Hauschka with Hildur Gudnadottir and ISAN at Kings Place 26/02/10

When I arrived at Kings Place the walls had been freshly decorated with fish and bubbles. I assumed that this was a nautical/visual pun on the name of the biting Guardian columnist Marina Hyde, who was probably upstairs sharpening her teeth on a piece of cuttlefish bone at the time. In fact I was entering the venue on day two of Arctic Circle‘s Bubbly Blue and Green festival, day one having already seen the venue play host to the combined talents of Philip Jeck and Janek Schaefer. For this second event, German pianist Hauschka was to be paired with the sublime cellist (and now Touch artist) Hildur Gudnadottir, with support provided by ISAN.

Jailbreak, The Rocker (Family Vineyard); John Edwards and Chris Corsano, Tsktsking (Dancing Wayang)

It may seem hard to believe, but there was a time when this blog didn’t spend most of its time posting badly-written reviews of Richard Skelton albums. A few years ago, this blog specialised in badly-written reviews of Chris Corsano gigs. I probably saw a dozen of his shows in little over a year; his drumming was a real revelation for me, I couldn’t drink enough from this bottomless well of improvisational inspiration. Then he decamped back to the US, probably because of the weirdo with the bad haircut who was stalking him at gigs in London (and Bristol! I even went to Bristol for a show. Christ, no wonder he fled). Never less than prolific, and never afraid to throw himself into new challenges, the last twelve months have seen him release several fine duo albums; here he follows his ecstatic dulcimer-driven drone jazz freakouts with Mick Flower with another pair of first-rate collaborations.

Yellow Swans, Going Places (Type)

But going where, exactly? And why, damn it? Listening to the last Yellow Swans album to be released after their seemingly amicable split almost two years ago, it really feels like Pete Swanson and Gabriel Mindel Salomon went their separate ways when they were still at their peak. The thick billows of charred guitar smoke which rise from Going Places are a ghostly reminder of this most seminal of noise bands.

Matt Rösner, Repeat (Miatera)

Never mind filthy concepts such as rhythm or – heaven forbid – melody, sometimes it feels like there can be more than enough to interest me in pieces which have neither. The Touch label has been home to many of these of late, such as the live performances of CM Von Hausswolff, the experiments of Jacob von Kirkegaard, and of course now the Mandelbrot-like detail in releases by the mysterious Eleh. The Miatera label is likely to be another such laboratory, here following its debut release by Alexander Wendt (whom I last saw using sound waves to demolish an entire metropolis) with this collection of tones from Australian Matt Rösner.

Matthew Shipp with J Spaceman, John Coxon and Steve Noble at Cafe Oto, 13/02/10

Over the years, New York pianist Matthew Shipp has been involved with such a diverse set of projects that a three night residency at Cafe Oto could barely scratch the surface. From his experimentations with electronics and hip-hop on his own Blue Series label, to the avant-garde improvisations with the Treader collective helmed by Ashley Wales and John Coxon of Spring Heel Jack, through collaborations with masters such as David S Ware and Roscoe Mitchell, he has covered more ground than most. The other two nights of this London stay was to take in performances with great local improvisers such as Paul Dunmall, John Edwards, Mark Sanders and John Butcher, while this second night featured the Spiritualized pairing of Jason Pierce and John Coxon, with the commanding figure of Steve Noble on drums.

Carl Craig with Francesco Tristano, Moritz von Oswald and David Brutti; Matmos; and Bugge Wesseltoft with Henrik Schwarz at the Royal Festival Hall, 12/02/10

What an extraordinarily heavyweight lineup for an event, and what a place to hold it. The choice of the Royal Festival Hall for this Red Bull Music Academy show seemed to be an overt indication that this was not to be your typical dance music event. In fact quite often this couldn’t even be described as dance music at all, which certainly seemed to confuse a number of those present, many of whom got a bit over excited on the very few occasions someone triggered a straight rhythm. Over the course of the evening, innovators mixed techno and electronica with jazz, avant-garde classical and art-rock, as if this was the most natural thing in the world, resulting in fascinating new forms which – naturally – appealed to me very much indeed.

A Broken Consort, Crow Autumn (Tompkins Square); Autumn Grieve, Stray Birds (Corbelstone Press)

The version of A Broken Consort’s Crow Autumn just released by Tompkins Square is a new version of Richard Skelton’s Crow Autumn, or rather it’s a new version of the Crow Autumn and Crow Autumn 2 recordings (previously released on his own Sustain Release label), reworked into a cohesive and well-balanced whole, with a new piece on the end. While I’ve already eulogised about the Crow Autumn 2 tracks, their successful repackaging and recontextualising here as part of a bigger work makes the new LP edition a must-have for me. In marked contrast to this dense instrumental fare, the Corbelstone Press music and poetry label which Skelton runs with Canadian singer-songwriter Autumn Grieve has just released a marvellous and delicate slice of folk music by Grieve; one which should have appeal beyond those with an interest in the Skelton catalogue.

Valgeir Sigurðsson, Draumalandið; Daníel Bjarnason, Processions (both Bedroom Community)

I’m impressed by the way that the Bedroom Community label operates in a manner akin to a co-operative, with its resident artists making best use of each others’ talents. The end results, as I saw recently at the Barbican when Nico Muhly, Sam Amidon and Valgeir Sigurðsson came together, blur lines between electronic, classical and folk musical forms. This collaborative tradition continues on a new album by Sigurðsson, which features all of the above plus Ben Frost and new recruit Daniel Bjarnason. With Sigurðsson on production duties, Bjarnason has also turned in an excellent contemporary classical debut for the label.

Machinefabriek, De Jonge Jaren

Machinefabriek tends to be somewhat on the prolific side, so much so that you imagine there must be limited edition releases the existence of which even he has forgotten about. Maybe he stumbled across a batch of old CD-Rs in his basement recently, for De Jonge Jaren is an 18 track compilation of self-distributed material from “the old days”, the period from 2001-2004 when Rutger Zuyderfelt was still finding his feet as an artist. Within this collection you’ll hear him trying out more overtly melodic and rhythmic ideas, incorporating playful electronica, hip-hop drumming and even horns. If you didn’t know better, you’d be hard pressed to identify much of this as Machinefabriek at all; it sounds like something that could have been released on the Leaf label in the early part of last decade. It would certainly have been good enough. And what makes it even better is that De Jonge Jaren is available to download for free from the Machinefabriek website. The enjoyability/cost ratio therefore tends to the infinite.

Konntinent, Opal Island (Home Normal)

I’ve enjoyed the previous efforts from Anthony Harrison’s Konntinent project very much indeed, but Opal Island feels like a step up in class. While it has always been a part of the Konntinent sound, the electronic element is now much more refined and significant. I caught him live last year supporting Machinefabriek and it seems that that artist, amongst certain others, has been a big influence on the Konntinent sound. For on Opal Island, glitch mingles amongst guitar experimentation, microscopic rhythms fitting in perfectly amongst the more familiar shoegaze textures.