Dennis Rea Discography
Discography in reverse chronological order; click cover image for more info
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Flame Tree featuring Nik Turner
Cleopatra Records / Purple Pyramid CLO0298CD
This wholly improvised first encounter between Hawkwind founder Nik Turner and Seattle musos Jack Gold-Molina (drums), Dennis Rea (guitar), and Paul "PK" Kemmish (acoustic bass) covers widely varied sonic terrain, from high-intensity, galloping freebop to probing deep-space explorations, and finds Nik in rare form on tenor saxophone and flute. Beautifully captured by "Greedy Greg" Williamson, artfully mixed by Jack Endino, and gorgeously illustrated by Nik's longtime cohort Nazar Ali Khan.
"Laid down during a single recording session, these seven pieces are intense and elegiac at the same time, resolving such a contradiction in subtle, yet unconsciously shocking, electric vignettes which swirl amidst and under deceptively unhinged reeds.... transfixing and transcendental"
—Dmitry Epstein, DMME full review
Purchase Flame Tree featuring Nik Turner
Zhongyu
MoonJune Records MJR 078
Zhongyu is an American band with a Chinese name and an attitude that encompasses the full spectrum of musical sounds and sources. Composer Jon Davis teams up with three members of Moraine and an experienced jazz drummer to create a sound that blends influences from Rock in Opposition (Univers Zero and Present), progressive rock (King Crimson), jazz (electric Miles Davis and composers such as George Russell), and Asian music. Whether it involves plugging a traditional Chinese instrument into a modular synthesizer or running a bass clarinet through a wah-wah pedal, pushing boundaries (or denying their existence) is the core of the band’s identity.
They are a group that aims to balance the opposites of music: composition and improvisation, serenity and chaos, harmony and dissonance, complexity and simplicity, acoustic and electric. With guitarist Dennis Rea on board as co-producer and legendary engineer Steve Fisk at the controls, Zhongyu is a powerful, brilliantly executed, and strikingly original debut album that has been years in the making. With Alicia DeJoie (violin), James DeJoie (woodwinds), Randy Doak (drums), and special guest Daniel Barry (trumpet).
Purchase Zhongyu
Dennis Rea Tanabata Ensemble: Black River Transect
Scoobie Tracks 2016
Black River Transect captures all of one concert, and part of another, by the transitory “Tanabata” ensemble that I occasionally convene with my dear friend and mentor, the internationally heralded trombonist and didgeridu player Stuart Dempster. The selections presented here are a blend of my own compositions and improvisations based on loose organizational devices, impeccably performed by some of the most adept and sensitive players currently active in the Pacific Northwest, to whom I’m eternally grateful. Both concerts were expertly recorded on the fly by audio genie Steve Kennedy-Williams.
"a beautifully recorded document of real music captured in the moment of its creation, featuring outstanding musicians of impeccable technique and sensitivity"—Exposé
" Bookending an album of typically single-minded experimentation merged with composition, Dennis Rea has made a musical sandwich with a highly unusual filling that is neither 'jazz' nor 'avant' nor indeed any convenient post-hole, but stands on its own, just like the rest of his singularly individualistic canon."—Roger Trenwith, Astounded by Sound
Personnel
Tracks 1-4: Dennis Rea (guitar), Stuart Dempster (trombone, didgeridu), James DeJoie (bass clarinet), Beth Fleenor (clarinet), Kate Olson (soprano saxophone), John Seman (double bass), Tom Zgonc (drums)
Track 5: Dennis Rea (guitar), Kate Olson (soprano saxophone), John Seman (double bass), Paul Kikuchi (drums), plus trombone choir: Sara Mayo (alto trombone); Stuart Dempster, Moc Escobedo, Masa Ohtake, Naomi Siegel (tenor trombones); Steve Harreld, Jen Hinkle, Chad Kirby, Greg Powers (bass trombones); Benn Hansson (contrabass trombone)
Purchase Black River Transect (download only)
Moraine: Groundswell
MoonJune Records MJR066, 2014
Groundswell marks a major step forward for the shape-shifting Seattle-based instrumental quintet. Engineered by legendary Pacific Northwest producer Steve Fisk, Groundswell is the first Moraine release to fully exploit the creative possibilities of the recording studio, resulting in a dramatic sonic experience with plenty of surprises.
"Groundswell is a new catalog of exquisite sonic adventures that greatly dignify the contemporary progressive scene." – Cesar Inca Mendoza Loyola, Autopoeitican (Peru)
"a shockingly good post-Gong art rock collection that one hardly finds nowadays ... undoubtedly one of the albums of the year." – Laertis, Wild Thing (Greece)
"manages to breathe new life into the progressive genre visited by jazz musicians" – Francois Becquart, Music in Belgium
Purchase Groundswell
Savant: Artificial Dance
Deluxe reissue of K. Leimer's groundbreaking early 1980s collaborative project Savant, featuring Northwest musicians Dennis Rea, Marc Barreca, John Foster, Roy Finch, Jim Keller, David Keller, Alex Petit, and Bob Rogen.
"...the 11 songs that comprise Savant’s prime output amount to some of the most striking and original American electronic music of that period, so much so that it seems almost inconceivable that it went largely overlooked until now."—Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork
"Compiling the standalone album, 1983’s The Neo Realist (At Risk), with Savant’s debut 12″ and a grip of compilation and unreleased tracks, Artificial Dance documents Leimer’s complete collaborative venture into the unpredictable realities of music, exploring the gulf between what is expected by its creators and what is eventually – and eternally – committed to tape."
"...pan-ethnic techno-dub music... Savant is creating important transglobal music that incorporates without patronization and without denying their own heritage. This may be the real music of the world, or at least a netherworld."—John Diliberto, Downbeat
Purchase Artificial Dance
Shredder Orpheus Soundtrack
Light in the Attic Records / Traction.TV Trac-01, 2014
Purchase Shredder Orpheus
"Shredder Orpheus features many Seattle performance luminaries including Seattle poet/performance artist Steven Jesse Bernstein (Sub Pop), and Robert McGinley in the title role. The 17 music cues weave together a blend of Barker’s hypnotic synthesizer compositions with blistering skate rock tunes featuring virtuosic guitar work by Dennis Rea and precision percussion and bass by Bill Rieflin and Amy Denio."
Marc Barreca: Music Works for Industry
RVNG Intl. / Freedom to Spend FTS 002
Purchase Music Works for Industry
Dennis Rea appears on several tracks on this deluxe reissue of Seattle electronic composer Marc Barreca's ahead-of-its-time 1983 release Music Works for Industry.
Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra: Gimme Some Sugar, Baby!
Jamco, 2014
Purchase Gimme Some, Sugar, Baby!
Dennis Rea appears as a featured soloist on the Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra's Gimme Some Sugar, Baby!, a wide-ranging collection of original orchestral jazz tunes performed by an 18-piece ensemble made up of some of Seattle's finest jazzmen. In his first-ever outing with a jazz big band, Dennis contributes to two tracks written by the distinguished award-winning composer Daniel Barry and a third penned by his longtime cohort in Moraine, James DeJoie.
Alex's Hand Presents: The Roaches
R.A.I.G. Records (Moscow), 2014/17
Purchase Alex's Hand Presents: The Roaches
Dennis Rea contributes demented guitar solos to several tracks on this concept album by the daffy, inscrutable, and musically adventurous Alex's Hand. Other guests include Moraine's Alicia and James DeJoie.
Jeff Greinke: Scenes from a Train
Infectious Music INFECT 155 CD, 2013
Purchase Scenes from a Train
Dennis Rea appears on the track "Haboob," alongside Michael Shrieve and other notables.
Tempered Steel
Nunatak 002, 2012
Purchase Tempered Steel
Tempered Steel features Ffej, Frank Junk, and Dennis Rea playing amplified, electronically processed thumb pianos. The trio's seamless improvisations conjure everything from phantom harpsichords and subterranean percussion to as yet uninvented stringed instruments and vintage musique concrete. Recommended to partisans of Harry Partch, John Cage's prepared piano music, and Konono No. 1.
Rea/Shoup/Zgonc: Subduction Zone
Nunatak 001, 2012
Purchase Subduction Zone
Featuring guitarist Dennis Rea (Moraine, Iron Kim Style, Land), alto saxophonist Wally Shoup (Ghidra, Thurston Moore, Nels Cline), and drummer Tom Zgonc (Zero-Goose, Pornadoes), Subduction Zonecaptures three of Seattle's most distinctive instrumentalists in uninhibited full flight. This improvised outing finds the muy simpaticotrio in rare form, serving up everything from hyperkinetic fusion to noir jazz to eldritch experimentalia, in a panoply of incandescent sounds.
"All three of these players are impressive and get a chance to stretch out and push each other higher and higher. ... Although this disc is mostly (wholly?) improvised, it often doesn't sound that way!" - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery, NYC
Moraine: Metamorphic Rock
MoonJune Records MJR040, 2011
Purchase Metamorphic Rock
Moraine up the ante with this blazing concert performance engineered for maximum sonic impact by legendary Pacific Northwest producer Steve Fisk. Metamorphic Rock captures Moraine in peak form at the world’s preeminent showcase for progressive rock, where they wowed listeners with their inventive compositions, formidable musicianship, and tightly meshed instrumental interplay. The first Moraine release to feature woodwind virtuoso James DeJoie and powerhouse drummer Stephen Cavit, Metamorphic Rock marks a major advance in the group’s evolution from their chamber-rock origins toward a more forceful and dynamic sound.
Dennis Rea: Views from Chicheng Precipice
MoonJune Records MJR034, 2010
Purchase Views From Chicheng Precipice
“It does for [traditional Chinese music] what Miles and Gil Evans did with Spanish music on Sketches of Spain, this time with Rea's guitar taking a prominent role and the musical ensemble providing an intricately enmeshed pastel sound quality filled with light and shadow. ... It is an achievement that has no real parallel in the music offerings out there lately. And it reconfirms that Dennis Rea is an important emergent figure on the music scene of today.” — Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Guitar & Bass Blog
“...a profound work, essential and nuanced, to be seized with repeated plays”— La Luna Alfonso (Italy)
Iron Kim Style
MoonJune Records MJR 031, 2010
Purchase Iron Kim Style
"Although this entire disc is improvised, it often doesn't sound that way. ... This is jazz/rock at its finest without any of that fusion excess. ...a consistently inspired and most inventive date" — Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery (NYC)
“That the entire content was composed on the spot is rather jarring: these gentz follow each other with almost shocking precision, alert to each others' subtlest cues and signs, cohesive while fully independent in each line and measure.” — Mark S. Tucker, Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
“For a fusion album that really is fusion, this is one of the best examples you'll hear in today's jazz-rock world.” — Andy Garibaldi, Dead Earnest (Scotland)
Moraine: Manifest Density
MoonJune Records MJR 028, 2009
Purchase manifest deNsity
"...with its combination of rock energy, chamber classicism, and sophisticated jazz harmonies, Manifest DeNsity is simply good music - at times, great music - played by an unusually configured collective. Like a square peg and a round hole, Moraine defies reductionist categorization" — John Kelman, All About Jazz
"...Dark timbres, dense harmonic aggregations, and exotic melodies abound ... while the emphasis here is clearly on ensemble playing, Rea's guitar work continually imbues the proceedings with splashes of color from his global grab bag of stylistic goodies - including liberal dashes of oriental intrigue." — Barry Cleveland, Guitar Player
"[Moraine] morph the best of various musical worlds here, amid turbulent string passages, thrusting rhythms, and jubilantly executed melody lines. ... There's a lot to sink your mind's eye into here, but the ensemble equalizes the cerebral factors with hearty melodies and pumping jazz-rock grooves. ... A musical highlight for 2009, regardless of genre or rigid categorizations" — Glenn Astarita, Jazz Reviews.com
Eric Apoe & They: The Man in the Sun
Soundtrack Boulevard, 2008
Dennis Rea contributes to three tracks ("Sayonara," "Jinx," "The Spider and the Octopus") on longtime collaborator Eric Apoe's CD.
Ting Bu Dong
Independent release, 2008
Five Dennis Rea compositions in a classic jazz-rock fusion mode, from sessions recorded in Munich in 2008 with bassist/engineer Andreas Vath (AKA Atze Ton), keyboardist Volker Wiedersheim, and drummer Olli Klomp.
Chekov: Born to Be Quiet
Independent release, 2008
Dennis Rea plays on one track ("For Absent Friends") of this release by his longtime collaborator Andreas Vath's (AKA Atze Ton) Munich-based electro-jazz group Chekov.
Eric Apoe & They: Book of Puzzles
Soundtrack Boulevard, 2005
Purchase Book of Puzzles
"Eric Apoe is that rare songwriter whose musical spectrum is as large as his worldview. ... a cornucopia of romance, dissent, and speculation spills out into a galaxy of musical saws, pipes, and whistles ... where string quartets and klezmer groups speak softy in the corners of international rock clubs and jazz dives." — The Music Blog
Free Touching: Live in Beijing at Keep in Touch
Noise Asia NAKIT 01/02 CD (double CD)
Purchase Free Touching
"The album was recorded at Keep in Touch on November 1996 during the Beijing International Jazz Festival. A live recording of improvised performances by Chinese artist Wong Yong with six international jazz musicians (Han Bennink, drums; Wang Yong, guzheng; Andreas Schreiber, violin; Dennis Rea, guitar; Steffen Schorn, reeds; Claudio Puntin, reeds; Lesli Dalaba, trumpet). The music was performed by different combinations of artists in the form of Free Jazz of American style, pioneer improvisation of European style, and traditional folk music of Oriental style; not only can these three interflow [sic], but also stir up an ardent sparkle [!] in the process of merging together."
Quite possibly the first recording of free improvisation to emerge from China.
Hector Zazou: Strong Currents
Materiali Sonori Sonora Portraits 2, 2003 (deluxe Italian edition w/100-page book)
Telescopic PIC 6 (French edition)
Purchase Strong Currents
Acclaimed French composer Zazou’s follow-up to the masterful Songs from the Cold Seas, Strong Currents is a collection of songs composed for a top-flight cast of female singers including Laurie Anderson, Lisa Germano, Jane Birkin, and Melanie Gabriel (daughter of Peter). Dennis appears on the track “In the Middle of the Night,” sung by Lori Carson (Golden Palominos). Other musicians on the album include Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bill Rieflin, Stefano Bollani, Lone Kent, and Renaud Pion.
"Strong Currents is 13 tracks of pure elegance from Hector Zazou, featuring 12 female vocalists, plucked from an international musical playground ... Strong Currents features not only a huge range of vocalists, but also includes an eclectic portfolio of session musicians who blend the organic sounds of flute, oboe, bassoon, trumpets, and clarinet seamlessly into Zazou's elaborate layers of electronic sound and sampling ... There is no doubt that Strong Currents is one of Zazou's finest works to date, a deeply romantic album, blending a huge array of vocal talents into a warm sea of undulating strings and classical themes, but with a strangely contemporary electronic edge ... A must for his legion of followers." — Barcode Reviews
Stackpole
First World Music FWD01.08, 2001
Purchase Stackpole
Stackpole is Dennis Rea (guitar), Wally Shoup (alto saxophone), Geoff Harper (bass), and Gregg Keplinger (drums)
"...a completely assured amalgam of idioms in a pulsing nonce-music, a free-improv-supercharged free jazz that roars, keens, and soars, and yet can just as convincingly dissolve into moody quiescence ... the selections from real-time Stackpole improvisations heard on this disc descend, then slip or duck away, then reemerge. Whether Stackpole storms or lulls, its music is startling and distinctive ... A truly remarkable document of the fruition of post-free jazz in Seattle."— Earshot Jazz
"You can't really get further outside than where Stackpole are planted, on a jazz-ragged landscape strewn with scattered shrapnel, clouds of smoke, eerie shrieks after dark. The first, self-titled disc from this quartet of much-feared Seattle improvisers shows a band in full control of their chaos. Stackpole come on with an aggressive energy that keeps its musical direction even as it busts through every reasonable boundary."— Seattle Weekly
Eric Apoe & They: Radioation
Soundtrack Boulevard Music, 2002
"With a combination of all-star musicians such as Christine Gunn on cello, Tom Armstrong on percussion, Alicia Allen on violin, Hugh Sutton on accordion, Dennis Rea on guitar, Tige DeCoster on bass, and Damien Aitken on alto sax, Eric Apoe & They take us on a walk through the decay and pathos of the American Dream choking itself with its own hands. Radioation is proof of why Eric Apoe is widely regarded as one of the best songwriters on the West Coast." — Audio Kingdom
LAND: Road Movies
First World Music FWD 01.09, 2001
Purchase Road Movies
Named one of the Top Ten releases of 2001 by Pulse! (Instrumental/Ambient) and the Seattle Weekly (Jazz).
"LAND plays across a densely contoured terrain, both bound and endless, dangerous and beautiful. This electric-acoustic quintet, led by sound creator Jeff Greinke, has built on the extended, ambient rumbles of its previous work and emerged into a more unhinged element, fired by the addition of power drummer Bill Rieflin and some especially lacerating and evocative work from guitarist Dennis Rea. Pensive caresses, urban grooves, electronic retorts, heavy breathing, and off-roading, this band moves through it all with a perfect mix of speed and discomfort." — Seattle Weekly
Eric Apoe & They: Dream Asylum
Soundtrack Boulevard Music, 2000
Produced by Soundgarden and Pearl Jam's Matt Cameron.
Owasso Night Atlas
Infrasound INFCD003, 2000
Purchase Owasso Night Atlas
Dennis Rea appears on two tracks of this wide-ranging compilation: a studio improvisation with the Edge Trio (with saxophonists Paul Chuey and Michael Monhart) and an excerpt from a large-group improvisation hosted by The Tentacle in an abandoned Seattle steel mill.
"Containing a wide variety but completely cohesive mix of downtempo dub, performance noise, and beat-driven soundscapes, Owasso Night Atlas is a slick, smart, and thoroughly addictive compilation from Infrasound Collective." — Outburn
Rik Wright: Bleeding Laughter
HipSync, 2000
Purchase Bleeding Laughter
Guitarist Rik Wright's improvised meetings with Dennis Rea, Ed Petry, Wally Shoup, Toshi Makihara, and Jeph Jerman.
Craig Flory & Doug Haire: Wigwam Bendix
Franchise Records, 1998
Featuring Craig Flory, Doug Haire, Eric Amrine, Brent Arnold, Christian Asplund, Mike Bisio, Andrew Drury, Geoff Harper, Eyvind Kang, Dennis Rea, Wally Shoup, Skerik, Matthew Sperry, Mike Stone, Hans Teuber, Tim Young, and many more.
"[Wigwam Bendix] might just be the great modern jazz statement Seattle has been hinting at for the past five years." — The Rocket
Jerff Greinke: Swimming
Prudence, 1998
Dennis Rea appears on the track "Threads."
LAND: Archipelago
Periplum, 1997
Purchase Archipelago
"This album makes it plain that improvisation and innovation are in good health in Seattle. LAND, on its second album, continues to construct transporting, otherworldly terrains of rich melody, washes of acoustic and electric sound, and pulsing and jangling rhythm. Add to that fine improv by all band members... LAND compares well with any of Bill Laswell/Jon Hassell/Krakatau's projects." — Peter Monaghan, Earshot Jazz
Eric Apoe & the Furnace: Songs of Love and Doom
Soundtrack Boulevard, 1996
"Performing for over two decades, Eric Apoe remains one of the premier singer/songwriters in the Northwest. His raw, distinctive style is expressed through his songs with satiric honesty and dark humor. Having lived on the beatnik downside of L.A.'s Hollywood 'show-biz' boulevard, Eric's songs infuse his twisted perspective on social life and existence into music he calls 'Urban Doom.'"
Assemblage II
Extreme, 1995
Label compilation featuring LAND, Vidna Obmana, Muslimgauze, Pablo's Eye, Soma, and others.
Jeff Greinke: Big Weather
Linden, 1995
Dennis Rea appears on the tracks "The Happy Isles" and "River Limba."
LAND: LAND
Extreme (Australia), 1995
Purchase LAND
"LAND breaks barriers on the obstacle course of East-meets-West fusion... exotic and liquid quicksilver improvisation... a revisioning of Fourth World shibboleths upon which found sounds are cleverly flourished." — The Wire (UK)
"To listen to LAND is to imagine what the product of a collaboration between Brian Eno and Miles Davis would have sounded like. ... a truly brilliant record not to be missed by those unafraid to hear new directions in jazz and experimental music." — Stained Pages (Toronto)
"Exotic, transglobal soundscapes... sounds like Spike Jones meets John Cage at a rave party." — LAND feature on the nationally syndicated radio program Echoes
Doug Haire: Locale
Dennis Rea: Shadow in Dreams
China Record Company (P.R. China), 1990
One of the first recordings of creative music released by a foreign musician in communist China, Shadow in Dreams sold an estimated 40,000 copies and was listed among the year's 10 best recordings by China Youth Daily.
Secretions (Color Anxiety, various)
C/Z Records, 1988
A sampler LP documenting the state of the mid-80s Seattle rock scene. Includes Fred, Amy Denio's Couch of Sound, Vexed, Crypt Kicker 5, Green River, Tad, and others. Color Anxiety were Eric Amrine and Dennis Rea (guitars), Michael Gittleman (bass), Rob Angus (vocals, turntable), and Bert Coffin (drums).
Third Seattle Improvised Music Festival
Dennis Rea appears with Catabatics (saxophonist Wally Shoup, keyboardist Charley Rowan, and drummer Harlan Mark Vale) and with guitarists Eric Amrine and Robert Jenkins, drummer Katie O'Looney, and cellist Lori Goldston.
Wally Shoup: Upright
Independently produced cassette, 1987
"Duos and trios that are strange and languid, aquatic and breathing, conveying distant mummering in clear air and vastness. Very cool guitar throughout." — Bret Hart, OPTION
NEMUS: Northwest Electronic Music
Schwingungen Vol. II (Earthstar, various)
Sky Records, 1986, reissued on CD in the 1990s
A Sky Records sampler including tracks by Earthstar, Cluster & Eno, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Dieter Moebius, Harald Grosskopf, Adelbert Von Deyen, and others. Erroneously titled "New Age Music" to cash in on the 80s craze.
Marc Barreca: Music Works for Industry
Palace of Lights, 1983
Savant: The Neo-Realist (at Risk)
Palace of Lights, 1983, reissued on CD, 2002
Purchase The Neo-Realist (At Risk)
"...pan-ethnic techno-dub music... Savant is creating important transglobal music that incorporates without patronization and without denying their own heritage. This may be the real music of the world, or at least a netherworld."—John Diliberto, Downbeat
"An example of the creative potential available to artists using production techniques themselves to make music, rather than just to recreate a group's sound."—Herb Levy, The Rocket
Earthstar: Atomkraft? Nein Danke!
Sky (Germany), 1982
"An American cosmic classic." — Ultima Thule Website
Earthstar: French Skyline
Sky (Germany), 1981
Remastered and reissued on CD by MI Records (Berlin) in 1999
"The first time I heard LAND guitarist Dennis Rea, he was playing the greatest phased guitar solo of all time on Earthstar's 1979 classic of Euro-electronica, French Skyline."—The Wire
"This first Earthstar album to be released on Sky Records in Germany by American Craig Wuest was one of that label's best space music productions. The helping hand lent by Klaus Schulze in the recording certainly helped elevate this to its lofty sonic status."
"Brimming with exciting sounds; solid sequencer lines fused with hidden melodies and tonal rhythms blended with natural tones... Don't miss out - file under analogue classics."
Earthstar: Salterbarty Tales
Moontower Records, 1979