IGLOO Magazine´s Darren Bergstein best picks of 2020

https://igloomag.com/features/darren-bergstein-best-picks-of-2020

The Guardian albums of the year

Snow Catches on her Eyelashes on Richard Williams list

Richard Williams best of 2020

Albums 

Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways 
Ambrose Akinmusire – On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment 
The Necks – Three 
Irreversible Entanglements – Who Sent You? 
Maria Schneider – Data Lords 
Hedvig Mollestad – Ekhidna 
Bruce Springsteen – Letter to You 
Matana Roberts and Pat Thomas – The Truth 
Keith Tippett – The Monk Watches the Eagle 
Eivind Aarset / Jan Bang – Snow Catches on Her Eyelashes 
The Henrys – Paydirt 
Pete Judge – Piano 2 
Robert Cray Band – That’s What I Heard 
Martin Pyne – Spirits of Absent Dancers 
Carla Bley / Andy Sheppard / Steve Swallow – Life Goes On 
Jasper Høiby – Planet B 
Matt Rollings – Mosaic 
Soft Machine – Live at the Baked Potato 
Diana Krall – This Dream of You 
Hailu Mergia – Yene Mircha

The Guardian

Uli´s favoriten 2020

Snow Catches on her Eyelashes on the end of the year lists

20213Jan

Uli’s Favoriten 2020

von: Uli Koch Filed under: Blog | TB |  No Comments

Nun wird es endlich Zeit, wo doch das neue Jahr schon angebrochen ist, meinen Jahresrückblick zu schreiben. Der wird dieses mal aus 33 Favoriten, 11 Wiederveröffentlichungen und 3 Nachträgen für 2019 bestehen und zieht dabei einen spannenden Bogen zwischen meiner zweiten Phase der Musiksozialisation und der Gegenwart. Einer der wichtigsten Protagonisten ist hier Jon Hassell, dessen Alben mich vom ersten Hören an in ihren Bann gezogen haben und dies, nicht nur bei den Reissues, auch heute noch tun. Andere waren und sind Brian Eno und der jüngst von uns gegangene Harold Budd, deren Plateaux of Mirrors ich zum ersten mal in einer kaputten Anlage in einem alten, schrottigen R4 bei der Fahrt in den Sonnenuntergang hörte. Die Musik hat trotzdem funktioniert und fasziniert. Womit der 4. Musiker der Ambient 1-4 Serie, Laraaji natürlich nicht fehlen darf, dessen Sun & Moon Piano es zwar knapp nicht in meine Favoriten geschafft haben, aber dafür der grandiose, einfache Konzertmitschnitt Through Luminous Eyes, wo Laraaji ganz entspannt mit einer Hand Piano und mit der anderen Zither spielt. Ein weiteres Highlight ist Markus Stockhausens Wild Life, das ein überbordendes Statement seiner Kreativität und Originalität ist. 
 

    1. Stephan Thelen – World Dialogue
    2. Peter Schwalm/Arve Henriksen – Neuzeit
    3. Jon Hassell – Seeing Through Sound
    4. Max De Wardener – Music for Detuned Pianos
    5. Eivind Aarset/Jan Bang – Snow Catches On Her Eyelashes
    6. Roedelius – Selbstportrait: Wahre Liebe
    7. Phillip Sollmann – Monophonie
    8. Bohren & Der Club Of Gore – Patchouli Blue
    9. Pantha Du Prince – Conference Of Trees
    10. Paradise Cinema
    11. Ceeys – Hausmusik
    12. Echo Collective – The See Within
    13. Irmin Schmidt – Nocturne
    14. Yello – Point Yello
    15. Jo David Meyer Lysne/Mats Eilertsen – Kroksjø
    16. Roger Eno/Brian Eno – Mixing Colours (Extended)
    17. Samuel Rohrer – Continual Decentering
    18. Maxwell Sterling – Laced With Rumour: Loud-Speaker Of Truth
    19. Markus Stockhausen – Wild Life
    20. Deux Balaines Blanches – Singende Drähte
    21. Laraaji – Through Luminous Eyes
    22. Die Wilde Jagd – Haut
    23. Cosmo Sheldrake – Wake Up Calls
    24. Nicolas Jaar – Cenizas
    25. Eyvind Kang – Ajaeng Ajaeng
    26. Giorgi Mikadze – Georgian Microjamz
    27. Acid Pauli – MOD
    28. Sonar w. David Torn – Tranceportation Vol 2
    29. Robin Guthrie/Harold Budd – Another Flower
    30. Loma – Don’t Shy Away
    31. Sevdaliza – Shabrang
    32. Jonny Nash & Teguh Permana – Poe
    33. Christina Vantzou & JAB – Landscape Architecture

 

Manafonistas.com

Jon Hassell - Seeing Through Sound (Pentimento vol. 2)

Jan guest appearing on the new Jon Hassell album

Jon Hassell has released a new album on Ndeya/Warp featuring guest appearance by Jan Bang on the track Reykjavik. The album is a companion piece to 2018´s Listening to Pictures.

 

- Whilst containing seeds of classic ‘fourth world’ fusion, this record finds the artist still questing to create new forms and mutations of music, a thrilling window into what music could sound like in a world to come.

- jonhassell.com

 

Jon Hassell

Snow Catches on her Eyelashes

Best albums of the year by Michael Engelbrecht (Manafonistas/Deutschland Radio)

 

  1. Burd Ellen: Says The Never Beyond (folk noir treasures)
  2. Jon Hassell: Seeing Through Sound – („into the impossible“)
  3. Bill Callahan: Gold Record (unfolding its gold slowly)
  4. Fiona Apple: Fetch The Bolt Cutters (one word: terrific!)
  5. The Flaming Lips: American Head (past wounds, shining)
  6. Bob Dylan: Rough and Rowdy Ways (his best one since …)
  7. Cyrillus Kreek: The Suspended Harp of Babel (wow!)
  8. Terje Rypdal: Conspiracy (blue, blue, electric blue)
  9. Die Wilde Jagd: Haut (masterpiece in song & sound)
  10. Tony Allen & Hugh  Masekela: Rejoice (no ounce of fat)
  11. Roger and Brian Eno: Mixing Colours (a stunning grower)
  12. Einstürzende Neubauten: Alles in allem (still seductive)
  13. J. Peter Schwalm & Arve Henriksen: Neuzeit (archaic)
  14. Shabaka and The Ancestors: We Are Sent Here By History 
  15. Anja Lechner & Francois Couturier: Lontano (deep and wide)
  16. Afel Bocoum: Lindé (old Africa, and beyond)
  17. Alabaster DePlume: To Cy and Lee, Instrumentals Vol. 1
  18. Aquiles Navarro & Tcheser Holmes: Heritage of the Invisible II
  19. Strings & Timpani: Voice & Strings & Timpani (overflowing)
  20. Benjamin Moussay: Promontoire (soft and courageous)
  21. Eivind Aarset & Jan Bang: Snow Catches on her Eyelashes 
  22. Wire: Mind Hive (a biting beast, melancolia included)
  23. Carla Bley: Life Goes On (grip & a sense of wonder)
  24. Nat Birchall meets Al Breadwinner: Tradition Disc In Dub
  25. Tunng: Dead Club (playful treatment of the existential)
  26. Jon Balke: Discourses (piano solo and  beyond)
  27. Matt Berninger: Serpentine Prison (another wayfarin‘ stranger)
  28. The  Necks: Three (they just can‘t do the average )
  29. Rustin Man: Clockdust (on certain nights my number 1)
  30. Beatrice Dillon: Workaround (static, cool, but strangely moving)
  31. M. Ward: Think of Spring (the art of understated guitar)
  32. Belbury Poly: The Gone Away  (english hinterland dreaminess)
  33. Paradise Cinema: Paradise Cinema (fourth world lucidity)
Manafonistas

Arve Henriksen / Eivind Aarset / Jan Bang

Rave review of Snow catches at her Eyelashes + The Height of the Reeds at Punkt 2020

Punkt

Stup, Kristiansand, Norway

Punkt co-creator Jan Bang was particularly active this year, involved with two notable sets that revolved around recently released albums.

Originally a commission from the 2017 Hull City Of Culture, spanning the Humber Bridge, The Height Of The Reeds featured Bang, trumpeter Arve Henriksen and guitarist Eivind Aarset, along with a string-heavy small ensemble.

Henriksen’s delicate vocals made a faint awakening before the storm ahead,
as Bang found low-submersible tones, from straining cargo ship bowels, Humber imagery scudding across the back-screen. They achieved a sustained, morose lyricism that was turned into a more single-dimensioned mood during Helge Sten’s live remix.

Bang was at his best in partnership with Aarset, reflecting their album, Snow Catches On Her Eyelashes. This was one of the festival’s key sets, best described as ‘active ambient’. Made from cyclic coo-ing, 1950s cosmic whorls, after Fripp & Eno, and catching the perfect gloaming-time, again. The view outside these top floor windows held an uncanny power, in this new setting. There was a later graduation to metallic fracturing, perfectly set in a foundation tableau of silence, as Aarset played phrases imbued with a more apparent guitar origin.

Martin Longley, Jazzwise (UK)

(Photo: Alf Solbakken)

Jazzwise

Reviews: Punkt

Punkt 2020 part 1

Review in Norwegian by Arild R. Andersen at Jazz i Norge 

Read

Punkt 2020 part II

Reviewed by Arild. R. Andersen in Jazzinorge.

(Norwegian review)

 

Photo of Artist in Residence Anja Lauvdal by Alf Solbakken

Read
Punkt will continue as planned 3-5 September, including the world premiere of The Height of the Reeds with Arve Henriksen and Eivind Aarset plus a string ensemble. Also, Jan and Eivind will perform a concert of the acclaimed album Snow Catches on her Eyelashes. See punkfestival.no for details.

Punkt will continue as planned 3-5 September, including the world premiere of The Height of the Reeds with Arve Henriksen and Eivind Aarset plus a string ensemble. Also, Jan and Eivind will perform a concert of the acclaimed album Snow Catches on her Eyelashes. See punkfestival.no for details.