an interesting world to be kidnapped into

Residing in Rio de Janeiro, Vasconcelos Sentimento is a self-taught composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist. A mosaic of lo-fi breaks, cosmic ambient jazz and wonky chromatic funk, the eccentric Brazilian DIY wizard’s debut album Furto beautifully pieces together a huge range of seemingly disparate sonic elements. Calling himself an “amateur euphoric sound researcher”, he has no formal training in either music theory or production, and it’s simply by following his ear that has led him to creating his debut album for Far Out Recordings.

It was his fascination with his fellow countryman, the enigmatic, psychedelic 70s folk artist Jose Mauro, that led the young Vasconcelos Sentimento (real name Guilherme Esteves) to first make contact with Far Out. Coincidentally living in the same region as Mauro, Sentimento managed to track him down and put label boss Joe Davis in touch, after Davis had spent years of what felt like hopeless searching for the man many assumed dead. 

When Joe and the Far Out team heard Guilhermes’ own music, there was a sense of shock. “It was unlike anything we’d heard before, but it also sounded curiously at home on Far Out. Like it had taken little pieces of different releases from the catalogue, and all the music from the ‘60s onwards that influences everything we do, and recreated all that magic in such an exciting new way”.

Indeed, Sentimento is not afraid to admit what he himself sees as acts of theft. (Furto=Theft in Portuguese). But while the debate surrounding the ethics of sampling is a never ending one, Sentimento’s music - while it does contain the odd sample, including an interview with Joe Davis himself, “One For The Masta Digga”) - steals in an entirely different way. His creative process involves an intensive period, in which he’ll listen to just one artist or song over and over, for days and weeks on end. Then he’ll head to his rudimentary bedroom studio, which, as he puts it, is “built for speed”, hit record and “blurt” whatever comes out. “I never spend more than a day working on any one song idea”...

Picasso once said “lesser artists borrow; great artists steal”. And it’s through this process of ‘Furto’ that Vasconcelos Sentimento has somewhat ironically cultivated a sound that is unmistakably his own. 

Furto is due for vinyl, CD and digital release on 30th July 2021, via Far Out Recordings.

Vasconcelos Sentimento - Cama Do Estoque

BBE Music is thrilled to announce the release of Modern Love, a diverse compendium of specially commissioned cover versions of rarities and classics in tribute to David Bowie.

Featuring an array of artists such as Jeff Parker, We Are KING, Meshell Ndegeocello, Helado Negro, Khruangbin, Matthew Tavares, Nia and more, Modern Love seeks to champion Bowie’s lesser-known connection to soul, R&B, jazz, funk, and gospel. The prominent jazz influences throughout Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, were a key inspiration for curating this collection of reimagined Bowie songs with these artists. The resulting album is an eclectic tribute featuring a group of artists who not only fit together creatively, but who, like Bowie, straddle different worlds musically, with soul and jazz at their core.

Modern Love offers a fresh look at Bowie’s trailblazing career, aiming to highlight the often overlooked relationship between his back catalogue and musical genres traditionally pioneered by artists of color. The project was curated by music executive and DJ Drew McFadden, alongside BBE Music founder Peter Adarkwah. “I felt that the connection between Bowie and R&B, jazz, funk, gospel and all things soulful, had never really been explored before — at least not so much in covers, which tend to lean more towards rock and pop,” says McFadden. “Certainly, there’s been plenty of Bowie covers over the years, but none that have really tapped into what seems to have been a big part of his core musical
style and direction.”

Modern Love is an interactive sonic map. Here, seventeen artists make their way into the varied regions of his sundry catalog and circle back with seventeen unique re-imaginings of both his cornerstone and lesser-known tracks. Some, in atmosphere, feel like a sly alternate take from original sessions (Khruangbin’s ethereal, funk infused version of “Right” from Young Americans); others nod at the source, then wink before diving into the deep waters of another musical stratosphere (Sessa’s sexy Tropicalia-drenched “Panic in Detroit” from Aladdin Sane). Still others take tunes down to the studs and then re-arrange the moody interiors: Meshell Ndegeocello’s pensive “Fantastic Voyage” from Lodger and Tavares’ clever take on “Heroes” which is restructured into a kinetic hardbop-esque backdrop, fronted by ice-cool, held-back vocals. The bullseye these artists aim for is Bowie’s fearlessness. “Fame was an incredible bluff that worked,” he once reflected. “Very flattering. I’ll do anything until I fail. And when I succeed I quit too.”

Modern Love packs us off on a journey that balances on risk’s sharp blade. Track-to-track, it explores what happens when a musician throws out notions of should and safe and stretches beyond the known. These artists use Bowie both as a guide and a prism: A way of being and seeing. Their offerings, widely divergent, explore the inheritance from an artist who freed himself from labels, genres and, consequently, pigeonholes. While he was at it, he decimated fixed notions about territory (or terra) itself; boundaries hemmed-in his creative process, but his essence remained free to roam. He may have vanished in earthly form, yet, as he also promised in the lyrics of “Modern Love,” But I never wave bye-bye . . .” This compilation assures us that his spirit swirls around us. His force is alive to all of us and, here, it is summoned with an incantation that celebrates possibility.

Matthew Tavares - Heroes

MIMS is extremely excited to premiere the truly otherworldly and yet beautiful sounds of Ruth Goller, with “Often they came to visit, even just to see how she was (M1)”, the lead single from forthcoming debut solo album, “Skylla", on Bex Burch's Vula Viel Records. A strong recommendation for today’s Bandcamp Friday.

Taking inspiration from Bulgarian folk song, via free jazz and the Brazilian singer-songwriter & guitarist 'Joyce', to the Italian Alps from where she hails, Goller turns bewitching compositions from improvised bass guitar harmonics in different tuning systems into ethereal polyphonic songs.

Ruth Goller’s ‘Skylla’ shines a long-awaited light on one of the most important musicians to have driven and revolutionised the UK jazz and improv scenes over the last 16 years. The bassist, vocalist, composer, environmentalist and now solo artist, draws inspiration from deep within to create a stunningly original and beautiful piece of work.

Hailed by the Guardian for her “thunderous bass-guitar hooks’, Goller has been a true trailblazer for London’s jazz scene, since touring and recording with Acoustic Ladyland and Melt Yourself Down, through to Let Spin and Vula Viel, whilst performing and recording with the likes of Shabaka Hutchings, Kit Downes, Sam Amidon, Bojan Z, Marc Ribot, and Rokia Traoré. 

‘Skylla’ sees Goller almost looking back to the raw instincts that drove her as a teen punk musician. Working with different tunings for each song, Goller composed instinctively based on what she could hear, moment-to-moment. As Goller puts it, “at that point muscle memory doesn’t work anymore so I have to trust my ear completely”.

Ruth tells us ““Often they came to visit, even just to see how she was. (M1)” is pure instinct and improvisation. I made it into a tune afterwards. It's the most improvised piece of the whole album, and completely accidental tuning. My bass was tuned that way, when I took it out from my softcase after a plane-jurney. This tune represents water to me. I am happy and eternal in water.”

Hailing from the Italian-Austrian border, Goller grew up fascinated by the differences and similarities in the intentions behind speech. This ear for words has influenced her approach to vocals; improvising them through streams of consciousness around her bass playing, focusing on the sound and feeling, and almost inventing a new language through abstraction. As Goller puts it, “Music is a language and I always want to learn as much as I can about it”.

Initially Goller recorded all the vocals alone, before inviting accomplished and celebrated vocalists Lauren Kinsella and Alice Grant to lend their additional voices to particular pieces;  knowing they would rise to the challenge of singing words free of language to irregular tunings. Mercury-Award nominee Kit Downes, produced and mixed the album.

This week, a live performance of Skylla by Ruth Goller with Lauren Kinsella and Alice Grant was hosted and streamed by the Guildhall School Summer Jazz Festival. An incredible performance, it can be streamed back until May 13: https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/summer_2021/summer_jazz_festival

“Often they came to visit, even just to see how she was (M1)” sees release on May 11, with the album, “Skylla” following on July 9, on CD, digital and vinyl. It's available to order now on Bandcamp.

Exclusive Premiere: Ruth Goller "Often they came to visit, even just to see how she was (M1)"

The final single before the hotly anticipated release of BBE Music’s David Bowie tribute album ‘Modern Love’, Jeff Parker and The New Breed present a unique take on ‘Soul Love’.

Originally recorded in 1971 and released the following year on classic album ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’, the original version of ‘Soul Love’ was notable for its poignant lyrics exploring love and death, and its saxophone solo performed by Bowie himself.

Alongside key members of his ‘New Breed’ project Jay Bellerose (drums) and Ruby Parker (vocals), Jeff Parker turns in a wistful and melancholic rendition of ‘Soul Love’ with haunting, extended chords coupled to the angular, idiosyncratic brilliance of Jeff’s guitar and synth work.

Says Parker: “Bowie’s career went through a lot of different phases because he was always looking forward and trying new things. Above all, he was an artist and an innovator. I was attracted to the eccentricity of “Soul Love” as soon as I heard it; Ruby and I were channeling the muse of Bowie when we tackled our rendition of it, trying to stay with his experimental, but accessible, spirit.”

Released on May 28th 2021, ‘Modern Love, A David Bowie Tribute Album’ also features Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Kit Sebastian, The Hics, Sessa, Helado Negro, Khruangbin, Nia Andrews, Foxtrott, L’Rain, Eddie Chacon & John Carroll Kirby, Jonah Mutono, Bullion, Meshell Ndegeocello, Matthew Tavares and We Are KING.

Jeff Parker and The New Breed – Soul Love (feat. Ruby Parker)

Tsubaki fm Hiroshima: DJ SATOSHI - 26.05.21

FatCat Records were live with a selection of Dub, New Wave, and Funk. Music from Galt MacDermot, Earl Klugh, Sansibar, and more features throughout.

FatCat Records - June 2021

Emmavie was live with a stack of new music from the likes of Greentea Peng, Devin Tracy and herself. Smooth and soulful drops the whole way through.

Never Skip Radio w/ Emmavie - June 2021

We are delighted to premiere the soothing and hypnotic sounds of "Manyanet", the second single to be lifted from Venezuelan singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Isaac Sasson's forthcoming 'Canciones de Isaac' album on Olindo Records.

“Manyanet” is a sonic postcard dedicated to the small town of the same name in the Catalan Pyrenees, which inspired Isaac through its landscapes and sounds. It was one of the first songs Isaac wrote and recorded in Barcelona, Spain following his move from Venezuela, and contains a mixture of field recordings captured during his visit, juxtaposed with the sounds of Caracas during a rainy afternoon.

Due for release in January next year, the intimately titled album, ‘Canciones de Isaac’, summons the sounds of the wind, birds, crickets, fallen leaves and the atmosphere of both Caracas by night, and daytime walks through the meadows of the Pyrenees, to create a parallel universe between Isaac’s home country of Venezuela, and his current place of residence in Barcelona, Spain. 

Throughout the LP, Isaac’s gentle voice is accompanied by the traditional bandola llanera, charango and cuatro; various percussion and wind instruments; and carefully arranged strings. The 13 songs on the album develop a narrative built around personal stories that touch upon human emotions, family ties and friendships, to craft a collection of sonic postcards that evoke memories, places, travels and moments spent with loved ones during the musician’s journey between two continents.

"Manyanet" is released on Wenesday, 8th of December on Olindo Records, and will be available on all streaming platforms, or download via Bandcamp, where the album can also be previewed and pre-order on vinyl, CD and/or digital formats, with limited additional merch.

Exclusive Premiere: Isaac Sasson "Manyanet" (Forthcoming on Olindo Records)

Deep Sea Vault

What was I dreaming about?

gravel 4 v1 60 bpm

Future Classics & Forgotten Treasures — Selections for the Adventurous Music Listener (Founded in 2007 by Lexis)

Exclusive Premiere: Ruth Goller "Often they came to visit, even just to see how she was (M1)"

Music Is My Sanctuary

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