Expand your taste in music. Based in Beijing, China.
With the passing of Richard H. Kirk last year and Stephen Mallinder keeping himself busy with his own projects, Cabaret Voltaire will be no more. This final album, basically with Kirk alone programming the music, is a fifty-minute track that has much more in common with it’s early Industrial past than it does with the techno-funk sound that made them so popular in the 1980s.
I haven’t heard anyone do an album in a plunderphonics style in some time now. Stanislav Aladev, who composes under the name Shopworn, is a Russian musician who has released one of the most charmingly weird albums I’ve heard this year.
From Stanislav, regarding his work:
“I thought for a long time how and from what to create this album. In 2015, I came across an article about the philosophical current Metamordenism, which was supposed to serve as the beginning of a new era and the end of the old postmodern pleasures. I have always looked at music and other arts through the lens of philosophy, because the time and culture in which we live determines this art. So I wanted to create an album that would still be fresh 10 years later, so I read metamodern basics and started creating. Since the metamodern balances between postmodern and new sincerity, I used samples from video games such as GTA III, for example, and also in one of the tracks I used the sound of the iPhone keys as a hi-hat. All this is a tribute to postmodern traditions. However, I also turned to the chants and chants of the Russian Old Believers, as well as to the Siberian shamans, which, in my humble opinion, should have shown that very “new sincerity”. Thus, my album was made according to all the canons of the cultural movement that is happening before our eyes.”
Our friends at CPL Music and Nordic Notes had another banner years for releases in the genre of World Music. The sampler includes tracks from the Balkans, Scandinavia and Asia among other locales, and it’s a great way to taste what the label has to offer.
I suppose one can call this post-rock with Chinese characteristics. Zhaoze are a progressive rock/post-rock band out of Guangzhou, China, and this is the first I’ve heard of them. Their sound is mellow, almost dramatic in a TV-theme way, yet the music, though soothing, is also engaging, especially after about the 5 minute mark, where guitars begin to shimmer.
As we celebrate Christmas on the Julian Calendar this day, I thought it nice to share with you an album I found from a Portuguese composer called handwrist, working in the medium of psychedelic, progressive and drone rock, perhaps with lo-fi touches, basing his compositions on the aforementioned Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, whom St. Basil the Great wrote about in the 4th Century. Merry Christmas to one and all.
According to Wikipedia, “…the Speciálník Codex (CZ-HKm MS II.A.7) is a 15th-century speciálník (i.e. special songbook) originating from a monastery in the region of Prague.” It is considered something of a ‘missing link’ between medieval and Renaissance music and it features several rather unknown Czech composers. The Hilliard Ensemble sing pieces from this book so elegantly that I almost forgot about my classes this evening. After a rather traumatic week, this was pure balm for my ears, mind and soul.
Though you can find it at your favorite CD shop, you may want to consider ordering this through Qobuz as a download, as the sound is exquisite.
Two small ambient/orchestral pieces have been released by the composer ǽfv, of whom I know nothing except that she is an experimental composer and cellist whose short compositions left me wanting much more.
Awalom Gebremariam was a singer from Eritrea who completed this gem of a record in 2007 in the United States. From his Bandcamp site:
“Awalom completed Desdes in 2007, not long before he departed Eritrea. Because Awalom left after the recording he never received any money for cassette and CD sales. But he also didn’t get to find out how much of an impact the songs have had locally.
His songs appear to focus on love, but Awalom isn’t speaking about romantic love per se. Love of country and pride in the struggle for independence are what helps makes songs like these popular among listeners locally and in the large worldwide Eritrean diaspora. While we don’t have many details about the popularity of the tape in Asmara, the strength of Awalom’s sentiment was enough to carry the recording across many miles and into Awesome Tapes From Africa’s cassette deck.”
A treasure of a cassette in the past, and just as fine a download.
Turkish-American composer Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol directs Schola Cantorum, Ensemble Trinitas, The New England Mehterhane and five different DÜNYA ensembles in a sumptuous history of Istanbul/Constantinople via music from the Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
Drummer and percussionist Joseph Benzola is amazing at his craft, but composer Dave Seidel adds to Joe’s playing by stretching the sounds without distorting their energy.