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nuscope 1001 to 1010 The following were the first ten releases for nuscope recordings:
nuscope CD 1001 Passing Waves
Passing Waves, which was recorded in Chicago in 1997, is pianist Fred Van Hove’s first solo piano release made available to the general public in over 10 years. This disc displays the sweeping majesty and astounding pianistic invention and virtuosity of this underrated Belgian pianist. In his liner notes, long-time Van Hove fan Georg Graewe states, "...what sets him far apart from most pianists in improvised music is his fine, elegant touch and his overall ability to make the piano sound. His command of such maestro techniques as tremolo, glissando, and repetition has never failed to take my breath away." In his web page article, Glenn Astarita of All About Jazz states, "Fred Van Hove may stand as the preeminant exponent of modern piano improvisation on this planet. His skills are exemplary and his execution of ideas indicates revolutionary concepts. Passing Waves is a landmark recording." Bruce Carnevale—1998 Top 10—Jazziz Magazine This release features a 12-page booklet with notes by Van Hove and Graewe, photos by Dagmar Gebers, and cover sculpture art by the highly-esteemed Cy Twombly. Passing Waves is also available as a download on HDTracks. nuscope CD 1002 Subsymbolism
According to well-known jazz journalist Bill Shoemaker, "What is initially striking about Subsymbolism is its programmatic cohesiveness. Pieces ebb and flow effortlessly into each other; strands of color and texture weave through the program, creating new contrasts along the way. Subsymbolism is such a well-constructed album of improvised music." According to Richard Cook in The Wire, "This is particularly edgy improvising...notably fine." In Signal to Noise magazine, Jon Morgan says "This trio has created a vivid document that never ceases to surprise, as the unknown lingers just around the corner..." In Pulse!, Art Lange calls the disc "Provocative music from a new label down in Dallas." Provocative indeed. This release features a 16-page booklet with extensive liner notes from Bill Shoemaker, various photos, and cover ceramics art by the multi-talented Marcio Mattos. nuscope CD 1003 GUDIRA
This is a unique trio that came together to perform during the duMaurier International Jazz Festival Vancouver in 1997. This disc documents a studio recording of this trio, which features Barry Guy on bass, Robert Dick on flutes, and Vancouver resident Randy Raine-Reusch on world zither instruments, aerophones, and percussion. According to Francesco Martinelli’s liner notes, "The name of the trio, Gudira, created with the first letters of the musicians’ names, is mysterious and evocative enough for a music that situates itself in a space beyond traditions, defined only by the communicative powers of the participants." In Jazziz Magazine, Bruce Carnevale states, "Indeed, throughout the recording, the sound is rich in tiny nuances, all the little fleeting sounds that rest between Western scales. A tone feast for the ears." This release features a 16-page booklet with notes by Italian journalist Francesco Martinelli, various photos, and cover art by the underrated Mary Vernon. Gudira is also available as a download on HDTracks. nuscope CD 1004 Light's View
Light’s View is an illuminating release featuring saxophonist John Butcher and pianist Georg Graewe. This duo disc, recorded at the prestigious Akademie der Künste in Berlin in March of 1998, demonstrates music that effectively culminates years of a fine musical partnership. This disc is certain to amaze fans of both musicians and those interested in the art of the improvising duo. In his liner notes, Marc Chénard says, "...the listener is called upon to be taken in by shimmering moments of quick fire intensity, or to revel in the precision of spacious single tones sculpted with all of the precision of a Webernian Bagatelle." According to Steven A. Lowery in Cadence Magazine, "Together, Messers. Butcher and Graewe have produced a minor masterpiece: Miniatures on parade, a nod to possibilities, and Music of the Moment. Who Could Ask for Anything More?" This release features a 16-page booklet with extensive liner notes from noted Montreal journalist Marc Chénard, various photos, and cover installation art by the well-respected English artist Richard Wilson. nuscope CD 1005 Hornets Collage
All three musicians composed for this disc, and also collectively contributed to five well-structured improvisations. The material veers from lyrical to pointillist and everything in between. Even with this diversity, the musicians on this session developed such a rapport that their sound is as coherent as any long-established ensemble. According to Glenn Astarita of the All About Jazz web site, "Overall, Hornets Collage is lyrical, enduring, spacious yet subtly captivating as the trio pursue layered themes and sweet-tempered choruses while the music breathes life and conjures up vivid imagery proportionate to an impressionist painter of landscapes or dreams." This release features a 8-page booklet with notes by the well-respected journalist Jon Morgan. Hornets Collage will also be available in a remastered download only with new graphics in October of 2010 on HDTracks. nuscope CD 1006 Impressions of Monk
This disc exposes Monk’s music as it has never been heard before, as the trio explores new colors, forms, and ideas inside of the already brilliant compositions. Among the 13 tracks on the disc are 10 riveting and witty trio pieces, and 3 solo pieces featuring Georg Graewe. In the September issue of Downbeat, Impressions of Monk was placed in the magazine's "Hot Box," and came out a winner--receiving the highest rating of its three competitors, including a new CD by the great Sam Rivers. According to lead reviewer John Ephland, "Like Ellington, Monk's music has been done to death. Once in a blue moon, we get a fresh take that helps us revisit a lovely musical giant. In the meantime, we also get better acquainted with three great contemporaries hard at work." The trio’s all-improvised release, Subsymbolism (nuscope CD 1002), garnered international acclaim; this disc should do the same for an even wider audience. This release features a 8-page booklet with liner notes from noted Montreal journalist Marc Chénard. Impressions of Monk is also available as a download on HDTracks. nuscope CD 1007 Almost Never
All three musicians play exquisitely on this disc. According to Art Lange in the liner notes, "Each member of the trio emerges into the open in different situations; in this context these are not really ‘solos’ but constructive elements that define the characteristics of the surrounding space. Individually and together they piece together the outline of the music with an eye (and ear) for clarity of vision and measured proportion in design and detail. Even so, this music is deceptive, with a minimum of empty gesture and a seeming simplicity of shape that appears inevitable but is actually spontaneous and fluid." This disc is already receiving positive reviews. According to Glenn Astarita of the All About Jazz web site, "Almost Never is a paragon of understated themes and synergistic interplay as the musicians meld ethereal musings with microscopic motifs and flowing statements that seem to embark on an unaffected course." Sam Prestianni—Critics Picks 2001 (Top 10)—Jazziz Magazine This release features a 8-page booklet with notes by journalist/renaissance man Art Lange. nuscope CD 1008 Other Songs
Other Songs is Georg Graewe’s long-awaited recording debut with the underrated reedist Peter Van Bergen. This new disc also fulfills the German pianist’s ambition of recording with the legendary double-bassist Barre Phillips. As with the Gudira disc (CD 1003), this disc was recorded by Perry Barrett at Blue Wave Studios in Vancouver. And, like its predecessor, the session was recorded during the du Maurier International Jazz Festival. The music on this disc is dark, chilling, and sparse, but never foreboding. According to journalist Bill Shoemaker, "(There is a) fluent, fluid conversational quality that pervades this recording. Though the exchanges are as often laconic and punctuated by pungent silences as they are flinty and banter-filled, there is a sureness in each utterance that contributes to the overall mood of the program. This album has an inviting, relaxed mood, a bold stroke in improvised music." About this disc, Derek Taylor of the One Final Note web site says, "The artistry of all three is so consistently advanced that individual voicings become completely secondary to the patterns the three weave together. Sifting out moments that succeed above others is near impossible and ultimately futile as the music's immediacy and delicate intricacy are only destroyed by such attempts at dissection. Graewe, Phillips and Van Bergen sound so unified together it begs the question whether an equal level of instantaneous rapport could be achieved on a second meeting."This release features a 8-page booklet with liner notes from the fine journalist Bill Shoemaker and cover art by the great German artist Gerhard Richter. nuscope CD 1009 Disappeared
Disappeared is the first CD by the multi-national trio of Swedish pianist Sten Sandell, Chicago- based cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Chicago-based percussionist Michael Zerang. This music is a monument to how three musicians can listen to one another at a very high degree and create fresh and vital music entirely free of cliché. This disc was recorded at Airwave Recording Studios in Chicago in April of 1998 and was mixed and mastered at the same studios in September of 2000 with the fine John McCortney engineering. The three musicians gained a fantastic rapport with one another on this recording. According to writer John Corbett; "This particular aggregation is an indication of the strong connection between the current Chicago improvising scene and the vibrant Swedish creative music scene. Like Zerang, Sandell is a senior member of his scene; he was active in the mid '70s, helping create the conditions for what would turn into one of the great musical contexts of the end of the '90s. Lonberg-Holm and Zerang have been working together extensively for years, ever since the cellist moved to Chicago from New York in the mid '90s.Years of working together, sussing one another out, learning each other's tricks and learning how to surprise one another. This is a trio built on shared aesthetic concerns and masterful interactivity." In the Summer 2001 issue of Copper Press, Bill Meyer said, "Although its music encompasses vast spaces, the recording is hardly immaterial. Drums and cello scrape, spring, and carom like the sounds of sabotage in a ball-bearing factory, hurtling around and through the rumble of Sandell's Cage-like piano preparations. The Swede also indulges in throat singing that evokes visions of an intestinally themed opera staged on Tuvan steppes. It's hardly your pa's piano trio record." This release features an 8-page booklet with notes by Chicago-based writer/musician/producer John Corbett. nuscope CD 1010 Counterfactuals
Counterfactuals, as with the trio’s other six CDs, presents a new reality and standard of music. According to Markus Heuger, "Pianist Georg Graewe, cellist Ernst Reijseger, and drummer Gerry Hemingway celebrated the 10th anniversary of their trio in November 1999. They were invited to the Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where they made another exciting recording. Five years had passed when the trio traveled to perform the concert we find on this CD, but it sounds as if they had never left the stage. Graewe, Hemingway and Reijseger don’t have to prove themselves as some other super heroes of high energy ‘chopism;’ their business is intelligent radical improvised trio music." Counterfactuals has already gathered a lot of attention. The recording was a July 2001 "Crew's Choice of the Month" for Drimala Records, and was an "Editor's Pick of the Month" in August 2001 for the All About Jazz web site. According to Glenn Astarita from All About Jazz, "Counterfactuals signifies a gregarious event, marked by unorthodox harmonic structures, ferocious interplay, and a plethora of contrasting elements. Highly recommended." In his four-star review in the December 2001 issue of Downbeat magazine, Greg Buium says, "It is astonishing to think that pianist Georg Graewe, cellist Ernst Reijseger, and drummer Gerry Hemingway created Counterfactuals without notes or charts or cues. The six improvisations cohere and breathe. Structures are assembled (and understood) on the spot, by telepathy or some other internal device. Indeed, this 1999 recording, taken from a North American tour celebrating 10 years together, reaquaints us with a collective voice that delights in instant composition and sonic bravery." This release, which is the first live recording on the nuscope label, features an 8-page booklet with liner notes from WDR Radio chief Markus Heuger and strikingly original cover photography by Catherine Wagner. |
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Fred Van Hove
Graewe/Mattos/Vatcher
Guy / Dick / Raine-Reusch
John Butcher / Georg Graewe
Fields / Houle / Roebke
Graewe / Mattos / Vatcher
Goldberg / Schott / Dunn
Graewe / Phillips /
Van Bergen
Sandell / Lonberg-Holm / Zerang
Graewe / Reijseger / Hemingway