Jason Kao Hwang - Burning Bridge - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Dennis Bovell's prolific and eclectic career encompasses a huge range of music from dub poetry to lovers rock, to post-punk, to disco, to pop and beyond. His production work encompasses such diverse figures as The Slits, I Roy, Maximum Joy, Fela Kuti, The Pop Group, Janet Kay, Saada Bonaire, Orange Juice, Golden Teacher, Steel Pulse, and more.This compilation focuses on the period during and immediately after Bovell's involvement with the Jah Sufferer Sound System, digging deep to find deep cuts and lesser-known versions, mainly from 1976-1980, plus a killer and lesser-heard dub of the iconic InchSilly Games.Inch Painstakingly restored and remastered at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin, these decades-old tracks sound pristine and dynamic, sequenced to take the listener on a journey through Bovell's production and arrangement genius.The accompanying sleevenotes are a result of a long conversation with Dennis about this period of his life, with track-by-track recollections and fascinating biographical asides. The vinyl and CD versions feature variant artwork, each utilising a unique photo by Syd Shelton.

Jason Kao Hwang's quartet EDGE is nested in the urban mountains of New York City where he created Stories Before Within, personal tales celebrating both life and loss. Over the past three years EDGE has embraced both past and future with musical offerings resonant with human and animal overtones. Their instruments sing through sharp lines vibrating between history, cultures and genres. In the fall of 2008, EDGE will tour Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo. They will also perform in EDGEFEST (name has no prior relation) at the Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbour, Michigan. In 2009, they will perform in Montreal and Vancouver. In 2006, EDGE's first CD (Asian Improv Records) scaled the college radio charts at #14 for CMJ and #4 for Canada's EARSHOT. EDGE was ranked #3 on a Top Ten CDs of 2006 list for ALL ABOUT JAZZ. They have performed Vision Festival XI, Tonic, Brooklyn College, the Living Theater, and the Stone, all in NYC. EDGE also performed at Sangha (Washington, D.C.), An die Musik (Baltimore), the Deep Listening Institute (Kingston, NY), and the Sanctuary for Independent Media (Troy, NY). 'Another brilliant collection of forward-thinking compositions from Hwang, 'Stories Before Within' offers a rich blend of jazz and chamber music that seamlessly merges Eastern and Western traditions into a singular global hybrid.' Troy Collins, ALL ABOUT JAZZ, 3/22/08.

Zilzal is the Arabic word for 'earthquake,' and there couldn't be a more fitting word to describe the collision of musical worlds on the debut album by the duo of guitarist Ayman Fanous and violinist Jason Kao Hwang. Beautifully recorded by Sal Mormando and mastered by Grammy winner Silas Brown, these improvisations were performed with no prior musical planning. But Fanous and Hwang have become so well-attuned to each other's gestures, moods, and trajectories that sometimes the music can sound through-composed. Figure and ground give way to each other seamlessly, and at times meld into one and the same. Throughout the recording, Fanous and Hwang employ the full palettes available to them, resulting in a music that is at once orchestral, cinematic, spontaneous, and at all times, visceral. In short, this is contemporary instrumental music of great beauty, depth, energy, and sensitivity. It represents a snapshot of the complexities, richness, anxieties, exuberances, and polyglot accommodations of 21st century American life.'