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4LP BOX/CASSETTE
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ROKURE 011LP
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$165.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 2/26/2021
OTOROKU present a reissue of Evan Parker's legendary box set Collected Solos. Originally issued in 1989 and long ago sold out, Collected Solos brings Evan Parker's first four solo LPs issued on Incus -- Saxophone Solos (1976), The Snake Decides (1986), Monoceros (1978), and Six of One (1982) -- together, alongside a cassette featuring extra cuts from the sessions at FMP studios which didn't make it onto Saxophone Solos, and an accompanying booklet written by the late writer, Paul Haines. Housed in a specially made and screen-printed box and numbered in an edition of 250, the collection celebrates Evan Parker's remarkable commitment to a creative life and work.
"Years on we are still interested, fascinated and compelled to listen to this physical, spectacular and wholly original music at the heart of Evan's remarkable creative living. It is an inspiring example, study and celebration of commitment to creating (in) life." --Seymour Wright
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LP
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ROKURE 010LP
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$25.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 2/26/2021
OTOROKU reissue Evan Parker's first solo LP Saxophone Solos. Recorded by Martin Davidson in 1975 at the Unity Theatre in London, at that time the preferred concert venue of the Musicians' Co-operative, Parker's densely woven and often cyclical style has yet to form; instead throaty murmurs appear under rough-hewn whistles and calls -- the wildly energetic beginnings of an extraordinary career. Reissued with liner notes from Seymour Wright in an edition of 500.
"The four pieces across the two sides of Saxophone Solos -- 'Aerobatics 1' to '4' -- are testing, pressured, bronchial spectaculars of innovation and invention and determination. Evan tells four stories of exploration and imagination without much obvious precedent. Abstract Beckettian cliff-hanging detection/logic/magic/mystery. The conic vessel of the soprano saxophone here recorded contains the ur-protagonists: seeds, characters, settings, forces, conflicts, motions, for new ideas, to delve, to tap and to draw from it story after story as he has on solo record after record for 45 years. 'Aerobatics 1-3' were recorded on June 17th 1975, by Martin Davidson at Parker's first solo performance. This took place at London's Unity Theatre in Camden. 'Aerobatics 4' was recorded on September 9th the same year, by Jost Gebers in the then FMP studio in Charlottenburg, Berlin. Music of balance and gravity, fulcra, effort, poise, and enquiry. Sounds thrown and shaken into and out of air, metal and wood. It is -- as the titles suggest -- spectacular." --Seymour Wright, 2020
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LP
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ROKURE 009LP
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$25.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 2/26/2021
Originally recorded and released in 1980, Six of One beautifully captures the detail in Evan Parker's high frequency split tones for which he is now perhaps better known. Five years on from Saxophone Solos and with circular breathing and polyphonics well-worn into his live performances, Parker's experiments here produce sustained passages of brilliant flight. Set into the echoes and resonances of a St Judes On The Hill church, the results are stunning. Transferred from the original master tapes by Thomas Hall at Abbey Road Studios and released in an edition of 500.
"The recital commences with a split tone line of twining sine waves that expand and contract in telepathic collusion. Pitch dynamics narrow and redefine themselves more emphatically on the second piece where sliding legato rivulets born of Parker's compartmentalized tonguing create the sonic semblance of up to three separate voices emanating from the single reed speech center. It's a feat he's accomplished innumerable times since, but every fresh hearing never fails to open an aperture into a style of improvisatory expression that is at once wholly alien and intensely mesmerizing. There's also something strangely subterranean about the flood of sounds, like the rush percolating water through an underground aquifer system enroute to unknown tributaries. The third piece trades tightly braided tones for leaner and more linear phrases, but a vaporous trail of phantom notes still clings to the central line. And so it goes, with the illusion of repetition guiding the momentum, though Parker never explicitly repeats himself." --Derek Taylor, All About Jazz, 2002
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ROKU 024LP
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Pat Thomas is one of the most extraordinary pianists of our time. In a first-time duo with saxophonist Matana Roberts, the lyricism of his distinctly dexterous and curious approach to the piano paints pathways for Robert's poignantly vocal saxophone. Together the two speak; locked grooves and neat switchbacks on the keys form dialogue with long deliberate lines on the alto, punctuated by Roberts' ecstatic vocalizations. The trio of improvised pieces which make up the record's first side are rich phrases, pitched at each end of the piano and stretched and pulled by Pat. His simple, repetitive cycles yield space and color for Robert's song, then let sounds build to a flourish; an armed run on the keys and some wonderfully soft landings. The second side, a whole part in itself, goes deeper -- hammered armfuls of piano and torn top breath blasting from Roberts fall in a flutter of delicate keystrokes. Call and response halves collide in a wonderful thunder before finding the edge of another line to hang onto. There is a remarkable sense of purpose, precision and restraint at play, as well as a peaceful milieu, which no doubt stems from the two players' fierce individual intelligence, creativity and curiosity. Personnel: Pat Thomas - piano; Matana Roberts - alto saxophone. Housed in a screen printed kraftboard sleeve. Photographs by Dawid Laskowski and Fabio Luguro; Design and layout by Maja Larrson. Recorded by James Dunn live at Cafe OTO on December 8th, 2018. Mixed by James Dunn. Mastered by Giuessepe Ielesi. 180 gram vinyl.
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CD
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ROKU 023CD
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Two totally infectious sets from Decoy -- the trio of John Edwards, Steve Noble, and Alexander Hawkins -- reunited with pocket trumpet and saxophone player Joe McPhee on the closing night of his four day residency at Cafe OTO. In the eight years between the recordings which make up AC/DC and their last release Spontaneous Combustion (ROKU 002CD, 2014), Decoy and each of its members have been practicing individually at the very top of their form. Coming together again in such celebratory circumstances and in the good company of a fantastic crowd set the scene for a very special night. As they begin, Alexander Hawkins casts a needling surface between his Hammond organ and John Edwards's loose splatters and slaps of low-end bass. McPhee skitters over them with his pocket trumpet by way of introduction; Steve Noble strikes his rims in anticipation. The first set sees moments of frenetic free jazz peel off into weirdo soul territory and when switched to saxophone halfway through, McPhee's romantic lyricism is utterly beautiful. When a groove sets in, Hawkins's B3 ascension in harmony with an ever-powerful Edwards-Noble rhythm section sees the room thicken and swirl to the point of giddiness. There is one unreal part at 22:22 where we're sure you can hear Edwards's bass vocalizing. Regrouped for a second set, Steve Noble's metallic textures meld with detuned arco bass to create an unholy atmosphere, ripe for Hawkins to play out the eerier end of the Hammond. When McPhee sounds a sax motif the band catches it quickly and it's soon wickedly morphed and stretched by each player, recurring to absurdity in a stoned-out funk free for all. The whole recording bleeds enthusiasm and joyful imagination and is a brilliant document of an unforgettable evening. Decoy are a limitless band who play nowhere near enough.
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2LP
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ROKU 022LP
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أحمد [Ahmed] -- the quartet of Pat Thomas, Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip, and Seymour Wright -- make music of heavy rhythm, repetition, and syncopation set deep into an understanding of jazz and the obscure depths of its history. Across the two LPs which make up Super Majnoon [East Meets West] the group work and rework the music of the late musician Ahmed Abdul-Malik to create a stamping, swinging, relentlessly propulsive record where profundity and physicality root right back to ecstatic feeling. Abdul-Malik was a NYC bassist, oudist, composer, educator, and philosopher who fused aspects of American, Arabic, and East African thought, ethics, meanings, and beliefs in open and experimental ways to make vital, forward leaning jazz. [Ahmed] reimagine the notes of Malik as they push for the trajectory of free jazz to emerge from the clichés and cloy neo-classicisms of current "improvised music". Melodies respirate, swell, escalate, and combust in a driving jazz which yes is technical, yes is accomplished, but ultimately just foot-to-the-floor swings. Super Majnoon [East Meets West] is a title fused from the leader of the Master Musicians of Jajouka Bechir Attar's description of [Ahmed] after hearing them in Switzerland last year (Majnoon is the Arabic slang for "crazy"), and Abdul-Malik's 1959 album East Meets West. Arriving as a double-LP, the first comprises studio recordings of [Ahmed] at Hong Kong's Empty Gallery in 2018 and the second a scorched live recording at OTO from August 2018. The record features photos by Bert Glinn and Taku Unami and "in and out" liner notes by James G. Spady -- historian and journalist from Philadelphia. "When a musician plays, he should paint a picture," said Malik, "he should portray wind, movement, war, the universe -- and after he finishes, he should be able to repeat in words what he has just said in music. The Man I Love -- things have all been said before -- over and over again. The reason people don't come to concerts is that they're used to the sounds." To guard against this "stagnation", said Malik, jazz must branch out, experiment, fight the inbreeding that is now its wont. Musicians must stop looking inward, and instead, open their eyes to the imaginations of other cultures. Malik interviewed by Bob Gannon in Metronome 1958. [Ahmed] is: Pat Thomas - piano; Antonin Gerbal - drums; Joel Grip - bass; Seymour Wright - alto saxophone. Presented in a stunning gatefold sleeve.
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LP
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ROKURE 004LP
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2021 repress. Otoroku present the first vinyl reissue of Louis Moholo Octet's Spirits Rejoice!, originally released in 1978 on Ogun Recordings. One of the most legendary free jazz records ever produced, Spirits Rejoice! is a high achievement in the movement of the era as it soars beyond oppression with a raucous and spiritually uplifting surge of movement and melody. Featuring Harry Miller, Johnny Dyani, Keith Tippett, Evan Parker, Nick Evans, Radu Malfatti, and Kenny Wheeler, this is former Blue Note artist Louis Moholo's first album under his own name and is a classic example of the cross-pollination between South African and British players. Mongezi Feza's 'You Ain't Gonna Know Me 'Cos You Think You Know Me" alone is enough to make your life a better place. Made with permission and in association with Ogun Recordings. Features an exact reproduction of the original artwork and liner notes, along with new liner notes from Matthew Wright. Remastered by Giuseppe IIelasi. High gloss sleeve.
From Matthew Wright's new liner notes: "The South African melodies, now so familiar, were wholeheartedly taken on board by the individual musicians, their unity of purpose mirroring the belief in the strength of the collective. Stunning solos, often close to the edge, feature throughout -- Evan Parker and Keith Tippett on 'Shine Wherever You Are'; the contrasting trombone styles of Nick Evans and Radu Malfatti on 'You Ain't Gonna Know Me...'; the octet sounding like a full big band; and behind them, the relentlessly rhythmic urgency of the piano, bass and drums. Add to this Kenny Wheeler's moving and all-encompassing trumpet on the elegiac 'Amaxesha Osizi' and the joyous flamboyancy of 'Wedding Hymn' with Parker's relatively straight-ahead tenor and Tippett's dextrous piano solo over a bed of riffing horns, (fast) walking bass lines and a supreme sense of swing. Louis' early hero, Big Sid Catlett, would have loved it!"
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2CD
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ROKU 020CD
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Charles Gayle is a saxophonist, pianist, sometimes a clown and radical musical performer wrapped into the body of a humble person living in Downtown Manhattan since the 1960s. As this set attests to, it is sometimes hard to predict what he will do on stage... In all his musical (and personal) life Charles Gayle has remained outside of any form of mainstream, carving his own singular path. There is no player on the scene today with the emotional wallop of Charles Gayle. John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann, Mulatu Astatke, and many others. Ubiquitous, diverse and constantly creative, drummer Mark Sanders has worked with a host of renowned musicians including Derek Bailey, Henry Grimes, Mathew Shipp, Roswell Rudd, in duo and quartets with Wadada Leo Smith and trios with Sirone and William Parker. Here OTOroku present a double-CD set documenting the two very special sets delivered on November 15th, 2017 at Cafe Oto, Dalston, London. In classic ecstatic fashion one would expect from these three stalwarts of blazing transcendence, these two sets swerve from the sublime to the this is an exquisite document of one of the most exciting trios operating today. Mini gatefold sleeve; edition of 500.
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LP
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ROKURE 003LP
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2021 repress forthcoming in Feb.... Otoroku presents a reissue of Evan Parker's The Snake Decides, originally released in 1986. One of the final Incus releases and one that was written up in The Penguin Guide to Jazz as an essential document of modern music, Otoroku releases it as a first ever vinyl re-issue. Featuring four solos recorded in 1986 in St. Paul's Church, Oxford by the late Michael Gerzon, The Snake Decides is a groundbreaking example how far the language of a particular instrument can be taken. From Brian Morton's new liner notes: "The Snake Decides attracts a certain array of adjectives: intense, radical, fearsome, hypnotic, virtuosic, and occasionally allows a more ambitious reviewer to avoid platitude by talking more specifically about 32nd harmonics, circular breathing, multiphonics and Gerson's exact choice and placement of microphones. But this misses a point, too. Listening to this record, either for the first or the fortieth time, is an arousing experience." Remastered by Giuseppe Ielasi and housed in a reverse board sleeve, this is the ultimate document of one of the most important recordings in all Parker's extensive and exploratory catalog. Edition of 500.
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LP
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ROKURE 002LP
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Following on from the re-issue of Topography of the Lungs, Otoroku is proud to follow up with another legendary free-improvised document, this one from the duo of Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, originally released on the INCUS label in 1975. "The London Concert is one of those rare recordings that capture musicians at a special moment of confluence, a moment when procedures are proving fruitful and before practice has hardened into dogma, when different visions are not yet turned into position papers (insert your list here). There are clearly moments in the London Concert when things that have not precisely happened before emerge from one partner, are caught and supported by the other in a way that, too, is still new 40 some years on, and which prods the initiator to hold and develop a particular line with the clear support of the other." -- Stuart Broomer. The London Concert comes in a limited edition of 500 copies printed on reverse board with printed inner sleeve and newly commissioned liner notes by Stuart Broomer.
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LP
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ROKU 013LP
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LP version. Japanese bluesman Kan Mikami is nothing less than an unalloyed force of nature; a skin-shredding blast of frozen wind from the poor, rural north of Japan that he calls home. In the late 1960s, like thousands of other Japanese young people Mikami made his way to Tokyo in search of a life different from that of his parents. Since then he has forcefully carved out a space for himself in the culture as a modernist poet, a raging folk singer, an author, an actor, an engaging TV personality, and one of Japan's most uniquely powerful performers. For most of Mikami's career as a singer, he has performed solo; just him and his electric guitar against the world, creating jagged A-minor vamps to drive along the surreal wisdom of his lyrics. But he's equally at home in more demanding improvisational contexts such as those provided here by John Edwards on bass and Alex Nielson on drums. Their dense propulsive textures seem to spur on Mikami, his voice arcing powerfully into fragmented spaces, his guitar darting, colliding, shedding jagged and angular splinters of sound. A pulsing, raging maelstrom of serrated-edged energy. Gruff, rough, honest and very, very real.
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CD
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ROKU 013CD
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Japanese bluesman Kan Mikami is nothing less than an unalloyed force of nature; a skin-shredding blast of frozen wind from the poor, rural north of Japan that he calls home. In the late 1960s, like thousands of other Japanese young people Mikami made his way to Tokyo in search of a life different from that of his parents. Since then he has forcefully carved out a space for himself in the culture as a modernist poet, a raging folk singer, an author, an actor, an engaging TV personality, and one of Japan's most uniquely powerful performers. For most of Mikami's career as a singer, he has performed solo; just him and his electric guitar against the world, creating jagged A-minor vamps to drive along the surreal wisdom of his lyrics. But he's equally at home in more demanding improvisational contexts such as those provided here by John Edwards on bass and Alex Nielson on drums. Their dense propulsive textures seem to spur on Mikami, his voice arcing powerfully into fragmented spaces, his guitar darting, colliding, shedding jagged and angular splinters of sound. A pulsing, raging maelstrom of serrated-edged energy. Gruff, rough, honest and very, very real.
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ROKU 018CD
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Keiji Haino, one of the foremost exponents of the Japanese avant-garde, always provides a masterclass in constantly shifting improvisation. John Butcher is a saxophonist of rare grace and power, who has expanded the vocabulary of the saxophone far beyond the conventions of jazz and other musics, to encompass a staggering range of multi-phonics, overtones, percussive sounds, and electronic feedback. Haino and Butcher met when Butcher opened for Fushitsusha at the show Cafe Oto arranged at St. John, Hackney -- five years ago. In 2016, they were invited to play two duo concerts -- at The Empty Gallery in Hong Kong and at Cafe Oto in London. Otoroku present the audio documentation of their first UK meeting. Recorded live at Cafe Oto in July 2016, the results are an uncompromising milieu of swirling sound played out as a total union of these two legendary performers. Haino's blues drenched guitar entices skittering notes from Butcher's sax playing as numerous sonic clues unravel over the course of this unique and compelling journey. Personnel: Keiji Haino - vocal, guitars, etc.; John Butcher - saxophones and feedback.
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LP
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ROKU 019LP
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Recorded live at OTO in May 2015, The Elephant Clock Of Al Jazari comprises four typically genre-defying and sonically dexterous pieces from one of the UK's best pianists. Pat Thomas began playing piano at the age of eight. He studied classical music and reggae was an early interest. Thomas was inspired to take up jazz after seeing legendary pianist Oscar Peterson on television. By 1979, Thomas was performing seriously as an improviser. In 1980, he became a member of Oxford-based group Ghosts with Pete McPhail and Matt Lewis. He has worked with Mike Cooper, Jimmy Carl Black, Thurston Moore, Mats Gustafsson, Evan Parker, Alan Silva, John Zorn, and more. Pat Thomas received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers in 2014. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Edition of 500.
In Thomas's own words: "The title for this album, was inspired by the incredible automatic water clock invented by Badi' al-Zaman ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari. Al Jazari refers to the fact he was born in Al Jazira which lies between the Tigris and the Euphrates in what is now Northern Iraq. Badi al Zaman means prodigy of the age. He is known by historians of technology as the father of modern robotics. The Elephant Clock at seven meters high is a testament to his engineering genius, it utilizes Greek water raising technology, combined with an Indian elephant, Egyptian phoenix, Arabian figures, Persian carpet and Chinese Dragons celebrating the diversity of cultures in the world. This and other marvels of engineering can be found in his Book of the Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices translated by Donald Hill (Pakistan Hijra Council). Over 50 devices are mentioned. Amongst them the first analog computer, his remarkable Castle Clock, however, the debt the world owes this Muslim genius is found in his remarkable water raising devices, particularly water raising device number '4' where for the first time a crank connecting rod system is used. The crank is considered to be the most important single mechanical device after the wheel, by 1206 this is found fully developed in Jazari`s machines predating Francesco di Giorgio Martini by three centuries. 'For Al Haytham' is dedicated to the great polymath genius who wrote the great book on vision, the first person to give us a true understanding of how we see. 'Lubb' is an Arabic word meaning innermost consciousness whilst to conclude proceedings 'Done' is loosely based on a well-known standard."
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CD
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ROKU 001CD
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Originally released on vinyl in 2012. Café OTO is a concert venue operating in Dalston, East London, specializing in various strains of avant-music: free-jazz, song, electronics, etc. OTO have been professionally recording various shows on and off since the venue opened in 2008. The Worse the Better is a recording of the stunning first set performed by the trio of Peter Brötzmann, Steve Noble and John Edwards at Café OTO in January 2010 during Brötzmann's first residency at the venue. It was also the first time this trio had played together. The concert was recorded at Café OTO by Shane Browne and mastered by Andrea "Lupo" Lubich at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
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ROKU 001LP
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2016 repress. Originally released on vinyl in 2012. Cafe OTO is a concert venue operating in Dalston, East London, specializing in various strains of avant-music: free-jazz, song, electronics, etc. OTO have been professionally recording various shows on and off since the venue opened in 2008. The Worse the Better is a recording of the stunning first set performed by the trio of Peter Brötzmann, Steve Noble and John Edwards at Cafe OTO in January 2010 during Brötzmann's first residency at the venue. It was also the first time this trio had played together. The concert was recorded at Cafe OTO by Shane Browne and mastered by Andrea "Lupo" Lubich at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
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ROKU 016CD
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Sold out, awaiting 2017 repress? Song Sentimentale, featuring unique material on each format, was recorded on January 27-29, 2015, at Cafe OTO. Outside of the 2CD release Never Too Late But Always Too Early (2003) there has been scant documentation of one of the most dynamic pairings in all free jazz. Song Sentimentale rectifies this anomaly with a full-blown audio account of the breathtaking communicative heights obtained by these three legends of the living. Over three nights in January 2015, the trio seduced a winter-worn crowd with the kind of organic interplay only these three can conjure. Warm and urgent, the material unveils a wide range of techniques and emotions. This is music on the edge of itself; a living, breathing and existing force documented for repeated visits. Peter Brötzmann - tenor saxophone, B flat clarinet, tarogato; William Parker - double bass, guembri, shakuhachi, shenai; Hamid Drake - drums, frame drum, voice. Recorded Live at Cafe OTO on the 27th, 28th and 29th of January 2015.
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ROKU 016LP
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LP version. Song Sentimentale, featuring unique material on each format, was recorded on January 27-29, 2015, at Cafe OTO. Outside of the 2CD release Never Too Late But Always Too Early (2003) there has been scant documentation of one of the most dynamic pairings in all free jazz. Song Sentimentale rectifies this anomaly with a full-blown audio account of the breathtaking communicative heights obtained by these three legends of the living. Over three nights in January 2015, the trio seduced a winter-worn crowd with the kind of organic interplay only these three can conjure. Warm and urgent, the material unveils a wide range of techniques and emotions. This is music on the edge of itself; a living, breathing and existing force documented for repeated visits. Peter Brötzmann - tenor saxophone, B flat clarinet, tarogato; William Parker - double bass, guembri, shakuhachi, shenai; Hamid Drake - drums, frame drum, voice. Recorded Live at Cafe OTO on the 27th, 28th and 29th of January 2015.
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ROKU 014LP
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Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Nargilә Mehtiyeva aka Aşıq Nargilә has been playing saz (long-necked lute) and singing since the age of 15. Fluent in Azerbaijani, Georgian, and Russian, Nargilә represents the cosmopolitan heritage of old Tbilisi, a city once known as a meeting point for multilingual aşıq bards who would travel through the region serving as conduits for news, ideas, music, and culture. Nargilә is currently the only female aşıq living and performing in the ethnic Azeri region of Georgia, and has been teaching the art to new generations. This is a recording of Aşıq Nargilә's first concert in the UK, recorded live at Cafe OTO on October 18, 2014, by James Dunn. The pieces performed are named after the traditional saz aşıq havası (melodies) on which they are based. Lyrics are taken from destan epics, regional poetry, and Nargilә's own lyrics to match the rhyming patterns of these melodies. "Yanıq Kerem" and "Ruhani" are both instrumental pieces that depict their own stories without words. "Ay Ceyranım" is a popular song performed at weddings across Azerbaijan. Aşıq Nargilә Mehtiyeva: saz (long-necked lute) and söz (vocals).
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ROKU 017LP
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The full recording of the first meeting between Bill Orcutt (USA) and Okkyung Lee (South Korea). Individually these players have focused on an idiosyncratic approach to their chosen instruments and technique. Okkyung is one of the most singular voices to compromise the cello's classical origin, while Orcutt has spent many years developing a unique abstraction of traditional guitar blues. Live at Cafe OTO is an uncompromising combination of these individual elements and an ecstatic improvised assault of mind and sense. Okkyung Lee: cello. Bill Orcutt: guitar.180-gram LP in matte sleeve with artwork by Bill Orcutt. Limited edition of 500.
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ROKU 015LP
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Born in 1964, Yukihiro Isso is a Japanese Noh flutist (hayashikata fuekata) from a family that has been playing this instrument since the 16th century. He received his initial instruction in flute playing from his father, Yukimasa Isso, and performed on the Noh stage for the first time at the age of nine. Beginning in his middle school years, he began listening to a variety of different kinds of music and studying new instruments including the recorder and piano. An acclaimed performer of classical Noh repertoire, Isso is also an accomplished improviser and has performed with the likes of Cecil Taylor, Peter Brötzmann, and John Zorn. Born in 1946, Roger Turner grew up among the Canterbury musical life of the 1960s with a strong jazz foundation. Since 1974 his work has been concentrated on exploring a more personal percussion language through the processes of improvisation. Solo work; collaborations with experimental rock musics and open-form song; extensive work with dance, film, and visual art; involvements in numerous jazz-based ensembles; and workshop residencies have formed part of that development. Takanehishigu is the audio documentation of the first time these artists played together. The results are a breathtaking new music that remains respectful to the individual traditions while simultaneously subverting them. Yukihiro Isso: Nohkan (Noh flute), shinobue, dengakubue, gemshorn, and recorder. Roger Turner: percussion. Recorded live at Cafe OTO on September 23, 2016, by Shaun Crook, mixed by John Chantler, and mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Artwork by Paul Abbott. Edition of 500.
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LP
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ROKU 012LP
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The Hurrah is the second recorded outing from the universe-shifting free jazz trio of Evan Parker, John Edwards, and Chris Corsano. This trio has been playing together since 2006, sometimes expanding into quartets with the likes of Noah Howard, John Russell, Joe McPhee, John Coxon, and Paul Dunmall. The material on this LP was recorded by James Dunn at Cafe OTO in London on August 22, 2014, during Corsano's four-night residency. All material recorded live; no editing or post-production. As raw and liberating as it was on the evening. Evan Parker: tenor saxophone; John Edwards: double bass; Chris Corsano: drums. All compositions by Evan Parker/John Edwards/Chris Corsano. Artwork by Dennis Tyfus. Mixed by Rupert Clervaux at Grays Inn Road, London. Mastered by Andreas "Lupo" Lubich at Calyx, Berlin.
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2CD
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ROKU 002CD
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Otoroku presents a new 2CD version of Spontaneous Combustion, here with an extra 78 minutes of music added to the original LP material. The original LP was listed in The Wire magazine's top jazz & improv releases of 2013. Recorded in October 2011, Spontaneous Combustion splits the second set of the first night of Decoy's two day residency with special guest Joe McPhee. Performed by: Alexander Hawkins (Hammond B3); John Edwards (double bass); Steve Noble (drums); Joe McPhee (pocket trumpet, alto sax).
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LP
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ROKU 011LP
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III (pronounced /el/) is Daichi Yoshikawa, Paul Abbott and Seymour Wright. This recording includes two bare 20-minute excerpts from separate performances at Café OTO. Daichi Yoshikawa (feedback); Paul Abbott (drums); Seymour Wright (alto saxophone). gjerhan began from subterranea, sweat, haze and dedication emerging out of intimate and intense weekly meetings begun in 2009 -- their first, 2012 public performance, squeezed into a London basement was a sheer, vexed and exhilarating smack of organic, heterodyning ideas, and taut, low-beating lumps. Reemerge/revanish: With the economy of familiar/traditional raw tools feedback, drum-kit, alto saxophone, time, space and emotion, III move from molten musical pasts to grow future pleasures in sound. The ingredients are familiar, but the listening is not: At its heart is a still, undecorated concentration fuelling an extreme testing of limbs, language and order. This has no concern with collapsing difference into a vogueish, flattened mass-froth, but searches -- forensically, ceaselessly -- for something to chew, in the challenge of discretion and integrity or asylum in the body of its instruments. Akilsakilan learning, Doughnut: Finding, twisting and hammering out an expanding musical universe balanced only by its own logic -- III have few obvious comparisons. Their performances are consistent radical negotiations of the emotional, physical and social energies of the environments they sound out. Perfectly reasonable.
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CD
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ROKU 010CD
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Cafe OTO's tenth Otoroku release sees a return to the group that kick-started the label -- the veteran German reedsman and free-jazz pioneer Peter Brötzmann with the long-running London bass/drums partnership of John Edwards and Steve Noble. After the release of The Worse The Better, that group went on to play a series of devastating shows in Europe and to emerge as one of Brötzmann's finest working groups. Over the same period, Peter was developing a deep rapport with Jason Adasiewicz, the upstart vibraphone player from Chicago. What seems on paper like an awkward pairing reveals itself onstage and on record as a symbiotic revelation. Adasiewicz's physical attack matching Brötzmann for impact while the extended sustain of the vibes opens up an eerie space for some of Brötzmann's most fertile lyricism. The recording is from the last set of a two-day residency at Cafe OTO that brought these two groups together for an astonishing quartet. Adasiewicz and Noble struck up an immense partnership in rhythm. Edwards wrestled with a broken house bass and failing amplifier and still managed new levels of invention -- stoking the others onwards. Brötzmann was clearly energized, dancing at the side of the stage while exchanging a shattered reed. And for all the usual rhetoric of free jazz bluster and machismo, this is a meeting characterized by the joy of communal creation that makes you want to dance -- even if only in your head. Peter Brötzmann (alto and tenor sax, Bflat clarinet, Taragato); Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone), John Edwards (double bass); Steve Noble (drums).
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