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/Joëlle Léandre/Damon Smith/Martin Blume
Reviewed by: Robert Iannapollo, Cadence
AURORA JOSEPHSON/ JOELLE LEANDRE/ DAMON SMITH/MARTIN BLUME, CRUXES, BALANCE POINT ACOUSTICS 10. Risen Like Venus From The Flatlands Of Brooklyn / Imaginary Paintings-Imaginary Frames / Siberia Of The Mind / The Elusive Basilisk / Scriabin The Derailer / Tanglefoot Flypaper / Napoleon’s Favorite Wine (Gevrey-Chambertin) / Praxis / De Papier Tuemouches* / Un Seour De Charite* / Tableau Imaginaires-Cadres Imaginaires* / Hodie Mihi, Cras Tibi! 66:03. Josephson, vcl; Leandre, b; Smith, b; Blume, d. 10/19/04 (studio), Oakland, CA; except * recorded 10/18/04 (concert), Berkeley, CA. Vocalist Josephson and bassist Smith have been contributors to a strong free musicscene in the San Francisco Bay Area. Smith’s Balance Point Acoustics label has been issuing recordings that document their intriguing collaborations. For this set, the two are joined by German drummer Martin Blume (who collaborated with these musicians on 2003’s Zero Plus) and French bassist Joelle Leandre. Although this is an ad-hoc group, they obviously speak the same language, the results making this an excellent recording of conversational free Jazz. The instrumentation of voice, two low string instruments and percussion assures that this grouping will have a unique sound. It achieves its ultimate expression on the final studio track, “Praxis” where both basses are sliding buoyantly over and around each other as Josephson acrobatically leaps atop the lines and Blume provides a chattering accompaniment. Although the majority of these tracks feature full group improvisation, several tracks feature brief duets and trios from the group. The deep sound of the strings of Leandre and Smith put Josephson’s vocals in stark relief on “Siberia Of The Mind.” Josephson and Blume duet on “Napoleon’s Favorite Wine” with each focusing on small gestures that become larger and end in a grand gesture. It’s one of the best free improvs I’ve ever heard that lasts under two minutes. More importantly, it doesn’t feel like a fragment but a complete statement. The live tracks are longer and have a more leisurely pace. But only the 20 minute final track seems a bit overlong. And while it has a few brief dead spots, after a bit of meandering the four find common ground and the music takes off again. Besides, this track has some of the most compelling music of the set, most notably when Leandre and Smith play an arco drone in accompaniment to Josephson’s stratospheric flight. Cruxes is yet another example of the fertile music that’s been brewing in the Bay Area for a number of years now. Robert Iannapollo