Chris Speed Trio: Respect For Your Toughness

Dave King | Chris Tordini | Chris Speed

New York-based saxophonist Chris Speed’s career stretches back to the early 1990s and includes work with Claudia Quintet and Tim...

Reviewed by Thomas Rees in issue: February/2020

Sirkis/Bialas IQ: Our New Earth

Kevin Glasgow | Asaf Sirkis | Sylwia Bialas | Frank Harrison

This record has a very particular soundworld that’s established on the very first track, ‘If Pegasus Had One Wing’, with...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: February/2020

Erik Truffaz Quartet: Lune Rouge

Marcello Giuliani | Arthur Hnatek | Erik Truffaz | Benoît Corboz

Veteran Swiss trumpeter Erik Truffaz wanted new ideas for Lune Rouge, so he invited young drummer Arthur Hnatek, a recent...

Reviewed by Thomas Rees in issue: February/2020

The Balderin Sali: Variations

A 2CD recording from an 11-piece ensemble made up of Finnish, German and Brit-based musicians, including the likes of Paul...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: February/2020

Arve Henriksen: The Timeless Nowhere

Audun Kleive | Max Friman-Henriksen | Hilmar Jensson | Jan Bang | Erik Honore | Skúli Sverrisson | Eivind Aarset | Arve Henriksen | Kristian Isachsen | Ingar Zach

This four-album box set is the equivalent of dropping a pebble of Norite into a mirror lake. Perfect undulations of...

Reviewed by Debra Richards in issue: February/2020

Shake Stew: Gris Gris

Johannes Schleiermacher | Clemens Salesny | Niki Dolp | Oliver Potratz | Tobias Hoffmann | Lukas Kranzelbinder | Mario Rom | Mathias Koch

Shake Stew were a highlight of Kraut Jazz Futurism, the recent compilation equating Berlin with London’s new scene, with added...

Reviewed by Nick Hasted in issue: February/2020

Martin Archer: Anthropology Band

Charlotte Keefe | James Mainwaring | Kim Macari | Corey Mwamba | Ben Higham | Chris Sharkey | Peter Fairclough | Alicia Gardener-Treja | George Murray | Riley Stone-Lonergan

A nothing if not ambitious project in which Archer’s compositions are played through by a septet, then re-visited by a...

Reviewed by Andy Robson in issue: February/2020

Jazzrausch Bigband: Dancing Wittgenstein

Techno-jazz is surely an oxymoron, but that sums up this young German 40-piece big band’s monotonous integration of 1990s electronica,...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: February/2020

Eve Risser: Après Un Rêve

Eve Risser

The French pianist Eve Risser seems to muster up the same kind of intimate gestures, ghostly fragments, hypnotic loops and...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: February/2020

Lorenzo Feliciati/Michele Rabbia: Antikythera

Lorenzo Feliciati | Andy Sheppard | Cuong Vu | Alessandro Gwis | Michele Rabbia | Rita Marcotulli | Ray Powell

For his latest studio recording, Italian bass player Lorenzo Feliciati teams up with fellow countryman and drummer Michele Rabbia on...

Reviewed by Edwin Pouncey in issue: February/2020