Featuring Oren Ambarchi, Sessa, Nathan Salsburg, Makaya McCraven, Revelators Sound System, Alabaster Deplume, Ben LaMar Gay, Guido Möbius, Theo Angell, Majid Bekkas, Scrimshire, Pelt, Satomimagae, Jennifer Curtis & Tyshawn Sorey.
Playlist
- Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin – I (Ghosted – Bandcamp)
- Sessa – Gostar do Mundo (New Single)
- Nathan Salsburg – Psalm 47 (Psalms – Bandcamp)
- Makaya McCraven – Holy Lands (feat. Joel Ross, Dezron Douglas, Tomeka Reid & Brandee Younger) (Universal Beings – Bandcamp)
- Revelators Sound System – George the Revelator (Revelators – Bandcamp)
- Alabaster Deplume – I’m Good at Not Crying (Gold – Bandcamp)
- Ben LaMar Gay – Lean Back. Try Igbo (feat. Onye Ozuzu) (Open Arms to Open Us – Bandcamp)
- Guido Möbius feat. Andrea Belfi, Ansgar Wilken – Dickicht (Serendip Lab 10 ans – Bandcamp)
- Theo Angell – The Shadow Ring (Tenebrae- 2009 – Bandcamp)
- Joseph Allred – Frosted Mane (Lute Music – Bandcamp)
- Majid Bekkas – Daymallah (African Gnaoua Blues – Bandcamp)
- Scrimshire – Heron (feat. Miryam Solomon) (Nothing Feels Like Everything – Bandcamp)
- Pelt – True Vine (Ayahuasca – Bandcamp)
- Satomimagae – Dango (Colloid – Bandcamp)
- Jennifer Curtis & Tyshawn Sorey – II (Invisible Ritual – Bandcamp)
Playlist Notes
The latest KLOF mix opens to Australian multi-instrumentalist Oren Ambarchi with a track from his new release ‘Ghosted’, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin. ‘Ambarchi, Berthling and Werliin share a fascination with rhythm and the myriad of ways it can subdivide within the beat. Using aspects of jazz, world and experimental musics, each tune settles into a deep groove, digging itself via continuous minimal adjustments into an ever-deeper, eternal groove.’
Having just supported Turkish psych outfit Altin Gün, Sessa, a Brazilian singer who transcends nationality in the pursuit of ecstatic musical heights, releases his delicately poised new single Canção da Cura. His upcoming new album Estrela Acesa, signed to Mexican Summer, is a modern and profound slice of tropicália – think Leonard Cohen, meets Artur Verocai on a road trip with José González.
Nathan Salsburg‘s ‘Psalms’ is a collection of new arrangements of Hebrew psalms—Tehillim—composed between 2016 to 2019, and recorded in their entirety, somehow, over the long course of 2020. “The project was born of a desire for some kind of rigorous and creative Jewish engagement, which came to take shape in the irregular practice of opening a bilingual Book of Psalms at random, scanning the English (I don’t speak and can only haltingly read Hebrew) of a particular chapter for passages that resonated conceptually and emotionally, and scanned rhythmically. Copying those selections over to a separate page, I worked to thread them into new melodies with the ultimate intention of making them satisfactorily singable. The nine fragments of discrete psalms that comprise this record* were those I regarded as the most successful efforts, by which I mean most pleasing to sing and to play. May listeners find them similarly pleasing to listen to, and perhaps even to sing and play themselves.”
Paris-born, New England-raised, long-time Chicago-residing Makaya McCraven has been at the forefront of genre-redefining movements in jazz since 2015, when he introduced the world to his unique brand of ‘organic beat music’ on the breakout album In The Moment…Now, after 4+ years of refining his approach, Makaya McCraven puts forth an ambitious new work – Universal Beings – a culmination of concepts conceived by In The Moment, and his most elegant & articulated work yet.
Revelators Sound System is the collaborative musical project of MC Taylor (Hiss Golden Messenger) and Cameron Ralston. Recorded throughout 2020 and 2021, largely at Taylor’s home in Durham, NC and Richmond, Virginia’s Spacebomb studio, where Ralston serves as the house bassist, the album is a deep meditation on community that caroms from root-down avant-funk and spiritual groove to solitary cosmic minimalism and twinkling dubby ambience. Importantly—most importantly—Revelators is deeply emotional record, the running soundtrack to a world in confusion.
Gold is a sonorous double album from Mancunian poet-performer Alabaster Deplume that celebrates the communal act of making music and the relationships that can be explored when you purposefully avoid the standard way of doing things.
‘Open Arms to Open Us’ is the second album from Chicago multi-instrumentalist and composer Ben LaMar Gay. “…The awareness of a moment, environment, memory, and open listening are also the makings of a great improviser. With the idea of freedom being a “dangling carrot” for most, my now mature and “forever learning” ears have realized that improvisation is the one freedom that we all have access to. I remember the clarity of my great grandfather’s hammer. The silence in between each strike was what drew Aunt Lola and me in, closer. From that moment on, I’ve carried my curiosity of the world inside my front pocket at all times…This experience is at the root of this bundle of sound, Open Arms to Open Us.”
Berlin artist Guido Möbius (feat. Andrea Belfi, Ansgar Wilken) appears courtesy of a track from the generous 100 track Serendip Lab compilation which features artists that would have performed at their 10th birthday festival which didn’t go ahead.
Theo Angell‘s densely hermetic iconography reflects an artist well-versed in mythology and the “other”. The Shadow Ring is taken from his 2009 album.
The quietly prolific and hugely talented Joseph Allred has featured on a number of KLOF mixes. He released a number of albums last year including a Lute Music album. The only other Lute music I’m familiar with is that of Josef Van Wissem but these compositions are both uplifting and rewarding. I encourage you to seek it out.
Moroccan musician Majid Bekkas released ‘African Gnaoua Blues’ in 2002. I’ve revisted this album a couple of times before and it always rewards in new ways – “This secular music is still considered the “healer of souls” from Essaouira to Marrakech, easily understandable when you listen to the spellbinding sound of Bekkas’ voice, guembri and guitar.”
Scrimshire is Adam Scrimshire, a singer/songwriter, Producer and DJ. Released on 2021, Nothing Feels Like Everything featured a number of special guests and was well received with some great support from BBC Radio 6 Music. The track below features Miryam Solomon, a London- based artist, by way of Sweden and Eritrea.
Pelt should need no introduction – featuring Jack Rose, Mike Gangloff and Patrick Best, the track True Vine was recorded on Feb 3, 2001, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Washington DC and features on
‘Ayahuasca’. “A sprawling follow-up to 1999’s conceptual breakthrough Empty Bell Ringing In The Sky, Ayahuasca represented a comprehensive survey of the band’s exponentially expanding world view during one of their most active periods. Recorded over a period of more than two years at various live and studio sessions, the sounds here are the start of what came after…”
Japanese artist “Satomimagae returns to the rich soils of Hanazono to assemble Colloid, a delicate array of peripheral petals stemming from her most recent album. Colloid presents four diaphanous introspections, combining Satomi’s vocalizations, signature six string strum and atmospheric command into a characteristically self-contained sphere of sylvan, biotic mysticism.”
“‘Invisible Ritual’ captures the synergistic collaboration between violinist/composer Jennifer Curtis and multi-instrumentalist/composer Tyshawn Sorey, and is an outgrowth of work they have done within the context of the wide ranging programming of the International Contemporary Ensemble. The eight tracks heard here are all freely improvised, yet categorizing them as free improvisation suggests a soundworld that they do not inhabit exclusively. Both musicians bring their compositional sensibilities to spontaneously generated structures, intuitively guiding their way through material that consistently demonstrates their virtuosity across diverse stylistic territory.”