Mr Bongo proudly presents the debut album from Tasmania-born, Melbourne-based, Finn Rees. Gliding across a swirling palette of saturated hues, Dawn Is A Melody feels vintage yet vibrant, new but familiar at the same time. A spiritual, deep and textured jazz record, tipping its hat to greats from the past, capturing memories and reformulating them into new ideas with the help of some of Melbourne’s finest talent.

Expert keys player for the likes of 30/70 and Elle Shimada, alongside one-half of Close Counters, this debut LP was Finn’s conscious departure from the realm of groove-based jazz. Instead, Dawn Is A Melody places the piano and arrangements centre stage, giving Finn and his fellow Melbourne crew freedom to explore the spaces in between, new emotions and alternate soundscapes.

In Finn’s own words: “My intention with Dawn Is A Melody was to create a world; a microcosm of colour. Something rich and beautiful that allowed the melodies and compositions to reach their full potential. It was driven by hope, curiosity and the search for beauty and reassurance in this ever-changing world. The emotion behind the music is really about the journey of life, growing up and changing, as well as my relationship with Tasmania’s natural landscapes where I grew up, a part of the world that is incredibly unique and beautiful.”

The album arcs between opening, middle and end. Beginning with the optimism of ‘Looking Up’ and ‘Lagoon’, the former a celestial, string and harp marbled slice of positivity, the latter a spiritual journey of exuberance and hope, Finn’s fingers dancing across the ‘70s Yamaha grand piano. From there the songs blossom outwards with the cinematic soulful journey of ‘It’s Behind Me Now’ and Brazilian-inspired ‘Expansion’, as the divine ‘Crossing’ signals a transition to a new realm. The energy is transformed from the rich cosmic textures to a more intimate and personal feeling with ‘Ablaze’, ‘Between Spaces’ and ‘As It Passes’ which blissfully fades down to simply piano and strings to close out the record.

Recorded at Rolling Stock in Collingwood, Melbourne, Henry Jenkins was drafted in as recording and mix engineer, his minimal vintage mic setups giving a live aesthetic and warmth to the arrangements. Lucky Pereira and Blakely McLean Davies form the rock-solid rhythm section, with a hand-picked line-up of other Melbourne talent on display, including Cheryl Durongpitikul on tenor sax, Siwei Wong on harp, Audrey Powne on trumpet and Allysha Joy on vocals to name only a few.

Plotting a course from Alice Coltrane, through Herbie Hancock, to Arthur Verocai, this is a debut nourished by the past but firmly made in the present. A record unable to be age-stamped, casting ambiguity as to when, what era and by whom it has been crafted. Like a vintage lens capturing a current scene, Dawn Is A Melody is warm and familiar yet focused on the here now.

Finn Rees - Dawn Is A Melody

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Melbourne-via-Tasmania musician @finn-rees finds his creative spark in the works of Alice Colrane, Herbie Hancock, and Arthur Verocai. Despite these influences, the album he has created is distinctly his own.

Album of the Week: Finn Rees - Dawn Is A Melody

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👉 https://timecapsule.lnk.to/MarioRuiSilva

The roots of Angolan popular music explored in the meticulous guitar studies of Mário Rui Silva 1980s albums.

Whether on mesmerising acoustic ballads or hypnotic groove-led tracks, the music of Angolan guitarist, researcher and intellectual Mário Rui Silva has a beguiling, melancholy quality, woven into the dynamics of his deft guitar playing.

Rhythmically complex yet supremely effortless, the music collected here stems from three albums Mário released in Luanda in the 1980s that reflect his diverse range of influences, from traditional Angolan and West African rhythms to European jazz and classical instrumentation.

It is united by a sense of low-key beauty, whether on the chugging opener ‘Kazum-zum-zum’, the jazz-funk keys of ‘Lembrança Dum Velho’, or the twinkling, late-night poly-rhythms of ‘Kizomba Kya Kisanji’.

Born in Luanda, Angola in 1953, Mário dedicated his life to Angolan popular music. His fifty-year career has seen him live between Angola and Europe, rub shoulders with Cameroonian musicians Francis Bebey and Ewanjé, record the seminal album Angola ’72 with fellow Angolan musician Bonga, and draw influence from Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell.

It was the teaching of Angolan legend and Ngola Ritmos co-founder Liceu Vieira Dias that Mário gained a technical, political and spiritual understanding of Angolan musical culture. In the hands of Liceu, the traditional Angolan semba and kazukuta rhythms of the 1940s and ‘50s helped create an emancipatory sense of national pride and collective agency that awakened its listeners to the racism and tyranny of colonial rule, underpinning the country’s push for independence in the process.

What might sound like the intonations of Brazilian influence are what Mário attributes to the “African rhythms taken by the slaves [which] gave rise to other musical cultures” around the globe. Instead, this music emerged from a collective instinct to assert a cosmopolitan Angolan identity free from the patronising falsehoods of Lusotropicalism.

“There was a need within me to contribute in doing new things,” Mário describes. “In the sense of solidifying the music of Angola that was the result of the meeting of two cultures, and wanting to value the Angolan part whenever possible.”

A selection from Mário’s three 1980s albums, Sung’Ali (1982), Tunapenda Afrika (1985) and Koizas dum Outru Tempu (1988) have been compiled here as a 2xLP release by Time Capsule’s Sam Jacob and Kay Suzuki. Together, they provide a snapshot of one man’s journey to the core of his nation’s music, charged with the search for a culture uprooted by colonialism.

Artist: Mário Rui Silva
Title: Stories From Another Time 1982-1988 
Label: Time Capsule
Cat Num: TC013 / TIME013
Release: 25th June 2021
Genre: World, Jazz, African
Style: Semba
Format: Double LP with liner notes & pictures + digital
Remaster : Stuart Hawkes (Metropolis Studios, UK)

👉 https://timecapsule.lnk.to/MarioRuiSilva

Stories From Another Time 1982-1988

12 Nahary

Taken from the album 'Remember Your North Star', released 17 June 2022 on Big Dada: https://yaya-bey.lnk.to/rynsSo

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FIELDNOTES PT III

Take It Easy (Miles' Song)

Finn Rees, one of the key members of Melbourne’s bubbling music scene, announces his debut solo album, Dawn Is A Melody on Mr Bongo with the first single, ‘Looking Up’. As part of 30/70 and Close Counters his previous work has found form in its groove, Dawn Is A Melody instead places the piano and arrangements centre stage, embracing a timeless warmth infused with bittersweet melodies and saturated textures.
 
The lead single ‘Looking Up’ is a divine dose of uplifting, soul-rousing optimism that kicks off the album. A blank canvas for Finn and a whole host of Melbourne’s finest talent to fill with colour. Sitting between spiritual and cinematic, the track instantly envelops you in a swell of vintage hues, Lucky Pereira feathering the drums as Blakely McLean Davies riffs on the double bass. Finn’s fingers flow across the ‘70s Yamaha grand piano, delicately dancing around Siwei Wong’s stunning harp playing as the track builds and breaks. A sublime string section made up of Chloe Danger, Eunise Cheng, Nils Hobiger and McLean Davies, alongside shimmering vocal harmonies by 30/70 bandmate Allysha Joy, lift the track to limitless heights.
 
Finn’s layered synthwork on the Moog and Prophet provides a contemporary touch to proceedings, but one of the beauties of ‘Looking Up’ and the rest of the Dawn Is A Melody is its inability to be placed by age or era. A blend of inspirations from Arthur Verocai to Alice Coltrane, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson to Kamasi Washington, tied together with recording and mix engineer Henry Jenkin’s vintage recording setup warmth.
 
Just as the swell washed in at the start, the tide draws ‘Looking Up’ to a close, fading back out across the horizon as the sun sets another story.

Finn Rees - Looking Up

‘Expansion’ is the second single from Melbourne-based, Finn Rees’ forthcoming debut album, Dawn Is A Melody. A Brazilian-inspired, spirit-embracing jazz immersion, that nods to greats like Luiz Eça, Dom Salvador and Cesar Camargo Mariano yet showcases the vibrancy of Finn’s contemporary palette. 

Further illuminating the microcosm of colour that is Dawn Is A Melody, ‘Expansion’ explores the connection between the worldly and those cosmic realms that float in between, with the help of some of Melbourne’s finest musicians. Igniting the track, Lucky Pereira’s exquisite drumming marries with Blakely McLean Davies’ strutting double bass playing, as a Latin touch shines through Dom Kirk’s percussion. 

Sitting at the helm, Finn’s signature mastery across the keys from the ‘70s Yamaha grand piano to the warming tones of the Rhodes, elevate your mind to a weightless dimension. Enhancing those earthly measures, he taps into the cosmic-channelling Moog to add an undertone of interstellar electronics.  A foundation that gives ground for the triplet of horns to form a harmonious unison, Audrey Powne on trumpet, Cheryl Durongpisitkul on tenor sax, Josh Moshe on alto sax, all gliding as one. 

Both grounded and galactic, it’s an intricate, soulful and spiritual jazz journey with a depth and richness that is perfectly saturated by recording and mix engineer Henry Jenkin’s vintage recording setup.

Finn Rees - Expansion

Finn Rees - Ablaze

Finn Rees - It's Behind Me Now

Finn Rees - Horizons

Finn Rees - Lagoon

DJ Notoya Presents Tokyo Bliss - Japanese Funk, Boogie and City Pop From King Records 1974-88

Paper machine

ENAMEL

Produced and Mixed by Max Shrager at Studio Zoe NJ
Mastered by Dan Millice

Céline Dessberg - Yatga