Forthcoming On Dromos

Coming Up Next:

Dromos004 - Wasteland Jazz Unit - Caustic Gate (Out Late September)

http://www.myspace.com/wastelandjazzunit

Artwork by: Mariana Dc

Later On:

Dromos005 - Niagara - Niagara Ep

http://www.myspace.com/niagaraaragain

artwork by: natalie westbrook

Dromos006 - Olaf Rupp - Auld Lang Syne

http://www.myspace.com/olafrupp

ao vivo no espaço - centro de desastres review in Jazz.pt

By Rui Eduardo Paes, in jazz.pt #30

"O duo de Manuel Mota (guitarra elétrica) com Afonso Simões (bateria) podia , ou não, remeter a música tocada ao que ambos fazem no contexto do Curia, quarteto constituído com David Maranha e Margarida Garcia. Se outros caminhos percorrem nas suas respectivas actividades, Mota com um jazz pontilhístico e de linhas quebradas ou em contextos de improvisação experimental (por exemplo, o seu recente encontro com Jason Kahn) e Simões investindo no free rock dos Fish & Sheep ou na electrónica “redux” de Rafael Toral, é precisamente pelo psicadelismo cultivado por aquele grupo que alinham neste registo ao vivo. A música é fluida, energética e evidencia um bom sentido de partilha, sendo apenas prejudicada pela fraca qualidade de gravação."

DROMOS 003 Thollem Mcdonas & John Dieterich - All for now

Dromos Records proudly announces the release of All for now by Thollem McDonas (Piano, Voice) and John Dieterich (Guitar).

Celebrating their first public collaboration, All for now is one of those special moments, when the empathy and complicity between two players emerges into something far wider, complex, and profound than the simple circumstance of their encounter.

In fact, as they play along, one wonders how did they have achieve such maturity in their first work together, evoking both their idiosyncratic inner voice and years of tradition in the lineage of free thinking and free playing.

The artwork of consists of 200 different original hand printed linoleum cuts
on old salvaged photos by visual artist and filmmaker Martha Colburn, specially done for the occasion.

edition of 200 copies on orange cd-R.
all music by Thollem McDonas and John Dieterich
all artwork by Martha Colburn

Methods of payment :

-PAYPAL

Price by location (with Shipping & Packaging costs)

Portugal €8,50 Europe €9,00 Rest of the World €9,50

All orders are shipped via Regular Portuguese Mail. If you wish to have your items delievered to you through a different way, please send us an enquiry to  dromosrecords[@]gmail[.]com before ordering or visit http://www.dromosrecords.com for more info & other releases

Dromos Tapes Series I

Dromos Tapes Series propose is to promote the music and musicians we love, by asking musicians and plastic artists to make a mixtape together.

This first series was given for free on the Record Store Day,on the 17th of April at Flur, in Lisbon.

Here they are:

Mixtape by Octa Push
Artwork & Packaging by Angela Ferreira
Limited edition of 10.

Mixtape by Rui Dâmaso
Artwork & Packaging by Joana Falhas
Limited edition of 10.
















Mixtape by Ruben da Costa
Artwork & Packaging by António Corso
Limited edition of 10.
















Mixtape by Rui Miguel Abreu
Artwork & Packaging by dromos records and Maria José Machado
Limited edition of 10.

















Mixtape by Dromos Records
Artwork & Packaging by Pedro Peralta
Limited edition of 10.

Ao Vivo no Espaço, Centro de Desastres review in just outside

by Brian Olewnick
in just outisde


Not the Mota I was expecting. In my head, I, doubtless unfairly, would have conjured up a phrase like, "the Iberian Sugimoto". Well, here, in the company of drummer Simões, it's more like "The Portuguese Sharrock or Capspar Brotzmann". He raises quite the squall in this freewheeling, high-energy blowout. It's only about 25 minutes long and seems to cut out while things are still going on. I can't say it's an approach that holds much attraction for me, but if you've been aching for some Fushitsusha-style flailing explosiveness, you could do worse. Nice cover, with an individual smoke-burn on each copy.

Moments of Falling Petals review in Just Outside

by Brian Olewnick
in just outside

"Just as I had been expecting a quieter Mota, I was probably anticipating a noisier, bluesier Akiyama but once again, I was flummoxed. Here he, along with Carrasco on alto and Kaplan on trumpet, play it soft and borderline melodic all the way through. Much space, a nice array of texture. Several lovely moments here, including one about 20 minutes in where I was strongly reminded of Roscoe Mitchell's Sound Ensemble from the early 80s (high praise). Again, it's a short disc, about 33 minutes, but strong and well-paced throughout, definitely one to hear. This release also has a great sleeve, folded origami like, as is the interior tissue sleeve. Good one."

DROMOS RECORDS 003 - Thollem/Dieterich - All for now

Dromos Records is proud to announce All for now, by Thollem McDonas (Piano, Voice) and John Dieterich ( Guitar).

Recorded at the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art, All for now documents the first live appearance of these two free spirits as a duo.
The artwork will include hand printed linoleum cuts on old salvaged photos by artist and filmmaker Martha Colburn.

All of this will come in an edition of 200, that will be out in April 2010.
Stay in tune for more news soon.


Usefull links:

Thollem McDonas website
John Dieterich´s Deerhoof myspace
Martha Colburn website

Thollem McDonas on All for Now

Moments Of Falling Petals review in JazzWord

By Ken Waxman
In JazzWord

"Tetuzi Akiyama/Éden Carrasco/Leonel Kaplan
Moments of Falling Petals
Dromos Records 001

Mary Halvorson/Reuben Radding/Nate Wooley
Crackleknob
hatOLOGY 662

Hautzinger/Okura/Akiyama
Rebuses
MonotypeRec. mono027

Combined, contrasted and contrapuntal guitar and trumpet textures – plus those of another instrument – are what tie together these notable sessions. Yet even though only a trio of instruments is involved on each – and Tokyo-based On-kyo guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama is present on two of the three CDs – the overall performances can readily be distinguished from one another.

More obviously separate is Crackleknob, the collaboration among three New York-based players: guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Reuben Radding and trumpeter Nate Wooley. Each has worked with a cross-section of other progressive players including composer Anthony Braxton (Halvorson), pianist Denman Maroney (Radding) and cellist Daniel Levin (Wooley). Not only that, but Wooley has also recorded in the past with Leonel Kaplan, a trumpeter from Buenos Aires with similar understated tendencies, featured on Moments of Falling Petals.

Kaplan’s associates on that disc are Akiyama, whose interests range across the electronic, improv and notated scenes, as well as Éden Carrasco, an alto saxophonist from Santiago. Akiyama – who plays a tape-delay electric guitar – is also on board for Rebuses, but his partners here are saxophonist and clarinetist Masahiko Okura from Tokyo, who plays with Japanese improvisers such as turntablist/guitarist Otomo Yoshihide; and Vienna’s quartet-tone trumpet specialist Franz Hautzinger whose playing partners range from synthesizer player Thomas Lehn to rock-styled ensembles.

On Rebuses the emphasis is strictly minimalist. Brass timbres leak onto toy guitar-like twangs produced by slurred fingering, abut barely breathed peeps and disconnected note patterns from the saxophonist, and rest on an undertow of electronic flanges, spins and clatters. Throughout, Akiyama’s licks aren’t often wedded to folksy finger-picking but concentrate instead on ringing chords and slack key approximations, circling the others’ tones and constantly launching envelopes of dissonant patterns. More upfront here than elsewhere, the guitarist’s downward-cascading licks plus crackling amp distortions bring forth belligerent split tones or vulture-like cawing from the reedist.

Occasionally Okura interrupts flat-line air expelling to complement with tongue slaps, fluttering squeals or rolling blows, the equally sporadic rubato squeaks from Hautzinger. For his part the trumpeter prefers tremolo grace notes which usually reflect back onto themselves. As well, in contrast to Akiyama’s divisive string rubs and chordal flanges, Hautzinger’s tongue-rolled air is connectively chromatic. Eventually collective note patterns shape the five long tracks into suite-like form.

More precious and much shorter, Moments of Falling Petals, with Akiyama on acoustic guitar, consists of a single track improvisation which moves between silencers, gentling undulations and unexpected crunching eruptions. With Kaplan’s timbres initially centred on muted growls and Carrasco’s on peeps, squeals and chromatic slurs, only Akiyama’s coldly outlined notes cut through the undifferentiated sonic and silences. Eventually his snaps and strums are challenged by side-slipping shrills and bell-muted pressure from the saxophonist plus spittle-encrusted angled grace notes from the trumpeter. Following a climatic water dam-like roar from the horns, and a subsequent extended period of silence, the piece’s final variation is divided among whimpering pressure from Kaplan, which becomes louder and more atonal by the end; brassy spetrofluctuation from Carrasco; and microtonal slurred fingering from Akiyama – with a conclusive resonating twang.

Moving north from Buenos Aires to Brooklyn, not only do Halvorson, Radding and Wooley run through 10 tunes in less than 48½ minutes, but each number also has a quirky title. The game plan here involves triple counterpoint with an emphasis on dissonant unison harmonies. Performances by this trio are as macro as the others are micro, without losing sight of post-modern minimalism that is mixed with jazz-styled improvisations.

In this context at least, Halvorson’s output is spikier and louder than Akiyama’s. During the course of “Libidinous Objects & the Decay of Self”, for instance, she works herself from watery chromatic picking to distorted lines and finally into a display of scattered notes and slurred staccato fingering. Radding thickly thumps in response, while Wooley leaks the odd brass tone. Meanwhile, “In the Teeth of Ideology” serves as a showcase for the bassist, whose wood-splintering-like scrubs and col legno ruffs replace his usual thick stopping and walking. Stepping back to strum, the guitarist cedes the remaining space to Wooley, whose hushed output is simultaneously lyrical, wispy and Impressionistic.

Elsewhere each seems to be vying to discover whose playing can be the most moderato and low-pressured. However an extended improv such as “Quavering Voices of the Mutilated” shows off their multi-directional counterpoint in greatest detail. With the broken chord action connected by Radding’s pumping lines, the guitarist moves from chunky rasgueado to spidery fingering while the trumpeter’s interpolations evolve from tremolo buzzing to sounds that are fortissimo, shrill, grainy and slurred. When this centrifugal performance climaxes, silences, delay and discursion eventually combine into lyrical connectivity.

Although Crackleknob distinguishes itself from the other two sessions with a brash – perhaps New World-styled – forthrightness, each of the CDs demonstrate winning methods for enlivening trumpet-guitar trio sessions that simultaneously explore and evolve. "

Dromos002 Manuel Mota & Afonso Simões - Ao vivo no espaço - Centro de desastres

Dromos Records proudly announces the release of “Ao vivo no espaço - Centro de desastres” by Manuel Mota (electric guitar) and Afonso Simões (drums) .

Documenting a live performance by these two pivotal figures of the Portuguese underground, ao vivo no espaço - centro de desastres stands as an supreme example of free thinking and sonic creativity, opening new grounds for the improvisational structures they previously made, both solo or in projects such as Curia or Fish & Sheep .

All the covers are handmade and each one of them was burned differently by Manuel Mota.

Cd-R comes in a limited edition of 100 copies.
all music by Manuel Mota and Afonso Simões
all Artwork & Packaging by Manuel Mota

SOLD OUT!

Moments Of Falling Petals review by Rui Eduardo Paes

By Rui Eduardo Paes
In Rui Eduardo Paes website

"Editado em Lisboa, mas gravado em Córdoba com músicos sul-americanos, o chileno Éden Carrasco e o argentino Leonel Kaplan, “Moments of Falling Petals” é um dos discos mais bem conseguidos do japonês Tetuzi Akiyama que nos foi dado a ouvir. Alinhado com os princípios do reducionismo improvisado (utilização de silêncios, economia de sons, volume reduzido, substituição do fraseado pela construção de texturas), numa pausa das recentes investidas do guitarrista pelos blues abstractos e pelo psicadelismo rock, o que aqui encontramos é de uma beleza desarmante. A guitarra, acústica, soa por vezes a uma harpa e outras a um violoncelo. Os sopros têm uma perspectivação electrónica, embora de forma orgânica e até primária, importando mais a respiração e o sopro do que a nota e a articulação.
Ao longo da audição chegamos a recear que qualquer novo acontecimento destrua o mundo que foi construído, e é em constante surpresa que testemunhamos a capacidade dos três intervenientes para delicadamente o renovar. Akiyama é um dos protagonistas da cena onkyo de Tóquio, ao lado de figuras como Taku Sugimoto e Toshimaru Nakamura, conhecida precisamente pela sua serenidade (por vezes falsa, dado que a música pode ser especialmente intensa), mas também se tem distinguido em contextos mais “noisy”. De Carrasco chegam-nos poucas referências para além das de ser um membro do grupo de free rock La Kut e de ter colaborado com Jason Kahn, Norbert Moslang e Gunter Muller, enquanto Leonel Kaplan se tornou num dos protagonistas das novas tendências da improvisação internacional, ao lado dos melhores, o que lhe valeu já o convite de Dave Douglas para participar no Festival of New Trumpet Music."

Moments Of Falling Petals review in Paris Transatlantic magazine

By Dan Warburton
In Paris Transatlantic , Autumn 2009

"The good old, bad old conservatory-trained composer in me is more drawn, I'll admit, to Moments Of Falling Petals, which finds Captain Akiyama back on acoustic guitar in the world of recognisable, even singable (yes!) pitches for a delicate and elegantly understated three-way conversation with alto saxophonist Éden Carrasco and trumpeter Leonel Kaplan. This could be a clue as to why I happen to find Akiyama such an intriguing musician – returning once again to the less-is-more world of Bar Aoyama and Off Site where he first made a name for himself, I'm struck by what I once described elsewhere (referring to an Arthur Doyle album, of all things) as "relaxed intensity". There were only two ways out of Off Site: either by playing even less – the Taku Sugimoto solution – or by playing more, which was Akiyama's strategy. (Toshi Nakamura can't decide which way to go, which is fine by me too..). There's an extraordinary tension to Sugimoto's work, both improvised and composed – I well recall him sweating, physically suffering to place those oh so few notes in just the right place in a concert with Radu Malfatti here a while back – while Akiyama in concert has never seemed to me to be in the throes of such an existential crisis. Can music be intense without necessarily being tense? I'd say it can, and Akiyama is a good example. Pursuing the comparison for a while, that Connors / Licht duo once more comes to mind, with Taku playing Connors, agonising over each sound, while Akiyama sits back (Licht positively slumps back) and lets the notes come – not that there are many more of them here than there used to be on echt Akiyama outings like Relator, or his wonderful duos with Jozef van Wissem, Proletarian Drift and Hymn for a Fallen Angel. There's a real sense of tonal – not in the traditional sense of course – interplay in this 33-minute piece, with Akiyama's delicate chordal threads and micro-melodies drawing Carrasco and Kaplan back into real pitch play (rare these days, that), which counterpoints their more "extended" techniques to great effect. It's glorious stuff, and strongly recommended. Same goes for the other two too – but you may want to prepare a secret tunnel out of your apartment if you want to play Omni at the volume it deserves.”

Dromos001 ACK - Moments Of Falling Petals

Dromos Records proudly announces the release of it’s first record, "Moments of Falling Petals", by Tetuzi Akiyama (acoustic guitar), Éden Carrasco (alto sax), and Leonel Kaplan (trumpet). The record documents a concert of the trio, recorded live at Sala Azucena Carmona, Real Teatro in Córdoba, Argentina.
Informed by the vast spectrum of languages connected to the sphere of free improvisation and electroacoustic music, each of the musicians establishes a dialog with the other, creating, layer after layer,a plains of a rare evocative power, slowly sculpting the molecules of sound and space that propagate trough time until they reach a new and original form.
Each cover is different and unique, and were all handmade and hand drawn by artist Joana Falhas.
Cd-R comes in a limited edition of 250 copies. all music by Tetuzi Akiyama, Éden Carrasco, Leonel Kaplan all Artwork & Packaging by Joana Falhas

SOLD OUT!

Coming Up...Dromos001

Dromos-001 - Tetuzi Akiyama & Leonel Kaplan & Edén Carrasco - Moments Of Falling Petals

(click on image for better view)

Welcome

Dromos Records is foremost a space open to cross-functional interaction and communion between artists.Making use of DIY strategies, we try to be not only a distribution method but also a point of merging and exposure, giving voice to artists that perform on the margins and at the same time establish a strong relationship between music and plastic arts.

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A Dromos Records é antes de tudo o mais um espaço aberto à comunião e à interacção multidisciplinar entre artistas. Fazendo uso de estratégias DIY pretendemos ser não apenas um meio de distribuição mas um ponto de confluência e exposição, dando voz a artistas e projectos a actuar nas margens e ao mesmo tempo estabelecendo uma ligação forte da música com as artes plásticas.


For more info & sound check our myspace page at: http://www.myspace.com/dromosrecords