(Abstract / Free Improvisation / Experimental) Box - Studio 1 (Björkenheim / Dunn / Storløkken / Ågren) - 2008, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

This is the debut release by Box: Raoul Björkenheim (guitars, viola da gamba), Trevor Dunn (bass), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards, electronics), Morgan Ågren (drums). Something of an international supergroup, the founding of this excellent ensemble is a touch of genius that remains something of a mystery. Hand-picked by writer and film-maker Philip Mullarkey to record and play live as part of the art/film project Box, the four musicians met for the first time in Atlantis Studio in Stockholm for two short days of recording without having planned, scored or prepared any music in advance. It quickly became apparent that this avant-garde juggernaut was heading in the right direction -- the musical interplay making it hard to believe that these complex pieces were actually improvised on the spot -- again, a testament to instant music-making at the highest level. The music was recorded directly to analog tape and has an organic and rough quality to it. All tracks were mixed from analog tape and there is no digital editing nor Pro-Tooling involved, and no overdubs. Raoul Björkenheim has worked in a wide spectrum of styles, from free jazz improvisations with Edvard Vesala to the Finnish Radio Symphony and UMO orchestras, collaborations with Paul Schütze, Bill Laswell, William Parker/Hamid Drake and Jah Wobble, not to mention his present group, Scorch Trio. Trevor Dunn is a member of Fantômas, John Zorn's Electric Masada, Trio Convulsant and Moonchild. He is one of the most in-demand bass players on the downtown jazz scene in New York and has an eclectic repertoire, having played with artists ranging from Marc Ribot to Melt Banana, Secret Chiefs 3 to Kronos Quartet. Ståle Storløkken is a founder of Supersilent and Humcrush. Morgan is a Grammy-winning musician on both sides of the Atlantic, perhaps best known for his work with the Mats/Morgan Band, as well as with diverse artists such as The Flesh Quartet, Kaipa and Zappa's Universe. ~ Jazzloft
A supergroup collaborative project from the mighty Rune Grammofon, Box was conceived by writer and filmmaker Philip Mullarkey as an interdisciplinary art and film project. The musicians he recruited are some of improv's leading lights from across the globe, including Scorch Trio guitarist Raoul Bjorkenheim, John Zorn and Fantomas bass player Trevor Dunn, Supersilent/Humcrush synthesizer maestro Stale Storlokken and one-time Frank Zappa collaborator Morten Agren on drums. With that sort of improvisational royalty on board this was always bound to be a pretty full-on listening experience, and sure enough the quartet blast through pan-generic free music with an exhausting virtuosity and gusto. 'Untitled 9' features some serious whammy bar damage from Bjorkenheim, who makes like a wave of Hendrix feedback whilst Storlokken occasionally steps in to mimick his wild, unstable pitching. The rhythm section is glazed with an oversaturated sound that only compounds the furious groundwork they're putting in. After seventeen minutes of flat-out carnage the quartet turn to the more pensive awkward time signatures of 'Untitled 11', a kind of jolting jazz-blues number in which Dunn and Agren are given plenty of space to shine. Once they've settled down into sme sort of groove, the band become more subtle and experimental - there seems to be a little less showing off through the album's middle, with jittery, tonal contortions and twists eventually resulting in the free-time grindcore of 'Untitled 13'. For a final eight minutes, 'Untitled 12' is dinosaur prog all the way, shifting the pacing in strange, sinusoidal gradients with Storlokken's bright, neon synth emissions compounding the mood of meandering, queasy excess. ~ Boomkat

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008
EAC extraction logfile from 22. December 2008, 21:08
Box / Studio 1
Used drive : TSSTcorpCD/DVDW SH-S182M Adapter: 2 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=%e" %s -o %d
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
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1 | 0:00.00 | 17:19.56 | 0 | 77980
2 | 17:19.56 | 4:39.69 | 77981 | 98974
3 | 21:59.50 | 4:37.62 | 98975 | 119811
4 | 26:37.37 | 4:30.27 | 119812 | 140088
5 | 31:07.64 | 3:05.54 | 140089 | 154017
6 | 34:13.43 | 8:10.30 | 154018 | 190797
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename C:\z\Box - Studio 1.wav
Peak level 98.0 %
Range quality 99.9 %
Copy CRC C87344D5
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 not present in database
Track 2 not present in database
Track 3 not present in database
Track 4 not present in database
Track 5 not present in database
Track 6 not present in database
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
End of status report