Balance Point Acoustics : Damon Smith

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Featured CD:

Firestorm is an intense and musically assaultive release of killer, balls-out free jazz that will appeal to those who long for the most bombasic works of Broetzmann, Ayler, Takayanagi and Cecil Taylor! This release reveals many shades of intensity and mood while remaining frenzied and inventive at all times. Featuring Taylor alumni Marco Eneidi (alto), Marc Edwards (drums), Lisle Ellis (bass), Elliott Levin (tenor), Sun Ra Arkestra legend Marshall Allen (alto), bassist Damon Smith and manic Austrian reedist Mario Rechtern, Firestorm is a delerious concoction of new energy music that pushes beyond the stratosphere of sound!

You can send a paypal for $15 pp to damon@balancepointacoustics.com If you would like one. Buy This CD

A few copies of "Healing Force" are available You can send a paypal for $15 pp to damon@balancepointacoustics.com If you would like one.

Vinny Golia-reeds
Aurora Josephson-voice
Henry Kaiser-guitar
Mike Keneally-piano, guitar and voice
Joe Morris-guitar and double bass
Damon Smith-double bass
Weasel Walter-drums

Seven major figures from the art-punk, free-jazz, brutal prog, improvisational and modern jazz world come together for a ROCKING tribute to the unfairly ignored, misunderstood and vilified late period works of Albert Ayler. These late period songs have always seemed to me like they may have been some of the most personally spritually resonant for Ayler, but the musicians and the culture of the late 1960s were possibly not able to successfully translate and perform his concept of spirituality, free jazz, boogaloo, nursery rhythms, marching bands, blues and r'n'b, and certainly the free-jazz following public was not ready to accept it. Now, 40 years and many stylistic mash-ups later, perhaps these works can be better enjoyed.

“Albert Ayler's later works (Love Cry, New Grass and Music is the Healing Force of the Universe) seem to be generally reviled. Through meditations, dreams, and visions, the players on this project were given the message to once again attempt to send the people of earth a message of love, peace, and spiritual understanding. We selected a representative set of tunes for this material and essentially let it play itself through us. We hope you will be as surprised as we still are by the results of this invocational experiment. We hope you will like this record.”
- Henry Kaiser, producer and guitarist Buy This CD

Limited copies of the "Noisy People" dvd are available here. It is a Film by Tim Perkis featuing Damon Smith and other Bay Area Musicians. Includes footage of Gratkowski/Bryerton/Smith and Wolfgang Fuchs' Six Fuchs Project. Buy This CD

Improvised music form Oakland and Tel Aviv from the Jerusalem based Kadima Label.
Aurora Josephson - voice
Ariel Shibolet - soprano saxophone
Jen Baker - trombone
Scott R. Looney - piano
Damon Smith - double bass Buy This CD

"Ghetto Caylpso" Peter Kowald/Marco Eneidi/Damon Smith/Spirit out now on NOTTWO records. Buy This CD

New from Nuscope Records: Biggi Vinkeloe, alto saxophone, flute; Damon Smith, double-bass; Kjell Nordeson, drums, vibraphone Buy This CD

Forthcoming CD's

BPA 013 "Pepper Spray" Ariel Shibolet/Jen Baker/Damon Smith/Jerome Bryerton

Bertram Turetzky/Damon Smith ThoughtBeetle

"Zero Plus - bpa007"
Players: aurora josephson, phillip wachsmann, jacob lindsay, damon smith, martin blume
Reviewed by: Robert Iannapollo, Cadence

One cannot accuse the musicians that comprise the international ensemble featured on Zero Plus of mere professionalism. (Not that they aren�t professional musicians.) This is pure improvisation, unfettered and free. Violinist Phil Wachsmann is an asset to any group in which he appears and this disc is no exception. He�s a player of great delicacy. Check out the early moments of �Long Tail On A Ghost� or the middle section of �The Deadly Tube.� Yet when this ensemble is going full bore, his violin is an integral part of the group fabric. Aurora Josephson�s wordless vocals place her on an equal footing with the rest of the group. (This is not a vocalist with instrumental accompaniment.) Her vocal swoops, shrieks, barks, and god-knows-whatelse work as a particularly good foil with clarinetist Lindsay. Bassist Damon Smith has particularly good arco technique and drummer Blume has a kinetic energy that continually pushes the music forward but never swamps it. But most impressive about this quintet is its group interaction. The beginning of �A Bird With A Wing Down,� with high-pitched clarinet sounds, Josephson chirping and whistling, Wachsmann�s pizzicato, and the rhythm section pattering around the perimeter is one of the high points of the set. It builds to a remarkable climax and then decays with a satisfying finalness. To these ears, the improvisation has British qualities. It�s a spacious, conversational approach. It�s clearly a group music and all members appear to be on the same wavelength. Worth hearing.