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 Continue Reading
France
Makoto Kawabata, Richard Pinhas, Manongo Mujica, Juan Luis Pereira, Hiroshi Higashi – Alturas
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 Continue Reading
Stijn Hüwels & Tomoyoshi Date – 遠き火、遠き雲’ (A Distant Fire, A Distant Cloud)
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 Continue Reading
Samo Salamon & Hasse Poulsen – String Dancers
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 Continue Reading
Valerio Orlandini – Syntagmata
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 Continue Reading
DidJaws – Home Made Techno EP
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 Continue Reading
Venus Berry – Shibari
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 Continue Reading
Suzanne Belaubre – (DIY)
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 Continue Reading
Ghost Rhythms – Imaginary Mountains
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, Continue Reading
Martin Chilton – Michel Petrucciani Overcame Enormous Odds To Become A World-Renowned Pianist
Martin Chilton at udiscovermusic.com writes on the difficult life and masterful playing of pianist Michel Petrucciani. A worthy read, which you can access here.