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"The fourth CD in a 12-month period by Zorn’s most powerful new ensemble presents nine genre-busting compositions mixing jazz, metal, classical, world music and more. This time their trademark sound is augmented by the ringing tones of Kenny Wollesen’s vibraphone to create their wildest, most insane CD to date. Juxtaposing complex atonal lines, driving vamps, heavy metal riffs, improvisational madness, shredding solos and moments of profound lyricism, The Painted Bird is a surreal and expressive new....
Label Tzadik
"Two dramatic new worlds in sound from our downtown Alchemist who continues to confound and defy expectations well into his fourth decade of recorded activity. Scored for two percussionists, The Satyr's Play is a dramatic work that mysteriously...
Label Tzadik
A truly incredible cast of great musicians, and packaged in a handsome media book edition!
"A live concert version of Zorn’s acclaimed song project! In celebration of his 60th birthday, Zorn asked his most acclaimed vocal collaborators to write...
Label Tzadik
''Originally commissioned by the world-renown Kronos Quartet,three of these pieces are recorded here for the first time. From the cartoon/montage qualities of the popular 'Cat O'Nine Tails' to the S/M poetry of 'The Dead Man,' the hermetic philosophy o...
Label
This is a monster, heavy organ trio + guitar, ala Niacin, Tony Williams' Lifetime, etc, but with Zorn's tunes as the base. Superb playing here and the tunes are up to the quality of the musicianship! REALLY great. Highly recommended...
Label Tzadik
“An epic suite of short pieces for solo piano inspired by the later sketches of the great English painter J.M.W. Turner. Subtitled Images and Impressions for Piano this expansive suite includes a variety of styles and forms including études, preludes, color studies, seascapes, moonscapes, nocturnes and impromptus. One of Zorn's longest compositions, this major new work for solo piano is brilliantly performed by Stephen Gosling, a long time Zorn specialist and one of the best new music pianists in the...
Label Tzadik
This album features 14 never heard or released Masada tunes penned by John Zorn and featuring Erik Friedlander, Dave Douglas, Wadada Leo Smith, Eyvind Kang, Jamie Saft, Tatsuya Yoshida, Fantomas, Naftule's Dream, Rashanim, Julian Kytasty, Zahava Seewal...
Label
"With The Urmuz Epigrams Zorn returns to his roots, using the recording studio as instrument to create an intensely personal suite of compositions in the style of his legendary File Card compositions and Zoetropes. Dedicated to the visionary Romanian writer Urmuz whose small, scattered body of work predated Dadaism by decades, The Urmuz Epigrams is a suite of surrealistic miniatures more akin to philosophical aphorisms than actual music. The pieces are presented here in two iterations, as a set of...
Label Tzadik
"There is No More Firmament is a remarkable collection of recent compositions from 2013–2016 that showcase the range, variety and continued creativity of Zorn as he enters his sixties. Connected together with a thread of intensity, magic and madness, the music tells a twisted and complex story of a magical descent into madness. The compositions include two works for brass ensembles, a woodwind quintet, jazz piano trio, string trio and two solo pieces for clarinet and trumpet, with the outrageous trumpet...
Label Tzadik
UPC 702397835226
“Based in Mexico, Klezmerson is a super creative ever changing ensemble led by violinist, composer and arranger Benjamin Schwartz. Here they do their critically acclaimed and best selling Book of Angels installment one better with wild arrangements blending a variety of Mexican musical traditions with the sound of Masada. Featuring electric and acoustic strings, keyboards, accordions, saxes and of course a huge array of Latin percussion, Tiferet is one of the most delightful and imaginative CDs in the...
Label Tzadik
“On fire with creativity and burning so brightly that even an uncomprehending world does not deter him, Zorn remains defiant, focused solely on giving expression to the many muses and angels animating his life while harnessing the powers of the chthonic deities buried deep in his subterranean soul. Tractatus brings many of his lifelong interests together into a new musical universe drawing inspiration from philosophy, avant-garde cinema, drama and music.
Drawing inspiration from philosophy, avant...
Label Tzadik
“A moody and evocative book of spiritual music passionately performed by the remarkable acoustic guitar trio of Bill Frisell, Julian Lage and Gyan Riley, whose previous CD for Tzadik Nove Cantici per Francesco d’Assisi was universally acclaimed as one of Zorn’s most beautiful recent projects.
Inspired by anchoress Julian of Norwich, a 14th century abbess and one of the founders of Christian mysticism, Virtue is marked by a stunning, seductive lyricism. Softly mystic music that is perfect for...
Label Tzadik
As John Zorns most popular project reaches its tenth year, Tzadik celebrates the Masada songbook with a series of all-star tributes. Following Masada Guitars, Volume 2 is an eclectic and powerful collection of almost two dozen Masada classics artfully ...
Label
"Composed in 1999 at the turning of the millennium, Contes de Fées is one of Zorn's classical masterworks. A powerful violin concerto with a virtuosic and lyrical solo part and dramatic, colorful orchestral accompaniment, it receives its best performance to date by the Tanglewood Orchestra under the baton of Ryan McAdams and features the remarkable soloist Stephanie Nussbaum. Also included are two intense pieces of Crowleana, the bizarre and expansive solo piano piece . ? . and the whirlwind...
Label Tzadik
UPC 702397807629
This exciting release initiates a new series of CDs documenting the best of John Zorn's infamous game pieces. Composed largely between 1977 and 1989, these pieces harness improvisers in complex compositional formats, combining the unpredictable edge of...
Label
Bill Laswell: Bass
John Zorn: Alto Sax
“Towering figures of New York’s Downtown scene, Zorn and Laswell have been working together since the late 1970s. Following up on their acclaimed 2022 duo project “The Cleansing”, this new volume presents musical memorials to three artistic visionaries whose powerful legacies remain touchstones of creativity and artistic integrity. Here the music takes on more of an ambient edge, and is distinguished by telepathic improvisational interplay and a unique..
Label Tzadik
“Zorn and Laswell have been friends and musical compatriots since they first met in 1978, and have been responsible for some of the most intense and memorable music in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Recorded in early 2021, near the end of the year’s pandemic lockdown, it marks the first time Zorn had touched the saxophone in over fifteen months. Laswell had spent most of the year locked in his apartment. Something special was happening that day—and after the session Laswell felt rejuvenated—as...
Label Tzadik
"Drawing on his vast experience as viola player of the Arditti Quartet, Ensemble InterContemporain and his close collaboration with many of the today’s leading composers, Garth Knox has become a master of many styles. Presenting a completely new interpretation of the “Book of Angels”, the beautiful medieval-tinged arrangements produced by Garth Knox and his group capture the folk song quality of Zorn’s compositions with a lovely and intimate ensemble of strings and percussion. Playing viola and viola...
Label Tzadik
UPC 702397835028
"For their fourth release, Zorn’s most intimate and spiritual 21st century ensemble returns with a melodic and open book of tunes reminiscent of the Book of Angels. Drawing inspiration from the Biblical Song of Solomon and originally intended as a...
Label Tzadik
Petra Haden: Voice
Brian Marsella: Piano
Jorge Roeder: Bass
Ches Smith: Drums
“Petra Haden shines in Love Songs Live—an exciting concert version of the new musical from the songwriting team of John Zorn and Jesse Harris. Presented at National Sawdust in September 2023 as part of the Zorn@70 NYC concert series, the music is beautiful, lyrical, with heartwarming lyrics about a love lost and found.
Accompanied by the soulful trio of Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, and Ches..
Label Tzadik
Petra Haden: Vocals
Jesse Harris: Acoustic Guitar, Keys, Background Vocals
Kenny Wollesen: Drums
Julian Lage: Guitar
Jorge Roedor: Bass
“Singer Petra Haden excels in this beautiful and unique program of songs penned by the songwriting team of John Zorn and Jesse Harris.
Friends for many years, they began working together on The Song Project in 2012, and eight years later this CD presents the full fruits of their collaboration: thirteen Zorn compositions with...
Label Tzadik
"This is the Big Band Masada project you’ve been waiting for. Led by composers Sam Eastmond and Nikki Franklin, The SPIKE Orchestra is a large ensemble that draws on a wide range of influences including Duke Ellington, Frank Zappa, Carl Stalling, Zorn and more. Melding jazz, rock, klezmer, cartoon and the avant-garde into a compelling and cohesive vision, this new Angels installment is one of the most imaginative and manic masterpieces in the whole series. An outrageous and explosive swinger that will...
Label Tzadik
UPC 702397833826
''Released in a limited edition on the Yukon label back in 1984 and out of print for well over a decade, Ganryu Island has been hailed as one of the most successful recorded meetings of 'East And West'. Named after a small island off the coast of Japan...
Label
"Fred Frith and John Zorn have a close working relationship that's has been fruitful since they first met in 1978. Close friends and cohorts, veterans of many ensembles and bands, they are two of the downtown scene’s founding fathers. Sharing a love...
Label Tzadik
How many times do you get the chance to hear the initial meeting of a legendary band? This CD is just that. A diamond in the rough. The absolutely first time the original quartet Masada (John Zorn, David Douglas, Greg Cohen, Joey Baron) ever played the...
Label
''Every working band has magical nights -- nights when everything fits together and the music takes off into the stratosphere. The 'Masada Live' series documents these unforgettable concerts in venues around the world, bringing these rare special momen...
Label
This release begins a new series from Tzadik documenting the best live performances from John Zorn's one month stand at Tonic in celebration of his 50th birthday during September, 2003. The Masada String Trio features Mark Feldman-violin, Erik Friedlan...
Label Tzadik
"Screeches, Scratches, Knocks, Bangs, Explosions and Howls in the Night! “@” is a fabulous studio recording of two Downtown masters. Both long-time supporters of extreme music and proponents of free improvisation, John and Thurston share a deep musical...
Label Tzadik
UPC
The pioneer creator of the rhythm unit, the master of the game piece and one of the most dynamic drummers in the downtown scene square off head to head in duo and trio improvisations. Two full sets of music are presented here, beginning with a brillian...
Label
One of the most talked about and well attended shows of Zorn's 50th Birthday month was his much anticipated duo concert with Boredoms mastermind, Yamataka Eye. Close friends and musical associates since 1985, their love, respect and telepathic interpla...
"The new Zs lineup (Sam Hillmer, Greg Fox and Patrick Higgins) sounds very much like a new band, at least as evidenced by Grain. The two side-length tracks (coming in at a total of 42-minutes) bear the marks of Zs’ sound – repeated phrases, looped...
Label Northern Spy
"September, 2012, New York band Zs celebrates their ten-year anniversary with the release of SCORE, the complete sextet works from 2002 to 2007.
Zs have been described with a dizzying array of adjectives, and
performed alongside an equally dizzying complement of colleagues and
collaborators ranging from Throbbing Gristle's Genesis P. Orridge to
Roscoe Mitchell and Christian Wolf. Belonging nowhere and everywhere,
Zs have absorbed the editorial space of Howard Stern and Alex Ross
alike, fillin
Label Northern Spy
"Zs is devoid of genre and unclassifiable. Since 2000, founder Sam Hillmer has remained its purveying constant, and with the addition of loose-limbed, meditative percussionist Greg Fox (Liturgy, Guardian Alien, Man Forever), and virtuosic avant....
Label Northern Spy
''Founded and directed by Nikola Parov, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Zsaratnok is one of the best known Hungarian group. They play acoustic music from the Balkan area, a place where the musical traditions of Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Greece,...
''Founded and directed by Nikola Parov, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Zsaratnok is one of the best known Hungarian group. They play acoustic music from the Balkan area, a place where the musical traditions of Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Greece,...
Label Felmay
Very long-lived Italian brutal-prog band; one of their best and tightest of the ones that I personally am familiar with.
“Sax, drums and heavily distorted bass. Minimal to no vocals. Some synthesized/processed sounds. Simple ingredients for some seriously dense music. This album is on the sludgy side of heavy.
Compared to Carboniferous, probably their most well known release, the songs on this album are mostly slower, less structured and more atmospheric. Grooves are allowed to play out....
Label Ipecac
Recall if you will, the truimphant out-funk of Radiale; perhaps it was your earliest contact with the powerhouse known as Z, as they collided head-on with Chicago's least-seen (yet best) bad-assery trio, Spaceways Inc. Then, if you will - ponder the...
Label Atavistic
Gabriel Zucker - piano, compositions
Tyshawn Sorey – drums
Adam O'Farrill – trumpet
Eric Trudel - saxophone
“A suite inspired by Rachel Kushner's novel The Flamethrowers (2013), Weighting is a spacious mix of composition and improvisation, frequently intimate -- sometimes consisting of just intertwined sax and trumpet lines -- but occasionally punctuated with rowdy outbursts or densely-woven passages.
Gabriel Zucker’s work combines maximalist compositions with the progressive..
Label ESP-Disk
"he latest release from polymath and musical maximalist Gabriel Zucker is a sprawling and ambitious achievement that defies categorization, featuring complex mixed-meter jazz, virtuosic chamber music, electronic soundscapes, and indie art rock -- performed with emotion and urgency by Zucker's virtuoso large ensemble The Delegation. Written primarily between 2015 and 2018, during several stints Zucker spent living and performing in England and throughout Europe, the record reckons with time, and with the...
Label ESP DISK
Partigiani is the new music project by Zuf De Zur, a band from Gorizia, Italy, that has been involved for the last few years in the research and new interpretation of the cultural heritage of their border land. The band tries to blend and express the r...
Label Finisterre
"Since the late '60s the 'prog' term has always been synonymous with the breakdown of the classic song concept, thanks to the contamination of rock music with other genres. Based on this philosophy, Fabio Zuffanti brings the 'prog' concept to our days taking into account what, in terms of styles, is currently alive and pulsating: pop, electronic, avant-garde and much more. Easy to say, much more complicated to do: for this reason, between Zuffanti's previous solo record ("La Quarta Vittima", 2014) and...
Label BTF
"After the great international success of his last album "La quarta vittima" Fabio Zuffanti returns with a live in studio album. The album is the report of a tour that led to Fabio and his band around Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada. It...
Label AMS
UPC 8016158324334
"Fabio Zuffanti was born in Genoa (Italy) and is musically active from 1994. In these years he has worked, mainly as bass player and composer in a great number of groups and projects such as Finisterre, Rohmer, laZona, Hostsonaten, la Maschera Di Cera, Aries...
He has composed music that spaced from postrock to progrock, from folk to pop, electronic and experimentation. He has worked with imporant Italian producers such as Roberto Colombo (Battiato, De Andrè, Matia Bazar...) and Franz Di Cioccio.
Label AMS
"What can we say about Fabio Zuffanti that hasn't already been said? An hyper-productive musician from Genoa, after more than 20 years of musical career he releases today his most varied, eclectic and personal album ever. In "La Quarta Vittima"...
Label AMS
UPC 8016158323030
This restores to print a large-scale rock opera created by the leader of Finisterre, Hostsonaten and La Maschera di Cera. This has been remixed and greatly improved over-all, I would say. As it says in the label hype, "A great due reissue for a little...
Label AMS
Pirly ZURSTRASSEN - Piano
Jean-Pierre CATOUL - Violin
“This album in a way is a continuation of Pirly’s album in duo with Daniel STOKART. This time the duo formula is piano and violin, with Pirly accompanied by Jean-Pierre CATOUL.
The formula is a classical one perhaps, but the vision is different with the personality and experience of both musicians as the driving force.
Most well-known for his collaborations in jazz, Jean-Pierre CATOUL has also played in many other musical styles
Label Carbon 7
Pirly ZURSTRASSEN(Piano), Pierre VAIANA(Saxophones), Daniel STOKART (Saxophones), Jean-Pol DANHIER (Trombone), Antoine PRAWERMAN (Clarinets), Piet VERBIST (Bass), Jan DE HAAS (Drums)
"Pirly ZURSTRASSEN's compositions are little jewels. Nobody...
Label Carbon 7
In 1999 Itibere Zwarg, Hermto Pascoal’s long-time bass player, founded the Itibere Orquestra Famiília, a very large ensemble that was formed in his workshops for young musicians. A decade later, 8 musicians remained, and the group were re-named as...
Label
UPC 7898945569224
Mariana Zwarg - flute and arrangements
Mette Nadja - vocals
Johannes Ballestrem - piano
Sá Reston - bass
Pierre Chastel - drums and percussion
Sami Kontola - percussion
“Mariana Zwarg represents the third generation of musicians playing and spreading the tradition of "universal music", created by her godfather, the musical genius Hermeto Pascoal from Brazil. Mariana is a flutist, saxophonist, composer and arranger and has been performing at leading festivals and...
Label MCK
"First ever CD reissue of one of the most extreme Krautrock-era albums ever made. Originally released by Philips Germany in 1970, the triple LP edition came in an elaborate 'mirror' sleeve and has been near-impossible to find for 35+ years; there have...
Label Captain Trip
UPC 4560107535837