Journeys in Sound & Music
The guitar is an instrument for all seasons, but there is just something especially alluring about it as the waning days of summer give way to the golden light of autumn. In that spirit, here is a round-up of six excellent albums some of which released earlier in the year and some still to come…
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Born in Hawaii to Hungarian parents, Lara Somogyi’s introduction to harp-playing skewed toward the traditional until she began to lean into an improvisational approach while studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London and composing to color schemes and visuals. Another sensory layer emerged in her work after a series of chance meetings with…
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As a composer primarily for film, Jonas Colstrup has released several soundtracks, including two with the late Jóhann Jóhannsson who proves to be a key influence for his new album four years in the making. Unhurried by the rigorous deadlines associated with scoring, Colstrup was able to “dream big” as it were and take the…
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Wickerbird is the atmospheric dream-folk project of Blake Cowan rooted in the sylvan beauty of the wild foothills of Mt. Rainier where it all began. From early albums like The Crow Mother (2012) and The Westering (2013) to the masterful The Leaf Maker (2015), he has carved his own path by distilling daydream-filled walks in the…
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Composer, trumpeter, and sound artist Peter Knight frames his new record Shadow Phase as a meditation on the nature of connection, the backdrop being conversations while walking with his old friend and teacher, Ania Walwicz during the COVID lockdown of 2020 when they were restricted to overlapping 5-kilometer zones near Docklands, an inner-city suburb of…
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Described as “a musical fresco in seven pieces”, Missing Island will be the third album from Snowdrops, a French chamber collective comprising multi-instrumentalists Christine Ott and Mathieu Gabry accompanied by violist Anne-Irène Kempf. A sequel to Volutes, which gained recognition as one of the top 10 contemporary albums of 2020 by The Guardian, the new…
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Who doesn’t enjoy curling up on the sofa over a weekend and taking in a film or binge watching a great television show? You can certainly do that with the productions shown here, but the focus of our little travelogue is the music that was created for each by a group of composers whose solo…
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Gondwana Records is an independent record label founded in Manchester, England by composer/musician/producer Matthew Halsall in 2008 to shine a light on the talent he heard in the local clubs. Since then, it has become blossomed into a genuinely international label with additional offices in Berlin and London and a roster that boasts such well-regarded artists as GoGo Penguin,…
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Chiming bells and a lone piano set the scene in “Fantasia Opening”, as if summoning a gathering to take place. Different instruments answer the call … Thus, we are introduced to the first single from The Whole World Laid Out Before Me, the forthcoming new album by Pêtr Aleksänder, an alternative modern classical project from…
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Stationary Travels 