Unsquare

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = DownBeat

| rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}}

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In a review of Unsquare at All About Jazz, Kurt Gottschalk called Maybe Monday "a ridiculously strong trio", and described their collaboration with Hemingway, Kihlstedt, Mori and Parkins on this album as "a dizzying, fascinating set of music". Clifford Allen wrote at Bagatellen that Maybe Monday are not unlike the British free improvisation group AMM. He noted that which instruments are producing which sound is not important – it is the combination of those sounds that matters, the "subsuming of the parts to the whole". Allen added that "to parse Unsquare would be a disservice to the breadth of its canvas – this is a very rich recording of electro-acoustic improvisation." Jason Bivins wrote in Cadence that the inclusion of the four guests "unsettl[ed] the group in just the right ways and thicken[ed] the sound provocatively". He was impressed that they did this "without weighing the music down or sacrificing space". Bivins described Unsquare as a "very fine record".

Reviewing Unsquare in DownBeat, Bill Shoemaker was initially concerned that the presence of guests on Maybe Monday's third album would upset the "alluringly precarious elegance and intensity" of their earlier work. But he was pleased at how "keenly ensemble-minded" the guests are, and that they appear to have "infallible instincts for when less is more and when more is much more". The album's pieces "pivot between sparseness and density, altering a consistently bracing mix of acoustic and electronic elements". Shoemaker felt that the way the instruments connect, "the twacks of koto and low-register harp; the gravelly drones of guitar and laptop; the smudges of reeds and bowed strings", explains the growing interest in electro-acoustic improvisation.

All tracks composed by Maybe Monday.

{{tracklist

| title_width = 30em

| title1 = G

| length1 = 14:46

| title2 = Nitrogen

| length2 = 14:07

| title3 = Saptharishi Mandalam

| length3 = 7:52

| title4 = Septentrion

| length4 = 6:17

| title5 = Unturned

| length5 = 17:21

}}

Sources: Liner notes, Discogs.

• Fred Frith – electric guitar
• Miya Masaoka – 25 string koto, electronics
• Larry Ochs – sopranino and tenor saxophones

;Guests

• Gerry Hemingway – drums, percussion, voice
• Carla Kihlstedt – electric and acoustic violins
• Ikue Mori – electronics
• Zeena Parkins – electric harp, electronics

Sources: Liner notes, Discogs.

• Recorded at East Side Sound Studio, New York City on November 18, 2006
• Mixed at Ruminator Audio, San Francisco
• Mastered at Headless Buddha Mastering Lab, Oakland, California
• Marc Urselli – engineer
• Monte Vallier – mixing
• Larry Ochs – mixing, producer, liner notes
• Myles Boisen – mastering
• Intakt Records – producer
• Emilie Clark – cover art
• Jonas Schoder – graphic design

Sources: Liner notes, Discogs.

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite web |url=https://www.discogs.com/Maybe-Monday-Unsquare/release/2306798 |title=Maybe Monday – Unsquare |website=Discogs |date=March 10, 2008 |access-date=October 3, 2019}}

{{cite AV media notes |last=Ochs |first=Larry |author-link=Larry Ochs (musician) |title=Unsquare |others=Maybe Monday |year=2008 |publisher=Intakt Records |type=CD liner notes}}

{{cite magazine |last=Schoemaker |first=Bill |title=Unsquare |date=June 2008 |magazine=DownBeat |publisher=Maher Publications |location=Chicago |volume=75 |issue=6 |page=72 |issn=0012-5768}}

{{cite magazine |last=Bivins |first=Jason |title=New Issues: Esther Lamneck/Eugenio Sanna; the Nuttree Quartet; Ryan Blotnick; Joshua Walker; Garrison Fewell/Eric Hofbauer; Mads Thorsen; Dave Askren; DC Improvisers; Andy Brown; Mike Minasi; Margaret Slovak; Maybe Monday |date=July 2008 |magazine=Cadence |location=Portland, Oregon |volume=34 | issue=7–9 |pages=255–259 |issn=0162-6973}}

{{cite web |last=Schoemaker |first=Bill |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/miya-masaoka-unsquare-and-koto-accordion-by-kurt-gottschalk.php |title=Unsquare |date=October 12, 2008 |website=All About Jazz |access-date=October 5, 2019}}

{{cite web |last=Allen |first=Clifford |url=http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/reviews/001951.html |title=Maybe Monday – Unsquare |date=March 11, 2008 |website=Bagatellen |access-date=October 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923181536/http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/reviews/001951.html |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |url-status=dead}}

}}

• [http://www.intaktrec.ch/132-a.htm Unsquare] at Intakt Records
• [https://fred-frith.bandcamp.com/album/unsquare Unsquare] at Intakt Records on Bandcamp
• [http://www.intaktrec.ch/rev132-a.htm Unsquare reviews] at Intakt Records
• {{Discogs release|2306798|Unsquare|type=album}}

{{Fred Frith}}

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Category:2008 albums

Category:Free improvisation albums

Category:Intakt Records albums

Category:Fred Frith albums