downundaground
Francisco Espregueira
downundaground, curated by the Melbourne-based label La Sape, is a compilation comprised of seven tracks made by young up-and-coming Australian instrumentalists and improvisers, directed by the mighty talent of Horatio Luna. Rooted in jazz, drawing from the 70s' deep spirituality and high grooves of Miles Davis & Herbie Hancock to the modern street sounds of Dego & Kaidi Tatham, new names are introduced, inviting us to delve deeper. Due to drop next friday, the downundaground compilation a is prelude of great things to come from some of these projects during 2020.
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Astral Flex: (est. 2019), are Melbourne’s tech-heavy, retro-futuristic, electroacoustic improvisation outfit. Recently established by jazz musician Felix Meredith, the band’s distinctive genre-breaking grooves have been making their way across the south side of Melbourne, improvising live sets that play out as an album for live audiences, and now, for you the listener.
On-Ly: On-lV is a 2020’s jazz fusion quartet featuring bass player’s Carl Lindeberg & Horatio Luna, drummer Tommy Harrison and On-Ly. Creating the spaces and places through the group improvisation; the love & the trust and the experimentation that fuelled the 70’s explosion of psych-rock-jazz & new musical languages.
JK Group: The band features a rotating lineup of musicians from Melbourne’s eclectic jazz scene with a shared musical vision - music that openly draws on modern production styles and influences, while paying a deep respect to history. The sound is at once jazz, bebop and polyrhythmic funk with cues from house and broken beat.
Antiphon: have blended the lines between the old, new, and yet to come under a cacophony of creative rhetoric, abolishing the expectations of a nu-jazz trio. Innovation and experimentation are the heart of this band. Originally a duo, Melbournes Moodymann Horatio Luna met synth wizard Cory Balloch and bombastic drummer Matt Bush in early 2019. Since then, the trio have released a debut EP featuring boldly experimental compositions and performing wild improvised sets regularly.
Foshe: Blending house music and meditative soundscapes with heavy, afro/latin-inspired, polyrhythmic grooves, the Foshe sound is raw, soulful, funky and 100% improvised.
Proto Moro: Are a psychedelic jazz fusion band from Melbourne. 1 year old and coming in hot..
Big Chief: As one of the original 30/70 collective side projects, Big Chief, along side Another Batch, Allysha Joy and Leeroy James and the Nu-Jazz Renegades, released the first EP in 2015 whilst researching micro-timing in modern soul music at the Victorian College of the Arts. Big Chief is the brainchild of Horatio Luna and is the first iteration of his jazz/house experiments exploring improvisational devices in house music.