• Music

    Corrado Maria De Santis – Over a Long Time

    November 7, 2023 - By 

    One of the great joys of my vocation is discovering musicians I would probably never otherwise encounter.  Enter Corrado Maria de Santis, courtesy of our dear friends at Lost Tribe Sound: “Corrado Maria De Santis, an Italian guitarist, skillfully combines the raw spontaneity of improvised guitar with computer-generated sounds, crafting captivating sonic landscapes characterized by ambient drones and glitch-infused textures. Having contributed to various notable music labels, he now presents his inaugural album on Lost Tribe Sound. ‘Over a Long Time,’ is a deeply personal collection for Corrado, capturing an extended and challenging period of life surrounding the passing of…

  • Music

    Santiago Fradejas – Montages, Volume Two

    October 24, 2022 - By 

    What a joy it is when a friend releases a new album!  Argentine composer (now residing in England) Santiago Fradejas offers an experimental music album composed on an 8-string electric guitar and loops, making a soundscape album that is, at times, Fripperesque.  It’s dark, but not foreboding, and gently flows in and out of consciousness.  A headphone album for sure.

  • Music

    Rivers Of Glass – By the Light of Burning Bridges

    October 17, 2022 - By 

    I can’t say I’ve heard of post-country music until today, but as it reminds me of post-rock, this is a genre that will definitely be worth exploring.  Rivers Of Glass offer an instrumental album of shimmering guitar playing, sounding like an ambient music version of rain.  It’s a sublime listening experience.

  • Music

    Cousin Silas – Variations On A Theme Of Winter

    June 29, 2022 - By 

    First, a debt of thanks goes to my friend, the “Last American Poet,” Shane Beck, for reminding me what a sublime album this is from Cousin Silas, who was a friend of my previous blog, and an artist whose work I respect immensely.  This album is filled with wispy rhythms that let you relax and get lost in thought, something like melding George Winston with the Durutti Column, but with more of an edge to it.  Our dear Cousin delivers yet again.

  • Music

    Ernesto Diaz-Infante – Vacilando EPs

    March 1, 2022 - By 

    We had the pleasure of reviewing an album by Bay Area guitarist Ernesto Diaz-Infante in January, and now, we can introduce you to Vacilando, a collection of instrumental tracks recorded on guitars, oud and banjo.  The material is comprised of Ernesto’s composition, none of which exceeds six minutes in length, but feel packed with sounds which drone and mutate swimmingly.  Effects-laden, and all the better for it.  A good night-listening disc.

  • Music

    Diana Hayes/Andy Meyers – Deeper Into The Forest

    February 8, 2022 - By 

    Andy Meyers is the former guitarist of Toronoto art-punk legends The Scenics.  He’s gone off to do more exploratory work after moving to the Vancouver area, and this, his latest work, is a collection of soundscapes set to the poetry and vocals of fellow Canadians Diana Hayes and Susheela Dawne. From the release’s Bandcamp website: Composer/producer Andy Meyers was co-recipient of Canada Council Grants to score two CDs of spoken word with award winning poet Brian Brett. (“an often unsettling meld of orphan sounds and menacing undercurrents, and an offbeat celebration of those old staples: love, experience, sex and death.”…

  • Music

    Ernesto Diaz-Infante – Saca Los Cuernos al Sol

    January 11, 2022 - By 

    My fellow Californian Ernesto Diaz-Infante provides us with a warm, shimmering work of nine instrumental pieces composed solely for guitar.  Each track is warm, not only by experimental music standards, but in terms of pure music listening.  My particular favorite was IV, which reminded me of a hybrid between John Fahey and Roy Montgomery playing while immersed in a silvery pool of water well outside this realm.  It made for a very pleasant listening experience. For a hard copy of this release, go to Headlights Recordings.

  • Music

    Roy Montgomery – Roy Montgomery 40th Anniversary 2021 LP Series

    October 1, 2021 - By 

    I think it’s impossible to overestimate the important place Roy Montgomery has in the annals of New Zealand’s experimental rock scene.  Thanks to his work on labels such as Kranky Records and Drunken Fish, he has quite a high international profile, and it helps that the music he’s produced for so many decades is nearly impossible to pigeonhole. This latest project will be four CDs or LPs released in stages throughout 2021 and 2022: February 5, 2021 – Island of Lost Souls July 30, 2021 – That Best Forgotten Work October 22, 2021 – Rhymes of Chance January 14 2022-…

  • Music

    Santiago Fradejas – The Light Through The Springs

    September 29, 2021 - By 

    The guitar, all by itself, can serve as tool for making a haunting orchestra’s worth of sounds.  My good friend Santiago Fradejas, now resident in Kent, of all places (!) presents a mini-LP’s worth of brooding, swelling, lilting soundscapes.  There is a menacing element tying the album together, as though one was taking a stroll near the 6th ring of Dante’s Inferno.

  • Music

    Fellirium – Changes

    May 21, 2021 - By 

    Yet another great listen from Russia.  I have plenty more coming down the line. Fellirium produce a neofolk that stays away from the more pretentious parts of the genre, and sticks with fine, gentle instrumental soundscapes.  One can hear hints of the Incredible String Band, perhaps a more acoustically based Legendary Pink Dots, and some rather ambient bits which blend together quite well.