Album Review: Bellbird – ‘The Call’: From free jazz to post rock, a quartet that find their own trajectory.
Constellation Records have long provided a portal for the extraordinary experimental music which orbits around their Montreal home base, but here we have them opening the apertures and focusing in on a gem from the city’s jazz/improv scene. Bellbirdare a quartet of players who gelled jamming in Covid times, formalised things at the 2021 Ottawa …
Album Review: Christo Graham – ‘Good Covers’: An authentic singer-songwriter gem that shouldn’t get forgotten.
Besides being an actor and graphic designer Christo Graham is one of those heart and soul singer/songwriters. You can’t imagine a day when there’s not a tune or lyrical snippet going around in his head. There’s something spontaneous and vibrant about his music, built from a process of lo-fi home recording where Graham plays most …
Album Review: Zone Null – ‘Phase 1’: Taking the bass to unknown places- epic, long form electronic improv from the Berlin-based duo.
Pounding into January with the irrepressible Ruptured Records and a debut album, ‘Phase 1’ from a new collaborative project Zone Null, featuring bassist Tony Elieh and electronic composer/performer Burkhard Beins. Elieh has long has been a pivotal contributor to the Beirut alt rock scene having been a member of the seminal noughties band Scrambled Eggs, …
Album Review: Mi3RAJ – ‘Callings Of The Owed’: Powerful and poetic electronic fusion from Cairo’s rising underground scene.
A new project from their long lasting musical connection, poet/vocalist Mohamed Tarek Moussa and producer/multi-instrumentalist Abdelrahman Shaat (aka Mi3raj) emerge with a new album, the intense ‘Callings Of The Owed’ نداءات الموعودين. It’s the pair’s debut for Ruptured Records, that perennial portal which sources the most vital sounds from the Swana region for experimental music …
Album Review: Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore – ‘Tragic Magic’: A compelling, emotional electro-acoustic collaboration which haunts and hopes.
Some collaborations are just meant to be and this is one of those. Composer, vocalist and electronic musician Julianna Barwick and experimental harpist Mary Lattimore have been more than crossing paths within the ambient/neo-classical world over the years. Both moved to LA at around the same time and built a friendship from playing live shows …
Album Review: Alex Ventling – ‘Wavemakers’: New Nordic jazz which soothes and fulfils.
Need some cerebral soothing and sustenance then maybe take some time to engage with Trondheim-based jazz musician Alex Ventling’s new album ‘Wavemakers’. Ventling is something of a creative polymath. Besides being recognised as an accomplished pianist on the Euro/Nordic jazz scene he composes, makes films plus has become a sought-after videographer, photographer and educator. Musically …
Album Review: f.ampism – The Vertical Luminous : A mesmerising and strangely magical post new-age soundtrack.
Brighton based sound artist Paul Wilson aka f.Ampism is part of the mycelium network of new age electronica which thrives furtively beneath the everyday music radar. From the world of micro-labels and trans-national partnerships, cassette transmissions and local scenes, he’s released solo work since 2016 amongst other things (read his nifty blog ampism.com for info). …
Album Review: The Offline –‘La grande évasion’: another compelling sonic journey set in cinematic-soul snapshots.
For Felix Müller aka The Offline, a journey is always as important as the destination. His instrumental music, rooted in yester year soul, funk and soundtrack, has an episodic quality, snapshots which compile to reveal an overall mood. It all began in 2022 with the ‘En Clair-Obscur’ EP, a set of sleek instrumentals mapping his …
Album Review: Inwards –‘Free Flow’: Fizzing mod-synth and sampler refreshment straight from the Worcestershire wilds.
Electronic music can often seem fixed on darkness and dystopia, cavernous scale and vastness but Kristian Shelley’s electro-fusion projects as Inwards have always focused on the small things. Inpired by the countryside around his Worcestershire home there’s a folktronica playfulness about his music and a warmth to his quirkiness. Past Inwards tracks been built around …
Album Review: Fabiano do Nascimento – ‘Cavejaz’: a stunning collection of guitar and percussion miniatures.
It may be a decade into the consistent series of impactful releases from composer/guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento but here is a musician who continues to build on his reputation as an innovator both within the MPB world and beyond. A guitarist from the age of ten, his natural affinity for the instrument and intuitive feel …