KONSTRUkT and AKIRA SAKATA – Kaishi / 開始: Live At Kargart (2LP-2015)

Korhan Argüden / drums, cymbal [old K zildjian cymbals]

Another chapter in the ongoing series of live recordings of the quartet KonstruKt. Islington Mill in Salford, Greater Manchester, is a hotbed of musical insurgency and invention. Resident analogue-synth expert Sam Weaver (who is an auxiliary member of psychedelic/exploratory rock/electronic group Gnod) is curating the Samarbeta music residency at the huge repurposed building in the summer of 2015. As part of this project, he has invited the blazing Turkish free jazz unit KonstruKt, over from Istanbul to stay at the Mill. Their visit culminates in two performances on 12 August 2015. There are also Bristol and London live dates planned. To give you a taste how brilliant those performances were, here is KonstruKt in action on home turf, earlier that year, playing with veteran Japanese free-jazz, a key figure of the Japanese Free Jazz movement since the 1970s saxophonist and marine biologist, Akira Sakata.

Konstrukt are a group dedicated to improvising not only within themselves, but with outside guests. Following records with Joe McPhee and Peter Brötzmann, Akira Sakata to join them Live at Kargart in Istanbul on January 17th 2015, where they played continuously for 70 minutes, improvising around psychedelic themes. This jam is one of the most psychedelic act of the band so far, with Sakata's growling shomyo-alike chant finding the perfect setting - like a snake charmer - in a jungle of constantly reinvented sound.