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| Edge City
Record Reviews
Click a title or scroll down: Guitarrasalto Kosmischstrasse Aktivavoco
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Guitarrasalto
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"The moment I received [Guitarrasalto] and put it on my CD player, I
knew that I had found a treasure... This
guitar/accordion/saxophone/bass-infested delicacy is a feast for the ear where
intricate tangos mix freely with avant-garde fluidity and jazzy intaglios to
create a magnificent tableaux of fresh verve and exuberant vitality.
Surprisingly classical but, at the same time, audaciously new. This is a
great recording from these five independent, improvisational artists, to be had
and savoured all summer long!"
- Stavros Moschopoulos, FAO Casa Gazette, Roma
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| "The Edge City Collective delivers on [its]
mission with heart and great passion. The music ebbs and flows with a sophistication
rarely heard in improvised music. Recommended."
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| "Four stars... This CD was full of
instrumental bliss."
- Kas Walters, Nefarious Magazine
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| "This collection... is all
about emotion. At times reminiscent of Paulinho Noguira and other
great Brazilian jazz artists... "Upekuzi" is as pretty as
anything Henry Kaiser and Donald Lindley have discovered on their journeys
through Mozambique. When their pieces become harsher and more
experimental, as in the title track and "Fanatango Primo" (which
includes brilliant flute work by Jon Thompson), the pleasures are less
immediate, but once again strongly rewarding. Those who love every
aspect of the guitar will love this... The Collective's focus... is very
broad and diverse, appealing to fans of guitar work understated as Guy
Clark or as complex as Steve Reich." [full
review]
- Theodore Defosse, Splendid E-Zine
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| "The variety of sounds
they get with acoustic guitars, basses, sax, flute, melodica, accordion
and a touch of mandolin is astounding... creating a palette of emotional
soundscapes that is at once soothing and unsettling, urban with an
occasional touch of country roots. All instrumental, heady, and full
of feeling, [Guitarrasalto] is a fascinating
collection." [full
review]
- da Flower Punk, PauseRecord
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| "Who says music has to be
formulaic and structured? The group of musicians that make up the
Edge City Collective make it a point to take risks and explore the unknown
possibilities of music... The dixieland jive of
"Osweetmoses" merges into the experimental flamenco of
"Nippon Theme", which gives way to the percussive noises and
electric riffs of "Guitarrasalto." The driving sounds of
"Fanatango Primo" are dramatic and intense. "The
Portal" has a very modern and airy feel, and the classical guitar of
"Upaya" is romantic and sweet... The
experimentation keeps the music alive and enjoyable from beginning to
end."
- Mish Mash Indie Music Reviews
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| "Edge City Collective is a
remarkable confederacy of quiet grace, swinging jazz and musical
invention. They are unclassifiable-and happily so... this is just
the beginning of far-reaching recognition of Philadelphia's burgeoning
avant-garde scene."
- Liz Spikol, Philadelphia Weekly
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| "What is remarkable is that on most
tracks you may be hearing the first and only performance of a piece -- truly the act of
creation captured for the listener's enjoyment... be sure to check out Guitarrasalto
and give the Collective a critical listen." [full review]
- Guitar Nine Records Magazine
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| "The players are all fine musicians, with chops a-plenty and the wherewithal to apply
them... Each title sounds very different from the one before or after it [yet] the group
does seem to maintain an identity. If your taste in listening runs toward the sweet and tonal, pick this up."
[full
review]
- Jeph Jerman, The Improvisor
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| "Four stars... an experiment in theme-based
free improvisation and guerilla aesthetics... "Osweetmoses" has both
Madof and Schaffer earning wows all around... "Fanatango Primo,"
[featuring] Ranji Kumar's accordion and Jon Thompson's flute, also stands
out."
- Jeff Morris, 52nd St. Jazz
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"[Guitarrasalto's] 15 tracks dip into
multiple cultural themes and offer up twists at each turn... Opener
"Citron" is a rather atmospheric guitar and bass contemplation;
"Osweetmoses" a Les Paul-ian rag; "Fanatango Secondo"
explodes with post-mariachi grandeur; while the title track bobs and weaves in a
John Fahey-esque lurch."
- Brian Howard, Philadelphia City Paper
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| "[Guitarrasalto
is] an eclectic, creative, improvisational
product... of course calling it a product is exactly what the artists are set against...
nuanced, melodious... avant-garde, experimental... the melding of genres and instruments
comes off well."
- Armand Canales, The Critical Review
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Kosmischstrasse
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"Cutting a dream-like montage of membranous sounds... a
chain-linked stream of tone poems, the program is at once
absorbing and confounding and offers a consistent sense of
surprise. Pieces of genuine lyric beauty, such as the
folk-tinged "Rencontre" contend with more abstract,
rambunctious entries like the playfully transitory "Sonderbar"
in a manner that keeps things fresh and vital."
- Cadence (July 2002)
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"Out of Philadelphia’s musical
underground comes Edge City Collective... On Edge City’s second release,
the 10-piece unit shifts arrangements, pairings and instruments to create
a creepy, ambient esoteric mix of styles and traditions fusing classical,
European folk and jazz... The band has doubled in size since its first
recording and so has its potential, merging the album’s 24 tracks into a
seamless path of exploration, capturing the band in great form."
- Daniel Piotrowsky, Signal to Noise
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"As part two in a trilogy
of improvisational music, Kosmischstrasse has the musicians
in Edge City Collective exploring an even more far-out world than in part
one... ECC is definitely comfortable with taking chances, and the
creation that emerges seems to take on a life of its own. The
improvisation here is surely alive, breathing, speaking and crying out in
a fashion that is sorely absent in the mainstream."
- Mish Mash Indie Music Reviews
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| "Kosmischstrasse is
a challenging and diverse album that gives no quarter to casual or
inattentive listeners... Those who enjoy vigorous musical
experimentation and inventive style-melding are in for a treat."
- Matthew Pollesel, Splendid E-Zine
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| "[Kosmischstrasse is] raging
creativity and normalcy-be-damned inventiveness... "Jezihohana" is like being in the darkness behind the tent of a possibly malevolent circus while lovely "Rencontre" is much warmer with rootsy jangles and violin strands. Crowded and discordant "Katzenmusik" sounds like several random street minstrels, Italian restaurant musicians and a jazz combo or two converged into one small room to simultaneously play their own song. Traces of assorted ethnicities surge through entrancing reel-along, "Beledara," followed by dimly-lit avant-jazz. If you enjoy the sounds of normal instruments being transcendentally abused into surreal performances, you'll hear almost 69 minutes of animalistic squawking, plinky strings, cartoony effects, inexplicable outbursts and even some relatively traditional sounds too." - David Opdyke, Ambientrance
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| "[Kosmischstrasse
is] highly varied, with quiet introspective acoustic tracks, as well
as ones that are on the border of complete freakout... "Rencontre"
mixes some light tribal percussion in with beautiful violin and
acoustic guitar for a soothing and captivating track... "Phasengranze"
sounds like a drunken street-corner band heard layered through
reeling effects... The group is at its best [on] tracks like the
excellent "Beledara"... there are definitely shining
moments in some of the experimental tracks as well."
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| "Kosmischstrasse... brings the
Collective from six players to 11, significantly broadening not only the
possibilities but the results"... "Solarena"...
would keep Wim Wenders and David Lynch good company... "Beledara,"
[is] cast in mythical Eastern shadow... "Rimbombare"...
gets embellished... to excellent effect."
- Liz Spikol, Philadelphia Weekly
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"Through an amalgam of
styles and recording techniques, the fearless musicians of Edge City take
the intrepid listener on an awe-inspiring ride through musical
consciousness. Not for the complacent."
- Tropia.com
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| Aktivavoco
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"Edge City Collective is a coalition of like-minded creative musicians who seem determined to defy musical categorization... The diverse nature of the disc’s seventeen tracks traverses unpredictable musical spheres. While some of the pieces are intended as deliberate reflections on the absurdities of society, others evoke satire, diversity and optimism. "The musicians involved are all strongly adept, yet the focus is not on musical virtuosity, but rather on the imaginative and spontaneous reactions to sound. The vocalizations are all unique and integrate with the core instrumentation to create fresh textures. Dodd, who has performed with Anthony Braxton, and Miller, with mesmerizing Tuvan throat-singing, bring an abundance of creativity to the proceedings. "The sounds of Edge City
Collective are fresh, bold and challenging. Aktivavoco is
the perfect remedy to cure one’s displeasure for the mundane and
trivial." - John Barron, JazzReview
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"Aktivavoco is an
example of what can happen when a large ensemble of diversely
talented musicians get together to improvise without boundaries,
drawing on a huge range of Western and Eastern spiritual/musical
traditions and throwing in some poetry and political satire too…
There are good things here—trumpeter Bart Miltenberger and
guitarist Scott Schaffer in particular are worth listening to… the
Riders in the Sky-style setting of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem
“Brahma” (I kid you not) is the most memorable [track] on the
album. - Nate Dorward, Cadence
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“After a free-flowing
introductory duet between Dodd and Miltenberger, the program takes a
series of sudden twists... The spiraling slows by the album’s
seventh track, “Denove,” which playfully revisits the
trumpet-vocal theme, and Aktivavoco
settles into a groove defined by creative interplay between the
players and singers. Dodd exudes a spiritual energy that is at turns
meditative and frenetic. After “Metamorfozo” builds to peak
intensity, “Ridado” releases the tension in a hilarious collage
built on Thompson’s tenor solo. The album ends with the beautiful
“Harmonio,” and a moving coda. “Aktivavoco
is Edge City Collective’s most challenging work to date.
Inventive, spontaneous and rewarding, it is a fitting end to the
trilogy.” - Sam Mitchell, The Improvisor
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