{"title":"Evan Parker","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"from-saxophone-and-trombone","title":"From Saxophone and Trombone","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst vinyl re-issue of Evan Parker’s duo with George Lewis. Transferred from the original masters, we discovered that the original Incus LP was cut at the wrong speed - and so, we present the first vinyl issue of the correct masters, or ‘mastas’ as Adam Skeaping, legendary engineer who is also responsible for Six of One and Compatibles, fondly calls them. Skeaping, always working with the latest in recording technology for the time, has a knack for gaining access to remarkable spaces. Good spaces that were cheap because no one else had discovered them. The Art Workers Guild is a Georgian Hall in Bloomsbury, London, with lofty ceilings and hard wooden floors. It’s the perfect room to exercise an instrument to its full length, to ‘run the full length of the staircase’ in Parker's words. Two bells to ring off the floor and remain in dextrous, airy resonance. Recorded at 30ips on enormous reels, the recording captures all the fine filigree detail so celebrated on Parker’s later ‘Six of One’, though here we are treated to tenor as well as soprano, plus, of course, George Lewis’ trombone. Parker and Lewis first met at Moers festival, Lewis having just played excerpts of Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’ with Anthony Braxton. Living in Paris, it wasn’t so hard for a young Parker to invite him for a session on his new imprint, Incus. Though having been part of the AACM, toured with Count Basie and made records for Black Saint, this would be Lewis’ first foray into British improv, excited by the idea the Bailey and Parker were attempting to open up the notion of improvisation to include “the freshness of the immediate encounter”. Lewis had not long recorded his solo, which mixes lively hints of Ellington and tender lyricism with total experimentation in three part overdubbed trombone. From Saxophone to Trombone veers towards his wilder end of technicality, some of Lewis’ rarer, starker improv - all avant garde burbles and bubbles, breath control and scalar flights. It’s a recording of two young masters, documented beautifully, and released for the first time on vinyl at its intended speed.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Otoroku","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50430619484491,"sku":"2164059","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Evan_Parker_George_Lewis_-_From_Saxophone__Trombone_e1393a9e_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726850018"},{"product_id":"collective-calls-urban-two-microphones-2","title":"Collective Calls (Urban) (Two Microphones)","description":"\u003cp\u003eLP reissue of Collective Calls, the first duo LP from Evan Parker and percussionist Paul Lytton. Mythically alluded to as ‘An Improvised Urban Psychodrama In Eight Parts”, Collective Calls utilises electronics, pre-records and homemade instruments to wryly in\/act self investigation. Having just recorded the cliff jumping Music Improvisation Company with Derek Bailey, Christine Jeffrey, Hugh Davies and Jamie Muir, Parker was at the point where [he] was thinking, ‘what’s the next thing?’ On Collective Calls, only the 5th release to appear on the newly minted Incus label, percussionist Paul Lytton arrives with an arsenal of sound making sources to push Parker into ever new territory. Recorded in the loft of The Standard Essenco Co on Southwark Street by Bob Woolford (Topography of the Lungs, AMM The Crypt), Collective Calls has more in common with noise or music concrete than with jazz; sitting comfortably alongside Italian messrs Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza or the husband-wife duo of Anima Sound. According to Martin Davidson, it was a Folkways record that Lytton was obsessed with around the time of this release - Sounds of the Junkyard - its track titles like “Steel Saw Cutting Channel Iron in Two Places” working to give you a good idea of the atmosphere of Collective Calls. Paul Lytton had encountered the use of electronics in music in 1968 when he was invited to play drums on the recording of An Electric Storm by White Noise (along with David Vorhaus, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson). He had seen Hugh Davies using contact mics in the Music Improvisation Company, and soon set about assembling a Dexion frame akin to drummer John Stevens’, except that his own was armed with several single-coil electric guitar pickups, long wires and strings with connected foot-pedals to modulate pitch. Influenced as much by Stockhausen, Cage and David Tudor as he was by Max Roach and Milford Graves, Lytton’s percussion is abstract, expressionist and at times totally mutant. Sometimes rolling extremely fast, then screeching almost backwards over feedback, Lytton gives Parker room to play some of his weirdest work. Parker is listed as performing both saxophones, but also his own home made assemblages, including one dubbed the ‘Dopplerphone’ - a length of soft rubber tubing (activated by a saxophone mouthpiece and manipulated to alter the rate of airflow) attached to a longer length of clear plastic tubing (whirled around the head whilst being played) ending in a plastic funnel. Thickening the brew even more, Parker would also add a cassette recorder, on which he would play back collected sounds and previous recordings of the duo. Imagining the set up in a 70s loft, it’s an assemblage more akin to what today's free ears might see at a Sholto Dobie show, spread out on the floor of the Hundred Years Gallery, the shadow of Penultimate Press lurking in the corner. It’s a testament to Parker’s shape shifting sound - the ever present link to birdsong being at its most warped here - terrifically free and unfussy, wild and loose from any of the dogma that might come in later Brit-prov years.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Otoroku","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50430621942091,"sku":"2164058","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Evan_Parker_-_Paul_Lytton_-_Collective_Calls_ROKURE007_e6a2de07_thumbnail_40.jpg?v=1726850042"},{"product_id":"all-knavery-and-collusion","title":"All Knavery and Collusion","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis new quartet recording by saxophone maestro \u003cstrong\u003eEvan Parker\u003c\/strong\u003e is the first for many years to be released on vinyl. Beautiful gatefold LP edition, with original artwork by 'Nervous' Stephen Fowler.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eParker\u003c\/strong\u003e, one of the great post-Coltrane saxophonists, has played a monthly gig at the London club The Vortex for a considerable time. Evan called these events his 'jazz' gigs and it seemed that the trio's performance came close to seeing Coltrane or Ayler playing at the 5 Spot or one of the legendary New York venues.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Cadillac asked \u003cstrong\u003eEvan\u003c\/strong\u003e if he would record an album for the label, it was this aspect of his multifaceted talents they had in mind. The quartet you hear on this album (with \u003cstrong\u003ePaul Lytton\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eJohn Edwards\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eAlexander Hawkins\u003c\/strong\u003e) came together for a gig at the Vortex in Evan's regular slot on June 20th, 2019, and what a fine gig it was!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThen the next day they relocated to the beautiful barn-like studio of Rimshot, deep in the Kent countryside to record the album. The location, close to Evan's home, had other resonances, which journalist Chris Searle has described in his sleevenote.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe subsequent (and over long) process of mastering and producing the album coincided with the first Covid lockdown and the coincidence of \u003cstrong\u003eEvan\u003c\/strong\u003e and Mike @ Cadillac both reading Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year, which provided context and some track titles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis put in mind of Stephen Fowler's brilliant rubber stamp artwork, and he has created a visual representation that expresses many of the themes of the album.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvan Parker:\u003c\/strong\u003e saxophones\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAlexander Hawkins:\u003c\/strong\u003e piano\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eJohn Edwards:\u003c\/strong\u003e bass\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Lytton:\u003c\/strong\u003e drums\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cadillac Records","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50460773482827,"sku":"1117545","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/d8862f16-18eb-4e1f-afc6-0b8bfa08ec15_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727237925"},{"product_id":"winns-win","title":"Winns Win","description":"\u003cp\u003eFree Jazz pioneer, Evan Parker returns to Walthamstow to record an album taking inspiration from the renowned designer and activist, William Morris at the home of the socialist campaigner, which now houses the William Morris Gallery. The original working title for the album was \u003ci\u003eBarbarism Once More\u003c\/i\u003e, taken from a longer quotation from Morris, which reflects the passion, spontaneity and iconoclastic nature of Evan's playing. However, in light of the death of Evan’s friend and leading light of the improvising scene, John Russell, who lived on Winns Avenue, adjacent to the Gallery, Evan decided to offer a tribute to John, calling the album \u003ci\u003eWinns Win\u003c\/i\u003e. Evan has spoken about entering \"a utopian space\" when he plays, to which a parallel can be drawn to Morris's novel 'News from Nowhere', and from there to Free Improvisation's early political leanings. The album presents nine spontaneous compositions that are very dense, though very melodical at the same time, using pattern and repetition as Morris did in his designs. This is music for headphones, or high-quality speakers - you’re in the room, hearing the movement of the saxophone keys and the breathing close at hand, with the sax in the middle of the room and panning providing a three-dimensional experience.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Byrd Out","offers":[{"title":"Tape","offer_id":50466134262091,"sku":"1132381","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/e2f0acbd-8101-43b0-964d-92f0673b71b9_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727306119"},{"product_id":"then-through-now","title":"Then Through Now","description":"\u003cp\u003eHenry Dagg is a composer, improvisor, sound sculptor and builder of experimental musical instruments who formerly worked as a sound engineer for the BBC. His works include the Sharpsichord, a pin barrel harp commissioned for the English Folk Dance and Song Society, and a pair of steel sculptural musical gates for Rochester Independent College. Evan Parker improvises on the tenor and soprano saxophone, and has performed live and recorded extensively across the UK and internationally. He has pioneered or substantially expanded an array of extended techniques for the saxophone. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"False Walls","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50478005485899,"sku":"2218412","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/test_493af362_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727479650"},{"product_id":"six-of-one","title":"Six of One","description":"\u003cp\u003e Originally recorded and released in 1980, \u003ci\u003eSix of One\u003c\/i\u003e beautifully captures the detail in Evan Parker's high frequency split tones for which he is now perhaps better known. Five years on from \u003ci\u003eSaxophone Solos \u003c\/i\u003eand with circular breathing and polyphonics well worn into his live performances, Parker's experimentations here produce sustained passages of brilliant flight. Set into the echoes and resonances of St Judes On The Hill church, the results are stunning. \"The recital commences with a split tone line of twining sine waves that expand and contract in telepathic collusion. Pitch dynamics narrow and redefine themselves more emphatically on the second piece where sliding legato rivulets born of Parker’s compartmentalized tonguing create the sonic semblance of up to three separate voices emanating from the single reed speech center. It’s a feat he’s accomplished innumerable times since, but every fresh hearing never fails to open an aperture into a style of improvisatory expression that is at once wholly alien and intensely mesmerizing. There’s also something strangely subterranean about the flood of sounds, like the rush percolating water through an underground aquifer system enroute to unknown tributaries. The third piece trades tightly braided tones for leaner and more linear phrases, but a vaporous trail of phantom notes still clings to the central line. And so it goes, with the illusion of repetition guiding the momentum, though Parker never explicitly repeats himself.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Otoroku","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50504976925003,"sku":"1110186","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/ba5fa847-431e-41fb-9f32-9ed8b61757c4_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727812185"},{"product_id":"the-topography-of-the-lungs","title":"The Topography Of The Lungs","description":"\u003cp\u003e2023 repress of the OTOROKU re-issue of the legendary English free improvisation LP 'The Topography of The Lungs' by Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and Han Bennink. This was Evan Parker’s first recording as a \"leader\" and was the first release on Incus, the label Parker founded with guitarist Derek Bailey and drummer Tony Oxley. This re-issue has been produced from an original vinyl pressing from Evan's archives - carefully transcribed and restored by Andreas [LUPO] Lubich at Calyx in Berlin and features the original liner notes from Parker along with updated notes penned in 2014. \"To talk further of the music we play is difficult. It’s criteria for success exist, but are elusive and indefinable beyond the intuitive level. We operate without rules (pre-composed material) or welldefined code of behaviour (fixed tempi, tonalities, serial structures etc.), and yet are able to distinguish success from failure.\" - From Evan Parker’s original liner notes (1970).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Otoroku","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50521353519435,"sku":"2170962","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Evan_Parker_Derek_Bailey_Han_Bennink__The_Topography_O_279e35af_thumbnail_40.jpg?v=1727990974"},{"product_id":"the-heraclitean-two-step-etc","title":"The Heraclitean Two-Step, Etc.","description":"\u003cp\u003eHelping to mark Evan Parker's 80th birthday in 2024, False Walls is delighted to release a 4 CD set of solo, improvised recordings along with a 120 page book, including writing by John Corbett, Filipe Gomes, Richard Leigh, Stephen C. Middleton and Robert Stillman; an extended interview with Evan Parker by Martin Davidson; an email exchange between Evan Parker and Hans Falb; along with writing and visual artwork by Evan Parker. Evan Parker improvises on the tenor and soprano saxophone, and has performed live and recorded extensively across the UK and internationally. He has pioneered or substantially expanded an array of extended techniques for the saxophone. \"The UK's greatest exponent of free jazz.\" - Mike Hobart, Financial Times. Though he has worked extensively in both large and small ensembles, Evan Parker is perhaps best known for his solo soprano saxophone music, a singular body of work that in recent years has centred around his continuing exploration of techniques such as circular breathing, split tonguing, overblowing, multiphonics and cross-pattern fingering. These are technical devices, yet Parker's use of them is, he says, less analytical than intuitive; he has likened performing his solo work to entering a kind of trance-state. The resulting music is certainly hypnotic, an uninterrupted flow of snaky, densely-textured sound that Parker has described as \"the illusion of polyphony\". Many listeners have indeed found it hard to credit that one man can create such intricate, complex music in real time. The book compiles both historical and contemporary perspectives on Evan’s work, by a range of contributors as well as Evan himself. It also includes a selection of Evan’s visual collages, which are shared publicly for the first time.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"False Walls","offers":[{"title":"CDx4","offer_id":50860210585931,"sku":"2227467","price":58.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/test_2868383b_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1732017733"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/evan-parker.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}