MMM Quartet - Live at the Metz' Arsenal [Leo]

MMM Quartet
Joelle Leandre - double bass
Fred Frith - guitar
Alvin Curran - electronics, piano
Urs Leimgruber - soprano and tenor saxophone


Leo Records 2012

This quartet is born out of Joelle Leandre's experience in Mills College in Oakland (where she got introduced to Alvin Curran and Fred Firth) and it brings together four musicians who, together, cover possibly the entire ground of modern experimental music - improvised, composed, acoustic, electro-acoustic and electric.

Fred Frith and ARTE Quartet - The Big Picture [Intakt]

ARTE Quartet:
Beat Hofstetter - soprano saxophone
Sascha Armbruster - alto saxophone
Andrea Formenti - tenor saxophone
Beat Kappeler - baritone and alto saxophones

special guests (tracks 1-6):
Katharina Weber - piano
Lucas Niggli - drums

Fred Frith - composer

Intakt 2010

I got this cd after Fred Frith's concert in Warsaw, still absolutely mesmerized by his performance and although I'm disappointed that Frith's guitar is nowhere to be heard on this one (nonetheless the booklet puts it on the list) it does fulfill all the high hopes I had for this album.

3rd Ear - Experimental Scene to announce polish presidency in EU - Fred Firth, Paristetris, The Ex & Ken Vandermark and others in Warsaw

On 1. of July Poland started its presidency in Eropean Union - which was celebrated with various events across the country, including performances by Kenny G, Michael Bolton, Angie Stone or Tricky. "Trzecie Ucho" ("3rd Ear") was one of those events and, while I'm not really sure what's the connection between the polish presidency and experimental or alternative music scene, I'm very gratefull to whoever grabbed the opportunity to reach for the kind of fundings necessary to create an event like this. Because of the abbundancy of the performances I'll try to just briefly summarize the main projects of the evening that began in the Copernicus Science Centre and finished in the vast post-industrial space of the Warsaw's Heat Plant.