album of the month
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Brace yourselves, let’s see how far I can take this review of Javier Zuazu’s Cuaderno De Invierno (or A Winter Journal). What was this album? 50-odd minutes of Spanish New Age that hovers from impressionistic piano-led instrumentals and wonderfully, minimal, warm and tender ambient mood music. Throw in one gorgeous ballad and once again, I’m…
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Don’t ask me why but it seems that jewelry companies always find a way to leverage their buying power to commission others to create some of the most interesting music-related value propositions. In plain speak: I’m holding an album, 4℃’s Christmas Suite, given as a holiday gift to (what I imagine) were there well-to-do customers,…
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I imagine, much like me, many of you have a peculiar relationship with Christmas (and winter holidays, in general). Yes, this time of the year can appear to be one marketing blitz blowing past another. Yes, religion can rear its inexplicable head and be injected into places one might not want to experience it. Yes,…
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It is my hope that more than a few of you out there can truly appreciate the brilliance of pianist Yuriko Nakamura’s debut: Wind And Reflections. Frankly, I expect that something that sounds this painfully out of time requires one to have a certain palette to understand it but if you have it here’s hoping…
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God sure does move in mysterious ways. Listening to Phil Keaggy’s The Wind And Wheat is a fitting testament to that. Only in our realm can an autodidact, Christian musician from Youngstown, Ohio, who only has the faculty of nine of his ten fingers, be more than just an unsung guitar hero (perhaps the “greatest”…
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When, or if, someone would ask me what kind of album I think perfectly encapsulates the promise of ‘80s music in Japan, I’d say look no further than Macoto Tezka Presents Reiko Okano’s Fancy Dance (ファンシイダンス). As before, I’ll be the first to raise my hand and state: “If you’re looking for someone who is…
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Certain music and musicians feel like they were born in the wrong era. Usually, for many that time is delineated in years or decades. However, for those that grace us with glimpses of the “Philosopher’s Stone”, like Léo Ferré, Franco Battiato, or Dylan, to name a few, one feels that centuries of time have to…
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I almost hate to share this compilation dubbed Lover’s Hawaii not because I’m not eternally grateful for Francis, sometime Fond/Sound guest contributor, for sharing/finding it with me, but because there is scant/to no information out there about the release itself. In my opinion, such a gorgeous collection of neo-Resort Music (if I may so dub…
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“I have aimed at creating with my work, a music at one with nature. Nature is melodic within itself, without abstaining from true harmony. Everything is sound. Everything is music.” — Carlos Pacini Aires da Silva Couldn’t have said it better myself.
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You know, it goes without saying that a lot of what I try to do on the blog is simply fill in the blanks. In the case of The Gentle Wind’s Tears Of Nature, you could say the blanks are as important as the known knowns. First of all, great thanks go out to YouTube…
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist mpb neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic