The York Waits are a group out of York, England (no surprise there, right?), who specialize in Renaissance music from the 14th Century. This album is a reissue of a 1996 album where they paired with vocalist Deborah Catterall, who, 25 years after the release of this disc, served as Continue Reading
Kiyoshi Yamaya, Toshiko Yonekawa, Kifu Mitsuhashi – Wamono Groove: Shakuhachi & Koto Jazz Funk ’76
Traditional Japanese instruments meet rare groove?? Yes, please! From Wamono’s Bandcamp site: Following the already classic Wamono A to Z trilogy, we are delighted to present an exceptional collection of jazz funk / rare groove tunes recorded in the mid-seventies at the Nippon Columbia studios by three giants of Japanese Continue Reading
Tindersticks – No Treasure But Hope
What a beautifully bleak, baroque piece of pop-music. You don’t hear too much of the Tindersticks‘ soul-inflected sound on this album, What you get, instead, is music that pulls from folk, goth (yes, if you can believe it), and even hints of work from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Continue Reading
Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Worlds Within Live
Raphael Weinroth-Browne is a fine cellist from Canada. He weaves together contemporary classical music, post-rock, post-metal and even some hints of ambient. From Raphael’s Bandcamp site: “Realizing Worlds Within in the studio was more of a process of discovery rather than one of conscious creation. Long after its release, I Continue Reading
Lotus – Emergence
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.
Fellirium – Burning Boats
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.
Bube Dame König – Winterländlein
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 Continue Reading
Koma Stark – Kelesho
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 Continue Reading
Evgeny Ponomarev Quartet – Clockwise
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 Continue Reading
Davy Spillane – Caoineadh Cu Chulainn
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.