neoclassical
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Editor’s note: Ayuo was kind enough to email some corrections to my review. I’ve included them inline for readers to take in. It’s never easy to be the first in anything. Kazue Sawai’s whole career is a living testament to this with multiple convictions rendering their verdict on her choices. In 1987, she chose to…
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Now here’s a man after my own musical heart. Untied to any single genre or set on creating some easily classifiable, Mark Wood’s La Mezcla takes a tastemaker’s approach to the DJ mix and applies it to the musical medium: the album. Sadly, on his only release, on La Mezcla we hear all sorts of…
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Sometimes I think various music reviewers and blogs bandy the term “floating” a bit too loosely with music. What some might think of as a floater seems to be a bit lightweight to me. However, in the case of Hiroki Komazawa’s Feliz, no other term comes closest to describing it. Here there is just one…
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Editor’s Note: For today’s post we’re joined by Tristan Pollack sharing a wonderful recording (a collaborative work) between Japanese pop star Seri Ishikawa and totemic composer Toru Takemitsu. According to his bio: Tristan is a composer, musician, writer, born in Tokyo and based in New York City. He has scored original music for feature films…
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Truth be told, few records in my collection sound like Esther Ofarim’s Complicated Ladies. Well, truth be told, few albums will ever sound like it either…in anyone’s collection. A mixture of Israeli melismatic jazz with German liedermacher wouldn’t sound too out of the ordinary (at least in some circles). However, let’s say someone decided to…
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The changing of decades always seem to introduce truly amazing albums that fall through the cracks. Be it because they are caught in between eras. Be it because they’re simply made outside of any prevailing trend. These albums, unfortunately, reveal their true brilliance (sometimes) only in hindsight. Recently, I’ve had that aha! moment with Clevedon…
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Don’t you just hate the holidays? Don’t answer that. If anything this time of the year teaches us is that we need to find ways to forgive and move forward. Don’t you just hate Christmas music? Don’t answer that. I used to. Now, I’ve seen the light (so to speak). Perhaps this whole month I’ve…
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Winter heat from an unlikely source. Perhaps I’m showing my bias as a violinist, but I have to share another of my favorite (sadly unknown) releases from my fellow brethren. Another wonderful cross-thatched affair of fourth world and new age grooves not from the west but this time from Japan’s other uber-talented, and quite prolific,…
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Let’s do things in reverse. Let’s revisit the work of violinist Steve Kindler. Perhaps better known for his work with John McLaughlin and Jan Hammer, one would be surprised to discover how much more sweeping and romantic his solo work was. And it doesn’t get much more “sweeping and romantic” than his, sadly, nearly impossible…
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