Over the past few days, I’ve been organizing music I found on a hard drive to enjoy on the hi-fi stereo this weekend. Some of the files are 20 years old, which is hard to believe, and among them are many old 1970s acid-folk and proto-metal albums. Our beloved friends Continue Reading
Folk
Lao Dan (老丹) – 逐雲追夢 Going After Clouds and Dreams
Lao Dan is one of the most interesting improv artists operating in China at the moment. This release comes from Modern Sky World Music, based in my current home, Beijing. Going through their catalog, there is going to be more than a few releases getting featured on the blog soon Continue Reading
Various Artists – Canary Records: I’m Not Going: A Macedonian Band from Lorain, Ohio ca. 1954
Canary Records provides yet another stunning archive album, this time from the Macedonian community in Ohio. From the label’s Bandcamp site: “Bob Nicoloff’s Macedonian band remained active for at least 20 years, playing for dances organized by the Macedonian Patriotic Organization, weddings, and restaurants. Like the two other mid-Western Macedonian Continue Reading
Mamer 马木尔 – Awlaⱪta / Afar 离
Mamer 马木尔 is perhaps my favorite underground artists operating in China today. His work fuses Kazakh folk music with avant-garde music, bordering on experimental, even though he has a pedigree in working with record labels like Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records. It’s rare to see an authentic musician dig into Continue Reading
Various Artists – Ruptured Sessions Vol. 1: Live at Radio Lebanon
Ruptured Sessions has produced a compilation of Lebanese folk and blues. Considering the horror happening in the region, hearing mournful folk and blues music seems appropriate. May God save Lebanon from evil.
Conal Ó Gráda – Anú Abú
A happy St. Patrick’s Day to my friends and readers. I won’t post any cheesy folk-rock to spare your ears. Instead, I offer some proper traditional music from the Emerald Isle courtesy of a fine flautist, Conal Ó Gráda.
Áššu – Luoteniegut
Sadly, our dear friends at Nordic Notes are not offering downloads through Bandcamp, which is understandable as there is something nice about holding a CD or a piece of vinyl in your hands, but you can hear this magnificent recording of Sami music over at Apple Music. From the press Continue Reading
The Baltic Sisters – Värav / Vārti / Vartai
Our dear friends at CPL-Music have a release I am rather excited about. It should be available on the 31st of January, 2025, so our wait time is not so long. You can pre-order the disc here. From the label’s press release: “The Baltic Sisters are a cross-border folk ensemble Continue Reading
The Resian Folk Group – Resia Valley: String-Band Music from Eastern Alpine Italian Villages ca. 1978
The Resian Folk Group were from the Resia Valley in the Italian Alps. What sets them apart from their countrymen are their folk traditions and language, which seem to have a strong Slovene influence. Canary Records does their usual outstanding job remastering this collection. It sounds absolutely gorgeous considering the Continue Reading
Skúli Sverrisson & Óskar Guðjónsson – After Silence
Bassist Skúli Sverrisson has been a favorite of mine for well over 20 years. In this reissue, he teams with tenor saxophonist Óskar Guðjónsson in a quiet, minimal, yet somehow lush release of interplay between the two masters. From the release’s Bandcamp site: “After Silence (Eftir þögn) was recorded in Continue Reading