Florian Arbenz, Hermon Mehari, Nelson Veras – Conversation #1: Condensed

Swiss drummer and percussionist Florian Arbenz was featured on our previous website, A Miscellany of Tasteful Music, some time in 2020 on a record he did with American saxophonist Greg Osby.  This album is equally as engaging. This slightly unusual line up of guitar, trumpet & drums might, at first Continue Reading

Wilfried Hanrath – The Sweet Scent of Dreams

This album has to be one of the more intriguing releases I’ve heard this month.  Wilfried Hanrath is a composer based in Wuppertal, Germany (home, if I remember correctly, to free jazz legend Peter Brötzmann as well), and grew up surrounded by some of the most radical music imaginable: Krautrock, Continue Reading

Roman Stolyar – Right Back from Bosnija

I’m delighted to share a piece from my old friend, the Siberian composer and multi-instrumentalist Roman Stolyar.  This nearly 20-minute improvisation was recorded live on July 30, 2021 at the MMMESSS studio in Saint Petersburg, Russia.  The piano-playing is quick, sharp, with each keystroke coming at you like waves of Continue Reading

Various Artists – Z Tapes Summer 2021

Z Tapes is a small-but-mighty label out of Bratislava, Slovakia, who release everything from bedroom pop to properly polished indie music.  They have a massive roster of artists they work with, and also, bucking the current trend for vinyl, offer cassette releases.  There is a lot of appealing music on Continue Reading

Various Artists: Habibi Funk 015: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World, Part 2

Our friends at Habibi Funk are becoming legendary as their roster grows.  What impresses me the most about the folks who run the label is their absolute passion for music from the Maghreb which has been criminally underrepresented throughout the world for decades.  It’s shameful that the labels in the Continue Reading

KAUAN – Ice Fleet

KAUAN hail from Estonia and bring something extra to both progressive rock and post-rock.  Long, drone-laden, repetitive music that holds one’s interest throughout.  Perhaps the best way to describe this is like a very much slowed-down My Bloody Valentine with a symphonic progressive tinge to it.  Unique.  I quite like Continue Reading

IZ Band – 廻声Jangqerek

The legendary Shenzhen-based Old Heaven Books released a powerful album from the Chinese-Kazakh band IZ Band.  This is listed as folk music, yet the music is brutal, sounding like early 1980s post-punk or Industrial rock.  Think of, maybe, a Kazakh Killing Joke or a Central Asian early-period Current 93.