The way things have developed so far, this label documents free jazz and improvised music from musicians living in
Bonn, Darmstadt, Euskirchen, Frankfurt/Seoul, Giessen, Ingelheim, Kassel, Kyritz-Kötzlin, Landau, Offenbach, Pforzheim, Saarbrücken and Wiesbaden.
Additional info can be found in this label feature written by Ken Waxman: New York City Jazz Record (> page 11)
All sporeprint releases are fabric-pressed CDs in editions of 300, 200 or 100 copies.
I sell them preferably here, at concerts and on discogs (check customer feedback).
A few independent mail-order services offer sporeprint-CDs too (Open Door, Improjazz, No Man's Land).
The prices of the CDs vary from 9,50€ to 17,50€, according to their production features.
Shipping: 1,60€ within Germany, 5,00€ for countries in the EU, 11,00€ for all other countries
Payment preferably via paypal (normal bank transfer works too).
click here to order per email or copy sporeprint[at]joerg-fischer[dot]net into the address field and replace the []-bits accordingly, so it looks like a real email address.
I will use the contact info you might give me exclusively for the sales process or given inquiry. No newsletters here.
available so far:
1312-01 Charig / Fischer / Wolf: "Free Music on a Summer Evening"
1401-02 Veit / Prieur / Fischer: "Stromraum"
1408-03 Denhoff / Phillipp / Fischer: "Trio Improvisations"
1504-04 Spicy Unit: s/t
1508-05 Harth Fischer Daemgen: "Confucius Tarif Reduit"
1604-06 Botanic Mob: s/t
1604-07 Wuchner / Mahall / Fischer: "in memoriam Buschi Niebergall"
1711-08 Denhoff / Phillipp / Fischer + Frank Gratkowski
1712-09 Lurk Lab: "More Trouble With Honey Pumps"
1801-10 Jörg Fischer & Ingo Deul: "Vinkenslag"
2012-11 Schubert / Fischer / Wolf; "Mubi & Elsewhere"
2101-12 Sizzle Club mit Rudi
2204-13 Pebbles & Pearls: "Spring"
(click on the number to jump to a particular title)
Here's more records with similar personnel and music
(for instance the CDs of Alfred Harth's Revolver 23 and the quartet Pebbles & Pearls, released 2018/19 on other labels).
You can order them via the email address I provided above.
By the way this is no shop to buy spore prints of "magic mushrooms" from. Wrong place, sorry.
sporeprint 1312-01
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CHARIG / FISCHER / WOLF: "Free Music On A Summer Evening" Mark Charig: cornet, alto horn Georg Wolf: bass Jörg Fischer: drums rec. August 2010 9,50€ + postage (details see above) |
We had our premiere early in 2010 in Wiesbaden, playing a short 20-minute set. The music on this recording documents the 2nd time this trio played together. I recorded it myself in the most simple way, in the first place to have a reference for myself. I don't know why the recording turned out so transparent and well-balanced - maybe because it's done open air. Anyway at some point in 2013 all three of us revisited the recorded material, and agreed we wanted some of it released.
Mark Charig started recording in the late 60s and is present on about 80 records, mostly as a reliable and inspiring "musicians' musician". Looks like this is the first release since some 30 years with him in a leading role as main soloist. By 2010, Georg and I had been regularly playing together as a bass/drums-team for more than 15 years.
To get an impression of the trio's music, go here or here.
Also check out the quartet Bloombox - that's Charig/Fischer/Wolf augmented by reeds player Martin Speicher.
review:
It’s been a long time since anything new was heard from one-time Keith Tippett Group member and occasional King Crimson guest, Mark Charig. Thirty-seven years in fact, since the release of his extraordinarily powerful Pipedream. So it’s refreshing to be able to find out what he was up to summer’s evening in 2010. He’s joined by bassist Georg Wolf and drummer Jörg Fischer on a live recording of such pristine quality you almost feel like you’re in the same open-air space. The trio perform a series of tightly-knit manoeuvres where both controlled bursts and scattershot sorties are traded with gusto. Charig has lost none of the inventive flair and incipient melodicism displayed on Pipedream and when it’s set alongside rumbles of disconcerting arco bass drones or flashbulb-like cymbal flares it can be pretty dazzling stuff.
The last five minutes of the appropriately titled Flows And Flurries present a text-book case of why improvised music can be so exhilarating: that almost sacred moment when everything unites in a point of intense clarity. Sid Smith
sporeprint 1401-02
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VEIT / PRIEUR / FISCHER: "Stromraum" Cornelius Veit: guitar Eugen Prieur: e-bass Jörg Fischer: drums rec. mostly 2013 (plus some 2012) 9,50€ + postage (details see above) |
Here's the recording that made me start sporeprint. Since 2000, this trio has been developing a style of its own between trashy noise punk/no wave, free jazz, free funk and more detail-oriented free improvisation. Thereby sitting between various chairs, it turned out we couldn't find an attractive or suitable label for this kind of stylistical hybrid. So it was an easy and logical step to go D.I.Y.
"Stromraum" is this trio's 2nd CD. It includes a few tracks from a recording session in December 2012 which inspired us to do another one in the same room, under the same circumstances, so we'd be able to combine material of both dates if we wanted (and we did).
Our self-titled debut-CD was released in 2005 on Konnex records - still available, and still sounding fresh.
review:
Auf Stromraum kollaboriert dieser [Veit] mit E-Bassist Eugen Prieur und Drummer Jörg Fischer im rassigen Free-Trio. Auf Fischers Qualitäten wurde in diesem Blatt ja schon zuletzt hingewiesen. Prieur zeigt sich als formidabler Tieftöner, der sich, wie die Kollegen auch, bestens in den Dienst des Gemeinsamen stellt. Veits E-Gitarre verzichtet auf Überflüssiges und konzentriert sich auf Grundlegendes, das aus den sechs Saiten plus Basiszubehör rauszuholen ist. Ihr Bediener erweist sich, auch das mehrtönerische Potential der Klampfe weidlich nützend, als Mann der gebrochenen Phrase, der Sprünge, der geschickten improvisatorischen Dramaturgie, der häufig von kleineren Zellen aus, auch durch Entwickeln aus Repetitivem heraus, seine ganz schön verschachtelten Geschichten auszubreiten versteht. Dabei wird gehörig Energie frei, auch in den ruhigeren Nummern, obwohl die Stärke dieser Combo für mich schon im Gasfuß steckt. Veit scheut auch das gitarrensolistische Klischee nicht, um es aber wohl auch als solches zu entlarven. Der Spaß kommt also auch nicht zu kurz.
Das ist Free-Impro, die mit großer Kraft, aber Kohärenz und Klarheit daherkommt, Einflüsse entsprechender Traditionen von beiden Seiten des Teichs, aber auch aus anderen Bereichen (hin und wieder kam mir gar der alte Greg Ginn in den Sinn) in sich aufnehmend, aber dennoch mit individueller Note. Ganz stark. freiStil
sporeprint 1408-03 (a/b)
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DENHOFF / PHILLIPP / FISCHER: "Trio Improvisations" Michael Denhoff: campanula Ulrich Phillipp: bass Jörg Fischer: drums rec. April 2014 2CDs: 17,50€ + postage (details see above) |
Most of the music herein can be characterized as "point-to-point" interaction or "vertical" playing (to use terminology of Evan Parker and Tony Oxley, respectively). Michael Denhoff is quite a figure in the world of contemporary classical music, and when he's improvising, his enormous experience as cello/campanula virtuoso and composer is right there. Ulrich Phillipp has been active in the field of free improvisation and all kinds of experimental music since the late 70s. That's ~35 years of radical and focused work, and if many improv fans never heard of him, it's probably because he's mainly interested in music (but not so much in self-marketing). I myself usually enjoy making a lot of noise in various free jazzy contexts, but focus on more relaxed and subtle sound production here. These two CDs, about 100 minutes of music, are an invitation to delve into this trio's delicate soundworld and focused band chemistry.
review:
[...] Nicht nur das Aufeinandertreffen dreier führender Improvisationskünstler Deutschlands, sondern auch die Klangfarbe der Campanula machen diese CD spannend: Klanglich herrscht eine viel größere Harmonie zwischen dem Kontrabass und dem neuen Instrument als mit einem Violoncello. Und so überraschen vor allem die eher getragenen Improvisationen dieser Doppel-CD wie etwa No. 13 oder Filter, ein rund viertelstündiges, flächiges Stück.
Was das Trio von frei improvisierenden Jazzformationen unterscheidet, ist aber nicht nur die Campanula, sondern auch die Erfahrung der drei Musiker mit neuer, komponierter Musik, die sich in den abstrakten Spielgesten, den unkonventionellen Klangerzeugungsmethoden und der formalen Konsequenz der zwölf auf den beiden CDs vereinten Improvisationen spiegelt. Das will nicht heißen, dass die Stücke nicht auch eine geballte Energie entfalten können, so wie das eröffnende St. Helena gligg, das aus anfänglich flächigen Klängen rasch einen spannungsgeladenen, auf punktuellen Klängen basierenden Drive entwickelt.
Dank der großen improvisatorischen Spielerfahrung der drei Musiker wird auch die Instrumentalzusammensetzung mit zwei tiefen Streichern und Perkussion, die auf dem Papier eher Einförmiges befürchten lässt, nicht einen Augenblick langweilig, sondern überrascht stets von Neuem mit innovativem Klangreichtum. Ein schönes Beispiel dafür, dass improvisierte Musik nicht immer von einstudierten «Licks» beherrscht werden muss. (Reinhard Kager, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik)
sporeprint 1504-04
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SPICY UNIT (Speicher / Geisselbrecht / Fischer): s/t Martin Speicher: alto & sopranino sax, clarinet Peter Geisselbrecht: piano Jörg Fischer: drums rec. September 2014 9,50€ + postage (details see above) |
Peter Geisselbrecht (Giessen) studied classical piano in Cologne, focusing on 20th century solo pieces. He released a CD of Charles Ives' powerful and complex "Concord Sonata" (which, en passant, gives you a hint of his pianistic stature), but this is actually Peter's first free improv-CD, after having worked for about 30 years in that field. Reeds player Martin Speicher from Kassel has been deeply involved in the German free jazz and improv scene since the 80s. His music covers a range from composed works, conceptionalised improv approaches, to all-hell-is-breaking-loose free jazz - a music activist handling on a daily basis the frictions between excellent musicianship, cultural-political concerns, and the limitations of a somewhat provincial location. What comes to mind first about myself here is that my playing is a bit in the background since only Peter and Martin had a microphone each. No worries: There's still plenty of drum noises here, but to have reeds and piano a bit more upfront is quite a joy with these two guys.
review:
[...] This presents 2 long improvs [52:27] and within them are various sections i.e. many ebbs and climaxes. Geisselbrecht is a new name to me and is a strong percussive pianist who seems to set the tone for the music. Speicher is under recorded but heard well here. Together this trio works very well and can leave the listener with a feeling of elation. Spicy unit indeed with Geisselbrecht dominating. R.D. Rusch, Cadence/Patamus
sporeprint 1508-05
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HARTH FISCHER DAEMGEN: "Confucius Tarif Reduit" Alfred 23 Harth: reeds, pocket trumpet, voice, dojirak Marcel Daemgen: synth, electronics Jörg Fischer: drums, percussion rec. November 2014, post-produced spring/summer 2015 12,50€ + postage (details see above) |
Knowing that Alfred would be in Europe for a tour with the big 2014 Lindsay Cooper tribute, Marcel and I invited him for some concert and/or studio work. He accepted and brought along Mette Rasmussen for the live date at the Krebsmühle Lorsbach. While I had performed with A23H only a few times before, Marcel was a regular member of his late 90s quartet Imperial Hoot. More of an invited guest in the first place, Alfred added more and more ideas for this CD: cover concept, titles, liner notes - why, welcome!
All of the music and the words herein are improvised. Marcel and I didn't even know there would be freely associated lyrics to play along with until Alfred started the studio session by saying "brushes." Some of the improvs were left intact for the CD while others have been modified, filtered, shortened, thinned out, or recomposed by Marcel. One track includes a few overdubbed sound particles.
The resulting CD offers a musical framework beyond genre borders paired with odd humor and social commentary - a typical Alfred 23 Harth release that way (if something like that exists), but also the first recorded example of the unclassifiable Daemgen/Fischer collaboration.
review:
[...] Es handelt sich um starke Setzungen voller sublimer Spannungen im Sinne einer musikalischen Ästhetik der freien Form. Die Ahnherren dafür sind in der britischen experimentellen Rockszene der siebziger Jahre verortet. Stichwort: Henry Cow. Das Klangbild ist bisweilen zurückgenommen, zäh fließen die Rhythmen einer reduktionistischen Perkussion. Bei der Nummer „Bodenhaftung“ handelt es sich gleichsam um ein Lied. Ein in Fragmente geschnittenes allerdings: in größeren Abständen meldet sich die in den Frequenzen beschnittene, wie aus einem Megafon kommende Sprechstimme Harths zwischen Abschnitten mit stetig variierten Synthiesounds. „Hymnus“ hingegen ist ein lärmiges Getümmel in fein abgestuften Schattierungen. „5 Stunden Wald“ markiert unterschwellig einen Blues. Mittels einer Technik des Separierens greift „Tugçe“ Worte auf, die im Zusammenhang mit dem Geschehen um das Gewaltopfer in Offenbach stehen. [...] (S.Michalzik, Frankfurter Rundschau)
sporeprint 1604-06
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BOTANIC MOB (Schmitz / Fischer / Schmitz) Daniel Schmitz: trumpet Johannes Schmitz: e-guitar Jörg Fischer: drums rec. January 2016 9,50€ + postage (details see above) |
The brothers Johannes and Daniel Schmitz from Saarbrücken have been developing a close artistic bond with several years of performing as a modern/avantgarde jazz duo (check out their CD "neben daneben" on gligg records), and Botanic Mob definitely benefits from their ability to understand each other blindly. My first encounter with Daniel was in an extended version of the free jazz band Yahoos, led by trombone player Christof Thewes. When Daniel moved to the Rhine-Main area in 2011, we started working as a duo, soon did a few informal sessions with Johannes, and eventually decided to keep the trio format.
Our music is freely improvised, blending a straightforward free jazzy basis with sparsely atmospheric sound creations, modern jazz elements, deconstructed avant punk (think post-Beefheart attitude), and freewheeling noise improv. And we think the music actually sounds more vivid than this description.
review:
[...] Da ist zum Einen Botanic Mob, beinhaltend sieben frische Improvisationen mit Trompeter Daniel Schmitz und Gitarrist Johannes Schmitz. Nicht nur frisch, sondern auch frei und ganz schön bunt geht es dabei zu. Fischer und J. Schmitz sind das Kraftwerk des Trios mit farbigem, aber nicht nur, hochenergetischem Spiel. Die Gitarre etwa liefert drahtige Cluster, Slidesounds, Obertöniges, aber auch lineare Ausbrüche, sowie relaxteres Linienspiel – Textur ist dabei jedoch ein wesentliches Stichwort. Letzeres gilt auch für Fischers, wie immer vielseitig-vitale Schlagwerkerei. Dazu hört man von der Trompete ab und zu auch mit alternativen Ansatztechniken erzeugtes Geräuschhaftes, vor allem aber ausgedehnte flotte Linien. Wie ein Sampler bedient sich der trompetende Schmitz dabei auch immer wieder Materials aus der Modern Jazz-Tradition, was zwar auch für reizvolle Kontraste zu sorgen vermag, aber nicht immer vollständig aufgeht. Vor allem im, stark vom Spiel mit klanglichen Ressourcen der Gerätschaft bestimmten, langen letzten Stück macht es jedoch ordentlich Klick! Insgesamt, von Kleingkeiten abgesehen, schon eine gelungene Angelegenheit, der man die Gunst schenken sollte.
(bertl, Freistil)
sporeprint 1604-07
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WUCHNER / MAHALL / FISCHER: "in memoriam Buschi Niebergall" Rudi Mahall: bassclarinet Jürgen Wuchner: bass Jörg Fischer: drums rec. September 1997 9,50€ + postage (details see above) |
These tracks spent around 15 years in our private archives until Jürgen came up with the idea to release them as a memorial for his old bass comrade Buschi Niebergall. From then on it still took a few years, now here they are. Back in 1997, Rudi was a regular member of Jürgen's group (check out the beautiful CD "Chamber Music") while this session marked the first time I played with both. We decided to just improvise which makes this CD the first one in Jürgen's vast discography with him playing freely from start to finish, without any composed or pre-planned sections. During the following years we did a few concerts as the Jürgen Wuchner Group, all repertoire-based and usually with a fourth player added (pianist Uli Partheil, percussionist Tom Nicholas, or trombone player Allen Jacobson). Technical note: This was recorded by Jürgen with an analogue two-track ASC tape recorder at 7,5 ips, so there's a few sonic imperfections present.
I never met Buschi Niebergall in person but his playing on numerous outstanding free jazz records has impressed me since my late teens.
review:
In Memoriam Buschi Niebergall collects six
improvisations recorded in September 1997 by the trio
of Mahall, bassist Jürgen Wuchner and drummer Jörg
Fischer, all in homage to the masterful contrabassist
who died in 1990 at 51. The format recalls one of the
late bassist’s finest recordings, Celeste (Trion, 1979),
a trio with Pilz and drummer Uwe Schmitt. While the
brief liner notes make apologies for the recording
quality, not to fear—the result is a stripped-down
series of parallel, unified inventions at oft-shimmering
tempi, with only occasional two-track grit. Mahall
instantly blabs with a furrowed jubilance and exacting
control, his spiraling digs having commonality with
straight-horn brethren like Perry Robinson. The
celebrant’s gutsy arco is often recalled as Wuchner
dives in with strong, draped tugs and harmonic slices,
gently nipped by woody pops and sizzled clang. While
certainly an open trio, their conversations, especially
between foregrounded bass clarinet and bass, are
dynamic, rich and full of consistent motion.
(Cliford Allen, New York City Jazz Record)
sporeprint 1711-08
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DENHOFF / PHILLIPP / FISCHER & FRANK GRATKOWSKI Frank Gratkowski: flute, clarinet, bassclarinet Michael Denhoff: campanula Ulrich Phillipp: bass Jörg Fischer: drums rec. June 2017 12,50€ + postage (details see above) |
The trio Denhoff/Phillipp/Fischer has been active since 2011. In 2014 we released a CD (check out sporeprint 1408-03), and I already wrote a few lines about this trio above. In late spring 2017, we did a short tour in quartet with Frank Gratkowski and made recordings at Loft in Köln.
sporeprint 1712-09
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LURK LAB: "More Trouble With Honey Pumps" Matthias Schubert: tenor sax Uli Böttcher: electronics, beat box Jörg Fischer: drums rec. August 2017 9,50€ + postage (details see above) |
This recording marks the 10th anniversary of Lurk Lab. With Uli's live-sampling and drumming that owes as much to complex post-punk beats as to free jazz, this trio fills its own place in the world of free improv and avant jazz. This is Lurk Lab's third CD (after on one the gligg label with recordings from 2008/09 and another one on JazzHausMusik, recorded in 2012).
A little personal sidenote: I had my live-changing concert experience in Göttingen 1988 seeing Gunter Hampel's (german) Galaxie Dream Band. Matthias was a vital part in that quintet, and it's always a pleasure for me to perform with him - one of the musicians who gave me the initial kick in the ass to become a free jazz musician!
sporeprint 1801-10
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JÖRG FISCHER & INGO DEUL: "Vinkenslag" Ingo Deul: drums, perc Jörg Fischer: drums, perc rec. August 2017 & January 2018 9,50€ + postage (details see above) |
Our duo started in early 2015 with the idea to play a short set at the Wiesbaden "Drums! Sounds! Beats!" concert series. During our first rehearsals we recorded several free improvisations and extracted repeatable structures out of these. This developed into the piece that is now "Vinkenslag 2". "Vinkenslag 1" (2016/17) is based more on pre-conceived sound ideas. For both parts we use verbal arrangements and visual cues (plus three written unison-bars in #2), while the execution basically is still us improvising. Inspirations range from Can and P.i.L. to Kagel and Cage via all things free jazz (Vinkenslag was a 70's address of Han Bennink and/or ICP-records).
Born and grown up in Wiesbaden, Ingo lived about ten years in the U.S.A. and studied there (among others) with Leo Smith and Vinny Golia. In 2011 he returned to Wiesbaden, started to work as composer and openminded free-lance drummer (for example in the Pink Floyd-tribute band "Interstellar Overdrive"), and now is a buddy here in the Kooperative New Jazz Wiesbaden.
If you're interested in this kind of approach, probably also check out my musically related solo CD "Spring Spleen and twelve other pieces" (2012, gligg).
sporeprint 2012-11
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SCHUBERT / FISCHER / WOLF: "Mubi & Elsewhere" Matthias Schubert: tenor sax Georg Wolf: bass Jörg Fischer: drums rec. January 2020 (& August 2019) 9,50€ + postage (details see above) |
Georg and I first played together in 1994 and since then have been continuously working in various settings - most of them being trios (for example with Uwe Oberg, Martin Speicher, Tom Heurich, Mark Charig or Stefan Keune). Broadly speaking, our playing ranges from subtile and detailed free improv via driving free jazz pulse to good old jazz swing, all of which is present on this CD to various degrees. Our connection to Matthias reaches back to 1997, but this trio formed only in 2019. While large parts of the "scene" miss out on him, Matthias keeps working on his outstanding playing rife with structural intelligence, nuanced articulation, virtuosity, grotesque humor... just having fun by, and finding adventure in playing the saxophone.
Most of the music comes from a concert in Wiesbaden, complemented by a shorter section from Kassel.
sporeprint 2101-12
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SIZZLE CLUB MIT RUDI Rudi Mahall: bassclarinet,clarinet Johannes Schmitz: guitar Uli Böttcher: synth Jörg Fischer: drums rec. September 2020 9,50€ + postage (details see above) |
A few notes from the drum stool: Uli Böttcher and I, both members of the Wiesbaden Kooperative New Jazz, have been using the "Sizzle Club" moniker for a bunch of semi-ad hoc bands since 2013. Most recent collaborator Johannes Schmitz from Saarbrücken is a great addition. He shares with us an interest in noisy and left-field rock music, and so our music often has some sort of "punk jazz" vibe to it, albeit no straight ahead punk but post-Beefheart avant punk/no wave. There's some really openminded, free-wheeling and decidedly unacademic music coming from that area, and it's exciting to explore it for free improvisation. Probably best known for his fresh and distinctive contributions to contemporary jazz, Rudi Mahall early in his development actually worked in experimental rock bands too. Although the concert on this CD was the first time Rudi ever played with Johannes and Uli, he easily connects with the rugged electrified trio textures. He even says the music has swing.
sporeprint 2204-13
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PEBBLES & PEARLS: "Spring" Dirk Marwedel: reeds,percussion Jeff Platz: guitar Georg Wolf: bass Jörg Fischer: drums rec. October 2021 12,50€ + postage (details see above) |
Pebbles & Pearls began in the fall of 2017, meeting in Wiesbaden Germany. Platz and Fischer met via label connections in the free jazz and improvised music world. They decided to organize a music meeting and play date joined by Mr. Wolf, and later by Mr. Marwedel at the group's studio in Wiesbaden. Platz travels frequently to Germany from the Boston area. After several meetings the group's first self-titled CD was released in 2019 on the Italian label Setola di Maiale. P&P continues to play and record whenever possible, further developing their blend of jazzy guitar sounds, energetic free jazz and pointilistic sound textures. This music is the result of a relaxed recording day at the Studio Klangraum (Mainz).