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What the critics say:

The Jazz Box-Set of the Year / All About Jazz New York City (December 2006)

Lovingly collected diary of an under-documented period in improvised music. / Down Beat (August 2006)

An important, if not essential collection, featuring an incredible array of talent, and priced at extraordinary value. / Cadence (January 2007)

10 CDs of Highest Artistic Integrity / Jazz House ( December 2006)

The top 10 in Jazz and Improvisation 2006 / dMute (January 2006)

An Exhaustive Feast Of Classic Improv Times Past! Our Highest Recommendation!  / Downtown Music Gallery (May 2006)

An incredible tribute to the long-running Ictus label -- home to some great recordings of avant jazz and improvised music over the years. / Dusty Groove (July 2006)

The appearance of the 12-CD Ictus Records’ 30th Anniversary Collection is a major event. / Point of Departure

The packaging is exquisite and has been put together with a lot of care and thought. / AllAboutJazz.com (August 2006)
 

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This most important collection of music in the history of ICTUS Records, is a celebration for the 30th anniversary of the birth of one of the first independent labels of the 70's, a tribute to all great artists that made ICTUS exist, just for the love of music.

Comprised of duos, trios, orchestras and numerous configurations in between featuring musicians like Steve Lacy, Anthony Coleman, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Tom Cora, John Carter, Gianluigi Trovesi, Derek Bailey, and the Rova Saxophone Quartet among others; the music here is immediate whether recorded 1976 or 2005.

ICTUS' extremely limited, outstandingly lavish 12-CD box-set, further pushes limits of musical subject matter, and boundaries of conceptual package, as recently re-defined by Revenant Records' release of Albert Ayler's "Holy Ghost" and NotTwo's issue of "Alchemia" by Vandermark 5. This beautifully realized set includes 12 separate CDs, housed together in a one-of-its-kind unique box. Each volume of the set comes with its own custom designed plastic-free package and a very comprehensive booklet with many personal insights from ICTUS' creator. Rare pictures and essays from acclaimed critics, compliment the whole set. Here for the first time, all of the tracks are presented in their original order and length, and are fully digitally re-mastered, which allows the listener to enjoy them in their original un-compromised beauty.

 Reviews:

Imagine you have lost your main source of income, a bad shoulder prevents you from finding new work, and an earthquake has destroyed your home. In the face of all this, starting a record label devoted to improvised music would be, to put it mildly, counter intuitive. However, Italian percussionist Andrea Centazzo did just that in 1976, creating Ictus, “the creative label for creative music.” Within a half dozen years, Ictus became one of the bolder artist-operated labels in a halcyon era for such enterprises. Early Ictus LPs found Centazzo performing in Italy with established figures like Derek Bailey, Alvin Curran, Steve Lacy and Evan Parker. Centazzo also ventured to the US as early as ‘78, showing remarkable prescience by recording with a wide swath of emerging artists including Eugene Chadbourne, Rova Saxophone Quartet and John Zorn.

Despite its artistic merits, the label collapsed towards the end of the LP era; a licensing agreement resulting in the reissuing of most of the catalog on CD in the mid-‘90s expired, as well. Subsequently, the appearance of the 12-CD Ictus Records’ 30th Anniversary Collection is a major event. Not all of the original albums are included, Indian Tapes, Centazzo’s 1981 three-LP set of richly variegated solo constructions, being conspicuously absent. But, this is well compensated for by a previously unissued ‘84 studio duo session with Lacy, and a slew of tracks from various encounters with musicians ranging from Lester Bowie to Franz Koglmann. Centazzo’s output on this well-appointed box set is so sprawling that to thoroughly digest it, breaking the collection down into groups of CDs is indicated.

The three CDs with Lacy are not only representative of the soprano saxophonist’s mid-‘70s work, but also establish a baseline for assessing Centazzo’s drumming. Prior to his calamities, Centazzo had played in pianist Giorgio Gaslini’s quartet; these encounters with Lacy find him transitioning from jazz drummer to improvising percussionist. On Clangs, a ’76 concert recording, Lacy leads with stark themes like “Torments,” keeps a steady course in his uniquely linear improvisations, and occasionally throws a curve with bird calls and squawks from his “pocket synthesizer.” In this set, Centazzo emphasizes color through auxiliary percussion instruments like temple blocks, gongs and bells, adroitly embellishing Lacy’s phrasing and its residual silences. Centazzo’s jazz chops are more in evidence on Trio In Concert, the third party being bassist Kent Carter. In just ten months, Centazzo’s familiarity with Lacy’s music had increased several fold; it is one of several reasons this is one of Lacy’s best records from the ‘70s. By then, Centazzo knew how to swirl around the contours of Lacy’s lines while providing the swing they also require. Centazzo’s orchestral sensibilities remain a potent part of his approach, particularly when Carter’s solos venture into abstract textures. The new album, Tao, is comprised of two duo sessions; one dates from two days before the recording of Clangs, while the other is somewhat anachronistic, as it was recorded in 1984, just prior to the label’s shut-down. On the latter, Lacy’s sound had enlarged, his bead on oft-performed compositions had sharpened, and his rapport with Centazzo was more open than in the ‘70s, making the session a fitting closing chapter to their shared discographies.

The rest of the recordings can be roughly divided in two – those made with Americans and those made with Europeans. In 1978, an important wave of American improvisers who no longer had use for obvious jazz and post-serial markers in their music was coalescing, and two Ictus albums contributed to the composite picture of that moment. The Bay finds Rova Saxophone Quartet making their way out of the shadow of Anthony Braxton’s influence. Their attack is feisty, though their utterances are occasionally inconclusive. Episodic compositional structures create ample spaces for improvisation in which they and Centazzo thrive. The tone of the session is largely intensely serious, with the exception of a jaunty Italian march, but even that unravels into incisive improvised music. Arguably, The NY Tapes (originally issued on LP as Environment For Sextet) suggests that Chadbourne, Zorn, violinist Polly Bradfield, cellist Tom Cora and trumpeter Toshinori Kondo were further along in developing perceptibly new vernaculars. Even after 28 years, this is bristling stuff, a rush of textures punctuated by rigorously, sparsely detailed spaces. It is baffling why this album isn’t regularly cited as even a minor milestone, because much of the terrain covered this sextet staked out is so often treaded today. Centazzo’s early work with Americans is also represented on additional CDs. The New US Concerts, features the two sterling trios with clarinetist John Carter and saxophonist Vinny Golia that have been previously available on CD, Rebels, Travelers & Improvisers is a compilation including Centazzo’s respective meetings with Bowie and pianist John Fischer. Back To The Future contains tracks made in ’79 and ’80 with violinist La Donna Smith and guitarist Davey Williams. But the latter is most notable for documenting Centazzo’s fine 2005 Tonic gig with pianist Anthony Coleman and guitarist Marco Cappelli, a rare return to improvisation for Centazzo, who now spends most of his time composing and conducting symphonic music.

Ultimately, Centazzo is an exponent of European improvised music. The remaining four discs confirms Centazzo to be a peer of the movement’s most lionized musicians. Drops, his ’77 duo with Bailey, is one of the guitarist’s overlooked gems, a set that compares quite well with Bailey’s more celebrated duos with drummers. Much the same can be said of In Real Time in relation to Evan Parker’s recordings of the period. Parker’s ensemble skills are impeccable on this ’77 concert recording, as he deftly blends his raspy saxophones with Alvin Curran’s synth-generated whines and whirrs, and Centazzo’s carefully placed spatters to create a piquant, texture-driven music. Just as he did in his US travels, Centazzo also worked with a wide array of European improvisers at an early stage. A collection of assorted duos and trios, Thirty Years From Monday documents early ‘80s encounters with emergent artists like woodwind player Gianluigi Trovesi and violinist Carlos Zingaro. Centazzo also led the pan-European Mitteleuropa Orchestra; Doctor Faustus, an engaging survey of early ‘80s performances, finds such varied stylists as Enrico Rava and Franz Koglmann in its ranks.

For cautious consumers, a single-disc compilation is also available.

(Review courtesy of PointOfDeparture.com)