Month: May 2024

Richard Bégin – Lavrador

Richard Bégin‘s latest release is a truly beautiful headphone-worthy work published by Reverse Alignment Records.  From their Bandcamp site: “”Lavrador” is a Portuguese term signifying peasant, plowman, or cultivator. Additionally, it is the name of the explorer João Fernandes Lavrador, associated with Labrador, a continental region in eastern Canada. Despite having a population of fewer […]

Tribal People React to A-ha Take On Me For The First Time

It’s rather charming to see cultures like this clash.  These folks from Sindh, Pakistan, give their takes on everything from music to technology, usually with a calm, relaxed and jovial insight.  In this episode, they listen to a-ha’s classic tune, “Take On Me,” and it seems they really enjoy not only the music, but the […]

Chiyomi Yamada – Gilyak Songs

From Chiyomi Yamada’s Bandcamp site: “Piano songs by the Japanese composer Akira Ifukube (1914–2006), interpreted by , voice, and Reiko Yamada, piano. Ifukube, who also composed the theme song of “Godzilla”, wrote these magical pieces based on traditional songs from native tribes of northern Japan. The sound and style of this music are somewhere between […]

Reverso – Shooting Star – Étoile Filante

Avant-jazz trombonist Ryan Keberle collaborates with fellow New Yorkers Frank Woeste (piano) and Vincent Courtois (cello) on an exploration of new jazz influenced partially by the legendary Lili Boulanger, a favorite of my great-grandmother’s.  From Ryan’s Bandcamp site: “The music of this album is inspired in various ways by the seminal French composer, Lili Boulanger, […]

‘Do You Remember’ 5-part podcast series to trace origins, legacy of Hüsker Dü

From the venerable Slicing Up Eyeballs: “Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current has just  launched a five-part documentary podcast series called “Do You Remember?” that promises to trace the formative years and legacy of Hüsker Dü through interviews with those who were there as well as the three band members themselves — including Grant Hart, who was […]

Various Artists – Canary Records: The Heart of a Mangas: Intersections of Popular Greek Theater & Rebetiko in Chicago & New York, 1923-29

The ever-brilliant Canary Records graces us with more Greek theater music and rebetiko.  From the release’s Bandcamp site: “The word “mangas” for instance is untranslatable into English but has remained central to the notion of rebetika. It is a word that indicates a man who does not aspire to middle-class values and knows something deep […]

Thierry Zaboitzeff – LUVOS migrations – EP

Legendary former Art Zoyd composer and multi-instrumentalist Thierry Zaboitzeff has a new EP.  From his Bandcamp site: “LUVOS migrations is the original soundtrack of the dance film by Editta Braun and Menie Weissbacher, AT 2022. Vision of the future or images from a parallel universe? In breathtaking natural sceneries, automated industrial landscapes and deserted ruins, […]