Orbitale Trio - Improv Series Zzaj -1996- (Tape, Setola Di Maiale), Italy

Orbitale Trio was one out of many bands and projects under the umbrella of the Italian independent cult label for improvisation and free-jazz Setola Di Maiale which was created by multi-instrumentalist Stefano Giust in Pordenone. He started out with the legendary improvisational, punk and experimental band Le Bambine. A completely underrated band that to me still stands out as one of the greatest musical projects of the Italian alternative autoproduzioni scene that was bridging the 80's and 90's.

During the 90's Giust produced a great amount of releases with Setola Di Maiale and the musical output became more jazz oriented in combination with a few excursions into techno, turntablism and such. All projects on the Setola Di Maiale label were played mostly by the same musicians. None of the output was aiming for commercial success and the label was very clear in communicating this as you can read on the cover of this tape.

Orbitale Trio consisted of Stefano Giust, Ivan Pilat and Paolo De Piaggi. Improv Series Zzaj shows their playful repetitive free jazz sounds. It has a real open approach of do-what-you-want improvisation that results in nice tracks which they gave lovely absurdistic titles. One of the tracks on this tape is called Valzer Per Mikols Chadima which is clearly a tribute to Czech multi-instrumentalist Mikoláš Chadima who is the founder of Czech experimental underground groups like Elektrobus, Extempore and later the MCH Band. The music of Orbitale Trio is quite reminiscent of the Italian group Arigret that followed a similar approach with their Italo Calvino inspired album "Se Una Notte D'Inverno Un Viaggiatore..." which I posted some time ago.

I suggest that you dig deeper into the vast Setola Di Maiale catalogue to find the releases you like the most yourself. There is a lot to be discovered and most of the material is freely accessible. Maybe I will post some more music of the label later on.

Get it HERE

Binder-Sanesi - Oriens & Occidens -1995- (BMM, CD), Hungary/Italy

Károly Binder is one of Hungary's most prominent jazz pianists. He is known for his rhythmic and unorthodox style of playing as well as for his experiments with the prepared piano. Binder takes the piano as a starting point but also uses many percussion instruments on the side. His first albums In Illo Tempore and Kontinentspiel that came out in the 80's in Hungary are great examples of Eastern European free jazz with lenghty pieces exploring rhythms while taking the listener into a world of its own. That is what usually matters: it's not just the plain exploration of sound. The sound is able to birth the existence of an own world. A bit comparable to the Pierre Courbois album I posted a long time ago.

Oriens & Occidens was recorded in the southern Hungarian cities of Baja and Szekszárd in 1995. On the album Binder works together with the Italian percussionist Federico Sanesi from Milan who was greatly inspired by oriental rhythms and percussion instruments like the Indian tabla and Javanese Gamelan. The result is an interesting musical meeting of cultures and free exploration of jazz, rhythm and non-western percussion instruments.

The music is played quite gently most of the time and tends to create an oriental background atmosphere that doesn't demand an overly focused attention from the listener. At times the music breaks loose from this atmosphere reminding me of certain moments of Embryo's Reise or of the British-Indian jazz album Cosmic Eye. Oriens & Occidens seems to fit this great European jazz tradition where Indian and oriental sounds are being combined with free jazz. Some examples of this tradition are the German project Jazz meets India, the British project Curried Jazz as well as the music of the Reform Art Unit from Austria.

In any case, this is a nice album of mid-90's Hungarian-Italian contemporary jazz meeting the orient.

Get it HERE

Barbieri & Fabbri - Angeli -1988- (LP, Stile Libero), Italy

Next up is another album that connects to the previous post balancing on the thin line of alluring musical ambience and a generous pinch of cheesiness.

Italian Bass player Tiziano Barbieri and Guitarist Moris Fabbri made this quite obscure album of Mediterranean contemporary jazz and late 80's ambient sounds in 1988. Both musicians were not heavily involved in other projects but were definitely active musicians. Moris Fabbri still makes  remarkable experimental music today which you can find on his own Youtube channel.

The music on this album is pretty much divided: the A-side has three tracks of composed atmospheres thriving on Italian Mediterranean guitar, eastern voices and guitar-synths-scapes. Actually no real synthesizer is used on the album and all electronic sounds are coming from the processed guitar. These first tracks are maybe too slick, although you also have the feeling that you're familiar with those melodies already for an eternity. The impressionistic style is similar to the Swedish Vinterhjärta tape I posted some time ago.

The music on the B-side should be more pleasing for the improvisation and experimental jazz fans. Those tracks are more abstract and free-form, showing the cinematic and adventurous side of the duo. It reminds me a bit of the Dutch contemporary Jazz soundtrack Golven by Louis Andriessen, but it mostly reminds me of the biblical Risonanze series of Italian library music that I posted ages ago on the blog.

Maybe something different, but it's definitely the soundtrack of the current Indian summer channeling the elements of Earth, Water, Air and Fire while you reminisce of a summer that gently flushes away...

Get it HERE

Arigret - Se Una Notte D'Inverno Un Viaggiatore... -1995- (CD, CMC Records), Italy

Continuing the blog on the track of improvisation CD-only releases from Europe's alternative 90's we have Arigret from Italy. Arigret was an adventurous Italian improvisation group that had a strong contemporary jazz foundation but also used some kind of Rock In Opposition approach with the great transitions in their compositions that were created by sax player Massimo Rossi (who would carry on with a contemporary Italian jazz outfit called Actis Band).

Se Una Notte D'Inverno Un Viaggiatore... was the only album by Arigret released through CMC records from Turin. It has great titles that are somewhat reminiscent of Zappa's. The vocals by singer Rossella Cangini contain nice eccentric lyrics and are a constant highlight when the jazz-patterns make way for the poetical absurdity on the album.

This is another great release from the 90's, specially for the more (free-)jazz-oriented music fans. It reminds me of Italian 80's groups like Ensemble Havadià, Mamma Non Piangere or the stricter impro-jazz releases one can find on Materiali Sonori records.

Get it HERE

Minafra, Reijseger, Bennink - Noci...Strani Frutti - Live at Europa Festival Jazz -1991- (CD, Leo Records), Italy/Netherlands

This is a rare CD-only release of a live concert of Italian jazz trumpeter Pino Minafra with Dutch Cellist Ernst Reijseger and Dutch drummer Han Bennink. It took place at Europa Jazz Festival di Noci somewhere in Puglia on the 14th of July, 1990. Because a lot of information is already in the booklet (click on it) I keep it short:

Minafra is an important figure in the Italian free-jazz and avant-garde improvisation scene. In 1990 he founded the Italian Instable Orchestra (IIO) to bring Italian jazz musicians closer together since many of them never played together because of the big distances between the northern and southern part of Italy. Minafra and the IIO can be compared to the Dutch Willem Breuker Kollektief (only less of a constant entity) and were a.o. indeed influenced by the Dutch improvisation and free-jazz scene. Hence this great collaboration with Ernst Reijseger (of whom I have posted other albums on the blog) and legendary impro-drummer, Fluxus artist and ICP Orchestra founder Han Bennink.

A nice slab of European free-jazz! Specially the voice parts.

Get it HERE