Category: releases

pan y rosas release ribcage/davidsongs by cut a lonely figure!

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Cut A Lonely Figure (formerly known as Thank You, Merciless Onlookers) is the musical alias of Blue Tapes and X-Ray Records founder David McNamee.

His new album for pan y rosas consists of two pices. ribcage is a longform brutalist piano composition figuratively depicting two pianos being slowly pulled apart and then pushed back together over the course of its pounding 23-minute runtime. The second piece, davidsongs, is a medley of semi-improvised pieces for chamber organ and piano that functions as a sort of comedown or balm from the intensity of the a-side.

Get the album here!

pan y rosas release Where The Wind Takes Us by Trio CZW

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Trio CZW are improviser, composer and jazz musician Paul Cheneour (flutes) who invokes aspects of classical Indian and Persian music, composes for film and performs with—amongst others—the Zen Bicycle Band and ‘Whereness’; the British-Colombian composer Alistair Zaldua (e-violin) – whose recent work has focused on the interplay between notation and improvisation; and experimental musician Maureen Wolloshin (oboe and cor anglais) – who works between notation, improvisation, composition and performance. They describe their collaborative practice as ‘cartographism’: improvisations that are informed by graphic and text scores that can be imagined as maps and allows them to explore, traverse and uncover dynamic spaces.

Based in Canterbury, UK, Trio CZW have been active since 2019 and, as an offshoot of the Free Range Orchestra, emerged from the Free Range Experimental Music Concert Series in Canterbury, UK. Like FRO, the influences of Trio CZW comprise experimental jazz and free improvisation, live electronic music, and experimental sound poetry.

Where The Wind Takes Us is a suite of improvisations inspired by sonic paintings, graphic notation, or titles created during the covid-19 lockdown in the UK. The performances evoke the isolation and stasis the trio experienced during this period, together with the energy and enjoyment of playing together in the beautiful surroundings of St. Mary of Charity Church in Faversham, a traditional Kentish market town, close to Canterbury, where Maureen lives. The recordings were made in single takes using two ambient microphones positioned to capture the acoustic quality of the building and the natural sounds of the instruments within it.

Get the album here!

pan y rosas release dirty dialogues by dirty electronics ensemble, jon.ogara, and anna xambó!

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Dirty Electronics focuses on shared experiences, ritual, gesture, touch and social interaction. In Dirty Electronics, process and performance are inseparably bound. The ‘performance’ begins on the workbench devising instruments and is extended onto the stage through playing and exploring these instruments. This time around the ensemble consists of John Richards, Amit D Patel aka Dushume, Audrey Riley, Sam Topley, Harry Smith, Zach Dawson, Robin Foster, Jacob Myer Braslawsce, Ben Middle, Samuel Warren, Matt Rogerson. Photo by Susanne Grunewald.

Jon.Ogara started his musical path by learning the flute at school and discovered the delights of classical music. He studied electronics at the University of Manchester with a focus on radio communications. At university, he learnt the guitar and started to create more independent rock music, influenced by bands such as The Fall or Cabaret Voltaire. He discovered the saxophone and Jazz and started to bring together ideas of Jazz improvisation into his composition. With the development of the internet and connected devices, he started to explore the world of experimental music and began to share ideas and compositions.

Anna Xambó is a researcher and musician with a background in computer science engineering, digital humanities and digital arts. She completed her phd in 2015 (the open university), specializing in music computing and HCI, and is currently a senior lecturer in music and audio technology (de Montfort University). Her musical practice includes live coding, multichannel spatialization, tangible music, collaborative interfaces, audience participation with mobile devices, and intelligent music systems for music performance. She has performed internationally and works actively in the music tech and experimental electronic music scenes as a co-founder of the online music record label Carpal Tunnel in Barcelona (Spain); as co-founder of Women in Music Tech at Georgia Tech (USA); as co-founder of Women Nordic Music Technology (Norway); and as a co-organizer of international concerts.

Dirty Dialogues documents a live encounter between Dirty Electronics Ensemble, Jon.Ogara and Anna Xambó in a free music improvisation session after a long pandemic lockdown. Thirteen musicians on stage combining analogue and digital instruments, acoustic and electronic materials, live coding and DIY sound-making techniques. An intense polymorphic journey of sonic exploration and chaos, which is especially recommended for noise music lovers. This album was recorded on May 17, 2021 at PACE (De Montfort University) with no audience due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Get the album here!

pan y rosas release Baroque Summer by Brice Catherin, Jacques Demierre, Anouck Genthon and Matthias Klenota!

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Brice Catherin willingly stepped away from the contemporary music institutions in 2006 in order to freely develop a few activities as a multi-instrumental cellist, improviser, composer and art performer. These activities fed into each another, so that beyond his multidisciplinary shows and improvised concerts, he has never stopped composing and premiering written pieces.

Jacques Demierre is a pianist, composer and improviser. Whether acoustic or electroacoustic, respectful of the frames of traditional writing or freely improvised, his experimentations can be music just as well as sound poetry and sound interventions in situ. They are nonetheless all moved by the same search for awareness of sound.

Born in France, Anouck Genthon is a violinist, improviser and ethnomusicologist based in Geneva (CH). She anchors her work in the development of her own improvised language through the experience of sound and listening. She likes to engage in transversal forms of research forms and she plays in various contexts at the crossroads of improvised, experimental, contemporary, electroacoustic and traditional music through different projects from solo to large ensembles. She is a member of @ptt collective (promotion of acoustic art in the fields of music, language and visual arts) and Insub. in Geneva. She is the author of “Fictation” (Gamut, 2020) and “Tuareg Music. From political symbolism to aesthetic singularization” (L’Harmattan, 2012).

Brice, Jacques, Anouck, and Matthias Klenota came together for a day to record a new album of improvised music on ancient music instruments. They met at the studio @ptt in Chêne-Bougeries, Switzerland on 22nd of July 2021 and played for most of the afternoon, except Anouck who could join only towards the end. They shared a spinet, a clavichord, a (baroque) violin, two piccolo violins (built by Robin Jousson) and a five-string cello (built by Robin Jousson too). Brice arrived first, followed by Jacques, then Matthias, and finally Anouck. Brice recorded, edited, and mixed the improvisations; and later made the album cover and imposed the silly titles.

Get the album here!

pan y rosas release hell courtesan by reid karris & clint spotts!

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Reid Karris is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound enthusiast and improviser hailing from Chicago, Illinois trying very hard to get all the music stuck in his head out for all the world to hear. His primary instruments for doing so are prepared guitar and drum kit sent through electronics.

Clint Spotts is a self-taught guitarist and noise mechanic from Northern Minnesota where the water reflects the sky and wild things thrive. He’s got a thrift store aura and haunting jive. The sounds will out and come alive.

For their first album together Reid recorded his contribution in Hinsdale, Illinois while Clint recorded his in Chisholm, Minnesota. A trans-midwestern improvised collage. Prepared guitars, synths, bent circuits, voice, bowls, kaiser devices, scatchboxes, etc.

Get the album here.

pan y rosas release phoebe dances with philip by philip corner!

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Philip corner is an: action musician, trombone/alphornist, occasional vocalist, pianist, percussionist, theorist, visual artist. Additionally he is a(n): composer, improvisor, educator, collageur, assembleur, calligrapher. Further, he is a: student of Jahoda, Cowell, Messiaen, Luening, Borduas, Cage, Taubman.

He is also a fluxologist. Listen. Silence. Resonance. Surroundings. Action. Ecstasy.

His new album is an audio/video collection of three collaborations with the dancer Phoebe Neville. Phoebe and Philip began working together in September of 1991 shortly after Phoebe’s surgery for breast cancer. The first two performances took place when she was undergoing radiology/chemotherapy treatment. She completed her chemotherapy treatments one month after the second performance. Ear/Body was performed one week after Philip Corner underwent surgery. What is the interface between Art and Healing?

Get the album here.

pan y rosas release treebird (ep) by treebird!

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Treebird is Marie Finch (voice, movement), Michiko Theurer (violin), and Julie Herndon (keys, electronics). We believe in building immersive connections between music, art, and movement, with a goal to make a space for trust, openness, and play.

This is Treebird’s debut album. It was improvised, recorded, and composed at a distance between March 2020 and March 2021 on walks and calls, in bedrooms and backyards. Voice, violin, found sounds, harmonium, electronics, clarinet.

Get the album here!

pan y rosas release flying with dry leaves by orlando

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Orlando is a musician from Campina Grande, a country town in the state of Paraíba, Brazil. He has been involved with activities related to popular music since 1995 when he began his career as an upright bassist.

In his new album, Flying With Dry Leaves, Orlando, in partnership with MakinaGuru (his notebook), takes a trip through the electric and upright bass and its multitude of sounds. Through poetic, free, open, and improvised expressions he seeks to take new paths to express his hope for clearer and freer days. There are four tracks that explore electronic textures and the sounds of daily life in times of seemingly eternal quarantine. Flying With Dry Leaves pays homage to those who are gone and the endless ways that life moves on, always moving forward. Orlando’s music is concerned with cultivating the beauty that exists in continuing to imagine days in which a better world is possible.

Get the album here.

pan y rosas release reunión en la granja by giménez lópez, bass, suarez, scampino!

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Rocío Giménez López is a pianist improviser and composer who graduated from Escuela Provincial de Música Santa Fe where she studied classical piano. She later focused on the interpretation and improvisation of jazz language attending piano lessons with Marilyn Crispell, Craig Taborn, Leo Genovese and Agustí Fernández.

Luciana Bass is a guitarist, improviser and sound artist graduated in Sound Arts and Design at the University of the Arts London. She was captivated by the possibilities of free improvised music to which she has been dedicated for the last 10 years. Today it is the union between written and improvised music what mostly interests her.

Fermín Suárez is a double bass player, improviser and composer from Rosario, Argentina. As a part of the city´s independent music scene, he has collaborated on a large amount of projects involving different styles of music such as Argentinian tango, jazz, free improvisation and Latin American song writing. Often performing live, touring, and recording as a session musician.

Rosina Scampino is a drummer, composer and educator. Her musicality and highly sensitive touch on the drums are what characterize her playing. A native of Rosario, Argentina, Rosina aims to create a sound that represents her South American musical roots in the context of contemporary jazz. Rosina strives to make every performance a positive and joyful experience, and her passion for music has relocated her to Boston, MA, where she currently resides.

Their new album is a document of an afternoon they spent making music together when Rosina visited her home country in 2019. The group performed and recorded songs by Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, and Paul Motian. It is co-released with the Argentine record label, Discos ICM.

Get the album here!

pan y rosas release drop shadow on airport runway by nicolas tourney!

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Nicolas Tourney is a French experimental musician, sound designer, and owner of the label Snow in Water Records. His electronic works concern perception and act of listening, with the use of various strings, drones and noise-making devices.

His new album was inspired by the heatwave evenings of June 2018, in the south of France, when the heat made sleep impossible. The music is constructed like a soundtrack for a film where the narrative is generated directly by public cameras at airports. Timbres, intensities, pitches and rhythms offer a perceptual immersion, guided by microphones, that opens us to our habits and our dreams.

This musical piece was originally presented during the JeffersonParkExp 2020. You can see the live performance here: https://vimeo.com/480151771

Get the album here!