Ken Vandermark / Christof Kurzmann - Consequent Duos: series 2e (Audiographic Records)
The collaboration between these two musicians goes back nearly a decade, in ensembles like El Infierno Musical (a tribute to Alejandra Pizarnik), Made To Break, and most recently Entr’acte. Despite the years of work, many recordings together, and a number of concerts in Argentina, Brazil, and Europe as a duo, they have only released one document of this material, which was part of the box set released by Not Two in 2014, “Nine Ways To Read A Bridge.” This is the fifth volume.
V.A. - LLI008 Compilation (Laura Lies In)
The new compilation from Laura Lies In serves as a celebration of the ever expanding and evolving label family. LLI008 comprises of an LP, a 50 odd page booklet (an 8-page photobook and insert), further digital tracks and some web-based contributions. Expect music from the likes of Conal Blake, Simon Benjamin, Joe Beedles, Syncom Data, DJ Marcelle and much more. Play this out loud, and if you feel like dancing, just dance.
Lingo Seini et son groupe - Musique Hauka (Sahel Sounds)
This album was recorded with a single microphone in the outskirts of Niamey (Niger) and comprises praise songs and sacred incantations to the spirits to inhabit the body. The Hauka movement started nearly a century ago and has persisted on the fringes of Nigerien society. Documented in the 1955 Jean Rouch film
Les maîtres fous, the Hauka are a pantheon on spirits mirrored on colonial and military figures. Central to the religion is the “Holley Hori” possession ceremony, a ritual driven by militaristic percussive music, wherein spirits come into the body in powerful and violent manifestations. Lingo Seini has played ritual music for almost 60 years, learning from his father. He is joined by his son Youssouf on the calabash and Issaka Moulla, playing his homemade kuntigi. The group regularly accompanies Hauka priests in ceremonies.
Martina Claussen - Verwoben (Forwind)
Martina Claussen has been active as a composer, vocal artist and Professor of Voice in Vienna for many years. After many collaborations and appearances on some excellent compilations, she's arrived at her full debut album, also thirtieth release from the catalogue of Forwind.
Marko Melkon - Hi-Fi Adventure in Asia Minor (Canary Records)
"Melkon, then in his mid-60s and coming to the end of 40 years as one of the most prolific performers of Turkish-style folk music in the U.S., plays on the session, as he always did, beautifully. The arrangements are hard, fast, and loud, suitable for a harder, faster, louder America where rhythm and blues had become rock n roll and rural "hillbilly" music had become bluegrass and the Nashville. sound - an America where all folk music had been fitted with V8 engines and tailfins." Ian Nagoski
Matmos - The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form (Thrill Jockey Records)
Matmos’ practice of creative constraint has made them one of the most consistently exciting acts in electronic music. The duo of M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are well known for their long-standing practice of sampling unusual sound sources and experimenting with conceptual restrictions. As a couple in life and music for more than 25 years, Schmidt and Daniel have a particularly democratic approach to music making, each taking it in turns to come up with the framework or starting point for an album. The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises In Group Form was conceived by M.C. Schmidt, who made the decision to orient the record around a deceptively simple commitment. 99 different musicians were asked to contribute to the recording with only one instruction: they could play anything that they wanted, but the tempo of any rhythmic material had to be set at 99 beats per minute. The resulting album is a three-hour long assemblage that travels across a shifting kaleidoscope of genre, mood and density, all synchronized to a constant underlying tempo.
Meridian Brothers - Cumbia Siglo XXI (Les Disques Bongo Joe)
The traditional train of thought of Meridian Brothers is the figuration of an abstract picture of sound put it within a concrete context or cultural tendency. Their new album,
Cumbia Siglo XXI travers the multifaceted terrain of 80s Cumbia, funky basses and a further evolution of the rhythms with disco and even rock music. Meridian Brothers is one of those bands where you can find a distinct sense of superimposing the traditional versus the urban context and the modernity.
