• Music

    Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Worlds Within Live

    December 19, 2021 - By 

    Raphael Weinroth-Browne is a fine cellist from Canada.  He weaves together contemporary classical music, post-rock, post-metal and even some hints of ambient.  From Raphael’s Bandcamp site: “Realizing Worlds Within in the studio was more of a process of discovery rather than one of conscious creation. Long after its release, I felt that I was still getting to know the music and understand its nature. Learning to recreate the album live was an extension of this process which has taken me full circle, back to the initial impulse from which this music took seed, much in the same way that the…

  • Music

    Bube Dame König – Winterländlein

    December 16, 2021 - By 

    Our dear friends at CPL-Musik released quite a gem of an album from 2016 that I am only now digging into.  Bube Dame König is a German folk group which was founded in 2013. The band mixes German-language folk songs with traditional Irish and Swedish music as well as their own songs, some of which are based on local legends from the group’s hometown, Halle (Saale). From Wikipedia, “The group itself describes its style as new folk music, based on the genre of new folk music.”  It seems to be rather perfect Christmas music, or at least wonderful for this…

  • Music

    Koma Stark – Kelesho

    December 15, 2021 - By 

    Antonovka Records have had an astounding year releasing not only music from Russia’s hinterlands and Central Asia, but even from places like Georgia.  This album documents music by Kurdish-speaking Yezidis, who suffered horribly over the past few years in places like Iraq and Syria.  Koma Stark play traditional Yezidi folk songs, and they currently reside in Tbilisi, Georgia.

  • Music

    Evgeny Ponomarev Quartet – Clockwise

    December 14, 2021 - By 

    I can’t say for sure if Evgeny Ponomarev’s 2021 release, Clockwise, counts as spiritual jazz, but it is holding it’s own as one of the best jazz releases of the year.  Ponomarev plays piano, and is solidly supported by a large cast, incuding: Andrey Polovko — tenor saxophone (1-6), soprano saxophone (2) Grigory Voskoboynik — double bass Peter Mikheev — drums (1-6), percussion (1,4) Pavel Ilushin — guitar (4) Peter Vostokov — cornet (2) Anton Gimazetdinov — trombone, tuba (2)

  • Music

    Bérangère Maximin – Land Of Waves

    December 12, 2021 - By 

    Land Of Waves, the 6th album by French electroacoustic composer Bérangère Maximin, came out in June of 2020, and when I first heard it, was was left utterly impressed, but I have not had a chance to review it until today.  Maximin has an incredible talent to blend together nature, minerals, plant life, animal life, city life, and make it speak in one warmly organized opus.  I will have to check if she has released something since then, but, as this is the latest work I can find from her, I can say with some measure of confidence that she’s…

  • Music

    Robert Farrugia – Between Being Asleep and Awake

    December 11, 2021 - By 

    Though this is a one-track release clocking in at over three minutes, it gives a nice taste of the music of Maltese electronic music composer Robert Farrugia.  There are some similarities to his work and that of, say, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Harold Budd, but he is equally comfortable in working in a post-rock frame.  Impressive.

  • Music

    Baligh Hamdi – Instrumental Modal Pop of 1970’s Egypt

    December 10, 2021 - By 

    Sublime Frequencies never ceases to amaze me with the gems they dig up.  From their Bandcamp site: Sublime Frequencies finally unleashes it’s ESSENTIAL compilation from 1970’s Egypt. Modal instrumental tracks from Baligh Hamdi – one of the most important Arabic composers of the 20th Century (writing for legends Umm Kalthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Sabah, Warda, and many others). Features his legendary group the “Diamond Orchestra” with Omar Khorshid on guitar, Magdi al-Husseini on organ, Samir Sourour on saxophone, and Faruq Salama on accordion. All of these musicians were discovered and recruited by Hamdi to interpret his vision of a modernized,…