Rob Mazurek / Exploding Star Orchestra
Galactic Parables: Volume 1
2015 - Cuneiform Records: Rune 409/410 
http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/robmazurekoctet.html

CD 1
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* Rob Mazurek: cornet, electronics
* Damon Locks: text, voice, electronics
* Angelica Sanchez: piano
* Jeff Parker: guitar
* John Herndon: drums
* Matthew Bauder: tenor saxophone, claninet
* Matthew Lux: bass guitar
* Guilherme Granado: keyboard, samplers, synth, voice
* Mauricio Takara: cavaquinho, electronics, percussion

Recorded live at the Sant'Anna Arresi Jazz Festival 2013
“Ai Confini tra Sardegna e Jazz” on August 28, 2013. 
http://www.santannarresijazz.it/eventi/produzioni-discografiche.php

Broadcast live from Piazza del Nuraghe by Rai Radio3.

Recorded by Paolo Zucca and Live Studio.
Mastered by Casey Rice at Classix.


CD 2
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* Rob Mazurek: cornet, electronics
* Damon Locks: text, voice, electronics
* Nicole Mitchell: flutes, voice
* Angelica Sanchez: piano
* Jeff Parker: guitar
* John Herndon: drums
* Matthew Bauder: tenor saxophone, claninet
* Matthew Lux: bass guitar

Recorded live at the Chicago Cultural Center on October 18, 2013
by Ken Christianson, assisted by Deundeun Cho.


Reviews
~~~~~~~

By Paul Simpson 
http://www.allmusic.com/album/galactic-parables-vol-1-mw0002841370

Chicago-based avant jazz musician and composer Rob Mazurek has produced his
most cosmic, interplanetary work with the Exploding Star Orchestra, working
with a rotating assembly featuring regular collaborators from his other
ensembles such as Chicago Underground and São Paulo Underground to create his
most science fiction-themed, Sun Ra-inspired compositions. Galactic Parables,
Vol. 1, commissioned by the Sant'Anna Arresi Jazz Festival in Sardinia, Italy
in 2013, is the Orchestra's most ambitious undertaking yet. Expanding on
Sixty-Three Moons of Jupiter, their 2009 collaboration with Roscoe Mitchell,
Galactic Parables features freewheeling improvisations for multiple percussion
instruments, electronics, guitars, horns, and Mazurek's expressive cornet
playing. The lengthy pieces are guided by striking poetry spoken by regular
collaborator Damon Locks, whose intense, paranoid proclamations address
subjects including slavery, ghosts, and the awakening of the world. Locks'
vocals are often electronically manipulated and distorted, and are even mixed
with samples of the unmistakable voice of Sun Ra himself, who inquires "Are you
spotless? I have spots" occasionally throughout the first disc, a recording of
the work's Sardinia premiere. The second disc of this release contains the same
compositions recorded live at the Chicago Cultural Center, and the order and
lengths of the compositions are rearranged, befitting the improvisatory nature
of the work. The Chicago performance slightly tones down the abrasiveness of
the Italian one, placing less emphasis on electronics, but still letting the
work's powerful message shine through, particularly on the 22-minute "Make Way
to the City" and the guitar shredding of "The Arc of Slavery #72." Galactic
Parables, Vol. 1 is an astonishing, visionary work, and continues to document
Mazurek at a creative peak, directly following Cuneiform's 2014 release of the
utterly transcendent Return the Tides, Mazurek's deeply moving tribute to his
departed mother recorded with ensemble Black Cube SP.

--

By Stef 
http://www.freejazzblog.org/2015/07/rob-mazurek-celebrating-his-50th-day-1.html

By Bill Meyer

By Grego Applegate Edwards

By Karl Ackermann 
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/galactic-parables-volume-1-rob-mazurek-cuneiform-records-review-by-karl-ackermann.php

Por Tiago Ferreira (pt) 
http://namiradogroove.com.br/criticas/jazz-criticas/rob-mazurek-exploding-star-orchestra-galactic-parables-volume-1

Da Alfredo Sgarlato (it) 
http://www.distorsioni.net/canali/dischi/galactic-parables-vol-1

Da Enrico Bettinello (it) 
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/galactic-parables-volume-1-rob-mazurek-exploding-star-orchestra-cuneiform-records-review-by-enrico-bettinello.php

Par Aleksandr Lézy (fr) 
http://www.chromatique.net/chroniques/item/15623-galactic-parables-vol1

Por Carlos Navarro A. (es) 
http://www.rockaxis.com/vanguardia/discos/rob-mazurek-exploding-star-orchestra/galactic-parables-volume-1