SG:News

News

Welcome to the SG website.

9/7/07:

I'm pleased to announce the release of the "Live at the Western Front" LP by the duo of Tetuzi Akiyama and Jeffrey Allport. Here's a little write-up about the album by the Canadian author Lee Henderson:

"The Japanese guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama performs an improvised set as a duo with Canadian percussionist Jeffrey Allport on July 1, 2006. This recording is of the first and only time these two well-regarded improvisers have ever played together. Living on opposite sides of the Pacific, this show became an opportunity for Allport and Akiyama to each perform some of their most advanced techniques in improvised music with a player whose style was truly compatible. Allport approaches every side of his drum, the rim, the snares, the steel clamps, and of course, the skin to produce a challenging repertoire of sounds that defy the drum's gambit, segues from Tibetan drones to electronic clicks and cuts, distant steamships to nearby popcorn. Akiyama's preternatural improvisations along the neck and body of his guitar meditate patiently on each bluesy sound, almost as if his fingers were playing along the surface of a slow-moving river. Every note that Akiyama plays becomes a sensational interruption causing ripples, splashes, and oxbows in the flow of the music. Performed live at a sold-out Western Front, Vancouver's oldest and most significant artist-run venue, Akiyama and Allport propose a rich new vocabulary for music. Two tracks on vinyl mastered by Toshimaru Nakamura. This LP documents an unprecedented collaboration between two modern masters of far left improvisation."

The LP is limited to 500 copies and you can order the album directly from SG ($15 PPD in the US) or from the many distributors carrying the album (see the catalog page).

I'm also excited to announce the release of a CD-R featuring the trio of Angharad Davies (violin), Jeffrey Allport (snare) and Chandan Narayan (autoharp). This recording was made in late 2006 in Jeffrey's living/eating room on Main street in Vancouver, BC and as such is peppered with the ephemera of a city recording (buses, birds, etc.). It is by far the heaviest acoustic improv I've ever been a part of. Angharad performed with her "proper" (her words) orchestra violin rather than her "improvising" one (that's what she brought with her to Vancouver) resulting in a new chamber music that will scare your neighbors. The covers for this release were silk-screened and painted by Faryal Maroof in NYC. It's limited to 80 copies ($9 PPD in the US) and available through SG, Mimaroglu, and Sound323..

There are still a few (5?) copies left of "Eight vignettes for solo autoharp" by Chandan Narayan and many copies of the Benito Cereno 3" (see Brian Olewnick's review in Bagatellen).