Derya Yıldırım Grup Şimşek
Oy Oy Emine / Kürk

Award-winning Iranian percussionist Mohammad Reza Mortazavi describes the rhythm of eternity or ‘Ritme Jaavdanegi’ in eight transfixing ways on his first vinyl album, following 12”s with Padre Himalaya and Burnt Friedman’s Nonplace in recent years.A prodigious child student turned absolute master of the tombak - a traditional Iranian drum famed for its wide range of tonalities and striking techniques - Mohammad Reza Mortazavi brings an unparalleled instinct and knowledge to his instrument with each new release, and in recent years has found fine foils in Europe’s experimental garde with collaborators such as Mark Fell, Fis and Burnt Friedman, while also performing at prestigious venues including Berlin Philharmonie and the Sydney Opera House. On this, his 6th solo LP, Latency give Mortazavi room to let his heart run free thru his fingertips. Reflecting on his childhood in Iran - where he first learned the tombak and famously surpassed his teacher’s knowledge by the age of 9 - the artist found an 11/8 time signature in the Farsi phrasing for “Rit - me - Jaav - da - ne - gi”, which gave naturally gave birth to this album.Playing within the tricksy, off-kilter meter, Mortazavi beautifully resolves its lop-sided equation in a fractal not fractious style, with rhythms endlessly rolling from others in a seemingly effortless chain reaction of ballistic physics that barrels straight from his head and heart from fingerskin to drumskin.

In the beginning of the 1970’s, Guinea-Bissau was a country broken up into many ethnic groups and at the heart of a war for independence. By reviving traditional musical genres as Gumbé and singing in guinean Kriol, José Carlos Schwarz & Cobiana Djazz established an immediate affective bond with their audiences. Through its music and politically engaged spirit of the lyrics, the band played a significant role in shaping the social and political consciousness of the masses. As well as influencing local bands like Super Mama Djombo and giving back a deep sense of cultural identity to bissau-guineans.The explosive birth of Cobiana Djazz brought about other kinds of detonation. Schwarz became involved in urban guerilla activities which resulted in several bombings in the centre of Bissau, leading to his imprisonment and torture. He remained in lockup for a total period of about 2 years, between 1972 and 1974.The process of decolonisation, in the wake of the Portuguese revolution of 25 April 1974, led to the recognition, during the same year, of the sovereign nation of Guinea-Bissau.Schwarz, a key figure in the fight for independence, played an important part in the transition to the democratic regime, profiting from his popularity as an artist. Soon, his criticism (underscoring opportunism and irresponsibility in high places) became a thorn in the side of the political elite. Uneasy with the disquieting effects of his work, government officials effectively separated the author from the masses by assigning him to the embassy in Havana.José Carlos Schwarz met a tragic and untimely death at the age of 27, when his plane crashed on arrival at Cuba's José Martí International Airport, on May 271th 1977.Hailed by african giants like Orchestra Baobab, Letta Mbulu or Miriam Makeba (with whom he recorded his first and only solo album), “Zé Carlos” and his poetry won a lasting position in the annals of Guinea-Bissau. However, this collection of songs remains relatively unknown outside the country and its diasporas.We are proud to offer, in close collaboration with the Schwarz family, this first official reissue on vinyl. Remastered and pressed on heavyweight vinyl.

When his mother brought Stanley Turrentine’s Salt Song LP back from a trip to Canada, Julien Lourau, then a teenager, was impressed by the scope of the sound and the groove of the saxophone. He was also charmed by the lush arrangements and funky sound of the record, typical of releases on the CTI label. Created by producer Creed Taylor, CTI left an imprint in the minds of 70s jazz fans much like Blue Note did in the 60s, and it even ended up releasing work by artists who started out on this mythical label such as Stanley Turrentine and Freddie Hubbard. The two even shared the same sound engineer, the great Rudy van Gelder.Yet CTI, though highly prolific during its 15 years of activity, has not benefitted from the same aura as its predecessor.“To breathe life into this album, I listened to a wealth of CTI releases and discovered some I had never heard before. I noticed, oddly, that many of today’s musicians know very little about CTI - a label unfairly considered as minor.”The choice of tracks was determined by Julien’s personal tastes, always keeping in mind a desire to help people discover them yet focusing on the joy of actually playing them too.“The album is made up of 9 pieces. Mathieu Débordes got everything down to the nearest note before we even attempted to play them. CTI didn’t hold back in fuelling their compositions with brass and violins, but I erased this aspect and pared things down to a bass, drums and two keyboards.”English drummer Jim Hart, someone Julien worked with during his London years, propels the group - from hard-bop polyrhythms with “drum & bass” inflections to a reworking of classic Red Clay.Sylvain Daniel on the bass and Arnaud Roulin on the analogue keys are two musicians close to the saxophonist, and that he met when they were students in 1999 while organising a master class at the Conservatoire de Nantes. Since then, they have become his esteemed companions.The collaboration with young pianist Léo Jassef began on this recording, where he also plays the Prophet 5. The dynamic and overlap of the many keyboards played by Arnaud and Léo bring the record a richness of timbre and harmony that the strings and brass provided on the CTI recordings.For the final track on the record, Julien called upon his friend of 30 years, guitarist Bojan Z, for a fresh, Gospel take on Love and Peace, a track recorded by Quincy Jones in 1969, which here, is dedicated to Bojan’s recently departed brother.“When it comes down to it, this album really is as I had imagined it, with, luckily, a few unexpected turns. I created a playlist I then claimed as my own. But in the end, I must admit that I would have loved to have composed some of these tracks.”