Our dear friends at Unexplained Sounds Group in Italy continue to delight us at MYNTH! This is yet another collection of the best of ambient music from around the world – this time concentrating in Greece. Artists such as Costis Drygianakis, Savvas Metaxas and adarcah lead the way, but every artist in this comp contribute to avant-garde music mightily, and it is again that we thank our friend Raffaele Pezzella for bringing us such amazing and challenging music from all corners of the Earth.
Beat Love Oracle – Turning The Table
Our friends at áMARXE Records out of Galicia in Spain have released a really heavy album influenced by Canterbury Music, Zappa and jazz-rock in general. There are so many twists and turns in Beat Love Oracle‘s album that it’s one I’d have trouble finding words to describe, so it is best to listen to the music directly and be amazed.
Pekka Pohjola – Harakka Bialoipokku (B The Magpie)
Hands down, this is my favorite Finnish progressive rock album. I was introduced to Pekka Pohjola early in life, and now that I am listening to this album in my middle age, I can hear how beautifully it aged. Pekka’s bass is at the forefront, of course, and his playing is masterful, but the whole crew balance progressive rock of the 1970s with jazz fusion and touches of art-rock. I can’t say enough good about this disc.
The Mossad – Eden to Eden
Our friend The Mossad has composed a tribute to a young lady by the name of Eden Gaiski, and the pain and suffering she endured after a horrible car accident which caused permanent brain damage. The music is instrumental, combining techno with a sweeping electronic wave behind the music.
The Four Sounds – Jazz From District Six
Mad About Records has produced a South African jazz artifact that is finally getting the wider recognition it deserves. The Four Sounds features bassist Basil Moses, who worked with such stellar local artists as Dollar Brand, and his brother Clifford, who croons on the songs Beautiful Katrina and The “Goema” Dance, which is in fact Don’t Close Your Eyes.
African Head Charge – Songs Of Praise
While browsing through about 40 TB of music files I’m uploading into my iBroadcast.com account, I came across an absolute plum of an album. African Head Charge were one of the greatest bands on the legendary On-U Sound Records roster, and this heavy reggae/dub masterpiece, released in 1990, is consider by most of their fans as being their masterpiece.
A.M Ferrari Fradejas – Shiarkha
Our beloved friend A.M Ferrari Fradejas has a new album out consisting of six tracks filled with lush, yet quite heavy, progressive rock tinged with black metal if you listen closely. The release features some guitar work by her husband, the inestimable Santiago Fradejas, and the whole album smolders wonderfully.
Valentina Goncharova – Ocean – Symphony for Electric Violin and other instruments in 10+ parts
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.
Joey DeFrancesco – In the Key of the Universe
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 know that this prodigious talent was a year younger than me, and has disappeared from this Earth.
The album shared today is from 2019, and here is a blurb about it from his Bandcamp site:
“As he’s made abundantly clear over the past 30 years, Joey DeFrancesco has plenty of soul. What most listeners probably haven’t spent much time pondering is that soul’s place in the universe. On his adventurous new album, In The Key Of The Universe, the master organist turns his musical attentions to his spiritual side, tapping into a strain of metaphysical jazz that’s fueled sonic searchers for more than half a century. Joey D calls upon disciples and missionaries of jazz to join him in paving the way to enlightenment.”
Rest in peace, and memory eternal.
Kivie Cahn-Lipman – Sumna
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 the title track (a commission from Mario Diaz de Leon for unaccompanied viola da gamba).
This is one of the most enjoyable solo cello albums I’ve had the pleasure to hear in some time. Absolutely a joy to hear.