Month: December 2021

  • Tomáš Kočko Orchestr – Ona

    Tomáš Kočko Orchestr – Ona

    The Tomáš Kočko Orchestr are one of the great musical treasures of my new home city of Brno.  They band mixes true Moravian folk music, including some melodies with pre-Christian roots (so, at least a millennium of music here), world music and even touches of metal to great effect. The concept of their latest album…

  • Clair Obscur – Auld Lang Syne

    Clair Obscur – Auld Lang Syne

    As we have but one day left in the calendar, we bud you adieu with the legendary French cold wave band Clair Obscur doing Robert Burns proud.

  • András Wahorn – The Wahorn Airport Live at the Contemporary Wahorn Club Vol. 1

    András Wahorn – The Wahorn Airport Live at the Contemporary Wahorn Club Vol. 1

    wahorn · The Wahorn Airport live at the Contemporary Wahorn Club Vol. 1.   This is quite a peculiar album made by an old friend. András Wahorn had a storied history as the leader of one of Hungary’s most radical progressive rock bands, A.E. Bizottság, who released three albums of what they called disaster music. …

  • Various Artists – Unexplained Sounds Group – 7th Annual Report

    Various Artists – Unexplained Sounds Group – 7th Annual Report

    Unexplained Sounds Group has had another stellar year releasing ambient, experimental and post-Industrial music from around the world in 2021.  We had the pleasure of reviewing their mid-year compilation on July 28, and now that the year is complete, USG end the year by giving us 35 tracks from artists like Gintas K, Aidan Baker,…

  • Jagath – Samadhi

    Jagath – Samadhi

    Jagath is a field-recorded ritual ambient act from Perm, Russia who use handmade instruments, scraps and metal to make their dark, dank industrial sounds. As quoted from their Bandcamp site, “We do this to share our vision of decaying postindustrial age, to unleash the spirit of deep beyond-world and unveil life in the abyss.”  

  • Alif – Aynama​-​Rtama

    Alif – Aynama​-​Rtama

    I trust you, my friends, had a lovely Gregorian-Calendar Boxing Day. I spent mine listening to a Lebanese experimental band called Alif. At least as the liner notes on their Bandcamp site explain, it looks to be a collaboration between Lebanese and Egyptian musicians, and features the talents of the following musicians: Khyam Allami (Oud)…

  • When It’s Ajar: the music of Daniel Figgis? Ep. 1 – Various Artists

    When It’s Ajar: the music of Daniel Figgis? Ep. 1 – Various Artists

    “Daniel Figgis was making post-classical/post-rock music years before either of those terms gained currency.” – John Schaefer, WNYC: NEW SOUNDS For those who spent their years listening to great radio, that quote alone should tell you the value of the music of Daniel Figgis.  With a storied body of work behind him and a slew…

  • Sufjan Stevens – Songs for Christmas

    Sufjan Stevens – Songs for Christmas

    Sufjan Stevens released this album in 2006, and it manages to hold up well.  He does a fine job interpreting classic Christmas tunes that are charming, sometimes irreverent and silly, but it makes a fine listen as we prepare for the coming of the Savior of the Universe this snowy evening.

  • Jeff Gburek – Gendhing Rebaban

    Jeff Gburek – Gendhing Rebaban

    As we near the close of a challenging 2021, we’re graced with a release by composer Jeff Gburek which features a rebab, a spiked fiddle.  It’s an instrument he studied in Indonesia under Pak Suhardi, blended with synthesizers and electronic bloops and bleeps which left me feeling like I was listening to some remarkable sound…

  • The York Waits & Deborah Catterall – Christmas Musicke

    The York Waits & Deborah Catterall – Christmas Musicke

    The York Waits are a group out of York, England (no surprise there, right?), who specialize in Renaissance music from the 14th Century.  This album is a reissue of a 1996 album where they paired with vocalist Deborah Catterall, who, 25 years after the release of this disc, served as Choral Director at Higham Hall,…