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The early instrumental work by German guitar duo Martin Kolbe and Ralf Illenberger is quite breathtaking. When one hears of a guitar duo, immediately one assumes the worst: verbose technicality over concise emotion, bluesy runs used as crutches to help them work together, and a general lack of understanding of what a duo is (and…
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It is with great joy that I’ve decided to share Killing Time’s Irene. Undoubtedly one of the toughest groups to describe on this hear blog, Killing Time hovers among so many styles and moods that to render them one thing or another would miss the point of their existence. Irene, though, in 1988, perfectly placed…
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Deeply icy, floating music from Swedish band Vinterhjärta. Playing like a soundtrack to a particularly windswept, frozen tundra Vinterhjärta’s (which translates to winter heart) sole, self-titled affair, binds all sorts of experimental Swedish conceits — space prog, New Age, and ambient jazz— into one work (released on cassette) that looks for no quarter in the…
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When I originally wrote my piece on Yoshio Ojima’s groundbreaking work Une Collection des Chainons I, I couldn’t think of why omitted the second part of his story. Une Collection des Chainons II truly cements what a monumental piece of music (Une Collection des Chainons I&II) for the Wacoal Art Center was. Trying to move…
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Sometime, in the winter of 1971, a young Nara Leao is being besieged by certain elements. Walking through streets and bridges with fellow Carioca photographer Nei Sroulevich, not far from her home, by the river, they are not disturbed by the cold or the snowfall. Enjoying a bit of freedom and space provided by nature, now, Nei realizes,…
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I wish I had a great way to describe the beauty of Toshifumi Hinata’s music, more so, the beautiful music you’ll find in Story. I’ll skip over his background, which you can peruse here, in a previous post, so that we can get to the meat of the album. Though not quite as dark/moody as…
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Mystical, otherworldly, Haitian rara and vodun funk from composer Alix Pascal. Under the group Ayizan, Alix moved away from his earlier beginnings in the mannered, rural musical style from the tropics called compas into something with far longer stretches/reaches: the music of Africa and post-slavery Hispaniola. Ayizan’s work in Dilijans (creole word for diligence) combined heavy Afro-funk…
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Just reading about Takashi Kokubo makes one feel decidedly less accomplished. Since the early ‘80s, Edokko Takashi has been knee-deep in the environmental music world. Outside of Japan, few would know that he is responsible for perhaps some of the most terrifying sounds you’ll ever want to hear.
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Günther Beckers music has a perfect word for it: Gesamtkunstwerk. Gesamtkunstwerk is an interdisciplinary artistic work combining various disciplines — music, painting, poetry and design. Wagner conjured up this idea when trying to produce a work that could also wrap in artistic ideas derived from theatrical, poetic, and musical influences. Aesthetics would be the English word…
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This is such a rare album, for a truly forgotten movie. Masahide Sakuma and dip in the pool’s soundtrack for 黒いドレスの女 (otherwise known as Kuroi Doresu No Onna/A Woman With A Blass Dress) hints at darker themes underlying the whole movie. The movie itself, one starring Tomoyo Harada, was a sexy noir movie based on…
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