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.
Drone
Jeff Gburek – Tamarind Winds: Songs for Javanese Rebab, 2022
Tamarind Winds has to be the best album of 2022 for me to get lost in. Composer and friend of the blog Jeff Gburek continues to awe with the magic he imbues in each instrument he touches, spinning haunting drones, field recordings and soothing the senses with his rebab. From Continue Reading
Of Sun And Rain – The Flutter of Wings
Starry Earth is a record label out of the United Kingdom offering lo-fi electronic artists with stunningly beautiful minimalist artwork and packaging, releasing cassettes as well as digital downloads. Of Sun And Rain were of particular interest, as the music is hauntingly sparse and engaging.
Tegh & Adel Poursamadi – Ima (ایما)
Tegh & Adel Poursamadi are a duo from Tehran, Iran, who are bringing a new spin to electroacoustic and experimental music. Sadly, only one track is available for the moment, but it shows how the duo meld string instruments and electronic soundscapes together seamlessly.
Adrian Copeland – If This Were My Body
Sublime. There’s no other word for it. If you enjoy modern classical music, especially by composers like Gorecki, Ligeti or Penderecki, Canadian composer Adrian Copeland has something here which will appeal to you, with long, mournful drones, sparse instrumentation, and a rough, melancholic feel to the tracks. Track 4, Heir Continue Reading
Nyokabi Kariuki – Peace Places: Kenyan Memories
When I hear the words Avant-garde in relation to contemporary classical music, I think normally of some me composers who pull out old, clichéd tropes. This release from Kenyan composer Nyokabi Kariuki is so stunningly weird that the album has given itself the right to be termed Avant-garde correctly.
Chris Child & Micah Frank – Tape Pieces Vol. 3
Chris Child & Micah Frank are two incredible composers out of the New England area of the United States. From this particular release’s Bandcamp site: Tape Pieces Vol. 3 represents the final installment in the collaboration between composer/producer Chris Child (Kodomo) and sound artist Micah Frank. Volume 3 culminates in Continue Reading
Mansur – Minotavrvs
Bassist Jason Köhnen has a deep pedigree in the world of darkjazz. He was a member of the profoundly interesting Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble out of The Netherlands, and he’s now participating in a new project with Dimitry El-Demerdashi (ex-Phurpa) and Martina Horváth on vocals. As noted on Mansur’s Bandcamp site: Continue Reading
Federico Mosconi – Air Sculptures
Our friends at Lost Tribe Sound have at least three releases coming up which will be reviewed here. I’m pretty excited to introduce you to ambient composer Federico Mosconi, whose compositions feel cavernous, made more impressive that he’s pulling this together with guitar and effects. For those of you who Continue Reading
Gang Violins – Greater Forces
Hear me out on this one. Gang Violins, a duo out of New Zealand, released a single to their upcoming album Inner Realms, and it’s a well-crafted mix of cinematic ambient music and post-rock, but it triggered a memory of the subtle buildup to the song Where The Streets Have Continue Reading