Ning Yu & David Bird - Iron Orchid (New Focus Recordings)
Iron Orchid is an album-length electro-acoustic work for piano and electronics by New York composer David Bird in collaboration with pianist Ning Yu, released on New Focus Recordings. Iron Orchid builds on materials generated for the interactive sound sculpture Echo Chamber, an 11-foot metallic structure that Bird and Yu collaborated on with site-specific public artist Mark Reigelman II in 2019. Employing a wide range of techniques in dialogue with a constantly shifting electronic environment, Iron Orchid explores the relationship between human and computer-generated sounds, blurring the distinction between them with a catalog of inventive strategies, and creating a sound world in which the two become logical complements.
Razen - Blue Rot (Hands In The Dark)
Razen are back with a second album on HITD, follow up to last year's release
Robot Brujo. On
Blue Rot, the band introduces a softer palette and a new quartet, as the core duo of multi-instrumentalists Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour is augmented with new band member Berlinde Deman on Serpent and guest Thomas Bloch on Glassharmonica and crystal Baschet.
São Paulo Underground & Tupperwear - Saturno Mágico (Keroxen)
Brazilian-American power trio São Paulo Underground (Rob Mazurek, Mauricio Takara & Guilherme Granado) align their chakras with Tenerife electronic pranksters Tupperwear (Mladen Kurajica & Daniel Garcia) for
Saturno Mágico, a venture session into tropical jazz, Chicago post rock and general head scratching psych chants. Recorded live in 2016 in a disused kerosene tank in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands after a week-long residency. Now recompiled by the Keroxen label and certified ready for human consumption.
Shuttle358 - Chessa (2021 Remaster) (Keplar)
Keplar re-issues the fourth album 'Chessa' by Dan Abrams' project Shuttle358 on vinyl for the first time. The double LP edition includes 3 previously unreleased tracks from the same recording sessions back in 2004, as well as an extended artwork with unseen photographs by Dan Abrams.
Steve Noble & Yoni Silver - Home (self-released)
"Released in 2017 by Aural Terrains, our first duo album is a culmination of three years of weekly playing in Steve's front room, where we developed our slow paced (mostly) texturally/spectrally oriented sound (mostly)." Steve Noble (drum and percussion) & Yoni Silver (bass clarinet, recording, editing, mixing).
V.A. - The Village Out West: The Lost Tapes of Alan Oakes (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
The Village Out West celebrates the underappreciated bastion of the Folk Revival that emerged in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s, a counterpoint to the seminal New York City scene that has dominated the historical narrative. Compiled from a vast array of recordings by autodidact recording engineer Alan Oakes, the two-CD set features legendary names like Hank Bradley, Rev. Gary Davis, Larry Hanks, Mississippi Fred McDowell, New Lost City Ramblers, and Doc Watson, as well as unsung heroes of the local California communities that turned the region into fertile ground for American music. This music triumphantly transcends the passage of the decades with its luminous and passionate presence, making the case for California as a crucial hotbed for some of the most impressive and diverse folk music of the 20th century.
Ustad Saami - East Pakistan Sky (Glitterbeat Records)
“East Pakistan sky” is the third album from the now legendary surti master Ustad Saami. The album follows his previously acclaimed recordings – God is Not a Terrorist (2019) and Pakistan is for the Peaceful (2020) – and presents two unedited performances that fully confirm the sublime and immersive experience of Saami’s musical (and spiritual) expression. Ustad Saami is the last living surti master, a precursor of the ancient Islamic devotional music of qawwali. Despite being under constant threat from Islamic fundamentalists, the master has spent his life as a dedicated practitioner of a vanishing art — one that has been passed on from generation to generation since the 13th century.
Vedan Kolod - The Tale of Igor's Campaign (CPL-Music)
The Tale of Igor's Campaign (Old East Slavic: Слово о плъку Игореве, Slovo o polku Igoreve) is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language. The title is also occasionally translated as The Song of Igor's Campaign, The Lay of Igor's Campaign. The poem gives an account of a failed raid of Igor Svyatoslavich (d. 1202), although the authenticity of the poem is disputed. Comprising Tatiana Naryshkina (soloist vocal, big drum, buben, flute, buzuki, vargan, kaluka), Valerii Naryshkin (vocal, gusli, buben, vargan, flute, buzuki, gudok, kaluka, war horn) and Daryana Antipova (vocal, drum, buben, voice, sharkuncy), the band Vedan Kolod originally hails from Krasnojarsk, Siberia’s third largest city, but has spent many years in Moscow and was also involved in different international artistic projects. They started out fifteen years ago and in the early days mainly focussed on medieval sounds. In the years following, Vedan Kolod then put their focus mainly on experimental world music.
Weedie Braimah - The Hands of Time (Stretch Music)
Weedie Braimah is widely regarded as the premiere voice of the Djembe. Born in Ghana and raised in East St. Louis with deep roots in New Orleans, he emersed into his lifelong quest and professional career in the study of African folklore and cultural music of the African diaspora. Utilizing his startling speed and dexterity, breath-taking skill, and breadth of knowledge, Braimah ushers listeners through a rhythmic journey of Africa and the Diaspora.
