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

"Cruxes"
Players: Aurora Josephson/Joelle Leandre/martin Blume
Reviewed by: Marc Medwin
I admire both Jöelle Léandre and Damon Smith for their ability to adapt convincingly to whatever situation presents itself. This new disc is a particularly strong case in point. All members of the group prove malleable without necessitating any sacrifice or creating negative tension. Of course, there are the most readily apparent meldings, such as the finest moments of “Un Souer de Charite”; Léandre and Josephson become a single instrument as the latter switches from shrillings and raspings to a beautiful full-voice that blooms rather than simply swelling. Léandre reacts—precipitates?—with arco tremolo in thirds or seconds, all elements meshing in a kind of static “third space”. As wonderful as such occurrences are, it’s even more spectacular to hear how the two basses joust, react and merge; there’s some extraordinarily intense listening going on, every moment realizing one combinatorial possibility only to leave myriad others satellite, yet the results are almost always satisfying. The other “pitched” musicians indulge Smith’s penchant for tonal passages with alacrity, Josephson swinging the gamut from Mintonesque gurgles and screeches to full-throated Patty Waters-inflected blues. Far removed from it’s “French” counterpart from the live material, “Imaginary paintings/Imaginary Frames” becomes a song without words as Josephson slides, swoops and glides over it, Smith, Léandre and Blume providing a rock-solid and immensely sensitive landscape through which she travels. As with many improv discs, it is sometimes difficult to tell precisely who’s responsible for any given sound, Martin Blume being partially responsible for the confusion. He is superb, and this project, as well as his other work for the label, make me eager to hear as much from him as I can. He strikes with force, rattles and shimmers with wisdom and clarity, changing timbre if not style from piece to piece. “The Elusive Basilisk” finds him at his most transparent, and are those whips he’s woofing around? The studio half of the disc bristles with as much energy as do the live portions. The recording is first-rate. Another fine disc from what is becoming one of my favorite improv labels. ~ Marc Medwin