Perila i(Alexandra Zakharenko) s a composer from Berlin of Russian roots releases one of the heaviest and, frankly, bleakest albums of the year. I spent today trying to unwind a bit as the snow looked pleasant, but after watching Juraj Herz’s The Cremator, hearing this album left me in a Continue Reading
Germany
monobeat original – Rough Mixes
One of the true founding fathers of Krautrock, Zappi W. Diermaier, is still going at it with a new album slated to be released in December of 2021. The tracks blend together the Krautrock Zappi is obviously known for, while adding psychedelic, progressive and even post-Industrial elements into the brew. Continue Reading
The Hauchzart Ensemble – Hauchzart Momentum Vol. I
What a remarkable work this is. The Hauchzart Ensemble includes our dear colleague Wilfried Hanrath, who plays guitar, bass, drums, beats, synth and electronics on this album, along with Matt Getchell, who also provides electronics, synthesizer and beats. This album takes quite a journey, starting off with a track that, Continue Reading
Psycho & Plastic – Soundtrack 2: Pappel
I seem to be running into a lot of Berlin-school style musicians recently, but this is the first one I’ve run into who is actually from the Berlin area. From Psycho & Plastic‘s Bandcamp site: Award-winning German author Dalibor Marković commissioned Psycho & Plastic to create an original soundtrack for Continue Reading
Frames – In Via
Frames aren’t quite a new name for me, but it seems I missed this post-rock gem. I was amused to read that a lot of post-rock fans don’t see much good in this album because it doesn’t fit their pre-conceived notions of what music in the genre should sound like, Continue Reading
Enji – Ursgal
Enji Erkhem is a jazz singer who is originally from Mongolia, but who currently calls Munich, Germany, home. She has quite an interesting personal story, growing up in a yurt to a working-class family, traveling to Germany to study music pedagogy, and getting utterly inspired by jazz singers like Carmen Continue Reading
Harald Grosskopf & Ramón Amezcua – Quetzalkrautl
¡Demasiado kosmiche…! Two absolute legends in electronic music grace these pages with a combination whose name cracks me up, but whose music entinces. Ramón Amezcua is best known under his nom de plume Bostich and is known as the godfather of the Nortec scene which combines hard electronic music with Continue Reading
Muito Kaballa Power Ensemble – Mamari
Fiddling around on the Youtube stream today as I have the house to myself, I came across a video of this album, and within the first second or so, I got hooked into a mix of Malian blues, funk, Cuban rhythms and a general Afrobeat vibe. Muito Kaballa are a Continue Reading
Jisr (جسر) – Too Far Away
It’s a minor tragedy that Jisr have not made their debut album available as a download on Bandcamp, but you can find it over at La Boîte à Musique and Turtle Records in Belgium, Deejay.de and Decks in Germany and surely other fine record shops near you, though I’d pick Continue Reading
Biliana Voutchkova – Seeds Of Songs
This release is a double introduction of sorts for me; first, for the chance to finally delve into a full recording of the work of Biliana Voutchkova, an interdisciplinary artist, violinist, performer, composer, improviser and curator from one of the countries I most enjoy visiting, Bulgaria (though she is based Continue Reading