“Watching the Willows Burn” is the outcome of Jack Name and Aoife Nessa Frances’ first collaborative encounter, and a study in secret song and ancient ritual. Introduced by a mutual acquaintance on a hunch that an undiscovered sonic kinship might exist between the musicians, Jack and Aoife fell hard and fast for each other’s respective…
Tag: songwriter
CUBS River of Amber/Frozen Waterfall (Rusted Rail, 2021) Ormai da qualche anno, Cubs è diventata la sigla che riassume le variegate anime artistiche gravitanti intorno all’etichetta irlandese Rusted Rail, delle quali ha seguito fedelmente l’evoluzione da stravaganti sperimentazioni sonore alla riscoperta di una pur mai ortodossa anima folk. Il percorso della band – che comprende…
DANIEL BÜRKNER Landschaft aus Papier (Oscarson, 2021)* Erano i tempi dei nuovi fermenti musicali casalinghi, resi possibili dal sempre più ampio accesso ai mezzi di registrazione e dai canali di diffusione online; erano anche i tempi d’oro di quella “indietronica da cameretta” che in particolare in Germania aveva trovato una declinazione di peculiare minimalismo e…
[streaming] Emmalee Hunnicutt – Vespertine
Taken from “Picnic, Moonside”, out July 30th 2021 via Dear Life Records. “Picnic, Moonside” is a collection of songs that journey into the world beneath the dirt and the moonlit times after the sun sets. From joyful descriptions of eating beets, to moonside picnics with Hawk Moths pollinating night blooming Datura flowers, this album is…
YUMBO 間違いの実 / The Fruit Of Errata (Morr Music, 2021) Un filo sempre più stretto lega ormai Morr Music alla musica e alla cultura giapponese. Sulla scia dei Tenniscoats e della compilation “Minna Miteru” dello scorso anno, l’etichetta berlinese pubblica un’ampia rassegna della ventennale esperienza di yumbo, collettivo formatosi intorno alla songwriter e compositrice Koji…
[streaming] Stranded Horse – Towards A Waning Glow
Yann Tambour began recording under electronica moniker Encre. He then returned to his first love, fingerpicking guitar and started to experiment with a self-made West-African kora on which he developed his own technique. Collaborators include Ballaké Sissoko in the early days of Stranded Horse and his young disciple Boubacar Cissokho with whom he recorded his last…
[video of the week] Mirabai Ceiba and Markéta Irglová – Take On A Thousand Forms
Taken from “A Quiet Hour”, out August 27th on Spirit Voyage. In an intimate duet, Mirabai Ceiba’s Angelika Baumbach and Academy-Award winning singer/songwriter Markéta Irglová bring the poetry of Goethe to life. Working with a core group of virtuoso musicians who each recorded from studios across the globe, multi-instrumentalist Jamshied Sharifi co-produced the album with…
CALMING RIVER Dead Bluebottles Supine (Dendron, 2021)* È stata davvero molto lunga e tortuosa la strada che ha condotto Joshua Brain al debutto sulla lunga distanza sotto l’alias Calming River. Eppure, i sei anni trascorsi dall’intenso Ep “The Ones That We Left Behind” non sono stati del tutto silenti, ma anzi costellati di collaborazioni, singoli…
[streaming] Nathan Salsburg – Psalm 147
Opening track of “Psalms”, the new album by Nathan Salsburg, out August 20th 2021 “Psalms” is a collection of new arrangements of Hebrew psalms—Tehillim—composed between 2016 to 2019, and recorded in their entirety, somehow, over the long course of 2020. The project was born of a desire for some kind of rigorous and creative Jewish…
[video of the week] Ida Wenøe – Echoes
New single from Nordic songstress Ida Wenøe taken from her forthcoming third album Amongst a digital mountain range littered with accomplished folk-ish bands and singersongwriters, it is a rare miracle to come across a cave so rich in jewels as the one beneath Ida Wenøe’s ribcage. While she has an obvious appreciation of Americana, her…
RAOUL VIGNAL Years In Marble (Talitres, 2021)* Piccole ma significative differenze presenta il terzo album di Raoul Vignal rispetto ai due predecessori, a cominciare dal tempo necessario per la sua creazione e realizzazione. Mentre tra “The Silver Veil“ e “Oak Leaf” era trascorso poco più di un anno, quasi tre anni separano quest’ultimo da “Years…
[video of the week] David John Morris – New Safe
Taken from David John Morris’s debut album ‘Monastic Love Songs’ – out May 21st 2021 via Hinterground Records. This is the first single taken from the debut solo album by the Cornish songwriter from Red River Dialect. It was written during the last weeks of a nine-month retreat at Gampo Abbey, a Buddhist monastery in…
[video of the week] Bryan Away – The Lake
From the upcoming album “Canyons to Sawdust”. Animated by Qianwen Yu. About the track: “The Lake” began in an email poem with the subject “Hello new email freestyle” to my then girlfriend who I was in a long distance relationship with. It was when I first registered the bryanaway.com domain, and I wanted to show…
JOHANNA SAMUELS Excelsior! (Mama Bird / Basin Rock, 2021)* Tra le inevitabili radici folk e l’attuale nouvelle vague delle ragazze con la chitarra elettrica, Johanna Samuels sceglie una terza via, fatta di una discreta varietà di soluzioni sonore a incorniciare canzoni dai pronunciati contenuti personali. Il tema dei rapporti umani domina le canzoni raccolte in…
WILL STRATTON The Changing Wilderness (Bella Union, 2021)* “The Changing Wilderness”, ovvero di come la sensibilità di un songwriter si discosti dalla sola introspezione per proiettarsi verso il mondo esteriore, dai conflitti di un animo inquieto a quelli di una società sempre più incerta e frammentata. È, a suo modo, un album “politico” il settimo…
[streaming] Raoul Vignal – Red Fresco
From Raoul Vignal’s album “Years in Marble”, out on Talitres May 28th, 2021. A native of Lyon, France, Raoul Vignal began performing solo at the age of 20. Throughout his stage performances, he weaves a delicate and harmonious universe, an intimate folk where his guitar playing (finger-picking and alternate tunings) establishes a subtle resonance with his soothing voice….
ADRIAN CROWLEY The Watchful Eye Of The Stars (Chemikal Underground, 2021)* Chi ne ha seguito il percorso creativo ormai ultraventennale ha visto Adrian Crowley maturare da artista indipendente le cui canzoni erano avvolte da atmosfere particolari a songwriter esperto, sempre più interessato all’eleganza degli arrangiamenti. La dimestichezza con la scrittura e con l’interpretazione da lui…
[streaming] Evan Cheadle – First Morning Light
Second single off Evan Cheadle upcoming album “Fault Line Serenade”, available June 11th 2021. When the dew falls over the tall grass of the Pacific Northwest and the autumn sun glistens like a million skylights darting off into space and reflecting back off the Olympic Peninsula, the smell is sweet and yet, decay is in…
[streaming] Powerdove – Machination
Title track and opening song from the album “Machination”, out May 28th 2021 via Murailles Music. Reconfigured as a French-American duo, Powerdove is releasing its fifth album and it’s a dazzling balance of diaphanous melodies and explosive arrangements, at once poppy and in-your-face experimental. Conceived on the Aegean Sea, the staggeringly beautiful songs of ‘Machination’…
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