Yet, out of the blue in the middle of this year came word of a new solo album -- via the Drums & Wires Recordings label run by her erstwhile bandmate and still-fellow Seattleite Michael Wells -- in the shape of the very welcoming and much-welcomed Beckonings. A richly diverse collection that reacquaints us with Torgerson’s skills as a singer, a song-interpreter, an arranger and a collaborator, as well as her lesser-explored role as a writer.
Daily archives: 10/11/2024
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Although Ghanaian-born trumpeter Peter Somuah's latest release has the title Highlife, his is a unique interpretation of the musical style. Born in Accra, he is now settled in Rotterdam and with a group of four Netherlanders and a Dutch-Surinamese percussionist, plies a pan-continental version that shows its love of the African tradition while happily melding it with European influences. Recording the album in Berlin only adds to the constant sense of movement.
Whereas its aforementioned predecessor presented itself as a widescreen and eclectic set, this year’s six-song Last April is a far more intensely concentrated and intimate affair. Assembled out of necessity, to process the grief from the premature passing of a close family member, this is an extremely poignant suite of reflections.
Moving from dramatic, classically influenced pieces through romantic introspection to more modernist tendencies, Leviathan contains eleven shape-shifting pieces which -- considering none are more than six minutes long -- are impressive showcases of the band's ability to let ideas flow, yet to be concise with nothing allowed to outstay its warm welcome.
French sound artistes Matthieu Prial and Christophe Havard have been exploring the possibilities of recording sound on the move in the form of walking concerts or just generally playing whilst in the elements for a few years now and the final fruits of their work together have been captured on this new disc.
101 Films' wonderful 4K UHD brings out all the fantastic lurid colours that the film possesses and gives a crystal-clear image to all of Pyun’s incredible set pieces. Joseph Mangine’s photography looks sublime and you can see that every dollar the film took to make is up there on screen.