''Unsquare'' is a 2008 studio album by

Maybe Monday Maybe Monday is an American experimental electroacoustic improvisation music ensemble comprising guitarist Fred Frith, koto player Miya Masaoka and saxophonist Larry Ochs. The trio was formed in San Francisco in March 1997 when they perform ...

, a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

based

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

electroacoustic improvisation Live electronic music (also known as live electronics) is a form of music that can include traditional electronic sound-generating devices, modified electric musical instruments, hacked sound generating technologies, and computers. Initially the pr ...

music ensemble featuring guitarist

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...

koto Koto may refer to: * Koto (band), an Italian synth pop group * Koto (instrument), a Japanese musical instrument * Koto (kana), a ligature of two Japanese katakana * Koto (traditional clothing), a traditional dress made by Afro-Surinamese women * ...

player

Miya Masaoka Miya Masaoka (born 1958, Washington, DC) is an American composer, musician, and sound artist active in the field of contemporary classical music and experimental music. Her work encompasses contemporary classical composition, improvisation, elect ...

and

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

Larry Ochs Lawrence "Larry" Ochs (March 9, 1924 – April 23, 2003) was an American politician who served as the 36th Mayor of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Early life and education Ochs was born on March 9, 1924, in Russell, Kansas, the second of five ch ...

. It is their third album and includes guest musicians

Gerry Hemingway Gerry Hemingway (born March 23, 1955) is an American drummer and composer. Hemingway was a member of the Anthony Braxton quartet from 1983 to 1994. He has also performed with Ernst Reijseger, Anthony Davis, Earl Howard, Leo Smith, George E. ...

Carla Kihlstedt Carla Kihlstedt (born 1971) is an American composer, violinist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist, originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania and currently working from a home studio on Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the A ...

Ikue Mori (born 17 December 1953), also known as Ikue Ile, is a drummer, electronic musician, composer, and graphic designer. Mori was awarded a "Genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 2022. Biography Ikue Mori was born and raised in Japan. She s ...

and

Zeena Parkins Zeena Parkins (born 1956) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist active in experimental, free improvised, contemporary classical, and avant-jazz music; she is known for having "reinvented the harp". Parkins performs on standard harp ...

. ''Unsquare'' was recorded at East Side Sound Studio in New York City on November 18, 2006, and was released by

Intakt Records Intakt Records is an independent record label, based in Zürich. History The label was founded in 1986 by Patrik Landolt.Margasak, Peter (September 2013) "Intakt's Landolt Takes Long-Term Approach to Avant-Garde". ''Down Beat''. p. 16. In the ea ...

in Switzerland in January 2008.

Reception

In a review of ''Unsquare'' at ''

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

'', Kurt Gottschalk called Maybe Monday "a ridiculously strong trio", and described their collaboration with Hemingway, Kihlstedt, Mori and Parkins on this album as "a dizzying, fascinating set of music". Clifford Allen wrote at ''Bagatellen'' that Maybe Monday are not unlike the British free improvisation group

AMM Amm or AMM may refer to: Entertainment Music *AMM (group), British free improvisation group Television * Amy's Mythic Mornings, an educational show on APTN Kids Video games * Automated MatchMaking, in the context of the Warcraft III Ladder syst ...

. He noted that which instruments are producing which sound is not important – it is the combination of those sounds that matters, the "subsuming of the parts to the whole". Allen added that "to parse ''Unsquare'' would be a disservice to the breadth of its canvas – this is a very rich recording of electro-acoustic improvisation." Jason Bivins wrote in ''

Cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards. Don Michael Randel ( ...

'' that the inclusion of the four guests "unsettl dthe group in just the right ways and thicken dthe sound provocatively". He was impressed that they did this "without weighing the music down or sacrificing space". Bivins described ''Unsquare'' as a "very fine record". Reviewing ''Unsquare'' in ''

DownBeat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

'', Bill Shoemaker was initially concerned that the presence of guests on Maybe Monday's third album would upset the "alluringly precarious elegance and intensity" of their earlier work. But he was pleased at how "keenly ensemble-minded" the guests are, and that they appear to have "infallible instincts for when less is more and when more is much more". The album's pieces "pivot between sparseness and density, altering a consistently bracing mix of acoustic and electronic elements". Shoemaker felt that the way the instruments connect, "the twacks of koto and low-register harp; the gravelly drones of guitar and laptop; the smudges of reeds and bowed strings", explains the growing interest in electro-acoustic improvisation.

Track listing

All tracks composed by

. Sources:

Liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the record sleeve, sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner n ...

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

Personnel

– electric guitar *

– 25 string

, electronics *

– sopranino and tenor saxophones ;Guests *

– drums, percussion, voice *

– electric and acoustic violins *

– electronics *

– electric harp, electronics Sources:

Sound and artwork

*Recorded at East Side Sound Studio, New York City on November 18, 2006 *Mixed at Ruminator Audio, San Francisco *Mastered at Headless Buddha Mastering Lab, Oakland, California *Marc Urselli – engineer *Monte Vallier – mixing *

– mixing, producer, liner notes *Myles Boisen – mastering *

– producer *Emilie Clark – cover art *Jonas Schoder – graphic design Sources:

References

External links

''Unsquare''
at

''Unsquare'' reviews
at Intakt Records {{DEFAULTSORT:Unsquare 2008 albums Free improvisation albums Intakt Records albums Fred Frith albums