nuscope  CD 1021  Starmelodics

       Kaufmann / Dresser / Eisenstadt

Starmelodics features pianist Achim Kaufmann with the great bassist Mark Dresser and drummer/percussionist Harris Eisenstadt. This disc, which was recorded in Brooklyn, features challenging compositions by each musician and three well-realized improvisations. According to Bill Shoemaker’s liner notes, “The album’s six compositions and three improvisations circumscribe terrain Kaufmann, Dresser and Eisenstadt have respectively traversed many times, albeit taking different routes with various musicians.”

According to Bruce Gallanter from the Downtown Music Gallery, "A most impressive piano trio that doesn't quite sound like a piano trio. What I find most interesting about this disc is that although I can hear what is most distinctive about each individual player, it is the unique group that is most surprising or unexpected. The full dynamic range is almost too much for my computer's speakers, so I must listen to this on a more expansive stereo. The title track is skeletal and stark, yet it still evokes something much bigger than it appears. There are three shorter pieces that are wholly improvised; they sound improvised, yet still have an air of mystery as to where they will land. I love the way Harris' 'Vancouver' shifts through a variety of tempos, swinging joyously one moment and then turning in another direction soon thereafter. Achim's 'Birdz' consists of some extremely minimal, eerie sounds, like small sounds from the inside of the piano, minimal hand percussion and rubbed bass strings, the sound is almost invisible but still felt. Perhaps it should be called 'Insectz'? On Marc's 'Flac', Dresser repeats this melodic figure throughout, while the rest of the trio moves around him without landing on the figure completely, adding a bit of dislocation, yet still retaining a sense of calm. On Achim's 'Qualtinger', it sounds as if the trio is moving in separate waves, coming together, submerging and emerging within a form. Harris' 'Seattle' is a solemn ballad that is touching and lyrical in a most haunting way. Sometimes patience is required to see or hear what lies beneath the surface of expectation."

This recording, which was recorded, mixed, and mastered in the 24 bit domain, features an 8-page booklet with liner notes from journalist Bill Shoemaker, and intriguing cover art from Fort Worth-based artist Sevan Melikyan.

Starmelodics is also available as a download on HDTracks.

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nuscope  CD 1022  Talus

       Alberto Braida

Talus (CD 1022), the new disc by pianist Alberto Braida, was released on Tuesday, April 21.

This disc, which was recorded on November 28, 2008, features Braida on a beautiful Fazioli concert grand at Artesuono Studios in Udine, Italy with noted engineer Stefano Amerio. According to Francesco Martinelli’s liner notes, “This music is a new combination where strains of jazz, 20th Century music, and the past 40 years of European improvised pianism are the ingredients of an organically balanced musical architecture which is exquisitely pianistic without resorting to any pre-set approaches.”

According to Christian Carey from the Sequenza 21 website, "The free improv milieu currently has a crowded field of talented practitioners; particularly pianists – Georg Graewe, Steven Lantner, Matthew Shipp, Craig Taborn, and Fred Van Hove all immediately leap to mind. But Alberto Braida’s latest CD, Talus, reminds one that there’s certainly room for one more. This is especially true when one considers the distinguished playing and creative spontaneous composing displayed here. 'Sand in my Shoes' is a descriptive title, and it captures well the piece’s slithery chromaticism, frequent stabbing pokes inside the piano, and even dampened notes that ‘bend’ as they sustain (the latter is quite a nifty trick!). But lest one think that there’s no connection to more traditional improvising, Braida supplies bluesy licks. Also, amid the stacked verticals, there linger post-bop progressions, hanging tough amid the dissonance. 'Riding with Ghosts and Stones' goes still further, channeling the bumptious touch and spiky attacks of Thelonious Monk to season an otherwise sultry bebop ballad. On Talus, Braida makes his mark: pointedly."

This recording, which was recorded, mixed, and mastered in the 24 bit domain, features an 8-page booklet with liner notes from Pisa, Italy-based journalist Francesco Martinelli, and intriguing cover art from Norwegian artist Terry Nilssen-Love.

Talus is also available as a download and audiophile (88/24 FLAC) download on HDTracks.

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nuscope  CD 1023  Under the Roof

       John Butcher/Claudia Ulla Binder

Under the Roof (CD 1023), the new disc by saxophonist John Butcher and pianist Claudia Ulla Binder, has been officially released.

This disc, which was recorded on August 21 and 22 2008, features Butcher on tenor and soprano saxophones and Binder on a fine Hamburg Steinway D concert grand and various preparations at DRS2 Studios in Zurich, Switzerland with engineer Martin Pearson, perhaps best known as Keith Jarrett's current engineer. As a result, this disc likely captures Butcher's finely-detailed sound as it has never been captured before. According to journalist Thomas Meyer, “Under the Roof suggests coherence (the last piece, sonically, returns to the first one), but above all, also suggests protection. Whether rapidly skittering or thoughtfully placed, the organic and discreetly balanced sounds in this manifold cycle of fifteen exceedingly transparent images appear fresh and new.”

According to John Eyles in the All About Jazz website, "...Under the Roof clearly benefits from the duo's time spent together, and the care lavished on faithfully capturing the sounds of the instruments. Butcher and Binder sound comfortable together, familiar enough with each other's playing to avoid any getting-to-know-you moments. Everything about the album is beautiful, right down to the minimalist cover art by German artist Michael Eul."

This recording, which was recorded and mixed in the 24 bit domain, features an 8-page booklet with liner notes from Zurich-based journalist Thomas Meyer.

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nuscope  CD 1024  For Bunita Marcus

       Louis Goldstein

On June 1, 2010,  nuscope releases Morton Feldman's For Bunita Marcus by pianist Louis Goldstein. Frank Martin of Media Production Associates, who also engineered Goldstein's acclaimed recording of Feldman's Triadic Memories, remained behind the desk as Goldstein recorded For Bunita Marcus on a recently-acquired Steinway D at Brendle Recital Hall on the campus of Wake Forest University late last fall.

According to the fine guitarist Ernesto Diaz-Infante on the le son du arisli website, "This has been my favorite CD for the last few months. I listen to it before I go to sleep or in the morning or when I need to relax or on my iPod as I walk the hills and parks of San Francisco. It is comforting, meditative music – that sets the bar for me as far as this type of music goes. I've never quite heard anything that successfully suspends time like this... Solo piano notes ring with overtones. Tactile. Quiet. Soft. Slow. Ideally, listened to at a low level. If I close my eyes, a mosaic of patterns flow and unfold. If I had only one choice of music to take with me to a sensory deprivation tank, this would be it."

This version of For Bunita Marcus includes an 8-page booklet with liner notes from noted Dallas-based musicologist Laurie Shulman and abstract expressionist artwork from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth by the controversial Philip Guston, one of Morton Feldman's long-time friends.

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nuscope  CD 1025  Catachresis

       Lisa Ullén

Swedish pianist Lisa Ullén's first solo piano disc, titled Catachresis, has now been released on CD and has also been released as a download on HDTracks. Lisa's vision of solo piano includes echoes of Sten Sandell's subtle use of clusters and the innovative inner piano preparations of Sophie Agnel or Magda Mayas. The music is also stunningly dynamic and dramatic.

This 13-track CD, which was financed by the Swedish Arts Council, was beautifully recorded by engineer Johannes Lundberg at Epidemin Studios in Gothenburg, Sweden on a new Fazioli grand piano and mastered by Alan Bise at Azica Productions in Cleveland.

After graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, pianist and band leader Lisa Ullén worked in a wide variety of musical settings before concentrating on improvisation. Lisa has performed with bassist Nina De Haney, saxophonist Dror Feiler, and many other fine musicians.

This recording, which was recorded and mixed in the 24 bit domain, features an 8-page booklet with liner notes from pianist Louis Goldstein, who also wrote the liner notes for Sten Sandell's Solid Musik and cover photography from the multi-talented improvising cellist Ceci Quinteros.

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nuscope  CD 1026  Dortmund Variations

       Evan Parker / Georg Graewe

On July 17, 2012, nuscope released a new duo CD titled Dortmund Variations with saxophonist Evan Parker and pianist Georg Graewe live from the Domicil in Dortmund, Germany on October 29, 2010. According to liner notes writer Bill Shoemaker, "Evan Parker is 12 years older than Georg Graewe. However, there's a countervailing metric, albeit a fanciful one, which places the saxophonist and the pianist in closer historical proximity. It is the FMP catalog. The Berlin-based label had issued 31 albums over seven years prior to New Movements, the then 20 year-old pianist's debut, in 1976; Parker played on seven of them, including Peter Brötzmann's Machine Gun and three Globe Unity Orchestra recordings. Graewe led a new "generation" of improvising musicians into a history-shaping catalog, one comprised of the core documents of first generation European improvisers like Brötzmann and Alexander von Schlippenbach." This is the second recording by the duo - their first was Unity Variations on the Okka Disk label in 1998.

According to journalist Bill Meyer in his four star review in the January 2013 issue of Downbeat, "The three long pieces on this CD (four if you buy the download) proceed with an effortlessness that belies their complexity. It never feels like one is hanging back and supporting the other; their playing is nimble and unhesitant, advancing in quick flurries and elaborately articulated phrases that fit together marvelously even though the music is entirely improvised. They aren't anticipating each other's moves so much as finding out together the depths of their rapport."

The recording is very different than that of many in the nuscope catalog. First, there are only three pieces (four pieces on the audiophile 44.1/24 bit download now available on HD Tracks), the longest of which clocks in at just over 37 minutes! However, the improvisations are always exciting and never pedantic or sprawling. This is thrilling live music, and is a great contrast to Parker's recent duo recordings with pianists Uwe Oberg, Misha Mengelberg, and Agusti Fernandez. Parker focuses on tenor here and Graewe plays a beautiful Bösendorfer Model 225 grand piano. This disc features liner notes from Bill Shoemaker and striking cover art from John Holt Smith.

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