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We’ve all been recommended great music from a friend, a relative, a colleague,
an acquaintance, a parent even; music we would never have found otherwise,
music that goes under the radar, outside the Spotify algorithm recommendations
or advertisements. It’s the magic of word of mouth, the result of chance,
interpersonal relationships and curiosity, so many variables that give the
gems we find thanks to it a special quality.Â
In the internet years, with so much music released every day, independent
labels have taken on the mantle of curator, of that friend that recommends new
and hidden music. We all have our favourites, of course, Clean Feed, Trost,
Thrill Jockey, ECM, Impulse! and hundreds more for virtually every music
genre, and once you find a label whose taste you resonate with a rabbit hole
of great music opens up in front of you, music and artists that will be among
your favourites that you might not have found had you not browsed the label’s
catalogue.
Over ten years ago, I came across the album San Sheng Shi by Chinese
avant-garde musician Li Jianhong, falling in love with his music and his
particular approach to the guitar. Ever since then I’ve amassed a small
collection of his releases and one day, while browsing Bandcamp looking to
expand this tiny heap of records, I came across a label I’d never heard of
before: WV Sorcerer Productions, based in France and managed by Chinese
musician Ruotan Shen. In addition to the Li Jianhong material I was looking
for I found a treasure trove of music spanning most genres in the experimental
domain, from free improvisation to traditional folk, most of it focusing on
musicians from China and France, but not exclusively. Although some of the
music in the label’s catalogue falls outside the purview of the music we
tackle on this site I encourage everyone to give a chance to the psych rock of
Mong Tong, the tribalistic Pays du Mat or the futuristic singer-songwriter
Otay:onii whose incredible vocals are in high demand lately and who, in my
opinion, will be the next big thing in independent music.
For fans of freely improvised music there’s a lot to sink your teeth into,
I’ve tried to compile some of my favourites here.
Li Jianhong & Wen Zhiyong & Deng Boyu –
Les trois amis de l’hiver Â
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A patient, meditative release that, through its sheer size reaches emotional
highs I’ve rarely heard in purely improvised music. One massive live
performance split into two CDs of world-class improv, with fantastic interplay
and perfectly balanced peaks and valleys of energy. Li Jianhong’s massive
guitar never overshadows Wen Zhiyong’s more delicate trumpet, sometimes
exchanged for a flute and often augmented with or possibly used as a
controller for synthesizers that, despite their cold and digital sound, retain
the articulation and phrasing of a brass instrument. The drumming is fluid and
exciting, providing a great foundation for the other instruments while also
showing off Deng Boyu’s talent and chops. A fantastic trio that tries
something new and succeedes with flying colors, I hope this isn’t the last we
see of this ensemble.
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Not the only ZAÄAR release on the label but by far my favourite; the Belgian
collective merges staples of western free improvisation like the tenor
saxophone with middle eastern instruments like the zurna and the iranian
santur without falling into clichéd orientalist faux-traditional music we can
hear on some Hollywood soundtracks. They merge the organic sound of wind and
hammered instruments with inorganic synths and heavily processed vocals that
are more textural and ritualistic than lyrical into a mutant, alien kind of
music that’s simply ZAÄAR’s signature sound. It’s a live album and it embraces
what makes a live album great: the volume, the tactile feel of the recording,
the blemishes and the unmatched energy of being in a room performing in front
of an attentive audience. The stage is where ZAÄAR thrives and here they’re
firing on all cylinders for your listening pleasure.
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This duo from Anton Ponomarev and Anton Obrazeena pushes free improvisation to
its limit, bordering and often venturing into the realm of pure noise music.
The album is a tour de force, a relentless assault on the senses that needs to
be experienced in one sitting and at dangerously high volume. Its four pieces
are purposeful exercises in tension and sonic exploration through a heavily
distorted guitar, noisy electronics, samples and a screaming saxophone, all
focusing on texture and volume over rhythm or melody in pursuit of pure
catharsis. The final track is a more conceptual piece of contemporary music,
revolving around the processed sample of the plane Obrazeena flew leaving
Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. A long, loud and challenging release,
that’s freeing and purifying the way great noise music can be. Â Â
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Possibly my favourite release on the label, it prominently features the
saxophone of firebrand Wang Ziheng, one of the wildest, most expressive
saxophonists around today interacting in a live setting with German audio
artist Anton Kaun. The album explores sound in a holistic way, remaining
meditative even in its most aggressive moments, a balancing act between the
electronics, the percussion and the woodwind; there’s a delicacy behind the
countless layers of sound. This is truly free music, little to no rules and
expectations of jazz-inspired music remain, no constraints or regulations,
just pure expression. And the fantastic music is only one element of this
release: the physical edition includes a gorgeous 200-page art and photography
book of the artists on the tour that would result in the music on the album.
It’s an audio-visual piece of art and, while the music is great and can be
purchased digitally on its own, the book is just as important for the
experience, I highly recommend purchasing the physical edition although the
price can be steep.
As mentioned before, the incredibly talented improvisers on the label’s roster
are but one facet of the music that gets released, the latest offerings being
a soundtrack for theater by multimedia artist Cheng Daoyuan and a smokey dark
folk album by singer-songwriter SophÃa Djebel Rose.
‘Human decadence & cosmic existence‘ reads the label bio and all
the albums they put out perfectly encapsulate this simple phrase, the push and
pull of the melancholy, decay and sorrow that are part of what it means to be
human with the drive to transcend, to express oneself and create something
beautiful and meaningful.