Month: November 2023

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Daulet Halek (达吾列提·哈勒克) – Daulet Halek: Dombra Solo (达​吾​列​提​·​哈​勒​克​演​奏​的​冬​不​拉​曲)

This release honors the memory of Chinese Kazakh composer Daulet Halek who passed away in 2008.

From the release’s Bandcamp site:

“Producer’s Note:

This album has its genesis in a precious reel-to-reel tape recording which we discovered in a radio station. It is unfortunate that the tape itself does not contain information on the date of recording, which we roughly speculate to be around the late-1980s to the early-1990s.

The recording in this album has two parts. The first is Daulet Halek’s interpretation of folk tunes from other ethnic minority groups, including the Tatars, the Mongols, the Sibe, and the Kyrgyz. The second part documents Daulet’s performance of works of the great Kazakh composer Kurmangazy Sagyrbaev.


Thanks to Mamer’s tremendous help, this historical recording is now published by Old Heaven Books. We are honoured to be able to give this deeply buried gem a new life.


This album is also an invaluable addition to Old Heaven Book’s “archival recording” series, a project we are seriously committed to. The series has generated two albums so far: Guo Yongzhang Zhuizi Selections (2019) and Nikhil Banerjee in California, 1967 (2020). This record will, to our delight, bring the graceful performance of Daulet Halek’s dombra, as well as the unique charm of Kazakh folk music, to a wider audience.
Lastly, we cannot help but mention that this is also a record with sublime audio quality. We sincerely hope you feel it and enjoy it as we do.


(Tu Fei)”

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Earthtones & Etsegenet Mekonnen – Selam

This is a rather glorious single pairing American DJ Earthtones with Ethiopian singer Etsegenet Mekonnen.  From the release’s Bandcamp site:

“Selam is a vision of peace. This collaboration between producer/DJ Earthtones and Ethiopian musician/vocalist Etsegenet Mekonnen features haunting vocals sung in Amharic.

Analog & semi-modular synths combine with 909 drums and afrobeats percussion by Earthtones, to weave grooves for Etsegenet’s depth in songwriting, voice and soul. The main version has a dancehall bassline that calls one to movement, while the dub versions evoke mystery amidst long modulated leads + filtered pads.”

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Mirt – More Tarutao Recordings

Mirt, a Polish experimental artists, offers up sound recordings from Thailand.  From his Bandcamp site:

“This is another part of an ongoing series of recordings made on Tarutao island. This time, the entire album focuses on the overall soundscape of the island and is a collection of random recordings I made during last trip to Tarutao National Park. Tracks 1 and 3 are recorded from a drop rig with no human presence on site and seem particularly interesting.

Although these are not binaural recordings, I recommend listening with headphones.”
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Oleg Karpachev – Sputnik (Dir. Egor Abramenko) O​.​S​.​T.

I have never heard of Oleg Karpachev, a Israeli soundtrack composer, but thanks to the fine folks at the legendary Cold Spring Records, I can spend this day blown away by this soundtrack which melds together Hans Zimmer and In Slaughter Natives in some fashion.  From the label’s Bandcamp site:

“Released for the first time on any format, we proudly present the soundtrack to the 2020 sci-fi horror film ‘Sputnik’ (directed by Egor Abramenko). The bleak and hauntingly atmospheric film is accompanied by an impressively heavy soundtrack from Oleg Karpachev, who uses bombastic percussion, stirring strings, and otherworldly synths to convey the horror unfolding on screen.

Set during Cold War Soviet Russia, the ominous film starring Oksana Akinshina (Bourne Supremacy), Fedor Bondarchuk, and Pyotr Fyodorov Jr follows the story of a cosmonaut returning from space with a mysterious extraterrestrial organism; essential viewing for those with a penchant for “Alien”-style body horror.”

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László Hortobágyi – Music from Fomal​-​Hoot al​-​Ganoubī 1994​-​2023 [Re​​​-​​​Mix Mastered Version Series Vol. 3]

László Hortobágyi is perhaps the best known electronic/experimental music composer to ever come out of Hungary.  Our dear brothers at áMARXE Records have released Music from Fomal​-​Hoot al​-​Ganoubī, a 1991 release, as a remastered edition.

From the áMARXE Bandcamp site:

“Fomal-hoot al-Ganoubī is a mythological Arabic constellation.

It is the planet whose warm milky-mist landscapes are home to the ethereal body-incarnations of deceased Muslim saints and dervishes.

When in the XXII century the white man reached the moons of Jupiter and there transformed himself into a floating changeling to populate the stratosphere of Jupiter, in the same way the souls of the dead Muslim saints and dervishes moved a thousand years earlier to the galaxy of Fomal-Hoot al-Ganoubī, where they found the real great umma, i.e. the world of heaven (jannat), leaving at the same time the earthly realm of jahannam, i.e. Hell.”

The notes for this release are extensive, so it is recommended to go directly to the Bandcamp page to get more of a feel of what this album is about. áMARXE continues to release crucial progressive music!

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Igor Yalivec – Etudes

Igor Yalevic has produced some of the most gentle and relaxing field recordings and ‘ambient’ music to come out of Ukraine in recent memory in his latest album, Etudes.  From his Bandcamp site:

“Etudes is Yalivec’s sophomore album. His 2021 album Still Life came out on Polar Seas Recordings and has long since been sold out. Yalivec’s more esoteric electroacoustic project with guitarist Sergey Yagoda is called Gamardah Fungus and exorcizes a more cosmic and heavier consciousness. Etudes is remarkable in it’s ability to walk a middle path between the overtly melodic and arpeggiated Still Life and the heavy duty experimentalism of Gamardah Fungus.

An etude, in musical language, is generally a short exercise designed to improve the player’s skill. The skill, it seems, that Yalivec is improving here is his ability to see clearly. Not ahead into some unknown future, but to see clearly into the present – a present, that on good days, is full of the chirping birds and prairies alive in some kind of eternal autumn afternoon that are full of life. And perhaps, no matter what happens, there will be artists like Igor Yalivec – capturing those moments and stretching them into eternity.“

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Mayssa Jallad – Marjaa: The Battle Of The Hotels

A haunting release, this one.  Imagine dark experimental music mixed with war-ravaged architecture in what was one of the most beautiful cities in the world during the 1970s, Beirut.  This is the terribly beauty Mayssa Jallad offers. From Ruptured Records’ Bandcamp site:

“The album comprises two parts. Part A: Dahaliz, is a stroll in the city, where Jallad tries (and fails) to follow an old map. Musician Youmna Saba is a companion in this journey of remembering the once winding corridors (“Dahaliz”) of the city, destroyed by new developments since the 1960s. Empty skyscrapers propel her onto a past filled with the violence of snipers, and a present filled with the glamorous injustice of empty luxury real estate endorsed by powerful warlords-turned-politicians.

In Part B: Maaraka, Jallad inhabits the building of the Battle of the Hotels, as its events unfold. She calls the fighting militias the Blues and Reds, respectively the Lebanese Front (Christian Nationalists) and the Lebanese National Movement (Pro-Palestinian leftists), leveling the playing field, and drawing a map of the battle through songwriting. Sary Moussa produces the conclusion of the battle in “Holiday Inn (March 21 to 29)”, which ends with the ultimate severance of the city of Beirut.

The music caters to post-war youth who have never been taught this difficult history. Once we consider the “Battle of the Hotels” as our common heritage, it provides an opportunity to teach the value of civil peace. It is also a call to protest for the renewal, rather than the recycling of the political class that has once destroyed the country and holds us, to this day, hostage of its violence.”

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Various Artists – D​-​Day: A Grateful Dead Tribute from Krautland

Although the bands themselves on this comp from our dear friends at the Lollipoppe Shoppe might play Kraut-influenced music, this comp is definitely NOT Krautrock.  I can’t say that the music is perfectly straight-ahead covers of some of the Grateful Dead’s finest work, but to hear these songs in a more modern setting is rather refreshing.  The tunes maintain their psychedelic heart, even if there is a touch of Kraut (a welcome addition, mind you) imbued into these tunes.