Girma Bèyènè was one of the leading lights of Ethio-jazz during the 1960s and 1970s, before the rotten Deng ruined music for decades. He moved on to Washington D.C. and continued to make music with fellow Ethiopian ex-pats. He ended up getting asked by French band Akalé Wubé to come out of retirement and sing, and this groovy cut is but one of the tracks they paired up with. Their collaboration album is available on Bandcamp.
[Music] Roberto Romero Molina – Escandinavia por Ala Delta
This must be a great week for Bandcamp. This release features a young Mexican composer called Roberto Romero Molina, whose work falls somewhere between electroacoustic music and something reminiscent of a sci-fi movie. A short, but brilliant, release.
[Music] The Orchestra of Mirrored Reflections – Dead Beat
This has to be the release of 2017, as least as far as March!
Our friends The Orchestra of Mirrored Reflections have graced our blog once before, in April of 2016 for a review of an incredible live performance in Odessa. The band return with a new, seven-track album which is as rich, dark and sumptuous as anything released by groups like the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Bohren & der Club of Gore and other such acts. In fact, I’d be willing to say that the beauty of this album surpasses these stalwarts.
The album consists of smoky jazz that sits somewhere between fusion and trip-hop. The guitar playing is minimal, gentle, but totally in keeping with the darkness of the music. The drumming, however, is what makes the release for me. It is sparse, minimal, with singular beats, serving as a wonderful linchpin to the rest of the instrumentation floating above.
After such a splendid release, we wait more magic from the band
[Music] Demi Broxa – Agnes Hvizdalek (voice) & Jakob Schneidewind (bass, electronics)
Agnes Hvizdalek & Jakob Schneidewind, who go by the group name Demi Broxa, are two experimental music artists working out of Vienna, Austria. This piece doesn’t seem to have a title to it, but it showcases how well both musicians blend in with each other.
[Music] Cermaque – Neboj (i.e. Don’t Worry)
Indies Scope Records is one of my favorite record labels in the European continent. Their latest comes from poet, director and songwriter Jakub Čermák (doing business as Cermaque). The album is a wonderfully heady mish-mash of indie folk, alternative pop, elements of hip-hop, all held together by Čermák’s lyrical oeuvre.
Check out the album here.
[Music] Achref Chargui Trio – Tajaliyat
Afoforo Music Club is a label out of Tunis, Tunisia, specializing in a fusion of oud music, indie rock and an odd jazz hybrid. The Achref Chargui Trio boast members from Tunisia, France and Italy, and they gel together quite nicely.
[Music] “Bust Free 20” by Various Artists from Cold Busted
compilation international various artists downtempo electronic instrumental hip-hop beats freedl funky trip hop Los Angeles
via “Bust Free 20” by Various Artists from Cold Busted — Free Trip Downl Hop
[Music] The Durutti Column – Domo Arigato [FBN 52 / CD]
Wonderful news for Durutti Column fans! Factory Benelux has given the royal treatment to the band’s Factory Records live album, which was the first work of theirs I ever heard. The set has been expanded to three CDs, which includes archive material as well as a DVD of the concert, which was held in Japan in 1984.
[Literature] Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment Presented in a Beautifully Animated Short Film
From OpenCulture.com’s website:
In this darkly poetic animation, the Polish filmmaker Piotr Dumala offers a highly personal interpretation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s classic novel, Crime and Punishment. “My film is like a dream,” Dumala said in 2007. “It is as if someone has read Crime and Punishment and then had a dream about it.”
[Music] Artur Tuźnik / Nils Bo Davidsen / Jakob Høyer – Artur Tuźnik Trio
Beautiful, not-quite-straight-ahead jazz by Artur Tuźnik, a pianist out of Poland.
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 