Russian violinist Valentina Goncharova is having something of a renaissance these days. She had an album come out earlier in the year which were unpublished (you can find Volume 1 here and Volume 2 here). Now, we have a full album of recordings last heard on Leo Records many years ago as part of a box set called Document – New Music From Russia – The 80’s, a pinnacle of Russian avant-garde music. The recordings have been lovingly remastered, and the drony sound is magnificent.
Organist Joey DeFrancesco passed away yesterday, leaving perhaps the most impressive background of any jazz organist in the past 20 years or so. Here is a list of artists he worked with: Miles Davis, Houston Person, John McLaughlin, David Sanborn, Arturo Sandoval, Larry Coryell, Frank Wess, Benny Golson, James Moody, Steve Gadd, Danny Gatton, Elvin Jones, Jimmy Cobb, George Benson, Pat Martino, Tony Monaco, John Scofield, Lee Ritenour, Joe Lovano, as well as session work with Ray Charles, Bette Midler, Janis Siegel, Diana Krall, Jimmy Smith, and Van Morrison. As I turned 52 a few days ago, it’s shocking to…
From Kivie’s Bandcamp site: Sumna is the third solo album of Kivie Cahn-Lipman (founding cellist of the International Contemporary Ensemble, founder of baroque band ACRONYM and HiP Scottish ensemble Makaris, and co-founder of viol consorts LeStrange and Science Ficta). Here he offers first recordings of new cello solos written for him by Daijana Wallace, Édgar Guzmán, and Vincent Calianno, along with a modern classic by Caroline Shaw and a multitracked cello octet by Kaija Saariaho. Cahn-Lipman’s passion for early music emerges both in the opening track (a fresh take on HIF von Biber’s solo violin Passacaglia, a seventeenth-century masterpiece), and…
Paroxysm: A Benefit Compilation For Leslie Keffer Unfortunately, there is no way to embed into the website in the normal way, so please click on the link above to get a taste of some of the bands contributing to this noble cause. From our friends at No Part Of It Records: Leslie Keffer began making noise music with radios and vocals in 2003. Since then she has toured a good amount, and collaborated with key figures. Activity had to slow down when Keffer’s symptoms of epilepsy accelerated to the point of her being unable to work. She has been trying…
It’s bands like this that the blog was initially made for. Finding a Krautrock band who mix in surf and psychedelic rock coming out of China is a magnificent thing. Backspace are one of the more brilliant bands to come out of the Middle Kingdom in some time, and I say this as one who is a fan of so many incredible bands popping up everywhere there. The way they mix these sounds, along with good, punchy, clear production make this instrumental gem an instant favorite. If it’s released on Maybe Mars Records, it’s a sure sign of quality.
First, a disclaimer: I am posting this review with the understanding that Leo Records has licensed this astounding collection covering the career of the late enfant terrible of Russia’s then-thriving avant-garde music community, Sergey Kuryokhin, to Old Heaven Books Records in Shenzhen, China. If this is so, it’s wonderful to know that Sergey’s reach will continue to grow almost three decades after his passing. Collaborators on this box set include Igor Butman, Sergei Belichenko, Valentina Ponomareva and Boris Grebenshchikov among others. I’m excited to see Old Heaven Books continue to branch out.
Long before space-rock was such a big thing (and I love the genre), the Galloping Coroners (Vágtázó Halottkémek) were making something I would imagine would be called proto-space rock, shaman-rock, or something akin to an even weirder version of Hawkwind. They are Hungary’s national treasure as far as I’m concerned.
Today is a gloomy day in Budapest, as we’re in the middle of a heavy rainstorm, so it seemed like a perfect day to indulge in some pure noise. I am new to the work of Citizen, who are, a believe, a Polish band headed by Jakub S, but I like the fact that, unlike most noise, this sounds like he took the time to sculpt well over 40 minutes of inferno-blasting ‘music’ that keeps you engaged. Not bad at all.
Lost Tribe Sound continues to surprise and amaze me with the quality of not only the experimental music on the label, but the soundtracks as well. Cellist Aaron Martin has released his score for the documentary The End Of Medicine, and it’s a deeply resonant collection of music. From Aaron’s Bandcamp site: This original score is Aaron’s first solo release presented by Lost Tribe Sound, even though the two have a long history of collaboration. The US label has previously released three albums from Aaron’s project with Dag Rosenqvist under the alias, From the Mouth of the Sun. Those titles…
A Strangely Isolated Place provides us with a fine pairing. From the label’s Bandcamp site: “With an immediate arresting aesthetic, grounded in saturation, decay and distortion, tracks such as ‘Returning Clear Voice’ or ‘Flaxen’ reflect some of the duo’s more textured work – a hazy mist of life unknown in a city’s uncharted times. Konec’s storyful and engrossing moments come with a confident posture, such as the unforgettable bellowing of ‘Catalune’ or ‘Construction Worker Smoke Cycle’ or the swirling, haunting ‘Canon’. “