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Articles by Eyal Hareuveni

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Album Review

SLM Ensemble: Source

Read "Source" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


SLM is an acronym for Source Liminal Music as well as a tri-consonantal root of of the Hebrew and Arabic words for peace, shalom and salam. It is also the name of a composition of master double bassist Mark Dresser and composer-conductor Sarah Weaver, written for the “Deep Tones for Peace" event in April 2009, a concert of 13 innovative double bass players, performing live simultaneously in jny: Jerusalem, Israel and New York (captured on the CD/DVD Deep Tones for ...

5
Album Review

Porta Palace Collective: Neuroplastic Groove

Read "Neuroplastic Groove" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


The Italian Porta Palace Collective began its work as a Torino-based quintet led by trumpeter Johnny Lapio releasing its self-titled debut album last year (Rudi Records, 2015). This album offered European abstraction of modern jazz with with touches of free jazz and avant-garde, featuring the Collective augmented by veteran trombonist Giancarlo Schiaffini, known from the Italian Instabile Orchestra and many collaborations with European free-improvisers, as the main composer.The follow-up album, Neuroplastic Groove, expands the already established aesthetics, continues ...

6
Album Review

Régis Huby 4tet: Equal Crossing

Read "Equal Crossing" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


French violinist Régis Huby's solo projects are quite rare. His previous solo album, Simple Sound was released nine years ago (Le Chant Du Monde, 2007), nine years after his debut album, Le Sentiment Des Brutes (Transes Européennes, 1998). Still, Huby is one of the busiest and most original musicians on the French scene, one who refuses to follow genre or style boundaries, a producer and the head of the Abalone Production label. He recorded with several European musicians, among them ...

6
Album Review

Axel Erotic: In Love With

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French drummer-percussionist Sylvain Darrifourcq describes In Love With, his trio Axel Erotic debut album, as “the curves of the desire imprisoned somewhere, in a space with an implacably rectilinear geometry. But it's also a pink sky pastel, something of our sexual, epileptic and short-lived world." An apt description of Axel Erotic, a trio that is comprised of classically-trained musicians who like to experiment and improvise on the format of acoustic, chamber jazz.Darrifourcq, known as the drummer of saxophonist ...

6
Album Review

Johan Moir Ensemble: Chasing Shadows

Read "Chasing Shadows" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


The five musicians of Swedish Johan Moir ensemble met at the Academy of Music and Drama of Göteborg. Moir is the bassist, the composer and the director of HearHere Records. His ensemble debut album features his partner, vocalist Casey Moir, who also plays with him in the group Svelia and the duo Mother Jack; saxophonist Malin Wättring, who released last year her highly impressive debut album with her quartet and octet (Glöd, Havtorn, 2015) and plays in saxophonist Anna Högberg ...

5
Album Review

Gina Schwarz Unit featuring Jim Black: Woodclock

Read "Woodclock" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


Austrian, Vienna-based double bassist Gina Schwarz found a true, like-minded musical partner that helped her realize her irreverent vision for today's jazz. American drummer Jim Black joined Schwarz's quintet for her fifth album, solidifying her reputation as a “live-cell therapy to jazz," an opinionated musician who likes to play with opposites--wise and free, gentle and wild, contemplative and energetic, organic and eccentric, blending acoustic instruments with electronics. When you think more about it, these descriptions characterize Black's great ...

5
Album Review

Omri Ziegele Noisy Minority featuring Ray Anderson: Wrong is Right

Read "Wrong is Right" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


The Swiss trio Noisy Minority led by alto saxophonist-poet Omri Ziegele mocks the notion that you can make a clear-cut line between what is right and wrong in jazz or any improvised music. Their aesthetic goes deeper than the often-repeated inverse by pianist Kenny Barron: “if you don't make mistakes, you don't play jazz." Instead, Noisy Minority adopts Italian philosopher Alessandro Bertinetto argument that jazz is not an aesthetic of imperfection but a “perfection of the moment." These ...

7
Album Review

Pia Boda: Chasing Pixies

Read "Chasing Pixies" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


The debut solo album of jny: Los Angeles-Born, Danish saxophonist and educator Pia Boda is an evocative attempt to relive old Viking stories about elves and fairies. The symbolic images about a living nature, the chase of the invisible elves and fairies who were supposed to hover in the air, and we can only sense “contours of creatures moving to somewhere," motivated Boda to create her own personal musical universe. Chasing Pixies, features Boda's jny: Copenhagen-based quartet which ...

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Album Review

Svein Rikard Mathisen: Copenhagen Diaries

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Copenhagen Diaries documents Norwegian, Bergen-based guitarist Svein Rikard Mathisen experiences while studying at the acclaimed Rhythmic Music Conservatory in the Danish capital, an era described by him as a “twilight zone" where “curiosity meets nightmares and angst meets caffeine." Fortunately, Matisen experiences were processed into an appealing yet complex compositions, reflecting the dramatic emotional turmoil of that seminal time. Mathisen core quartet feature Swedish pianist William Larsson and double bassist Paul Hinz and Danish drummer Andreas ...

5
Album Review

Lina Nyberg: Aerials

Read "Aerials" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


There are very few musicians who dare to expand their artistic vision with every new project as Swedish vocalist-songwriter-composer Lina Nyber. Aerials, is the her second installment in a trilogy of albums that offers her unique perspective about the world, the elements and the music itself. Nyberg began the trilogy with the double album The Sirenades (Hoob, 2014), that featured her songs composed for her quintet and the Norrbotten Big Band, sketching poetic images of cyber-seas, monsters and waves. On ...


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