Album Review: Manuel Pasquinelli – ‘Heartbeat Drumming/ Bellmund Session’: Beyond an experiment, a jazz-rock drummer’s statement from the heart.
And now for something (well almost) completely different- Bern based jazz rock drummer Manuel Pasquinelli is venturing into the world of bio-music on his new album ‘Heartbeat Drumming’. Of course others have explored the human body’s musicality before. The great Ron Geesin, Floyd collaborator, possibly kicked things off in the pop arena with his seventies …
Track/Video: ‘From Belgrade’, the second memorable stop on Passepartout Duo’s ‘Pieces From Places’ sonic travelogue.
Announcing the second stopover on Passepartout Duo’s ‘Pieces From Places’ album, a project which will build incrementally, released as one new track per month for a year, until their epic journey has been completely mapped out. Pianist Nicoletta Favari and percussionist Christopher Salvito’s first snapshot from this sonic expedition came out at the end of …
Album Review: REA-‘Garden Shed’ EP: Fresh folky weave and natural flow from a distinctive new indie-folk voice.
Well Bon Iver had his snowbound cabin in deepest Wisconsin and Brighton based singer songwriter REA had her Dad’s garden shed in rural England. That may not seem quite so cinematic but the peaceful isolation, contemplative space and earthy connectivity of her own creative shelter has shaped a similar resonance in her music. Yes, REA’s …
Album Review: Be Kind Cadaver –‘The World’s Greatest Mind’ : Epic electronic noise-rock exposes a deeper malaise.
Welcome once again to a rare encounter with the illusive Brighton art-punk duo Be Kind Cadaver. First sighted back in the post-Covid energy surge of 2022 with their debut EP ‘Post Partum’, Daniel Hignell-Tully and Leroy Brown released a venomous probe into the personal and political with a quartet of shell-shocked anti-pop songs. BSM dubbed …
Track/Video : Experimental beats explorer I Am Fya previews her ‘Homeland’ album with the pounding power of ‘i2i’.
It’s seems like quite a while since we’ve had any recorded output from Manchester’s electronic experimentalist I Am Fya. Well over a year ago she delivered The Sun Will Kill Me, a breezy, warm hearted slice of electro-pop which echoed with a trip-hop undercurrent. Framed by I Am Fya’s prolonged stay in Barbados with her …
Album Review: Penelope Trappes – ‘A Requiem’: Resonant, deeply fulfilling ambient songs which need to be heard.
Penelope Trappes recognises she makes music goes deep and once described her approach as “digging up the underworld with visual motifs, and a mystical, gothic darkness that symbolises my struggles”. Now after over a decade of excavation, through four albums and inspired side projects, the Australian, now Brighton- based, experimental musician reveals that there is …
Album Review: Emma Rawicz & Gwilym Simcock – ‘Big Visit’: A sax/piano jazz connection that sets new standards.
The similarities in the musical pathways between saxophonist Emma Rawicz and pianist Gwilym Simcock are a bit uncanny. Both studied at Chethams School Of Music and The Royal Academy, both have won a sleuth of UK Jazz plaudits including the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, Simcock in 2007 and Rawicz in 2021, both release through the seminal …
Track/Video: Passepartout Duo’s sonic travelogue ‘Pieces From Places’ begins with the tantalising ‘From Taipei’.
Passepartout Duo, the sonic partnership between pianist Nicoletta Favari and percussionist Christopher Salvito, thrives on constant travel, seeking out new collaborations as well as inspirational settings for recording and performance. Since their inception in 2015 the Duo’s globetrotting has gained momentum, taking their hand built electronic instruments cross continents on buses, trains and in dusty …
Album Review: Nick Storring – ‘Mirante’: A unique percussive and orchestral panorama from the Canadian multi-instrumentalist.
Delving into the musical potential of the humbucker pick-up and other electro-mechanical instruments, getting inspired by ghost towns in Ontario, recording a whole album from a pedestrian bridge near to his home and composing for a new instrument, the halldorophone, Nick Storring is the archetypal, restless experimenter. He’s driven by the ‘what if’ and the …
Album Review: Shelagh McDonald –‘Stargazer’: A long lost folk rock treasure returns to the shelves.
Vinyl reissues over the past few years have seemed to have been seized upon by majors gagging to maximise the current appetite for buying black (but now probably re-coloured) plastic. But beyond chasing the transient market, there are others who see their dedication to re-issuing very differently. For labels like Be With, Cherry Red and …