(l-r): Jair-Rôhm Parker Wells, Jonathan Kane, Reeves Gabrels. Photo by Henry Leutwyler
“Not to embarrass him, but of any of the guitar players I’ve ever worked with, Reeves is musically the most accomplished. Fortunately, he’s an extraordinary musician, but he hides it very well. The nearest in those terms was Fripp. In musicianship, Fripp and Reeves are on a par … Other than Eno, Reeves is one of the few people who knows how to change his streams of thought.
—DAVID BOWIE”
Gabrels • Kane • Parker Wells
Gabrels • Kane • Parker Wells
The eponymous debut from Gabrels • Kane • Parker Wells arrives as a thunderclap. Bassist Jair-Rôhm Parker Wells was a member of the seminal krautrock band Embryo during the 1970s, and his ensemble Machine Gun has been lauded as “the MC5 of electric jazz.” His excellence ranges from the diddly bow to the Buchla synthesizer, from the Steinberger bass to the Chapman Stick, and his current projects include an electroacoustic-powered spaceship. Drummer Jonathan Kane co-founded the influential No Wave behemoth Swans. He has collaborated extensively with minimalist godfather La Monte Young, was the only percussionist for Rhys Chatham's orchestra of 100 electric guitars, and leads his own trance-blues band, Jonathan Kane's February. Guitarist Reeves Gabrels produced, co-wrote, and performed on eight albums with David Bowie and is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Cure.
High-decibel improv is a moveable feast of ecstasy and reverie that reappears in hours of spiritual want. We inhabit diminished times, in which expansive sonic vistas are beyond the scope and ken of mere TikTokeries. But odysseys endure, and Gabrels • Kane • Parker Wells would have sizzled across the raucous ‘70s spaceways of afro-futurismo Miles Davis, the post-prog ‘80s jetstream of the Adrian Belew-led King Crimson, or any other ionospheric era crackling with volatile, electric potency.
Features imagery by the legendary American fashion and music photographer Art Kane (Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, The Doors, The Who).
•••••
Gabrels • Kane • Parker Wells
Gabrels • Kane • Parker Wells
2025
Table of the Elements
[Fluorine] 9
EOE-009
Phono 12” LP, 180g vinyl
Jonathan Kane
"Paradise between the back porch, the urban jungle and the heavens above... The album’s down-home grooves shine with an orchestral, massed-guitar luster that's often associated with Glenn Branca and Kane’s frequent collaborator Rhys Chatham. Layered electric and acoustic sounds create overtones that trick the listener into hearing nonexistent organs and harmonicas. In place of the mind-boggling beats for which he's known, Kane underpins these drones with a deceptively simple, forcefully executed shuffle. His swinging opuses exude bright, earthy euphoniousness instead of dark, cerebral dissonance: Witness the rollicking ‘Sis’ or the luminous version of the traditional ‘Motherless Child.’ Rarely does the avant-garde rock this hard."
— Time Out New York
“Wedding the brutal severity of Delta country boogie and Seventies German pulse rock—all dead-ahead motion and mounting detail... Epic.”
— Rolling Stone
“Somewhere between Sonic Youth and Steve Reich is the drummer Jonathan Kane. Interested in the crossroads of new-music iconoclasm and experimental rock, he has a drummer’s sense of steady dynamic development and an unapologetic love of noise. Virtuosic”
— New York Times
“The personal politics of American minimalism have long cried out for a barroom with sawdust on the floor where differences could be settled man to man; this record would be on the jukebox.”
— Signal to Noise
Jair-Rôhm Parker Wells
“Listen to a Jair-Rohm Parker Wells album, and everything falls into place. There is something whole and satisfying about his records that echoes John Coltrane. There’s an awareness of the record as a work of art and a distillation of thought about sounds and society and the cosmos which you’re asking people to welcome into their homes.”
— Ben Watson, The Wire
“Here, ecstatic frequencies meet pulsating sound shreds and deafening electro-acoustic experiments melt with bizarre drones, solo bass pieces and waves of dreamy rhythms. A miniature version of his future magnum opus, this spectacular epic is only the beginning, as Parker Wells continues to work on a musical world without borders.”
—Tokafi
“Mind-blowing, intense, and over-the-top! One of the most intense and creative free/ jazz/ rock/ punk/ funk/ noise bands of all time!”
— Downtown Music Gallery
Reeves Gabrels
“Reeves Gabrels is the Ricky Jay of guitar: smart, fast, funny, and supremely good at his game—really, at all the games requiring 6-string sleight of hand … That’s no secret to those who’ve watched Gabrels’ career since 1988 when he was elevated onto the international stage in Tin Machine and began a 13-year creative partnership with David Bowie. During that spell, Bowie and Gabrels co-wrote more than 70 songs and made eight albums, including their coproduction Earthling, which stood as Bowie’s most creative recording since his so-called Berlin trilogy…”
— Premiere Guitar
“Owing to his brainy, maze-like runs and otherworldly textures, guitarist Reeves Gabrels has been dubbed a ‘Jedi Master’ in the press more often than he can count. A longtime member of post-punk pioneers The Cure, decade-plus collaborator with David Bowie, former touring guitarist for Paul Rodgers, and a prolific bandleader in his own right, Gabrels certainly merits the honorific. In his solo playing, too, Gabrels can be seen as a kind of interstellar sensei, skilled with both mind and sword.”
— Line 6
“It is still Gabrels's guitar playing that sorts out the men from the boys in a David Bowie audience. As knowledgeable and enthusiastic discussing techno as he is Aerosmith, Gabrels is part-intellectual and part-madman.”
— Q Magazine
“Reeves Gabrels does plenty on lead guitar to earn his place alongside one of rock's biggest legends.”
— Manchester Evening News
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The Circle R Sessions live from Reverend Guitars Circle R Studios. https://reverendguitars.com/ #reverendguitars #wellplayed #reevesgabrels
The Circle R Sessions live from Reverend Guitars Circle R Studios. https://reverendguitars.com/ #reverendguitars #wellplayed #reevesgabrels