Avant-Garde – Music You Need To Hear

Various Artists – Anthology Of Experimental Music From Latin America

by Rudy CarreraMusic February 3, 2023No Comments

Our friends at Unexplained Sounds Group continue their ambient and experimental music travelogue series, this time concentrating on wonderful Latin America. From their Bandcamp site: “After almost 6 years from the latest compilation focused on experimental music from Latina America, finally Unexplained Sounds Group publishes a cd release including, in addition to some of the …

Heiner Goebbels – A House of Call, My Imaginary Notebook

by Rudy CarreraMusic, Qobuz January 19, 2023January 19, 2023No Comments

Your browser does not support iframes. As a fan of Heiner Goebbels‘ work as far back as the Recommended / RèR Records days, it’s been a joy to hear his music become more full, more dense, and on occasion, more foreboding. ECM seems to be the perfect home for his works, and the Ensemble …

ǽfv – خلق و خوی هماهنگ

by Rudy CarreraMusic January 5, 2023January 5, 2023No Comments

Two small ambient/orchestral pieces have been released by the composer ǽfv, of whom I know nothing except that she is an experimental composer and cellist whose short compositions left me wanting much more.

Doc Wör Mirran – Second Try

by Rudy CarreraMusic October 9, 2022No Comments

Doc Wör Mirran got its start as a multi-disciplinary project out of Nürnberg, Germany in around 1985, and for nearly 40 years, the band have continued to produce strange, intriguing avant-garde rock and experimental music. From their Bandcamp site: “Contrary to most compilations which compile the greatest hits of an artist, “Second Try” is a …

Read more “Doc Wör Mirran – Second Try”

Anna Homler – Breadwoman & Other Tales

by Rudy CarreraMusic September 19, 2022No Comments

There are few experimental artists I hold a loving reverance for in the way I do for Anna Homler. I had the pleasure of meeting and befriending her during the 1990s, and I had the distinct joy of seeing her again when Maja Ratkje performed in Los Angeles several years ago. Breadwoman is one of …

Noël Akchoté – J.(B.)B. (For Jaimie)

by Rudy CarreraMusic September 6, 2022No Comments

The avant-garde music scene lost an incredible talent in the form of Jaimie Branch, who passed away on August 22nd at the age of 39. The blog’s friend, Noël Akchoté offers a lovely tribute album by transcribing the trumpeter’s work into works for solo acoustic guitar. It’s a raw album even by improv standards.

Valentina Goncharova – Ocean – Symphony for Electric Violin and other instruments in 10+ parts

by Rudy CarreraMusic August 27, 2022No Comments

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 …

Sergey Kuryokhin (谢尔盖·古廖金) – Divine Madness (天赋的疯狂)

by Rudy CarreraMusic August 22, 2022No Comments

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 …

Liang YiYuan (梁奕源) – Those That Die In A Dream. A twenty years retrospective

by Rudy CarreraMusic July 2, 2022July 3, 2022No Comments

It boggles the mind that our friends at Unexplained Sounds Group continue to scour the earth for the best ambient music around. From the label’s website: Liang YiYuan was born in Wuhan (China, 1977), and now living in Lijiang, Yunnan Province. He painted in his early years, and later turned to make music. So far, …

Nyokabi Kariuki – Peace Places: Kenyan Memories

by Rudy CarreraMusic April 30, 2022No Comments

When I hear the words Avant-garde in relation to contemporary classical music, I think normally of some me composers who pull out old, clichéd tropes. This release from Kenyan composer Nyokabi Kariuki is so stunningly weird that the album has given itself the right to be termed Avant-garde correctly.