Czech vocalist and cellist Dorota Barová is a new name for me, but her rather glorious voice brings up memories of Portuguese singers like Teresa Salgueiro, who you might remember as the lead singer of Madredeus. Barovà has had an impressive career, as her first album, the award-winning debut “Iluzja” Continue Reading
Poland
Jeff Gburek – Gendhing Rebaban
As we near the close of a challenging 2021, we’re graced with a release by composer Jeff Gburek which features a rebab, a spiked fiddle. It’s an instrument he studied in Indonesia under Pak Suhardi, blended with synthesizers and electronic bloops and bleeps which left me feeling like I was Continue Reading
Jeff Gburek – Trans Beskid Radio Volume 4 Extended
The last week I was in the United States before heading off to China, I watched MEV (collecting Alvin Lucier with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum, may their names be ever remembered) and Kayhan Kalhor the weekend before. It was an incredible week of music before heading to more surreal Continue Reading
Jacaszek & Kwartludium – Catalogue des Arbres
Michał Jacaszek is a Polish composer joined by the Kwartludium, a contemporary classical music quartet who, until coming across this recording, I had never heard of previously. Jacaszek, the quartet, and the musicians who supplement this recording make a very tense, yet totally organic series of an electroacoustic series of Continue Reading
Bester Quartet – Piazzolla Angels
Poland’s For-Tune Records have been consistently releasing high-quality jazz and improv music for some time now, but their latest has a special place for me. This collection, with the exception of Por Una Cabeza (composed by Carlos Gardel) was composed by the inimitable Ástor Piazzólla and arranged Bester Quartet leader Continue Reading
Jeff Gburek – Diaphragmata
This release allows me to kill two birds with one stone. First, it’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to review music by Jeff Gburek (one of the several venerable composers who always manage to find a welcome home on these pages), and this is a strikingly quiet Continue Reading
Jeff Gburek – Secret Orphan Endorphin Mix
Jeff Gburek · Secret Orphan Endorphin Mix I played American composer Jeff Gburek’s piece here in spectacularly sunny weather yesterday, and under grey skies today. In both cases, the music let my mind wander into itself. A perfect piece for taking it easy.
Various Artists: Canary Records: The Dull Hatchet: Late 1940s Lemko Instrumentals in Brooklyn NY
Canary Records is one of the best independent labels specializing in archival recordings. This batch comes from Lemko immigrants, who hail from the Carpathian Mountains, and it documents some of the tunes they brought with them to the United States.
Jeff Gburek – Three New Albums
We have the tremendous pleasure of announcing three new albums by composer Jeff Gburek. The first album is in collaboration with his partner Karolina Ossowska, who plays violin, ocarina and kalimba on this release. Gburek performs on zither, mandolin, miniature bandura and something called a blue-sky instrument, something new to Continue Reading