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MB 019CD
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A product of the fertile and prolific free-improvisation scene in New York City. With venues not always eager to host free improv, various musicians on the scene have taken inspiration from the 1970s loft scene, on a smaller scale, by putting on regular house concerts. The most famous of the current series is Andrew Drury's Soup and Sound; Aron Namenwirth's series Aron's Place is not far behind. (Both deep in the heart of Brooklyn, which is more freewheeling than Manhattan at this point.) NYC free-jazz eminence grise Dave Sewelson (Microscopic Septet, Sedition Ensemble, various William Parker groups) and ESP-Disk' manager Steve Holtje (Caterpillar Quartet, This Humidity) put together this quartet, with Dave bringing in Stephen Moses (Alice Donut, Voltaire) and Holtje calling on frequent bandmate Jochem van Dijk.
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MECHA 015CD
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Enrico Rossini Cullen's poetic indie film A Man Full of Days (2014) is inspired by the Book of Job (minus the dogma) and the Leatherman, a famous 19th century vagrant. Full of hallucinatory beauty, nightmarish terror, eccentric creativity, and a surreal sense of the supernatural, and sprinkled with groundling humor, it is structured around unpredictable disjunctures and juxtapositions, and demanded a soundtrack that could reflect those many facets while tying them together. Brooklyn composer Steve Holtje's score mixes moody darktronica, classical majesty, and bittersweet, intimate piano pieces, even as his arrangements and production blur the lines between those styles. Brooklyn laptop artist Black Crystal Fuck Wolf also contributes two tracks. Though mostly known for his often abrasive style of drone-noise electronica, artisanally constructed through extreme manipulations of original sonic material warped beyond recognition, he also has an interest in asymmetrical rhythms looped repetitively to mimic beats, despite lacking standard metrical qualities. Bruce McKenzie aka Peckinpah's lyrical "Saudade No. 14" is a favorite of director Enrico Rossini Cullen. The climactic scene of the film is an homage to the great 1930 Soviet film Zemlya (Earth), and uses Levko Revutsky and Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov's score from the scene it is based on. Steve Holtje: piano, organ, electronics. Women of the New Amsterdam Singers Chamber Chorus: vocals on "Job 34:15-16." Black Crystal Fuck Wolf: sample manipulation and asymmetrical beats on "Man Dance 1" and "Mercury BBQ Pit." Bruce McKenzie: piano and electronics on "Saudade No. 14."
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