Chris Smith - Jazz Grunge - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

From a to Z offers ten enticing selections of compelling, engaging electroacoustic music, and it's an excellent introduction to the Starkland tag. The diverse music ranges from Tod Dockstader's powerful musique concrète to the digitally sampled bovine vocalizing in Phillip Bimstein's utterly charming portrait of a Utah farmer. Album Tracks 1. Luna Park [Excerpt] - Dockstader, Tod 2. Part Three from Apocalypse - Dockstader, Tod 3. Tango from Quatermass - Dockstader, Tod 4. Underground - Dresher, Paul 5. The Rider - Kasinskas, Joseph 6. Utamaro's Dreams [Excerpt] - Lukasik, Joseph 7. In Tymes of Olde - Z., Pamela 8. Obsession, Addiction and the Aristotelian Curve - Z., Pamela 9. Vers Les Anges - Amirkhanian, Charle 10. Garland Hirschi's Cows - Bimstein, Phillip K

Second Hand Smoke is the long-awaited new record from Melbourne guitarist Chris Smith. It's gorgeous. Chris has, for roughly a decade, been out of the public eye, out of the scene and literally out of town. Living a quiet, small-town life raising his daughter, but working all the while. This album is an experience to be inhaled in one breath. Calming and expansive, full of sweeping cinematic vistas and melancholy melody, awash with sometimes ragged and noisy guitar. It was largely built from 8-track home recordings and layered with found sounds, field recordings, spoken word as well as multiple instruments and vocals. Like all Chris's work, it blends experimental and ambient noise-making with more traditional songwriting. The results are extraordinary - introspective ballads, torn up blues and hallucinatory instrumentals with a kind of lonely cowboy vibe, an experimental edge and a distinctly Australian sound. The JournalistSecond Hand Smoke*DamageNew Blossom Animal*5am AgainBeeswaxDumpster In The SkySunnyTwo AbstractionsLa Gare MontparnasseOh, Sweet Nothin'

BEING is pianist Chris Rottmayer's fourth album. It's a collection of original music, written as part of a study of pianist Mulgrew Miller and his recordings with the Woody Shaw Quintet. Joining him on this album are Russ Johnson on trumpet and flugelhorn, Matt Endres on drums, and jazz master Rufus Reid on acoustic bass. The skillful compositions and virtuosic performances on BEING weave an exotic and mysterious tapestry that explores Miller and Shaw's harmonic and modal concepts. Album Tracks 1. On the Street Where Woody Lives 2. Re-United 3. Pigalle 4. Châtelet 5. Autumn Evening 6. Song of Modes 7. Ballerina Dance 8. La Seizième 9. Pont Neuf 10. Rue Des Lombards