Though his bio on Bandcamp calls him a superlative jazz pianist, I would have to add that Chris Conway handles modern classical music with as much aplomb. He has also worked with some stellar musicians, including Guy Barker, Andy Sheppard, Stan Sulzman, Martin Speake and the legendary Finnish sax player Continue Reading
Experimental
Mong Tong 夢東 – Mystery 秘神
We had the pleasure of reviewing Mong Tong last year. They have produced yet another surreal post-progressive electronic gem. On this album, there are elements of post-rock, modified traditional Taiwanese music, but also the eerie grooves which would do bands like Goblin proud, as the creepiness is quite subtle. Read Continue Reading
‘t Geruis – Slow Dance on Moss Beds
Our dear friends at Lost Tribe Sound start the year with two powerful releases, though I’ll concentrate on one today (with the other in the next week or so). This one is by Belgian composer ‘t Geruis (a rather unusual name, which, in Dutch, means “The Noise” or “The Murmur“). Continue Reading
Sergey Kuryokhin & Boris Grebenshchikov – Mad Nightingales of the Russian Forest
I will be airborne most of today as I go from Moscow to Los Angeles to handle some personal business, so In honor of this momentous event, I present you with what was one of the first Russian jazz/improv/Avant-rock albums I ever heard, from two legends: Sergey Kuryokhin & Boris Continue Reading
BlindººCoyote – Along The Cracklefield Wash
Our dear friend Drem Bruinsma, the BlindººCoyote in question, provides a 20-minute track of ambient loops, eerie rhythms and and enchanting soundscapes. From his Bandcamp site: “Inspired by personal hikes into various shadowless desert arroyos, to meet with silence, coyotes, antelope, dust and rocks, leveling with tumbleweeds and sagebrushes from Continue Reading
a world wondered full – มุม
This album is magnificently weird. Imagine a band out of Thailand with minimal, ghostly musicianship, slightly ghoulish, off key vocal dronings, the plinky-plonking of piano and spoken words that sound like it might have been influenced by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. This sublime mixture comes from the band a world Continue Reading
Cergy-Pontoise – CP01
This is a curious release. Cergy-Pontoise are an Italian duo, and their albim starts out with drone-y ambient sounds but then falls into atmospheric progressive-folk at times, sounding like a better recorded lo-fi artist out of New Zealand, perhaps. There are also elements of space rock, prog and psychedelic music Continue Reading
Jeff Gburek + George Christian – Thrown Extremes
During the next few weeks, I’ll be catching up on releases I could not get to in 2021. This one is really a gem that I’m surprised I didn’t get to earlier, but thanks to Jeff Gburek reminding me of it, I can happily present this release he did in Continue Reading
Ernesto Diaz-Infante – Saca Los Cuernos al Sol
My fellow Californian Ernesto Diaz-Infante provides us with a warm, shimmering work of nine instrumental pieces composed solely for guitar. Each track is warm, not only by experimental music standards, but in terms of pure music listening. My particular favorite was IV, which reminded me of a hybrid between John Continue Reading
Various Artists – Remain Alone (A Disciples Compilation)
Many years ago, I was enthralled with the music of 4AD artist His Name Is Alive, but lost track of what they were doing. That’s a shame, as Warren Defever has continued to be involved in great music, and this one has to be one of the most interesting I’ve Continue Reading