2024 added a good amount of great live releases to my collection. I could have easily saved myself several hard decisions, if I just made this a list of my favorite dozen of them. Kikagaku Moyo, Temple Fang, Li Jianhong, Martina Verhoeven could have all been included. But then there would still be more, so let's just except that this is what it is - the holy, unshakable, final selection of my...
TOP 7 LIVE ALBUMS 2024:
- SWANS - Live RopeNo, Swans aren't getting significantly quieter or more compact yet! In a transformed guise of sound, which unites a newly found clarity with a still almost unfathomable heaviness, characterized by basses, lap steel guitars and Michael Gira playing on acoustic strings "Live Rope" presents the Noise titans as utterly glorious as I remember them from their last show in Hamburg. The first double track "Rope/The Beggar" alone clocks in at over seventy-eight minutes. And that's only one half of this unbelievable album. Admittedly it's not the first time that I smell the possible peak of all their qualities coming together, but come on: Can the rush of incomprehensible bliss get any greater?
- Not enough musical hypersomnia yet? Here's another fifty minutes mighty piece (in three movements) by the two adventurous Dutch duos Solar Temple and Dead Neanderthals, recorded live at Roadburn 2022. Hypnotically repetitive, yet rich and colourful in detail this "light-flooded cathartic flight beyond the constraints of time" unveils a "skyscraping wall made of Psychedelic Sludge, clerical chants, Post Metal and Blackgaze".
- However ginormous the two above may feel; if you want me to guess which album here I will probably listen to the most in the long run, my bet is definitely on Tori in the thirty-fifth year of her career. "Pandora's Aquarium", "Spring Haze", "Lady In Blue", "Mother Revolution"... Not only does she serve an irresistable selection of sixteen hits and hidden gems on this two and a half hour strong double album, but she also does it in fantastic, extravagantly long piano/bass/drums trio versions.
- If we're talking historic relevance the winner of this list has to be the first complete official release of Alice Coltrane's legendary Carnegie Hall performance in 1971. In its first half she looks into the future, playing harp on pieces inspired by Indian spirituality. The second half with her on piano honours the legacy of her late husband John Coltrane. It's absolutely magical, and if there had been enough microphones to actually record all instruments on stage properly, I might have ranked this even higher.
- From the immortal Spiritual Jazz pioneer of the past to the exciting present of Avantgarde Free Jazz: Zaäar expressively improve a timeless stream of mystical tribalistic trance, including santur, zurna, zither, flutes, electronic sounds, throat singing and animal noises. All this is captured inside the unique atmosphere of a natural cave. "What a hammering meditation! What a monstrosity of freedom! What a wildfire of inspiration!" And everywhere Alice Turiyasangitananda's presence can still be felt like a tangible resonance. A magical trip into Neptunian Jazzimalism!
No, we're not done yet! There's even more Coltrane worship ahead! Obviously, since "Afro Blue" is a Jazz standard made hugely popular by John's quartet. Here we can experience it in a stunning twenty minutes version by the trio of Mats Gustafsson (sax), Sten Sandell (piano) and Raymond Strid (drums), recorded live in Stockholm in 1998. And beyond that Gush give us fifty more minutes of sensational improvisations between abstract minimalism and hymnic Spiritual Jazz grandeur. The great production makes you feel like you're witnessing this mastery an arm's length away from the first row.- Six albums in (three of them released this year!) the live series of Krautrock legends Can just keeps giving. From a not too revered period of the band, this almost unadvertised show in the quintet line-up with Traffic bassist Rosko Dee and Holger Czukay operating wave sounds and samples instead, proves to be a true revelation. Incredibly funky, complex and rich these improvisations showcase a band of musicians knowing each other inside out - and then also adds that certain unexplainable magical it of the right constellation of space and time on top.
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