Recorded live, this effort represents one of several new releases from the Norway-based avant-garde record label SOFA. The collective features British vocal improviser Phil Minton and fellow compatriot, keyboardist Pat Thomas as the duo augments a group of forward thinking Scandinavian artists. Here, drummer Ingar Zach and others align their improvisational wares for a set teeming ...

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Article: Album Review

Nils Henrik Asheim: 16 Pieces For Organ

Read "16 Pieces For Organ" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
July 4, 2002

Keeping in line with modern music’s omnipresent renaissance spirit, Norwegian composer/keyboardist Nils Henrik Asheim renders sixteen freely improvised pieces on a church organ. Beautifully recorded at “Oslo Cathedral," the classically trained artist transforms the sonorous qualities of a pipe organ into a series of loosely based motifs. Some might consider such an endeavor as being impractical ...

Article: Album Review

Sten Sandell Trio: Standing Wave

by Glenn Astarita
February 1, 2002

Pianist Sten Sandell has recorded for a variety of modern jazz/avant-garde-based labels. This release features the artist in a trio setting, recorded live in Norway and Germany. Better known in Europe, Standell often opts for a muscular attack; and like many of his peers, he derives a fair amount of influence from pianist Cecil Taylor. However, ...

Album

Visiting Ants

By Ingar Zach

Label: SOFA
Released: 2001
Track listing: 1.sofamiliar 2.first visit 3.sofasticated lady 4.fiskum drisk 5.hakavik loek 6.think happy sofanatic 7

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Article: Album Review

Ingar Zach - Ivar Grydeland: Visiting Ants

by Glenn Astarita
December 1, 2001

Norwegian improvising musicians drummer Ingar Zach and electric guitarist Ivar Grydeland engage in some acerbic, scrappy dialogue throughout these free-style exchanges. Here, the music expands and contracts amid the duo's abundance of abbreviated motifs. With “Sofamiliar," the drummer conjures up steely-edged sounds via his arsenal of cymbals, while on “First Visit," the guitarist's discordant phraseology complements ...

Album