“The Banat Tamburitza band are said to have been formed around 1912 or ’13 in Elizabeth, New Jersey by Serbian immigrants from the village of Sânpetru Mare (then-population about 2,000) in the Banat region of present-day Timiș county of western Romania. A group by the same name recorded for Columbia in the mid-20s for Columbia and then in the mid-40s for the Sonart label with the renowned Bosnian singer Edo Ljubić (b. 1912; d. 1993) at which point a reference in Miriam Lidster and Dorothy Tamburini’s book Folk Dance Progressions referred to them as being from Philadelphia. Various lineups continued to perform around New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio until around 1972. When this incarnation recorded in the late ’40s and the ’50s for Michael Herman’s Folk Dancer label, their press announcements always stated that they were Serbians from Newark, New Jersey (about 15 miles south of Elizabeth.)”
Twelve Improvisations For Piano Solo is a solo piano album by Spanish pianist Javi Cánovas from 2016. It’s an elegant listening experience comfortably sitting on a corner where contemporary classical, jazz and new age congregate.
Sonca is a reissue of an album released in 2016 by Belarusian band Shuma. From label Ezhevika’s Bandcamp site:
“Re-issue of Shuma’s most popular album Sonca, originally released back in 2016. It was aknowledged by Belarusian music critics as The best album of the year, The best electronic album and The best Belarusian album.
Shuma is a project that combines ancient pagan songs and electronic music. Their value lies in a great sound production and a truly correct rethinking of the ancient cultural tradition which is almost lost.”
Eromoscape is an ambient artist from Syria, but not the kind who implements pulses (as opposed to beats, which is, as I understand it, against the original principle of ambient music) which are dark, somewhat foreboding, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Yggdrasil are a Faroese project led by multi-instrumentalist Kristian Blak (whom I had the pleasure, many years ago, of meeting in Varna, Bulgaria) and a host of local musicians along with singer Vera Kondratieva from Siberia. You would expect to hear a melding of Scandinavian and traditional Siberian music on Timent Areh, but this also adds elements of jazz, rock and maybe just a touch of post-punk. It’s a fun album, not too terribly dark, sung beautifully and supplemented by a rather tight backing band. Tutl Records, the record label Blak has run since the 1970s, has released another gem. I hope he gets his massive catalog, including this album, onto places like Bandcamp eventually.
Unless one thinks of the ever-amusing singer Kinky Freidman, I can’t say I’m terribly familiar with Brooklyn Jewish people being heavily involved in country music. Enter charming Brooklynite Mimi Roman, whose voice was among the early pioneers of rockabilly. It’s a large collection at 35 tracks, but it’s worth every penny.
Severine Day hails from Belgium, and she produces an post-punk sound that brings up memories of bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, French cold wave bands like Clair Obscur, and even a touch of Nico, but with a sound that is as modern as it is authentic. It’s a thrill to hear such music still being made for those of us who grew up during the genre’s heyday.
Though it is always with great sadness that modern record labels who release spectacular vinyl editions don’t offer such releases on digital formats for sale, it’s a forgivable sin, as our dear friends at WeWantSounds continue to impress with their choices of artists they so lovingly reissue.
Abdel Halim Hafez is at the peak of his powers at this point of his career, and Mawood is a shining example of the quality of Egyptian music during the early 1970s. The good folks at WeWantSounds explain further at their Bandcamp site:
“Famously sampled by Jay-Z on “Big Pimpin'” for one of his 60s tracks, Hafez is captured here live with his full orchestra including Omar Khorshid on guitar. the album mixes traditional Arabic music with modern instrumentation and shades of 70s groove. ‘Mawood’ is one of Hafez’s all-time classics, written by the legendary composer Baligh Hamdi. This release has been newly remastered for vinyl and features the original LP artwork with a 2 page insert featuring a new liner notes (English/French) by Mario Choueiry (IMA, Paris) who curates Wewantsounds’ Arabic series of reissues.“
From the album press release:
“Born in Lower Egypt in 1929, Abdel Halim Hafez became, during a relatively short career that ended with his death in 1977 aged 48, one of the giants of Egyptian Music and his legend has never stopped growing since. Alongside Oum Kalthoum, Warda, Farid el Atrache and Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Hafez revolutionised Egyptian music and became a hugely popular star across the whole Arab world.
Blessed with striking good looks, Abdel Halim Hafez started his career in the early 50s and quickly attracted the attention of one of the Egyptian radio’s A&Rs who took him under his wing and invited him to perform on the radio. His career went from strength to strength and from 1953, he was associated with the Egyptian revolution led by Nasser. His music mixing tradition and modernity made him one of the most loved singers of the 1950s as he developed a romantic edge that became his signature style (he was dubbed “the dark-skinned nightingale”). In the mid 50s, hot on the heels of his success in music, he launched his acting career in the thriving Egyptian film industry and also became a hugely popular actor.
Hafez worked with the greatest composers of their time including Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Baligh Hamdi who composed ‘Mawood’ (“Promised”).
Recorded live in 1971 (as it was the norm at the time. Singer would rarely record studio albums), ‘Mawood’ is one of the singer’s most recognizable standards. The song stretches over the two sides of the album and consists of several sections alternating instrumental parts and sung ones.
The song, written by Egyptian poet Mohamed Hamza, sees Hafez talking to his heart, apologizing for driving it from failure to failure and concluding that, to find solace, one must keep love at bay. He’s backed by his full orchestra featuring traditional instrumentation and those powerful strings that influenced the likes of Jean-Claude Vannier, together with modern instrumentation including organ and electric guitar by Omar Khorshid adding his unmissable twang to the
ensemble. ‘Mawood’ mixes tradition and modernity and develops into a hypnotic epic full of groove with a superb soulful performance by one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. An undisputed Arabic Music classic which Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue on vinyl for the first time since the 1970s.””
Though he have nearly 20 years under his belt with this band, I have to admit that I never heard David Schmidt’s music until this evening. Sula Bassana’s latest release, Nostalgia, is a gloriously slow wade into space rock. It’s heavy, sludgy, and exactly the sort of thing that I want to relax my mind to at the moment. Dense, but rewarding, listening.
This has to be one of my favorite psychedelic folk releases since the heyday of bands like Charalambides. Merit Medrano is an Austin-based guitarist and leader of Sound and Voice, which is, apparently, his latest musical project, implying that he’s been a busy soul for some time now. The music has a raga-esque feel to it, the guitar work is cosmic in scope, and if you like the works of such legends as Sandy Bull, this release will definitely appeal to you. Australian record label Ramble Records is responsible for releasing this hazy slab of vinyl, and now I’ll need to delve down the rabbit hole to see what else they’re working with.
