巴亚宛 Bayawan are heavy psychedelic muqam music from Xinjiang. From Old Heaven Books’ Bandcamp site: “”Bayawan” is the common name for Muqam music used by the Dolan people. Bayawan, or Dolan Muqam, is a unique form of folk music and one of the most important cultural heritages of the Uyghurs Continue Reading
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Li Yilei – Nonage
Sometimes experimental music can produce either dour listening or tie itself to miserable cover art showing the worst of humanity in some sort of fetishistic way. Not so with this release! London-based Chinese composer Li Yilei’s album concentrates more of a happy, carefree childhood, where, as she puts it, “…learn[ed] Continue Reading
The Tapes – A Touch of Despair
Though the ever-amazing Unexplained Sounds Group have an impeccable record when it comes to releases, this one has the feel of a diamond hidden in the mouth of a long-lost corpse. It’s a gem that should have seen the light of day ages ago, and USG have made things right Continue Reading
The End Of Eternity – All In
The End of Eternity offer an Italian take on the Berlin School genre. A very engaging album!
Richard Bégin – Lavrador
Richard Bégin‘s latest release is a truly beautiful headphone-worthy work published by Reverse Alignment Records. From their Bandcamp site: “”Lavrador” is a Portuguese term signifying peasant, plowman, or cultivator. Additionally, it is the name of the explorer João Fernandes Lavrador, associated with Labrador, a continental region in eastern Canada. Despite Continue Reading
leungarto – 吹耳 Blow My Ear
Here we have a single track by Hong Kong-based urban musician leungarto providing a chilled out, relaxing take on some amalgamation of City Pop and vaporwave, but done in a much more soulful way.
Shahin Souri – Liminal Space
Respect to Midira Records for publishing this work by Tehran-based composer Shahin Souri. It is a most elegant take on ambient music. There should be a better term for this, as the genre’s name is so badly abused these days, and this seems to transcend it.
Chiyomi Yamada – Gilyak Songs
From Chiyomi Yamada’s Bandcamp site: “Piano songs by the Japanese composer Akira Ifukube (1914–2006), interpreted by , voice, and Reiko Yamada, piano. Ifukube, who also composed the theme song of “Godzilla”, wrote these magical pieces based on traditional songs from native tribes of northern Japan. The sound and style of Continue Reading
Reverso – Shooting Star – Étoile Filante
Avant-jazz trombonist Ryan Keberle collaborates with fellow New Yorkers Frank Woeste (piano) and Vincent Courtois (cello) on an exploration of new jazz influenced partially by the legendary Lili Boulanger, a favorite of my great-grandmother’s. From Ryan’s Bandcamp site: “The music of this album is inspired in various ways by the Continue Reading
Various Artists – Canary Records: The Heart of a Mangas: Intersections of Popular Greek Theater & Rebetiko in Chicago & New York, 1923-29
The ever-brilliant Canary Records graces us with more Greek theater music and rebetiko. From the release’s Bandcamp site: “The word “mangas” for instance is untranslatable into English but has remained central to the notion of rebetika. It is a word that indicates a man who does not aspire to middle-class Continue Reading