Wax Digits hits release number five with a tight and tidy two-tracker from the late veteran Robert Ouimet who passed a couple of years ago. Before then he cooked up these gems with his pal and production partner Dave Godin. They are being released as a tribute to the memory of Ouimet and a fine one they are too. 'Plenty' has a raw groove and big chords with jangling guitars adding hints of melancholy that counter the big stabs. Soulful vocals are a great finishing touch then 'Funky Together' is more loose and strident with big horns leading the way under psyched-out chords. Two quality party starters.
Cerca:godin
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This 15-track album features the original score composed by Nicolas Godin (of AIR) for Fire of Love, the Oscar-nominated documentary directed by Sara Dosa in 2022 (available for streaming on Disney+), as well as original music inspired by the film.
Fire of Love tells the extraordinary love story of fearless French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who died as spectacularly as they lived, capturing some of the most breathtaking footage ever recorded of their greatest passion: volcanoes.
With Collective, the Barcelona- and London-based imprint Rhythm Cult once again proves why it stands among the most respected underground platforms in European electronic music. Founded by Paul Loraine, the label has built a reputation for bridging deep musicality, minimal precision, and timeless dancefloor function´, always with an ear for detail and emotional resonance. The first installment of the Collective series gathers a remarkable lineup of producers Jim Rivers, Satoshi Fumi, DCLVIII OFC, Mark Jackus, and Michael Wardemann, each contributing to a shared aesthetic that defines the Rhythm Cult sound: sophisticated, groove-driven, and deeply human. Subtle textures, rolling basslines, and understated movement shape a release that feels equally suited for intimate clubs and open-minded floors. Collective embodies the label’s dedication to quality, authenticity, and artistry, a modern classic in the making from one of the scene’s most consistent and forward-thinking imprints.
- A1: Concrete & Glass
- A2: Back To Your Heart (Feat Kate Nv)
- A3: We Forgot To Love (Feat Kadhja Bonet)
- A4: What Makes Me Think About You
- A5: Time On My Hands (Feat Kirin J Callinan)
- B1: The Foundation (Feat Cola Boyy)
- B2: Catch Yourself Falling (Feat Alexis Taylor)
- B3: The Border
- B4: Turn Right, Turn Left
- B5: Cite Radieuse
- C1: Concrete & Glass
- C2: Back To Your Heart (Feat Kate Nv)
- C3: We Forgot To Love (Feat Kadhja Bonet)
- C4: What Makes Me Think About You
- C5: Time On My Hands (Feat Kirin J Callinan)
- C6: The Foundation (Feat Cola Boyy)
- C7: Catch Yourself Falling (Feat Alexis Taylor)
- C8: The Border
- C9: Turn Right, Turn Left
- C10: Cite Radieuse
When Air’s Nicolas Godin released his debut solo album, Contrepoint (2015), he channelled the influence of Bach into a rich, resonant and hugely rewarding spread of musical explorations. One soundtrack (A Very Secret Service) later, Godin builds on equally fertile conceptual foundations for the follow-up. Released through Because Music on 24th January, Concrete and Glass is an exquisitely crafted set of variations on architectural reference points: mounted with minimalist precision and delivered with an abundance of pop warmth, it finds Godin in his element, working seductive wonders with poise and style to spare.
For Godin, the album circles back to his formative work as half of ground-breaking French electronic group Air. Revered modern architect Le Corbusier was an influence on the young architecture graduate’s music, notably on his 1997 debut “Modular Mix”. Twenty-plus years later, Le Corbusier featured on a list of modernist architects Godin was invited to compose tributes for, tributes intended to be heard as the soundtrack to site-specific installations around the world.
In its soft ambient pulse and melting minimalism, lead track “The Border” is a perfect entry-point to Godin’s hymns to buildings, arranged and co-produced with Pierre Rousseau. Its levitating synths, vocoder vocals and scudding bass hove into view with understated elegance, all the better to accommodate the discreet slow-build of delicate details within. As with Air, Godin makes gorgeously light work of every angle: this is music that seems entirely unperturbed by gravity, occupying an elevated atmosphere of its own.
Elsewhere, the title-track’s clean synth lines, crisply apportioned arrangements and tender timpani offer another inviting entry-point, sculpted with architectural clarity. While Godin’s vocoder vocals also hark back to Air’s early work, the album accommodates a diverse spread of guest vocalists elsewhere. Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor guests on the falsetto-soul dream-pop of “Catch Yourself Falling”, one of Godin’s sweetest melodies yet. Oxnard singer/activist Cola Boyy brings soul to the righteously engaged “The Foundation”; the squelchy synths and buoyant grooves burn slow, allowing the stealthy arrangements and message room to resonate. Psychedelic soul singer Kadhja Bonet sings with measured serenity over tremulous synths on “We Forgot Love”, while Russian experi-pop artist Kate NV brings a gracefully aching romanticism to the blissful swoon-pop of “Back to Your Heart”.
Additionally, Australian conceptual provocateur Kirin J Callinan contributes a vocal of restrained drama to “Time on My Hands”, a midnight-drift soft-pop ballad with a silky allure. One of the quickest tracks to record for the album, it emerged in collaborations between Los Angeles (”During some lively sessions in Mac DeMarco’s studio,” notes Godin) and Paris. After he missed his flight home, Callinan stayed in France for a day as the guitar solos were recorded, complementing the song's air of sleek luxuriousness.
Between its title-track and the sultry, smoky jazz stylings of closer “Cité Radieuse”, Concrete and Glass is an album that truly travels, in tune with its global pitch. For Godin, it marks another milestone in a musical journey that began when Air’s 1998 debut album, Moon Safari, became the sublimely weightless soundtrack of its time. For Concrete and Glass, Godin builds on his storied past with tremendous finesse, charm and fluency, opening fresh windows of perspective at every lovingly executed turn.
Rating 4/5 "Independent UK"
This solo debut by Air’s Nicolas Godin explores various elements of Bach, but without slavishly transposing his music to modern instruments in the manner of Wendy Carlos.
Instead, Godin uses themes and fragments from Bach as the jumping-off point for diverse musical explorations. In “Club Nine”, he borrows the “Take Five” rhythm, brushed out behind a cyclical piano figure, stained with resonant Bach chords on vibes and keyboard; and for “Clara”, the husky Latin croon of Brazilian singer Marcelo Camelo swoons over a stately dub arrangement of strings and woodwind.
The seven-minute “Bach Off” is the most dramatic piece, a suite shifting between interlocking Latin percussion, African highlife sax, stalking piano and harpsichord/woodwind interplay; while the blend of music-box, cellos, French horn, pizzicato and vocal pad makes “Elfe Man” sound like an outtake from Pet Sounds. A rich, rewarding indulgence.
- A1: Kelly Watch The Stars (Edit); Mixed By – Stéphane "Alf" Brait*; Producer, Recorded By – Nicolas Godin; Remastered By – Marie Pieprzownik
- A2: Kelly Watch The Stars (Moog Cookbook Remix); Remix – Roger Joseph Manning Jr
- B1: Kelly Watch The Stars (Edit Version); Remix – Etienne De Crécy
- B2: Kelly Watch The Stars (American Girls Remix By Phoenix); Remix – Phoenix
Introducing the first volume on the “Aquapelagos" series - a collection of split LPs where selected artists offer their own take into water surrounded cultures and communities. After the initial release of the Anthology compilation Aquapelago in 2022 (Discrepant ,CREP91) this first volume opens up the series with a sound journey inspired by the majestic and sometimes furious Atlantic Ocean. The music was recorded throughout special artists residencies held during the Keroxen Festival in 2020 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife where throughout a week each band recorded their own free vision of an aquapelagic Atlantic culture. Philip Hayward, the Australian researcher who coined the term Aquapelago also joins the proceedings with extensive sleeve notes.
Side 1 is provided by LAGOSS – a band comprised of Tenerife based veteran producers, Gonçalo F. Cardoso, Mladen Kurajica and Daniel García while Side 2 is provided by Banha da Cobra, comprising Lisbon-based musicians Mestre André and Carlos Godinho. Both ensembles have addressed aquatic themes in their prior work, LAGOSS having represented phantom islands on a series of vivid cameo tracks released as Imaginary Island Music Volume 1 (Discrepant, 2020) and Banha da Cobra having staged a performance within the Mãe D'Água reservoir in Lisbon in 2018, drawing on recordings of place and objects within it to conjure the liquid history of the city.
- A1: Your Only Life
- A2: I Can Feel Your Love (Produced By The Avalanches)
- A3: Out Of Phase Feat. Lola Kirke
- A4: Wild Horses
- A5: Colombia
- B1: For A Toy
- B2: On A Whim (With Green Gartside Of Scritti Politti)
- B3: Fainting By Numbers
- B4: Mp3S Can Make You Cry
- B5: Black Lodge In The Sky
Headline: Alexis Taylor von Hot Chip setzt seine Soloreise fort.
Alexis Taylor zählt zu den markantesten Singer-Songwritern des UK, der mit seiner unverwechselbaren Stimme ein beachtliches Solowerk geschaffen hat. "Paris In The Spring" ist sein bisher persönlichstes Album, das individuelle wie auch universelle Gefühle offenbart. Die Texte scheuen sich nicht vor eindringlichen Themen, doch musikalisch präsentiert sich die LP unbeschwert, beschwingt und zeitgemäß, mit eleganten Disco-House-Elementen, sinnlichen Basslinien und von Vangelis inspirierten Klanglandschaften.
Taylor hat für diese lebendige Klangwelt namhafte Künstler ins Boot geholt, darunter Nicolas Godin (Air), The Avalanches, Lola Kirke, Oli Bayston, Étienne de Crécy, Elizabeth White (Pale Blue) und Green Gartside (Scritti Politti). In dieser Welt trifft ein intimer Country-Stil auf die eingängige Popmelodie von Paul McCartney, den futuristischen Funk von Sly & The Family Stone und, so Taylor, "Synthesizer, die im Regen stehen gelassen wurden". Hier verschmelzen britisches Americana und französisches Flair – irgendwo auf dem Mars. Das Ergebnis ist ein Album über die Freiheit von Zwängen, von Vorurteilen, von Genregrenzen. Taylor experimentiert mit verschiedensten Musikstilen – Country, Folk, Disco – und hat sie zu etwas Einzigartigem verwoben.
Recorded during a residency in Tenerife powered by Keroxen Festival and Discrepant back in 2020 - amidst the pandemic, no less -, the duo of Carlos Godinho and Mestre André return after their 'Mãe D'Água' debut on Sucata Tapes and an entry on Keroxen's Aquapelago Series through a split with tropical druids Lagoss. Mostly captured in performance through a quadraphonic system placed inside a huge disused fuel tank, with a few tracks recorded out in the open throughout the island, 'Lava Love' evokes the tectonic shifts and motions inherent in their title in 13 tracks.
Based around Godinho's percussive arsenal, from found objects to instruments from all sorts of cartographies, and André's electronic processing, each of these expositions is a point in a map that is created between the island's concrete and fictional existence, discarding any superficial overdubs and crescendos, to focus on the balming and transporting properties of sound itself. From stripped down vignettes like 'Bajamar I' & 'II', 'Chacho' or 'Tangana I' to hypnotic tapestries that confuse the real and imagined like 'Haha No!' or 'La Gomera', Banha da Cobra conjure a collective dream of the island.
All tracks performed and recorded by Banha da Cobra in a quadraphonic system inside an enormous fuel tank (Espacio Cultural El Tanque, Santa Cruz de Tenerife),except Bajamar I and II (recorded outdoors at cantonera de Bajamar, with Lagoss), Taganana I and II (recorded outdoors at Playa de Almáciga) and El Guachinche de Los Realejos (recorded outdoors at Playa de Castro, with Lagoss).
Der gefeierte Pianist Joep Beving veröffentlicht sein erstes gemeinsames Album mit dem in Berlin arbeitenden niederländischen Cellisten und Produzenten Maarten Vos. Ihr Album vision of contentmenterscheint auf Nils Frahms Label LEITER und folgt auf die Zusammenarbeit an Henosis, Bevings drittem Album aus dem Jahr 2019. Die LP, die von Frahm im LEITER Studio im Funkhaus Berlin abgemischt wurde, enthält acht neue Kompositionen und ist sowohl auf Vinyl als auch über alle digitalen Plattformen erhältlich. Während Beving noch nie ein komplettes Album mit anderen Musiker*innen aufgenommen hat, kollaboriert Vos regelmäßig mit Künstler*innen wie Julianna Barwick, Nicolas Godin (AIR) und Alex Smoke. "Endlich ergab sich die Gelegenheit, mit ihm Musik zu machen." sagt Beving. "Ich versuche immer, kleine Welten zu schaffen, in die die Hörer*innen kurzzeitig eintauchen können. Die Arbeit mit Maarten und Nils hat mir ungemein dabei geholfen, dies zu erreichen. Maarten ist ein wahrer Klangkünstler und Nils ist, nun ja... der Meister des Klangs!" Aus ihrer mitunter düsteren Arbeit, entstand eine universelle Lobrede auf das, was der Pianist "Trost finden in der Akzeptanz des Unvermeidlichen" nennt. Aber das Album ist weit mehr als das. Es ist auch eine erstaunlich persönliche Hommage an Mark Brounen, ihren Freund und - in Bevings Fall - Manager, der nach einem mehrjährigen Kampf gegen den Krebs während der Aufnahmen zu diesem Album verstarb. Der Großteil von vision of contentment wurde im Juli 2023 in "de Berenpan", einem Wald außerhalb eines kleinen Dorfes in der niederländischen Provinz Utrecht, geschrieben und mit verschiedenen Synthesizern, einem Cello und einem Klavier aufgenommen. Das Album vermittelt gewiss auf mehreren Wegen eine Idee von Ruhe und Gelassenheit, sei es in unserer Welt oder im Jenseits. Es beginnt mit den blechernen Klängen von "on what must be", und endet mit ruhigen, fast aufmunternden "The boat". Zwischen diesen sensiblen 'Buchenden" liegt ein halbes Dutzend Tracks: Das geisterhafte "Penumbra", das dumpfe, nostalgische "A night in Reno" und das amorphe, beunruhigende "Hades". Vos" schwermütige Cello-Klänge auf "The heron" werden dagegen schnell von einer zauberhaften Klaviermelodie erhellt, die nur durch Geräusche gestört wird, die von einer übernatürlichen Präsenz im Raum zeugen könnten. vision of contentment ist eine wunderbare Hommage an das Leben und alles, was danach kommen mag - kathartisch, spirituell erweckend und letztlich voller Liebe.
SloMo A/V is the cooperation of DJ and producer Chloé Thévenin, who works in the studio to build soundscapes, Dune Lunel, Paris-based art director and Adrien Godin, a young artist from ECV Digital in Paris who works as an art director and graphic designer. This special live recording will now be available on limited edition gatefold vinyl.
2023 repress as double heavy weight black vinyl , with original artwork & gatefold sleeve. Originally released in 2006,even though 5:55 isn't technically Charlotte Gainsbourg's first solo album (that would be Charlotte for Ever, which was released in 1986 when she was 15), it is her first solo album as an adult and, with the help of a dream team of collaborators, it's a fittingly sophisticated set that touches on her father Serge's brilliantly louche, literate pop without being overshadowed by it. Air's Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin (who paid tribute to Serge Gainsbourg particularly well on 10,000 Hz Legend's 'Wonder Milky Bitch') wrote 5:55's delicate music, while Jarvis Cocker and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon penned its lyrics. This mingling of French and English influences is mirrored in Charlotte Gainsbourg's subtly expressive voice and accent, which provides the perfect complement to the album's lush sounds and vivid imagery.
Curtis Godino’s first album producing for The Midnight Wishers. Mastered by Shimmy-Dic’s Kramer. “Golden Wish” Yellow Vinyl LP ltd edition of 500. RIYL: the Shangri-Las, the Chiffons, the Crystals, the GTOS, Ween. What if a cute girl group scored a hit song about a car crash, then actually died in a car crash, but decades later, David Lynch conjured their spirits for a beach-themed Halloween special? That’s a feeble attempt to describe the fun, spooky universe evoked by musician, songwriter and producer Curtis Godino with his latest project, Curtis Godino Presents the Midnight Wishers. “I’ve always been a fan of girl groups and old generic love songs,” says the Brooklyn-based artist, previously known around town for his psychedelic band Worthless and his ’60s-style light projection shows. “No matter how cheesy, they always get stuck in my head, so I decided I would try to make some of my own, with the help of my friends.” Chief among those friends are the Midnight Wishers: lead vocalist Jin Lee and backing singers Rachel Herman and Jessica McFarland, all of whom Godino recruited for the project. Lee also contributed lyrics, which she tends to recite as often as she sings in a dreamy, earnest voice. The trio are the perfect messengers for Godino’s tunes, visually as well as sonically. In photos, they pose before bubble-gummy backgrounds, playing with a ouija board by candlelight, elemental like a cartoon crime-fighting team with their respective black, red and blonde hair. But make no mistake: This project belongs to Godino, a musical ringmaster in the tradition of Phil Spector or more aptly Shadow Morton, whose noir sensibilities spawned such uncanny pop marvels as the Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack” and “Remember (Walking in the Sand).” In this case, Godino built the wall of sound almost entirely by himself, recording on his eight-track tape machine during the pandemic shutdown. Starting with drum tracks from Andrew Max and Adam Amram, he would add picked bass guitar in the style of L.A. studio legend Carol Kaye, then go bonkers with fuzzy guitars, Farfisa organ, mellotron, analog synthe- sizers, glockenspiel, an arsenal of other percussion instruments and an array of mysterious electronic effects. To fully realize the vision, however, Godino knew he needed more firepower. The Wishers’ multilayered harmonies and other vocal tracks were recorded and engineered by his roommate, Paul Millar, at Millar’s Bug Sound East studio. “I'm sure all those incredible old records were recorded on a four-track or whatever, but I don’t have the same discipline,” says Godino, whose stated goal was to create “songs so sweet they’ll give you a cavity
• This slice of Louisiana deep Southern soul has taken on a life of its own since Dave Godin included it on his first “Deep Soul Treasures” CD, and the single has shot up to well over three figures in value.
• In 2021 the song is the subject of a cover version by the-name-to-drop Lady Blackbird and we felt it was about time that it was reissued in its original format.
- A1: Laurie Spiegel - 'Fly By
- A2: Pedro Vian & Pierre Bastien - 'Memory
- A3: Lyra Pramuk - 'Cage
- A4: Chassol - 'Ya!
- A5: Nicolas Godin & Pierre Rousseau - 'Page Turner
- A6: Pascal Comelade - 'Segons Com
- A7: Visible Cloaks - 'Lifeworld
- A8: Raül Refree - 'Vid2020
- A9: Lucrecia Dalt - 'Cosa
- A10: Kelman Duran - 'Dead Cat
- A11: Lafawndah - 'The Super Lady From Nameless-Town
- B1: Ryuichi Sakamoto - 'Silence
Ltd Black Vinyl Gatefold edition + 32 Page Booklet + Download Code
The LP contains original compositions by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pascal Comelade, Laurie Spiegel, Lyra Pramuk, Chassol, Nicolas Godin and Pierre Rousseau, Pedro Vian and Pierre Bastien, Visible Cloaks, Kelman Duran, Raul Refree, Lucrecia Dalt, Lafawndah.
+ a booklet with writings by contemporary thinkers like Shumon Basar, François J. Bonnet, and pictures by, Araki, Juergen Teller, Elizaveta Porodina, Dani Pujalte, P Jack Davison, Zhong Lin, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Adrià Cañameras, Javier Tles among others. Lacquer cut by Josh Bonati & Mastered by Rashad Becker
'PRSNT' is a unique global artistic project combining the input of artists across the worlds of music, video and written word which acts as a statement on how we, as consumers, engage with music in the 21st century. Vital electronic musicians including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lafawndah, Lyra Pramuk, Lucrecia Dalt and Visible Cloaks have each contributed tracks, which are approximately 32 seconds long.
The concept was devised by Created By Us and the Barcelona-based label Modern Obscure Music. They read a study which identified that the overwhelming volume of instantly accessible information online is shortening attention spans and altering how audiences engage with music digitally. Their curiosity about the state of online consumption developed further on discovering that around a third of all listeners using digital platforms skip to the next track, within the first 30 seconds of playing.
Each musician was given a fascinating challenge to create engaging compositions with real artistic merit, inside the confines of this shortened span. Akin to Brian Eno's famous Windows 95 start-up music, the time constraints are crucial, and the compositions are deceptively complex and more substantial than expectations of their nano nature would suggest.
'PRSNT' acts as a critique of flighty feed culture, but is simultaneously constructive, providing something which is either proposed solution, or "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" resignation. Every artist has interpreted the brief differently, resulting in an intriguing blueprint for the potential future of digital music. Could abbreviated micro compositions satisfy, inspire and nourish like their longer counterparts? They certainly take up much less of listeners' busy lives, which are often spent tackling ever-increasing workloads.
- A1: Laurie Spiegel - Fly By
- A10: Kelman Duran - Dead Cat
- A11: Lafawndah - The Super Lady From Nameless-Town
- A2: Pedro Vian & Pierre Bastien - Memory
- A3: Lyra Pramuk - Cage
- A4: Chassol - Ya!
- A5: Nicolas Godin & Pierre Rousseau - Page Turner
- A6: Pascal Comelade - Segons Com
- A7: Visible Cloaks - Lifeworld
- A8: Raul Refree - Vid2020
- A9: Lucrecia Dalt - Cosa
- B1: Ryuichi Sakamoto - Silence
Ltd White Vinyl Gatefold edition + 32 Page Booklet + Download Code
The LP contains original compositions by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pascal Comelade, Laurie Spiegel, Lyra Pramuk, Chassol, Nicolas Godin and Pierre Rousseau, Pedro Vian and Pierre Bastien, Visible Cloaks, Kelman Duran, Raul Refree, Lucrecia Dalt, Lafawndah.
+ a booklet with writings by contemporary thinkers like Shumon Basar, François J. Bonnet, and pictures by, Araki, Juergen Teller, Elizaveta Porodina, Dani Pujalte, P Jack Davison, Zhong Lin, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Adrià Cañameras, Javier Tles among others. Lacquer cut by Josh Bonati & Mastered by Rashad Becker
'PRSNT' is a unique global artistic project combining the input of artists across the worlds of music, video and written word which acts as a statement on how we, as consumers, engage with music in the 21st century. Vital electronic musicians including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lafawndah, Lyra Pramuk, Lucrecia Dalt and Visible Cloaks have each contributed tracks, which are approximately 32 seconds long.
The concept was devised by Created By Us and the Barcelona-based label Modern Obscure Music. They read a study which identified that the overwhelming volume of instantly accessible information online is shortening attention spans and altering how audiences engage with music digitally. Their curiosity about the state of online consumption developed further on discovering that around a third of all listeners using digital platforms skip to the next track, within the first 30 seconds of playing.
Each musician was given a fascinating challenge to create engaging compositions with real artistic merit, inside the confines of this shortened span. Akin to Brian Eno's famous Windows 95 start-up music, the time constraints are crucial, and the compositions are deceptively complex and more substantial than expectations of their nano nature would suggest.
'PRSNT' acts as a critique of flighty feed culture, but is simultaneously constructive, providing something which is either proposed solution, or "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" resignation. Every artist has interpreted the brief differently, resulting in an intriguing blueprint for the potential future of digital music. Could abbreviated micro compositions satisfy, inspire and nourish like their longer counterparts? They certainly take up much less of listeners' busy lives, which are often spent tackling ever-increasing workloads.
After releasing the single “Čista ljubav” back in 2012, Marinada
and producer Qwerty continued to synthesize the band’s rich
catalogue. This collaboration album features eight songs
where Qwerty utilizes his playful approach to dance music
strongly tying together Marinada’s truthful voice and sensitive
instrumentation. The two sides bring in a wide range of
influences into the mix: from retro techno-pop and new wave
to contemporary braindance and acid house. The electronic
sounds are wrapped around simple and repetitive lyrics that
are simultaneously clearly relatable (if you speak Croatian)
and fully mystifying. Marinada has been a truly productive
phenomenon on the Croatian music scene, putting out more
than 20 albums woven from lo-fi electronica, acoustic
minimalism and art rock. Besides the hometown, the band is
connected to Qwerty via the family tree: the brothers have
been making IDMy techno sounds since the late 1990s and
releasing music on labels such as Phthalo and Breakin’
Records.
Never before reissued, this legendary 1968 EMI recording is a revered Indian jazz rarity, a collectors' holy grail. Raga Jazz Style is an original Indian excursion into Indo-jazz fusion. A one-away recording from the almost unknown Bombay jazz scene, it is among the few jazz LPs to hail from the subcontinent.Closely contemporary with the UK-based explorations of Amancio D'Silva, John Mayer and Joe Harriott, Raga Jazz Style takes the melodic, scale-based raga system of Indian classical music and marries it with a swinging jazz rhythm section assembled by Bollywood's most highly acclaimed musical directors, the soundtrack composing duo Shankar Singh and Jaikishan Panchal.Singh and Panchal were a dominant force in Hindi film music from the late 1940s onwards. Shankar had been trained in classical tabla, while Jaikishan was an expert harmonium player. They worked together on well over a hundred films, and their innovative compositions and orchestral scoring revolutionised the music of the nascent Bollywood industry. Central to their sound was regular collaborator Sebastian D'Souza. From 1952 onwards, D'Souza would work on every Shankar Jaikishan soundtrack, eventually becoming Bollywood's most coveted musical arranger.
Originally from Goa, D'Souza had cut his teeth in the dance-band era, arranging and playing with his uncle's jazz bands in Lahore and Quetta. After Partition, he had moved to Bombay to follow the reliable work provided by the film industry, where Goan musicians had become the mainstay of Bollywood's film studio orchestras. Goans were also the core of Bombay's thriving dance-hall and hotel-based jazz scene, with artists including saxophonist Braz Gonsalves, guitarist Amancio D'Silva and trumpeter Chic Chocolate all working in the city during the post-war years.
The team assembled for Raga Jazz Style were drawn from this inventive and forward-thinking milieu. Pianist Lucilla Pacheco, saxophonist Manohari Singh and guitarist Anibal Castro were all fixtures on the Bombay jazz circuit, while drummer Leslie Godinho is reputed to have taught Joe Morello the 5/4 'Take Five' beat when they jammed together during Dave Brubeck's State Department tour of India. To this jazz backbone was added the sitar of Ustad Rais Khan, scion of long line of classical instrumentalists, and nephew of the renowned sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan. Bombay's jazz modernists had been experimenting with the fusion of ragas and jazz since the 1950s, long before American or British jazz musicians had tuned in to Indian classical music. But very little of this exciting scene was ever captured on record. Raga Jazz Style offers a rare chance to hear the innovative sounds of the Indian jazz scene, as peerless composers Shankar Jaikishan and arranging supremo D'Souza join with veteran Bombay jazzers to explore classical themes in a jazz setting — eleven ragas to a swinging beat!This is a highly impressive inaugural salvo by Outernational Sounds, using original masters and beautifully rendered facsimile artwork, with 180g vinyl pressed at Pallas, in Germany.
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