Unsquare

Unsquare
Studio album by Maybe Monday
Released	January 2008
Recorded	November 18, 2006
Studio	East Side Sound Studio, New York City
Genre	Avant-garde jazz; free improvisation;
Length	60:25
Label	Intakt (Switzerland)
Producer	Larry Ochs, Intakt Records
Maybe Monday chronology

Unsquare is a 2008 studio album by Maybe Monday, a San Francisco based experimental electroacoustic improvisation music ensemble featuring guitarist Fred Frith, koto player Miya Masaoka and saxophonist Larry Ochs. It is their third album and includes guest musicians Gerry Hemingway, Carla Kihlstedt, Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins. Unsquare was recorded at East Side Sound Studio in New York City on November 18, 2006, and was released by Intakt Records in Switzerland in January 2008.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
DownBeat	[1]

In a review of Unsquare at All About Jazz, 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".[2] Clifford Allen wrote at Bagatellen that Maybe Monday are not unlike the British free improvisation group AMM. 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".[3] 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."[3] Jason Bivins wrote in Cadence that the inclusion of the four guests "unsettl[ed] the group in just the right ways and thicken[ed] the sound provocatively".[4] He was impressed that they did this "without weighing the music down or sacrificing space".[4] Bivins described Unsquare as a "very fine record".[4]

Reviewing Unsquare in DownBeat, 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.[1] 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".[1] The album's pieces "pivot between sparseness and density, altering a consistently bracing mix of acoustic and electronic elements".[1] 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.[1]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Maybe Monday.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"G"	14:46
2.	"Nitrogen"	14:07
3.	"Saptharishi Mandalam"	7:52
4.	"Septentrion"	6:17
5.	"Unturned"	17:21

Sources: Liner notes,[5] Discogs.[6]

Personnel

Fred Frith – electric guitar
Miya Masaoka – 25 string koto, electronics
Larry Ochs – sopranino and tenor saxophones

Guests

Gerry Hemingway – drums, percussion, voice
Carla Kihlstedt – electric and acoustic violins
Ikue Mori – electronics
Zeena Parkins – electric harp, electronics

Sources: Liner notes,[5] Discogs.[6]

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
Larry Ochs – mixing, producer, liner notes
Myles Boisen – mastering
Intakt Records – producer
Emilie Clark – cover art
Jonas Schoder – graphic design

Sources: Liner notes,[5] Discogs.[6]

gollark: ... *seriously*?

gollark: I mean, since you also go to church and whatnot presumably, "why the hell not" is that you could be doing other things instead.

gollark: That's a *really* bad reason.

gollark: Why?

gollark: What is ”omnolocent”?

References

Schoemaker, Bill (June 2008). "Unsquare". DownBeat. Vol. 75 no. 6. Chicago: Maher Publications. p. 72. ISSN 0012-5768.
Schoemaker, Bill (October 12, 2008). "Unsquare". All About Jazz. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
Allen, Clifford (March 11, 2008). "Maybe Monday – Unsquare". Bagatellen. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
Bivins, Jason (July 2008). "New Issues: Esther Lamneck/Eugenio Sanna; the Nuttree Quartet; Ryan Blotnick; Joshua Walker; Garrison Fewell/Eric Hofbauer; Mads Thorsen; Dave Askren; DC Improvisers; Andy Brown; Mike Minasi; Margaret Slovak; Maybe Monday". Cadence. Vol. 34 no. 7–9. Portland, Oregon. pp. 255–259. ISSN 0162-6973.
Ochs, Larry (2008). Unsquare (CD liner notes). Maybe Monday. Intakt Records.
"Maybe Monday – Unsquare". Discogs. Retrieved October 3, 2019.

External links

Unsquare at Intakt Records
Unsquare reviews at Intakt Records

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[Schoemaker-1] Schoemaker, Bill (June 2008). "Unsquare". DownBeat. Vol. 75 no. 6. Chicago: Maher Publications. p. 72. ISSN 0012-5768.

[Gottschalk-2] Schoemaker, Bill (October 12, 2008). "Unsquare". All About Jazz. Retrieved October 5, 2019.

[Allen-3] Allen, Clifford (March 11, 2008). "Maybe Monday – Unsquare". Bagatellen. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved October 5, 2019.

[Bivins-4] Bivins, Jason (July 2008). "New Issues: Esther Lamneck/Eugenio Sanna; the Nuttree Quartet; Ryan Blotnick; Joshua Walker; Garrison Fewell/Eric Hofbauer; Mads Thorsen; Dave Askren; DC Improvisers; Andy Brown; Mike Minasi; Margaret Slovak; Maybe Monday". Cadence. Vol. 34 no. 7–9. Portland, Oregon. pp. 255–259. ISSN 0162-6973.

[liner-notes-5] Ochs, Larry (2008). Unsquare (CD liner notes). Maybe Monday. Intakt Records.

[Discogs-6] "Maybe Monday – Unsquare". Discogs. Retrieved October 3, 2019.