Roman Stolyar – Right Back from Bosnija
I’m delighted to share a piece from my old friend, the Siberian composer and multi-instrumentalist Roman Stolyar. This nearly 20-minute improvisation was recorded live on July 30, 2021 at the MMMESSS studio in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The piano-playing is quick,…
Various Artists – Z Tapes Summer 2021
Z Tapes is a small-but-mighty label out of Bratislava, Slovakia, who release everything from bedroom pop to properly polished indie music. They have a massive roster of artists they work with, and also, bucking the current trend for vinyl, offer…
Various Artists: Habibi Funk 015: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World, Part 2
Our friends at Habibi Funk are becoming legendary as their roster grows. What impresses me the most about the folks who run the label is their absolute passion for music from the Maghreb which has been criminally underrepresented throughout the…
KAUAN – Ice Fleet
KAUAN hail from Estonia and bring something extra to both progressive rock and post-rock. Long, drone-laden, repetitive music that holds one’s interest throughout. Perhaps the best way to describe this is like a very much slowed-down My Bloody Valentine with…
IZ Band – 廻声Jangqerek
The legendary Shenzhen-based Old Heaven Books released a powerful album from the Chinese-Kazakh band IZ Band. This is listed as folk music, yet the music is brutal, sounding like early 1980s post-punk or Industrial rock. Think of, maybe, a Kazakh…
Controlled Bleeding – Songs From The Drain
Controlled Bleeding were one of the few bands who could glide from genre to genre easily. They were comfortable working with EBM, harsh noise and experimental music, and would even appeal to some elements in the goth-rock crowd, but this…
Dominique Figaro & Steve Shehan – Figaro... Si!
I had no idea what to expect with this album except that it was promoted by Carbon 7 record label impresario and former Univers Zéro bassist Guy Segers. His taste tends to be outstanding, so I gave this a shot. …
Celer – In Light Of Blues
Will Long is Celer, an ambient music composer living in Japan and therefore, a relatively close expatriate neighbor of mine. He releases a lot of music, as is the fashion with some highly competent composers these days, but his work…
Dzivia – Flower Maiden
Dzivia are a project out of Belarus specializing in a music that crosses ambient, Nordic folk music, symphonic progressive rock and regional music. They manage to do all this in one track. Impressive.
Gil Talmi – Unspooled
Thanks to my friend and Galego brother Andrés, I’ve come across a soundtrack composer and sound designer out of New York called Gil Talmi. He has been nominated for an Emmy Award (presumably in soundtrack music and apparently fond of…