#Guimbri

[twistedsoulmusic]

Shay Hazan radiates with musical diversity on 'Wusul وصول', His second solo album on Batov Records. Today is a special day, as we’re lucky to be able to premiere his next single, 'Vibe Jadid' exclusively.

[whileiamdying]

Artist Profiles: Hasna El Becharia

Angel Romero June 10, 2016

Hasna el Becharia

Hasna el Becharia is a female Gnawa multi-instrumentalist. She was born in 1951 in Béchar (formerly known as Colomb-Béchar, a garrison town during the time of the French colonization). This town in southwestern Algeria is a fertile musical ground, with styles such as Diwan, Foundou and the popular Haddawi repertoire to celebrate Arab-Berber weddings of this sub-region.

The daughter and grand-daughter of Gnawa musicians, she plays popular Saharan traditional songs and personal compositions. In 1972, she began to play by herself. With three friends of hers, including Zorah and Kheira who are still singing by her side, singing and playing drums and tambourines. Hasna played traditional desert tunes on the acoustic guitar. They became successful very quickly, playing at weddings, banquets, etc. Everybody wanted to hear Hasna and her pals. During their performance, people sang along all the songs. It was so noisy that Hasna began to play the electric guitar to be heard. At that moment, she became really famous. Beyond the little town of Bechar, her name was known all over the south of Algeria. Algerian producers tried to make her record some tunes on a tape recorder, but she refused because she didn’t trust them.

In less than 4 years, Hasna and her band built their own legend. In 1976, they were the guest stars of a great concert in Bechar, organized by the Union of Algerian Women, in front of a female audience.

She arrived in France in January 1999 when she was invited to a festival called “Women of Algeria. She was one of the two new-comers who emerged from this festival. Fascinated by her music, the organizers of the festival decided to put her on stage every night, although it was originally planned that she would only play one evening. Quickly, rumors spread throughout Paris about this incredible female guitar player from the desert. Journalists and producers showed up and the prestigious French newspaper Libération published an article about her.

Hasna decided to stay in Paris because her situation was too difficult in Algeria. In spite of singing about the Prophet, she did not conform with tradition. She is too free and does not accept the old fashioned patriarchal customs that still rule in her country.

The guimbri and karkabas (two instruments masterfully played by Hasna) are the pillars of North African black music. Hasna creates a powerful and rough guimbri sound and she has an astonishing sense of rhythm.

Like numerous Algerian Gnawa musicians, Hasna takes her roots in the popular wedding repertoire. In addition to guimbri and karkabas, she plays electric guitar, ud, darbuka, bendir and even banjo. At the age of 51, Hasna recorded her first album. She composed the majority of her songs in France. By no means corrupted by stage or studio performance, she took advantage of these new experiences to explore the sound of guitars, vocal timbres on different tonalities, to improvise and make new encounters. In order to make her recording, the producers brought together great musicians from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Niger.

[randomvarious]

1998 San Francisco Playlist (YouTube)

Really ain't nothin' like the city of San Francisco when it comes to the music. The hippie-psychedelic Haight-Ashbury vibes of the 60s ended up getting baked into the cyber-psychonautic underground rave scene of the 90s; there's been a whole bunch of house music; a rich folk tradition; Bay Area hip hop developed into its own oft-overlooked entity; a pretty deep pocket of turntablism; and, of course, plenty of indie rock too. Quite a mix of scenes, and I'm obviously missing a bunch too!

So this week I'm giving you all something that feels like a long-forgotten CD that some college kid who was attending school in San Francisco may have burnt back in 1998. It's an eclectic, completely underground mix of electronic, hip hop, and a little bit of indie too; and it's been collecting dust at the bottom of a drawer now for over 25 years!

We kick off with a dubby deep house remix of Paris' A Reminiscent Drive's "Two Sides to Every Story" by SF native Charles Webster—14.4K plays on YouTube across a handful of uploads—and then we follow that up with a mix of UK group Globo's "Breakdown" by legendary breakbeat/trip hop pioneer Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto, who started calling the Golden Gate City his home in 1993—under 500 plays on that one as of right now. A little after that we get more breakbeat from a *very* obscure duo called Astralabe, whose cinematic, tribal-psychedelic masterpiece, "Guimbri Dub (Self-Cremating Fire of Passion Remix)," appears to be the only song that they ever released, and is included exclusively on an uncredited DJ mix called The Vertical Iris; currently sitting at a measly 92 plays.

Then on the hip hop side of things, we have some lo-fi dustiness from Double Life and Raw B called "Cycles of the Mind," as well as a 7-plus-minute medley by Sacred Hoop, DJ Marz, and Z-Man called "Not Our House," which I think can only be best described as Tony Hawk Pro Skater soundtrack vibe. Those songs have 28.8K and 6.6K plays, respectively. And then for some killer turntablism, we've got a few tunes, including something from DJ Badrok called "1-800-Coming Correct," which has a little under 400 plays.

There's also a fat, buzzy bassline drum n bass remix by a guy named DJ Abstract of "Dukes Up," the original version of which is by someone who simply went by the name of W, that has a little over 6.5K plays (sorry about the super annoying part at the end of it 😕); and a couple tunes that show the versatility of a dude named Cole Marquis, whose solo indie folk tune, "48's," only has a little over 140 plays, and his much peppier, college/indie rock, keyboard-aided bop, "Dirt Bike Rider," by his band The Snowmen, has a little over 170 plays.

This playlist is ordered as chronologically as possible.

Reminiscent Drive - "Two Sides To Every Story (Love From San Francisco Remix)" Globo - "Breakdown (mixed by Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto)" Daisy Glow - "Right On! (User Friendly mix)" Astralabe - "Guimbri Dub (Self-Cremating Fire of Passion Remix)" Rasco - "Cordless Mics" Cole Marquis - "48's" Double Life feat. Raw B - "Cycles of the Mind" Live Human - "Almost Live" Sacred Hoop feat. DJ Marz & Z-Man - "Not Our House" DJ Badrok - "1-800-Coming Correct" Apollo, Vinroc, Shortkut & Richness - "Live at Cue's" W - "Dukes Up (DJ Abstract's One A.M. mix)" Snowmen - "Dirt Bike Rider"

And here's a list of the compilations and mixes that were used to put this thing together:

Club H Vol. 2 by Harry the Bastard (2000, Statra Recordings) The Chemistry Set (1998, Hypnotic Records) The Vertical Iris (1998, ZoëMagik Records) Observation of Ruins (1998, Baraka Foundation) Cleaning House: A Devil in the Woods Compilation (1999, Devil in the Woods) Cue's Hip Hop Shop Volume One (1998, Dogday Records) Eclectic Electric (2000, eMusic)

And this playlist is also on YouTube Music.

So you've got about 66 minutes of some pretty obscure 1998 San Francisco underground music here, the likes of which I don't think anyone else besides that hypothetical college kid that I made up before would ever put together 😁.

Going back to the 70s next week with an update to a genre playlist that I haven't touched in a *very* long time 👀.

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

[dustedmagazine]

Natural Information Society — Since Time is Gravity (Eremite)

Joshua Abrams has been creating music with the Natural Information Society for 14 years. Seven albums in, the group’s name has expanded; they are now Natural Information Society Community Ensemble with Ari Brown. It isn’t just the group’s name that has gotten longer; so has the list of contributors. Joining the core Natural Information Society of Abrams (guimbri and bass), Lisa Alvarado (harmonium), Mikel Patrick Avery (percussion), and Jason Stein (bass clarinet), are Hamid Drake (drums), Josh Berman and Ben Lamar Gay (cornets), Nick Mazzarella and Mai Sugimoto (alto saxophones and flute), Kara Bershad (harp), and the aforementioned tenor saxophonist Ari Brown, in a special guest role that befits his status. Brown is one of the most prominent and celebrated tenor saxophonists of Chicago. Based on the powerful playing displayed here, one would never know that he is nearing eighty.

“Moontide Chorus” builds up from a single bass note to a varied syncopated line in that register. Against it, polyrhythmic percussion and chordal winds are added. Brown solos in a modal idiom that interlocks with the bass parts. The rest of the group rejoins and the percussion takes things double time until the piece’s conclusion. “Murmuration” begins with Bershad playing a gentle harp solo that is then doubled in heterophony by bass instruments. Avery and Drake add economical punctuations and the winds have vertical sonorities. Stein adds a long held tonic drone to the mix that is then doubled by the other winds in octaves. Subsequently, complicated harmonics are evoked by overlapping chords. The bass takes the harp melody and the winds break their chords into corruscating arpeggiations. Brown adds a new melody and Bershad reenters with chordal outlines. Stein adds yet another countermelody alongside a flute solo,   The harp line solo yields to a final denouement. Heady stuff. 

“Is” emphasizes a groove created by drums and guimbri. Over this, Brown takes an extended solo, with wide-ranging scales and blues bends. On the piece’s latter half, a single note ostinato from cornets and passage work from winds fills out the background, and provides a center from which Brown’s solo finds its grounding. Cornets and flute are featured on “Stigmergy,” as are tangy dissonances from the rest of the group. During his solo, Brown creates echoing reverberation. An extended section for muted cornet provides a foil for Brown. Much as the tenor saxophonist is an intrinsic part of the proceedings, having more of the players involved in the soloing makes this a personal favorite. 

“Immemorial” has a fascinating textural profile. Alvarado’s harmonium builds a chordal background onto which sustained notes, glissandos, and microtones are added. Glockenspiel and hand drums create a supple rhythmic underpinning. It is the most adventurous of interactions, and creates beautifully blurred harmonic colors. 

“Wane” and“Wax” are comparatively shorter pieces. On “Wane,” Abrams begins with an extended guimbri solo that is soon joined by Drake’s hand drums. Partway through, they undertake a mixed meter duo that complicates the rhythm. At the end of the piece, the first patterning returns. “Wax” serves as a companion piece that explores shorter rhythmic strands. The recording concludes with “Gravity,” which begins with a loping groove, led by thrumming bass from Abrams, over which Stein solos using Eastern scales. Brown plays a muscular solo that combines a modern jazz approach with a Non Western vocabulary replete with trills. The winds play major sevenths, creating a dissonant background. Brown’s solo moves to a howling climax, followed by a long coda of extended techniques. 

Natural Information Society works well with this expanded complement. The inclusion of Brown is especially effective. Whether the new collaborators will remain, or others players will join Abrams, Since Time is Gravity demonstrates that Natural Information Society is a durable creative enterprise. 

Christian Carey

[burpenterprisejournal]

POGO IN ITS NATURAL HABITAT

2024/07/4-6 In Its Natural Habitat 07/04 BORGHINI / GRIP / POGO / THÖRN / SIEGER 07/06 BORGHINI / GRIP / POGO / KHORKHORDINA + Kurfürstenstraße 14 Berlin - DE

On 4 and 6 July, Mat Pogo has been invited to participate in two musical encounters within Joel Grip's new exhibition IN ITS NATURAL HABITAT

Paintings, drawings and videos by Joel Grip.

Monday to Saturday, 1-6 of July 2024.

Kurfürstenstraße 14, 10785 Berlin (Innenhof/Erdgeschoss (nice big room)

IN ITS NATURAL HABITAT is an exhibition about the musician and its musics and is open every day, 1-6 of July, from noon to midnight. There will be musicians rehearsing and reflecting almost all the opening time and/but with a certain predetermined focus on entertaining during the time slots precised below.

MONTAG 1.7

18Uhr eröffnung / opening

20Uhr CD release of Trial of Future Animals with Oùat and poetry booklet release of Sam Langer. Michael Griener (schlagzeug) Joel Grip (bass, guimbri) Simon Sieger (piano, flutes, percussion), Sam Langer (voice)

DIENSTAG 2.7

All day, noon to midnight, with specials, hits and requests at 13Uhr and 20Uhr: Imaginary troubadours of the imminent death (a.k.a Lip and Stick) with possible guests.

MITTWOCH 3.7

13Uhr Jah Shanti (music to contemplate the fullness of nothingness to)

20Uhr Yuko Kaseki (movements), Joel Grip (double basses) and Simon Sieger (flutes, pianos and percussions)

DONNERSTAG 4.7

13Uhr Lip and Stick (a.k.a Imaginary troubadours of the imminent death) with possible guests.

20Uhr Mat Pogo (voice), Pär Thörn (voice), Antonio Borghini (double bass), Joel Grip (double bass), Simon Sieger (typewriter)

FREITAG 5.7

13Uhr Jah Shanti (music to contemplate the nothingness of fullness to)

20Uhr LP release of The Straight Horn of Rudi Mahall with Oùat and Rudi Mahall (straight horn).

SAMSTAG 6.7

13Uhr duo Antonio Borghini and Joel Grip (double basses)

20Uhr Mat Pogo (voice), Carina Khorkhordina (trumpet), Joel Grip (double bass), Antonio Borghini (double bass), and possible and impossible guests.

[nofoodjustwax]

Maleem Mahmoud Ghania with Pharoah Sanders - The Trance of Seven Colors

Maleem Mahmoud Ghania with Pharoah Sanders – The Trance of Seven Colors

[bigandstrong]

Joshua Abrams and Natural Information Society - Simultonality, 2017

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 758: Natural Information Society with Evan Parker descension (Out of Our Constrictions)

This is an album highlight of 2021.

I dove in deep after a friend first introduced me to the works of Joshua Abrams and his band Natural Information Society a few years back. I couldn’t get enough of these percussive, hypnotic, long-form compositions that managed to conjure the motorik groove of krautrock, the percolating polyrhythms of Steve Reich, and the organic pulse of Afrobeat. I’m sure Abrams’ list of influences is much richer and more diverse than the handful of things I hear in their music, but even with my limited frame of references, there was something beguiling and exhilarating about his records. I’ve talked about “magic eye” music a bunch in the past--music that acts like those magic eye images from the ‘90s, where if you zoned out to the seemingly non-descript patterns, these three dimensional shapes would slowly rise out of it. Similarly, if you zone out to a Natural Information Society album, you hear these contours on the landscape, and instead of coming across as an endless cycle of syncopated rhythms, you hear this living, breathing, undulating multi-dimensional thing emerge out of the musical design. 

Anyhow, I was hooked. I listened to Mandatory Reality a ton back in 2019. Similarly, Simultonality and Joshua Abram’s Natural Information album got a lot of spins around the house. I found myself on a lot of long flights in 2019, and these records helped the mundane passage of time feel rich and textured. My friend described them as the last truly psychedelic band, and I understood his point. You can feel a little unglued from reality when you immerse yourself in these compositions.

descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is a live album featuring European free jazz legend Evan Parker on saxophone, and it adheres to Natural Information Society’s evolving pulsations while allowing Parker’s improvisations to disrupt the pattern. In some ways, it diminishes a little of NIS’s subtle power. You’re less likely to hone in the slight variations in the guimbri, harmonium, and bass clarinet as they lay into a steady groove. But Parker’s contrasting tactics achieve that thing I love in music: where repetition wrestles with chaos. You can still allow yourself to be hypnotized, but there’s this unbridled element that constantly weaves through the order, imbuing it with this sense of freedom and expressiveness. 

While it’s overall effect might be a little different from past NIS albums, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is still a magical trance-inducing ride. 

[musicollage]

Joshua Abrams + Natural Information Society. Simultonality, 2017. Eremite.  ~ [ Album Review |   1) Pitchfork  +  2) Dusted Magazine  + 3) The Free Jazz Collective  +  4) The Jazz Mann  ]

1) Joshua Abrams makes music about time and patience—music that, as he put it, “offers the possibility of slowing down.” With his group Natural Information Society, he crafts simple loops, primarily with a three-string African lute called the guimbri. A plethora of sonic elements—including guitar, harmonium, autoharp, and all kinds of percussion—gather around him like moss crawling up a wall. The result is a sound that moves forward while simultaneously seeming to freeze time.

The restraint of Abrams’ work matches his long-arc career, which he began in Philadelphia as an early member of the Roots. Moving to Chicago, he formed Thrill Jockey group Town & Country and became ensconced in the city’s jazz and indie scenes. Many of the people he met there, including Cairo Gang’s Emmett Kelly and Tortoise’s Jeff Parker, have performed in Natural Information Society, a rotating collective that recently solidified into a working unit.

You can hear the effect of that consistency on Simultonality, the fourth Natural Information Society album in seven years (alongside an excellent collaboration with Bitchin Bajas). The group moves together like a carbon-based machine, loose enough to allow for surprises but always focused on one goal. Over tracks that often last eight minutes or more, their focus takes on a Zen quality, as Abrams’ loops become so entrancing they seem to create their own private dimension in space-time.

Much of that time-expanding effect derives from Abrams’ unique choice of instrument. With its rubbery, resonant tone, the guimbri traditionally has been used for healing and trance ceremonies, which can sometimes last for upwards of eight hours. And so Abrams’ simple figures can continually hold attention across long stretches because his tone is so rich and multi-layered. Throughout Simultonality, his playing forms the foundation of each song, offering his bandmates a core around which they can circle, fly, digress, and connect.

As a result, the music on Simultonality coaxes you to quiet your mind and focus your attention, but it doesn’t necessarily move slowly. The majority of the songs here surge forward at an energetic clip, with some even sounding nervously excited. On opener “Maroon Dune,” Abrams’ pounding two-note cycle spawns guitar strums and drum rolls that intensify the song even though the pace doesn’t quicken. A shuffling rhythm instantly propels the 12-minute “Sideways Fall,” powering the group through thick sonic terrain (a perfect analogue to the rolling train tracks in the tune’s accompanying video.)

Abrams and his group don’t spend all of Simultonality in high gear. One track, “St. Cloud,” consists primarily of gentle bells and chimes, the musical equivalent of a trickling waterfall. And on closer “2182½,” Natural Information Society swerve into straight-up jazz, supporting the contemplative sax strains of Ari Brown as if they were a mid-period John Coltrane ensemble. It’s a nice glimpse of the diversity this group is capable of, infusing traditional structures with meditative qualities. But overall, Simultonality advances Abrams and Natural Information Society’s signature sound, one that gets even more unique the further it grows and expands.

2) Dusted, and particularly this writer, stands corrected. The last time we dealt with Joshua Abrams and the Natural Information Society was in a review of Anemometer, the group’s summit with the Bitchin Bajas. That review suggested that the Bajas brought the krautrock influence while Abrams was responsible for the Gnawa and world jazz references, but we were too binary for our own good. On Simultonality’s “Sideways Fall,” which takes up half of side two, drummers Mikel Avery and Frank Rosaly lean into Jaki Liebezeit’s beat pattern for Can’s “Vitamin C.”  

The aforementioned tune connects the dots between Can, James Brown and Moroccan trance grooves, and that’s by no means the whole story.  While Abrams and his group may confine themselves to natural information, that doesn’t mean that they can’t cast a wide net. The cascade of resonating electric strings and staccato harmonium that opens “Opiuchus” is like a neon-lit refraction of Steve Reich’s “Music For Eighteen Musicians,” and the swinging, cross-hatched rhythm workout that follows combines electric and acoustic sonorities like a banner woven from sky and earth. “Maroon Dune” uses another Can-derived rhythm as the foundation for another celestial-terrestrial dance; while most of the band keeps loose reign on a bucking beat, bellows-driven and electric keyboards glide overhead, evincing the paradoxically slow appearance of fast-moving clouds. Musical and elemental forces converge harmoniously without losing their essence. It’s a soul-warming response to the agents of fracture at work in America and other places.  

On all of these pieces, Abrams plays a Moroccan bass lute known as a guimbri, which infuses the music with a ceremonial vibe.  But he sets it aside on two others. He plays harp and messes with the tape speed on “St. Cloud,” a brighter-toned study of motion within motion. And he switches to double bass for the slow-burning closer “2128 ½.” The titular number refers to a now-empty patch of South Indiana Avenue that was once occupied by Fred Anderson’s Velvet Lounge. The Velvet’s jam sessions and out of town bookings provided essential schooling for both musicians and audiences, and Abrams played there many times. The piece starts out free and agitated, courting chaos, but then segues into a walking bass line over which Ben Boye lays down a carpet of cosmic electric piano chords and saxophonist Ari Brown blows a blues that blends the yearning of early 1960s John Coltrane with the sandpapery grit that Pharoah Sanders brought to Alice Coltrane’s music a decade later.  

One might get the idea from all these historical references that Abrams is just another guy who wants to show what he knows. But that misses the point that all of these antecedents used rhythm and tone to heal, enthuse, and mesmerize. This music was fashioned with similar intentions in mind, and it uses the recognizability of past intentions to help put its point across.

3) If Joshua Abrams’s Natural Information Society is in the business of creating “sonic environments,” then 2015’s Magnetoception was a place for wandering. Gently paced, its considerable variety distributed deliberately across four LP sides, the music guided with a light hand. This meant that before exploring every corner, there was a chance you might get lost—in thought, perhaps, or in the task of getting up again to flip the record over. NIS’s latest, by contrast, is a tighter, denser space. Lasting only 42 minutes, Simultonality has an energy that would be hard to sustain for much longer and a momentum that ushers the listener along with no chance for straying.

Given the niche that Abrams has dug out for NIS in the avant-jazz scene, it’s not surprising that at the root of Simultonality’s propulsive character lies rhythm, in particular the hypnotizing ostinati that ground Abrams’s simple, sturdy compositions. Though these looping patterns tend to be anchored by Abrams himself—mostly on guimbri, but also on harp and acoustic bass—it doesn’t hurt that pretty much everyone in the band plays some kind of rhythm instrument—some of them doubled: Emmett Kelly on electric guitar, Lisa Alvarado and Ben Boye on a variety of keyboards (plus Boye’s autoharp), and Michael Avery and Frank Rosaly on drums and percussion.

As the album’s title suggests, it’s the band’s collective focus that accounts for the full unstoppable force of the music. Opener “Maroon Dune” sets off on a bounding 5/4 two-step. Over Abrams’s punchy guimbri line, the rest of the band weave variations on the ostinato—all except Alvarado and Boye, whose broad chordal overlays sigh like exhalations in strange but compelling contrast to the perpetually unresolved odd meter. In other places all voices align, as in the Reich-like pulsating introduction of follow-up “Ophiuchus,” which eventually opens out into an affectingly wistful 6/8 groove. At the center of the album sits—or rather, dances—“Sideways Fall,” an epic twelve-minute jam whose quarter note percussive backbone has already earned numerous comparisons to Can’s “Vitamin C.” Here the band’s voices double and echo each other—not only Avery and Rosaly, but also Kelly, Boye, and Alvarado, who pass around complementary phrases with the circularity of a snake eating its own tail.

Whereas the first three tracks are all about groove, the final two move into new territory. With its web-like harp ostinato and dewdrop embellishments, “St. Cloud” lets in a bit of fresh air, welcome after the close, sweaty dance marathon that precedes it. But the real departure is “2128 ½,” named after the address (on Chicago’s South Indiana Avenue) that once hosted Fred Anderson’s beloved Velvet Lounge. Being a tribute, the tune is weighted with smoky, forlorn nostalgia, from the classic (and uncharacteristic, for NIS) free jazz introduction to the walking bass line (equally uncharacteristic) Abrams descends into at about the three-minute mark. Though the band works with what feels like a single consciousness throughout the album, the closer guest-stars veteran Chicago saxophonist Ari Brown. His playing is exactly what’s needed—broad and musical, dynamic and yet somehow static at the same time, evoking a lost past. It’s an unexpected but brilliant ending to one of NIS’s best albums yet.

4) Born in Philadelphia but now based in Chicago Joshua Abrams is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who specialises on the three stringed North African bass lute or guimbri, a ceremonial instrument of the Gnawa people of Saharan Africa.

Originally a double bass player Abrams first made his name on the jazz and experimental music scene in Chicago where he played with drummer Hamid Drake and saxophonist Matana Roberts among others.

For several years Abrams has led Natural Information Society, a floating group of musicians who combine the sounds of North Africa with elements of jazz, the minimalism of Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Philip Glass and vintage krautrock. It’s an exotic mix that has been documented over the course of four previous albums, “Natural Information” (2010), “Represencing” (2012) and “Automaginary” and “Magnetoception” (both 2015). “Automaginary” represented a collaboration with fellow Chicago band “Bitchin’ Bajas.

Drake has been a regular member of NIS but is absent from “Simultonality”. Nevertheless many of the musicians who have been part of the project since its inception do appear. For “Simultonality” Natural Information Society line up as follows;

Joshua Abrams – guimbri, bass, small harp, bells

Lisa Alvarado – harmonium, Leslie, percussion

Ben Boye – chromatic electric autoharp, piano, Wurlitzer

Ari Brown – tenor saxophone

Emmett Kelly – electric guitar

Mikel Avery – drums, percussion

Frank Rosaly – drums, percussion, resonator bells

With NIS Abrams has always preferred to work with two drummers and on this recording Avery can be heard in the left stereo channel and Rosaly in the right. Their percussive sounds are augmented by the metallic shaker sound of the rattle attached to Abrams’ guimbri.

“Simultonality” isn’t a jazz album per se despite Abrams’ roots in that scene. The leader has declared the album as being about “pure motion” and it’s different again to the music of its immediate predecessor “Magnetoception”, an album that I haven’t heard but which has been described as “beautifully spacious and unhurried”.  Abrams himself merely says “the last album was slow” and leaves it at that.

Given its roots in Gnawa ceremonial music and with the amount of percussive hardware in evidence it comes as no surprise to find that the music on “Simultonality” is highly rhythmic. It’s also dense and intense and tightly knit with opener “Maroon Dune” featuring Alvarado’s harmonium swirling around the interlocking rhythmic patterns generated by Abrams, Avery and Rosaly. “Simultonality” consists of only five pieces, some of them being of considerable length. In Gnawa culture the guimbri has been used to provide the pulse in trance ceremonies and Abrams’ relentless, implacable groove performs that function here as the other instruments coalesce around it.

“Ophiucus” introduces a more obvious minimalist influence which gives the music a spacier feel that ties in with the acknowledged krautrock influences. Kelly’s guitar fulfils a more prominent role among the layered keyboards and the insistent rhythms. It’s denser and more multi-faceted than the opener and there’s the sense that the members of NIS are operating like a single sonic organism to work towards a common musical goal, a process that the press release compares with bees in a hive. There are no soloists as such, but everybody is deeply involved.

Following the intensity of the first two pieces the gentle “St. Cloud” represents an oasis of calm with its atmospheric kalimba like sounds augmented by the quiet rustling of bells and the subtle use of keyboard textures.

The hypnotic grooves are back with a vengeance on the twelve minute “Sideways Fall” which opens side two of the vinyl version of the album. Here the rhythm is adapted from Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit’s break in that band’s tune “Vitamin C” with Avery and Rosaly dividing the beat into separate parts at Abram’s request.  Meanwhile Hamid Drake claims that the rhythm was first popularised by Jabo Starks and Clyde Stubblefield of James Brown’s band the J.B.s. In any event it’s an absorbing journey with its compulsive grooves, deeply layered textures and snatches of swirling, minimalist inspired melody. It’s the most hypnotic piece on the album, the relentless grooves evoking memories of not only Liebezeit and Neu’s Klaus Dinger but also the rhythms of contemporary electronic dance music.

The closing “21281/2 South Indiana” finds Abrams switching back to double bass and the music adopting more of a jazz feel with a freely structured introduction. The introduction of Brown’s tenor sax steers the music even more firmly in a jazz direction with the saxophonist contributing the only genuine ‘solo’ of the album. The music is reminiscent of the ‘spiritual jazz’ of John and Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders.

The song title harks back to Abrams’ time as house bassist at Fred Anderson’s Chicago venue the Velvet Lounge on South Indiana Avenue. Anderson would often play the music of Alice Coltrane between sets and at the end of the evening and this performance represents a homage to those times. Interestingly Abrams regards the music of NIS as something of a spiritual journey and cites the bassist and composer William Parker as a significant inspiration for the project.

“Simultonality” continues to find Abrams creating an increasingly individual music that binds disparate musical elements together in pursuit of a common purpose. The closing track is likely to represent a highlight for jazz listeners. Elsewhere those of that persuasion, like myself, may find the music a little bit too repetitive and lacking in the harmonic invention and stylistic and dynamic variety of the best contemporary jazz.

Nevertheless Abrams has carved out a unique niche for himself and has surrounded himself with some excellent musicians as he pursues his artistic and philosophical vision. One would imagine that an NIS live performance would be a totally immersive experience and perhaps the best way to enjoy the music of this most singular of bands. The album cover image was painted by Alvarado, who also contributes the large format paintings that are part of the group’s live shows, thus making their performances genuine audio-visual events.

[goodbysunball]

Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society, “Finite” (excerpt) from Mandatory Reality (Eremite, 2019)

Plenty of quality press for the new Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society 2xLP - Bill Meyer’s in-depth reporting would be my pick - but this is one of those total package records you don’t want to skip, despite the $50 price tag and daunting 80-minute length. Mandatory Reality sports screenprinted jackets, inner sleeves, and center labels, and, as is typical for Eremite releases, a ridiculously high-quality pressing, all containing Abrams’ strongest statement to date. The group goes long on Mandatory Reality, though it hardly feels like a chore to give it the attention it demands. The gorgeous 23-minute opener “In Memory’s Prism” is basically the jazz equivalent of an extended abdominal breathing exercise, the different players entering and exiting the frame with the easy grace of sunlight reflecting off of gently chopping water. The centerpiece is the 40-minute “Finite,” whose foundation is Abrams’ guimbri, the other players dancing around the shapeshifting line with alternating horn punctuations, swelling and receding organically, each player getting their turn for a restrained solo somewhere along the line before returning to the original motif. It’s an impressive feat for a piece so painstakingly organized to sound improvised, but that just speaks to the level of musicianship and restraint on display here. There are two more cuts on side D, the Phillip Glass-indebted “Shadow Conductor” and the piercing flute free-for-all “Agree,” both of which do away with the relaxed flow of the first 60 minutes, though they do seem to be somewhat overshadowed by it. Nothing aggressive or really jarring here except the very real calming effect of the whole album; Mandatory Reality is a separate peace, an album that knows the proper weight of things, and it’s this quiet confidence that helps make it one of the year’s most flat-out stunning albums. 

Mandatory Reality is availabe from Eremite on 2xCD and 2xLP, though word is vinyl copies are running low. You can stream the opener “In Memory’s Prism” on Bandcamp and buy the digital version there as well. 

[randomvarious]

1990s Breakbeat Playlist

Alright, folks, this is my last post for the next week or two as I’m going on a little blog vacation, but in the meantime you can trawl through my enormous archive of posts and you can also check out my Dank Album Art account where I post cool album art I find on a daily basis. 

Secondly, when I come back I’m going to be posting about individual songs again like I used to. Gonna try to piece together the backstories of some of my favorite tunes—a lot of which you’ve probably never heard before—across a whole bunch of genres and eras, and really dig into their guts. Very much looking forward to getting back on that track.

Now, for this week’s playlist post: I made a small addition to my 1990s Breakbeat playlist on Spotify with a song called “Expander (remix)” by the great Future Sound of London, originally released in 1992. A little over a month ago, I posted about MTV Amp, a 1997 compilation that presented this proto-Matrix soundtrack wing of MTV’s late-night electronic music program, Amp. This song predates the program itself, but I think it could’ve easily fit in on that CD and the show, had there been a music video shot for it. Really good and crunchy, futuristic breakbeat stuff.

The Future Sound of London - “Expander (remix)”

And I made a couple extra additions to the YouTube and YouTube Music playlists as well, which contain songs that aren’t on Spotify. Both of these tunes happen to come from San Francisco. There’s “Millennium” by Mark Pistel, who was a founding member of the social activist-industrial hip hop trio Consolidated—whom I included on last week’s California Hip Hop playlist—and then there’s this really intense and uptempo thing from a one-off duo called Astralabe that exclusively appears on a weird uncredited DJ mix-label sampler called The Vertical Iris from local label ZoëMagik Records.

Mark Pistel - “Millennium” Astralabe - “Guimbri Dub (Self-Cremating Fire of Passion Remix)”

Highly suggest you check out the YouTube and YouTube Music playlists, as they have more than double the amount of songs than the Spotify one, but I understand that Spotify is way more convenient to use.

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually! Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

[dustedmagazine]

Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society—Simultonality (Eremite)

Photo by Jason Lazarus

Simultonality by Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society

Dusted, and particularly this writer, stands corrected. The last time we dealt with Joshua Abrams and the Natural Information Society was in a review of Anemometer, the group’s summit with the Bitchin Bajas. That review suggested that the Bajas brought the krautrock influence while Abrams was responsible for the Gnawa and world jazz references, but we were too binary for our own good. On Simultonality's “Sideways Fall,” which takes up half of side two, drummers Mikel Avery and Frank Rosaly lean into Jaki Liebezeit’s beat pattern for Can’s “Vitamin C.”  

The aforementioned tune connects the dots between Can, James Brown and Moroccan trance grooves, and that’s by no means the whole story.  While Abrams and his group may confine themselves to natural information, that doesn’t mean that they can’t cast a wide net. The cascade of resonating electric strings and staccato harmonium that opens “Opiuchus” is like a neon-lit refraction of Steve Reich’s “Music For Eighteen Musicians,” and the swinging, cross-hatched rhythm workout that follows combines electric and acoustic sonorities like a banner woven from sky and earth. “Maroon Dune” uses another Can-derived rhythm as the foundation for another celestial-terrestrial dance; while most of the band keeps loose reign on a bucking beat, bellows-driven and electric keyboards glide overhead, evincing the paradoxically slow appearance of fast-moving clouds. Musical and elemental forces converge harmoniously without losing their essence. It’s a soul-warming response to the agents of fracture at work in America and other places.  

On all of these pieces, Abrams plays a Moroccan bass lute known as a guimbri, which infuses the music with a ceremonial vibe.  But he sets it aside on two others. He plays harp and messes with the tape speed on “St. Cloud,” a brighter-toned study of motion within motion. And he switches to double bass for the slow-burning closer “2128 ½.” The titular number refers to a now-empty patch of South Indiana Avenue that was once occupied by Fred Anderson’s Velvet Lounge. The Velvet’s jam sessions and out of town bookings provided essential schooling for both musicians and audiences, and Abrams played there many times. The piece starts out free and agitated, courting chaos, but then segues into a walking bass line over which Ben Boye lays down a carpet of cosmic electric piano chords and saxophonist Ari Brown blows a blues that blends the yearning of early 1960s John Coltrane with the sandpapery grit that Pharoah Sanders brought to Alice Coltrane’s music a decade later.  

One might get the idea from all these historical references that Abrams is just another guy who wants to show what he knows. But that misses the point that all of these antecedents used rhythm and tone to heal, enthuse, and mesmerize. This music was fashioned with similar intentions in mind, and it uses the recognizability of past intentions to help put its point across.

Bill Meyer

[burlveneer-music]

Mind Maintenance - s/t LP - 

Seeking a refuge within their music from the assailing world, bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer Chad Taylor take up guimbri and mbira, instruments from diverse African states, finding a new pairing that moves past world music and jazz into something new, to do with dance, meditation, listening and convergence – truly a place of Mind Maintenance.

[clublelarraskito]

OTSAILAK 2 - 2 DE FEBRERO - 2 FEVRIER

>> GUILLERMO TORRES (Fliskornoa/ Colombia/ inprobisazioa)

>> ANTEZ. (Perkusioa/Frantzia/ Presenta Continuun para percusión frotada)  

>> VERDE PRATO (Ana Arsuaga, Tolosa Ahotsa, musika Herrikoi esperimentala )

>> TXARANGA URRETABIZKAIA (Haize instrumentuak/Bilbo) (Vientos/Bilbo)

Sarrera / Entrada: 5 €

Kartela: Unai Requejo

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

Guillermo Torres (Fliskornoa/ Colombia)

Guillermo Torres (fliskornoa, klarinetea, guinbria,…) musika inprobisatuari estuki lotua

Parisen bizi izan da 1995etik. Bertan “Instants Chavirés”(Xavier Charles, Axel Dörner, Jacques Demierre, Urs Leimgruber,..) tailer eta kontzertuetan parte hartu zuen. Beranduago Londongo inprobisazio eszenaren parte izan zen (Maggie Nicols, Marcio Mattos, Phil Wachsmann, Eddie Prevost , London Improvisers Orchestra …..) eta garai berean “ London Contact Improvisation Group” dantzari taldearekin kolaboratu zuen. 2010ean Murtzian Colectivo Impromusik sortu zuen Contact dantza eta musika inprobisatua hedatzeko asmoz; ordukoak dira Bartzelona, Madril, Valentzia eta abarren emandako kontzertuak. Gaur egun Madrilen maDam kolektiboko parte da zeinak Wandelweisser mugimenduko Antoine Beuger, Radu Malfattiren obrak jo dituzten, eta baita Minami Saeki, Taku Suimotorekin kolaborazioak. Bestalde Nanimo inprobisazio talde egokorrean ere aritzen da( Mario Sarramián, Tomás Gris, David Area).

Guillermo Torres (fiscornio, clarinete, guimbri …...) Viviendo en Paris, desde 1996 se dedica por completo a la musica improvisada, participando en varios talleres y conciertos en los, “Instants Chavirés”(Xavier Charles, Axel Dörner, Jacques Demierre, Urs Leimgruber,..); Después en Londres, participa activamente en la escena de la improvisación musical (Maggie Nicols, Marcio Mattos, Phil Wachsmann, Eddie Prevost , la London Improvisers Orchestra …..)y colabora con los bailarines del “ London Contact Improvisation Group”. En 2010 creó en Murcia el Colectivo Impromusik para la difusión de la Música Improvisada y su interacción con la danza Contact; en estos años ha participado en varios conciertos en Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia … y encuentros interdisciplinares con danza improvisada. Actualmente en Madrid, forma parte del Colectivo maDam interpretando obras de Antoine Beuger, Radu Malfatti del Colectivo Wandelweisser, Minami Saeki, Taku Suimoto, conciertos con el cuarteto Nanimo ( Mario Sarramián, Tomás Gris, David Area) …..

ANTEZ. (Perkusioa/Frantzia)

Antez frantziar perkusiojole eta eskultorea da. Soinu materia aztertzen du haren pertzepzio fisikoan oinarrituz. Instrumentu akustikoen esperimentazioak mugarik ez duenaren sinistun, haiek objetu-dispositibo gisa lantzen ditu, ohiko erabilera gaindituz. Antezek Continuun proiektua aurkeztuko du, instrumentu hauen ohiko erregistroetatik ihes egiten duten musika piezak. Igurtzitako perkusioan eta gure pertzepzioaren mugak frogatzean oinarritzen da; infrasonikotik ultrasonikora, soinu mikroskopikoetatik noisetik gertuko dentsitate saturatuetaraino. Soinu hauek kontentzioa eta gehiegikeria ekartzen dizkigute gogora aldi berean, inmertsioa eta intenporalitatea.

Antez es un escultor y percusionista francés que explora la materia sonora, investigando en sus modos de percepción física. Convencido de que las posibilidades de experimentación con instrumentos acústicos no tienen límites, se aproxima hacia ellos considerándolos como objetos-dispositivos y trascendiendo cualquier uso tradicional.

ANTEZ presentará su proyecto Continuum, piezas de música para percusión frotada que escapan de los registros típicos del instrumento, probando los límites de nuestra percepción. Desde lo infra hasta lo ultrasónico, desde sonidos microscópicos hasta densidades saturadas cercanas al noise, el fluir de estos sonidos evoca tanto contención como exceso, inmersión e intemporalidad.

http://www.antez.org/continuum.html

VERDE PRATO (Ana Arsuaga, Tolosa, Ahotsa, musika herrikoi esperimentala)

Teklatu eta ahotsa erabiliz, froga ezberdinak egitean oinarritzen da bere lana. Serpiente eta Mazmorra taldeetan abesten du, oraingo hontan, ordea, bakarka eginiko saio bat aurkeztuko du.

Su trabajo se basa en hacer diferentes pruebas utilizando el teclado y la voz. Canta en los grupos Serpiente y Mazmorra, pero esta vez, va a presentar una sesión en solitario.

TXARANGA URRETABIZKAIA (Haize instrumentuak/Bilbo) (Vientos/Bilbo)

Txaranga hiperbentilatua: Saxoak, tronboiak, tronpetak, klarinetea,… Instrukzio sinpleak, konposizio konplikatuak, koreografia finak eta mozorro dotoreak. Salveko zubian, autobus batean, Bilboko Areatzan, Berako Plazan eta abar jo ondoren Larraskiturako sortutako piezak aurkeztuko dituzte. Talde irekia eta aldakorra izanik kontzertu honetan 10 musikari izango dira: Lars Windgun, Ibon RG, Myriam Rzm, Jon Mantxi, Fernando Ulzión, Terri, Unai Requejo, Fito R. Escudero, Luis Candaudap eta Luis André.

Charanga hiperventilada: saxos, trombones, trompetas y clarinete. A partir de instrucciones simples crean composiciones complicadas y finas coreografías. Después de haber tocado en el Puente de la Salve, en un autobús, en el Kiosko del Arenal y en la plaza de Bera presentarán piezas creadas ex profeso para Larraskitu. Es un grupo abierto y que varía en número de músicos. En esta ocasión serán: Lars Windgun, Ibon RG, Myriam Rzm, Jon Mantxi, Fernando Ulzión, Terri, Unai Requejo, Fito R. Escudero, Luis Candaudap y Luis André.

[nofoodjustwax]

Mind Maintenance - Mind Maintenance

Mind Maintenance – Mind Maintenance

Released in 2021 on Drag City Records Format: LP Style: Earthy Minimalism, Spiritual Folk, Trance Jazz, North Africa-Influenced Vibe: Meditative, Hypnotic, Ritualistic, Focused, Earthy, Intertwined Musical Qualities: Polyrhythmic, Percussive, Repetitive, Sparse, Acoustic, Minimalist