Meridian Brothers are back with a new studio album, the bizarre and wonderful ‘Salvadora Robot’. Heading deeper into the tropical rhythms of Latin America and the Caribbean each song on the album focuses on a different style and playfully twists it into Meridian Brothers’s surreal landscape. Released on Soundway Records on 16th June the album was recorded at Eblis Álvarez’s appropriately named Isaac Newton Studios in Bogota, Colombia.

Originally formed in 1998 it was the previous album ‘Deseperanza’ that brought Álvarez’s Meridian Brothers to the attention of the wider world. Released worldwide in 2012, the album’s unique aesthetic and freaked-out blend of Latin rhythms and psychedelic grooves won him new fans the world over. DJ and tastemaker Gilles Peterson selected ‘Guaracha U.F.O (No Estamos Solos...)’ as his favourite track of 2012.

‘Deseperanza’ focussed heavily on salsa rhythms but on his new release Álvarez based each track in a different Latin American style. For example ‘Somos los Residentes’ finds it inspiration in Dominican Republic merengue while ‘Baile ultimo….’ is a slow and sad reggaeton. The lyrics talk of a man who has been sent to the electric chair because he was dancing too much reggaeton, a style that isn’t accepted as “good taste” within Colombia.

The release of ‘Deseperanza’ brought them to Europe for the first time, making appearances across Europe and at some of the prestigious festival including Roskilde and Transmusicales. The band will be returning to Europe this summer. 

Pre-order

Meridian Brothers - El gran pájaro de los Andes (Instrumental)

for a baudelaire compilation
by mariahilff

04 Rausch

Meinungsorgel bei der Edge Agape Session. (gekürzt)
Performance with Benjamin Staude

EdgeAgape

Composed by Chessex for Eklekto. 
Recorded live in October 2018 at Alhambra in Geneva by Thierry Simonot.

Published as a LP by Tochnit-Aleph in 2020

For 4 Hackbretter & 1 Cymbalum

écho/cide (for Eklekto: 4 Hackbretter & 1 Cymbalum; short excerpt)

Composed for Wesley Shen with the kind support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Performance by Wesley Shen, May 2019, Netherlands.

Title based on "The Small Meadows in Spring" by Alfred Sisley, 1880.

Small Meadows in Spring, for solo harpsichord (2019)

Christina Kubisch
Italienische Stücke / Italian Pieces (1974-1984)
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CD, Tochnit Aleph TA158, November 2019
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soundfile incudes:
00'00 - 01'23 min - Liquid Piece (1975)excerpt
01'25 - 03'28 min - Circles 1 (1984)excerpt
03'30 - 08'18 min - Costante Variabile (1981)excerpt
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Special pre-order edition of 50 copies now available!
http://www.tochnit-aleph.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=4546
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Italienische Stücke / Italian Pieces (1974-1984) TA158

Christina Kubisch (TA158) excerpts

FUJI||||||||||TA, iki, LP

Release date - April 3th 2020
Catalogue nr. - HG2003
Format - Ltd. Vinyl/digital

https://hallowground.bandcamp.com

Credits:
All music composed, played and Recorded by FUJI|||||||||||TA
Mixed by Makoto Oshiro
Mastering by Lawrence English at Negative Space

Tracklist:
1) keshiki (09:42)
2) nNami (09:20)
3) osoi (10:12)
4) sukima (07:03)

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"FUJI|||||||||||TA has created a work that operates as a beautiful nexus between the material and immaterial qualities of music. 
It is a lived-in dreamscape of deep, rich tonality. A remarkable debut."
(Lawrence English)

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FUJI||||||||||TA, real name FUJITA Yosuke, is a Japanese sound artist. After countless performances in different contexts either solo or along artists such as Yamantaka Eye of Boredoms and the legendary avant-gardist SUZUKI Akio as well as a slew of solo releases, his LP »iki« (»breath«) for the Swiss-based Hallow Ground label is his first in nine years. On these four pieces, Fujita explores the idiosyncratic sound qualities of the pipe organ he has built all by himself in 2009. This - quite literally unique - instrument features only eleven pipes, an air pump called »fuigo« which was modelled after a traditional blacksmith’s one and has no keyboard. Inspired by traditional gagaku, it was designed to evoke rich landscapes rather function as just another musical instrument. While his previous records saw FUJI||||||||||TA explore various modes of abstraction, »iki« is a highly emotive yet meditative album, musically restrained but full of imagination.

»keshiki« immediately sets the mood for this record with a long sustained note that is punctuated by the soft clicking of Fujita’s air pump. Once Fujita carefully starts bringing melodies into play, the interplay of the drone and the discrete rhythmic element gives way to a fuller harmonic whole. »keshiki« is an intimate piece that perfectly displays the artist’s knack for painting a rich sonic picture with only a reduced palette. »nNami« juxtaposes the sounds of two pipes that are out of tune with each other, creating a hypnotic sensation of ebb and flow (»nami« translates to »wave«) that is full of subtle friction. It’s a staggering artistic interpretation of the instrument’s material characteristics. Clocking in at ten minutes, »osoi« (»slow«) is an overall melancholic piece that explores the relationship between different tone colours through minute changes in pace. Finally, »sukima« (»blank space«) is the shortest and the most rhythmic piece of the four. Composed of only staccati, it is a masterful exploration of the harmonic qualities Fujita’s stunning pipe organ has to offer.

Recorded between September and December of 2019, »iki« marks the culmination of FUJI||||||||||TA’s ten-year-long work with the instrument that he had built without any prior knowledge and started to teach himself to play without a manual in sight. It is, in other words, the unique result of a unique musical mind paying his dues to the uniqueness of his own creation; introspective and welcoming at once.

EdgeAgape

Boris Joens

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