Colin Stetson announces new album SORROW: A Reimagining of Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony

05 February 2016

Photo: Brantley Gutierrez

Colin Stetson released a marvellous collaborative album with Sarah Neufeld last year, but his last solo album came out three years ago. The 2013’s outstanding New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light, which was one of our Album Picks of the Year, is being followed up this Spring and we couldn’t be more excited about it.
The Montreal-based sax super-hero has announced the release of SORROW: A reimagining of Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony, based on the Polish composer’s 1997 famous classic piece. Due out on April 8th via his own 52Hz label, SORROW is a dream come true for Stetson, who envisioned the project for two decades. Stetson assembled an incredible cast of musicians to bring this project to life, including Sarah Neufeld (violins), Rebecca Foon (cello), Greg Fox (drums), Gyda Valtisdottir (cello), Ryan Ferreira (guitar), Grey Mcmurray (guitar), Matt Bauder (saxes/clarinets), Dan Bennett (saxes/clarinets), Shahzad Ismaily (synths), Justin Walter (keyboards/EV) and his sister Megan Stetson (voice).
Here’s how he described the album:

“We all have those moments when we experience a piece of music that transforms us, and this was one of those moments for me. Over the years, I went on to listen to this record countless times, always determined to absorb every instance of it, to know it throughout and fully. And this dedication to a thorough knowledge of the piece eventually gave way to a need to perform it.

The concept was simple, and true to the original score. I haven’t changed existing notation, but rather have worked with altering instrumentation, utilizing a group consisting heavily of woodwinds, synthesizers, and electric guitars, as well as retaining an element of the orchestral in a string section of violins and cellos, which features prominent and decorated Canadian musicians Sarah Neufeld (Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre) and Rebecca Foon (Saltland, Esmerine).

My approach was “additive”, in that I imagined certain sounds or parts, though not present in the original, were (to me) extensions of the emotional core of the piece. For example, the instrumentation is rounded out by the most extreme of those sonic/timbral/musical additions, the drum set. Performed inimitably here by NYC drummer/percussionist, Greg Fox (Liturgy, Guardian Alien, Z’s). My background and education in classical concert music is here, as well as a focus on group improvisation. The arrangement draws heavily from the world of black metal, early electronic music, and from my own body of solo saxophone music.

The result is an intact rendition of Henryk Górecki’s 3rd Symphony, though one which has been filtered through the lens of my particular musical aesthetic and experience.”

As a first staggering taste, Stetson is offering an excerpt of movement ‘I’ of SORROW, featuring Megan Stetson. Listen to it below and watch the album trailer straight after.

New trio The Dwarfs of East Agouza announce debut album Bes

04 February 2016

When stellar musicians like Sam Shalabi (Land of Kush, Shalabi Effect), Maurice Louca (Alif, Bikya) and Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls, The Invisible Hands, Alvarius B.) join musical forces, you know the outcome has to be amazing. Under the name The Dwarfs of East Agouza, the Cairo based trio have been creating music together since 2012, blending in each one’s different influences and styles. As the press release describes, their “instrumental improvisation-based explorations are propelled by Louca’s North African percussion loops and shimmering keys, Shalabi’s West African tinged free jazz guitar and grounded by Bishop’s driving Krautrock-style acoustic bass”.
What’s more, they are readying their debut Bes, set to be released as a double album on April 29th via Nawa Recordings. And we can already groove to ‘Baka of the Future’, the hypnotic and explosive opening track, clocking in at nearly ten minutes.

In other related news, and ahead of the album’s release, Dwarfs of East Agouza are currently on the road performing their new material for the first time to lucky European audiences. Having just played in Sweden and at Berlin’s CTM Festival, the trio’s tour includes stops in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and France.

Cavern Of Anti-Matter premiere video for new single ‘liquid gate’ featuring Bradford Cox

04 February 2016

The chances are that you have already heard us raving about Tim Gane’s band Cavern of Anti-Matter, and there’s good reason for that. With void beats/invocation trex, their much-anticipated debut album, slated for release later this month, the Berlin based three-piece got us salivating with two tremendous singles, the stunning and radiant ‘Melody In High Feedback Tones’ and the epic krautrock infused opener ‘Tardis Cymbals’. To whet our appetite even more, the three-piece have unveiled a new single from the album, the psychedelic pop cut ‘liquid gate’ featuring Bradford Cox on vocals. The track comes paired with a fittingly kaleidoscopic video, directed by Peter Strickland. Watch it below and watch out for the release of void beats/invocation trex on February 19th via Duophonic.

In celebration of the album release, Cavern Of Anti-Matter have announced a run of European dates in February and March, including a show in London on February 29th at The Moth Club. See the full run of dates below.

25 Feb 2016 – Generiq @ le FJT des Oiseaux, Besançon, France
26 Feb 2016 – Generiq @ Cellier de Clairvaux, Dijon, France
27 Feb 2016 – Festival La Route Du Rock, St Malo, France
29 Feb 2016 – The Moth Club, London, UK, tickets
01 Mar 2016 – The Paradiso, Amsterdam. Netherlands
11 Mar 2016 – Kantine am Berghain, Berlin , Germany
3 Jun 2016 – Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona, Spain

Massive Attack drop Ritual Spirit EP and premiere new video

01 February 2016

Good news for fans of trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack, who released a new EP, Ritual Spirit, last Friday. Featuring four tracks, the EP was written and produced by Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja and long-term studio collaborator Euan Dickinson and it marks their first new material since 2011’s Heligoland. Ritual Spirit also marks the return of friend and collaborator Tricky who features on the EP, as does Roots Manuva and Young Fathers.
Ritual Spirit precedes another EP written and co-produced by Daddy G, due in the Spring, and a full-length album set to be released later in the year.
Coinciding with EP release, Massive Attack have unveiled a video for ‘Take It There’ featuring Tricky. Hiro Murai directs.

Massive Attack’s Ritual Spirit EP is out now via Virgin/EMI.

Suuns announce third album Hold/Still, share video for first single ‘Translate’

31 January 2016

Three years after their last album, and following last year’s collaborative album with Jerusalem in My Heart which was one of our 15 Picks of the Year, Suuns are back with their third album, Hold/Still. The Montreal quartet recorded the album in Dallas, Texas over the course of three weeks with John Congleton on production duties. Played as a suite of music, Hold/Still has no overdubbing with Congleton driving them to capture perfect live takes, as the press release explains.

Suuns are giving us the first taste of the album with the excellent and driving first single ‘Translate’. In the works for years and one of the last songs to be finished, it mirrors well the sound of the album – “the sound of a band working in mental lockstep, crafting guitar music that feels unbeholden to clear traditions or genre brackets”. ‘Translate’ comes with a video shot by longtime collaborator Charles-André Coderre, who’s also one half of Jerusalem In My Heart. This is the first of a trilogy of videos for the album, with the other two instalments set to emerge ahead of the album release on April 15th through Secret City in Canada and Secretly Canadian in the rest of the world. Coderre had this to say about the video:

“’Translate’, the first music video of a triptych series, is an incandescent vision. It was shot with thermal imagery. The concept was simple: film the band in their rehearsal space and transfigure the footage into something unusual and gorgeous. We experimented the different meanings of the word “translate” and explored a new film language by shooting what the human eye can’t see”.

Here’s the video.

To celebrate the album release, Suuns will embark on a world tour kicking off on March 13th at the Tremor Festival in the Azores Island, Portugal and including a London show at the ICA on May 24th.

Three Trapped Tigers return with second album Silent Earthling and announce UK tour

28 January 2016

Stop whatever you’re doing for some long-awaited news: Three Trapped Tigers have a new album on the way, their first since their 2011’s mighty debut Route One or Die. Entitled Silent Earthling, the effort arrives on April 1st via Superball Music.
The trio may not have released an album in nearly five years, but they have been busy with a multitude of other unique projects, stellar collaborations and touring, all of which helped to shape the new album. They were part of an electro-orchestral, multi-media reworking of Joy Division material, played Goldie’s album Timeless at the Royal Festival Hall, performed the Blade Runner soundtrack, and have also played with bands like Deftones and Dillinger Escape Plan, to name a few. Whilst writing Silent Earthling, Three Trapped Tigers worked with Underworld’s Karl Hyde and Brian Eno, whose ‘Oblique Strategies’ cards were employed and proved instrumental in “forcing the group out of their comfort zones”, as the label describes.
“I think the problem for anyone striving to create their own sound is, once you – hopefully – have achieved that, how do you expand that whilst maintaining it?”, said guitarist and keyboard player Matt Calvert. “Some of the tunes are quite aggressive, some are poignant, some are just dumb, rocking fun… I guess we have tried to refine our sound whilst keeping it vital and exciting.”

We had the immense privilege to see them perform the entire album from beginning to end in a special show in London last June, which makes us all the more anxious to get our hands on Silent Earthling. Luckily, the band have shared the first single to be taken from the record, the monumental title track. Here it is.

To celebrate the album’s release, Three Trapped Tigers have also announced a run of dates across the UK beginning mid April in Glasgow and including a show in London at Scala on April 28th. See the full run of dates below.

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