Symphonie Pacifique

Greg Foat - Island Life

London-based keyboardist/producer Dan Nicholls (of Y-OTIS) introduces a new album project ‘Mattering And Meaning’ to be released by We Jazz Records on August 13th. Nicholls' music uses acoustic piano as its key element, transporting the instrument into new territories that sound remarkably natural and organic, whilst displaying a strong kinship with the world of abstract electronic music. The music utilises piano loops and field recordings as its key elements, forming what might be described on the surface as a fascinating ambient jazz record – but at the same time there's so much more at play here on deeper levels. Dan's music sounds at once otherworldly and immensely inviting.

With its uncanny landscape of fine sand drifts, juniper fields and pine, the ancient Beerze forest in the North-East of the Netherlands is a site of many unusual convergences of human and other than human stories. 'Papa' continues to unravel the threads of a deep artistic collaboration and kinship between pianist and producer Dan Nicholls and the Dutch filmmaker and anthropologist Louise Boer. These fuzzily collaged images and sounds represent a common love for finding the in-between places in which ideas can find deeper roots, channeled here through a dreamlike world which holds within it the location in which Louise’s father, Henk Boer, found his final resting place.

Mattering and Meaning

Exclusive Premiere: Dan Nicholls "Papa" (We Jazz Records)

Bottle This Fire - All Tracks

Supernova feat Franz Von

GGB-030LP
Minami Deutsch - Fortune Goodies

The Border

Curating and ordering the tracks for a Mr Bongo Record Club is always special. You’re reminded of the feelings you had when sitting at home with a cassette player on pause trying to compile the perfect mixtape to impress the latest object of your affection, or that friend with whom you share a musical kinship and spark off each other’s latest discoveries. Hearing old tracks for the first time or diving into the most upfront selections keeps the fires burning and passions alight. 

Here, for volume six, we present recent finds and treasured classics from Brazil, Sweden, the USA, South Africa, Portugal, Japan, Trinidad and Tobago, and Canada. We have included selections by the Brazilian rising star Dora Morelenbaum as well as from heritage-Brazilian musicians and vocalists Haréton Salvanini, Copa 7, and Mirna. There’s also the wonderful Brazilian-not-Brazilian take of 'Ye Me Le' by Hazel Scott And The Braza Brasil, plus sublime gospel from the New York Community Choir. We’ve picked disco and soul rarities by General Lee and Ash Soul, Inc., and for the first time on vinyl, an incredible psych-pop song by the illustrious Matthew Tavares. There are cuts from some of our favourite contemporary Swedish musicians, Sven Wunder and Dina Ögon too. This compilation is packed full of gems that are plucked from differing times and spaces, but somehow all gel together beautifully. We hope you love them too. 

Artwork illustration by Nicolas Burrows.

1. Dora Morelenbaum -  Japão

Berlin-based Swedish bassist and producer Petter Eldh returns with a new Koma Saxo album Post Koma, out on We Jazz Records, 10 November. The title Post Koma aptly describes the vibe of this one: The Koma Saxo sound continues its evolution, morphing into a holistic vision of jazz now and soon, where live instrumentation and repurposed sampling lose their boundaries.

Over the course of its three iterations (self-titled debut in 2019, LIVE in 2020, Koma West in 2022) Koma Saxo has sounded at times "liquid" and postproduced, at times raw and direct, at times acoustic and at other times oddly electronic (even while still being made with acoustic instruments). Post Koma is a culmination of this sonic study by Eldh, resulting in a music vision that never second-guesses throwing tasty hooks and everlasting melodies out the window after a mere bite of them. But fear not: there are even more new ideas just around the corner.

Eldh's compositions and ideas merge together in a way that just flows. There are quality musicians in the mix, including Koma Saxo live band members Sofia Jernberg, Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsjö, Mikko Innanen, Maciej Obara and Christian Lillinger, but that's like saying that a cake includes flour and sugar. This music is not about playing, it's essentially about how the music is and how it takes its shape, so you quickly lose track of who did what, and that's all in the benefit of encountering this music as an entity that is constantly challenging itself while moving forward. The musicians are valued contributors, and an integral part of what's here, but this is far from traditional jazz playing where a band sits in a room playing takes after takes of compositions on sheet.

That being said, this is jazz to the fullest. That is, music that understands its past but always moves forward, and is never afraid of taking risks. Petter Eldh uses jazz as a starting point, not the end goal. This gives his music edge and mobility beyond what can be contained on one album. In a way, an album, then, becomes a snapshot of a creative process in constant flux and evolution.

Opening track "Koma" is literally drum & bass. It only consists of those two elements, yet what comes out of it is an open invite, a way of clearing your palette. It would be useless to describe individual tracks beyond that, but there's a strong sense of deliverance to the set. It feels like an ending, and also like a new beginning.

Watten Koma

Prins Obi’s fifth full-length is his most ambitious and expansive work to date, both musically and lyrically, incorporating elements of hip hop, orchestral pop, reggae/dub, sophisti-pop and spoken word among others, while pushing the envelope in terms of songwriting and production. 
Composed, produced and performed in its entirety by Obi himself at his home studio, New World Boi is a loose concept album about emancipation, redemption, anti-conformism and artistic freedom… Sad, funny, introspective, outgoing, gloomy and playful at the same time. A new kind of pop as envisioned by the artist.

New World Boi is out on CD, Limited edition Cassette and Digital album on October 20th via Inner Ear.

***
Το πέμπτο album του Prins Obi είναι το πιο φιλόδοξο και πολυδιάστατο έργο του μέχρι σήμερα, τόσο μουσικά όσο και στιχουργικά. Συμπεριλαμβάνει στοιχεία hip hop, ορχηστρικής ποπ, reggae/dub, sophisti-pop και spoken word, μεταξύ άλλων, ενώ παράλληλα θέτει νέα όρια όσον αφορά στην σύνθεση των τραγουδιών και την παραγωγή. 

Συνθέτης, παραγωγός και ερμηνευτής είναι ο ίδιος ο Obi, που ηχογράφησε το album στο δικό του home studio. Το New World Boi είναι ένα χαλαρό concept album για την απελευθέρωση, την αναγέννηση, την αντίσταση στην κοινοτοπία και την καλλιτεχνική ελευθερία. Λυπημένο-αστείο, εσωστρεφές-εξωστρεφές, σκοτεινό και παιχνιδιάρικο ταυτόχρονα. Ένα νέο είδος ποπ όπως το οραματίζεται ο καλλιτέχνης.

Το New World Boi κυκλοφορεί σε CD, Κασέτα και Digital Album στις 20 Οκτωβρίου από την Inner Ear.

New World Boi

Prins Obi - New World Boi

Sonor Music Editions unveil another mega-rarity from the renowned Sermi Records vaults from obscurity: composer and saxophone player Sandro Bugnolini’s Freedom Jazz suite - originally released as a part of the fourth installment of the iconic Intermezzi library series recorded in the late 1960s.

The whole suite recalls black counter-culture with free jazz arrangements signed by Maestro Brugnolini and improvisations performed by legendary musicians such as Gato Barbieri on tenor saxophone, Giovanni Tommaso on bass, and Franco Tonani on drums.

FREEDOM JAZZ

Sandro Brugnolini - FREEDOM JAZZ

Shepherd's dreams

beautiful (demo)

SME 60 - SEDUZIONE CONIUGALE OST LP by Giancarlo Gazzani
Out september 2019
https://www.facebook.com/sonormusiceditions/

We're glad to announce the reissue of this previously unreleased soundtrack for the obscure drama movie from 1974 directed by Daniele Franco. Originally published by CAM label with just 2 tracks recorded on a scarce 45, our team was able to restore the music from the original Cam archive tapes to offer a proper vinyl edition that this beatiful score absolutely deserves. Maestro and orchestra director Giancarlo Gazzani, the great musician and arranger behind several Italian grails like FEELINGS and more killer Library recording from Costanza Records, composed an enchanting and unmissable OST with loads of refined Morricone-esque orchestral arrangements, insane groovy beats and Nuova Consonanza inspired Avant-garde tunes. 

Edited and compiled by Claudio Fuiano
Remastered by Lorenzo Fabrizi (Sonor Music Editions)
Limited edition 500 copies wordwide
Restored sleeve artwork

Mix courtesy of Tommaso Papale (Tommyboy)

SEDUZIONE CONIUGALE

Giancarlo Gazzani - "SEDUZIONE CONIUGALE" OST

Inner Ear is an independent record label, that was established in 2007. It is located in Patras, Greece. 
Throughout these years, Inner Ear has released a wide array of albums by local independent forward-thinking bands and artists. 
For more information about the artists and releases, please visit our website.

Prins Obi - New World Boi

Inner Ear Records

Related tracks