A.r.t. Wilson - Rebecca's Theme (Water)

Comme ça !

This one is very special to us. We linked three of our cherished musical family together; the wonderous band SOYUZ, legendary cult artist Asha Puthli and Swedish maestro Sven Wunder, for an exclusive production made especially for the Mr Bongo Record Club 7 compilation. We were so blown away with the results, we wanted to share it as a stand-alone single too. 

They say don't meet your heroes, but this is not the case with Asha Puthli. You couldn't meet a more inspirational, gutsy and funny spirit, who is rich in stories, experience and knowledge. At the age of 79, Asha has embarked on her first-ever world tour, returning to the stage after over 40 years.

The track that would go on to become this collaborative piece, started out in Minsk just a month before the outbreak of full-scale war in Ukraine and SOYUZ’s emigration to Poland. Spending time in the studio playing around with different instruments and recording ideas, SOYUZ’s Alex Chumak wrote the initially piano-driven track, influenced by Azerbaijani pianist and composer Vagif Mustafazadeh, with hints of Holger Czukay weaved within.

As longtime fans of Asha’s music, SOYUZ were incredibly excited about the prospect of a collaboration. Asha loved the demo, so the band recorded a proper studio session, sending it to her in Miami where she returned it with her mystical vocals, that as Alex explains “were like a revelation – strange and beautiful at the same time!”.

To put the icing on the cake, Alex met one of our heroes, producer and composer Sven Wunder from Stockholm, whilst playing Sessa’s live band. After playing him the Asha track, Sven wrote a glorious string arrangement that was recorded with the Stockholm Studio Orchestra and conducted by Erik Arvinder. 

Lifting the track even further, subtle percussion by Anders Scherp and Anders af Klintberg delicately dusts the grooves. It was a pure goosebumps moment when we first opened the finished track at Mr Bongo HQ and got to hear the song in its entirety. At just over two minutes it's short, but oh-so-sweet, beautifully encapsulating Asha's character and personality - playful, wise and serene, whilst also perfectly capturing SOYUZ’s cinematic, song-writing prowess and Sven Wunder’s distinctive style.

SOYUZ (СОЮ3) Featuring Asha Puthli & Sven Wunder - Spring Has Sprung

At the forefront of a rising wave of Brazilian artists captivating international audiences, Nyron Higor brings a quiet yet potent sense of wonder to his new self-titled album. Born in Maceió, Higor’s latest work is rooted in the traditions of Northeastern Brazilian music and golden-era MPB. Within the peaceful surroundings of his home, Higor weaves these roots together with global influences and contemporary production techniques, for a uniquely dreamlike vision of hope.

Following the success of his self-released debut Fio de Lâmina—an instrumental record of delicately balanced rhythmic and harmonic patterns, which earned support from tastemakers like Mr. Scruff, Gilles Peterson, and John Gomez—Higor’s new album is a move towards a more expansive, lyrical exploration of transcendence and triumph. As Higor explains, “This album is a test of resistance and a big event in my life as a young Black man from the Northeast and coming from a humble background, financially speaking, its context is political.”

Taking his demos and unfinished tracks to São Paulo, Higor worked alongside friends and collaborators from Brazil’s vibrant contemporary music scene—including fellow Maceioense artists Bruno Berle, Batata Boy, and New York-based Brazilian vocalist Alici Sol—assembling a rich musical landscape and a cutting edge development on the musical world from which he emerges.  

For Higor, the process of recording and producing in close collaboration with Berle and Batata Boy allowed him to fully cultivate the emotive power of his compositions. Album opener "Ciranda" sets the tone with a slow frevo rhythm, as wistful trombone melodies and melancholic acoustic guitar harmonies create an atmosphere both intimate and grand. Lead single "São Só Palavras," featuring Alici Sol and Bruno Berle, captures both the lightness and depth of young love in an all too fleeting minute-and-a-half moment of soaring brilliance. 

Building upon the instrumental sound of his debut, “Louro Cantador” with its playful organ, birdlike whistles and elegant acoustic guitar, emanates a kind of rare natural beauty, as each sound dances amidst the gentle pulse of Higor's bass—his main instrument. 
Through ten carefully crafted tracks, Higor’s acuity for sound and silence draws listeners into a place that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. “Above all, I value making music that brings me genuine satisfaction. I’m always looking for depth in the things I create.” 

This album is a testament to the timeless themes that define Higor’s artistry, as well as his creative drive to overcome the obstacles he faces. Conveying his feelings of jubilance for his work, Higor notes, “This work is liberating, contemplative and victorious!” Each track invites the listener to experience the raw intimacy, the joy and longing, and the otherworldly ingenuity of Brazilian music, which seems to endlessly keep us coming back for more.


Nyron Higor - Ciranda

Qwalia is the experimental, improvisational home for a quartet of some of London’s most prolific and inspiring musicians. 

Led by drummer Yusuf Ahmed (Joy Crookes, Anoushka Shankar, Unknown to Known), much of the band’s music to date surfaced in a single two-day session at the Fish Factory in Willesden, West London. 

Although improvisational at its core, the band’s fluency and innate musicality makes it hard at times to believe these pieces weren’t written and developed over weeks, rather than conjured in the moment, with no prior rehearsal. Qwalia’s music is an instinctive aural expression of how things seemed in the moment of creation.

Featuring Ben Reed on bass (Frank Ocean, David Byrne, Richard Russell’s Everything Is Recorded), Tal Janes on Guitar (Jordan Rakei, Cherise, Waaju) and Joseph Costi on keys and synths (Cat Stevens, Tom Herbert, Heidi Vogel), the band’s debut album ‘Sound And Reason’ was released by Alberts Favourites in March 2023.

This beautiful version of Elevator Company was recorded in Yusuf's living room last spring for a live video promoting the 2nd album Abbreviations. The band rarely, if ever, replay music they've already recorded, so this is a unique moment and one we're incredibly happy to be able to share. 

Elevator Company (Live)

Qwalia - Elevator Company (Live)

This one was an unexpected treat. Two of our favourite contemporary musicians, Finn Rees & Sholto coming together and collaborating on a double dose of celestial, cinematic alchemy.

At Mr Bongo we are massive admirers of drummer, musician, and producer Sholto (Oscar Robertson). His two albums on Funk Night Records and DeepMatter Records, had both been highlights of their respective years. We’d gotten to know Oscar and sent him a few records. Included in the package was Australian pianist-composer Finn Rees’ debut album, Dawn Is A Melody, which was one of our favourite releases on Mr Bongo in 2024.

In Oscar's words 'For me it was a standout modern jazz record - encapsulating a spiritual / hazy dreamy soundscape which hugely resonated with me. Glissando keys and harp with lush melodies, I was instantly intrigued.”  

The pair started following each other online and as luck would have it, Finn was staying in London for the summer season, so they arranged to meet. The pair instantly clicked and said it felt like they'd known each other for years. After 40 minutes of chatting, they started to jam. 

'Love In Memory' and 'Bluebell' were recorded over two days - a track a day in Oscar's SFJ studios. Laid down on mostly analogue equipment, the pair utilised Wurlitzer’s, mellotrons, and ribbon mics through Oscar’s ‘70s Studer desk. Composed and crafted without any real intentions, other than a shared appreciation for the same style of music and approach, the tracks started to take shape. The results were as lush, nostalgic and textured as you’d expect from these two brilliant musicians, with a classical feel inspired by artists such as Piero Piccioni, Piero Umiliani, and Henry Mancini. 

For the beautiful string arrangements, the pair recruited the talents of Sholto's long-time friend and collaborator Clementine Brown (Penguin Cafe Orchestra) and Matthew Hayes of 30/70, Allysha Joy, Xpress Point, Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange fame, was brought in to play bass on 'Bluebell'.

So here we have it, a chance collaborative project built on two musicians' mutual respect for each other's outputs. The result is truly breathtaking.


Finn Rees & Sholto - Love In Memory

A-side of the the Blue Gas 7" single, entitled Shadows From Nowhere (1984), originally released in France by Night Records .

Shadows From Nowhere

Blue Gas - Shadows From Nowhere

Ryusuke Seto - Dream Land (1979)

Order Vinyl & Digital:
https://antinoterecordings.bandcamp.com/album/miniatures-de-auto-rhythm

August 2018: It’s already been three years since Domenique Dumont made its entrance in the music world with a debut EP named Comme Ca. Despite a seemingly very quiet musical activity (the opening song to Antinote’s compilation Five Years Of Loving Notes was the only song released by the band in 3 years) a few things have changed in-between these two summers: Domenique Dumont is no more the mysterious lone French producer we introduced last time but a Latvian duo, Arturs Liepins and Anete Stuce, which has been collaborating with “an enigmatic French artist whose existence cannot be confirmed nor denied” (sorry, but it sounds like there’s still some mystery in the air, and, again, we’re just as clueless as you might be), the duo have been touring live and, most importantly, they kept on broadening their musical palette experimenting in a definitely pop field. Eight of these experiments are now tied together in Miniatures de Auto Rhythm.

The record probably begins where Comme Ca ended: frantic but light drum programing backbones a solar and slightly melancholic melody on Le Début De La Fin (“the beginning of the end”). However, the scope gets enlarged as soon as one reaches the second tune, Quasi Quasi, or Quand, on the flip side, perhaps the most overtly pop-rock oriented song on the record with its Mediterranean guitar and emotional bridge.

The road towards the apex of the record, Le Soleil Dans Le Monde, is a narrow and windy one, punctuated by toy instrumentals like Ono Mambo Haiku or the Donkey Kong Country-friendly Message Of The Diving Bird; however it never departs from its original tongue-in-cheek attitude. It’s quite pleasant to imagine these eight “miniatures” as field recordings from an enchanted world of pop music designed by some Pierre & Gilles’ disciples – or are there
musical interpretations of half-mechanical, half-organic creations from a certain Otto Rhiesem (who might have inhabited the Locus Solus villa)? There might be no definitive answers to this second set of riddles by Domenique Dumont.

Bandcamp

DOMENIQUE DUMONT - LE SOLEIL DANS LE MONDE

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Far Out Recordings proudly presents two albums of previously unheard Azymuth demo recordings from 1973-75

Since their debut album release in 1975, Azymuth have risen to rank alongside the world’s greatest jazz, funk and fusion artists. As young men in Rio de Janeiro, they stood out for both their exceptional talent as musicians, and their wild rock ‘n’ roll antics in the predominantly middle-class worlds of bossa nova and jazz. Their signature ‘Samba Doido’ (crazy samba) sound ruptured the tried and tested musical structures of the day, resulting in what can only be described as an electric, psychedelic, samba jazz-funk hybrid.
But before they became Azymuth, Jose Roberto Bertrami (keyboards), Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti (drums), Alex Malheiros (bass) and Ariovaldo Contesini (percussion) played backing band to just about every major artist in Brazil.

Bertrami was also contracted as an arranger and songwriter at some the biggest labels of the era: Polydor, Philips, Som Livre, and EMI being just a few. Azymuth’s name can be found on record sleeves by the likes of Jorge Ben, Elis Regina, Marcos Valle, Ana Mazzotti and countless others. But at the dawn of the seventies, fascinated by developments in improvisational music - from jazz in the US, to progressive rock in the UK and of course samba, bossa and tropicália on home turf - the energetic young group were inspired and ready to move forward.Any spare moment in which they weren’t in sessions and writing music for other artists, they would be carving out their own sound.

These previously unheard recordings took place between 1973-75 at Bertrami’s home studio in the Laranjeiras district of Rio de Janeiro. At the time of recording, there was nothing in Brazil, less the world that sounded anything like them, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that when Bertrami presented his demos to the record companies he had been working for, he was turned away, and told in effect that the music was ‘wrong’.

One of the demos ‘Manhã’ would be picked up by Som Livre and Azymuth released their seminal debut album in 1975. Throughout the late seventies and eighties, the group released a series of now classic albums for Milestone Records, before taking an indefinite hiatus to pursue their individual careers.
When English producers Joe Davis and Roc Hunter arrived in Brazil in 1994 to record the first Azymuth album in over a decade, Bertrami dug out the demos which had sat virtually untouched for over twenty years. Joe recalls how he was “blown away by the freedom and intensity of the music, as well as the genius of the ideas musically.” Beginning a long and fruitful relationship, ‘Prefacio’ would be the first track Azymuth recorded for Far Out Recordings and was released on the Carnival album (1996).

Along with ‘Manhã’ and ‘Prefacio’, only a handful of these demos were ever professionally recorded and released, making this the first opportunity to hear many of these early Azymuth compositions in their raw, original form.

On every track the frenetic energy in the studio is palpable, giving the recordings a beautifully personal feel and a sense of the phenomenally creative vision Bertrami, Malheiros and Conti were realising at the time. Fifty years on, Azymuth’s earliest recorded music retains an ineffable, futuristic quality, standing amongst their most captivating and moving work.

Vinyl / CD / Digi

Azymuth - Manha

From DEEK017 - V.A. - '4 Down', the latest in a series of covers compilations, out now (digi & vinyl).

Buy/stream: smarturl.it/4DownAlbum

Video: https://smarturl.it/JovialeStorm
Buy/stream: smarturl.it/4DownAlbum

Joviale - Storm

Record label. Record shop. Film label. Since 1989.