SHANGHAI QUINTET (with Alfred 23 Harth), “ShangShan/Stone Age Music” (KSE #379), new album now available!

Shanghai Quintet (with Alfred 23 Harth)

ShangShan/Stone Age Music

Live at Power Station of Art/Shanghai, October 2016

 Part I  –  31:40        . Part II – 11:01

composed by Shanghai Quintet

Alfred 23 Harth: reeds, samples

Jun-Y Ciao: reeds         MaiMai: guitar

Xu Cheng: electronics, metal percussion                 Tao Yi: drums

We are very proud and excited to bring you ALFRED 23 HARTH’s 11th (!!!) KSE release (12th if you count his appearance on our 10th Anniversary Compilation album), SHANGHAI QUINTET—-an exciting communal performance with young Chinese musicians recorded last fall in Shanghai at one of the city’s most highly-regarded art spaces, Power Station of Art. Since recording the classic JUST MUSIC album in late 1969 (which came out early the next year on ECM), Mr. Harth has always been about collaboration and collective performance, and he’s consciously been re-dedicating himself to the “one element in the mix” collective/collaborative model in his recent performances and albums (his last KSE album was BERLIN ENSEMBLES, and he requested initially to not have his name featured in the artist credit on the front cover, just in the personnel listing on the back).

These two pieces (running about 43 minutes) document a fruitful collaboration–no one dominates, and there’s even a second reed player in addition to A23H. I’ve listened to it in the car, on a cheap boombox, on headphones outside before dawn, etc., and it’s a performance I can’t help wanting to revisit. There’s a variety of shades and textures and a delicious ebb-and-flow to the performances. I was unfamiliar with the Shanghai-based musicians prior to this album, but I’m looking forward to further work from them. When artists place themselves in new and unfamiliar territory, they bring out unexpected sides of themselves–Alfred Harth has an almost five-decade history of doing that, and with his natural shape-shifting inclinations, there’s an infinite amount of variety possible.

Also, the West (and here in the USA, in particular) does not have enough cultural exchange with Asia, and in particular China. Were I in charge of the world, we’d have far more cultural and educational exchanges, far more collaborative projects–a small Texas micro-label devoted to experimental music putting out an album by a group who is 4/5 young musicians from Shanghai, China, is a good start. Even if I never get over there or they never get over here, we’ve “embraced,” so to speak, through the medium of art.

Get your copy of SHANGHAI QUINTET with Alfred 23 Harth now. Only $8 postpaid in the US. See below for ordering details (and foreign pricing)….

the members of the SHANGHAI QUINTET

KSE #379 (CDR), SHANGHAI QUINTET (featuring Alfred 23 Harth), “ShangShan/Stone Age Music” (Harth and young Chinese musicians, recorded live in Shanghai, China, October 2016)

NOTE: ALL CDR’s  ARE NOW PRICED @ $8.00, postpaid in the US.

OUTSIDE THE USA , one album is $18.00 postpaid, first two albums are $20.00 postpaid, then $8 each postpaid after that—sorry, but it now costs almost $14 US to send one CDR overseas….you save A LOT by buying more than one—in fact, the price on an order of two or more HAS GONE DOWN!

1 album= $18, 2 albums= $20, 3 albums= $28, etc. Thanks for your understanding of this. The Post Office now charges $14.50 to mail ONE cdr without a jewel box to Europe or Asia!

Payment is via paypal, using the e-mail address   django5722(at)yahoo(dot)com   . It might be helpful for you to also shoot me an e-mail telling me you’ve sent funds and what items you want…or if you prefer, tell me what books/cdr’s you want, and I’ll send you a paypal invoice.

You can STILL get a few of Alfred Harth’s other recent albums for KSE: 

KSE #363 (CDR) ALFRED 23 HARTH’s BERLIN ENSEMBLES

KSE #336 (CDR), ALFRED 23 HARTH, “Kepler 452b Edition”

KSE #318, ALFRED 23 HARTH & JOHN BELL, “Camellia”

and also….

KSE #385 (CDR), TOM CREAN, “3 Heads Tame”

KSE #371 (CDR), SAMUEL DUNSCOMBE & TIM OLIVE, “Zanshi”

KSE #377 (CDR) JOHN BELL , ‘Cambridge Surprise Minor and other peals’….new compositions for percussion from Bell, well-known for his collaborations with Alfred 23 Harth….

KSE #373 (CDR), DANE ROUSAY, “Anatomize” , solo percussion from the San Antonio-based composer and multi-instrumentalist

KSE #375 (CDR), MASSIMO MAGEE & JAMES L. MALONE, “The Limits Of The Possible” … one of .KSE’s most acclaimed artists,  saxophonist-composer-theorist Massimo Magee is back with a blistering duo album with guitarist James L. Malone

KSE #381 (CDR), BILL SHUTE, “Bridge On The Bayou: Bill Shute Reads the Arnaudville Poems”….readings of the five poems composed in Louisiana in 2016, soon to be published in one book-length volume

KSE #372, ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE, “Manitas” solo classical guitar

KSE #369, A. F. JONES, “FOUR DOT THREE TO ONE”

KSE #362, FOSSILS & BILL SHUTE, “Florida Nocturne Revisited”….new interpretations of Shute’s Florida Nocturne Poems

KSE #370, “KSE 11th ANNIVERSARY ALBUM” featuring newly recorded, exclusive tracks from members of the KSE family and friends: JEN HILL, VANESSA ROSSETTO, ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE, LISA CAMERON, BRIAN RURYK, FOSSILS, MORE EAZE, JOHN BELL, MASSIMO MAGEE, MATTHEW REVERT, STEVE FLATO

KSE #355 (CDR), MORE EAZE, “wOrk”

KSE #357 (CDR) SMOKEY EMERY / VENISON WHIRLED, “turning into”

KSE #359 (CDR), TOM CREAN & MATT ROBIDOUX, “Blank Space”–cover art by Jennifer Baron

KSE #336 (CDR), ALFRED 23 HARTH, “Kepler 452b Edition”

KSE #351 (CDR), MASSIMO MAGEE, “Music In 3 Spaces”

KSE #350 (CDR) ANTHONY GUERRA / BILL SHUTE, “Subtraction” KSE  reissue of album originally released in 2011 on Black Petal Records, Australia 

KSE #335 (CDR album), REVEREND RAYMOND BRANCH, “Rainbow Gospel Hour…On The Air!”—a wonderful hour-long AM-radio broadcast, mastered from cassette, capturing the warmth and joy of Rev. Branch in both music (lots of it) and spoken message

A23H in front of the poster for the show at which the album was recorded

As always, thank you for your support of KSE….now in our 12th year of operation, from San Antonio, Texas….

SHANGHAI QUINTET is the first of SIX new albums coming out between now and January, the others being from TOM CREAN, LISA CAMERON, MATT KREFTING, MORE EAZE, and ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE….stay tuned!