Sublamp – Lianas
French imprint Eilean Records was a truly remarkable label with 100 releases of ambient and related musics. I was going through my collection today and came across this album I purchased sometime in 2018. Sublamp is a fellow Los Angelino,…
Vedan Kolod – Gorodische
Vedan Kolod are a troupe based in Moscow, Russia, who do sterling work interpreting medieval Russian folkloric music, especially Siberian tunes, with a modern twist. The label, CPL, is run by my friend and colleague, Christian Pliefke, whose taste in…
Rüstəm Quliyev – Azerbaijani Gitara
Rüstəm Quliyev’s story is one of tragedy. First, he was born in the Nagorno-Karabach area of Azerbaijan (contested by Armenia as recently as last year, where a small war was fought over the territory). The fighting was so bad in…
[Promo] Sahel Sounds Label Sampler 3
From Sahel Sounds: We are excited to share with you our latest Name Your Price sampler, Sahel Sounds Label Sampler 3. This year’s features a mix of tracks from recent releases by the likes of Wau Wau Collectif and Tidiane Thiam, some deep…
Departure Street – Everybody’s Leaving
From the bio: Allan J. Kimmel (aka Departure Street) is an American/French solo electric guitarist based in Paris France. He plays alternative ambient and neo-folk music with shoegaze & American blues underpinnings. I could not have said it more succinctly. …
Tom Carter – Beautiful Saviour
Tom Carter was the guitarist of improvisers Charalambides, one of the heirs of fine Texas psychedelia. His new album, Beautiful Savior, comes as a pleasant, hopeful respite after being inundated by moronic ‘devil’-related titles. Is this an acid-Christian album? Who…
Ah-Q Jazz Arkestra – Letters From Afar
This release by Ah-Q Jazz Arkestra is a joint Chinese-American project. The back story is rather interesting. From the Bandcamp website: In early 2020, we found ourselves separated and stuck at home. Even though four of us were in Beijing,…
Destruktionsanstalt – Kaelder Mug
Per Najbjerg Odderskov is an artist I enjoyed featuring over at my old blog, and I’m pleased to hear he has a new release out. It is as dark, heavy and claustrophobic (and yes, that’s a good thing for this…
[Article] How Bossa Nova Brought Frank Sinatra to This Sunset Blvd. Studio by Josh Kun
This article at The Getty’s blog does a great job tying Frank Sinatra, Antônio Carlos Jobim, and the legendary recording studio they worked at here in Los Angeles. Many thanks to my friend Andrés for pointing me to this and…