UK based Leo Records has built up an impressive reputation for releasing music that is creatively left of center, always looking for hew sonic turfs to conquer. Here are a couple of their latest that show the various colors and shadows of free thought.
The quartet Ultima Armonia consists of Boris Kovac/reeds, Milos Matic/b, Stevan Kovac Tickmayer/key and Lav Kovac/dr. This disc is subtitled “Lamentson South-Eastern Europe”, and what is does is take the traditional music of this geographical area and puree it through modern jazz sensibilities. The fascinating music is mostly solemn and low key themes such “The Morning” that have a delicate mixture of piano and drums intermingling under Kovac’s almost liturgical soprano sax. Other times, there is a brooding bass clarinet on “Someone Killed the Swan” or an after church festival dance on “Folk Cabaret.” A fragrant “Hymn” leads to a chaotic and cataclysmic “Garden Music” segueing into some post crashing waves of the waters withdrawing during Tickmayer’s piano solo. Very thoughtful moods reflected off the shadows here.
Skein is comprised of Frank Gratkowski/reeds, Achim Kaufmann/p, Wilbert de Joode/b, Okkyung Lee/cello, Richard Barrett/electronics and Tony Buck/dr-perd. The sounds here are more experimental, and with lots more improvisation that leads to elbows bumping into one another. Percussion and bass clarinet tangle on “Tycho,” while restlessness and chaos akin to a traffic jam in Naples is evident on “Schacht” and “Axoneme.” Alto saxes sear and electronic/percussion noodles abound, with what seems like multiple conversations at a party that is in too tight a room. Bowed strings create eerie moods akin to a Hitchcock thriller on “Limation” but make sure you take your beta blockers for the climax.
Leo Records