Album Review: Àbáse –‘Awakening’: Stunning spiritual jazz and beyond from the prolific producer/instrumentalist.
It doesn’t seem that long since Hungarian keyboarding producer whizz Szabolcs Bognár was premiering his ambitious Àbáse project with the extensive, celebratory ‘Laroyê’. Released at the end of 2021, it was assembled from jams recorded in collaborators’ lounges and apartments during a lengthy musical sabbatical in Brazil. Stoked with Bognár’s unflappable positivity, ‘Laroyê’ somehow came …
New Track/Video: The scorching, upbeat grooves of ‘Jão’ signposts a new album from Rio/London troubadour, MOMO.
It’s not often you get to hear about a ‘new’ artist on the London global beats scene who’s already stocked up a back catalogue of eight previous albums but that’s what’s happening with Marcelo Frota aka MOMO. From the dark-folk /Tropicalia fusion of his stark debut ‘A Estética do Rabisco’ in 2006 to his electronica …
Album Review: Qoa – SAUCO: The Argentinian sound artist’s ambient hymn to a living landscape.
LA based, Argentinian Qoa (aka. Nina Conti) is a digital sound artist and illustrator who focuses on tuning in and responding to the non-human world. That involves the composer’s serious engagement physical and imaginary, with plants and animals, streams and undergrowth, winds and weathers, and from this starting point developing a musical connection with the …
Track / Video: WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN –GY!BE/Big|Brave/Ada affiliates announce tumultuous debut album.
A post rock summit, confluence or collab, some might even toss in the supergroup label if they were feeling flippant. Whatever you want to call the artistic meeting of minds that is WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN (or WAWBARC between friends) it offers up the enticing prospect of new collective music from Mat …
Album Review : Forest Law –‘Zero’ : Bossa beats, international grooves and so much more on this globetrotting musician’s debut.
Sonic explorer, creative adventurer, soundscape navigator are all phrases you could apply to Alexander Burke a.k.a Forest Law. Romford born, now London based he’s taken a globetrotting route to the release of his debut album ‘Zero’, available now courtesy of a Bongo Joe/ Total Refreshment Centre collaboration. Coming through Giles Peterson’s ‘Future Bubblers ‘unsigned artists’ …
Album Review: L’Étrangleuse – Ambiance Argile : Rootsy influences and a post punk mindset make for a pulsating return from the Lyon-based outfit.
The fact that guitarist / n’goni player Maël Salètes and harpist Mélanie Virot have been releasing albums as L’Étrangleuse since 2012 is down to much more than endurance or stubborn self-belief. These dynamic, probing musicians have always got something new to say and invariably exciting ways of saying them. Their intertwining string tones, raw, bluesy, …
Album Review : Don Glori – ‘Don’t Forget To Have Fun’ : Fresh, funky and inspired soul jazz from the revitalised and relocated multi-instrumentalist.
Now this is a bit different. An album of contemporary instrumental music shaped within the mundane pressures of the day to day, paying the rent, food on the table, making ends meet. Don Glori (aka Gordon Li) is a producer, multi-instrumentalist and composer originally out of Melbourne who has detached from Naarm’s vital scene to …
Album Review: TC & The Groove Family – ‘We Have Each Other’ : UK Nu-jazz collective forge ahead with a powerful, passionate EP.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from TC & The Groove Family but you can’t keep a good collective down. Led by drummer Tim Cook (TC) and based around players who originally crossed paths in Leeds, the band’s 2022 debut ‘First Home’ (reviewed in BSM HERE ) made a sizeable dent in the listening …
Track/Video: Icelandic composer/multi-instrumentalist Davidsson previews his emotional debut album with the restorative ‘On Thin Air’.
Revered Icelandic musician Ólafur Arnalds’ new OPIA project (a part festival, part musical community, part record label kind of thing) is adding another artist to its roster to keep emerging Costa Rican pianist Sofi Paez company. They’ve just announced that Icelandic composer and musician Davidsson will release his debut solo album ‘Lifelines’ through their portal …
Album Review: Ezra Feinberg -‘Soft Power’: sensational music of gentle persuasion from the New York guitarist/composer.
There is a cosmos of ambient instrumental music out there, so finding something with a distinctive sparkle, which really adds to the dimension can be time consuming. This is where Ezra Feinberg, the Hudson Valley multi-instrumentalist and composer often sidles into the picture. Founder member of San Fran new age psych band Citay, where Feinberg …