Articles by John Eyles
Sound-ing Paint
by John Eyles
Sound-ing Paint St. Paul's United Reform Church, Newton Road London, United Kingdom April 11, 2026 Readers who are familiar with the Dutch-born, jny: London-resident artist Gwendolyn Kassenaar will not be surprised by her latest venture which combines art and improvised music. Many will have made first contact with her when she painted or sketched their image during a skronk performance at which they were a performer or an audience member. Others will have encountered her ...
Continue ReadingJudi Deak: Brisk
by John Eyles
Polish-Hungarian flautist Juli Deak was born in the year 2000. She is now based in jny: Budapest, the capital of Hungary which has a population of approximately one point seven million, and is a premier European destination known for its stunning Danube-split scenery. Most of Deak's excellent debut album Brisk was recorded on April 14th 2025, at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. The album's two longest tracks, “Depict" (six minutes and forty three minutes long) and “Trace" (six minutes and and ...
Continue ReadingBrian Eley & Ashley Wales: Songs
by John Eyles
Brian Eley and Ashley Wales both have impressive histories with other musicians, which makes this duo album, Songs, fascinating. In the 70's Eley was a member of the vocal quartet Voice, alongside esteemed vocalists Julie Tippett, Maggie Nicols and Phil Minton, which recorded the album Voice (Ogun 1977). In London, in 1993, Wales and John Coxon formed the delightfully named duo Spring Heel Jack which released a varied spectrum of music from Lee Perry to “The Sound of Music," taking ...
Continue ReadingTwo very different albums from Urs Leimgruber
by John Eyles
In 2021, Urs Leimgruber was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a serious chronic illness of the lungs, which causes ever-worsening shortness of breath and is ultimately fatal. A lung transplant offered the only possible way of avoiding this outcome, and, in March 2025, he underwent this complicated and dangerous operation. It was a success, and now another human's respiratory organs are enabling him to breathe and to express himself as a musician again. Two and a half months after his ...
Continue ReadingGebhard Ullmann: New Conference Call
by John Eyles
In May 2000, at Acoustic Recording, Brooklyn, a quartet entitled Conference Call recorded together for the first time to produce the album Final Answer, which was released on the Soul Note label in 2002. The quartet at that recording session comprised the German Gebhard Ullmann playing bass clarinet and soprano saxophone (he could also play clarinet, as his membership of The Clarinet Trio demonstrated), alongside Americans Joe Fonda on double bass, Michael Jefry Stevens on piano and Matt Wilson on ...
Continue ReadingTuva Halse: Reconnection
by John Eyles
Tuva Halse was born in Molde, Norway, in August, 1999. She studied at the Bekkevoll Junior High School and then at the Molde High School, simultaneously following the music programme of the Molde Kulturskole. She has composed music since childhood. She turned to jazz violin when her piano teacher from the age of 13 introduced her to jazz and encouraged her to play it on violin. One of her first experiences with a jazz orchestra was with the Lærlingan, a big band of Molde High ...
Continue ReadingCharlotte Hug: In Resonance With Elsewhere
by John Eyles
Born in jny:Zurich, Switzerland, in May 1965. Charlotte Hug gained degrees in classical music, pedagogy and fine arts, and won such awards as “Artist in Residence" in London. By the time she was thirty, Hug had begun recording at various locations in Switzerland, the resulting music being part of her first album, Mauerraum Wandraum (ASM/STV, 1999) on which she played viola and electronics, as well as conceiving, composing and producing it. That album was followed by further solo ...
Continue ReadingTwo European Trios
by John Eyles
Ask a fan of music their favorite trio and, depending on their age and taste, they may nominate Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Jam, Nirvana, ZZ Top, The Police, Crosby, Stills & Nash... If the fan's musical taste is limited to jazz, their nominee is likely to include piano or other lead instrument, plus bass and drums, for instance, the Bill Evans trio, Esbjörn Svensson Trio, The Bad Plus... pick your own choice. It is unlikely that there would ...
Continue ReadingNewcomers on Another Timbre
by John Eyles
As Another Timbre's two hundred and fiftieth album release has now been released and acquired by devotees of the label, it seems an appropriate time to appreciate some aspects of the label past, present or future. Firstly, it is impossible to ignore the three box sets: Wandelweiser und so weiter 6 CD set (2012), Morton Feldman Piano 5 CD set (2019), John Cage-Apartment House, Number Pieces 4 CD set (2021). Secondly, the very best musicians who release albums on the ...
Continue ReadingIvar Grydeland: Boyning, brytning
by John Eyles
Born in 1976 in Trondheim--the third most populous city in Norway, and one which is renowned for its jazz festival--guitarist Ivar Grydeland studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music from 1996 to 2000, and again from 2001 to 2003. He plays a dazzling range of instruments. There are acoustic and electric guitars and banjo with a mix of finger-picking techniques, various bows, metal propellers, and electronic devices, as well as mandolin, pedal steel guitar, ukulele, zither, keyboards, pocket piano, and ...
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