experimental
Album Review: Peace Flag Ensemble – Astral Plains : Shimmering electro-acoustic jazz for wide horizons.
The first time you hear the music of experimental jazz collective Peace Flag Ensemble, you sense that it will be good for you. This is a band that make soundscapes, often spacious, often serene, so fluid, so open that as you listen there’s a sense you are being listened to. It’s music that leaves room …
Track/Video : Saxophonist, composer and jazz chronicler Matana Roberts announces new album ‘In The Garden’, Chapter Five in the visionary Coin Coin series.
Many new releases are anticipated but few have the added importance of Matana Roberts fifth instalment in their Coin Coin series ‘In The Garden’, due via Constellation on 29th September. The jazz composer, saxophonist and multi-disciplinary artist’s significant song cycle began in 2011 with ‘Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres’. This staggeringly visceral …
Album Review: Me Lost Me – RPG : folk music of the future now
Folk music for today, what’s that then? Playing the old songs in new ways? Playing new songs in the old ways? Maybe the one tradition that’s certain is that the discussions will circle on and the definitions remain distant while the possibilities of the folk labelled soundscape remain endless. Step up once more Jayne Dent …
Album Review: Daniel Alexander Hignell-Tully – I Hope They Let Us Hunt Like Men In The Next Life: Thrilling experimentalism/challenging sounds from the DAMM founder.
Difficult music, what does that mean? Is it something at the opposite end of the spectrum to easy listening? Or is it all relative to the individual? I mean there are some people (and this may be a confession) who find any Abba song excruciatingly difficult to get through. Or maybe difficulty simply means that …
Album Review: Être Ensemble – CLOSE / SPACE: more montage music and cinematic vision from the inspired Joni Void network.
Experimental musician and sound artist Joni Void’s astounding tapestry of musical connectivity continues. The three albums released via Constellation, ‘Selfless’, ‘Mise En Abyme’ and this year’s ‘Everyday is the Song’, may be the most visible markers of the emergence of Jean Néant (he/them) as sonic collagist Joni Void but there’s an eco-system of other projects …
Album Review: Ricardo Dias Gomes – Muito Sol : re-imagining post rock with a tropicalia soul.
In the shimmers of the recent loss of Os Mutantes founder Rita Lee that follows Gal Costa’s passing last year it’s poignant to get a reminder that music doused with tropicalia is most definitely out there and still determined to make those bigger splashes. Enter the inestimable Hive Mind Records latest release, Muito Sol, a …
Track/Video: Electronic artist I Am Fya previews new single ‘The Sun Will Kill Me’ – dub dropping beats with a story to tell.
You can sense the temperature rising around Brighton based artist I Am Fya. Her punchy debut as producer/ composer ‘A Womxn’ in 2019, a dark dub, twitchy glitch, post-mod RnB drill down into socio-sexual dynamics, was some announcement. A following string of forthright, energetic digi-releases then maintained the pace before last year’s single ‘Consciousness’, her …
Album Reviews: Joni Void – Everyday Is The Song: Extraordinary sound collages from ordinary circumstances.
Lille born, now Montreal resident, music collagist and producer Jean Cousin (aka Joni Void) is an illusive, transitory artist who over the years has blurred the sense of persona in any music that bears his pseudonym. Feeding voraciously into the Soundcloud/Bandcamp eco-system since 2011 as johnny ripper, he has revealed a plethora of digital releases …
Track/Video: Brazilian guitar supremo Fabiano Do Nascimento previews next album ‘Das Nuvens’ with the gliding, nu-beat title track.
After five albums for the global beat connoisseurs Now Again, Brazilian acoustic guitar supremo Fabiano Do Nascimento has sidled across LA to join with the Leaving Records community. The result, the album ‘Das Nuvens’ set for July 21st release and previewed by the title track to signpost what we can expect. The track is a …
Album Review: Raz Ohara – Tyrants
The AlbumRaz started working on the album Tyrants in 2017 and mixed the finished version in 2021. The writing process began with listening to sketches and sound-files he had collected throughout the past years, which he had not yet given up on. The album is thus a natural continuation of his previous works and showcases …