Four new albums by UK based and outside the box label SLAM…
15 tunes, ranging from half a minute over eight, are delivered by tenor saxist Viola Falb, drummer Mark Holub and bassist Bernd Satzinger. The longer pieces included a bluesy feel on the melancholy “Afterwards”, a happy bopper of “Rusty Roles” and a dreamy but darkly loose 
“Breakfast”. Falb gets a happy feel on the whimsical “Eye Poker” and Satzinger makes the strings bend on “You Can’t Unthink A Thought”. Intuitive with long shadows.
Bread Crumb consists of George Kokkinaris on bass and teamed with guitarists Nikos Kordelis and Giannis Arapis for this Athenian session. There’s no hasapiko here, with the seven songs filled with space machine sounds on “Harvest”, flailing strings and harrowing voices on “A Jar Drops, A Flower Pops” , electric gurgling with picking and pecking on “Bottled Up Lover” and scratching strings that may simply be the trio trying to find the right key in which to play. Jagged strings.
Four pieces recorded in concert in Portugal by George Haslam on the Romanian tarogato (similar to a clarinet), Joao Madeira on bass, percussionist Pedro Castello Lopes and drummer Mario Rua create free flowing moods in songs ranging from 12 to 22 minutes. Haslam delivers a Middle Eastern mystique as he sears around Madeira’s throbbing bass on “Ajuda (Help)” and flails in a declaratory cry over the brooding bassist on “Nice To Meet You”. Rumbling and rambling percussion along with scratchy tones on “Who Are You” conflict and contrast with the pizzicato’d stummings while rustling in the leaves with hand sounds and mouth percussion sound like things that go bump in the night, requiring a flashlight on “Pleasures and Needs”. Spontaneous implosions.
Nicolas Skordas plays a variety of flutes, the tarogato, soprano sax and tenor sax in conjunction with drummer Stephanos Chytiris for seven pieces that go from folk to free. With hand percussion by Chytiris, Skordas produces folk flute sounds on “Empnoh” and American Indian lore during “Archetype”. His soprano snarls and growls on the spontaneous “Invisible War” while the two swing pretty hard on “Bones And Stones”. Some folksy Middle Eastern Byzantium is evoked with Chytiris on tympany on “Passing” and the tenor sax gets as altissimo as Mt. Olympus on “Empathy”. A journey to lands of the past.