Time is precious these days, so there won’t be a post today. Instead, I’d like to share an article about the late Sir John Tavener. He was a composer who gained the attention of the Beatles but later turned away from avant-garde music to embrace Orthodox hymnody, focusing on creating Continue Reading
Youtube
Hiroshi Wada & His Mahina Stars – Yoru No Komori Uta (1964)
No review today due to having some foot problems, but I will leave you with a tune by Hiroshi Wada & His Mahina Stars. Hiroshi was a Japanese bandleader who worked with Hawaiian music. I came across him on accident thanks to Facebook and the lounge band Pink Martini, and Continue Reading
Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal, known as ‘The Sorcerer’, dies aged 89
In what has turned out to be a difficult week, we have received the news that we have lost another legend. Hermeto Pascoal, who collaborated with many of the greatest Brazilian musicians and even had a stint with Miles Davis’ bands, has passed away at the age of 89, according Continue Reading
Checkpoint Staalplaat: Revisiting Radical Sound, with Geert-jan Hobijn
What a pleasant surprise this turned out to be! Staalplaat Records was the label my friends and I would swear by on every release they put out when we were teenagers, and the quality never left them. From the Youtube channel (sorry, my Chinese friends, but this will be remedied Continue Reading
凌然LingSun -《黑龙江》
Even though my main focus is to discover something new every day, I still find that luck is on my side. A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to a Spanish poetry reading at the Beijing Chapter of the Instituto Cervantes. After finishing my workday at the school, I Continue Reading
Lalo Schifrin – Danube Incident (RIP)
Lalo Schifrin passed away a few days ago at the age of 93. The mark he left in jazz, classical and soundtrack music is massive. Thanks to the good souls at the THE SAD OLD WORLD Facebook group for posting a gorgeous little ditty by Schifrin from 1969. Fans of Continue Reading
Angélica Vargas – El Pastor (Video Oficial)
I actually owe this video to my Mom who turned me on to the work of Angélica Vargas, a Mexican singer whose vocal range is astonishing, but whose control of her voice, especially in this song (a Mexican mariachi standard if there ever was one) is out of this world. Continue Reading
David Bowie – Seven Years In Tibet (Mandarin version)
David Bowie performed a good number of his songs in other languages, but this one is a curiosity, as I didn’t expect that he recorded this particular song in Mandarin.
Tom Waits – Tom Traubert’s Blues (Live 2025)
No reviews today, but I did want to share Tom Waits performing Tom Traubert’s Blues on Italian television recently.
Yellow Magic Orchestra – Seoul Music
No posts today due to traveling. I’m in Seoul at the moment so enjoy some Seoul music!