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Emma Caterinicchio & Pete Swinton – Celloscapes II

Cellist Emma Caterinicchio collaborates with Indonesia-based composer and sound designer Pete Swinton for a rather blissful and drone-laden album perfect for relaxing your mind for a spell.

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Clarice Jensen – Ainu Mosir

Brooklyn-based composer and cellist Clarice Jensen has an incredible resume, including performing on new releases from both Michael Stipe and Taylor Swift as well as well as being the artistic director of ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble.  This release is from her first soundtrack.  Information from her Bandcamp site follows:

“The fifteen-minute long 5-track EP was recorded at Jensen’s home in Brooklyn. It was performed on cello and electronics and also sees Clarice expanding her ouevre into works for piano. The material comprises her first feature film comission, since which Clarice has worked on three more, and so marks the beginning of working in a medium in which she is hoping to grow…

Directed by Takeshi Fukunaga, ‘Ainu Mosir’ is a coming-of-age tale set in an indigenous village in Northern Japan, where a community‘s livelihood depends on preserving and performing ancient traditions for visiting tourists. Torn between maintaining the tradition of his ancestors and lured by the mysteries of adulthood, 14-year-old Kanto is on a journey to find a sense of self.”

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Phil Tomsett & Aaron Martin – At Sea

We have had the pleasure of reviewing the work on cellist Aaron Martin in the past, but it’s nice to see a new release with him collaborating on a project with accordeonist Phil Tomsett which, ironically, began in London.  From the release’s Bandcamp site:

“At Sea grew out of my walks along a particular part of the coastline. I took this walk at least once a day and over time built up a relationship with the sea, as if it were a sentient being observing me as much as I was observing it. Here I was trapped on dry land and the sea was another realm entirely, free from and uninterested in whatever dramas were going on in my world. It was this indifference, (which i’ve often found in nature but particularly with the sea) that became the main theme for the album- the unknown and the unknowable.”

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Visera Crash – Babé

Some time in 2017 or so, perhaps earlier, I stumbled onto Bandcamp thanks to some friends sending me links.  I thought I’d do some exploring, and one of the first bands I came across was one from Argentina, a classical string quintet from Buenos Aires called Visera Crash.  The music was achingly beautiful, and I played it quite a bit.  This release opened me up to the idea of reviewing new bands, mainly on Bandcamp, hoping to point friends and readers out to new music.  What a pleasant trip this has been, and I owe much to Visera Crash for launching my interest in the platform.

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Dalai Cellai – Harem’s Conspiracy – An Oriental Elegy

Greek-Mongolian Berlin-based cellist Dalai Cellai offers a simply gorgeous track with blends a modern take on classical music with elements of hard rock, progressive rock, waltz and tango.  I’m hoping to hear what she can do in with a full album.  Stunning.

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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.

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Aaron Martin – The End of Medicine (Original Score)

Lost Tribe Sound continues to surprise and amaze me with the quality of not only the experimental music on the label, but the soundtracks as well.  Cellist Aaron Martin has released his score for the documentary The End Of Medicine, and it’s a deeply resonant collection of music.  From Aaron’s Bandcamp site:

This original score is Aaron’s first solo release presented by Lost Tribe Sound, even though the two have a long history of collaboration. The US label has previously released three albums from Aaron’s project with Dag Rosenqvist under the alias, From the Mouth of the Sun. Those titles include ‘Hymn Binding’ (2017), ‘Sleep Stations’ (2018), and ‘Light Caught the Edges’ (2021).

Aaron Martin is a Kansas-based cellist and composer. His solo work has appeared on Eilean Rec., IIKKI, and Preserved Sound, among other labels. In addition to his main music work, Aaron has recently begun scoring films, including a feature-length score for A24’s “Menashe” with Dag Rosenqvist and the Oscar shortlisted documentary short “A Broken House.””

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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 felt that I was still getting to know the music and understand its nature. Learning to recreate the album live was an extension of this process which has taken me full circle, back to the initial impulse from which this music took seed, much in the same way that the record itself has a cyclical journey that ends where it started, rather than a linear path.”
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Thierry Zaboitzeff – Pagan Dances EP

We had the pleasure of reviewing a soundtrack by former Art Zoyd composer Thierry Zaboitzeff in August, and now we’re happy to announce that he has a 20-minute EP now available to peruse.

The title track, Pagan Dances, will sound somewhat familiar to Art Zoyd fans, but he has added much better recording.  The spirit of avant-progressive rock, dark and brooding, enriches the track.  There is Zaboitzeff’s trademark cello work all over the piece, and this work would have fit well in a rescoring of The House Of Usher starring Vincent Price.  Creepy, yes, but engaging.  The second track, La Légende de NaYmA, adds vocals to the mix, something I can’t quite remember hearing in his past work.  I liked how well the voice blends with the instrumentation.  A solid EP.

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Thierry Zaboitzeff – Séquences

As a cellist, bassist, composer and former member of Art Zoyd, I’d venture to say that Thierry Zaboitzeff needs no introduction.  However, what I didn’t know about him over these past few years was that he has been active making soundtracks.

This particular one is for the movie Winds of Sand, Women of Rock, which is a film about a group of Tubu women traveling the Sahara Desert selling dates in Agadez, Niger.  The film looks fascinating, but the music is equally so, bringing to mind a lot of modern minimalist composers (the usual suspects, like Philip Glass and Michael Nyman, of course, but it would be appropriate to add Wim Mertens to this list as well).

The music on this album is a world away from Art Zoyd, definitely.