• Music

    Ernesto Diaz-Infante – Amor Celestial

    April 8, 2024 - By 

    Amor Celestial is the latest album by Bay Area guitar improviser Ernesto Diaz-Infante, release on Rambutan Records out of New York.  The album reminds me of waves gently crashing into the rock of the Pacific Coastline, ebbing and flowing as clouds of feedback surround each bend of the strings.  From the release’s Bandcamp site: “San Francisco-based Ernesto Diaz-Infante brings his complete mastery and open exploration of the electric guitar to Tape Drift. It’s an honor to present this deeply focused and heavy work from someone who has dedicated so many years to fearless sonic experimentation and improvisation. The cover art…

  • Music

    Senyawa – Istana (Live)

    April 6, 2024 - By 

    Today is a workday for us in Beijing, so there is no review today, but I did want to point you to an Indonesian band called Senyawa, who is featured on Rafaelle Pezzella’s incredible Unexplained Sounds Group‘s digipak retrospective called the Far East Music Collection.  It is a reissue of three seminal compilations covering experimental music from China, Indonesia and the Far East in general.  The set looks gorgeous, and Senyawa‘s contribution is mind-blowing.

  • Music - Podcast - Soundcloud

    [Podcast] Jeff Gburek – Rifles & Garbage Podcast 4 Sumud

    March 29, 2024 - By 

    Something rather different from friend of the blog Jeff Gburek, whose work you know quite well if you have been following our page for a while.  From the Soundcloud site: “The Rifles & Garbage Podcast is named thusly to create a strong an mental association between militarism, waste and pollution. I am not opposed to subsistence hunting but maybe use a trap rather than firearms or maybe even try subsistence farming instead of the venison survivalist hype. This podcast has three movements. One introductory, paying homage to sources. The second featuring a recital of poems by Yahia Lababidi, Ghassan Kavafani,…

  • Music

    Sarah Belle Reid – MASS (Extended + Remastered)

    March 26, 2024 - By 

    Thanks to the magnificent blog a closer listen, I was introduced to the work of a fellow Los Angelino Sarah Belle Reid.  I was intrigued by postrockcafe’s description of the album, and after hearing it this morning in between teaching duties, I have to say that the description is apt.  Shades of early Industrial music with a more academic bent (don’t let that scare you!), a modern, sharper and cleaner take on experimental music, and bits and bobs of something that could pass for soundtrack music underpinned by a subtle, harrowing trumpet underneath, make this an absolutely worthy listen.

  • Music

    Willebrant & Williamson – Night Daze

    March 17, 2024 - By 

    I was introduced to a project new to me coming from Australia.  From Karl Willebrant’s Bandcamp site: “Night Daze blends immersive textures and emotive expanses that invites the listener to conceive a visual experience through soundscapes and drones utilizing bass, trumpet, field recordings, and improvised performance. The album evokes themes of time and place moving in congruent motion. ‘Night Daze’ Full performance interpretation with special guests Peggy Lee (cello) and Dylan van der Schyff (drums) viewable here – www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQgYvLem3lY “Each track feels like a seemingly large area in which the sounds of the bass and trumpet echo around luxuriously. I…

  • Music

    BlindººCoyote – Mycelium Sonora Outtakes

    March 5, 2024 - By 

    From my friend, the rather legendary Drem Bruinsma‘s project, BlindººCoyote manages to expertly weld together wild electronic music with a relaxed back beat, making the music adventurous but, ultimately, pleasant to listen to.  From BlindººCoyote’s Bandcamp site: “This 33-piece album consists of a deep reflection on a period, albeit a difficult one, from Covid and Confinement to hospitals and surgery, from treatment and opiates, from chronic pain to hope and fear, from social isolation to remaining in touch with the outside world by being online. With this album ends a chapter, a period with a very demanding character. I hope…

  • Music

    Ezra Sturm & Ernesto Diaz-Infante – The Escape

    February 25, 2024 - By 

    It is with great pleasure that I get to introduce you to a young guitarist called Ezra Sturm.  His guitar work has an air of modern primitivism to it, meandering gently with the accompaniment of fellow guitarist (and, coincidentally, his dad and friend of the blog) Ernesto Diaz-Infante.  The apple did not fall far from the tree, and with time, he will be wandering along his own path soon enough.

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek & Karolina Ossowska – One Moon, Many Shines

    February 20, 2024 - By 

    This is some of the best late-night listening I’ve heard in a long time.  Neither Jeff Gburek nor Karolina Ossowska ever fail to please my ears, whether it be with a deep intellectual piece or compositions which teeter on the edge of being mournful, but this one deserves a special place in the collection.  From Jeff’s Bandcamp site: “Inspired in part by a recent renaissance in listening to dhrupad and other music of the Indian subcontinent and early European music, I transformed my standard GDR zither into a swarmandal, developing a full moon raga scale. When I invited Karolina to…