All pieces/compositions by the musicians

Recorded by Hrólfur Vagnsson on Oct 31 - Nov 2, 2002 during the Total Music Meeting, Berlin
Produced and organized by FMP FREE MUSIC PRODUCTION Distribution & Communication (Helma Schleif)
Artistic direction: W. Fuchs / Counsel: G. Fritze Margull
TMM-Committee: Schleif/Fuchs/Margull
Mixing: Wolfgang Fuchs, Hrólfur Vagnsson, Helma Schleif
Masterering: Hrólfur Vagnsson (Tonstudio Vagnsson, HH)
Produced by Helma Schleif
Liner notes: Helma Schleif
Translation: Torsten Müller, Vancouver

Special thanks to Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley for their noble gesture and generosity, paying homage to Peter Kowald with a grande finale concert on Nov 2th.

Excerpt from the booklet
Focussing on the art of the trio the Total Music Meeting 2002 (Oct 31 - Nov 2) presented again a forum for a wide range of exceptional improvising musicians from all over the world.
The two oldest working trios in Improvised music got the festival off to a terrific start - the legendary Evan Parker Trio with Barry Guy (b) and Paul Lytton (dr), and the Schlippenbach Trio with Paul Lovens (dr) and Evan Parker (ss, ts). It´s been a unique highlight as you will hear, also because these trios, which were both founded in the early seventies, rarely ever perform together. The following concerts of Evan Parker´s Trio and Schlippenbach´s Trio manifested once more their seemingly inexhaustible inventiveness and unequalled mastership.
Portuguese flute virtuoso and composer Carlos Bechegas, debuting in Berlin, is much in demand as a soloist due to his extraordinary range of extended techniques and his use of live electronics. He is best known for his work with Carlos Zingaro, Peter Kowald, Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Phil Minton and Steve Lacy.
Wu Wei and Xu Fengxia both studied at Shanghai Conservatory and are living in Germany since some years. They utilize the dynamics of two different musical cultures to create their own rich improvisational vocabulary. They perform on traditional Chinese instruments such as sheng, erhu and guzheng, energized by Fengxia´s enchanting vocals.
The ´anarchistic fire of free jazz´ still burns bright 30 years after the formation of Doppelmoppel (Conny Bauer, Johannes Bauer, Uwe Kropinski, Joe Sachse). This group is still revered with cultish fervor not only in the new states of Germany and attracted many devotees to attend this rare Berlin appearance.
The Italian electro-acoustic trio Ossatura (Elio Martusciello, Fabrizio Spera and Luca Venitucci) has been working together since 1995. Ossatura´s musical approach is based on critical analysis of sound structures and exploration of organisational models. They combine conventional instrumental techniques with manipulation and electronic amplification of sound making devices. This had been their Berlin debut concert.
Günter Christmann, another founding father of free improvised music, has been playing trombone and cello in diverse international groups since 1969 and recently started working with two live-electronics players from Berlin, Serge Baghdassarians and Boris Baltschun. This was their first opportunity to present their new trio mal d´archive.
The New Flags, a German-English-Chinese acoustic trio with Wolfgang Fuchs, Roger Turner and Xu-Feng-Xia, was formed in June 2002 year in Berlin. The players combine European improvisational structures with features of traditional Chinese music. The resulting dynamic range is of extraordinary complexity, re-enforced by the enormous musical potential and individual styles of these three players. Their concert is documented in toto on a/l/l 007 (THE NEW FLAGS. LIVE AT THE TOTAL MUSIC MEETING 2002).
The Duo Bertoncini / Lehn was formed only recently. Tiziana Bertoncini is a violinist and painter living in Pisa who has worked with improvising musicians, painters, poets and dancers. Composer and pianist Thomas Lehn is recognized as the virtuoso of the analogue synthesizer and is one of the most in-demand players on the scene. Their performance too had been a Berlin debut.
Two generations of musicians from Berlin, Chicago and San Francisco collaborate in Three October Meetings. The trio with reed-monster Wolfgang Fuchs, bassist Damon Smith, and drummer Jerome Bryerton creates music which is defined by a sharpened awareness of sound and space, pitched and unpitched sound, of individuality and collectivity, of distinct lines and group textures.

The grand finale of the festival and a special musical highlight had been the duo-concert of Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley which you will not find documented here as Cecil Taylor resented the idea of being presented on a sampler.
Anyhow, their noble gesture and generosity to pay homage to Peter Kowald will be unforgettable for those who had the privilege to attend their concert.

Helma Schleif