I worry that these emails are too long. I know those of you who open them make it all the way to the end, because you offer really thoughtful comments, which I love. But the opening section seems to get longer and longer with each passing Wednesday, so I’ve decided to run an experiment for the rest of this year.
From now on, I’m going to email you twice weekly. Every Tuesday, you’ll get the Burning Ambulance music critical experience — an essay on an artist, or an album, that’s captivating me. And that’s it. No other links, no “calls to action” as they say in the email marketing game, just pure food for thought.
But every Friday, I’m going to send you an email full of links — specifically, links to albums on Burning Ambulance Music and Leo Records that I would like you to buy, for your own enjoyment and also to keep this whole operation solvent.
This week, I want to talk about Tungu, and about Anthony Braxton’s 1997 Ninetet recordings.
Tungu is the project of Sergey Senchuk, a bassist, electronic musician, and producer from Ukraine. In the last couple of years, he’s begun collaborating remotely with artists around the world, and has released two previous albums featuring these collaborations: 2023’s Predictability Failure, on the Alma De Nieto label from Italy, and With the Warmness of Noir, on London’s Shrike Records. He emailed me out of the blue late last year with a proposal to release Irrational Thinking of the Subject, and I was immediately intrigued.
The album consists of 15 tracks, each one a duo with or featuring a contribution by a different musician from the avant-garde/experimental/improv world(s). Some of them are names fans of fringe music will recognize, like guitarist Noël Akchoté, saxophonists Ayumi Ishito and Gebhard Ullmann, and vocalist Phil Minton; others are less well known, but their contributions are every bit as compelling.
I don’t usually have a whole lot of input into Burning Ambulance Music releases, with a couple of exceptions. The Graham Haynes vs Submerged album Echolocation was my idea, which I pitched to Kurt Gluck (Submerged). He then contacted Graham Haynes, whom he knew from working with Bill Laswell, and they did all the work themselves. Diego Caicedo’s Seis Amorfismos originally consisted of just the guitar/vocals/string-quartet material, which wasn’t enough for a CD release, so I asked him to add some solo guitar pieces. And I sequenced this Tungu album. I think it flows really well; it’s a journey, and plays particularly well on headphones, as there’s a lot of subtlety to the music.
If it sounds interesting to you, I recommend buying the physical CD, which comes in a heavy-duty cardboard gatefold mini-LP sleeve wrapped in textured paper, with the disc itself contained in a paper inner sleeve.
In August 1997, Anthony Braxton brought a nine-member ensemble into the Oakland, California jazz club Yoshi’s for a week-long engagement. They performed lengthy new compositions that were examples of his Ghost Trance Music; eight of those compositions, recorded between August 19 and 22, were released as Ninetet (Yoshi’s) 1997, Vols. 1 through 4. All four volumes are now available via the Leo Records Bandcamp page.
Braxton’s music is heavily informed by rules and operating theories — everything in a given piece happens for a reason. This Sound American article by violinist Erica Dicker gives a comprehensive explanation of how Ghost Trance Music works.
The ensemble Braxton brought to Yoshi’s consisted of himself, Brandon Evans, James Fei, Jackson Moore, Andre Vida and J.D. Parran on a range of saxophones, clarinets, and flutes; Kevin O’Neil on electric guitar; Joe Fonda on bass; and Kevin Norton on drums, marimba, and percussion. The pieces they played all ranged from 55 to 72 minutes in length, and as described in the article above, each consisted of a single long, pulsing melody line with a sort of chugging/huff-and-puff rhythm, which over time is interrupted by sub-group interactions (three of the nine musicians breaking out for a short triologue) or other variations. While the music on these four sets is continuous and can be somewhat trance-inducing at times, Ghost Trance Music has a lightness of spirit that’s unique in Braxton’s catalog.
Start at the beginning, and I think you’ll be captivated enough to buy all four sets.
That’s it for now. See you on Tuesday, when we’ll be talking about the Collin Walcott/Don Cherry/Nana Vasconcelos all-star group Codona!