WHAT YOUR EARS & EYES SAY

WHAT WE SAY:

​With orchestral glitz & 60s Italian cinematic splendour Sven Wunder revives the art of big band jazz funk on his lavish & lush new LP for Piano Piano Records. Something the whole family can listen to.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY

On Natura Morta, Sven Wunder is exploring art as a bridge between nature and the human ability to judge and observe in eleven musical compositions with brightly colored textures and an emphasis on vibrant melodies. 

Throughout human history, we have depicted the world we live in through art. By reworking what we see in the world, the simplest things have helped us understand the beauty of nature and to evaluate the material world that we have created around us, as a window to a constantly changing reality, through our own perception. It is that absolute reality that appears in the seam of human and nature and that can be revealed through art. 

Still life painting, also referred to as natura morta (”dead nature”) in Italian, stretches back to ancient times. Some of the earliest works, found in Pompeii, depict commonplace objects such as fresh autumn fruits alongside man-made objects such as a small amphora and a small terracotta heap with dried fruits. These two thousand year old paintings give a snapshot of Roman life, and also creates a link to time and space. A slice of life has been created by binding the earth’s pigments with extracts of oil, made from nuts and seeds, painted with brushes, made from a variety of fibers, such as trees and hair from animals. While life wanes with each brush stroke, by shifting reality into past, art exists to make us come alive, being a living image of a dead thing, a surface and a symbol with symbolic powers of its own. Still life works celebrate material and ephemeral pleasures by returning to nature as the ultimate source for our standards in art as well as in life itself. 

Natura Morta collects pieces from a continuous variety of melodies — supported by a decisive rhythm section — creating a musical kaleidoscope of ever-changing colors. Sven Wunder brings life into this rich assortment of musical implications by fusing and combining melodic instruments with each other in a setting that spans from a classical to a modern idiom. The author evokes this panoramic portrait by articulating an instrumental dialog between a chamber orchestra and a jazz ensemble. The result is a musical celebration of material pleasures that also serves as a reminder of the brevity of human life. This album was produced with financial support from the Swedish Arts Council.  

​Credits
​The staff used on this LP is the following: 
9 violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 1 flute, 1 piano, 1 electric piano, 1 cembalo, 1 twelve-string guitar, 1 electric guitar, 1 trumpet, 1 flugelhorn, 1 tenor horn, 1 marimba, 1 electric bass, drums and percussions.

WHAT YOU EARS SAY & WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

WHAT WE SAY

​Continuing to captain her own spaceship Pursuit Grooves steers some classic Detroit pads through warm, wayward sounds & then around some spacious beats which give room for thoughts to flourish whilst suggesting your body moves its arse.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY

Every living thing gives off electricity. 

This is the soundtrack to a magical place filled with fantastical creatures that radiate joy and hope to all in their presence. 

Discovered by a small group of wildlife biologist, a variety of glowing land and air species were observed on a very distant remote island. Not only were they strange, tiny and majestic, they noticed that these creatures ultimately had the ability to affect the mood and temperament of the researchers. 

There's such beauty in the nature around us! Respect the earth and the remaining secrets we may uncover. It is crucial to all of our existence.

CreditsWritten, Produced and Performed by Vanese J. Smith (BMI) 
What Rules Recordings 
Mastered by SPS 
All original artwork created by Vanese J. Smith​

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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY & WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

WHAT WE SAY

I guess due to his credentials as a therapeutic musician, this ambient meditation on waiting, uncertainly and isolation - the overriding themes of the 20s so far, from Michael Reiley for Past Inside the Present is a surprisingly soothing easy listening experience. Anxiety never sounded so pleasant.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY:

Coronal Loops is a sonic reflection on the nature of waiting, uncertainty, and isolation. This album contains loops and fragments created during the 2020-21 Pandemic. 

Many of the tracks were born from the much longer sonic meditations created for Michael's YouTube channel. The intention was to provide a soothing escape and to illuminate an inner light that shines in each of us. 

Michael's work as a certified Deep Listening® facilitator, Therapeutic Musician, and meditation teacher inform a sense of expansiveness, stillness, and transcendence found in each track. 

For more information about Michael and his offerings please visit  soundoflistening.com. 
CreditsWritten, produced, and mastered by Michael Reiley 
Cover design by Michael Reiley 
Layout by 扎克 

— 

© Healing Sound Propagandist 
HSP-72 | MMXXI  
healingsoundpropagandist.com 
pastinsidethepresent.com/hsp​

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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY

WHAT WE SAY

Doing more with less is a lost art that the world could do with reviving pronto, and here to set a good example is Rime Trails as he achieves maximum ambience through gentle drones, minimal tones, delicate distortion & subtle repetition. Ditch the Saturday shopping, hit repeat & raise your feet.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY

​Music and artwork by me​

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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

WHAT WE SAY

​The new LP from ΓΙΑΝ ΒΑΝ for Teranga Beat is a gem. Torn between the gravitational pull of Africa & The Middle East, his drums stabilise the funk & fusion powered sails as they voyage with a cinematic jazz verve around the Eastern Mediterranean melting pot, evoking the many regional hues as they go.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY:

Teranga Beat proudly presents the drummer-composer Yannis Angelopoulos, aka Jan Van and his last project "Streams". A well known musician in the Athens jazz scene, accompanied by three fellow musicians, he created an album with a tough background story. 

Jan Van started as a drummer in clubs playing popular greek music (laïka) even before he was 18, a typical first step for a musician in Greece. In this way he experienced the underground and in fact the surrealistic atmosphere of the laïka greek clubs. At the age of 20, he started working as a roadie (installing drums) and it was then that he realised a drummer can be a musical director-producer and not just a session musician. So he decided to continue his education and in 1996 he went to study at the Rotterdam’s Conservatorium's (Codarts) Jazz Department, where he stayed for seven years. Soon after his return to Athens he started wondering how to fuse jazz with laïkodimotiko (lumpen, popular music), something detectable in his recent discography. 

Since the mid ‘00s, Jan Van has been working on various jazz projects in Athens, even though the years preceding the 2010s were something of a tough period for the local scene, with limited live opportunities. Furthermore, since 2010, Greece has famously been at the epicentre of the global financial crisis. In an already dysfunctional cultural system during this decade, culture eventually became a luxury. Following ten years of recession, in March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic destroyed the efforts of the country that was struggling to recover and took away any hope. 

Under high psychological pressure, Jan Van had the idea of a jam session as a way-out for expression.  At the same time, the particular concept of water and its properties were stuck in his mind. Water’s fluidity and momentum and the idea of a quiet streaming state, shaped the only concept he eventually shared with his fellow musicians before starting to play. He only wanted them to have the energy of the water as a reference.  

By the end of May, a few days after the end of the lockdown, they gathered in a studio and recorded a live session of spontaneous compositions and improvisations. During that session each musician took a step back to listen and give space to one another. None of the tracks was composed before the recording. The result is a deep album which consists of organic beats with spiritual jazz vibes, sometimes exploring fusions with demotika (traditional) elements, sometimes leaning to cinematic atmospheres. 

The recording was mixed on 2 inch reel tape with analog equipment, to achieve the best possible sound quality. The LP version of the album is a Deluxe Edition and comes with a high gloss laminated gatefold cover and a digital download code.  

CreditsYannis Angelopoulos aka Jan Van: Drums 
Paraskevas Kitsos: Bass 
Vangelis Stefanopoulos: Piano 
Fotis Siotas: Violin, Viol, Voice 

Recorded by Yannis Angelopoulos at Babo Studio 
Mixed by Theodoros Bournas at Arkadikon Studio in Thessaloniki 
Mastering by Stephanos Konstantinidis at Fabrika Sonic Arts Studio in Athens 

Art work and photos by Adamantios Kafetzis

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