Expand your taste in music. Based in Beijing, China.
Our friends at Muteant Sounds have released a very mellow, relaxed free jazz session by SOUNDFOG. The band features Bernd Grohs-Ophoff on drums, percussion and carillon, Frank Wilke on a very relaxed trumpet, trombone and voice, and Sven Emmerich who playes synthesizer and adds samples and field recording. Not a violent racket-fest at all, but a rather whimsical take on improvised music.
German composer Wolfgang Gsell passed away in 2017 at the age of 61, but he left an amazing body of work that could be favorably compared to electronic music from Germany, especially the Berlin School which produced acts like Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream. He was also a collaborator with the estimable Cousin Silas, Martin Neuhold and Eisenlager, among other underground ambient luminaries.
Thanks to a translation of the Polish on the release’s Bandcamp site, this project was originally prepared as a special project of the 5th Tzadik Poznań Festival. It was also performed there for the first time. In the beautiful walls of the Renaissance Górka Palace, where one of the five stages of the festival was located, a quartet composed of important figures of contemporary improvised music presented an original interpretation of Yemenite music.
From the Bandcamp site:
“Raphael Rogiński, one of the originators of the project, talks about this tradition: “This culture had a huge impact on modern Israel. Contrary to appearances, it was not only Polish Jews who built this country. When Israel was founded, a problem arose: what should the folklore of this country be like? It could not be based neither on Yiddish nor Sephardic culture. It had to be new. People began to wonder what Israel’s music actually was? The composer Emmanuel Zamir went to the desert to the Berbers, lived among the Palestinians, but also went to the Yemeni Jews. He wrote down themes, played with He composed and compared them on the flute. The results he reached while researching folklore were closest to Yemeni music.”
Considering the work of each musician featured here, it’s right to consider this album as being performed by a supergroup. Thoroughly impressive.
I bought this album quite a while ago, but never had the chance to sit with it properly until this week. It’s a well-done mix of clarinet and experimental electronic music composed by David Rothenberg and Bernhard Wöstheinrich, taking their cues from some famous authors, including my personal favorite, Jorge Luis Borges.
Mississippi Records has unearthed an Ethiopian gem from the middle 1970s. From their Bandcamp site:
“On this 1976 gem of a record, Aselefech Ashine and Getenesh Kebret’s voices intertwine in close harmony, the two “beauties” singing in duet across 10 gorgeous tracks. The Army Band, which backed greats like Tlahoun Gesesse and Mahmoud Ahmed, brings Mulatu-esque minor-key piano runs, interlocking percussion, and rock-steady basslines. Arranger Teshome Sisay’s flute winds through the compositions, tying together gloriously woozy horns. The greatest elements of Ethiopia’s Golden Age combine here, in one of the final records of the era.
Aselefech and Getenesh were raised in the bustling cosmopolitan world of late-empire Addis Ababa. They met at the Hager Fikr Theatre, the legendary center for art and cultural learning in Addis, where they were trained in centuries-old vocal techniques as well as acting.”
Over the past 10 years or so, something incredible has been happening in London. Jazz has come back into fashion, and has taken in influences from all over, be it hip hop or world music. Yussef Dayes is, arguably, the leading light in this Nu Jazz movement. This is his debut album after scores of incredible singles and remixes, and so far, the album is living up to the hype.
This post is dedicated to my dear brother in music, Shane Beck, because he turned me on to this magnificent band. My Brother The Wind is something of a supergroup comprising of Nicklas Barker of Anekdoten, Makajodama’s Mathias Danielsson, and Magnolia’s Ronny Eriksson & Tomas Eriksson. The music is a bit less metal-influenced, and more in the tradition of Swedish progressive and psychedelic rock. It’s dark, mellow, and if you’re more into Pink Floyd’s deeper psychedelic excursions (not the famous stuff, but the weirder), you’re going to appreciate these guys.
The country of Libya is not the first country one thinks of when it comes to reggae, but as it turns out, Libya produced a fair share of excellent artists in the genre. The ever-estimable Habibi Funk Records have released a labor of love dedicated to one of Tripoli’s finest, Ibrahim Hesnawi. From the label’s Bandcamp site:
“Hesnawi crafts restless grooves with evident buttressing from a reggae foundation. Highlighted across the LP is how Hesnawi essentially pioneered such an effortless synthesis between traditional Libyan music and Jamaican reggae stylings, plus the endlessly disparate funk, jazz, and disco accents which firmly situate Hesnawi in a league of his own.”
Though the recording quality is not audiophile quality, this collection of theater music by Ukrainian singer and artist Svitlana Nianio documents the soundtrack to a theater project she was involved in at the time called Transilvania Smile. From her label Muscut Records’ Bandcamp site:
“Svitlana Okhrimenko (artist name: Svitlana Nianio) is a Ukrainian artist, musician, and signer. She is one of the most prominent representatives of the independent music scene of Kyiv in the late 1980s — early 90s. She has repeatedly recorded and performed in collaboration with other musicians and bands, such as Oleksandr Yurchenko, Sugar White Death (Cukor Bila Smert’), Ivanov Down, GeeNerve & Taran, and Blemish. Svitlana still performs and publishes new recordings today.
“Transilvania Smile” is one of the first solo works recorded in 1994. During this time, Svitlana repeatedly visited Germany, where she had the experience of playing in parks and on the streets, gathering contacts of the local art scene. Her cooperation with the international choreographic group Pentamonia, based in Cologne and consisting of several girls who performed in theaters, took part in various performances, and were engaged in music. They met in the 1990s during joint performances with “Sugar-White Death.” After that, they corresponded, and the idea of doing something together arose. Svitlana attended several of their performances, which inspired her to write music for a new project, and the band members helped to realize their creative ideas. Later, they started rehearsing together.”
Federico Mosconi has produced a perfectly melancholy album, one of those discs you will go to at 4 a.m. when the word feels like it will fall apart, yet magically sticks together through a combination of faith and music. From his label DRONARIVM’s Bandcamp site:
“”Nocturnal” is a trip that takes place during the night and ends at the break of dawn. A lonely and (sometimes) melancholic journey through a calm and deep night.”