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Mark O'Leary / Peter Friis-Nielsen / Stefan Pasborg: Stoj
In the aptly named Guerilla Series, for Ayler Records, this trio does, indeed, fight a “little war," recording this limited release (400 copies) as a hit-and-run ambush of destruction and noise. Støj is quite surprising for O'Leary, whose previous outings found him detailing more muted sounds with the likes of Supersilent on St. Fin Barre's (Leo, 2009), Tomasz Stanko on Levitation (Leo, 2005), and Cuong Vu on Waiting (Leo, 2007). Here, the Irish guitarist teams with the ...
read moreMark O'Leary / Matthew Shipp: Labyrinth
Like impressionist painters, guitarist Mark O'Leary and pianist Matthew Shipp execute a colorific sequence of abstracts, consisting of semi-structured theme-building developments and free-form dialogues. With blitzing firepower, the duo also fuses nuance and temperance into the big picture. They dish out linear, micro-motifs amid subtle shadings, and fragmented exchanges, but O'Leary ups the ante during several movements via his dark-toned, breakneck single note licks.
Shipp's flickering progressions and rhythmically inclined block chords offer a fertile underpinning throughout. They ...
read moreMark O'Leary: Plucking the Flower
Irish guitarist Mark O'Leary emerged on the global improvised music scene in the last few years, pushing his bold vision and broad scope of musicality through constantly-changing collaborations. O'Leary can cross easily between genres, from progressive, synth-laden rock and seventies fusion to free jazz and abstract soundscapes. The guitarist's encyclopedic interests and remarkable prolificacy are amongst the many subjects he covers in this latest installment of In The Artist's Own Words. Chapter Index Beginning ...
read moreMark O'Leary & Sunny Murray: Ode To Albert Ayler
The digital download-only Ode To Albert Ayler captures gifted Irish guitarist Mark O'Leary improvising with free-jazz and former Albert Ayler and Cecil Taylor drummer Sunny Murray during a 2002 studio session. Here, O'Leary delves into free-form jazz shaded music at the onset of his recording career, prior to his extensive recording projects for Leo Records and other European record labels.
O'Leary gels into various frenzies amid Murray's textural drumming, where the artists perform within the spirit ...
read moreMark O'Leary: St Fin Barre's
This trio outing, recorded live with no rehearsals at St. Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork City, Ireland, would signify a new chapter in Irish guitarist Mark O'Leary's rapidly expanding discography. However, the session took place in 2002 featuring Norwegian keyboardist Stale Storlokken performing on church organ and drummer/percussionist Stein Inge Braekhus. On a side note, the session offers an absolute contrast to the guitarist's striking, free-jazz/fusion 2008 FMR release with Storlokken and drummer John Herndon, Ellipse.
The cathedral acts ...
read moreMark O'Leary / Kenny Wollensen / Jamie Saft: The Synth Show
Irish guitarist Mark O'Leary has built a nice relationship with Leo Records over the last few years, having recorded for the label with Mat Maneri, Matthew Shipp, Eyvind Kang, Uri Caine, Steve Swallow and others. O'Leary seems to favor the trio setting and enjoys throwing himself into new contexts. His ninth Leo release, The Synth Show, with Kenny Wollesen on percussion and Jamie Saft on synthesizer, may be his most surprising outing yet. Saft and Wollesen are ...
read moreMark O'Leary: Flux and Shamanic Voices
These two releases by the exceptional Irish guitarist Mark O'Leary feature him at his best. On two undated sessions, O'Leary paired himself with singular yet highly collaborative musicians. The meetings which followed recalibrated O'Leary's playing away from its usual avant-fusion inclination and towards a new form of freer expressive articulation. Mark O'Leary/Dylan Van Der Schyff/Wayne Horvitz Flux FMR 2007
O'Leary has recorded before with pianists--on Chamber Trio with Matthew Shipp and on ...
read moreMark O'Leary: Two Avant-Fusion Guitar Trios
The prolific Irish guitarist Mark O'Leary likes to position himself in challenging musical outfits, usually trios, that discourage facile characterizations and expectations. The two trios featured on Ellipses and Signs highlight his avant-fusion approach. O'Leary says he's influenced by diverse sources ranging from avant-garde modern composers like Karl Heinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis to forward thinking sound sculptors like David Torn and Fennesz. But even if you can locate where his musical ideas stem from, it is always a surprise ...
read moreMark O'Leary: Ellipses
Irish guitar wunderkind Mark O'Leary has now set his sights on the jazz-fusion element, to complement his already expansive improvisational vernacular. This 2008 effort might open up a few more doors for an artist who possesses the goods to go anywhere he darn well pleases. For this project, O'Leary and his trio investigate black hole stars and prismatic galaxies, where time and space have no bearing on anything except the music at hand.
On the opening title track, ...
read moreMark O'Leary/Wayne Horvitz/Dylan Van Der Schyff: FLUX
Irish guitar wiz Mark O'Leary's relentless pursuit of melding his improvisational expertise with some of the top guns in the jazz-based business continues here during this trio setting recorded in Seattle, Washington. On this 2008 studio set, the musicians quietly surge into abstract-minimalism via the free-improv route. With O'Leary's harmonically appeasing volume control techniques and fluid single note flurries, the overall musical portraiture is often fabricated upon subtle exchanges amid delicately articulated peaks and valleys.
Pianist Wayne Horvitz ...
read moreMark O'Leary / Terje Isungset: Shamanic Voices
Irish guitar hero Mark O'Leary continues to pursue the outer boundaries of improvisation. Here, he aligns with Norwegian percussionist Terje Isungset for a polytonal and multihued improv fest. On 2008's Shamanic Voices, with more on the way, the guitarist intermingles acoustic and electric guitar parts with his partner's keen use of disparate percussion objects. Loaded with contrasts, O'Leary shades the proceedings with injections of electronics and a myriad of guitars. Whether he fuses fuzz-toned pyrotechnics with Isungset's shakers, woodblocks, cymbals ...
read moreMark O' Leary -- Eyvind Kang -- Dylan Van Der Schyff: Zemlya
This newly formed trio's 2008 release is thematically based upon a frigid pair of islands off the Russian coast. In turn, the artist and his venerable improvising/progressive-jazz associates weave a musically chilling panorama via spacey backdrops and tumultuous three-way dialogues. At times, they invoke danger, as if they're warning the listener to proceed with caution.
Guitarist Mark O'Leary's mastery of volume control techniques is in full stride. And with violist Eyvind Kang also injecting effects processing ...
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