Lotus are an instrumental post-rock/post-metal band out of Pune, India. They have a pleasantly heavy groove that has a lot of more modern progressive rock influences. A solid EP.
Andrey Vasilyev (Piano, Guitars, Effects) recorded a sublime lo-fi drone folk album in February 2021. It’s a wispy album out of Russia that remind me of a grungier take on relaxing psychedelic music.
Our dear friends at CPL-Musik released quite a gem of an album from 2016 that I am only now digging into. Bube Dame König is a German folk group which was founded in 2013. The band mixes German-language folk songs with traditional Irish and Swedish music as well as their own songs, some of which […]
Antonovka Records have had an astounding year releasing not only music from Russia’s hinterlands and Central Asia, but even from places like Georgia. This album documents music by Kurdish-speaking Yezidis, who suffered horribly over the past few years in places like Iraq and Syria. Koma Stark play traditional Yezidi folk songs, and they currently reside […]
I can’t say for sure if Evgeny Ponomarev’s 2021 release, Clockwise, counts as spiritual jazz, but it is holding it’s own as one of the best jazz releases of the year. Ponomarev plays piano, and is solidly supported by a large cast, incuding: Andrey Polovko — tenor saxophone (1-6), soprano saxophone (2) Grigory Voskoboynik — […]
Davy Spillane is now the reigning undisputed champion of the uillean pipes, Ireland’s most iconic instrument, after the passing away of the legendary Chieftain, Paddy Moloney. This was a fine tune to wake up to.
Land Of Waves, the 6th album by French electroacoustic composer Bérangère Maximin, came out in June of 2020, and when I first heard it, was was left utterly impressed, but I have not had a chance to review it until today. Maximin has an incredible talent to blend together nature, minerals, plant life, animal life, […]
Though this is a one-track release clocking in at over three minutes, it gives a nice taste of the music of Maltese electronic music composer Robert Farrugia. There are some similarities to his work and that of, say, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Harold Budd, but he is equally comfortable in working in a post-rock frame. Impressive.
Sublime Frequencies never ceases to amaze me with the gems they dig up. From their Bandcamp site: Sublime Frequencies finally unleashes it’s ESSENTIAL compilation from 1970’s Egypt. Modal instrumental tracks from Baligh Hamdi – one of the most important Arabic composers of the 20th Century (writing for legends Umm Kalthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Sabah, Warda, […]
This one came as an unsolicited pleasant surprise. I love Afrobeat and am slowly developing a healthy respect for Afro-House, and if I delve further into the genre, it’ll be because of artists like Cameroon’s Nkom Bivoué. What is best about the disc is the absolutely sharp percussion of the album. This is dance floor-ready […]
