pilole 2023 aprile/maggio

APRILE 2023	MAGGIO 2023
ALFA MIST "Variables" This is the journeying question that underpins Alfa's fifth album, Variables. Traversing luscious, big band swing, head-nodding boom-bap rhythms and yearning vocal melodies, the record is expansive, soulful and moving, in both body and spirit. On Variables, his second release for ANTI-, Alfa achieves his most fully-realised, expressive musical work to date, coupling his keen ear for looping, memorably emotive piano melodies with intuitive grooves and a free-flowing jazz improvisation. [ file under: alternative ]		ALVA NOTO "Kinder der sonne" NOTON is pleased to announce the release of Kinder der Sonne, the new album by Alva Noto featuring music composed for the score of the theater piece Komplizen by Simon Stone. The title comes from Maxim Gorky's play Children of the Sun, written in the context of the 1905 Russian Revolution. Kinder der Sonne takes the listener into a sonic journey of emotional tension and release, revealing a particular kind of sci-fi lust fused with a satisfying suite of modern, minimalist, minimalist ambient classical. [ file under: modern classical ]
FACS "Still life in decay" Still Life In Decay” starts with a squall of white noise before collapsing into the band already locked into “Constellation”s lumbering groove, with Case’s guitar a ghostly presence, appearing & disappearing in washes of gauzy feedback throughout the track. FACS have never been more solidified as a unit, and “Still Life In Decay” is a decidedly focused effort. [ file under: post-punk ]		BROWN SPIRITS "Solitary transmissions" Brown Spirits are from Melbourne, Australia. Their stripped down and tight musical unit is a trio (think Cream or Hendrix!) of raw bass, drums and shared guitar/keyboards meets the D-I-Y attitude and punk/post-punk intensity giving them a unique hi-octane sound. With a range of influences that range from Neu! to Soft Machine, Gang of Four, Miles Davis, Hendrix, Argent, Lonnie Liston Smith, King Crimson and beyond, their powerfully progressive hard and hypnotic sound is truly unforgettable. [ file under: psycho kraut ]
FIRE! ORCHESTRA "Echoes" Now in its 14th year, the unique and constantly evolving Fire! Orchestra is back with their most ambitious work so far as well as their largest line-up, counting a mostly Scandinavian cast of no less than 43 members. While the popular and widely praised Arrival is a highlight in both our and the band´s catalogue, this monumental triple album ups the ante. Echoes is a two hour work of epic proportions; full of beauty, energy, haunting passages and stunning musicianship, embracing progressive rock, contemporary avantgarde, cosmic free jazz, ethnic experimentalism and more. Making all of this flow in such a natural way from beginning to end is a brilliant achievement. The album closes with a guest appearance from the mighty Joe McPhee on tenor sax and vocals on a vigorous and amusing tribute to one of the “late, great finger wigglers”. [ file under: ecm music ]		FRED AGAIN... & BRIAN ENO "Secret life" Fred again.. calls Brian Eno his mentor, but the legendary musician and ambient pioneer sees it as more of a two-way street. Introduced by a friend of his who happened to be Eno’s neighbour, 16-year-old Fred Gibson started attending some of Eno’s legendary a capella performances at his home, going on to become his unofficial protégé. Across the album – released on Four Tet‘s Text Records – Eno lets his protégé take the narrative reins, laying soundscapes behind Fred’s soft-focus storytelling. [ file under: vocal ambient ]
GREG FOAT & ART THEMEN "Off-piste" Greg Foat has always had a great reverence for the musicians that featured on the records he has collected over the years. Whether they were players from the great European library catalogs, Italian soundtracks, American Jazz but most of all British Jazz. One of his all-time favourites being the beautiful tone of Art Themen's Saxophone. After Art had played on a few sessions for Greg both were keen to record an LP together. Plans were hatched during lockdown and everyone headed to Edinburgh as soon as allowed, to an unassuming metal door that leads to a renowned studio with a large live room with a stunning Neve desk. Chamber Studio has a long Edinburgh heritage, known for recordings from Mogwai to everyone's favourite The Vaselines. [ file under: soul jazz ]		TIM HECKER "No highs" The latest by Canadian composer Tim Hecker serves as a beacon of unease against the deluge of false positive corporate ambient currently in vogue. Whether taken as warning or promise, No Highs delivers – this is music of austerity and ambiguity, purgatorial and seasick. A jagged anti-relaxant for our medicated age, rough-hewn and undefined. Processed electronics shiver and shudder against pitch-shifting assemblages of crackling voltage, mantric horns (including exquisite modal sax by Colin Stetson), and cathedral keys. [ file under: contemporary ambient ]
GOGO PENGUIN "Everything is going to be ok" Emotive, break-beat minimalist trio GoGo Penguin are back, with their brand new album “Everything Is Going to Be OK”. Bursting with the optimism of new beginnings, with a new drummer, their new record label, (Sony Records' electronica and classical imprint XXIM Records), and a subtly updated and developed sound, the band are ushering in a more ambient era. “Everything Is Going to Be OK” is born from a time of turbulence and loss. During an oppressive grieving period, the studio offered the band a sanctuary from real life. The resulting project, given such vibrant life here, draws its strength from a shared understanding and empathy. [ file under: nu jazz ]		NABIHAH IQBAL "Dreamer" Nabihah Iqbal returns with Dreamer, her long-awaited new album out 28th April 2023 on Ninja Tune. Five years on since the London-born artist, curator, broadcaster and lecturer's debut ‘Weighing Of The Heart’ was released and two years in the making, Dreamer is Nabihah’s rawest and most reflective work to date. “For the first time ever, I’ve made music where I’ve been more patient with it,” she says. “Normally, when you’re an electronic music producer, you go into the studio, switch your computer on and start working on Ableton or Logic and then build up from that. [ file under: alternative ]
KORWAR SARATHY "KAL (Real World)" The only written music I had when I came into this session was the KALAK symbol. We talked in detail about the workings of the KALAK rhythm and my intention was to imprint this knowledge in the back of everyone's head so it played out subliminally during our recordings. Apart from this, the session was fully improvised. The songs on this album are excerpts from this recording time. [ file under: impro world music ]		KARA JACKSON "Why does the earth give us people to love?" Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? is the debut album by Illinois poet and singer-songwriter Kara Jackson, who formerly served as the U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2020. It was released on April 14, 2023, through September Recordings. Working in her childhood bedroom, Kara Jackson began demoing Why's songs during the early COVID-19 lockdowns. Kaina, Nnamdi and Sen Morimoto would later join as co-producers to help re-record them for the album. [ file under: spoken word blues ]
LONDON BREW "S/t" "It was a pleasure to record with such a talented group of UK musicians and friends, and to work with the producers on this amazing project. It was made more special by the iconic space we were in (Paul Epworth’s Church Studios). We were all so excited to make music together again during that time of lockdown. This session was special in so many ways and we poured all of it into the music.” - Nubya Garcia [ file under: nu jazz ]		OVAL "Romantiq" The music of Markus Popp is endlessly curious. Since the early 90s his pioneering albums as Oval have continually excavated new spaces in electronic music, leaving an indelible mark on the landscape. Popp’s playful and singular approach to sound has continually left critics and peers alike confounded by his ability to conjure such lithe, evocative sonics from software. Celebrated collaborations with Jan St. Werner as Microstoria remain foundational texts in underground music, while a rare split record with Liturgy exemplifies Popp’s reach and influence outside electronic spheres. [ file under: electronica ]
CAROLINE POLACHEK "Desire, I want to turn into you" After releasing Pang in late 2019, Polachek was set to tour the record, but was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Polachek stayed in London and began work on Desire, I Want to Turn Into You with close collaborator Danny L Harle. She considers the album to be a major partnership with Harle, as the record has "few other collaborators in the mix." She continued work on the album in London until mid-2021, where she briefly relocated to Barcelona alongside Harle and new collaborator Sega Bodega. [ file under: alt pop ]		OVERMONO "Good lies" Highly anticipated would be an understatement; since their inception Overmono have purposefully cultivated a fanbase that heralds them as one of the UK’s most original contemporary live electronic acts. A run of ground-breaking club EPs between 2020 and 2022 built momentum and culminated in their breakthrough club single, ‘So U Kno’, which encapsulated the hearts of clubbers and went on to become a bonafide phenomenon as dancefloors re-opened; featuring in end of year lists published by Resident Advisor, Pitchfork, DJ Mag and Mixmag. [ file under: electro break & beats ]
EMMA TRICCA "Aspirin sun" Ask Tricca how Aspirin Sun feels to her and she’ll describe it as a weird germination of disparate influences. A “Wim-Wenders-meets-Fellini-8 ½” kind of set-up – especially ‘Autumn’s Fiery Tongue’ which swells and amplifies into a pulsating, hallucinatory odyssey that came to her in a dream. “You know when the sun is in the sky and it’s so round it looks like an aspirin? This record very much depicts that kind of sky,” Tricca says. It also depicts the discombobulating nature of grief as overexposed as a blazing ball of gas and light. “I was blindly finding my way through my grief with music and dreams that I wrote down in the morning.” [ file under: bella union ]		SZA "SOS" SOS is the second album by American singer-songwriter SZA. It was released through Top Dawg Entertainment and RCA Records on December 9, 2022. The album features guest appearances from Don Toliver, Phoebe Bridgers, Travis Scott, and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard. SZA worked with a variety of record producers and songwriters such as Babyface, Jeff Bhasker, Benny Blanco, Rodney Jerkins, DJ Dahi, Gabriel Hardeman, Ant Clemons and Lizzo. It serves as the follow-up to SZA's previous album Ctrl (2017). [ file under: nu r.&b. ]
BRANDEE YOUNGER "Brand new life" This harpist is known for sharing the stage with Jazz Royalty Jack Dejohnette & Ravi Coltrane, laying down tracks with Grammy-Winning Rapper Common & Artist&Producer Ryan Leslie, as well as bringing to life the Classic Impressionistic work of Maurice Ravel. Her ability to feature the Harp in genres of music where the instrument is often absent demonstrates her cross-reaching ability as a musician. [ file under: nu soul ]		JESSIE WARE "That! Feels good!" “I felt like I was combining all my loves, from musical theatre to soul, groove, dance and funk to R&B and orchestral moments and group vocals. I wanted to do ‘Remember Where You Are’, but with a big old dance beat.” That’s more or less what you can expect from That! Feels Good!, on which the London singer-songwriter doubles down on her devotion the dance floor and—after the varnished opulence of What’s Your Pleasure?—embraces a looser, louder, more live sound. It’s (almost) all up, with brass and string arrangements, choruses of voices, very winking lyrics and, perhaps most surprisingly, rapping à la Blondie or Tom Tom Club. [ file under: nu disco ]