• Music - Music Documentaries

    Alexei Aigui – 1000 Miles Till The Next Embrace EP

    September 13, 2021 - By 

    Our friend and noted composer Alexeï Aïgui was just featured here recently for his releases, Palimpsest and Alcohol, at the end of July, and it seems that he’s kept himself quite busy as of late, so we’re pleased to announce this EP, a soundtrack to the film 1000 Miles Till The Next Embrace, a documentary on tango directed by Irina Rubia. Alexeï has proven himself to be among the best of this generation of soundtrack composers, but there is one track which utterly stands out for me, the fifth track, titled Freeze.  It has a feeling of a post-rock composition,…

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    Linn Friberg feat. Zumaia – Oddity Spirale (Remixes) EP

    July 9, 2021 - By 

    Our dear friend Zumaia has reached the mid-century mark in his life, which is, of course, a wonderful milestone.  We at Music You Need To Hear celebrate his birth, and the exceptional work he does with his label, the Bordeaux-based Kalamine Records.  In honor of this milestone, Linn Friberg, composer and curator of the INTENT series on the label collaborate on a sonic birthday present for fans of the label. The music is cavernous, full of post-industrial and dark ambient soundscapes.  I would compare the sound to early experimental cassette-based musicians, but the sounds are so utterly crisp that it…

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    Makoto Kawabata, Richard Pinhas, Manongo Mujica, Juan Luis Pereira, Hiroshi Higashi – Alturas

    June 3, 2021 - By 

    What we have here is an experimental music supergroup.  Makoto Kawabata and Hiroshi Higashi of acid-psych lords Acid Mothers Temple team up with the legendary guitarist Richard Pinhas (famed as the leader of the band Heldon, and still very much active under his own name).  Joining them are two musicians from Peru in Manongo Mujica and Juan Luis Pereira who fill out this psychedelic soundscape. For some context regarding this release, read these notes for the band’s Bandcamp site: When Acid Mothers Temple and Richard Pinhas visited Lima for the first time, in November 2017, to participate in the experimental…

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    Stijn Hüwels & Tomoyoshi Date – 遠き火、遠き雲’ ​(​A Distant Fire​,​ A Distant Cloud)

    June 1, 2021 - By 

    laaps Records is a French label releasing quality ambient music.  This one seems to be their latest, a calming wash of sounds composed by Belgian composer Stin Hüwels in collaboration with the Brazilian-Japanese composer and sound artist (and emergency room doctor!) Tomoyoshi Date. The music is a mix of organic and electronic sounds, gentle plonking tones, and a very, very relaxed atmosphere.  This could be music to sleep to, and I mean this as a high compliment. From their Bandcamp site: 遠き火、遠き雲 (Tōki Hi, Tōki Kumo / A Distant Fire, A Distant Cloud) is the second collaboration by Tomoyoshi Date and…

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    Samo Salamon & Hasse Poulsen – String Dancers

    May 28, 2021 - By 

    Musicians never cease to amaze me.  Despite the horrible conditions which have led to worldwide lockdown, artists like Samo Salamon, a guitarist out of Slovenia, and Hasse Poulsen, originally from Denmark, manage to weave together an acoustic guitar-only album of improvisations that don’t sound like what you normally associate with “improv.”  It’s a mellow album, and though there was a distance between the two musicians, they ping-ponged tracks back and forth to each other, growing and molding each tune until the final product was crafted.  It’s a stunningly relaxing album.  Those words should not go together under normal circumstances, but…

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    Valerio Orlandini – Syntagmata

    May 24, 2021 - By 

    Valerio Orlandini is a sound designer and composer from Firenze, Italy whose work reminds me of that of artists like French electroacoustic music composers like François Bayle or Michel Chion.  It is, of course, dark, nearly claustrophobic, music.  Yet it has a nice cinematic feel to it.  He’ll be worth watching and listening to as the years pass.

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    DidJaws – Home Made Techno EP

    April 14, 2021 - By 

    DidJaws is a French lo-fi IDM producer who works with his compositions in an absolutely stripped-down manner, without the overproduction and cute tricks that some IDM-related artists rely on.  This feels raw, and the ideas coming out of these songs feel fresh.  Not a bad release at all, and it makes me wonder what work he could do with full production capability.  Let’s see how his work develops.

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    Venus Berry – Shibari

    April 12, 2021 - By 

    This is perhaps the coldest of cold wave releases I’ve ever had the pleasure of reviewing.  Venus Berry is the nom de plume of Anouk Allard, who is not only a musician but has a background in visual art.  Her style covers not only the aforementioned cold wave which the French seemed to dominate during the 1980s, but also aspects of modern synthwave, electro and a weird sort of avant-pop that reminded me of Isabelle Antena. She is joined on this album by Antoine Sapparrart on bass and Jules Méli on guitar.  Quite an enjoyable album.

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    Suzanne Belaubre – (DIY)

    February 25, 2021 - By 

    Record label and magazine La Souterraine offer the best indie music coming out of France these days.  Their latest release by Suzanne Belaubre is bound to be a cold wave masterpiece. The tracks are short and the production is excellent, if sparse.  That sparseness works well with the music, and it gives the music an odd, very French, electro-pop vibe to the tunes.  It’s a quirky album, but well worth hearing a few times.

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    Ghost Rhythms – Imaginary Mountains

    January 21, 2021 - By 

    The French band Ghost Rhythms live up to their name.  The beats are pretty wild on this one. This release sets between avant-progressive, Canterbury, and some of the freakier excursions of late-period King Crimson.  Perhaps Samla Mammas Manna and their side-projects could also make good reference points. Very engaging listening, especially if you like time changes.