#leimgruber

[dustedmagazine]

Urs Leimgruber — AIR Vol. 1 (Creative Works)

When confronted with a four CD set of freely improvised music, basic may not be the first word that comes to mind. But check out the title. What’s more essential to a saxophonist than air? It’s what they project through a horn. If they can’t gather it and blow it through that metal tube in sufficient volume and with enough control, no sound comes out. Urs Leimgruber has been making records using different members of the saxophone family for fifty years, and been playing longer than that. Originally known outside of Switzerland as a member of Om, which recorded for ECM back in the 1970s, he’s operated in completely composed and totally free settings, as well as many creative nodal points on the line between them.

In recent years, he seems to have narrowed his focus to the soprano saxophone. Each disc of AIR Vol. 1 presents an improvisation with a long-term collaborator in The Space, the rehearsal-performance-recording room where Leimgruber works when he’s at home in Lucerne. Hans-Peter Pfammatter plays a prepared upright piano; Jacques Demmierre, an amplified spinet (an antique keyboard that sounds like a harpsichord); Thomas Lehn, analogue synthesizer; and Gerry Hemingway, drums. The accompanists differ in instrument and aesthetic, but each has an individual and deeply considered approach to his instrument. By performing with each in a sequence, Leimgruber invites one to listen for his essential character as a player and improviser.

Certain musical rudiments do not make the grade. While melody and rhythm can be handy, neither is essential. One might expect one or the other to assert their necessity when playing with a drummer, but while occasionally present, both players abstract them into expressions of line, sometimes drawn quite faintly, and other times with force. Likewise, one might look for harmony in encounters with keyboards, but shape and space seem to be more important. With Lehn, mercurial shifts between proximate and distant timbres come into play. But with all of his partners, Leimgruber sounds absolutely like himself. He alternates exquisitely pure tones with bold, lacerating ones, fashioning them into shapes that complement what his partners play, but could be complete on their own.

Bill Meyer

[instants-chavires]

archive ! Derek Bailey tribute night "Hello Goodbye Mr Bailey” at Instants Chavirés Montreuil/Paris 14-04-2006 including different groups with maestri (from top left to bottom right) Steve Beresford, Jean-François Pauvros, Jean-Marc Foussat, Etienne Brunet, Hélène Breschand, Thierry Madiot, Hasse Poulsen, Raymond Boni, Pascal Contet, Urs Leimgruber, John Russel, Bertrand Denzler, Roger Turner, Paul Rutherford, Joëlle Léandre, Thierry Schaeffer, Olivier Benoit, Dan Warburton, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Phil Wachsmann, Malcolm Goldstein — absent for the photo: Barre Phillips, Noël Akchoté, Andrew Sharpley. Photo Gérard Rouy

[gtggff]

Neubauprojekten in Fislisbach

Neubauprojekten in Fislisbach

Rohrdorferberg-Mutschellen Immobilien AG

Willkommen bei Rohrdorferberg Mutschellen Immobilien

Die Rohrdorferberg-Mutschellen Immobilien AG wurde 2015 von Rolf Leimgruber in Remetschwil gegründet. Seitdem hat sich das Unternehmen als professioneller Dienstleister im Immobilienmarkt etabliert und ist auf die Verwaltung von Immobilien spezialisiert. Wir unterstützen private und öffentliche Kunden als renommierter Immobiliendienstleister.

Unser Haupttätigkeitsgebiet erstreckt sich hauptsächlich auf die Region Rohrdorferberg und Mutschellen. Wir verfügen über ein umfangreiches Netzwerk von Handwerkern in der Umgebung und wissen, wie man qualifizierte Handwerker zu einem fairen Preis findet. Wir sind fest davon überzeugt, dass es wichtig ist, unsere Aufträge vorrangig an kleinere Unternehmen zu vergeben, um lokale Kleinunternehmen wie unseres zu unterstützen und gemeinsam zu wachsen.

Leitbild / Philosophie

Wir haben fünf Kernprinzipien entwickelt, die uns auszeichnen und uns dazu verpflichten, stets präzise und professionelle Arbeit zu leisten.

Kundenzufriedenheit steht an erster Stelle: Als Dienstleistungsunternehmen legen wir großen Wert auf erstklassigen Kundenservice. Jeder Kunde und jedes Projekt ist einzigartig. Wir gehen individuell auf Ihre Bedürfnisse und Anforderungen ein, unabhängig von der Größe der Herausforderung oder der Komplexität des Problems.

 Einen Ansprechpartner für immer: Wir legen großen Wert darauf, Ihre Anliegen persönlich zu betreuen und nicht ständig an Dritte weiterzuleiten. Als ein sehr kleines Unternehmen sind wir nicht von häufigem Mitarbeiterwechsel geprägt, was es uns ermöglicht, langfristig die besten Ergebnisse zu erzielen.

 Wir gehen den Extra-Schritt: Unsere täglichen Aufgaben sind nicht nur ein Job – sie sind unsere Leidenschaft. Aus diesem Grund stehen wir unseren Kunden gerne auch am Wochenende oder außerhalb der regulären Geschäftszeiten zur Verfügung.

 Gegenseitiges Vertrauen durch gute Geschäfte: Der langfristige Aufbau und die Pflege von Beziehungen sind uns wichtig und schaffen Mehrwert. Daher denken wir immer vorausschauend und lehnen schnelle und unehrliche Geschäfte ab. Professionalität, Diskretion und Fairness sind Schlüsselbegriffe.

 Die Vereinigung von Tradition und Digitalisierung: Unser Unternehmen steht der Digitalisierung nicht grundsätzlich ablehnend gegenüber, jedoch sind wir der Meinung, dass früher viele Dinge einfacher waren. Aus diesem Grund verfolgen wir eine kundenorientierte Philosophie, indem wir persönliche Gespräche führen und uns mit Hausvorständen treffen, um Besprechungen durchzuführen. In größeren Immobilienverwaltungen ist dies heutzutage kaum vorstellbar. Zudem setzen wir weiterhin auf signierte und versiegelte Briefpost. Wir sind fest davon überzeugt, dass wir durch die Kombination aus heutiger Digitalisierung und den bewährten Werten von früher eine solide Grundlage schaffen können.

[admineeuserres]

Immobilienverwaltung in Hägglingen

Immobilienverwaltung in Hägglingen

Rohrdorferberg-Mutschellen Immobilien AG

Willkommen bei Rohrdorferberg Mutschellen Immobilien

Die Rohrdorferberg-Mutschellen Immobilien AG wurde 2015 von Rolf Leimgruber in Remetschwil gegründet. Seitdem hat sich das Unternehmen als professioneller Dienstleister im Immobilienmarkt etabliert und ist auf die Verwaltung von Immobilien spezialisiert. Wir unterstützen private und öffentliche Kunden als renommierter Immobiliendienstleister.

Unser Haupttätigkeitsgebiet erstreckt sich hauptsächlich auf die Region Rohrdorferberg und Mutschellen. Wir verfügen über ein umfangreiches Netzwerk von Handwerkern in der Umgebung und wissen, wie man qualifizierte Handwerker zu einem fairen Preis findet. Wir sind fest davon überzeugt, dass es wichtig ist, unsere Aufträge vorrangig an kleinere Unternehmen zu vergeben, um lokale Kleinunternehmen wie unseres zu unterstützen und gemeinsam zu wachsen.

Leitbild / Philosophie

Wir haben fünf Kernprinzipien entwickelt, die uns auszeichnen und uns dazu verpflichten, stets präzise und professionelle Arbeit zu leisten.

Kundenzufriedenheit steht an erster Stelle: Als Dienstleistungsunternehmen legen wir großen Wert auf erstklassigen Kundenservice. Jeder Kunde und jedes Projekt ist einzigartig. Wir gehen individuell auf Ihre Bedürfnisse und Anforderungen ein, unabhängig von der Größe der Herausforderung oder der Komplexität des Problems.

 Einen Ansprechpartner für immer: Wir legen großen Wert darauf, Ihre Anliegen persönlich zu betreuen und nicht ständig an Dritte weiterzuleiten. Als ein sehr kleines Unternehmen sind wir nicht von häufigem Mitarbeiterwechsel geprägt, was es uns ermöglicht, langfristig die besten Ergebnisse zu erzielen.

 Wir gehen den Extra-Schritt: Unsere täglichen Aufgaben sind nicht nur ein Job – sie sind unsere Leidenschaft. Aus diesem Grund stehen wir unseren Kunden gerne auch am Wochenende oder außerhalb der regulären Geschäftszeiten zur Verfügung.

 Gegenseitiges Vertrauen durch gute Geschäfte: Der langfristige Aufbau und die Pflege von Beziehungen sind uns wichtig und schaffen Mehrwert. Daher denken wir immer vorausschauend und lehnen schnelle und unehrliche Geschäfte ab. Professionalität, Diskretion und Fairness sind Schlüsselbegriffe.

 Die Vereinigung von Tradition und Digitalisierung: Unser Unternehmen steht der Digitalisierung nicht grundsätzlich ablehnend gegenüber, jedoch sind wir der Meinung, dass früher viele Dinge einfacher waren. Aus diesem Grund verfolgen wir eine kundenorientierte Philosophie, indem wir persönliche Gespräche führen und uns mit Hausvorständen treffen, um Besprechungen durchzuführen. In größeren Immobilienverwaltungen ist dies heutzutage kaum vorstellbar. Zudem setzen wir weiterhin auf signierte und versiegelte Briefpost. Wir sind fest davon überzeugt, dass wir durch die Kombination aus heutiger Digitalisierung und den bewährten Werten von früher eine solide Grundlage schaffen können.

[fssgseses]

Immobilienberatungen in Fislisbach

Immobilienberatungen in Fislisbach

Rohrdorferberg-Mutschellen Immobilien AG

Willkommen bei Rohrdorferberg Mutschellen Immobilien

Die Rohrdorferberg-Mutschellen Immobilien AG wurde 2015 von Rolf Leimgruber in Remetschwil gegründet. Seitdem hat sich das Unternehmen als professioneller Dienstleister im Immobilienmarkt etabliert und ist auf die Verwaltung von Immobilien spezialisiert. Wir unterstützen private und öffentliche Kunden als renommierter Immobiliendienstleister.

Unser Haupttätigkeitsgebiet erstreckt sich hauptsächlich auf die Region Rohrdorferberg und Mutschellen. Wir verfügen über ein umfangreiches Netzwerk von Handwerkern in der Umgebung und wissen, wie man qualifizierte Handwerker zu einem fairen Preis findet. Wir sind fest davon überzeugt, dass es wichtig ist, unsere Aufträge vorrangig an kleinere Unternehmen zu vergeben, um lokale Kleinunternehmen wie unseres zu unterstützen und gemeinsam zu wachsen.

Leitbild / Philosophie

Wir haben fünf Kernprinzipien entwickelt, die uns auszeichnen und uns dazu verpflichten, stets präzise und professionelle Arbeit zu leisten.

Kundenzufriedenheit steht an erster Stelle: Als Dienstleistungsunternehmen legen wir großen Wert auf erstklassigen Kundenservice. Jeder Kunde und jedes Projekt ist einzigartig. Wir gehen individuell auf Ihre Bedürfnisse und Anforderungen ein, unabhängig von der Größe der Herausforderung oder der Komplexität des Problems.

 Einen Ansprechpartner für immer: Wir legen großen Wert darauf, Ihre Anliegen persönlich zu betreuen und nicht ständig an Dritte weiterzuleiten. Als ein sehr kleines Unternehmen sind wir nicht von häufigem Mitarbeiterwechsel geprägt, was es uns ermöglicht, langfristig die besten Ergebnisse zu erzielen.

 Wir gehen den Extra-Schritt: Unsere täglichen Aufgaben sind nicht nur ein Job – sie sind unsere Leidenschaft. Aus diesem Grund stehen wir unseren Kunden gerne auch am Wochenende oder außerhalb der regulären Geschäftszeiten zur Verfügung.

 Gegenseitiges Vertrauen durch gute Geschäfte: Der langfristige Aufbau und die Pflege von Beziehungen sind uns wichtig und schaffen Mehrwert. Daher denken wir immer vorausschauend und lehnen schnelle und unehrliche Geschäfte ab. Professionalität, Diskretion und Fairness sind Schlüsselbegriffe.

 Die Vereinigung von Tradition und Digitalisierung: Unser Unternehmen steht der Digitalisierung nicht grundsätzlich ablehnend gegenüber, jedoch sind wir der Meinung, dass früher viele Dinge einfacher waren. Aus diesem Grund verfolgen wir eine kundenorientierte Philosophie, indem wir persönliche Gespräche führen und uns mit Hausvorständen treffen, um Besprechungen durchzuführen. In größeren Immobilienverwaltungen ist dies heutzutage kaum vorstellbar. Zudem setzen wir weiterhin auf signierte und versiegelte Briefpost. Wir sind fest davon überzeugt, dass wir durch die Kombination aus heutiger Digitalisierung und den bewährten Werten von früher eine solide Grundlage schaffen können.

[kkhjkukkjg]

Haus verkaufen in Fislisbach

Haus verkaufen in Fislisbach

Rohrdorferberg-Mutschellen Immobilien AG

Willkommen bei Rohrdorferberg Mutschellen Immobilien

Die Rohrdorferberg-Mutschellen Immobilien AG wurde 2015 von Rolf Leimgruber in Remetschwil gegründet. Seitdem hat sich das Unternehmen als professioneller Dienstleister im Immobilienmarkt etabliert und ist auf die Verwaltung von Immobilien spezialisiert. Wir unterstützen private und öffentliche Kunden als renommierter Immobiliendienstleister.

Unser Haupttätigkeitsgebiet erstreckt sich hauptsächlich auf die Region Rohrdorferberg und Mutschellen. Wir verfügen über ein umfangreiches Netzwerk von Handwerkern in der Umgebung und wissen, wie man qualifizierte Handwerker zu einem fairen Preis findet. Wir sind fest davon überzeugt, dass es wichtig ist, unsere Aufträge vorrangig an kleinere Unternehmen zu vergeben, um lokale Kleinunternehmen wie unseres zu unterstützen und gemeinsam zu wachsen.

Leitbild / Philosophie

Wir haben fünf Kernprinzipien entwickelt, die uns auszeichnen und uns dazu verpflichten, stets präzise und professionelle Arbeit zu leisten.

Kundenzufriedenheit steht an erster Stelle: Als Dienstleistungsunternehmen legen wir großen Wert auf erstklassigen Kundenservice. Jeder Kunde und jedes Projekt ist einzigartig. Wir gehen individuell auf Ihre Bedürfnisse und Anforderungen ein, unabhängig von der Größe der Herausforderung oder der Komplexität des Problems.

 Einen Ansprechpartner für immer: Wir legen großen Wert darauf, Ihre Anliegen persönlich zu betreuen und nicht ständig an Dritte weiterzuleiten. Als ein sehr kleines Unternehmen sind wir nicht von häufigem Mitarbeiterwechsel geprägt, was es uns ermöglicht, langfristig die besten Ergebnisse zu erzielen.

 Wir gehen den Extra-Schritt: Unsere täglichen Aufgaben sind nicht nur ein Job – sie sind unsere Leidenschaft. Aus diesem Grund stehen wir unseren Kunden gerne auch am Wochenende oder außerhalb der regulären Geschäftszeiten zur Verfügung.

 Gegenseitiges Vertrauen durch gute Geschäfte: Der langfristige Aufbau und die Pflege von Beziehungen sind uns wichtig und schaffen Mehrwert. Daher denken wir immer vorausschauend und lehnen schnelle und unehrliche Geschäfte ab. Professionalität, Diskretion und Fairness sind Schlüsselbegriffe.

 Die Vereinigung von Tradition und Digitalisierung: Unser Unternehmen steht der Digitalisierung nicht grundsätzlich ablehnend gegenüber, jedoch sind wir der Meinung, dass früher viele Dinge einfacher waren. Aus diesem Grund verfolgen wir eine kundenorientierte Philosophie, indem wir persönliche Gespräche führen und uns mit Hausvorständen treffen, um Besprechungen durchzuführen. In größeren Immobilienverwaltungen ist dies heutzutage kaum vorstellbar. Zudem setzen wir weiterhin auf signierte und versiegelte Briefpost. Wir sind fest davon überzeugt, dass wir durch die Kombination aus heutiger Digitalisierung und den bewährten Werten von früher eine solide Grundlage schaffen können.

[leimgruberrr]

[myrecordcollections]

The sound is appropriately splintered. Guitarist Christy Doran pens the kick-in-the-gut opener, “For Ursi.” Unable to resist the attraction from the get-go, saxophonist Urs Leimgruber colors the twilight with his heady tenor, chaining ladders of virtuosity with attentive form. His gurgling expositions of momentary abandon give Doran just the break he needs to cast a reverberant magic with tails flying.

[diyeipetea]

Intakt: OM, Niggli-Loibner, Ydivide, James Brandon Lewis. Por Pachi Tapiz [Grabaciones de jazz]

Intakt: OM, Niggli-Loibner, Ydivide, James Brandon Lewis. Por Pachi Tapiz [Grabaciones de jazz]

Como de habitual, las propuestas del sello Intakt son bien variadas, a la vez que interesantes. Es lo que ocurre, una vez más, con las grabaciones publicadas en los últimos meses. El cuarteto OM (Urs Leimgruber, Christy Doran, Bobby Burri, Fredy Studer) es un veterano de la fusión del jazz con el rock. En activo con intermitencia, en septiembre de 2022 ha publicado el disco 50 (su título es…

[cdlistening]

OM, 'With Dom Um Romao' LP (ECM/Japo)

Tuesday, October 26, 2021, 7:23pm (full listen)

Picked this up on a whim the other day, having had no knowledge of its existence, and only a relatively recent discovery of saxist Urs Leimgruber. The latter is one of the more far-out sax technicians I've encountered, so it was a little surprising to hear this relatively conventional - but very cool - album, which is a kind of 70s jazz/fusion/etc kind of thing, at times sounding weirdly like 'Bitches Brew', what with UL's probing bass clarinet, guitarist Christy Doran's obvious admiration of John McLaughlin (and Sonny Sharrock, with his liberal use of the slide way up on the neck and behind the bridge splunking on the opening track), and guest Dom Um Romao's wide ranging assortment of Airto-esque percussion items (berimbau, talking drum, pitched blocks, etc). On the whole, it's typical late 70s ECM fare, maybe with a few more teeth, but none the lesser for it; a pleasingly obscure bottom bin discovery (and what a cover!).

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 6, Number 1

A new year means new music. At least eventually, it does, though January is notoriously slow for album releases. Meanwhile, there’s plenty we missed from late (and mid and even early) 2019, so let’s dig into that for one last big Dust. Here we cover subcontinental LGBTQ gangsta rap, industrial clangor, string quartets, Welsh agitpunk, electronics, free jazz, blackened death metal and an odd, charming collaboration between Cate Le Bon and Bradford Cox (see photo). Writers include Bill Meyer, Jennifer Kelly, Ian Mathers, Tobias Carroll, Andrew Forell, Ray Garraty, Jason Gioncontere, Ethan Militsky and Jonathan Shaw.

Jeb Bishop / Alex Ward / Weasel Walter — Flayed (Ugexplode)

Flayed by Jeb Bishop / Alex Ward / Weasel Walter

You know a party is good if it carries on even though the organizer can’t show up. Bassist Damon Smith planned this encounter, which involved his long-term partner in intensity and chaos, drummer Weasel Walter; New England improvisational fellow traveler (at least until Smith moved to St. Louis a few months after this March, 2019 session) Jeb Bishop on trombone and electronics; and Alex Ward, a veteran of work with Derek Bailey and This Is Not This Heat, on guitar and clarinet. Since Walter has played with both of the other guys in and outside of the Flying Luttenbachers, when Smith had to drop out for scheduling reasons, he was confident that the trio could make something of both the opportunity to play and the space made available by the absent bass. He was right. Both the title and prevailing assumptions about Walter might set you up to expect a one-dimensional blowout, but there’s loads of listening and thoughtful, instant reacting taking place on each of the album’s eight, mostly pithy tracks. This music plays out like a combination of jujitsu and shuttle diplomacy, with players shifting between support and challenge, density and space, rapidity and reserve from second to second.

Bill Meyer  

 Cartel Madras — Age of the Goonda (Sub Pop)

Cartel Madras turns gangsta rap’s hyper-male, African-American-oriented bravado on its side, filtering the guns and blunts ethos through a female, queer, multicultural lens without diluting its violence in the least. Sisters Priya and Bhagya Ramesh, known as Contra and Eboshi, have lived in Calgary since childhood, but they immigrated from Chennai, India, once part of Madras, hence the name, hence the tricky scales and intricate, not-quite-Western rhythms of their rhymes. Age of the Goonda works in a spare, menacing way, dense, referential wordplay atop an undulating threat of sub-bass and the occasional spray of bullets.

“Goonda Gold,” celebrates cartoonish dominance, though with a South Asian twist. Little bits of Hindi harmonics decorate the bare architecture of synth bass sounds and cracking, stabbing percussion (augmented here by gunfire); the Cartel’s chant of “Gold on my neck I’m a Goonda/got guns in the air like a junta” puts a subcontinental spin on ghetto law. The clever-est word sprays come in “The Legend of Jalopeno Boiz,” where the duo references everything from Frost/Nixon to incel stereotypes, but the single “Lil Pump Type Beat,” is all hedonism, devious syncopation and sexual predation. Though wildly intersectional, these tracks make no concessions to soft, liberal ideas about how women/minorities/LGBTQ people wield power; they do it just like the men do, with guns. “Take off your top boy/somebody bring me my gun/that bag in the back of the jeep/you just a bitch on the run,” asserts one or the other sister in “Jumpscare.” What was that you were saying about women and nurture?

Jennifer Kelly

 CIA Debutante — The Landlord (Siltbreeze)

CIA Debutante-The Landlord by CIA Debutante

A new Siltbreeze record is a rare blessing nowadays. The label’s first release since 2018 comes from Paris duo CIA Debutante. The Landlord fits in nicely with the label’s storied '90s output, particularly the Shadow Ring. The electronics aren’t quite glitchy—they sound more like the batteries in a cheap toy dying. Still, CIA Debutante are savvy enough to avoid getting too clever with their sputtering, plodding, and whizzing, and they don’t go the easy route when layering incongruous sounds. There’s never the fatiguing sense that they rely on the same few tricks. It helps that their murky, paranoid vignettes are fully engrossing. CIA Debutante tap into something truly nightmarish on The Landlord, which is a rare accomplishment. Sure, plenty of music shoots for tense and creepy, but CIA Debutante have an exceptional gift for the uncanny, the kind of stuff that haunts you long after you’ve woken up and can no longer hope to grasp it. Ethan Milititsky

Decoherence — Ekpyrosis (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

Ekpyrosis by Decoherence

Decoherence is a pretty good name for a band that locates itself in the liminal space between industrial music’s stomp and clangor and black metal’s astringent tumult. The band’s new LP (and first full length release) Ekpyrosis is at its best when its waves of distorted hiss, dissonant riffing and distant shrieks and growls threaten to rend the record to shreds. One imagines that if you found yourself in an aluminum ladder factory, amid the massive drills and extruding machines and metal presses and then removed your ear protectors, you’d hear something akin to this — especially if the place was possessed by demons of ill intent. It’s a well-crafted, ritualized chaos. The band is so insistent on a specific set of sounds and forms that the record’s long tracks tend to blur into one another. Which may be the point. Decoherence, indeed.

Jonathan Shaw

 Bertrand Denzler / CoÔ — Arc (Potlatch)

Arc is a two-part, album-length work by Bertrand Denzler, a Swiss-born, Paris-based saxophonist and composer. It is performed by CoÔ, a string septet led by double bassist Félicie Bazelaire. The ensemble’s composition is a sort of funhouse reflection of a string quartet, distorted towards breadth; it comprises one violin, two violas, one cello and three double basses. But there’s nothing comic about this music, which is quite beautiful in the same way as a slow winter sunset. Denzler’s method here involves the use of continuous sounds, but don’t call it drone. The players use both conventional and extended techniques to create a continually changing sequence of striated sounds. Naked scrapes and cavernous groans arc in formation, changing fairly frequently over the course of each piece. The result is immersive enough to let you get lost, but keep your ears and eyes open; you wouldn’t want to miss one moment of gradual transition. A note about circumstances — Potlatch, the label that released this CD, has slowed its production in recent years, and this is the only record it released in 2018. Apparently, the label isn’t wasting its time with unnecessary effort; Arc clears the necessity bar.

Bill Meyer

 Fujiya & Miyagi — Flashback (Impossible Objects of Desire)

One of the interesting things about Fujiya & Miyagi’s songwriting is that as the UK post-motorik outfit’s music becomes ever more focused and sleekly propulsive, frontman David Best has zeroed in on any number of little aspects of life disturb and upset the kind of cool pulse the band specializes in. Here it’s everything from violations of your “Personal Space,” the “Fear of Missing Out,” and nagging thoughts in the title track to the more political concerns of the closing lengthy workout of “Gammon” (which eventually, in one of the little touches that makes F&M’s music so addictive, settles on the “pure evil vibrating” of a dial-up modem). That doesn’t mean the band can no longer bust a groove just for the pure joy of it, as “Dying Swan Act” proves, but it’s the combination of those chops and the perceptive if increasingly jaundiced eye they turn on life that makes them such a unique and compelling act.

Ian Mathers

 Cate Le Bon & Bradford Cox — Myths 400 (Mexican Summer)

Myths 004 by Cate Le Bon & Bradford Cox

Intricate fancies turn just out of true in this pop-up collaboration between Cate Le Bon and Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox, the fourth in a series of joint EPs recorded under the auspices of Mexican Summer’s annual Marfa Myths festival (hence Myths 400). The two artists work in a skewed, peripheral vision take on artful pop, building interlocking boxes of percussion and whimsey in which fleeting glimpses of loveliness flit by. The song-i-est bit of Myths 400 is undoubtedly “Secretary,” a Weimar-decadent bit of mournful song hedged in clanks and clicks, strings and clarinets, and the odd combination of Le Bon’s pure art-song shiver and Cox’s less pristine, more grounded voice. Yet the rhythm-centered oddities are just as rewarding; resist the slap-bang fanciful-ness of growly-voiced, Cox-led “Fireman,” with Le Bon trilling off center arias in the margins at your own peril. “What Is She Wearing” bangs out disconsonant guitar tones in slightly off center patterns and tunings; it’s a wind-up toy’s existential crisis. Le Bon chants in a Middle European cadence, as the cut falls somewhere between early Michachu and a Kurt Weil song. It’s about the last thing you’d expect to emerge from the desert, eccentric, abstracted, playful and utterly urbane.

Jennifer Kelly

  Urs Leimgruber / Andreas Willers / Alvin Curran / Fabrizio Sperra—Rome-ing (Leo)

Urs Leimgruber has covered a lot of musical ground in a performing and recording career that spans over 45 years. The three musicians who join the Swiss saxophonist on this freely improvised encounter, which was recorded in Rome late in 2018, are well chosen to access aspects of that history and shape it into sound configurations that are quite present-focused. Quick, light-fingered, and restless, drummer Fabrizio Sperra keeps things in constant motion. Swiss guitarist Andreas Willers stirs chunks of almost rock-ish noise and sprinkles stinging, pure-toned notes into the mix that give the music heft without slowing it down. Alvin Curran, an American keyboardist and composer (and member of MEV), draws on classical more than jazz elements in his piano playing; there are moments where he stubbornly erects a structure that the other musicians must either inhabit or work around. But his sampler also enables him to inject the sounds of other places. Shifting between tenor and saxophones, Leimgruber drives quickly spiraling phrases through the open spaces and uses astringent, distressed tone-shards to suggest where there needs to be more space.

Bill Meyer

 The Master Musicians of Dyffryn Moor — Music for the National Health Service (Amgueddfa Llwch)

Music for the National Health Service by The Master Musicians of Dyffryn Moor

When I was a younger punk, I would sometimes take in the phenomenon of bands’ whose lyrical explanations would take longer to deliver than the playing of the actual songs. And while I haven’t seen this crop up much recently, I feel like that aesthetic is alive and well when I visit the Bandcamp page of The Master Musicians of Dyffryn Moor, which includes a terse essay about the dangers facing the NHS under the current British government. This new EP follows two excellent full-lengths, Cerddoriaeth Ddefodol Gogledd Sir Benfro (Ritual Music of North Pembrokeshire) and Contemporary Protest Music, which blend the “instrumental music can be politically charged” feel of Godspeed You! Black Emperor with the intricacy of Steve Reich’s Drumming. These two songs continue in that tradition — furiously played percussion with a heated political subtext — but add a few tweaks to the sound the group has already established. Specifically, there’s a stronger electronic element here: you could probably get a dancefloor moving if you cued up “A spell to protect the NHS from those who seek to destroy it.” Its opposite number, “A hex on those who seek to destroy the NHS,” is built around a steady pulse. You probably can’t dance as well to that, but given the potential psychic damage incurred by dancing to a hex, would you actually want to?

Tobias Carroll 

 Overground Collective — Super Mario (Babel Label)

SUPER MARIO by OverGround Collective

The Overground Collective is a pan-European big band that is based in London and led by Paulo Duarte, a Portuguese guitarist/composer currently based in Scandinavia. If that sounds like a bit to get your head around, you probably need only wait a while to see what Boris’s Britain does to the freedoms of movement and thought necessary for such an endeavor to get off the ground. For the rest of us, it’s a nice illustration of why such fluidity is part of a better way. Duarte spent some time in England studying the ways of various improvisers, and recruited 17 to join him in realizing a set of compositions designed expressly for them. Certain of the participants come from free jazz (Julie Kjaer, Rachel Musson) or cross-genre experimentation (Yazz Ahmed), and you can hear the influence of such approaches in a few moments of freefall and adventurously conceived solos. But these elements fit into a structure that fits squarely in the tradition. Duarte sets tunes you could hum on grooves that’ll make you tap your feet, albeit quickly enough to annoy your neighbor if the floorboards happen to transmit your amateur approximation of his beats, and dresses them up in arrangements that could speak to a person who thinks that jazz’s lineage is a straight line from Duke Ellington to Maria Schneider. Music like this is a reproach to those who think that differences can’t be complimentary parts of a whole.

Bill Meyer

  Pictish Trail — Thumb World (Fire)

Thumb World by Pictish Trail

Folktronica from the tiny island of Eigg in the Hebrides, this latest album by Pictish Trail (Johnny Lynch) demonstrates the aesthetic value of both isolation and connection. Per isolation: Lynch lives on a windblown island with fewer than 100 other people. But as for connection, he is intimately involved in a northerly folk scene through King Creosote’s Fence Records and surrounded by local musicians. There aren’t that many folks on Eigg, but almost everybody plays an instrument. That kind of environment allows space for eccentricity and practice, which shows up on these expansive, dance-inflected, folk-shadowed cuts. Pictish Trail enlarges his subtle, personal songs with enveloping arrangements of rock sounds and club electronics; Kim Moore contributes some string arrangements and Alex Thomas of Squarepusher sits in on drums. “Double Sided” has the lilt and ramble of Three EPs Beta Band (Lynch has been out touring with Steve Mason lately), while gorgeous, glistening “Slow Memories” has the glitch, glow and aura of early Tunng. Thumb World demonstrates that music can be solitary without being lonely, introspective without self-absorbation. “You’re my solitude/I’m never so alone by myself,” sings Lynch, on the surprisingly rock-guitared “Bad Algebra,” underlining the fact that too many people (or the wrong people) can be isolating, and a few can provide the space for originality and experiment.

Jennifer Kelly

Pinkish Black — Concept Unification (Relapse)

Texas psych sludge prog metal duo Pinkish Black has been quiet for a little while; their last record, 2015’s Bottom of the Morning, was such a compact and potent summation of the miasmic bad vibes that Daron Beck (synthesizers, voice) and Jon Teague (drums) can summon up seemingly at will. No more than a minute into the opening title track of their fourth record you get a strong reminder of just that atmosphere; you might as well be in a haunted castle during the full moon. The closing, lengthy “Next Solution” also offers a reminder of what you might call classic Pinkish Black, but it’s the four songs in between that show Beck and Teague working to make sure there is always room to expand their dark palette. Whether it’s the relatively straightforward, thrashy “Until” or the prettily drifting “Inanimatronic” the results are always interesting. Bottom of the Morning remains the best introduction for now to this duo’s indelible sound, but once you’re a fan Concept Unification makes for a strong and promising follow-up.  

Ian Mathers

  Alexa Rose—Medicine for Living (Big Legal Mess)

“How I wish I were kinder, how I wish I were patient, I could learn all the songs on the gospel station,” trills Alexa Rose in a water pure soprano touched with shivery vibrato as she navigates the twists and corners of the title track from her lovely debut album. The Virginia-born, Memphis-based songwriter has a native’s familiarity with gospel, country and folk blues, but a fresh, sparkling delivery that makes these well-worn forms sound like she just thought of them. A lilting, effortless voice elicits spare melancholy sparked with hope and a crack band of Americana pros in tow – Will Sexton on guitar, George Sluppick playing drums and Mark Edgard Stuart on bass — fill out the songs without a bit of bloat. “Tried and True” enlists a cajun squeeze box and skittering banjo into Rose’s smart, unsentimental songcraft; country teems with strong women disappointed by love, but Alexa Rose is clear-eyed and strong enough to kick its ass without breaking meter. Gorgeous and empowered stuff.

Jennifer Kelly

Sartegos — O Sangue da Noite (I, Voidhanger)

O Sangue da Noite by SARTEGOS

This new release by Sartegos isn’t so much blackened death metal as it is a death metal record that morphs its shape and sound into black metal. The buzzy crunch and acrobatic soloing of opener “Sangue e Noite” gradually give way to leaner, meaner riffs, and by the midpoint of fourth track “Solpor dos Mistérios,” the record has fully taken on the properties of merciless, muscular continental black metal. The record may engage with various metal subgenres, but O Sangue da Noite is held together by Sartegos’s focus on Galician nationalist themes and celebrations of its landscape. The band is named for a miniscule rural hamlet in Galicia, and we are told that all lyrics are delivered in the region’s native dialect. Black metal and ardent nationalism don’t always make for the happiest of combinations. For those of us lacking fluency in the language, it’s tough to know what ideological charge the lyrics carry. And Galician regional politics feature a panoply of leftist and right wing factions, all with their own fiery arguments for the region’s autonomy. What sort of blood? Who sings in the night? Hard to say. But the music’s pretty good.

Jonathan Shaw

 Seablite – Grass Stains and Novocaine (Emotional Response)

Bay Area quartet Seablite’s debut album navigates the fuzzy end of indie pop with aplomb. Vocalists Lauren Matsui (guitar) and Galine Tumasyan (bass) are joined by drummer Andy Pastalaniec and ex-Wax Idol Jen Mundy on lead guitar for 11 tracks of chipper, summery shoegaze that sit easily alongside their most obvious influences Lush, Curve and Stereolab. Seablite’s songs are elevated by the interplay of twin vocals, clean guitar lines and bouncy bass lines supported by cymbal heavy motorik drums. There’s steel beneath the gauze as Mundy brings a little of the Idols’ shade to proceedings and Pastalaniec drives songs like “Pillbox” and “Polygraph” hard and fast down a euphoric freeway of top-down thrumming thrills. Yes, it sounds like a lot of bands you’ve heard and maybe loved but Grass Stains and Novocaine is so well put together and convincingly played it’s hard to resist.

Andrew Forell

 Seiðr — Intethedens Afsky (Nattetale)

Seiðr is a one-man band from Denmark. For just one man, he was awfully busy in the past year, having put out three records. Intethedens Afsky can boast of 10 tracks of dirty, primitive sound with bursts of melody buried immediately under a wall of noise. The inspiration for Seiðr’s music can be found in early 1990s Norwegian black metal, and Claus H. (that’s his name) cannot be blamed for being too much of a good student. Why shouldn’t he have learnt from his elders? The first two tracks here have samples from “nature,” and this gives us a hint to how Seiðr’s music can be interpreted: it’s ruptures in Nature’s hellish landscape. No one will be saved.

Ray Garraty   

 Spider Bags — A Celebration of Hunger (Sophomore Lounge)

SPIDER BAGS "A Celebration of Hunger" by Spider Bags

Spider Bags are still around, making a record every three or four years for Merge. But listening to this debut, it’s hard to imagine how they did it. If subject matter reflects life style, then the motto of these guys back in 2008 was, “We do the hard stuff so there won’t be any left for you. Say, can you loan me a couple of twenties?” But there’s a self-observing intelligence at work in these songs that suggests that self-awareness wasn’t totally obliterated, and a loose, rumbling energy to these roots-tinged garage-rock songs that confirms that the Bags spent at least part of everyday upright. Add to that engineer Brian Paulson’s knack for getting sound under challenging circumstances, which renders the live-sounding performances with sufficient but not distracting clarity, and you have a good soundtrack for the next time you want to drink yourself off the barstool in the privacy of your own home.

Bill Meyer

 Luke Spook — Small Town (Third Eye Stimuli)

Australian multi-instrumentalist Luke Spook steps away from the garage-punk of his Pinheads to conjure up lysergic specters from bygone times on Small Town. There are a fair number of freaked out boil-overs in the offing but the general tone is one of reserved simplicity. Whether sipping tea with the subject of “The Owl” or gathering around the fire with some fellow townsfolk on the title track, Luke channels Syd Barrett to the point of becoming nearly indistinguishable. But what makes Small Town more than just a covers album is Luke’s ability to vary the intimacy of his arrangements when needed. “All the King’s Horses” features a harmonica solo backed up with an (accidental?) chorus of distant, wailing hounds. Those types of moments lurk beneath the surface and inject a pastoral quality that feels authentic. More quirky utopian village than small town, the world Spook creates is a place to live rather than to pass through.

Jason Gioncontere  

 Nick Storring — Qualms (Never Anything)

Qualms by Nick Storring

Nick Storring’s latest recording started life as the score for a dance performance, and it is easy to imagine how it might function in that role. The composition, which spans both sides of a cassette, is episodic. Each moment feels unique unto itself, creating an environment in which things — maybe movements, or maybe something in your own imagination — have the space to happen. If you caught him onstage with the group Picastro, you would probably see Storring play cello, but for Qualms he plays a couple dozen keyboard, stringed, percussive and woodwind instruments. This allows similar themes and actions to appear and reappear in different garb. One stalking theme, for example, manifests once as a psychedelically dense string melody, and again played by gamelan percussion. Elsewhere passages of meter-less sound temporarily halt the progress. Moments of Steve Reich-like repetition surface, but instead of locking in like they might in a Reich piece, they quickly morph into something else. The same pattern of change that probably made this a handy program for a dance performance makes it an engaging pure listening experience.

Bill Meyer

 Sun City Girls — Dawn of the Devi (Abduction)

Dawn of the Devi by Sun City Girls

Dawn of the Devi holds an important place in the Sun City Girls’ discography. Released in 1991, it was the follow up to the much-celebrated Torch of the Mystics, which remains one of the more tuneful and easily-relatable records that Charles Gocher and brothers Alan and Richard Bishop ever did. As such, it had a job to do, and it did it well. That was to throw the followers who sandals instead of sturdy shows off the track. They did this by serving up a song-free album of jagged, totally improvised jams. While it did the job at the time, and in doing so established a pattern of giving the people something other than what they want, in retrospect, you can appreciate it for another reason. Dawn of the Devi makes a pretty strong case for the trio as a rock-derived improvisational ensemble. They sound like they’re listening and responding to each other, and their transitions from acidic splatter to swooning hesitation or heavy ambush make intuitive sense. It wasn’t always that way.

Bill Meyer

 These New Puritans — Inside the Rose (BMG)

Essex experimentalists These New Puritans return with a lush yet disquieting take on English pastoralism. On Inside the Rose multi-instrumentalist twin brothers Jack and George Barnett create an often lovely, occasionally portentous, romantic paean to nature and love. As the Barnetts move further beyond the fractured post-punk of their debut Beat Pyramid, this, their fourth album, elaborates the use of contemporary classical and choral orchestration into arrangements that channel Talk Talk. Jack Barnett’s voice is high in the mix and evokes David Sylvian at his most emotive. Beneath the sheen and swooning strings George’s drumming shifts and slides between Reichian repetition and fierce Taiko inspired rhythms. Inside the Rose is a meticulously produced but never fussy collection, welcoming the listener but refusing either to compromise or patronize. A serious but accessible work full of carefully considered details, some gorgeous melodies and an almost Pre-Raphaelite sensibility expressed in a thoroughly contemporary manner.

Andrew Forell

 Various Artists — No Other Love (Tompkins Square)

No Other Love : Midwest Gospel (1965-1978) by Various Artists

No Other Love is, like the several albums that Mike McGonigal has compiled for different labels, a sequence of gospel records drawn from one collection. In this case it is the collection of Ramona Stout. She culled the 45s that make up this set from her husband Kevin’s trawls of records that had spent years in Chicagoan basements. A graduate student who had spent much of her life outside the USA, she saw with clear eyes the grime of American urban poverty, and found herself deeply compelled by the discovery that hopeful music could grow in such decay. There are no big stars amongst these recordings. Even at the time they were recorded they would have sounded rough and behind the times production-wise — just electric guitars, drum kits, whatever piano or organ was sitting in the church where they were recorded, and congregants’ voices. But the fervor of yearning and the joy of release makes every track a transporting listen.

Bill Meyer

 WOW — Come La Notte (Maple Death Records)

Come La Notte by wow

Underground Roman duo China Now (vocals, drums) and Leo Non (guitars) recent album as WOW, Come La Notte (Like the Night), is seven tracks of 1960s influenced Italian noir cabaret high on atmosphere and drama. Now’s almost operatic vocals are at the forefront over skeletal brushed drums, minimal bass and restrained guitar. The band lulls then surprises with a spectral sax and bursts of crashing cymbals and feedback on “Niente Di Speciale” (“Nothing Special”), a keening gypsy violin on “Vieni Un Po’ Qui” (“Come Over Here”), middle eastern organ on “Occhi Di Serpente” (“Snake Eyes”). Fatalism drips from every note bringing to mind a low ceilinged club in the catacombs where refugees from the sun fill the air with smoke and their guts with grappa and cheap vino rosso as Pasolini scouts for rough trade and fingers grip switchblades concealed in socks. Come La Notte is a slow grower that draws you in even while it picks your pocket. Put it on and live a little vicarious danger in your own private La Dolce Vita.  

Andrew Forell  

[colorfulgermany]

Rassistische Sprache ist sichtbar geworden

Rassistische Sprache ist sichtbar geworden

25 Jahre Rassismus-Strafnorm: Gerichtsurteile zeigen keine Einschränkung der Meinungsäusserungsfreiheit. Monique Ryser für die Online-Zeitung INFOsperber Die Eidgenössische Kommission gegen Rassismus (EKR) hat 25 Jahre nach Einführung der Rassismus-Strafnorm (Diskriminierung und Aufruf zu Hass / Art. 261bis Strafgesetzbuch) die Gerichtsurteile ausgewertet. Dabei zeigt sich: Die…

[gtggff]

Immobilienbewertung

Immobilienbewertung

Rohrdorferberg-Mutschellen Immobilien AG

Willkommen bei Rohrdorferberg Mutschellen Immobilien

Die Rohrdorferberg-Mutschellen Immobilien AG wurde 2015 von Rolf Leimgruber in Remetschwil gegründet. Seitdem hat sich das Unternehmen als professioneller Dienstleister im Immobilienmarkt etabliert und ist auf die Verwaltung von Immobilien spezialisiert. Wir unterstützen private und öffentliche Kunden als renommierter Immobiliendienstleister.

Unser Haupttätigkeitsgebiet erstreckt sich hauptsächlich auf die Region Rohrdorferberg und Mutschellen. Wir verfügen über ein umfangreiches Netzwerk von Handwerkern in der Umgebung und wissen, wie man qualifizierte Handwerker zu einem fairen Preis findet. Wir sind fest davon überzeugt, dass es wichtig ist, unsere Aufträge vorrangig an kleinere Unternehmen zu vergeben, um lokale Kleinunternehmen wie unseres zu unterstützen und gemeinsam zu wachsen.

Leitbild / Philosophie

Wir haben fünf Kernprinzipien entwickelt, die uns auszeichnen und uns dazu verpflichten, stets präzise und professionelle Arbeit zu leisten.

Kundenzufriedenheit steht an erster Stelle: Als Dienstleistungsunternehmen legen wir großen Wert auf erstklassigen Kundenservice. Jeder Kunde und jedes Projekt ist einzigartig. Wir gehen individuell auf Ihre Bedürfnisse und Anforderungen ein, unabhängig von der Größe der Herausforderung oder der Komplexität des Problems.

 Einen Ansprechpartner für immer: Wir legen großen Wert darauf, Ihre Anliegen persönlich zu betreuen und nicht ständig an Dritte weiterzuleiten. Als ein sehr kleines Unternehmen sind wir nicht von häufigem Mitarbeiterwechsel geprägt, was es uns ermöglicht, langfristig die besten Ergebnisse zu erzielen.

 Wir gehen den Extra-Schritt: Unsere täglichen Aufgaben sind nicht nur ein Job – sie sind unsere Leidenschaft. Aus diesem Grund stehen wir unseren Kunden gerne auch am Wochenende oder außerhalb der regulären Geschäftszeiten zur Verfügung.

 Gegenseitiges Vertrauen durch gute Geschäfte: Der langfristige Aufbau und die Pflege von Beziehungen sind uns wichtig und schaffen Mehrwert. Daher denken wir immer vorausschauend und lehnen schnelle und unehrliche Geschäfte ab. Professionalität, Diskretion und Fairness sind Schlüsselbegriffe.

 Die Vereinigung von Tradition und Digitalisierung: Unser Unternehmen steht der Digitalisierung nicht grundsätzlich ablehnend gegenüber, jedoch sind wir der Meinung, dass früher viele Dinge einfacher waren. Aus diesem Grund verfolgen wir eine kundenorientierte Philosophie, indem wir persönliche Gespräche führen und uns mit Hausvorständen treffen, um Besprechungen durchzuführen. In größeren Immobilienverwaltungen ist dies heutzutage kaum vorstellbar. Zudem setzen wir weiterhin auf signierte und versiegelte Briefpost. Wir sind fest davon überzeugt, dass wir durch die Kombination aus heutiger Digitalisierung und den bewährten Werten von früher eine solide Grundlage schaffen können.

[augrisliclandestin]

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

How to catch 311 amphibians in 10 days

Step 1: Deploy pitfall traps across Powdermill Nature Reserve

Step 2: Get out of the way and let nature do the rest

Over the course of 10 days in June of this year, I captured 311 amphibians of 12 different species. Every day, rain or shine, I spent over four hours checking 132 pitfall traps and several more hours identifying, measuring, and weighing the day’s amphibian haul. I did a rinse and repeat of this cycle for 10 days straight. Why would anyone do all of this for what Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, once described as “vile animals” with “a foul odor” (Wahlgren, 2011)? Although this sentiment might still ring true for some people today, I did this because amphibians are in serious trouble—more than 30% of species are facing extinction. The threats to amphibians range from habitat losses to disease epidemics, but these are merely symptoms of the underlying cause: unnatural changes brought about by the Anthropocene. Human-induced alterations to nature are irrevocably modifying biodiversity so rapidly that species we learned about in grade school are now extinct and, if we view amphibians as sentinel organisms, then the worst is yet to come.

The Powdermill Nature Reserve is a protected site in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountains where, since 1956—the year it was established by a forward-thinking herpetologist— the property has functioned in a similar way as forests did before human settlement swept across the region. In the early 1980s, scientists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History studied the amphibian community at the Powdermill Nature Reserve and, serendipitously, established the empirical baseline necessary to study how environmental changes have affected amphibian biodiversity in the Alleghenies (Meshaka, 2009).

Examining the results of amphibian trapping during two long ago Junes offers insight into the reserve’s value. In June 1982, 78 traps captured 262 amphibians of 11 species. In June 1983, 54 traps captured 174 amphibians of 11 species. While the species richness has not changed much since the 1980s, there has been species turnover and shifts in abundance, with some species becoming more common in the community. The Two-lined Salamander (Eurycea bislineata), for example, went from 0 captures in June of 1982 and 1983 to 7 captures this June. In terms of standardized trap nights in June (i.e., the number of traps multiplied the number of days opened), a combined rate of 0.11 amphibians per trap was detected across the two years in the 1980s, compared to a rate of 0.24 amphibians per trap this year. What could the ecological scenario be that has led to such an apparent increase in the amphibian capture rate over this 40-year period? Could trophic cascades be involved? Perhaps the protection of habitats in 1956 helped forest regeneration, and this change led to improved stream health and greater water retention later into the season via increased canopy cover. By providing better habitat and more resources for the streamside invertebrates that makeup the main prey base of forest-dwelling amphibians, such a transformed system might benefit amphibian communities indirectly. It’s also possible that some entirely different mechanism produced this result.

The species that dominated captures historically and today was the Allegheny Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus ochrophaeus), which went from 0.048 individuals per trap in June from the 1980s to a slightly increased rate this June of 0.052 individuals per trap. Interestingly, the average body size of female Allegheny Dusky Salamanders has not changed over the 40-year study period, suggesting stability in morphology despite other studies reporting salamander species either shrinking (Caruso et al., 2014) or growing (McCarthy et al., 2017) in response to warmer temperatures brought about by recent climate change. Without the founding of the Powdermill Nature Reserve and the herculean efforts of historical and modern scientists from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, we would not be able to understand the extent that humans have impacted biodiversity, let alone the data needed to solve mysteries of the modern world.

So, when I look at a Spring Salamander (Gyrinophilus porphyriticus) or a Slimy Salamander (Plethodon glutinosis) or a Four-toed Salamander (Hemidactylus scutatum) from the Powdermill Nature Reserve, I don’t see Linnaeus’s “terrible animal” with a “ghastly color”, rather, I see profound resiliency in the face of tremendous pressure, and the power that natural history collections and protected areas hold for improving our relationship with biodiversity.

Daniel F. Hughes is the Rea Post-doctoral Fellow in the Herpetology Section at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

References:

Caruso, N.M., Sears, M.W., Adams, D.C. and Lips, K.R., 2014. Widespread rapid reductions in body size of adult salamanders in response to climate change. Global Change Biology, 20: 1751–1759.

Meshaka, Jr., W.E., 2009. The terrestrial ecology of an Allegheny amphibian community: Implications for land management. The Maryland Naturalist, 50: 30–56.

McCarthy, T., Masson, P., Thieme, A., Leimgruber, P. and Gratwicke, B., 2017. The relationship between climate and adult body size in redback salamanders (Plethodon cinereus). Geo: Geography and Environment, 4: e00031.

Wahlgren, R., 2011. Carl Linnaeus and the Amphibia. Bibliotheca Herpetologica, 9: 5–37.