Read "Evolving Expert," an Interview with Erik Friedlander

By Marc Masters and Grayson Currin for Pitchfork (The Out Door #14):

If you need cello on a record, Erik Friedlander might be a decent person to call. He's the musician summoning those dark storms on the Mountain Goats' "Dilaudid", and he's one of two cellists on Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite. He's played with John Zorn, Mike Patton, Wynton Marsalis, Ricky Martin, and Alanis Morissette. What's more, he's several albums into a solo career that keeps getting better.

Read the rest here. Erik performed selections from his Maldoror record at Soundlab on 04/19/04

Read "Beyond Fahey"

By Marc Masters and Grayson Currin for Pitchfork (The Out Door #14):

A few months ago, music writer Ned Raggett followed up an interview with Six Organs of Admittance's Ben Chasny by jokingly offering to let Chasny interview him. Chasny took him seriously. And among his many interesting questions was this thought-provoking charge:

"What do you think about every music writer comparing every acoustic guitar player to John Fahey as if he had the greatest influence on everyone? Isn't this the same sort of critical reductionism that would not be allowed in any sort of serious art journal? Wouldn't that be the equivalent of... comparing every single music writer to Lester Bangs?"

Raggett gave a typically thoughtful answer, but I later joked with him that he should've told Chasny that acoustic guitarists who want to stop being compared to Fahey should stop sounding like him. I was being facetious, but I do think there's more happening here than reductionism. It's true that no guitarist is a Fahey clone-- that would be impossible, since Fahey's own career was too wide and contradictory to be captured by one style. Chasny himself has proven that with his work as Six Organs of Admittance; while he has echoed Fahey and many other acoustic masters, those echoes often take a back seat to his own creative voice.

Read the rest here.

Attend Jooklo Duo & Bill Nace/Steve Baczkowski Live at Soundlab Record Release Tonight

Tonight, June 3, 9pm, $10 general, $8 members/students/seniors--JOOKLO DUO (Virgina Genta (tenor saxophone); David Vanzan (drums, percussion). And celebrating their record release Live in Buffalo on 8mm Records recorded live at Soundlab in Buffalo N.Y. in July 2009: BILL NACE (electric guitar); STEVE BACZKOWSKI (baritone/bass/tenor saxophones).

"Coming at free jazz from psych rock, Jooklo Duo hones in on the mystical sound of Coltrane and Ayler, and plays its own enthusiastic, lo-fi version." - East Bay Express

Hallwalls and Soundlab presents the Buffalo debut of Jooklo Duo, a saxophone and drum duo featuring Italian musicians Virginia Genta and David Vanzan. Motivated by the furious playing of free jazz pioneers like Albert Ayler, Rashied Ali, Sunny Murray and Arthur Doyle, Jooklo Duo is one of the loudest, most high-energy avant-garde jazz projects making music today.

Italian tenor saxophonist Virginia Genta and drummer David Vanzan formed Jooklo Duo in 2004, and released their first album, Free Serpents, two years later. They have since toured extensively in Europe and the US in duo, and also in various configurations under the names Neokarma Jooklo Octet, Neokarma Jooklo Trio, Golden Jooklo Age, Jooklo Fire Quartet, and Jooklo Finnish Quartet, and with musicians such as Sonny Simmons, Maurizio Abate, Makoto Kawabata, Tero Kemppainen, Andrew Barker, Chris Corsano, Peaking Lights, Bill Nace, Paul Flaherty, Daniel Carter, Sabir Mateen, John Blum, John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Takehisa Kosugi (Taj Mahal Travellers), Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Thurston Moore and Lee Ronaldo of Sonic Youth, Hartmut Geerken, Famodou Don Moye, Makoto Kawabata, Muruga Booker, Raymond Strid, and Giorgio Pacorig. In 2010, they released High on Genta's Troglosound imprint and The Warrior 7" on Northern Spy. This will be their first concert in Buffalo.

Jooklo Duo partnered with guitar wizard, Bill Nace, and will descend upon the East Coast and Midwest for 20+ dates from May 19th through June 17th. Touring in support of their 7" release The Warrior on Northern-Spy Records, released last November, and Where Has the Jazz Gone on the duo's own Italian imprint Troglosound, released in March, the group will play shows in Philadelphia, Washington DC, Baltimore, Jersey City, New York City, New Haven, Providence, Boston, Northampton, Albany, Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Chicago, Lafayette, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. Upon completion of their tour the band will record their first state-side full-length LP in Brooklyn for Northern-Spy which will be released in early 2012.

jooklo.altervista.org

Steve Baczkowski and Bill Nace Steve Baczkowski & Bill Nace – Live in Buffalo, 8mm Records:

"…LP that documents a furious duo exchange between US power saxophonist Steve Baczkowski (best loved for his work with Flaherty/Corsano and his duo with Ravi Padmanabha) and Northeast guitar mangler Bill Nace (Northampton Wools, Vampire Belt, Blood Stereo et al). Recorded live in Buffalo this is a wild side, with more in common with the sense-destroying attack of Borbetomagus circa Zurich than anything coming out of the post-Ayler tradition. Baczkowski balances huge sheet metal waves on the tip of his tongue while Nace takes a grinder to the table-top guitar ala Donald Miller. There are some eerie passages of high-tension silence populated by non-specific electronics, slithering drones, vocals and high lonesome feedback but they don't last long and it's the molten peaks that keep you coming back again and again. Industrial strength free jazz from a duo who know." – Volcanic Tongue