• Music

    Chiyomi Yamada – Gilyak Songs

    May 27, 2024 - By 

    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 this music are somewhere between western contemporary and eastern traditional music, creating a unique fusion of musical and aesthetic elements. The piano songs are complemented with an epic piece for classical guitar solo by Ifukube, played by the Dutch guitarist David van Ooijen.”

  • Music

    Thierry Zaboitzeff – LUVOS migrations – EP

    May 23, 2024 - By 

    Legendary former Art Zoyd composer and multi-instrumentalist Thierry Zaboitzeff has a new EP.  From his Bandcamp site: “LUVOS migrations is the original soundtrack of the dance film by Editta Braun and Menie Weissbacher, AT 2022. Vision of the future or images from a parallel universe? In breathtaking natural sceneries, automated industrial landscapes and deserted ruins, a journey through time and living spaces. www.editta-braun.com/e/films/luvos-migrations.html“

  • Music

    Novoselie, Questa Musica – Requiem

    March 18, 2024 - By 

    A sublime, baroque look at the requiem on Fancy Music.  From the label’s Bandcamp site: “Requiem (from Latin requies – “rest”) is a high genre of concert sacred music, a kind of mourning oratorio. Even the above phrase is little understood by the general public, not to mention the names and meaning of the Latin psalms of the canonical Requiem. As for people who are knowledgeable, for example by virtue of belonging to the Catholic Church of the Latin rite, even for them, I am sure, these texts are devoid of the burning apocalyptic meaning with which they were filled…

  • Music

    Divertissement Сhamber Orchestra, Sergey Kuryokhin – Re:SEASONS

    January 7, 2024 - By 

    Sergey Kuryokhin was as fine a composer as he was an improvisor.  The Divertissement Orchestra, led by violinist Ilya Ioff, reinterprets one of Kuryokhin’s finest compositions from his album The Sparrow Oratorium.  Well-played, indeed. Alisa Ten: vocals [1, 2, 4] Vera Chekanova: vocals [2, 3, 4] Lidia Kovalenko: violin [1], viola [2, 3] Mikhail Blekher: honky-tonk [1], celeste [2], piano [3, 4], harpsichord [4] Vladimir Volkov: double bass [4] Ivan Chernobaev: percussion Ilya Ioff: violin [1, 3, 4], drums programming [3]

  • Music

    Clarice Jensen – Ainu Mosir

    October 13, 2023 - By 

    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…

  • Music

    Ian Vine – Five Strings

    October 11, 2023 - By 

    Ian Vine, a composer out of the United Kingdom, provides us with a conceptual piece of classical music.  From his Bandcamp site: “Recently I have written a series of pieces that are concerned in one way or another with the presentation of unique, and yet similar, events or objects. In this work I examine closely a chord played by four guitars and bass guitar. There is no repetition in the piece, except gesturally.. five strings is presented in its original 36-minute version and also as five shorter pieces, five strings I-V. In January 2021 I asked our mother, my brother…

  • Music

    María Cristina Kasem – Obras – (2006 / 2017)

    October 8, 2023 - By 

    Friends and readers, thank you for indulging your scribe a well-needed rest after 1,000 days of activity.  We relaunch with one of the most gorgeous electroacoustic recordings I’ve come across in a while.  María Cristina Kasem is a composer and violinist from Argentina who has an extensive body of work in academic experimental music.  These three works are eerie, but so incredibly engaging that the sounds managed to soothe my ears.  A very pleasant find.

  • Music

    Benjamin Aït-Ali – Essai sur des sons oubli​é​s

    September 21, 2023 - By 

    This is perhaps one of the most beautifully stunning acousmatic works I’ve ever heard.  Every percussive strike of the piano had me transfixed while listening, so much so that I wasn’t able to do my normal routine of working while listening to music.  Our dear friend Benjamin Aït-Ali took a bit of time away from composer serious music, but has come back to it with a vengeance.  It’s a gripping work, this.