Makaya McCraven with his band in sensational first concert in Athens.
Scenius Series are grateful!
Informed by everything from jungle to Krautrock and musique concrète, Tortoise broke new ground 30 years ago. Returning after nine years away, ‘it’s a different world’, they say. At the dawn of the 1990s, Chicago was down on its luck. A long depression and a declining manufacturing sector had left parts of the city a ghost town- not great conditions if you wanted to open an expensive flower store, but a pretty great place to start a band.
“We’d play for a frozen burrito,” adds Herndon, laughing.
INSPIRATION
The Necks Experiment with Long-Form Minimalism
Disquiet is a genuinely absorbing series of luxuriously paced improvisations from the Necks, who have been doing this kind of thing for decades.
Fred Frith’s Improvised Structures
English guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser, one of the most long-lived and vital characters in a field of action that ranges from pure improvisation to rock, from composition to daring New York and Japanese creative forms.
Erdfisch = Soil Fish
On their self-titled epic, the duo, whose name neologizes the German words for “soil” and “fish”, gifts us with avant and convincingly blended 9 tracks that promise to attract music fans from Post-Kraut and Contemporary Jazz to Experimental Electronic and Sound Art alike.
MATMOS: Metallic Life Review
A “life review” is a phrase used to describe the psychological phenomena reported by people who have survived near death experiences: the sense captured in the phrase “my life flashed before my eyes.”
Ches Smith’s Clone Row
Clone Row is the long-form improvising ensemble led by drummer and composer Ches Smith, featuring Mary Halvorson and an exceptional quartet of New York-based improvisers.
Scientists of Groove, Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin
The series „Scientists of Groove“ offers a transformative cinematic experience, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the spellbinding world of one of contemporary music’s most visionary talents, Nik Bärtsch.
Makaya McCraven’s four-EP project review by Quietus
The drummer-producer’s four-EP project blends live performance and post-production tricknology into a new kind of superstrong musical compound
The Green Ball: Inside Gilles Peterson’s Three-Level Listening House
At the back of his North London garden stands a new structure – three levels of wood, glass and shelves of vinyl. This is Gilles Peterson’s Emerald Ballroom also known as The Green Ball.
