Various
Peace Chant Vol.3

Matthew Halsall unveils new band and announces ‘Salute to the Sun’ his new album on Gondwana Records. Spiritual jazz at its best. Already a classic. Limited edition Double Black vinyl, printed on reverse board with Gold foil artwork plus double printed reverse board inner sleeves including download code. Cover Artwork by Daniel Halsall with design and layout by Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic. Half-speed mastered for superior sound.Comes packaged in a resealable, re-usable Polypropylene anti-static, acid-free, crystal clear sleeve for maximum protection.Composer, trumpeter, producer, DJ and founder of Gondwana Records, Matthew Halsall has always worn many hats. But at the heart of everything that he does Halsall is first and foremost an artist and a musician. A trumpeter whose unflashy, soulful playing radiates a thoughtful beauty and a composer and band-leader who has created his own rich sound world. A sound that draws on the heritage of British jazz, the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, as well as world music and electronica influences, and even modern art and architecture, to create something uniquely his own. A music that is rooted in Northern England but draws on global inspirations.Salute to the Sun is his first album as a leader since Into Forever (2015) and marks the debut of his new band. A hand-picked ensemble featuring some of Manchester’s finest young musicians: Matt Cliffe flute & saxophone, Maddie Herbert harp, Liviu Gheorghe piano, Alan Taylor drums and Jack McCarthy percussion as well as long-time Halsall collaborator, bassist, Gavin Barras who has been at the heart of Halsall’s bands for over a decade. For Matthew it was important to have a band based locally and able, pre-Covid, to meet and play each week, and who also performed a sold-out monthly basement session at Yes in Manchester. The album draws energy from these sessions and inspiration from themes and ideas that have inspired Halsall through the years (on albums such as Oneness, Fletcher Moss Park and When the World Was One) ideas of ecology, the environment and harmony with nature.

PaesaggiM. Zalla

“We already passed one millennium, in fact, we passed the apocalypse: we are living in End Time, all right, but in the last daze. It’s after the end of the world. Don’t you know that yet?” - considered Sun Ra a few decades ago. We are clearly living in a borrowed time. In a time plunged in darkness and ignorance when we need at least a little light and love… and that can come with the cosmic music of Sun Ra, which is deconstructed by EABS on their third album. In October 2019, after more than 33 years, the archive record from the first landing of Sun Ra Arkestra in Poland was released to the public. On this occasion, EABS has prepared a special concert related to this release. Moments later, during the lockdown, a deep reflection on the philosophy of the newcomer from Saturn influenced the recording session and the final shape of the album ‘Discipline of Sun Ra’. Then there were quite serious changes in the selection of songs and even more ambitious attempts at recreation jazz originals, pushing some compositions not only towards hip-hop (in the spirit of inspired by Gil Scott-Heron or David Axelrod), but also genres such as juke or house.The creative process of the album revolved around two Sun Ra’s ideas - deconstruction and discipline. “He sent members of the Arkestra out to research individual players in Henderson group in the order to get the feeling right when playing their parts. Sun Ra told them they weren’t copying those pieces, they were re-creating them, and with the proper information they could know the spirit behind the original." That’s how Herman Sonny Blount treated the music of the swing legend, Fletcher Henderson. EABS approached the composition of Sun Ra in exactly the same way. An equally important element with recording was a regime associated with the discipline and precision that the pianist from Saturn fought for, using a series of exercises-compositions entitled ‘Discipline’ previously used by Arkestra. They were strictly designed for exercises with the minimum amount of material, the most common built on the brass section parts, with a cyclical melody unfolding from fragments so each person played their lines meticulously, without any deviation. This is what the title of the album ‘Discipline of Sun Ra’ refers to.Sun Ra was aiming to record timeless music that could still be alive in a 1000 years, and with no hesitation, he managed to do it. The music from distant planets is infinite. “By infinity, Mr.Ra means creating jazz of the future, but also covering the past”- the same idea is carried by polish musicians. On the ‘Slavic Spirits’ album, EABS was inspired by the ancient past. As we now know, discovering Sun Ra’s concept wasn’t coincidental. He also believed and shared the philosophy of coming through the darkness to see the sun and enlightenment. In case there’s no hope for living on our planet, we need to look for metaphorical escapism. That’s where the idea of building a cosmic ship under ‘Polish Space Program’ was born.The album ‘Discipline of Sun Ra’ will be released on Astigmatic Records on CD and LP in two variations, a basic or limited white vinyl with a B2 poster. It will also be available on all streaming platforms. The premiere is set for 30th October 2020.

Envoutant travail du contrebasssiste d'origine syrienne, collaborateur de Vander, Lubat,... Superbe copie. Repress Mid70s

Jungle By Night - Algorhythm After more than a decade of heating up dancefloors at over 600 festivals and stages in 34 countries and 6 released albums, the nine-headed instrumental collective Jungle by Night melted their years of passion, friendship, and influences from krautrock, dance, jazz and techno together into a new analogue compositionJungle by Night: ‘’In a world in which technology and its algorithms have become highly influential in our daily lives, we’d almost rather stare at our screens than look out for each other. With << Algorhythm >>, we pay a tribute to natural, spontaneous HUMAN rhythm as a counterpoint to the sophisticated intoxicating algorithms of the computer.’’The << algorithm >> It determines what we see, what we listen to, whom we meet. The worldwide web seems to be this free world in which everyone has access to everything and everyone. But in reality, it steers us in a certain direction. A direction that often feels natural, reassuring, safe even. It confirms our thoughts and doesn’t confront us with different ways of thinking, with new perspectives. While getting swallowed up in our bubbles, we slowly drift apart.With this new analogue album, nine-headed instrumental collective Jungle By Night bursts our bubble and reminds us to surrender to being human. With styles such as Dance, Funk, Jazz and KrautRock, mixed into a completely unique and inclusive genre of danceable music: Analog Dance Music, the band invites us to live in the moment and welcome serendipity. The oddball ensemble exists within its own cosmos and serves us a danceable and thundering live act, connecting with crowds like no other, with beaming fun and energy along the way.Jungle By Night: ‘’ During the corona crisis, we as a band had a lot of time to reflect on the role and function of (live) music. One of the magical powers of live music is how it can create an atmosphere of freedom, expression, and togetherness. Will we still be able to surrender to this after over a year of staring at our screens or have we drifted away? And is there any silver lining? This album explores the dividing lines between man and machine. The pandemic allowed us to take a new artistic step by implementing more theatrical elements to create a fully cohesive album.’’