I suppose we can coin a new term for this magnificent music out of Breton dark ambient composer Eric Latteux (who composed under the name Internal Fusion): Kosmische dark ambient. I seem to be finding a fair amount of music like this these days, and our dear friends at Mahorka have released another gem.
Cuneiform Records offered this album as a half-price release this weekend, and though I already had the album, I thought it would be good to note what an amazing album this was back in its prime. Birdsongs of the Mesozoic are a band from Boston, Massachussets who have been active for well over 40 years now, and are perhaps America’s best representative of avant-progressive rock, having no difficulty straddling the lines of aggressive prog rock with classical music, much like their European contemporaries Art Zoyd and Univers Zero, among others.
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, he has published more than twenty albums, frequently using instruments such as guitar, yangqin, violin, guqin, bawu, and showing a natural attitude to unconventional playing techniques and original timbre. He also creates music for films, plays, modern dances, architectural and environmental scenes, and exhibitions. “Those…
Lauri-Dag Tüür appeared on my previous blog in 2020 with what I believe was his debut album, and he’s gotten better since. This album clocks in at a bit over 40 minutes, and it’s one of the better examples of Kosmische Musik I’ve heard in some time done by a modern composer. The album is spacious and roomy, and takes a leisurely pace winding and unwinding while it travels around the universe, reminding me of artists like the late Klaus Schulze, Robert Rich, and in parts, fellow Estonian Sven Grünberg and his project, Mess.
Odessa is a city that both Ukraine and Russia, as well as its many Jewish and even Tatar inhabitants, claim to be its own. Never mind the political hideousness of today, and let me present you with one of the most fascinating releases I’ve heard in contemporary classical and jazz scenes. Vadim Neselovskyi is a pianist who hails from Ukraine, and has collaborated with giants such as Gary Burton, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and John Scofield, among others. This paean to the city of his birth is a magnificent blend of modern classical music and the sort of jazz which…
First, a debt of thanks goes to my friend, the “Last American Poet,” Shane Beck, for reminding me what a sublime album this is from Cousin Silas, who was a friend of my previous blog, and an artist whose work I respect immensely. This album is filled with wispy rhythms that let you relax and get lost in thought, something like melding George Winston with the Durutti Column, but with more of an edge to it. Our dear Cousin delivers yet again.
Our friend JOHN 3:16 (a quote I subscribe to as well as a band whose work is consistently brilliant) has paired with the Belgian project Be The Hammer and the pairing have produced an album that, while fresh and brutally punchy technologically, also has a flair for reminding the listener of everything from Skinny Puppy to Front 242, and perhaps a bit of Central/Eastern European post-punk. This album is going to get a lot of attention, surely.
Kawabata Makoto is the leader of Acid Mother’s Temple, Japan’s greatest modern psychedelic rock group. He’s also a wildly experimental composer, with this album being influenced by musique concrète and drone as well as the usual psych one expects from him.
Minimal Compact was an Israeli band which left a sizable imprint with their music during the 1980s and 1990s, and both Malka Spiegel and Samy Birnbach continue, as far as I know, to record great music. An unbelievable post-punk shuffler from 1981, by Tel-Aviv-Brussels band Minimal Compact! This tune is one of our favorite tracks ever and we’ve been wanting to reissue it since day one. But this is no ordinary reissue! The 12” includes an unreleased instrumental version plus a spaced-out extended dub mix by the living legend, Mad Professor! Members of the band recorded for such legendary labels…
Ialoni are a female traditional music ensemble hailing from Georgia, and they offer on this album, as the title implies, 50 tracks of absolutely stunning renditions of folk material. A keeper.