This sadness does something to you. I remember exactly how I bought Sketches of Spain in a store for used vinyl at Mercer Street corner Bleecker in New York, for $3,99. It was the time after CD’s had conquered the market and people sold their vinyl records in order to replace them by discs. That’s …
It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play. Miles Davis At the age of 32, Mark Hollis had achieved commercial success with his band Talk Talk’s first three albums, which combined the new wave synthpop of the 1980s with subtle art rock arrangements. This was not the style of music that …
Gary McFarland is a forgotten name by most music listeners. This is a tragedy since he was a bit of a genius- an arranger/conductor for jazz musicians, a cinematic composer of his own recordings, and a producer of a psychedelic hidden gem. Gary McFarland (born October 23, 1933) began his career arranging and conducting jazz …
I remember. I remember that hot July day when you died. It was the summer of love for everyone else. It was the summer when I lost my love. It was a sad summer. I could not eat because I missed you. I could not sleep because I missed you. In the autumn, I felt …
Italian Composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866 -1924) said that “music is sonorous air”. A vibration that we experience without being seen with the human eye. John Lyndon, “Some ideas absolutely require a kind of rigid discipline, and others require absolute chaotic abandon. The form is only valid if you know how to un-form it”. The Roscoe Mitchell Sextet starts a …
Sometimes you discover music that is a pure injection of electric energy into your day. Ghost Funk Orchestra’s Walk like a Motherfucker (2018) is exactly the kind of joyous, self-assured, even arrogant single that makes you want to strut your bad ass down the street. Don’t think of Travolta here- this is all Shaft. Roll …
What makes the music of Bohren & der Club of Gore so unsettling? It isn’t the dark, slow-core of this German trio- that would sound almost relaxing. And it isn’t the sparse instrumentation that crawls through each of these tracks. Absolutely not, this isn’t goth. There is something much deeper to be found at …
Listening to trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist Jaimie Branch’s newest release, Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise is like making an investment in the visionaries, believers and dreamers of tomorrow. It’s the discovery of music this inspiring and important which makes all this music collecting a worthwhile endeavour. Fly or Die II functions …
As a senior in high school, I skipped a lot of class. If grades were measured on cunning and deceit I would have gotten straight A’s. It didn’t take much motivation for me to duck down a lonely hallway on a mostly unfrequented wing, and find that door that the security guard never monitored. Finding …
The Necks‘ 2006 release Chemist is just like every other album the band has done. Then again, it’s completely original. Every release by this band is unmistakably The Necks. Each album completely improvised and organic. It just so happens that Chemist was my introduction and remains a personal favorite. The perfect safe-space to explore this …
