I am proud to announce that my dear and darling friend, Alessandra Celletti, has a new album out. She does an astounding job interpreting the works of John Cage, Arvo Pärt, Alan Hovhaness and Philip Glass in her own inimitable way, as well as a couple of her own pieces.
Just a lady and her piano. Weirdly elegant and whimsical listening material.
Having spent a week in August during my 50th birthday celebration and being hosted by my friend, Béla, I was treated to some new Hungarian bands I had, up until this point, never heard of. One which stood out was the Hobo Blues Band.
The Hobo Blues Band (bio in Hungarian, so use a translator) were active between 1978 and 2011, and they took a lot of musical cues from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and, of course, Jimi Hendrix.
Their rendition of Hey Joe is very impressive, and I have to say, the lyrics sound very melodic in Hungarian.
September 4 is one of those Bandcamp Fridays where the company doesn’t take its normal commission in order for the artists to either make a bit more money or donate it to the cause of their choice. Though well over 1,500 releases flooded by email inbox today, there was one which came to me from a dear friend of the blog, Raffaele Pezzella (owner of the incredible Unexplained Sounds Group, whose compilations never fail to impress.
This one is a second batch of Iranian dark ambient and experimental music composers, featuring such maestros as Xerxes The Dark, Reza Solatipour, Force Ignore and a host of names which are not only new to me, but who have managed to capture my interest rather quickly.
Today, of all days, is a fine one to introduce yourself to a fresh batch of music from Iran’s dark ambient wellspring.
New York City, despite its current malaise, will always be the mecca of music in the United States. There is no popular genre of music that didn’t explode there at one time or another. Surprisingly, it took a Swiss record label, Rocafort Records, to document the boogaloo, guaguancó and salsa scene in such a concise way. The company specializes in Latin music, and this disc features acts like Orquesta Olivieri, Ozzie Torrens and the Brooklyn Sound. Each track makes you want to raid the dance floor.
It is very good to hear from our friend here at the blog, Robert Scott Thompson. This track, a free single, reminded be of a very subdued Harold Budd. Not fully ambient, but tranquil.
Cult Classic: Super Elcados–Togetherness Is Always A Good Venture-Tambourine Party Volume 2. During the early sixties, a musical revolution took place in Ghana, when musicians started combining elements of West African musical genres including highlife and fuji music which they fused with American funk and jazz. Playing an important part important part in this new […]
CULT CLASIC: SUPER ELCADOS-TOGETHER IS ALWAYS A GOOD VENTURE-TAMBOURINE PARTY VOLUME 2. — dereksmusicblog
The ever-wonderful Derek’s Music Blog introduces Super Elcados, a wild band out of Ghana. You can hear the tracks from the album here at their Bandcamp site, courtesy of British label Mr. Bongo Records.
Muteant Sounds is a net label out of Florida who have reissued a minor treasure. This album pairs saxophonist Kenny Millions (born as Keshavan Maslak) and pianist Sergey Kuryokhin in what is a minor minimal masterpiece.
This is a two-track album, with the first track going into an eerie minor-key romp for twenty-five minutes, giving one the chills. The second track gets a touch more noisy, but maintains the aura of a film noir soundtrack.
Though Kuryokhin has been reposed for around 25 years now, his influence in the Russian improvisational scene still looms large, as does Millons‘.
Middlesex improv band Led Bib nearly defy categorization, except to say that they fit only inside the avant-progressive and improvisational genres, barely. This album covers a lot of ground in four tracks, mainly with a lot of skronk and racket that flows rather nicely. Cuneiform releases another masterpiece.
Today’s release is a psychedelic rock experience from the masterful Kikagaku Moyo. This is mellow, relaxed, mind-expanding to a point, and incredibly drone-laden improvisation. There is a thread of early-era Pink Floyd psych and perhaps a touch of free jazz. Spacey, cosmic, and pretty near perfect.
Lawrence English of Room40 Records has never, not once, disappointed me in showcasing a magnificent new release. This one is a collaboration between Ellen Fullman and her long string instrument collaborating with Theresa Wong, who adds a warm layer with her cello.
From the Bandcamp website:
Harbors is a collaboration of composers Ellen Fullman (Long String Instrument) and Theresa Wong (cello), which draws inspiration from the soundscapes, stories and atmospheres that manifest around bodies of water that propagate exchange. Structured around the extended harmonics of the open strings of the cello, Wong and Fullman utilize subsets of these tonal areas to create distinct sonic environments within the piece.
Fullman’s Long String Instrument, a stunning installation of over forty strings spanning seventy feet in length, places the performers and audience inside the actual resonating body, transforming the architecture itself into the musical instrument. Wong has developed techniques that take the cello beyond tradition into a vocabulary more closely rooted in the sounds of the natural world. She captures material electronically, layering textures amplified throughout the space which form an immersive field where figure and ground are in constant flux.
The piece reveals an orchestration of shifting drones, aberrant melodies and glistening atmospheres. Harbors has reverberated many spaces around the world, including: Click Festival, Helsingør, Denmark; Transformer Station, Cleveland; MONA FOMA, Tasmania; Centennial Hall, Sydney Festival; The Lab, San Francisco; and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/harbors
As I am now settled in Brno, Czech Republic, these reviews will start making a comeback, and there are plans for new projects afoot. More on that later.
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