Reviews that mention Robbie Avenaim
October 12, 2021
State of Play
RER Megacorp JR8
Australian violinist Jon Rose may live on what’s perhaps the biggest island in the world. But he actually inhabits a space that’s much bigger and smaller than the country-continent. With connections throughout the world, Rose’s music has never been limited to one area. At the same time his idiosyncratic playing, unique compositions and constant inventions and use of many string-driven instruments also make him a singular resident of his own cordoned off homeland, perhaps called Roseland. This singularity doesn’t preclude collaboration and this descriptive two-CD set offers more than 2½ hours of his work as improviser, composer and conceptualizer plus an informative booklet lavishly illustrated with photos of many invented string instruments. MORE
October 2, 2021
Robbie Avenaim/Chris Abrahams/Jim Denley
Weft
Relative Pitch RPR 1126
Romy Caen, Nick Ashwood and Jim Denley
Between Back and Foreground
Caterpillar #007
Confirming, if only by inference, that Australia is an enormous island with an extensive outback and rural spaces near its cities are these discs featuring flutist/saxophonist Jim Denley. Although one was recorded in a studio and the other in a former sports club, the sheen of bush land and natural surroundings affects the program. Not that there’s anything Arcadian about the discs, since all the Aussie players are involved with 21st Century free music. MORE
July 3, 2010
Fresnes-en-Woëvre, France
October 23 to 25 2009
A rural French hamlet in the Lorraine countryside isn’t the setting you imagine for a world-class festival of unadulterated Electronic and Free Music. Yet the Densités Festival in Fresnes-en-Woëvre – population 500 – about 80 kilometres from Nancy, is that. During three days in late October, the 16th Edition presented a sonic banquet of unstoppable Free Jazz, minimalist improv, sound installations, electro-acoustic meetings, poetry recitations and interactions between instrumentalists and dancers. MORE