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2LP
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AX 108LP
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Recorded live at Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux Switzerland on July 8, 2021. "With the release of The Paradox: Live At Montreux Jazz Festival, techno legend Jeff Mills and keyboard wizard Jean-Phi Dary embark on an exciting, ground-breaking musical trip that takes techno and electronic dance music to a new level . . . The Paradox's direction of travel into unexplored musical territory should come as no surprise since the original techno wizard has never stopped pioneering new ideas . . . Never content to outstay his welcome by staying in the same place for too long, in 2005 he revealed the breadth of his imagination with his conceptual classic Blue Potential, an album with the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra that saw techno happily co- existing alongside symphonic sounds. And now, Jacquline Caux's Man From Tomorrow -- the title of her film documentary of the techno maestro -- has cast his eyes over the musical horizon and borrowed a couple of ideas which he believes can transform techno and take it to the next level, 'I thought maybe it's not too late to bring or transfer some of the ideas from jazz over to electronic music, and look at the machines differently -- to play the machines and not just 'programme' them. I had the idea of trying to find the common link between free jazz and electronic music, so I reached out to jazz musicians to see if we could create something new that might be a benchmark that we could start from to create another step forward for electronic music.' Turning to keyboard player Jean-Phi Dary, with whom he had collaborated on the late Tony Allen's album Tomorrow Comes the Harvest, he remembered the musical ideas he had exchanged with the pianist while the sound engineer was doing his stuff during sound-checks on tour . . . Musically, they threw ideas out there to twist, turn and develop until they hit a groove and moved forward with that. The result was their first album together as Paradox called Counter Active (AX 096LP, 2021). It was a bold move, leaving the rhythmic certainties of techno to explore alternative, free flowing paths that allowed the breeze of change to blow through its highly compressed rhythms. Next came the challenge of presenting their ideas in live performance. They chose the demanding Montreux audience, and with the addition of Zaf Zapha on bass, the resulting album captures their spontaneous musical invention as it happens in the moment. It's a high risk, high reward strategy that was pulled off with conviction and aplomb . . . electronic sounds of techno are used to spontaneously interact with the piano, producing a deep musical conversation not pre-determined by tape loops, MIDI presets, the 96 rhythmic patterns stored in a TR-909 drum machine or the bass patterns of the Roland TB-303 electronic synthesizer-sequencer and all that technical geekery." --Stuart Nicholson Personnel: Jean-Phi Dary - keyboards, synthesizer; Jeff Mills - drum machine, synthesizer, percussions; Zaf Zapha - bass.
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CD
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AX 056CD
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Recorded live at Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux Switzerland on July 8, 2021. "With the release of The Paradox: Live At Montreux Jazz Festival, techno legend Jeff Mills and keyboard wizard Jean-Phi Dary embark on an exciting, ground-breaking musical trip that takes techno and electronic dance music to a new level . . . The Paradox's direction of travel into unexplored musical territory should come as no surprise since the original techno wizard has never stopped pioneering new ideas . . . Never content to outstay his welcome by staying in the same place for too long, in 2005 he revealed the breadth of his imagination with his conceptual classic Blue Potential, an album with the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra that saw techno happily co- existing alongside symphonic sounds. And now, Jacquline Caux's Man From Tomorrow -- the title of her film documentary of the techno maestro -- has cast his eyes over the musical horizon and borrowed a couple of ideas which he believes can transform techno and take it to the next level, 'I thought maybe it's not too late to bring or transfer some of the ideas from jazz over to electronic music, and look at the machines differently -- to play the machines and not just 'programme' them. I had the idea of trying to find the common link between free jazz and electronic music, so I reached out to jazz musicians to see if we could create something new that might be a benchmark that we could start from to create another step forward for electronic music.' Turning to keyboard player Jean-Phi Dary, with whom he had collaborated on the late Tony Allen's album Tomorrow Comes the Harvest, he remembered the musical ideas he had exchanged with the pianist while the sound engineer was doing his stuff during sound-checks on tour . . . Musically, they threw ideas out there to twist, turn and develop until they hit a groove and moved forward with that. The result was their first album together as Paradox called Counter Active (AX 096LP, 2021). It was a bold move, leaving the rhythmic certainties of techno to explore alternative, free flowing paths that allowed the breeze of change to blow through its highly compressed rhythms. Next came the challenge of presenting their ideas in live performance. They chose the demanding Montreux audience, and with the addition of Zaf Zapha on bass, the resulting album captures their spontaneous musical invention as it happens in the moment. It's a high risk, high reward strategy that was pulled off with conviction and aplomb . . . electronic sounds of techno are used to spontaneously interact with the piano, producing a deep musical conversation not pre-determined by tape loops, MIDI presets, the 96 rhythmic patterns stored in a TR-909 drum machine or the bass patterns of the Roland TB-303 electronic synthesizer-sequencer and all that technical geekery." --Stuart Nicholson Personnel: Jean-Phi Dary - keyboards, synthesizer; Jeff Mills - drum machine, synthesizer, percussions; Zaf Zapha - bass.
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2LP
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AX 096LP
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2021 repress. Paradox: a doubtful statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true. When a spark ignites between two musicians, the state of flow can be achieved. Usually, a fleeting sensation, but when captured, it is an unstoppable force. The coming together of Jeff Mills and Jean-Phi Dary came from a collaborative project with the late great Tony Allen and created chemistry instantly. Both being cognizant of the skilled innate improvisation that was happening in small jam sessions, they conceived the concept for their collaborative project: The Paradox. They believed that this uncompromising freedom and the manifestation of new ideas allowed them to reach a higher level of spiritual consciousness within their work. Recorded in real-time; these compositions reflect captured spontaneous actions which concede honesty and truth. Jean-Phi Dary is an enriched musical soul of Guyanese descent. The French artist has rhythm infused with his being, taking influence from his father's taste in Afro Cuban and Kompa music, in which he fused with his desire for jazz, reggae, and funk. This melting pot of rhythm manifested in the organ initially, before playing bass in a Caribbean orchestra. The multi-instrument musician had an indubitable flare for keyboard and piano and began to make waves in clubs in the 1980s in the south of France before moving to Paris. Proving to be the catalyst of his musical journey, he has played and collaborated with the likes of Papa Wemba, Peter Gabriel, Paco Sery, and Phoenix. With a career spanning decades, it has taken him everywhere playing Afrobeat, jazz, soul and a plethora of others, all the while contributing to over twenty albums. Jeff Mills is known the world over, performing in nearly all four corners of the globe. Cutting his teeth during a legendary precursory period of techno in Detroit, as The Wizard, he became an influential figure with the Underground Resistance. Mills soon took shape as a multifaced artist molded by his passion for space and science-fiction. He launched the legendary Axis label in 1992, and his reach started to broaden over the occurring decades. A mercurial talent, he has countless collaborations such as Emile Parisien, Mikhail Rudy, Mari Samuelsen, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Tony Allen, over a myriad of fields: cine-mixes, orchestral concerts, DVD projects and performances in prestige art institutions. Personnel: Jean-Phi Dary - keyboards/synthesizer; Jeff Mills - drum machine/synthesizer; Herve Samb - guitar (on "Super Solid"). Recorded at Studio Ferber, One Two Pass It, Midilive Studios, Paris.
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