UTOPIA – Martin Küchen

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From the saxophonist of yesterday's EarBliss, a haunting collection of free jazz compositions that immediately conjured the films of Carl Th. Dreyer, F.W. Murnau, and silent Fritz Lang – but compositions that, each and all, both stand on their own and flow from one evocative soundscape to the next. Superb.

IN THIS FOREVER UNFOLDING MOMENT – Vilhelm Bromander

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Beautiful, stirring work of spiritual jazz in the vein of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders infused with Bromander’s impeccable compositional instinct. This thing soars.

I WAS TOO YOUNG TO HEAR SILENCE – Patrick Shiroishi

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Saxophone (+ glockenspiel) in a parking garage should not be this stunning but I can’t stop obsessing over the magic Shiroishi creates here. Makes me think of what Sonny Rollins's days of woodshedding on the Williamsburg Bridge must have sounded like:

I FORSEE THE DARK AHEAD, IF I STAY – Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble

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Been a fan for years; this album's been a wonderful path to rediscovering their hypnotic soundscapes. On heavy workblock rotation of late.

wolves run across a foggy woods

FLEECED OF THEIR WARES (moduS ponY, 2023)

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Sonic delights and explorations that wouldn't be at all out of place in a Wes Anderson stealth video game which, given my adoration for both the scores of Wes Anderson films and stealth video games, is indeed a compliment. So good.

SYMPHONY NO. 107 – THE BARD (MEV, 2023)

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Recorded in 2012, this is an utterly compelling improvisatory cacophony rife with nuance and inspiration: it demands attention and rewards with a sonic impressionism. Will be on repeat for awhile – certain I'll find new treasures with every listen.

Album cover: MEV, SYMPHONY NO. 107, a black and white photograph of a concert hall

LYSINE (You Bred Raptors?, 2023)

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In the interest of full disclosure, the trio's cellist and co-composer is a good friend of mine but I'd extoll the virtues of this regardless: harkening back to the glory days of The Dirty Three and infused with just the right amount of that something something (metal funk? glockenspiel metal?) that elevates it beyond and unapologetically into its own character. A hell of an album – congrats, all.

SOMETHING KNOWN AS MUSIC... + Cassingle 34 – Perkins & Federwisch / Ball Geographie

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New whimsical (a rare occasion to use that word – and I use it in the best, carnivalistic (carnivally? carnival-esque?) way possible) experimental pop earworms from the inimitable superpolar Taïps label: