Hugo Əspirito Santo is a Portuguese composer based in France who manages to tie together a cold, ominous synth sound with lo-fi techno beats. Disturbing, but quite a good listen.
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Thanks to the ever-consistent Muteant Records for bringing this album to my attention! I’m familiar with both Michel Kristof and Makoto Sato’s work, as both as masters in the improv world, but Quentin Rollet is a new name for me. His sax playing and sound manipulation are expertly underpinned by the aforementioned Kristof and Sato, making this a bouncy and adventurous listen. Quentin Rollet : sopranino and alto saxes, Korg Monotron Delay, iPhone, SmarFaust App Michel Kristof : electric guitard, Sfx, cowbells Makoto Sato : drums
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Brotha Lok is a French producer and DJ of Vietnamese extraction, and he has produced a wild album with no solid focus, but it listens are more of a travelog. Bits of hip-hop, ethnographic recordings, field recording, spoken interludes (including a bit of laughter here and there) are brought together into a very personal album.
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Mykel Boyd is one of the leading lights in experimental music and drone, and has done so much to promote the genre that it is (pleasantly) hard to keep track of his releases. He is paired with Brume (the working name of French composer and long-time contact Christian Renou) who is, frankly, a legend in the cassette culture scene. The album is a fine take on electroacoustic music with an ominous vibe floating throughout these pieces. Perfect to get lost in thought with.
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Deena Abdelwahed is an artist and DJ who hails from Tunisia and cut her chops in the music in the capital of Tunis before relocating to Paris, France. Her sound is brutal, slow, mixing a nearly tribal Industrial sound with authentic music from her homeland. Brutiful, if I can beg your pardon and borrow this portmanteau to describe such heavy music.
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As I have to stay home due to a nasty cold, I thought I’d explore some older releases. Our dear friends at Wewantsounds released this compilation of spiritual jazz in 2017, and it sounds as fresh as ever. Some of the giants featured on this album include Harold Land, Roy Haynes and Shelly Manne, but each track is solid.
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This is perhaps one of the most beautifully stunning acousmatic works I’ve ever heard. Every percussive strike of the piano had me transfixed while listening, so much so that I wasn’t able to do my normal routine of working while listening to music. Our dear friend Benjamin Aït-Ali took a bit of time away from composer serious music, but has come back to it with a vengeance. It’s a gripping work, this.
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Simply gorgeous and resonating music here, courtesy from a French-Conoglese project called Les Mamans du Congo & Rrobin. The project is described as “…a unique encounter between Bantu lullabies from the Congo, electronic music and hip-hop.”
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I came across a “composer” (really, a duo) based in Riga, Latvia called Domenique Dumont. The pair consist of Latvian multi-instrumentalist and producer Arturs Liepins and vocalist, ethnomusicologist Anete Stuce, and they have produced a shimmering, gentle piece of electronic music. From the release’s Bandcamp site: “People On Sunday is an original soundtrack to the 1930 silent film variously known as Menschen am Sonntag, Les Hommes le Dimanche and People On Sunday. The film is a key work of interwar German cinema, based on a screenplay by Billy Wilder. Part documentary, part fiction, People On Sunday follows a group of…
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Longtime friend of the blog Hector Javier Ayala collaborates with saxophonist Christophe Rieger to produce a slow, languid jazz album which has reference points in spaghetti western soundtracks and bossa nova, as well a touch of music from Mexico.