Mid-year picks: 45 + 5 notable releases January through June, 2025
Even going back to the Blogspot days, I have tended to view the start of July as an opportunity to revisit and reassess the new music I’ve heard and examined during the year’s first six months. Since I started writing for Musikkmagasinet at its launch in 2012, that task has more or less coincided with the supplement’s four week summer break. Although it has very much been an exercise I’ve done for my own sake — a way to sort through the music I’ve listened to, and in many instances written about, and get things checked off before I begin with the second half of the year — I have in most years posted a list of the releases that I have considered highlights and favorites, usually around 30 releases, sometimes fewer, sometimes more.
For the past two years, Tom Hull, who has helped run the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll since its inception, and after Davis’ death taken on the sole responsibility for the poll, have invited critics to participate in a mid-year jazz poll, too. As this has more or less coincided with my own bit of housekeeping, I have been happy to participate and submit a ballot. This summer’s results went online around two weeks ago over at The Arts Fuse, and as usual, Mr. Hull has the individual ballots, and much more, on his own website. You can find mine here. (Clicking an album will show others, if any at all, that voted for the same release. Useful if you want to dig deeper and discover writers and listeners whose tastes may align with yours).
My ten picks for that ballot are of course high on this list of 45 new albums plus 5 “old recordings”, too. Unlike the above mentioned ballot, however, the list below is not ranked by numbers. These are all albums I would recommend, but that said, the further towards the top of the list, the stronger my endorsement of the album in question is. While the list contains mostly music in and around the realms of jazz, which has been my main focus as a music critic for around two decades, there is music in other idioms here too, such as the wonderful new Jenny Hval album, the winged victory of Willi Carlisle, Cleveland quartet PAL’s sharp, punchy, witty and short EP, three albums by reinvigorated punk veterans, a bit of rap, and some other stuff. The list is not exhaustive, I’ve heard more good music than I found a place for below, but I had to stop somewhere. As with previous lists, a * means I’ve covered the release in writing, either for Musikkmagasinet or in Jazznytt. When available, I’ve added links to the releases’ Bandcamp pages.
New releases:
Isaiah Collier, William Hooker, William Parker: The Ancients (Eremite Records) *
Christer Bothén 3: L'INVISIBLE (Thanatosis Produktion) *
Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts (Nonesuch) *
Luke Stewart / Silt Remembrance Ensembel: The Order (Cuneiform Records) *
Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner: The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings) *
Nels Cline: Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note)
Adam O'Farrill: For These Streets (Out Of Your Head Records)
Jenny Hval: Iris Silver Mist (4AD)
Cosmic Ear (Zetterberg, Romero, Gustafsson, Bothén, Kajfeš): Traces (We Jazz)
The Nightingales: The Awful Truth (Fire Records)
The Tubs: Cotton Crown (Trouble In Mind Records)
Silke Eberhrad Trio: Being-a-ning (Intakt Records) *
Sverre Sæbø Quintet: If, however, you have not lost your self control (Sheep Chase Records) *
Christopher Dammann Sextet: Christopher Dammann Sextet (Out Of Your head Records)
Mathilde Grooss Viddal Friensemblet: Tri Vendur Blés — Ho i den høgaste sky (Losen Records)
Rob Brown, Brandon Lopez, Juan p. Carletti: Walkabout (Mahakala Music) *
Peter Brötzmann / John Edwards / Steve Noble / Jason Adasiewicz: The Quartet (Otroku)
Ches Smith: Clone Row (Otherly Love) *
Andreas Haddeland Trio: Estuar (Tare Records) *
billy woods: GOLLIWOG (BackwoodzStudioz)
Emmeluth, Håker Flaten, Filip: Hyperboreal Trio (Relative Pitch)
PAL: Under Your Radar (s/r)
Willi Carlisle: Winged Victory (Signature Sounds Recording Inc.)
Amina Claudine Myers: Solace Of the Mind (Red Hook Records) *
Trio Glossia: Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions)
Robert Forster: Strawberries (Tapete Records)
Christian Winther: Sculptures From Under the Sea (Earthly Habit) *
The Young Mothers: Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions) *
Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons: Live In Phialdelphia (Otherly Love)
Marty Ehrlich Trio Exaltation: This Time (Sunnyside Records)
Ex-Vöid: In Love Again (Tapete Records)
Kjetil Husebø: Piano Transformed – Interspace (Optical Substance Productions)*
James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt Records)*
Billy Mohler: The Eternal (Contagious Music)
Mekons: Horror (Fire Records)
Archer: Sudden Dusk (Aerophonic)
Will Mason Quartet: Hemlocks, Peacocks (New Focus Recordings)
Three-Layer Cake: Sounds the Color of Grounds (Otherly Love)
Heat On: Heat On (Cuneiform Records)
The Ex: If Your Mirror Breaks (Ex Records) *
Paal Nilssen-Love Circus With The Ex Guitars: Turn Thy Loose (PNL Records)
Dean Wareham: That’s the Price of Loving Me (Carpark Record)
James McMurtry: The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy (New West Records)
Nicolas Leirtrø: Cherry Blossom (Sonic Transmissions)
Stereolab: Instant Holograms On Metal Film (Warp Records)*
Rara avis (music recorded over 10 years ago but issued in 2025:
Anthony Braxton: Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance)
Irène Schweizer, Rüdiger Carl, Johnny Dyani, Han Bennink: Irène’s Hot Four (Intakt, [1981])
Jimmy Lyons: Rivbea Live! Series, Volume 3 (NoBusiness Records)
Art Pepper: An Afternoon In Norway: The Kongsberg Concert (Elemental Music Records)*
John Surman: Flashpoints and Undercurrents (Cuneifrom Records)*