The Netherlands is a country so incredibly rich with music, yet they do an awful jon promoting it. Welcome, then, to the wild world of Dutch jazz, courtesy of Belgian label Sdban Records. From the release’s Bandcamp site: “Delve into the Dutch jazz scene of the 1950s and 1960s with a selection of classic and rare hard bop and cool jazz tracks from artists like Herman Schoonderwalt, the Diamond Five, Wessel Ilcken and Tony Vos. Holland never sounded this hip before! “Jazz is garbage and a caricature of the modern orchestra; it is garbage arranged by half-grown musicians for the…
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Our beloved friends at Russia’s finest indie music magazine, Meticulous Midgets, has released their annual compilation of weird experimental, lo-fi and avant-garde music. Featured artists include Russia’s own Assembly of Honey, the Italian ambient sound sculptor Marco Lucchi and Latvia’s Шумилов Бор (Shumilov Bor) among a host of talent worldwide.
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Arjen Lucassen’s Supersonic Revolution – Golden Age of Music Arjen Lucassen is peerless in the Dutch progressive rock scene. His latest album is yet another conceptual opus with not only the sound that made his ban Ayreon legendary, but you can hear influences of peak-era Deep Purple as well.
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Today is a happy day for is at MYNTH! Our friend Arnulf den Boesterd, owner of The Netherlands’ most important world music distributor, Xango Music, celebrates 25 years in business. From the man himself: Xango Music is celebrating 25 years of distributing local music from all over the world, since 1997! Xango Music is an independent distributor specialising in local music from all over the world and operating in the Benelux (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg) countries. Xango Music came forth out of the desire to make more music available. Labels and artists are having great difficulty getting their work…
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Going through Twitter contacts on my account (which will be changed soon, as I want an account that will only concentrate on music and not any other of my pursuits), I came across the name of a label whose work always left me impressed, but whom I had forgotten about, Erstwhile Records. Jon Abbey and Yuko Zama have run this label for years, but it looks like Yuko is branching out and running a new label called elsehwere music. Perusing the catalog, I found a release by Dutch pianist Reinier van Houdt which left me suitably impressed. From the release’s…
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Dirk Fock was a Dutch-American pianist with a very interesting musical history, including working with Richard Strauss. From the Bandcamp site: Dirk Fock (1886-1973) In 1945 the Dutch-born conductor and composer Dirk Fock (also: Foch) became an American citizen. Before that – during the interwar years – he conducted many orchestras all over Europe. Living in New York from 1919-1924 he was first conductor to the New York City Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor to the New York Philharmonic. He also was co-founder and first conductor of the American Orchestral Society. In 1924 Richard Strauss requested him to work as…
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Dutch composer and experimental musician Michel Banabila is joined on this one-track release by duduk player Cengiz Arslanpay and violist Oene van Geel for a warm, haunting take on improvisational music.
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There is a large outpouring of grief over the war from many artists I know on both sides. My friend Jos Smolders has made his contribution as well. From his Bandcamp site: “A small album of improvisations that I recorded to express my disgust about the war in Ukraine. All of the money I receive from sales will be donated to organizations that help the Ukrainian people. I hardly ever infuse my music with politics, but this feels different. Please buy a copy of the album and help those poor people. The music was produced primarily with Blippoo and electric guitar.”
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Bassist Jason Köhnen has a deep pedigree in the world of darkjazz. He was a member of the profoundly interesting Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble out of The Netherlands, and he’s now participating in a new project with Dimitry El-Demerdashi (ex-Phurpa) and Martina Horváth on vocals. As noted on Mansur’s Bandcamp site: “‘Minotavrvs’ is Mansur’s first live improv recording. An ambient journey. A musical homage to the mythos of the Minotaur. The minotaur as a mirror of self reflection; the fear of confronting one’s inner monster. ‘Minotavrvs’ is a sonic voyage through subterranean ruins and labyrinths, evoking spirits from past echoes of Minoan…
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The Tibbs are a Dutch band who bring on a funky version of Hammond organ-driven retro-soul and 60s R&B. The vocals are warm and sultry, and the musicians are deeply inspired by Stax, Volt and Motown Records. Meaty, funky and beautiful.