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This might sound like yet that same old story: Noted folkloric or jazz muso discovers drum machines, synths, and samplers, proceeds to turn into both a sweeping statement unlike anything else in their oeuvre/pisses old fans off. I can play Madlibs with my write-up for Joan Bibiloni’s For A Future Smile and substitute Lisboa-native Júlio…
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Although the mind behind rotating Southeast Asian supergroup Asiabeat has always been gifted Malaysian percussionist (and Fulbright Scholar) Lewis Pragasam, on Spirit Of The People, the heart of Japan moved him towards a sound that’s quite indefinable. Decamping in Singapore, in 1991, Lewis was joined by Makoto Matsushita, Chito Kawachi, and friends Mohd Nor, Nantha…
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Don’t stop, can’t stop, the dance. Something else to fill your expanding Balearic canon: Randy Tico’s Earth Dance. Not quite jazz, world beat, tribal, or New Age, in 1990, in the dead heat of summer, Randy released on the aptly named Higher Octave Music record label a burner of a New Age album that put…
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There’s a moment in Hiroya Minakuchi + Missing Link’s Dolphin that never ceases to take my breath away: a minute into “The Cradle Of The Ocean”, the sound of actual dolphin speech mingles with a plaintive piano melody to deliver a sublime aquatic ballad that exudes what I think is perfect example of “womb music”.…
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Disclaimer: you’re not going to hear any music on Jun Kawabata’s Mind Migration (Voyage To The Whale). What you’re hearing on this release is the kind of healing music little known on this side of the world. In the early ’90s CBS Sony created a record sublabel dubbed “Aqua Planet” combining three things: aquatic themed…
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I’ve stopped commenting about album covers but I really should pick that thread again. Just look at Andrew Annenberg’s glorious artwork for Steve Kindler and Teja Bell’s Dolphin Smiles. It’s rare that an album cover captures entirely the mood within an album, and wouldn’t you know it, it perfectly encapsulates what you’ll hear here. A…
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This post might not make much sense in the future but today it’s a bite-sized review of Jonathan Goldman’s epic womb music dubbed: Dolphin Dreams. Originally released in 1988, on cassette, under the auspices of nascent American New Age label, Spirit Music, Dolphin Dreams provided a “sonic environment for relaxation, meditation, and the birthing process.”
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As long as there is summer and people still want to hear/read about another Hajime Mizoguchi album, I’ll be more than happy to ride on that feeling. Continuing on a very long retrospective on Hajime’s work, see prior posts for his prior work, today we land on another of his wonderfully summer-esque albums — A…
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Somehow, it’s becoming a recent recurring theme of mine to highlight outside the box music creators. Some of my favorite albums are those by artists whose first creative outlet isn’t exactly music per se. On Poema A Dos Voces we’re treated to such a spectacular vision by Basque poet, sculptor, psychologist and singer-songwriter, Ana Benegas…
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental folk-rock fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic