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Jazz Articles about Liudas Mockūnas

11
Album Review

Hugo Carvalhais: Ascetica

Read "Ascetica" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Venerable Portuguese bassist Hugo Carvalhais' “Ascetica" is a mesmerizing journey into the depths of progressive jazz, offering a soundscape which is vast and immersive, crafted with meticulous attention to detail. Carvalhais and his ensemble, create a polygonal musical environment through a blend of electronic manipulations, ambient soundscapes, springy synth riffs, and forceful sax soloing, often raising the temperature and broadening the scope. With blossoming jazz improvisations amid pulsating rock motifs, they occasionally generate fluctuating time signatures and slippery phrasings.

13
Album Review

Liudas Mockūnas / Arvydas Kazlauskas: Purvs

Read "Purvs" reviewed by Mark Corroto


If you need evidence that the very first musicians, our evolutionary ancestors, made sounds to imitate nature, Purvs may be the proof. The Latvian and Lithuanian saxophonists Arvydas Kazlauskas and Liudas Mockūnas made two recordings, one in an open air Latvian bog marsh which makes up the first LP of this release and the second LP in an amphitheater made of peat, called Saulgrieži (summer solstice), by the Latvian artist Janis Gutans-Grass. Mockūnas may be the better known ...

6
Album Review

Nate Wooley / Liudas Mockunas / Barry Guy / Arkadijus Gotesmanas: Nox

Read "Nox" reviewed by John Sharpe


Nox presents a four-piece uniting two of Lithuania's finest improvisers, reedman Liudas Mockunas and drummer Arkadijus Gotesmanas, with two world class instrumentalists, trumpeter Nate Wooley and bassist Barry Guy. Recorded at the 2019 Improdimensions Festival in Vilnius, the limited edition LP (also available as a download) contains three collectively sculpted tracks, demonstrating a unity of purpose which belies their off-the-wall genesis. Gotesmanas' spare non-metric clatter and acute punctuation plays a defining role, enabling a transparent sound which ...

2
Album Review

Liudas Mockūnas & Arvydas Kazlauskas: Purvs

Read "Purvs" reviewed by Vitalijus Gailius


Purvs is a collaboration between two outstanding Lithuanian saxophone players, Liudas Mockūnas and Arvydas Kazlauskas. Despite being friends for a long time they have never played together before. The album was made in two parts. The first recording took place in the autumnal splendour of Latvian marshland, the second in an ampitheatre made of peat, named Saulgrieži (Solstice) and created by Latvian artist Janis Gutans-Grass. Two remarkable places to make a record, which is also special in that ...

4
Album Review

Agustí Fernández / Liudas Mockūnas: Improdimensions

Read "Improdimensions" reviewed by John Sharpe


As one of Lithuania's premier improvisers, reedman Liudas Mockūnas has partnered an enormous array of visiting luminaries over the years. The duet is a favored format which has seen the multi-instrumentalist in tandem with bassist Barry Guy, drummer William Hooker and guitarist Marc Ducret, just to name those documented on NoBusiness Records. Here the accomplished Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández acts as the foil. The limited edition LP (also available as a download) comprises two three-part encounters recorded ...

5
Album Review

Liudas Mockūnas: Hydro 2

Read "Hydro 2" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Hydro 2 is water music, but it's not to be confused with the orchestral pieces composed by George Frideric Handel back in the early 18th century. Lithuanian saxophonist Liudas Mockūnas is headed even further back in time, back to some Darwinian vision of evolution from the murky primordial seas, forward to our bipedal momentum. Note: If you happen to be a follower of creationism, you might want to skip forward a bit here. Mockūnas, who might be best known as ...

6
Album Review

Liudas Mockūnas: Hydro 2

Read "Hydro 2" reviewed by Vitalijus Gailius


Liudas Mockūnas, an iconic Lithuanian improvisation and jazz figure, still continues his exploration of water. By combining water and reeds he steps into an unpredictable and unique sonic meadow. His first attempt to put the bridle on water, Hydro, was released in 2017 by NoBusiness Records. At the end of 2018 the same label presented the second part, Hydro 2. Like its predecessor it is a solo record. Water and solo? On one hand that sounds promising, but on the ...


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