Lives and dramas of a long-distance milkman

The newly reopened Royal Festival Hall, on London’s South Bank, will play host to Aftershock London, a unique event set under the artistic direction of multi-instrumentalist and music producer Nitin Sawhney. The performance is the result of workshops that have taken place across the city over an eight-week period with young emerging musicians and artists. This performance, which is due to take place in the Ballroom at the Royal Festival Hall, is the last in a series of showcases that have taken place across the city.

The performance will take place on Friday 15 June. This is a free event.

Alice Coltrane at the piano

I have just read about the sad news of the death of Alice Coltrane on Mapsadaisical’s blog. A quick search on Google and Yahoo news sections have unfortunately confirmed it.

I first encountered Alice Coltrane through a interview that she gave to UK magazine The Wire in April 2002. Although hadn’t heard of her before, my interest in jazz being relatively recent, I was intrigued by the photos, and the association with John Coltrane both prompted me to read the article. In this interview, her spirituality came across quite strongly, and the way she was talking of her music gave me envy to hear some of her records. The interview coincided with the re-release of three of her Warner albums, Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana (1976), Transcendence (1977) and Transfiguration (1978). Dave Shooter, at work, had copies of all three on his desk, so I asked him if I could borrow them to which he told me that, since he had them already, I was welcomed to keep them.

On listening to Radha-Krisna and Transcendence especially, I loved the incredible fluidity of her music, especially on the pieces where she plays the harp or the piano. I was also fascinated by the chants and the hypnotic nature of her music.

It is not until Andrew recommended some of her earlier Impulse records that I grasped the majestic touch of the music she had produced following the death of John Coltrane in 1967 and truly fell in love with her work. Albums such as Ptah, The El Daoud (1970), Huntington Ashram Monastery (1969), A Monastic Trio (1968), Journey In Satchidananda (1970), Universal Consciousness (1972) and World Galaxy (1972), captured my imagination like no other jazz record has done. They are all permanently on my MP3 player.

I still have a few of her albums to discover, including her last one, some of them yet to be released on CD. Her latest album, Translinear Light, came out just over two years ago and was her first in 26 years. Recently, while visiting the Barbican Centre website, I found out she was due to give a rare concert there on April 1st, with her saxophonist son Ravi, bassist Charlie Haden and 81 year old drummer Roy Haynes. I immediately booked a ticket, and was very much looking forward to see her play. Unfortunately, she will not be coming to London.

Múm’s vocalist Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir has left the band earlier this year it was announced on the Fat-Cat website. In a letter posted on the site, she says that she hasn’t been working with ‘the boys’ since June 2005 and will not be featuring on the band’s next album, due out next year. She has since been working on a modern dance piece with Eirikur Orri, who often plays with Múm, and with Animal Collective’s Avey Tare, with whom she has recorded a few songs which could be released some time next year.

Kristin Anna’s twin sister Gyða left the band before they began working on their third album, Summer Make Good.

Gescom’s seminal MiniDisc, the first ever MiniDisc-only release, originally published in 1998, is being issued on CD for the very first time. The album was specifically assembled to take advantage of the format’s versatility, collecting forty-five tracks split into eighty-eight PQ points set to be played in random order. The format, which was once at the forefront of Sony’s strategy, has since almost totally fallen into oblivions, prompting Sean Booth, Rob Brown and OR to reissue the work on the next best format. The sleeve shows Alan Phillips of Sony showing off MiniDisc in a Sony Conference. MiniDisc, the CD, is out on 13 November.

For more information, check out the OR website.

Buy it: CD

Icelandic dreamy popsters Múm will be releasing their only Peel Session on 4 December on Fat-Cat, a little over two years after John Peel passed away. The session was recorded in 2002 following the release of the band’s Yesterday Was Dramatic Today Is OK album. The EP, which was recorded by the original band line up, features live reworked versions of Scratched Bicycle / Smell Memory, Awake On A Train, Now There Is That Fear Again and The Ballad Of The Broken String. Múm are set to deliver their fourth album for Fat-Cat in Spring 2007.

Review coming soon.

The exquisite Coppé will be touring Europe for the very first time this autumn as part of the Cyber Tongue tour with audio-visual artist Ben Sheppee and London-based breaksters Liberation Jumpsuit. Confirmed dates are as follow:

Thu October 19th: Resonance 104.4FM Live Session (The Clearspot, 7pm)

Fri October 20th: Mavryx @ The Spitz (with Modified Toy Orchestra)

Sat November 4th: Ginglik, Club on the Green, Shepherds Bush

Sat November 4th: Digital City, Shoreditch

Tue November 7th: Head+Arm @ The Vibe Bar, East London

Sat November 11th: Optica Festival, Gijon, Spain

For those who haven’t experienced Coppé’s weird and wonderful pop, these gigs are probably the best opportunity to see what she is all about.

Coppé has been releasing since the late nineties on her Mango & Sweet Rice imprint, and has worked with artists as diverse as Plaid, Kris ‘Thrash’ Weston, DJ Vadim or The Program to name but a few. While she names Richard D James as one of her main influences (she even dedicated a song to him on her last album), her work encompasses a wide ranges of genres, from delicate ambient pop to techno and jazz-infused electronica.

Londoners: two dates for your diaries.

Wibutee: 11 November, live at the ICA

Supersilent / In The Country: 15 November, live at Cargo (Thanks to Colin for pointing that one out).

Both gigs are part of the London Jazz Festival. Click here for full listing.

Supersilent

Clark

<!– Buy it: CD | LP–>
Clark | Warp Records

The artist formerly known as Chris Clark has a new album, entitled Body Riddle out on Warp on 2 October, and, over coming weeks, he’ll be offering three exclusive non-album tracks to download for free on this site, starting now with this serious revised version of Herr Bar, which was originally featured on the ultra-limited Throttle Furniture EP earlier this year, and also features on the album, with space-age Brummies Broadcast.

Body Riddle is Clark’s third album, and it is also his best to date! Full review coming soon.

While you wait for it all, listen to Throttle Furniture!