veteran musician Akira Sakata (alto sax, clarinet, narration), noted young drummer Raiga Hayashi, and Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board)—who has been active on the improvised music scene inside and outside Japan since the 1990s—this much-talked-about band performs mainly at live music venues in the Tokyo area.
Naturally, their performances contain the furiousness and wildness characteristic of free jazz, but they also pulsate in a phantasmagoric way as they move forward. And Nakamura’s effectively released electronic noise—unusual in free jazz—solidifies the trio’s distinctive character. The two tracks on this album document a live performance that took place at Apollo, Tokyo, on March 5, 2023.
10,50€
In stock
CD
Yumiko TANAKA
“Tayutauta [Remastered Edition]”
While continuously engaged in the field of traditional Japanese music, female-school gidayu shamisen player Yumiko Tanaka has since the 1990s been carrying out multifaceted musical activities including contemporary classical music, improvisation (in 1996-97 she was a member of Otomo Yoshihide's band Ground-Zero), experimental music, and theater performance/composition, performing and exchanging ideas with many musicians from Japan and other countries.
While Tanaka is regarded as one of the musicians representative of the improvised/experimental music scene in Japan, thus far she has only two solo releases: the CD Tayutauta (Improvised Music from Japan, 2004) and the DVD Music Performance (Meenna, 2017). In 2023, 19 years after its original release, her only solo CD--the widely acclaimed Tayutauta--has been remastered and reissued with greatly improved sound quality and a new design.
Tayutauta contains ten completely improvised tracks in which Tanaka uses the gidayu shamisen but departs boldly from the usual methods of playing the instrument. Incorporating a variety of experimental techniques including plucking, bowing and use of "prepared" objects, these performances are calm and sedate, but suffused throughout with a feeling of cohesion backed by Tanaka's distinctive musical artistry. This is improvised music of rare quality.
10,50€
Out of stock
CD
John BUTCHER
“The Very Fabric”
The Brønshøj Vandtårn is a concrete water tower, built almost a hundred years ago in the suburbs of Copenhagen. It's 20m wide and 34m high - smaller than some similar shapes I've played in, but with a large, lingering reverberation. Some sounds seem to float away as if through liquid, others acquire a shifting haze, and some just prefer to sit around. Thomas Buhl-Wiggers, of the Cejero festival and label, kindly invited me to play there in the summer of 2022 and arranged for Jesper Hviid to spend the day inside, recording these pieces.
The very resonant spaces I've worked in before include a giant gazometer, a hollowed-out Japanese mountain, an underground reservoir, a Victorian mausoleum and a massive World War II oil tank. I'm still fascinated by how different these massive environments all sounded and felt. They each inspired different approaches in trying to find the music for the actual space, and this recent experience within the extraordinary Brønshøj water tower was no exception. (John Butcher)
British saxophone player John Butcher, a leading figure on the contemporary improvised music scene, has released several CDs on Ftarri labels in which he performs with other musicians, including Rhodri Davies, Akio Suzuki, Eddie Prevost and John Russell. But The Very Fabric is Butcher’s first solo album release on a Ftarri label (Hitorri).
12,00€
In stock
CD
ELECTRIC POWERED MUSIC
“Kinetic Vision”
Composer Masamichi Kinoshita, cellist Tomoki Tai, and composer/computer musician Takumi Ikeda perform on electrical equipment and electronics in the electric noise project Electric Powered Music. Kinoshita and Tai started playing sessions together around 2008 and were joined by Ikeda soon thereafter.
This album includes two live improvised performances presented at Ftarri, Tokyo. The performance on track 1 (42 minutes) took place on February 26, 2023; the track 2 performance (31 minutes), on October 23, 2022. Kinoshita played commercial electronics, Tai used remodeled and self-made electric devices, and Ikeda played electronics. "Noisy" sound is tinged with splendor and opulence in this powerful, impressive recording.
10,50€
In stock
CD
Lance Austin OLSEN
“The Pit”
Born in 1943, Lance Austin Olsen is a Canadian artist and composer. He started painting in his youth and has continued his work as an artist up to the present. In the late 1990s, Olsen became fascinated by experimental music. He has released numerous CDs and digital recordings of both solo performances and collaborations with other musicians. In his creative process, composition and painting are closely related and draw inspiration from one another.
Olsen released a duo CD on the Ftarri label with French musician Bruno Duplant in 2022. His solo CD The Pit has just come out on the Ftarri sister label Hitorri. The two tracks (30 and 11 minutes) were created through the combination of a variety of sound sources including instrumental sound, noises, voice, field recordings, a wax cylinder recording, and a sample of a 1950s radio program. The album is filled with the contemplative quality characteristic of Lance Austin Olsen's work.
10,50€
Out of stock
CD
Alfredo COSTA MONTEIRO
“Abstand”
"Abstand" was conceived to enhance the particularities of the combination of accordion and melodica, both wind instruments, one played with movement and the other by blowing. This dichotomy of difference and similarity resulted in intricate textures, not only thanks to the instruments’ particular timbres, but also through the natural microtonal distances in their fixed tunings, especially when it comes to old and worn out instruments like the ones used here.
These micro-intervals were enriched by a whole range of very minimal and subtle feedback, sometimes almost undetectable and sometimes tuned with one of the two instruments, creating many beat frequencies in order to produce active and organic listening. The sparse use of the cymbal goes in that direction and generates one more layer. Interferences formed by minimal distances as traces of other distances induced by thought. (Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Barcelona, February 2023)
10,00€
Out of stock
CD
Junji HIROSE / Kazuo IMAI / Darren MOORE
“Be Quiet!!!”
Sax player Junji Hirose and guitarist Kazuo Imai, both Tokyo residents born in 1955, are renowned Japanese improvisers who have long propelled the country’s improvised music scene. Australian drummer Darren Moore, who is currently based in Singapore, carries on his performance activity while also teaching at Lasalle College of the Arts.
Darren Moore lived in Tokyo for several years in the mid-2010s. Since then he has often visited the country and performed with Japanese musicians. In 2022 he came to Japan and gave a numerous concerts. On August 4, Moore performed with Hirose and Imai in a trio concert planned by Hirose and held at GOK Studio in Tokyo. Their performance that day is documented on this recording.
On these two tracks (both about 28 minutes long), the combination of tenor sax (Hirose), electric guitar (Imai) and drums (Moore) creates extremely powerful improvised performances filled with a sense of driving speed. The three musicians’ multifaceted talent is clearly on display in this outstanding release.
10,00€
In stock
CD
Sergio MERCE
“Traslasierra (expanded landscape)”
Sergio Merce is a saxophonist and sound artist based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is known for his use of a microtonal sax that he built by radically modifying the mechanisms of an alto saxophone and synthesizers to create rich harmonics and slowly moving tonal works, layering aberrant and alluring tones in restrained configurations that allow each stratum of sound to be distinguished and appreciated, creating mesmerizing compositions of elusive and illusionistic sound.
The piece "Traslasierra (expanded landscape)" is a composition made up of different moments. In this case Merce plays the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument), virtual stringed and wind instruments controlled with the EWI, field recordings and synthesizer.
10,00€
Out of stock
CD
Lance Austin OLSEN / Bruno DUPLANT
“Coïncidence”
Born in 1943, Lance Austin Olsen is a Canadian artist and composer. He started painting in his youth and has since continued developing his work as an artist. In 1997, Olsen met sound and visual artist Jamie Drouin and became interested in experimental music. In Olsen’s creative process, composition and painting are closely related and inspired by each other. French musician Bruno Duplant is an energetic and acclaimed creator on the contemporary experimental music scene.
This CD’s single 33-minute track, “Coïncidence,” is a duo performance by Lance Austin Olsen (guitar, field recordings, wax cylinder recordings, MIDI organ, amplified objects) and Bruno Duplant (piano and sounds). Several types of indistinct and rather soft sounds, and hard piano sounds that resonate slowly one by one, create contrast as they continue throughout the piece along with a disturbing mood.
10,00€
In stock
CD
Akira SAKATA / Ken IKEDA
“Gauche”
Alto sax/clarinet player Akira Sakata is a legend of Japan’s free jazz scene. Ken Ikeda is a musician who resided for many years in New York and London, and has been based in Tokyo since his return to Japan from the UK in 2020. In 2021, Ikeda released "Signal and Signaless," a duo CD with Rie Nakajima, on the Ftarri label. This album, "GAUCHE," is Sakata’s first release from Ftarri.
On May 21, 2022, Akira Sakata and Ken Ikeda gave a duo concert at Ftarri, Tokyo. This CD consists of two improvised performances (29 and 36 minutes long) from that concert. Sakata played alto sax, clarinet and several types of bells, while Ikeda played synthesizer. When people think of Akira Sakata, they usually think of the kind of extremely powerful, ferocious performances he gave many years ago with the Yosuke Yamashita trio—but on this album we hear a different Sakata. Perhaps influenced in part by Ikeda, whose distinctive electronic sound features smooth and supple timbres, Sakata’s winds playing throughout is calm and composed—the epitome of self-possession. Partway through, he rings bells in silent spaces, adding further to the broadminded mood. This superb album was born of the auspicious combination of these two musicians’ distinctive musical styles.
10,00€
In stock
CD
Tetuzi AKIYAMA / Ayami SUZUKI
“Allelopathy”
Ayami Suzuki, a musician based in the Tokyo area, performs a unique kind of ambient drone using electronics and voice. Since 2020 she has been performing at Ftarri in Tokyo, both as a soloist and with other musicians. Acclaimed guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama is active on the international improvised music scene. In 2021 Akiyama gave many outstanding performances at Ftarri; recordings of a number of these concerts were subsequently released as CDs. "Allelopathy" is one of these recordings.
Akiyama and Suzuki performed together at Ftarri on October 10, 2021. This CD contains two of the pieces they played in that concert. In alignment with Suzuki’s characteristic ambient drones and carried along on her electronics and Akiyama’s electric guitar playing, a voice performance incorporating Suzuki’s cryptic word-like sounds unfolds calmly and spaciously throughout. This superb work abounds in entrancing charm.
10,00€
Out of stock
CD
Junji HIROSE / Otomo YOSHIHIDE
“DUO-1”
Improviser Junji Hirose is not just a sax player; in the 1980s he started playing the SSI (self-made sound instrument), which he created by combining numerous devices and everyday objects from which noise sounds are produced in a scattered way. In 1989, Hirose recorded the SSI/turntables duo album Silanganan Ingay with Otomo Yoshihide and released it independently as an LP. Three decades later, in 2022, a new SSI/turntables duo album by Hirose and Otomo has finally been made!
This CD contains live performances of three works that took place at Pool, Tokyo, on June 6, 2021. Otomo produces wild, wriggling noise sounds on two turntables. Hirose, in the first piece, uses the self-made sound instrument, version 4 (SSI4), which he set up with two bicycle wheels as central components. In the second, he plays the SSI6, which produces white noise by directing powerful bursts of air onto PE tape with two air compressors. And in track three, he uses the no-instrument air noise (NIAN), which turns powerful bursts of compressed air directly onto a mike set up on a stand, creating roaring noise that sounds like fierce wind.
10,00€
In stock
CD
Magnus GRANBERG
“How Lonely Sits the City? (version for quartet)”
Composer/improviser Magnus Granberg, who lives in Stockholm, has presented outstanding composed works through Skogen, the ensemble he directs, and experimental music ensembles, projects and labels from around the world. He has released three CDs on the Meenna label: Whose Words? (meenna-983 / 2017), documenting a trio improvisation performance with Tetuzi Akiyama and Henrik Olsson; and two albums titled Come Down to Earth Where Sorrow Dwelleth (meenna-970, meenna-966 / 2020), each containing a different version, performed by a different ensemble, of the same composition by Granberg.
When Granberg accepted an invitation he received in September 2019 to participate in a project planned by Swedish artists including Leo Svensson Sander (cello), Stina Hellberg Agback (harp) and Eva Lindal (violin), it was the first step on the road to creating the work recorded on this CD. Granberg wrote the composition in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic that began the following year, completing the quartet version, "How Lonely Sits the City?" (54 minutes). In October 2020, Sander, Agback, Lindal and Granberg (on prepared piano) recorded the work, and that recording is presented on this album.
Granberg subsequently prepared the extended version of "How Lonely Sits the City?" for his own group, Skogen. This was recorded by a seven-member Skogen ensemble, and released on the UK label Another Timbre in February 2022.
10,00€
Out of stock
CD
Tetuzi AKIYAMA / Leo OKAGAWA
“Metaphor of Metamorphosis”
This is one in a trilogy of live recordings made at Ftarri, Tokyo, documenting some of guitarist/improviser Tetuzi Akiyama's outstanding performances of 2021. The CD releases feature covers drawn by artist Shigeo Mizuta. The two tracks on this CD, each around 25 minutes in length, were recorded at Akiyama's duo concert with electronics player Leo Okagawa at Ftarri on June 21, 2021.
Okagawa is known for releases on overseas labels of many collage works using environmental sounds, noise and so on. He's also a gifted improviser on electronics. There's a highly effective contrast between Okagawa's sound, comprised mainly of static sustained tones, and the sound produced by Akiyama's electric guitar, which is dynamic and hard-edged and has a psychedelic feeling.
10,00€
In stock
CD
Tetuzi AKIYAMA / Ryotaro MIYASAKA
“Odd Jobs Are the High Road of Work”
This is one in a trilogy of live recordings made at Ftarri, Tokyo, documenting some of guitarist/improviser Tetuzi Akiyama's outstanding performances of 2021. The CD releases feature covers drawn by artist Shigeo Mizuta. The two tracks here (31 and 39 minutes respectively) were recorded at Akiyama's duo concert with percussionist Ryotaro Miyasaka at Ftarri on February 8, 2021.
Born in 1995, percussionist Ryotaro Miyasaka lives in Tokyo. In this concert he placed numerous percussion instruments on the floor--snare drum, bongos, cymbal, tambourine, bell, cowbell, etc.--and picked up one instrument at a time to produce various sounds. Akiyama played electric guitar and fired off a series of spiky, noisy sounds. The contrast between myriad colorful, dry percussion sounds and abstract guitar noise makes for an exquisite performance.
10,00€
In stock
CD
Seijiro MURAYAMA
“To listen To As far As possible”
Seijiro Murayama is a drummer/percussionist and improviser/composer who lives in Paris. His first CDs on Ftarri's three labels (Hitorri, Ftarri and Meenna) came out in 2009, and he has since released a total of 12 solo, duo, trio and quartet albums on Ftarri labels. Of the solo albums, the first was Downdate (2017), followed by The Empire of Slip of the Tongue (2018) and mi-tai (2020). While Downdate and The Empire of Slip of the Tongue are electro-acoustic works, mi-tai is an album of improvisation with percussion and voice.
This album is Murayama's fourth solo release on the Hitorri label. Like the preceding album, it's a compilation of improvisational performances. The seven tracks (each between 4 and 11 minutes long) were recorded in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in January 2022. Murayama uses instruments including cymbal, bass drum, snare drum, voice, and various small objects. Along with the previous work (mi-tai), this album is an ideal introduction to Murayama's boundlessly original and distinctive work as an improviser.
10,00€
In stock
CD
Taku SUGIMOTO
“Octet”
On this album, works composed in 2018 and '19 by Tokyo-based composer/guitarist Taku Sugimoto are performed by musicians based in Berlin. Sugimoto has in recent years been working on a series in which pieces written as scores for solo performance can also be played as ensembles, with each musician using their respective solo score. For example, a score for guitar solo and a score for cello solo can be played as a duo performance by a guitarist and a cellist using their respective scores. "Solo for Violoncello 1," one of the tracks on this CD, is the first work of this type composed by Sugimoto. It's also the first piece in the series he named "Solo for Strings," which is performed on bowed stringed instruments using only natural harmonics. In the pieces in this series, the lengths of tones and performances can be changed by the performers.
When he was asked by Berlin-based clarinetists Michiko Ogawa and Sam Dunscombe to write a composition for their ensemble, Sugimoto thought of using the pieces in the "Solo for Strings" series. He prepared one piece for wind instruments to be performed by the trio of Ogawa (clarinet), Dunscombe (bass clarinet) and Rebecca Lane (flute), and five solo pieces from "Solo for Strings"--one each for contrabass, cello, and guitar, and two for viola. These pieces were performed and recorded in Berlin. Also recorded was the 25-minute work "Octet," performed by an ensemble of eight musicians using all six scores. This album is comprised of these seven pieces.
In addition to Michiko Ogawa, Sam Dunscombe and Rebecca Lane, the performing musicians are Johnny Chang (viola), Catherine Lamb (viola), Lucy Railton (cello), Jon Heilbron (contrabass), and Fredrik Rasten (guitar).
11,00€
Out of stock
CD
Toshimaru NAKAMURA / Tetuzi AKIYAMA
“Idiomatic Expressionism”
Both Toshimaru Nakamura and Tetuzi Akiyama started their musical activities in earnest in the 1990s. Today, both hold concert tours around the world on a yearly basis, have a long list of releases, and count among Japan's leading improvisers. Nakamura constructs sound with the instrument he calls the no-input mixing board, which creates feedback through irregular hard wiring of an analog audio mixer. Guitarist Akiyama plays either acoustic or electric guitar in highly original performances ranging from lyrical to noisy.
Nakamura and Akiyama have been collaborating for a long time. Over a period of several years in the early 2000s, they co-organized the monthly improvised music series "Meeting at Off Site" (held at the now-defunct gallery Off Site). While they have since appeared together many times in performances with other musicians, they've given a relatively small number of duo concerts. Surprisingly, Idiomatic Expressionism is only the second duo album by Nakamura and Akiyama and the first since their debut duo CD Semi-Impressionism (Spekk) was released 12 years ago (in 2009). While that CD consists of edited live recordings of overseas concerts, Idiomatic Expressionism is made up of studio recordings. This ambitious work was created in a deliberate, unhurried way from 2020 to 2021. In the album's five improvised music tracks, Nakamura's no-input mixing board and Akiyama's acoustic guitar produce an accumulation of sounds in a profound and exquisite manner.
10,00€
Out of stock
CD
Aki ONDA / Nao NISHIHARA
“Kouya-e-to”
ki Onda has lived and based his activities in New York for many years. His solo work includes "Cassette Memories," a field recording project using portable cassette recorders that has been ongoing for the past 30 years, as well as concerts, installations and exhibitions in countries around the world. Onda has collaborated frequently with a diverse range of artists including Akio Suzuki, Annea Lockwood, David Toop and Rie Nakajima. Additionally, as a curator and organizer he has planned and produced a variety of festivals and events. In 2020, Onda is bringing to a close his two decades in New York and beginning new endeavors in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture.
Born in 1976, Nao Nishihara carries out sound-related activities including art and performance using sound, recordings, and musical instrument creation. Nishihara acquired a unique aesthetic and style through exchanges with dancer Min Tanaka and musician Keiji Haino, and the influences of ethnomusicologist Fumio Koizumi and Shoichi Ozawa, who was known for his folklore collection. This is apparent in his performances combining sound-making objects and bodily movement. He enthusiastically carries out installations, exhibitions and performances both inside and outside Japan.
Onda and Nishihara started collaborating in 2015, when the latter stayed for a time in New York. In November 2016, when Nishihara visited New York again, the two took advantage of the opportunity and gave a performance at ISSUE Project Room's theater at 22 Boerum Place in Brooklyn. The edited recording of that performance is contained in the five tracks on this CD.
Onda used tapes, feedback, amps, bells, cymbals and found objects, while Nishihara used bells, Chinese cymbals, bird and animal calls, wood and metal pieces, a self-made bowing instrument and more. The venue, with its marble floors and high, arched ceiling, produces out-of-the-ordinary sound reverberation. To make the best possible use of the space's characteristics, Onda and Nishihara placed various instruments, devices and objects here and there around the room, added physical movement, and produced diverse sounds that were rough and wild at times, subtle and delicate at others.
The CD includes detailed liner notes (in English and Japanese) by Nick Scavo, who experienced the performance live in the venue.
Aki Onda: tapes, feedback, amps, bells, cymbals, found objects
Nao Nishihara: bells, Chinese cymbals, bird & aminal calls, wood & metal pieces, self-made bowing instrument, "Sloth," Turkish sipsi, nose flute
Recorded by Bob Bellerue at ISSUE Project Room, Brooklyn, New York
Edited and mixed by Aki Onda
Mastered by Sean McCann
14,00€
Out of stock
CD
Ken IKEDA / Rie NAKAJIMA
“Signal and Signaless”
Ken Ikeda is a musician and artist who lived and worked for many years in New York and London. He has provided music for artists and video creators such as Mariko Mori, Tadanori Yokoo, Darren Almond and David Lynch, and released solo and collaboration CDs on labels including Touch (UK), Matchless (UK), Spekk (Japan) and Baskaru (France). From Ftarri, the year 2018 saw the release of the CD Ink on Paper (meenna-978), an improvised trio performance by Ikeda, Toshimaru Nakamura and Tomoyoshi Date. Ikeda moved back to Japan from London in 2020; he is currently based in Tokyo.
Rie Nakajima is an artist who lives in London and carries out numerous performance and installation projects throughout the world. These include collaborations with David Toop, David Cunningham, Phill Niblock, Pierre Berthet and others, and the duo project O YAMA O with Keiko Yamamoto. In recent years she has also been performing with alto sax/clarinet player Akira Sakata.
Ikeda and Nakajima have been acquainted and occasionally performed together since the time when both lived in London. A duo performance by the two was included as a track on the CD release Floating Weeds (901 Editions, 2019). When Nakajima made a homecoming trip to Japan at the end of 2020, she got in touch with Ikeda (who was then living in Tokyo) and a performance by the two at Ftarri was arranged for January 5, 2021. This CD is the complete recording of the two sets in that concert. Both artists used their main instruments of recent years: Ikeda placed a synthesizer on a table, while Nakajima arranged small objects such as dishes, wood chips and cans on the floor and placed small motors on them to produce sound. She also used Ftarri's upright piano. Imaginative, flexible, sometimes dynamic synthesizer sound overlaps with the colorfully, delicately penetrating sound of myriad small analog noises and piano keyboard sounds, creating an exquisite sonic space of a kind that could only be achieved by these two musicians.
Ken Ikeda: synthesizer
Rie Nakajima: objects, motors, piano
12,00€
Out of stock
2 CD
Frédéric TENTELIER
“On établit un temps, on creuse un épais”
Artist and musician Frédéric Tentelier creates musical theater shows and sound installations. He composes his music with field recordings, Fender Rhodes, organs, banjo, objects... His music is recorded in particular spaces, from graphic scores, topographic maps, harmonic translations or improvisations... He considers field recording as a harmonic and musical material, but also as a temporal material structuring musical forms. Time and silence are the bases of his musical forms. In this disc, he assembles various materials accumulated in the spring of 2020 for 50 days in a row. These are harmonic translations of words or sentences heard on the radio. It is a construction reflecting a particular period during which suspended time and introspection were favorable to him.
Composed, performed, recorded, assembled and mixed by Frédéric Tentelier, March-April 2020, at his studio Abri Noïr on the Opal Coast, France
Mastered by Bruno Duplant
18,50€
Out of stock
CD
Cyprien BUSOLINI / Seijiro MURAYAMA
“Busolini Murayama Duet”
Born in 1978, French viola player Cyprien Busolini is active mainly in the contemporary classical and improvised music fields. He is a member of the contemporary music groups Ensemble Daedalus and ONCEIM, and also performs in the early music group Ensemble Fratres. Seijiro Murayama, who lives in Paris and works mainly in Europe, is a Japanese drummer/percussionist as well as frequent voice performer. He has released numerous CDs (both solos and performances with other musicians) on the Ftarri labels.
It all began when Ensemble Dedalus, of which Busolini is a member, and Murayama (using voice and drums) played together in a live musical performance of the dance production Blow the Bloody Doors Off, choreographed by Catherine Diverrès (composer: Jean-Luc Guionnet). After that (starting around 2019) the two have regularly carried out duo rehearsals.
This CD contains a single improvised music piece which could be considered the result of those rehearsals. Busolini plays viola, while Murayama forgoes the use of drums and percussion and focuses entirely on voice. As he says, "Unlike so-called 'improvisers who use their voice,' I take an approach along the lines of 'Not even I really know what's going to come out.'" The 46-minute performance was recorded in Paris on February 11, 2021.
12,00€
Out of stock
CD
Jennifer ALLUM / John BUTCHER / Ute KANNGIESSER / Eddie PREVOST
“Sounds of Assembly”
This recording marks the second meeting of this quartet. The occasion was an afternoon session organised for inclusion in Stewart Morgan's film "Eddie Prévost's Blood". A special location had been chosen - the large assembly hall of Prévost's old senior school, Addey & Stanhope in Deptford, London, where he enrolled in the mid 1950s. Coincidentally, a dozen years later John Butcher began senior school a few miles further up the Thames in Bermondsey, the neighbourhood of Eddie's childhood home. Ute Kanngiesser and Jennifer Allum met each other and Eddie when, over a decade ago, they became regular attendees of his long-running weekly music workshop in Southwark. The track titles are borrowed fromJoyce Carey's Thames-side descriptions in his novel "The Horse's Mouth".
Jennifer Allum: violin
John Butcher: saxophones
Ute Kanngiesser: cello
Eddie Prévost: percussion
14,00€
In stock
CD
Michiko OGAWA
“Solo May / 2020”
Born in Tokyo, clarinetist Michiko Ogawa has studied clarinet performance and musicology at universities and graduate schools in Japan, Germany and the U.S. She earned a bachelor's and a graduate degree from Toho Gakuen School of Music and a master's degree from the Musikhochschule Freiburg, studied with composer Jo Kondo at Ochanomizu University, and received a doctorate in contemporary music performance from the University of California (San Diego). Ogawa has appeared in many festivals inside and outside Japan including Tokyo Experimental Festival (2013), Supersense Festival of Ecstatic Music (Melbourne, 2015), the Monday Evening Concert series (Los Angeles, 2016), BIFEM (Bendigo, Australia, 2016, 2017, 2019), Brisbane International Film Festival (Brisbane, 2018), and Maerzmusik (Berlin, Germany, 2018, 2019). In 2019 she performed at Ftarri Festival along with Klaus Lang (harmonium), Johnny Chang (violin), and Samuel Dunscombe (bass clarinet). She currently lives in Berlin, where she is active on the contemporary music and experimental/improvised music scene.
This solo album contains a solo performance by Ogawa--not on the clarinet, but on a Hammond organ. The dust-covered, long-abandoned organ from the 1970s had been purchased at a bargain price. At her home in Berlin in May 2020, during the coronavirus lockdown, Ogawa recorded three pieces (18, 28 and 23 minutes long) that she'd created alone during these strange times. The Hammond organ's distinctive warm, deep and mellow timbres multiply and overlap, continuing without pause along with changes in pitch and subtle sound vibrations.
12,00€
In stock
CD
AKAIHIRUME / Yasumune MORISHIGE
“Ricca”
Yasumune Morishige and Akaihirume are musicians based in Tokyo. Morishige is a cellist who primarily performs improvisation, and collaborates with many musicians and dancers from Japan and other countries. Akaihirume is a vocalist who improvises in addition to singing her own songs. In 2015 she and computer player Carl Stone started a duo project whose activities include performances in Asia and the United States. (They also performed at Ftarri Festival in 2019).
Separately from her work with Carl Stone, Akaihirume performs in a duo with Yasumune Morishige. Over the past few years they have appeared regularly at Ftarri, Tokyo. This CD documents their performance in a concert on February 24, 2020. Morishige's subtle yet free-spirited cello playing and Akaihirume's vocals, with her creative use of effects, intertwine exquisitely and permeate every corner of the space. Consisting mainly of improvisation, the recording also includes (at the beginning and end of the performance) Akaihirume singing her own songs, accompanied by graceful melodies. The superb performances beautifully channel the musical artistry of both musicians.
12,00€
Out of stock
CD
Magnus GRANBERG
“Come Down to Earth Where Sorrow Dwelleth (Revised version)”
Magnus Granberg is a composer/musician based in Stockholm, Sweden. Since 2005, through his own ensemble Skogen and other experimental music groups including Ordinary Affects, Ensemble Grizzana and Insub Meta Orchestra, he has been presenting high-quality works demonstrating new compositional possibilities. Granberg's works have been released on various labels including the UK's Another Timbre. His recent activities have received a great deal of attention.
Granberg originally composed "Come Down to Earth Where Sorrow Dwelleth" in spring 2019 for the Boston-based experimental music ensemble Ordinary Affects. For the performance of this piece at Ftarri Festival, he created a revised version for sho, koto, prepared piano and electronics, and made his first trip to Japan in November 2019. On November 8, just before the festival, the four musicians met at the studio GOK Sound in Kichijoji, Tokyo, for a rehearsal and recording. This CD documents that studio recording of a 52-minute performance by Ko Ishikawa (sho), Miki Maruta (20-string koto), Granberg (prepared piano) and Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board). (At Ftarri Festival, Granberg used a piano without preparations.)
Throughout the work there's a gravity and mystical quality to the sound and the uniqueness of Magnus Granberg's artistry is amply displayed. It's interesting to compare this performance with the original version (released on Meenna in July 2020 [meenna-970]), which was performed by Ordinary Affects on violin, cello, electric guitar, vibraphone and prepared piano.
Miki Maruta: 20-string koto
Ko Ishikawa: sho
Toshimaru Nakamura: no-input mixing board
Magnus Granberg: prepared piano
12,00€
In stock
CD
KRISHNAMURTI
“Thought is the enemy”
Krishnamurti is the duo project of Italian sound artists Giovanni Lami and Lorenzo Abattoir, who aim to create a new type of soundscape using the Indian drone instrument called the shruti box.
Originally from Ravenna, Giovanni Lami has since the 2010s been known for diverse activities including his work in artist-in-residence programs, festival appearances, and exhibitions. In recent years he's released numerous recordings, especially from cassette labels. Lorenzo Abattoir, who lives in Torino, has since the latter half of the 2010s been increasing his sound installation activities, festival appearances, etc. He has also released a larger number of recordings (CDs, cassette tapes, LPs), many of them collaborations with other musicians.
This CD is made up of four pieces recorded by Krishnamurti in Torino in September 2019. Multilayered sound overlaps and reverberates throughout all of the pieces. Over a central layer of sound, other sounds are produced in a granular or swath-like manner, murmuring and bubbling as they intertwine and adhere. Tinged with dark colors and at the same time imparting a pleasant feeling, this exceptional work abounds in mysterious charm.
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
12,00€
Out of stock
CD
Magnus GRANBERG – ORDINARY AFFECTS
“Come down to earth where sorrow dwelleth”
Magnus Granberg is a composer/musician living in Stockholm. Through experimental music ensembles/projects such as his own group Skogen (which he has led since 2005), Ordinary Affects, Ensemble Grizzana and Insub Meta Orchestra, he has produced outstanding works revealing new compositional possibilities. Performances of his compositions have been released on various labels, chiefly the UK's Another Timbre. Granberg has earned a great deal of international attention and critical praise. In November 2019, he came to Japan for the first time to perform at Ftarri Festival, where he presented a revised version of his work "Come Down to Earth Where Sorrow Dwelleth" in a performance by four musicians (including himself) on sho, koto, piano and electronics.
Granberg originally wrote this work for the Boston-based experimental ensemble Ordinary Affects, which has an established reputation for performing works by contemporary composers such as Wandelweiser artists Antoine Beuger, Jürg Frey, Eva-Maria Houben and Michael Pisaro, as well as Christian Wolff, Ryoko Akama and others. Their repertoire also includes composed works by each of the Ordinary Affects members, as well as improvisation. They performed two works by Bruno Duplant on his album deux songes (les jours sont faits pour expliquer les nuits) (meenna-976), released on the Meenna label in 2019.
In early April 2019, seven months before Ftarri Festival 2019, the world premiere of "Come Down to Earth Where Sorrow Dwelleth" took place on a small-scale U.S. tour carried out by Ordinary Affects with guest Magnus Granberg. This CD contains a 75-minute performance recorded at the end of the tour, at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The five performers are Morgan Evans-Weiler (violin), Laura Cetilia (cello), Luke Martin (electric guitar), J.P.A. Falzone (vibraphone) and Magnus Granberg (prepared piano). From start to finish, the solemn and mysterious sound is haunting and poignant. The special qualities of Magnus Granberg's composition style and Ordinary Affects' performance style are fully exhibited in this masterpiece.
Ordinary Affects
Morgan Evans-Weiler: violin
Laura Cetilia: cello
Luke Martin: electric guitar
J.P.A. Falzone: vibraphone
Magnus Granberg: prepared piano
12,00€