|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LP
|
|
ZORN 072LP
|
Limited restock. Joshua Abrams' first Natural Information album from 2010. In his book Powershift, published in 1990, writer and businessman Alvin Toffler predicted that the century ahead would be defined by speed and that time itself is destined to become our most valuable commodity. When Joshua Abrams recorded Natural Information, originally released by Eremite in 2010, he was reacting against such commodification of time and the diminishing attention span that accompanies it by offering music with an irresistible groove, rooted in the sinuous rhythms of the human body and the full play of our senses. At the heart of this music is the sound of the guimbri, a North African three-stringed bass lute, which Abrams started to play following a visit to Morocco during the late '90s. Traditionally the instrument has a key role in mystical healing ceremonies. Abrams, already a well-established figure in Chicago's vibrant musical communities, had no desire to repackage tradition. He recognized however that the involving, springy and percussive sound of the guimbri was just the right voice to communicate vital data, to relay the natural information we all need in order to get back in touch with the pulsating continuities of a world we all share. With Natural Information, Abrams entered a new phase of his musical life, extending an invitation to the trance, where time intersects with timelessness. He carried with him a wealth of playing and listening experience. As a bass player he had worked with a host of notable musicians including guitarist Jeff Parker and percussionist Hamid Drake, and had been a member of back porch minimalism outfit Town And Country and the improvising trio Sticks And Stones. The guimbri is a shaping presence on this remarkable recording, but Abrams also plays bass, bells, kora, sampler and synthesizer. Sympathetic friends including guitarist Emmett Kelly, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, and drummers Frank Rosaly and Nori Tanaka join him for the project. They set out not to contrive some neat hybrid but to enable coordinated energies and enriching influences to pulse and flow through living, breathing music. Ten years further into a century seemingly dedicated, as Toffler foresaw, to the survival of the fastest, the deep involving groove of Natural Information seems still more relevant, more illuminating, more vital. Newly remastered at Dubplates & Mastering. 180 gram vinyl.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
ZORN 073LP
|
2021 repress. Joshua Abrams' second album from 2012. With the release of Natural Information in 2010, Joshua Abrams entered into a new phase of his creative life, making music with a deep involving groove that communicates the pulsating energies of the human body and the incessant kaleidoscopic interplay of sensory perceptions. Represencing, recorded in Chicago in the summer of 2011 and originally released the following year by Eremite, was the next stride along this exhilarating path. Once again Abrams gives a key role to the guimbri, a North African bass lute, which he had started to play during the late '90s following a trip to Morocco. Its sound when plucked is percussive, emphatic from moment to moment, yet also bouncy and rhythmically propulsive, as if naturally springing forward. A time-honored instrument, used traditionally in healing ceremonies, the guimbri in Abrams' hands offers an invitation to the trance, an expanded present where time intersects with timelessness. As the title Represencing suggests, this is uplifting music with a serious mission -- to express that ongoing present and to give voice to our presence, here and now, within time's continuous flow. Once again, a fine selection of sympathetic friends help Abrams to craft this antidote to the current century's compulsion to accelerate and its ever-diminishing attention span. They include saxophonist David Boykin, drummer Chad Taylor, and guitarists Jeff Parker and Emmett Kelly. Lisa Alvarado plays harmonium on two tracks. She also provides a painting for the cover art which matches the music beautifully, vivid and vibrant, its interlocking geometry binding fragmentary perceptions into a coherent pattern, self-sufficient yet also clearly part of a far larger picture. By 2012 this fascinating music was taking on a group identity, performed by Abrams with the Natural Information Society. That development was subsequently consolidated with the recording of Magnetoception, released in 2015. Represencing, however, conveys the excited air of an adventure unfolding. Reminiscent in passing of a variety of other musics -- of tightly poised jazz, motoric rock and minimalism plus echoes from other cultural traditions -- it remains nonetheless a singular statement by an artist rapidly finding his own distinctive voice. The music offered by Represencing is intricate yet direct, hypnotically repetitive yet constantly changing, built to last yet intimately present. Newly remastered at Dubplates & Mastering. 180 gram vinyl.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
FTR 337LP
|
Limited 2023 restock. "The Chicago-based string genius Joshua Abrams first talked to us about the idea of this album a while back. It took a couple of years to get together, but in a way, it's cool that it's being released in 2018 -- the 50th anniversary of the recording of the first free bass solo LP, Barre Phillips' Journal Violone. Issued by Opus One in the U.S., Music Man in the UK (as Unaccompanied Barre), and Futura in France (as Basse Barre), Phillips' groundbreaking album was a gorgeous and gritty exploration of textures that are usually bound deep inside the creative flow of unit improvisation. Hearing these sonorities explored, at length, without extraneous gabble was revelatory, but not easy to replicate. I could only think of a dozen other LPs of the stuff that have been done in the intervening years (CDs don't count)*. But Abrams is undaunted by such shit. Anyone who has seen him play or listened to him on record knows he has an aggressively wide palette and a fearless drive to explore new regions of sound. The tones on Excavations 1 have a much gnarlier feel than many of the tones Joshua explores inside group dynamics. Almost more like some of the bassists associated with avant garde composition (Bertram Turetzky, Fernando Grillo, etc.), Abrams' work here is about pushing against accepted precepts of melody and rhythm, freeing the bass from its accepted role, and allowing it to scream for real." --Byron Coley, 2018 Edition of 500.
* 1974, Alan Silva - Inner Song (Center of the World); 1974, Harry Miller - Children at Play (Ogun); 1975, Kent Carter - Beauvais Cathedral (Emanem); 1976, Henri Texier - Amir (Eurodisc); 1976 - Fernando Grillo - Fluvine (Cramps); 1977, Henry Texier - Varech (Eurodisc); 1978, Dave Holland - Emerald Tears (ECM); 1978, Brother Malachi Favors - Magoustos Natural & Spiritual (AECO); 1980, Roberto Miguel Miranda - The Creator's Musician (Nimbus West); 1985, Joëlle Léandre - Sincerely (Plainisphare); 1986, Miroslav Vitous - Emergence (ECM); 1988, Klaus Koch - Basse Partout (Creative Works).
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
MTE 061CD
|
Eremite presents the first CD edition of Joshua Abrams's acclaimed 2010 LP Natural Information, now out of print on vinyl. Abrams's first record for Eremite is another fascinating entry in his discography of recordings that gather aesthetic input from all over the map into vivid personal statements. At the heart of Natural Information is the guimbri, a three-stringed animal hide bass traditionally used by the Gnawa people of North Africa in healing ceremonies. Combining solo, trio, and quartet formats with adroit use of sampling techniques, Abrams creates intricate, psychedelic environments that join the hypnotic character of Gnawa guimbri music to more contemporary musics and methodologies. Natural Information garnered praise from Downbeat, The New York Times, and Wax Poetics, appeared on best-of-2010 lists from WFMU, Dusted, and Aquarius, and was selected as one of the 50 notable records of 2010 by The Wire. Played with Jason Adasiewicz, Lisa Alvarado, Jim Baker, Ben Boye, Emmett Kelly, Frank Rosaly, and Noritaka Tanaka. CD edition packaged in a Stoughton high-gloss miniaturized gatefold sleeve with 20 minutes of previously unreleased additional material.
|
|
|
|