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

Kazum-zum-zum is a drum machine driven hypnotic mid-tempo afrobeat track by Angolan musician Mário Rui Silva. Chugging groove, FM piano and floating synth sounds effortlessly expressed with a low-key vocal, this proto African deep house hidden gem was produced in 1988 and practically undiscovered by the modern-day diggers community until now. 

A compilation of his work "Stories From Another Time 1982​-​1988" will be released on 25th June. Pre-order the double LP or digital album with immediate download of this first single "Kazum-zum-zum" now.

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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 + all  digital formats
Remaster : Stuart Hawkes (Metropolis Studios, UK)
(C)+(P) Time Capsule 2021

Stories From Another Time 1982​-​1988

Stories From Another Time 1982-1988

Kazum-Zum-Zum

👉 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

03 Dembita

The innovative, radical soul of Guadeloupe explored across thirty years of contemporary gwoka music.

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As Guadeloupean vocalist and composer Marie-Line Dahomay writes in her liner notes to the compilation, gwoka is more than a style of music, it is “a way of living and thinking.”

Rooted in the social, musical and ritual practices of enslaved African people and their descendants on Guadeloupe, gwoka has always sought to express the spirit of independence and resistance authentic to the island.

Building on its traditional call-and-response form and the ideas of pivotal figures like Gérard Lockel and Christian Laviso, modern gwoka evolved throughout the second half of the twentieth century to include funk, jazz and electronic influences.

Defined by its propensity for innovation and experimentation, this compilation charts the most radical changes to modern gwoka, capturing a sensory riot of traditional répertoires, rhythms and makè techniques fused with a rich seam of genre-defying experimentation.

Whether heard in the deeply cosmic, spiritual music of Dao, Freydy Doressamy and Gaoulé Mizik, or the jazz funk inflections of Gui Konket and Horizon, the music here is united by the feeling of santiman ka, crucial not only to gwoka music but the identity of Guadeloupe at large.

As co-curator Cédric Lassonde writes: “What unifies these selections is the depth of the compositions, the experimentation around the santiman ka, and the spirit of resistance and liberation against slavery, be it modern or ancestral. With a thirst for innovation typical of the island’s creole culture, the ka spirit is deeply rooted in collective history and in a quest for identity.”

Co-curator Brandon Hocura continues: “The creative energy of these musicians is powerful and demonstrates a universal pursuit of resistance, freedom and identity. Their voices are distinct, but the chorus rises high and carries their message far across the sea.”

Released on double LP, L’Esprit Ka: New Directions in Gwoka Music from Guadeloupe 1981-2010 is the first compilation of its kind to bring the sound of modern gwoka to a wider audience, with many of the musicians features still active today.

Presented with typical attention to detail, the release features a specially commissioned essay by Guadeloupean musician Marie-Line Dahomey, and extensive liner notes from Cédric Lassonde and Séance Centre’s Brandon Hocura. 

True to the hybrid nature of the music, the compilation seeks not to provide a definitive sound, but express the variety of contemporary forms gwoka has grown to take. Just as Guadeloupean trailblazers Kassav fused gwoka with funk and cadence to create zouk, so did the musicians on this collection push gwoka in new directions rarely heard beyond its shores.

In the words of Gérard Lockel, “gwoka is the soul of Guadeloupe”.

Lèspri Ka : New Directions in Gwo Ka Music from Guadeloupe 1981-201

Groupe Béloka - Menm Chimen - La

Kalindi Ka - Yo

Horizon - Ti Malo

Gui Konket - Kimbé Rèd!

Thibault "Freydy" Doressamy - O Fon A Kê An Nou

Emboule Jean-Claude, Louison Gerome et Le Groupe Kako - Enjafann Kannn

Gaoulé Mizik - Sonné Lékla Sonné

Taken from a soundtrack album for Japanese manga Yume No Ishibumi (1985),a year later the release of The Rah Band's Message From The Star and one can hear the clear influence on this track. 

A compilation "Anime & Manga Synth Pop Sountracks 1984-1990" is only available on vinyl → https://timecapsulespace.bandcamp.com/album/anime-manga-synth-pop-soundtracks-1984-1990

Anime & Manga Synth Pop Soundtracks 1984-1990

Kan Ogasawara - Honowo

http://time-capsule.space/portfolios/oasis/

Artist: Il Guardiano Del Faro
Title: Oasis
Label: Time Capsule
Cat Num: TIME001
Genre: Electronic, Pop
Style: Disco, Romantic, Synth-Pop, Ambient
Format: 180g heavy vinyl LP with gatefold sleeve. Restored original artwork. Liner notes and pictures on inner sleeve. Obi for the first pressing.
Remastered: Tim Young, Metropolis Studios (Grammy Award Winner mastering engineer)
Release Date: 7th Sept 2018

Sinfonia Al Sole Che Nasce

http://time-capsule.space/portfolios/choice-works/

Artist: Yuji Toriyama (鳥山雄司)
Title: Choice Works 1982 - 1985
Gnere: Electronic, Jazz/Soul
Style: Fusion, Boogie, Disco
Label: Time Capsule
Cat Num: TIME001
Format: 180g heavy Vinyl. 45rpm loud cut. Obi for the first pressing. New original artwork by Ben Arfur.
Remastered: Tim Young, Metropolis Studios (Grammy Award Winner mastering engineer)
 
Tracklist:
A1: Night Together (1982) 
A2: Stranger In The Mirror (1983)
B1: Donna (1983)
B2: Maze (1985)
B3: Bay / Sky Provincetown 1977 (1985)

B3 - BAY/SKY PROVINCE TOWN 1977

http://time-capsule.space/portfolios/choice-works/

Artist: Yuji Toriyama (鳥山雄司)
Title: Choice Works 1982 - 1985
Gnere: Electronic, Jazz/Soul
Style: Fusion, Boogie, Disco
Label: Time Capsule
Cat Num: TIME002
Format: 180g heavy Vinyl. 45rpm loud cut. Obi for the first pressing. New original artwork by Ben Arfur.
Remastered: Tim Young, Metropolis Studios (Grammy Award Winner mastering engineer)
 
Tracklist:
A1: Night Together (1982) 
A2: Stranger In The Mirror (1983)
B1: Donna (1983)
B2: Maze (1985)
B3: Bay / Sky Provincetown 1977 (1985)

B2 - MAZE

A2 - STRANGER IN THE MIRROR

A1 - Night Together

Artist: Gigi
Title: Illuminated Audio
Cat Num: TIME003
Label: Time Capsule
Format: 180g Heavy double vinyl LP with liner notes by Tyran Grillo. Japanese Obi for the first pressing. Original artwork by Russell Mills and photography by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.
Remastered: Claudio Passavanti at Doctor Mix Studios, UK
Curator and Coordinator: Ken Hidaka

01 Abay

Full version available: https://timecapsule.lnk.to/Shravanam

The fourth Time Capsule release presents a transcendental work of intensely spiritual Indian classical music by celebrated vocalist and composer Bombay S Jayashri.
 
During its brief lifespan reissue imprint Time-Capsule’s releases have proved as multinational as they have been wide-ranging in style, serving up Italian new age music (Il Guardiano Del Faro’s Oasis), Japanese guitar fusion (Yuji Toriyama’s Choice Works 1982-1985), and American dub by way of Ethiopia (Bill Laswell and Gigi’s Illuminated Audio). 
 
For their fourth effort they’ve selected one of classical Indian vocalist “Bombay” Jayashri Ramnath’s most mesmerising works. Born into a musician family steeped in the south Indian tradition of vocal music, the Mumbai-raised singer took advantage of the city’s cosmopolitism to study northern Hindustani disciplines, one of the few vocalists to train in both. Now revered as one of the greatest living exponents of Carnatic music, she received an Oscar nomination for her work on Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. 
 
Within the first minute of opener Sada Bada (Slokam), Jayashri’s intensely spiritual vocals give a clear indication of why she has been increasingly embraced by a new generation of western listeners who’ve made the natural leap from ambient soundscapes to new age and devotional music.  Accompanied on the following Bhajeham Bhajeham by a hypnotic rhythmic backing of mridangam drums, bells and the drone of a tambura, over its epic twenty-minute length she stretches her voice into a variety of spellbinding forms - her softly enunciated dedications to Shiva enveloping you with their immersive warmth and cosmic beauty. Kali Maheshwari’s gently undulating rhythms form a similarly entrancing undercurrent, over which Javashri delivers a jaw-dropping performance of melodic Sanskrit chants which evoke a variety of different names for the sacred feminine. 
 
One of the album’s new-found devotees is label boss Kay Suzuki: “every time I listen I’m amazed at how such a small ensemble can create such a deep musical landscape. The incredible production plays a big part. That intricate percussion sounds so clear and sits in all the right pockets rhythmically and sonically. Just by following this groove I’m put into a timeless zone, but when her voice hits on top of that gorgeous drone sound and I focus on the details of her small melodies within melodies, my heart centres and I find myself in a blissful place.”
 
As professor of cultural and political theory Jeremy Gilbert states in the album’s liner notes, the mesmerising sincerity and deep spirituality of these songs present an intense and spiritual charge that will appeal to an audience well beyond believers and devotees of Hinduism.

Shravanam

5 - Raghavam

Full version available: https://timecapsule.lnk.to/Shravanam
The fourth Time Capsule release presents a transcendental work of intensely spiritual Indian classical music by celebrated vocalist and composer Bombay S Jayashri.
 
During its brief lifespan reissue imprint Time-Capsule’s releases have proved as multinational as they have been wide-ranging in style, serving up Italian new age music (Il Guardiano Del Faro’s Oasis), Japanese guitar fusion (Yuji Toriyama’s Choice Works 1982-1985), and American dub by way of Ethiopia (Bill Laswell and Gigi’s Illuminated Audio). 
 
For their fourth effort they’ve selected one of classical Indian vocalist “Bombay” Jayashri Ramnath’s most mesmerising works. Born into a musician family steeped in the south Indian tradition of vocal music, the Mumbai-raised singer took advantage of the city’s cosmopolitism to study northern Hindustani disciplines, one of the few vocalists to train in both. Now revered as one of the greatest living exponents of Carnatic music, she received an Oscar nomination for her work on Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. 
 
Within the first minute of opener Sada Bada (Slokam), Jayashri’s intensely spiritual vocals give a clear indication of why she has been increasingly embraced by a new generation of western listeners who’ve made the natural leap from ambient soundscapes to new age and devotional music.  Accompanied on the following Bhajeham Bhajeham by a hypnotic rhythmic backing of mridangam drums, bells and the drone of a tambura, over its epic twenty-minute length she stretches her voice into a variety of spellbinding forms - her softly enunciated dedications to Shiva enveloping you with their immersive warmth and cosmic beauty. Kali Maheshwari’s gently undulating rhythms form a similarly entrancing undercurrent, over which Javashri delivers a jaw-dropping performance of melodic Sanskrit chants which evoke a variety of different names for the sacred feminine. 
 
One of the album’s new-found devotees is label boss Kay Suzuki: “every time I listen I’m amazed at how such a small ensemble can create such a deep musical landscape. The incredible production plays a big part. That intricate percussion sounds so clear and sits in all the right pockets rhythmically and sonically. Just by following this groove I’m put into a timeless zone, but when her voice hits on top of that gorgeous drone sound and I focus on the details of her small melodies within melodies, my heart centres and I find myself in a blissful place.”
 
As professor of cultural and political theory Jeremy Gilbert states in the album’s liner notes, the mesmerising sincerity and deep spirituality of these songs present an intense and spiritual charge that will appeal to an audience well beyond believers and devotees of Hinduism.

4 - Keshvaya Namaha

Full version available : https://timecapsule.lnk.to/Shravanam

The fourth Time Capsule release presents a transcendental work of intensely spiritual Indian classical music by celebrated vocalist and composer Bombay S Jayashri.
 
During its brief lifespan reissue imprint Time-Capsule’s releases have proved as multinational as they have been wide-ranging in style, serving up Italian new age music (Il Guardiano Del Faro’s Oasis), Japanese guitar fusion (Yuji Toriyama’s Choice Works 1982-1985), and American dub by way of Ethiopia (Bill Laswell and Gigi’s Illuminated Audio). 
 
For their fourth effort they’ve selected one of classical Indian vocalist “Bombay” Jayashri Ramnath’s most mesmerising works. Born into a musician family steeped in the south Indian tradition of vocal music, the Mumbai-raised singer took advantage of the city’s cosmopolitism to study northern Hindustani disciplines, one of the few vocalists to train in both. Now revered as one of the greatest living exponents of Carnatic music, she received an Oscar nomination for her work on Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. 
 
Within the first minute of opener Sada Bada (Slokam), Jayashri’s intensely spiritual vocals give a clear indication of why she has been increasingly embraced by a new generation of western listeners who’ve made the natural leap from ambient soundscapes to new age and devotional music.  Accompanied on the following Bhajeham Bhajeham by a hypnotic rhythmic backing of mridangam drums, bells and the drone of a tambura, over its epic twenty-minute length she stretches her voice into a variety of spellbinding forms - her softly enunciated dedications to Shiva enveloping you with their immersive warmth and cosmic beauty. Kali Maheshwari’s gently undulating rhythms form a similarly entrancing undercurrent, over which Javashri delivers a jaw-dropping performance of melodic Sanskrit chants which evoke a variety of different names for the sacred feminine. 
 
One of the album’s new-found devotees is label boss Kay Suzuki: “every time I listen I’m amazed at how such a small ensemble can create such a deep musical landscape. The incredible production plays a big part. That intricate percussion sounds so clear and sits in all the right pockets rhythmically and sonically. Just by following this groove I’m put into a timeless zone, but when her voice hits on top of that gorgeous drone sound and I focus on the details of her small melodies within melodies, my heart centres and I find myself in a blissful place.”
 
As professor of cultural and political theory Jeremy Gilbert states in the album’s liner notes, the mesmerising sincerity and deep spirituality of these songs present an intense and spiritual charge that will appeal to an audience well beyond believers and devotees of Hinduism.

3 - Kalimaheshwari

2 - Bhajeham Bhajeham

1 - Sada Bala (Slokam)

Creole poetry, folk mysticism and heavy-grooving cosmic synths combine on this unprecedented survey of spiritual Martinique polymath Gratien Midonet’s first four albums.

“I always broke free from the rules, from codes being too narrow,” says poet, musician and sonic shaman Gratien Midonet. “I have always had this sense of peaceful knowledge that there is no separation between genres, beings and universal things.”

For Midonet, pushing musical boundaries was less a choice than an extension of his spirit. A self-taught guitarist and composer, drawing on his childhood memories of bélé and beguine rhythms, Midonet’s musical life developed in parallel to his academic and spiritual pursuits. Studying philosophy and psychopedagogy in France, it was his fascination with pan-Africanism and animism which fuelled the transcendent energy of his music.

Although Midonet honed his sound in France, the four albums he released during the late ‘70s and ‘80s were heavily inspired by diasporic nostalgia, or what he describes as the “smells and colours… subliminal noises… fruity notes, the memories of funeral wakes, the bombastic organ of the cathedral and the gasps of the drums” of his childhood home on the Caribbean island of Martinique.

Fittingly, it’s there that Midonet achieved cult status for the title track of his 1979 debut, Van An Lévè, which became a protest anthem for the island’s independence movement, and was briefly censored by the French authorities. Look no further than ‘Mari Rhont Ouve La Pot’, which opens this collection, to hear the propulsive mix of cosmic synths, acoustic folk, and Creole lyricism that became the essence of Midonet’s sound.

Released on Martinique label Touloulou, Van An Lévè was followed in 1980 by L’inité, whose tropical acid folk (‘M’en ka Monté Mon’) and majestic, violin-led melodies (‘Kannaval Sakré Pou Tout Z’Heb Poussé’) confirmed Midonet’s unique and intuitive approach to composition. 
Not content to skip effortlessly between genres and influences, Midonet also began pushing the boundaries of the album form itself. His third album, Bourg La Folie, released in 1984, was a soundtrack for a lost film about the mysticisms of carnival, while his fourth, Fô Ou Tchimbé, took the form of a ‘conte musical’ (a narrated story accompanied by music) presented at the Pompidou Centre, and spoke to Midonet’s literary prowess as a fierce proponent of the Creole language.

Like Fô Ou Tchimbé’s iridescent ‘Antille Ô Cristal’, with its sparse synth stabs and rubbery bassline, Midonet’s music has found a new home on psychedelic dance floors like Beauty and The Beat, where resident Pol Valls first brought Midonet to curator Cedric Lassonde’s attention.

As Lassonde writes in the liner notes: “Midonet’s musical world is cosmic, mystical and he has created his own idiosyncratic style around it: not plain folk, not bélé, chouval bwa, beguine or gwoka, but rather a transcendental fusion of all these and a true reflection of his personality.”

Now based on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia, Midonet and his message of musical unity are ready to resonate once more.

C3 KEROSIN' JAMB' FIN' Mastered

A classically trained dancer, Gabriel Roth was involved with the early ’60’s counterculture movement as a dance instructor for therapeutic workshops at the legendary Esalen Institute in San Francisco and Arica School in New York. These facilities and groups played key roles in the Human Potential Movement in psychology which later led to Transpersonal Psychology and the New Age Movement.

Through direct encounters and training from the era’s noted psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists, and spiritual gurus, she single-handedly rediscovered and redefined the ancient shamanic technique of ecstatic dance, establishing a method she named 5Rhythms in the late 70’s.

The practice of 5Rhythms consists of five movements: Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical and Stillness. Through this dance sequence difficulties and obstructions in life can be identified and ultimately overcome. The sequence of the rhythms helps create waves that allow the dancer to reach a point of inner stillness. It is a globally recognised movement meditation practice with over 400 qualified teachers in more than 50 countries. Though Gabrielle Roth passed away in 2012, her spirit and legacy have been passed down through her family and extensive followers. It is still being practiced today.

Music plays a key role in these workshops. Following the shamanic tradition of using live percussion as a driving force, the music is necessarily rhythmic in nature and repetitive enough to focus on self-movement without invasive melodies or lyrics to distract one’s mind. It must be fairly lengthy in duration, with the journey defined by the pulsing waves of emotional flow that guide the body’s movement. The music was not intended to be consumed while socialising, but as an aid to the internal journey into one’s soul. It is minimal, abstract, and atmospheric. As a result of these characteristics (or rather functionalities), their albums didn’t fit into any conventional styles at the time of their release in the early 80s. Theirs is a pure form of dance music that also shares many commonalities with ambient music in the modern context. Yet ambient music had yet to establish itself as a genre at the time despite the early efforts of Brian Eno while underground dance - the genre with which it shares many of its stylistic qualities - was yet to be born. Their releases were rarely appreciated outside of workshops.

Between 1982 and 2008, Gabrielle and her husband Robert Ansell produced 16 original albums as Gabrielle Roth & The Mirrors. Robert brought together some of the best studio musicians that New York had to offer while his son Scott - who later became a Grammy-winning sound engineer - recorded and mixed all of their crystal clear productions.

Endless Waves Volume One was originally released on their own private label in 1996 on CD. Comprised of a selection of their past recordings, the first part acts as a seductive entry point into their rhythmic sound world, with Roth’s voice intoning gentle instructions over each track. The opener Body Parts commences with a series of rolling polyrhythmic beats to prepare the body for meditation. From there the music shifts through a series of ambient moods that evoke each of the ‘5Rhythm’ states of being. Atmospheric synths and stately violins combine to help ease into movement on Flowing. Didgeridoos and funky bass lines evoke masculine energy on Staccato before the tumbling rhythms of Chaos encourage the uninhibited release of one’s mind and body. The soft vocal harmonies of Lyrical help the listener towards a lighter, more fluid, and creative state of being creating a becalming state that continues with the deep ritualistic chants and languid drums of Stillness.
The second part of the album consists of a non-guided version of the same journey. Freshly recorded for the album’s release in 1996, the band deliver up an equally vital series of brilliantly realised rhythmic excursions.

Endless Wave Volume One

D3 Stilness

D2 Lyrical

D1 Chaos

C2 Flowing

Endless Wave Vol:1

A2 Flowing(Dolphin)

Endless Wave: Vol 1

A1 Body Parts(Eternal Dance)

Ground-breaking percussive ambient recordings to induce altered states of consciousness through ecstatic dance. Gabrielle Roth & The Mirrors were a world unto themselves.

Despite featuring an extraordinary cast of musicians (with credits including Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis, Santana, Stevie Wonder, Milton Nascimento and much more) and selling hundreds of thousands of albums, the music of Gabrielle Roth & The Mirrors remains largely unheard beyond their sphere. Conceived as live, improvised soundtracks to Roth’s transcendental dance workshops, musical acclaim was never on the agenda.

Instead, for a passionate dancer and spiritual polyglot like Gabrielle Roth, movement was a means through which to channel a wide spectrum of teaching, from experimental psychology to psychedelic counter-culture. It was from this heady mix that she devised a movement meditation known as 5Rhythms, which came to define her life’s work.

As “guide and catalyst”, Roth would dance to inspire the percussion-led instrumentals that would in turn fuel her 5Rhythms workshops, stimulating a secular form of ecstatic dance with roots in Native American shamanic traditions, Afro-Brazilian Candomblé and Yoruba drumming.

Using anything from a Sioux pony drum to East African kihembe and Japanese Kabuki drums, Gabrielle’s lawyer-turned-drummer husband Robert Ansell set the foundational rhythms for The Mirrors’ recordings, each of which would then feature a rotating cast of friends and professional musicians.

“The secret of everything we’ve done is that we never told anybody what to play,” Robert shares. “Instead of our albums being a musical vision of one person like me or Gabrielle, they were the musical vision of a whole bunch of people.”

At times the recordings have a Middle Eastern flair, at others, West African and spiritual jazz modes come to the fore. Hints of kosmische musik, proto-house and electronic ambience are laced like LSD through the organic rhythmic structures. This was kaleidoscopic ambient music to stir the body and free the mind.

In practice, the task of synthesising these different elements fell to Scott Ansell, Robert’s son and a recording engineer whose credits now include Nile Rogers, Duran Duran, Grace Jones. With meticulous attention to detail he captured and translated the dynamic energy of each drum onto record. Their sessions became legendary, and with access to the best studios in the NYC, The Mirrors sparkled.

Despite being initially overlooked by the burgeoning ‘80s New Age market, which preferred pipes and gongs to The Mirrors’ heavy-grooving drums, Robert Ansell set up Raven Recording to self-release the music, creating a vast sonic archive of sixteen albums over almost forty years.

The breadth of Raven’s catalogue is such that curator Pol Valls had to cut an initial selection of sixty-six tracks down to the eleven featured here. What crystallises is a stunning, mind-altering collection which spans, in Pol’s words, “a variety of genres, styles, and vibes within their catalogue, whether it is emotional, esoteric, spiritual, melancholic, hypnotic, dark, or at times a combination of these elements together.”

Music for immersive and intimate environments, Gabrielle Roth & The Mirrors were born from the dance. In the hands of the right DJ, at the right time, in the right place, they might just return there.

Selected Works 1985 - 2005

Shavasana

Labyrinth

Dancing Path Chaos

Totem

Silver Desert Cafe

Seducing Hades

Stefania's Song

Nomad

Eliana

Night Whisper

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