MOTZER JANUSONIS & FRIENDS featuring VERNON REID, JOSH WERNER, LEON GRU ENBAUM – Live Streaming, November 21   

by | Nov 19, 2020 | Live Streaming, News

MoonJune presents
Sonic Shapeshifters Live Webcast SeriesChapter 3
tickets:www.shapeshifterlab.com/livestream/moonjune-3
TIM MOTZER & GINTAS JANUSONISwith FRIENDS
featuringVERNON REID LEON GRUENBAUM JOSH WERNER
Saturday, November 21, 2020
5pm EST (check Your time zone)
tickets:www.shapeshifterlab.com/livestream/moonjune-3

An evening of adventurous cosmic music exploring and expanding sonic boundaries of magic and the unknown.
Tickets:• Streaming Only – $12.00• Streaming plus a rough mix of the show (MP3 192kb) – $20.00(MP3 will be sent up to 10 days after the performance by MoonJune Records)
tickets:​​​​​​​www.shapeshifterlab.com/livestream/moonjune-3
Special thanks to Matt Garrison and Fortuna Sung of ShapeShifter Lab for hosting this event.

TIM MOTZER is widely known for his distinct textural acoustic-electro guitar voice utilizing looping, bowing, electronics, and prepared techniques. From 2016-19, Tim toured the world playing prestigious venues and jazz festivals with Bandit65, an improvising trio he co-leads with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and drummer Gintas Janusonis. He has also collaborated with numerous musical luminaries including David Sylvian, Burnt Friedman, Jaki Liebezeit, poet Ursula Rucker, King Britt, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Vernon Reid, David Torn, Markus Reuter, ALex SKolnick, Percy Jones, Kenny Grohowski, and Pat Mastelotto, among others. Tim‘s work has appeared in the hit HBO series True Blood as well a major motion picture directed by Michael Mann. As an in-demand, solo live composer/improviser in the world of modern dance, Tim most recently playing to sold-out houses in Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Oujda, Morocco; Philadelphia, PA; and Toronto, Canada. For over a decade, he has served as a live accompanist/composer for master choreographers at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Tim brings his dynamic, eclectic array of musical projects together under his own 1k Recordings imprint, which has over 40 releases and counting.

GINTAS JANUSONIS has performed and toured all around the globe, recorded and collaborated with an incredibly diverse range of artists including Angélique Kidjo, Branford Marsalis, Eminem, Carlos Santana, Bill Laswell, The revelations., RZA, Wu-Tang Clan, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Otis Clay, Charles Hodges, Teenie Hodges, Leroy Hodges, Lester Snel, Boo Mitchell, Yuna, M.O.P., Lee Scratch Perry, Erykah Badu, Los Lobos, Xander Duell, Foxy Brown, Frankie Negron, Bilal, Defunkt, James Spaulding, Oliver Lake, Utada Hikaru, Ursula Rucker, Tre Williams, Jonah Smith, The Next Legacy Big Band, Kahil El Zabar, Sandra St. Victor, Josh Roseman, Reggie Washington, Fareed Haque, Rueben Wilson, Curtis Fowlkes, Jeffrey Mironov, Michael Harvey, Angela Johnson, and many others. As an auspicious start to his recording career, in 1997 Gintas received a UK gold record for his performance on the Ultra Naté hit single “Free”, from the album “Situation Critical”.

VERNON REID is a guitar legend. Webster’s Dictionary defines an artist as “one who professes and practices an imaginative art; a person skilled in one of the fine arts; a skilled performer.” By any of these definitions, guitarist and composer Vernon Reid is a true artist, one whose art is a work forever in progress, from his formative years on the downtown New York jazz/funk/punk scene with Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society, to his leadership of the pioneering multi-platinum rock band Living Colour, to his collaborations with creative spirits ranging from guitarist Carlos Santanaand African singer Salif Keita to choreographers Bill T. Jones and Donald Byrd. He cites Miles Davis, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Fripp, Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, Eddie Hazel, John McLaughlin, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, and Dr. Know among his influences. Among many of his most notorious collaborations are those with Jack Bruce, David Torn, Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society, Mick Jagger, Ambitious Lovers, Rollins Band, Spearhead, Public Enemy, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Tracy Chapman, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Don Byron, Defunkt, Santana, Bernie Worrell, MC 900 Ft. Jesus, B.B. King, Madeleine Peyroux, Meridiem, Jack Bruce, Terry Bozzio, Black Sugar Transmission,DJ Spooky, and many others.

LEON GRUENBAUM has been a vital force in the New York music scene for over 25 years. After early classical training on piano and woodwinds, Mr. Gruenbaum developed an interest in jazz, funk and avant-garde music. He conceived of the world’s first relativistic music keyboard, a patented MIDI controller called the Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee. This instrument won a prize at the 2011 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition and is now listed in the 2nd edition of the Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. He has recorded and performed on his instrument internationally with guitarist Vernon Reid (Living Colour), James “Blood” Ulmer and the Burnt Sugar Arkestra.  He also plays this keyboard while singing in his projects – “Creative Apocalypse” and “Genes and Machines”. Other artists with whom he has performed include Stew, Nana Vasconcelos, Chaka Khan, Beans, M.C.P.S., Micah Gaugh and Aaron Comess’s “Air Conditioned Gypsies”
JOSH WERNER is a bass player, composer, performer and abstract painter, Werner has made quite a name for himself working in a variety of styles, most notably in dub, experimental rock, hip hop and jazz. His work with Ghostface Killer, CocoRosie, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Cibo Matto, PopCaan, James Brandon Lewis, Matisyahu, Sly and Robbie, Wu Tang Clan and TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe has cemented his status as a low-end heavyweight

ASAF SIRKIS “FULL MOON” FREE DOWNLOAD

by | Nov 10, 2016 | New Releases, News

18 TUNES OF PROGRESSIVE JAZZ & BEYOND FEATURING ONE OF TODAY’S MOST VERSATILE AND TALENTED DRUMMERS

Dear Friends in Music,
Please let me introduce to You the music of Israeli-born and London-based drummer and composer Asaf Sirkis, who is frequenting very often the MoonJune Universe in past few years, and who is featured on two recent and critically highly acclaimed releases on MoonJune Records: Mark Wingfield’s ‘Proof Of Light’ and Dwiki Dharmawan’s ‘Pasar Klewer’. In 2017 Asaf Sirkis will be providing his masterful and poetic drumming on additional 4 albums on MoonJune. And I am pretty sure one of Asaf’s solo projects will be released on MoonJune in the second half of 2017 or early 2018. Asaf’s personality as well his music is truly inspirational, and I hope You can enjoy this free sampler of some of his drum work from the past 10+ years.
 
ASAF SIRKIS “FULL MOON”
Tracks selected by Leonardo Pavkovic.
DIGITAL COMPILATION ONLY. FREE DOWNLOAD
Direct link: www.asafsirkis-moonjune.bandcamp.com/album/full-moon-free-download
 
Featuring Aris Daryono (track 8), Ben Waghorn (10), Bernard Gregor-Smith (6), Carl Orr (10), Chris Garric (10), Demi Garcia (6), Dwiki Dharmawan (8), Eyal Maoz (18), Frank Harrison (3, 7,11), Fred T. Baker (10), Gabi Fortuna (7), Gabi Mayer (13), Geoff Eales (10), Gilad Atzmon (7,8,11,14), Guillermo Rozenthuler (11), James Pearson (6), John Turville (1), Kevin Glasgow (3), Kobi Arad (13), Lizzie Ball (6), Mark Wingfield (8,15,16), Markus Reuter (15), Mike Outram (2,9,17), Pat Bettison (6), Reem Kelani (7), Robert Wyatt (11), Steve Lodder (2,9,17), Sylwia Bialas (3), Tassos Spiliotopoulos (1,2,4,12), Tom Mason (14), Yaron Stavi (1,4,5,7,8,11,12,15,16).
 
“Israeli-born drummer and London resident Asaf Sirkis unleashes with thunderous abandon on this hard-hitting fusion offering that harkens back to a time before the genre became codified, diluted and reduced to a critical joke.” — Bill Milkowski, Jazz Times (USA)
 
“Since arriving in London from Israel at the end of the end of the ‘90s, Asaf Sirkis has earned a reputation as one of the world’s premier drummers” — Ian Patterson, All About Jazz
 
“Asaf Sirkis sounding creatively freer and more dramatically inventive than ever on drums.” — John Fordham, The Guardian
 

Sirkis is not only an inventive drummer but also a composer of rigour, wit and surprising delicacy” — Chris Ingham, Mojo Magazine

asaf

 
After establishing himself as an in-demand drummer and percussionist in his home country of Israel, Asaf Sirkis’ career began an greater upward trajectory upon moving to London, England in 1999. In addition to garnering significant critical praise for his own groups – most notably his Messiaen-informed Inner Noise, with guitarist Mike Outram and organist Steve Lodder, and his Asaf Sirkis Trio, with guitarist Tassos Spiliotopoulos and bassist Yaron Stavi – Sirkis has also made important contributions to the music of other emergent artists based in the UK. Bringing a unique pan-cultural vision to reed and woodwind multi-instrumentalist Tim Garland’s Lighthouse Trio, fellow Israeli expat, reed multi-instrumentalist Gilad Atzmon’s Orient House Ensemble and Swiss guitarist Nicolas Meier’s Group, Sirkis, praised by drum icons such as Bill Bruford and Gary Husband, has also recorded with artists including reed multi-instrumentalist Klaus Gesing (Norma Winstone, Anouar Brahem), pianist Glauco Venier (Norma Winstone), guitarists Phil Robson (Partisans), pianist Gwilym Simcock (Tim Garland, The Impossible Gentlemen) and double bassist Yuri Golubev (Gwilym Simcock, Alex Hutton).
 
More recently, Sirkis has been working in a collaborative quartet with singer Sylvia Bialas, which also features keyboardist Frank Harrison and bassist Patrick Bettison, but perhaps most significant is his recent affiliation with New York’s MoonJune Records. Sirkis made his first MoonJune appearance alongside fellow Israeli expat, bassist Yaron Stavi, on guitarist Mark Wingfield’s critically acclaimed Proof of Light, but the fall of 2016 will see the percussionist’s involvement with the label accelerate significantly.
 
Sirkis made his second MoonJune showing in September 2016 on Dwiki Dharmawan’s Pasar Klewar, an ambitious double-disc set that also includes other names either already familiar or destined to become so to MoonJune fans in the coming year; in addition to Wingfield, guitarist Nicolas Meier, Yaron Stavi, Italian vocalist Boris Savoldelli and Gilad Atzmon all join Sirkis in making the Indonesian pianist/keyboardist’s sophomore effort for MoonJune a truly earth-shattering, trans-cultural affair that blends unrepentant jazz improvisation with music indigenous to Dharmawan’s home country.
 
Coming in the early 2017, the result of an intensive six days’ recording in the countryside of Catalonia,, Spain this past winter will see no fewer than four MoonJune releases involving Sirkis: first, the percussionist joins Stavi, Wingfield and progressive trio Stick Men’s touch guitarist Markus Reuter for The Stone House; following that, a collaborative trio recording with Wingfield, Reuter and Sirkis; a new Wingfield recording with Stavi and Sirkis; and, finally, a new recording from Barcelona based Serbian guitarist Dusan Jevtovic – whose MoonJune debut, 2014’s Am I Walking Wrong?, was well-received by critics and fans alike – that will include Sirkis, in addition to fellow Serb, pianist Vasil Hadzimanov.
 
It’s a busy year ahead for the London-based percussionist, and that’s only counting recordings that have already been made. With Sirkis’ remarkable ability to fit into any musical context and sound like he’s been at it for his entire life, things can only look even further up for this tremendously talented, empathically intuitive and, above all, supremely musical percussionist.
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