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Simultonality
''Simultonality'' is a 2017 album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Joshua Abrams and the Natural Information Society. Background The album was recorded during 2014 and 2015 in Chicago and Montreal, and was released in 2017 on vinyl by Eremite Records, based in the United States, and on vinyl and CD by tak:til, an imprint of the German Glitterbeat label. Led by Joshua Abrams on guimbri and double bass, the group features tenor saxophonist Ari Brown, electric guitarist Emmett Kelly, keyboardist Ben Boye, harmonium player Lisa Alvarado, and drummers Mikel Avery and Frank Rosaly. The title of the final track, "2128½", refers to the address of Chicago's Velvet Lounge, where Abrams was house bassist during the 1990s. Reception In an article for '' The New York Times'', Giovanni Russonello described the album as "at once tensile and hypnotic," having "an aesthetic of repetition and renewal," and noted that the music "draws on a global scrapbook of sources: the liquid chime o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Information Society
Natural Information Society is a music ensemble described as “ecstatic minimalism”. The group formed in 2010 and is led by multi-instrumentalist and composer Joshua Abrams. NPR called the group a "staple" of the underground music scene in Chicago. Their performances often include the paintings of Lisa Alvarado. According to ''Musicworks'', Natural Information Society's performances place "a singular emphasis on the human and the humane in music in the midst of a galloping digitized industry". ''The Guardian'' gave the group's album ''Simultonality'' four out of five stars, ''The New York Times'' described it as "at once tensile and hypnotic", while ''Rolling Stone'' named it to their list of the "20 Best Avant Albums of 2017". ''Pitchfork'' named their double album ''Magnetoception'' #2 on their "Best Experimental Albums of 2015". '' The Stranger'' called the group's release ''Automaginary'' one of the "Top 10 Records of 2015" and it was also named by ''Spin'' as one of its " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joshua Abrams (musician)
Joshua Abrams is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. Career While living in Philadelphia in the late 1980s, Abrams was a member of Square Roots, a street music group that developed into The Roots. He moved to Chicago and played as a bassist with Tortoise, Town and Country, Hamid Drake, and Matana Roberts. Abrams was the house bass player at Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge and for several years he played a weekly club date with Tortoise's John Herndon and Jeff Parker. He was a member of Mike Reed's Loose Assembly and Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble. In 2003, he played bass on Godspeed You! Black Emperor's album ''Yanqui U.X.O.''. He has worked as a studio musician on recordings made in Chicago, such as Jandek's ''Chicago Wednesday;'' Will Oldham, Bonnie "Prince" Billy's ''Beware (Bonnie Prince Billy album), Beware'' and albums from Chicago musicians such as Joan of Arc (band), Joan of Arc, David Grubbs, and Sam Prekop. In the early 00's, Delmark Records, Delm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mandatory Reality
''Mandatory Reality'' is a 2019 album by guimbri player Joshua Abrams and the Natural Information Society. Background Featuring two long pieces totalling over an hour in duration, followed by two shorter works, the album was recorded on June 11, 2017, at Electrical Audio in Chicago, with each piece captured as a single take. It was released in 2019 on vinyl and CD by Eremite Records, based in the United States, and on vinyl by Aguirre Records, a Belgian label. On the album, Abrams is joined by saxophonist Nick Mazzarella, bass clarinetist Jason Stein, cornetist Ben Lamar Gay, pianist Ben Boye, harmonium player Lisa Alvarado, and percussionists Mikel Patrick Avery and Hamid Drake. In an interview with Jason P. Woodbury of ''Aquarium Drunkard'', Abrams suggested that the music attempts to combine aspects of jazz and minimalism. He commented: "You often see collaborations between various figures—Don Cherry and Terry Riley, Harold Budd and Marion Brown. It's kind of shining a ligh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Rosaly
Frank Rosaly (born May 30, 1974) is a Puerto Rican American drummer, composer, and sound designer associated with a transparent compositional approach to drumming across various styles of music including jazz, improvisation, rock and experimental music. Rosaly also composes for film. Biography Frank Rosaly (Francisco Javier Rosaly Amoros) was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1974. His mother Carmen (née Amoros) was a secretary, his father Francisco was an accountant. He has one sister Frances who is a teacher. Frank graduated from Thunderbird High School in Phoenix, Arizona in 1992. He subsequently attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he earned a bachelor's degree in percussion performance. Starting out in the Flagstaff and Phoenix, Arizona, music scenes, Rosaly relocated to Los Angeles for a time before returning to NAU from 1999 to 2000. It was in this time that Rosaly performed extensively with composer/bassist Joel DiBartolo in Raging Jazz Project wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lisa Alvarado
Lisa Alvarado (born 1982) is an American visual artist and harmonium player.Beckwith, Naomi and Roelstraete, Dieter (2015)"The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now" p. 40. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and University Of Chicago Press. Alvarado is known for her free-hanging abstract paintings. Her works operate as stage sets and artworks simultaneously, and engage with abstraction beyond the parameters of western art history.Kopel, Dana (2 May 2017)"Vibrational Aesthetics: Lisa Alvarado"Mousse Magazine. Alvarado's paintings accompany musical performances as mobile setting for the band Natural Information Society, for which she plays harmonium. Early life and education Alvarado was born in San Antonio, Texas to a Mexican American family. She studied at San Antonio College and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Alvarado joined the Natural Information Society in 2010. Artistic practice Alvarado's practice bridges visual art and sound to c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Automaginary
''Automaginary'' is a 2015 collaborative album by the Natural Information Society and Bitchin Bajas. Background The album was released in 2015 on vinyl and cassette by Drag City. Natural Information Society, a largely acoustic ensemble, is led by double bassist and guimbri player Joshua Abrams, and features guitarist Emmett Kelly, autoharpist and keyboardist Ben Boye, harmonium player Lisa Alvarado, and drummer Frank Rosaly. Bitchin Bajas, using electronic instruments, is led by keyboardist Cooper Crain, and features bass clarinetist and flutist Rob Frye, and synthesizer player Dan Quinlivan. Reception In a review for AllMusic, Paul Simpson wrote: "The album generally sounds closer to Bitchin Bajas' cosmic zone-outs than Natural Information Society's exciting bursts of energy, but that doesn't mean the album is a snooze... ''Automaginary'' is a fluid collaboration with both parties completely tuned into the same wavelength, resulting in a sublime blending of kindred spirits. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eremite Records
Eremite Records is an independent American jazz record label founded in 1995 by Michael Ehlers, with early involvement from music writer Byron Coley. Ehlers was a student of Archie Shepp's at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After college, he began producing concerts in the Amherst area, and Eremite evolved from those events. The label name came from an alternate title to the Thelonious Monk tune " Reflections": "Portrait of an Eremite". The label's logo, designed by Savage Pencil, is an image of a robed Joe McPhee playing soprano saxophone. Eremite organized a concert series in Western Massachusetts that ran through 2008 and produced roughly 100 concerts, including five Fire in the Valley festivals. From 1998–2018, Eremite managed a touring organization that arranged hundreds of concerts across North America for its artists. Eremite Records' early activities emphasized music by first and second generation musicians working in the American and international free jazz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guimbri
The sintir ( ar, سنتير), also known as the guembri (), gimbri or hejhouj or Garaya in Hausa language, is a three stringed skin-covered bass plucked lute used by the Gnawa people. It is approximately the size of a guitar, with a body carved from a log and covered on the playing side with camel skin. The camel skin has the same acoustic function as the membrane on a banjo. The neck is a simple stick with one short and two long goat strings that produce a percussive sound similar to a pizzicato cello or double bass. The goat gut strings are plucked downward with the knuckle side of the index finger and the inside of the thumb. The hollowed canoe shaped wooden body resonates a percussive tone created by knuckles slapping the camel neck top of the body while the thumb and index finger are plucking the strings. The lowest string on the sintir is a drone note and the second string, the highest in pitch, is tuned an octave higher and is never fretted. The third string is tuned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ari Brown
Ari Brown (born February 1, 1944) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and pianist. Biography Brown grew up in Chicago and attended Wilson College, where he met musicians such as Jack DeJohnette, Henry Threadgill, Roscoe Mitchell, and Joseph Jarman. He played piano in R&B and soul outfits into the 1960s, then switched to saxophone in 1965. He joined the AACM in 1971, and also played with The Awakening in the early 1970s. In 1974 he lost several teeth in a car crash, and temporarily switched to piano again until he recovered. He played sax later in the 1970s with McCoy Tyner, Don Patterson, and Sonny Stitt. In the 1980s, he worked with Lester Bowie, Von Freeman, Bobby Watson, and Anthony Braxton, and in 1989 he became a member of Kahil El'Zabar's trio. Discography As leader * 1995: ''Ultimate Frontier'' (Delmark Records) * 1998: ''Venus'' (Delmark) * 2007: ''Live at the Green Mill'' (Delmark) * 2013: ''Groove Awakening'' (Delmark) As sideman With The Awakening *''Hear, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emmett Kelly (musician)
Emmett Kelly is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is the primary songwriter and recording artist of The Cairo Gang, one half of The Double alongside drummer Jim White (Drummer), Jim White, one third of The CIA and a founding member of Clinamen. He has contributed vocal and instrumental work to a variety of international musical projects, appearing on recordings by the likes of Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Ty Segall, Angel Olsen, Azita Youssefi, Azita, Joan of Arc (band), Joan of Arc, Edith Frost, Women and Children, John Webster Johns, Jeff Harms, Chicago poet/singer Marvin Tate, Matteah Baim, Japanese musician Takuma Watanabe, Earth Girl Helen Brown, Joshua Abrams (musician), Joshua Abrams and Rob Mazurek. Kelly has toured in several of the aforementioned acts in addition to with Baby Dee, CFM, Mikal Cronin, Sonny Smith (musician), Sonny Smith, Beth Orton, and Terry Reid; and in other instances, performed live with Chan Marshall, Scott Tuma, Joan of Arc (band), Joan of A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minimalism (music)
Minimal music (also called minimalism)"Minimalism in music has been defined as an aesthetic, a style, and a technique, each of which has been a suitable description of the term at certain points in the development of minimal music. However, two of these definitions of minimalism—aesthetic and style—no longer accurately represent the music that is often given that label." Johnson 1994, 742. is a form of art music or other compositional practice that employs limited or minimal musical materials. Prominent features of minimalist music include repetition (music), repetitive patterns or pulse (music), pulses, steady drone (music), drones, consonance and dissonance, consonant harmony, and reiteration of musical phrase (music), phrases or smaller units. It may include features such as phase shifting, resulting in what is termed phase music, or process techniques that follow strict rules, usually described as process music. The approach is marked by a non-narrative, non-teleology, tele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during this period believed that the bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz that had been played before them was too limiting. They became preoccupied with creating something new and exploring new directions. The term "free jazz" has often been combined with or substituted for the term "avant-garde jazz". Europeans tend to favor the term "free improvisation". Others have used "modern jazz", "creative music", and "art music". The ambiguity of free jazz presents problems of definition. Although it is usually played by small groups or individuals, free jazz big bands have existed. Although musicians and critics claim it is innovative and forward-looking, it draws on early styles of jazz and has been described as an attempt to return to primitive, often re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
