Gated -114CD ( 2021), by Alex Ward

Gated -114CD ( 2021)

by Alex Ward

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badgerworld It's sort of modern classical meets free jazz meets avant-garde metal. It's pretty rad. Favorite track: The Bradford Factor.

DoomZappo Alex Ward has never been one to make friendliness to the general listener a priority and Gated is no exception to this. Manic clarinet shrieks, distorted atonal guitar riffage, undeterminable syncopated rhythms interchanged with free jazz, and overall no holds barred on the dissonance and noisiness. Don’t look for recognizable melodies to hold on to here, but if you like to discover something new every other time you listen to something you've already heard before, maybe give it a try. Favorite track: Heat Patch.

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Six panel card sleeve with artwork by Efthymios Stavropoulos.

Includes unlimited streaming of Gated -114CD ( 2021) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

£10 GBP or more

1.	Heat Patch 02:05	buy track
2.	The Celebrated Restriction 03:25	buy track
3.	Let 06:27	buy track
4.	Buyout 05:23	buy track
5.	Hewn 18:23	buy track
6.	Stilled 05:20	buy track
7.	Cushioned 14:38	buy track
8.	Brow 04:28	buy track
9.	The Bradford Factor 02:49	buy track
10.	Maybe It'll Break The Heat 10:40	buy track

about

"There are enough ideas in the first couple of numbers to fill a whole album, with wailing sax and clarinet and lightning propelled guitar in the brief opener ‘Heat Patch’- think Zappa- then Fripp in ‘The Celebration Restriction’. It’s a whirlwind, visceral listen with the free spirit of experimental jazz and the nous of heavy rock." Phil Jackson, ACID DRAGON

Conceived and realised over an 8-month period of intense solitary work, "GATED" is Alex Ward's most ambitious musical statement to date. The ten pieces employ all of Alex's instrumental resources as a performer, featuring clarinets, saxophones, guitars, keyboards, electric bass and assorted software instruments; and furthermore they draw on everything he has learned during his three-decades-plus of activity as a free improviser, composer/bandleader and sideman. The result is a dense and multi-layered array of detailed compositional structures, headlong improvisational flights and deft studio manipulation.

As the conception of the album progressed and Alex resolved to let his ideas develop in a manner unfettered by anything other than his own aspirations and abilities, he strove to create a work which would inhabit a wide-open stylistic and sonic terrain without succumbing to the pitfalls of pastiche. The range of instrumentation and attack deployed throughout the album might at various points suggest any number of strands of avant/experimental rock, AACM-and-beyond traditions of creative music, or post-Darmstadtian chamber rigour; but rather than generic signifiers being employed as decoration or even tribute, in "GATED" every musical element is mined for the most fertile and least standardised possibilities it can yield. Despite the album's startling diversity of sound and atmosphere, a consistent set of compositional and aesthetic principles underlies its entire contents.

This album is dedicated to Simon H. Fell (1959-2020).

credits

released July 13, 2021

All compositions by Alex Ward (PRS).
All instruments performed and/or programmed by Alex Ward.
Produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Alex Ward at Stowaway Studios, July 2020 - March 2021.

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about

Discus Music Sheffield, UK

Discus Music was founded in 1994 by Martin Archer. The label releases leftfield rock music, free jazz, extended songform, electronics, improvised music, and other sounds which defy categorisation.

EU customers! Your purchase will be shipped to you from within the EU. No unexpected import charges! ... more

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