minimalist

Mich Live: Plant Planet’s (1988)

2017/06/16

Let’s try a little tenderness from Mitsuru Sawamura, otherwise known as Mich Live, one-time member of Japanese band Interior (with whom he wrote songs like “Luft” and “Park“) and brilliant session musician for others like Yukihiro Takahashi, Hajime Tachibana, Pierre Barouh, and Mari Iijima. In 1988, Mitsuru released under the Newsic label (home of Yoshio Ojima) something that straddles…
Morgan Fisher: Look At Life (1984)

2017/06/13

I’m truly thankful I live in a world where circumstances led Londoner Morgan Fisher to visit Japan, fall in love with country, and proceed to sell nearly all of his life’s work to make his living there. Some would say it was a foolhardy move but it’s a move that proved essential to his reinvention…
Juan Martin: Painter In Sound ft. Mark Isham (1986)

2017/06/09

Simply sublime. What else can you say? From the man who literally wrote the definitive word on Flamenco technique, comes a work showing the full expanse of his personal creative method. Juan Martin is one of the most iconic names in Nuevo Flamenco. Somewhere, down the line, his lifelong interest in art and painting (owing a…
Paleis Van Boem: Mowgli Goes Kaka (1985)

2017/05/30

Deeply intricate and esoteric experimental percussion music from Netherland’s own Paleis Van Boem, which aptly translates to “Palace of Boom”. Now known – if you’re Dutch that is! – for their film and TV soundtracks, Paleis Van Boem actually had roots in the lecture halls of the Rotterdam Conservatory. This duo consisting of Martin Vonk and…
Mix: 4. Nuevo Aztlán

2017/05/25

In a way, everything you do circles back to where one comes from. All my life, somehow, I felt my own lineage and ancestry steeped in Mexico was some kind of relic of the past. That too many other cultures had managed to strive for something new and exciting, while my own remain stagnant. When NTS asked me to give…
Coste Apetrea: Airborne (1989)

2017/05/19

I am you. You are me, Coste Apetrea Airborne cover man. I feel you, ADIDAS sweatpants-tucked-in-full-length-fishing boots man. I get you, oversized-cardigan-above-open-buttoned-linen-shirted-friend. I know you, man trapped in between seasons dude. Is it warm enough to put away winter’s festoons and enjoy warmer moods with cooler duds? Your picture doesn’t tell me the full story.
Imagination: Night Dubbing (1983)

2017/05/12

“Forget your sorrow let’s start livin’ for today” those are the sublime spliced verses that kick off this monumental piece of house music. Before such a word “house music” even existed only a few people were hip to the possibilities inherent somewhere deep in the mind of English soul band Imagination. Night Dubbing was the sound of Imagination stretching to…
Eblen Macari: Música Para Planetarios (1987)

2017/05/05

Every time I revisit Eblen Macari’s landmark release, Música Para Planetarios, I find something different and special about it. At times, it’s finding pride that something like this exist where one’s own Mexican culture doesn’t need to be negated/subjugated to create something spectacularly pioneering. Other times, it’s when I sit back and identify cultural cues and traditions inherent in…
Koji Ueno: Music For Silent Movies (1985)

2017/05/03

Music For Silent Movies, it’s all there in the title. Koji Ueno, one half of Japanese duo Guernica (the other half being Jun Togawa from Yapoos), takes their subversive take on the era of “The Greatest Generation” to its logical evolution/conclusion by creating a soundtrack to the lesser known sounds of that period. Thoughts of musique concrete, serialism,…
Alap Jetzer: Eternity’s Sunrise (1986)

2017/05/01

Sun-lit, rainbow music for respite after rainy days. That’s how I would describe Alap Jetzer’s largely acoustic renditions of Hindu guru Sri Chinmoy’s compositions. Attracted to the same devotional spiritual path that struck other musicians like Pete Townshend, Carlos Santana, Narada Michael Walden, and Roberta Flack, so was this young Swiss instrument maker and multi-instrumentalist…