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The Slow Music Movement Blog

​Mostly we put our daily recommendations here for the blog readers among you, although occasionally we go longform.
Reading about music is a bit like looking at pictures of food - not nearly half as much fun as getting involved, so we scribble a brief intro to hopefully whet your appetite but you're better off just hitting play. Not very "slow" I know but there's a lot of music to check these days & hopefully you'll find the recommendations a handy filter.
​Trust your ears, not opinions.

30/11/2019 0 Comments

Channelers - The Depth of Rest (Inner Islands)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:
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WHAT WE SAY:

This welcome new age of New Age LP from Channelers for his own Inner Islands label, is a sunkissed safe & happy place where man & his machines live in harmony with the field recorded fauna & verdant ambient flora of its time honed, nature balanced ecosystem.
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Exploring the gradient between acoustic realism and synthetic reality, real landscapes and fantasy, and creating fantastic re-imaginings of these landscapes. There is also a process of creating scenes to play out these fantasies: extrapolating from the gestures of the landscape and its indigenous nature to create musical scenes of parallel and sympathetic resonance. Gesture responding to gesture, widening the circle until completion. Magical realism as a piece of the dreaming state, the vision state, projected onto the canvas of ordinary perceived reality.

Field recordings, keyboards, dulcimer, and Irish low whistle.

Art and music by Sean Conrad. Recorded in March 2019.
Mastered at The Gentle Ways.
Thanks to Rosa, Lawrence, Ian, and yourself. Much love to all.


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29/11/2019 0 Comments

Lazy H - Where's Bill? (Stereoptico)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:
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WHAT WE SAY:

There's something for everybody on the new
Lazy H EP for Stereoptico. Club rave ups, head nodding beats, dream pop & short but sweet ambient - all unified with omnipresent, positively charged cosmic synth tones & it's futuristic, fresh, nips & tucks makeover of ageing genres.
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North London’s Lazy H will release his new EP “Where’s Bill?” via respected technicolour beats imprint Stereoptico on the 27th of November 2019.

Deftly balancing melody, harmony, sweetly swung drums and bass weight, Lazy’s widescreen electronics are a breath of fresh air. Happiest exploring the grey areas between genres, he follows in the footsteps of respected elders Natureboy Flako, Photay and Chrome Sparks, displaying the same flair for conjuring highly idiosyncratic and addictive grooves and effortlessly spanning tempos and moods. It was this spark that earned him a coveted spot in Gilles Peterson and Brownswood’s grassroots talent discovery and development program in 2018-19: Future Bubblers.

The producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has previously worked with L-Vis 1990 (Night Slugs), Reflec (Clergy, Lobster Theramin), and singer songwriters Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Collard and Ronika.

Alongside the release of “Where’s Bill?” Lazy H has also built a new live show combining the freedom of real instrumentalists and improvisation with live sampling, synthesizers and drum machines.


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28/11/2019 0 Comments

From Grotto & Niilo Takalainen - Noita Official Soundtrack Vol. 1

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WHAT THE RECORDING SESSION LOOKED LIKE:
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WHAT WE SAY:

Finnish game composer Niilo Takalainen has enlisted his cosmic compatriats, psychedelic rocking rogues From Grotto to dramatic, atmospheric & "one more go" effect for the fun looking, pixeltastic, magical action adventure, Noita. Treasure seeking, spell castiing & general mayhem never sounded so good.
WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

Noita Official Soundtrack vol. 1 Contains select tracks from the first areas of Noita, along with some sweet out takes!

The soundtrack is split into multiple adventures, two longer ones: Side A & Side B for a longer thought out venture into the musical depths of the magical caves and separate tracks for convenient shorter trips into the kosmos!

Get the game here store.steampowered.com/app/881100/Noita/

Listen to more From Grotto: fromgrotto.bandcamp.com
Credits
Niilo Takalainen - guitar, music direction and mixing
Joonas Turner - keyboards, percussion and weird noises
Pekka Takalainen - drums, percussion
Riku Hyötyläinen - bass, flute, percussion
Antti Pasonen - guitar, percussion

Petri Majuri - Recording, Mixing and Mastering

Recorded mixed and mastered at E-studio.
Cover art by Arvi Teikari and Olli Harjola.


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27/11/2019 0 Comments

Go: Organic Orchestra & Brooklyn Raga Massive - Ragmala: A Garland of Ragas (Meta Records)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:
WHAT THE MUSICIANS SAY:
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WHAT WE SAY:

With its 40 piece ensemble, clarity of vision & unrelenting intensity the Outernational Indo Jazz of restless souls,
Go: Organic Orchestra & Brooklyn Raga Massive is an epic global jazz fusion spectacle that can stand tall next to the best of the '70s. A truly remarkable recording.

WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

On the remarkable new album Ragmala – A Garland of Ragas, Rudolph’s Go: Organic Orchestra and Brooklyn Raga Massive form a singular ensemble that vibrantly bridges musical and cultural distinctions. The result is a breathtaking set of music that carves an egalitarian and communal way forward while reverberating with echoes of the recent and ancient past. Drawing parallels with another ground-breaking and singular epic, Ragmala has already been referred to as a Bitches Brew for the 21st century (Ahmet Ali Arslan of Açık Radyo Istanbul).

The members of the adventurous BRM collective are deeply steeped in the traditions of Indian classical music. They refuse, however, to be restricted by it; the idea behind the collective, birthed in 2012 in a Prospect Heights bar, is to open the often rigid and hierarchical culture of the music to experimentation and cross-cultural collaboration. This collaboration marks the collective’s most ambitious effort to date in the musical movement that the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and New Yorker have recognized as a “Raga Renaissance.”

“This album feels like the culmination of everything I’ve been reaching for throughout my career,” says Rudolph, no small claim from someone who’s been a pioneering voice in jazz and world music for more than 40 years. “Through my music I want to hear the humanity of all these different musicians shine through, and with their voices bring forth something that’s never existed before.”

According to BRM guitarist David Ellenbogen, who co-produced Ragmala, the possibilities offered by Rudolph’s music scratched the very itch that led many of them into BRM’s more exploratory fold to begin with. “I always had a theory that Indian Classical, jazz, West African music and so on could have a synergistic relationship,” Ellenbogen says. “But after spending decades looking through record libraries, I found very few recordings lived up to the potential of these great traditions. I've spoken to other musicians on this album and they said the same thing when they heard these tracks: This is the music we've been searching for.”
 

Credits
Jay Ghandi - bansuri
Arun Ramamurthy - violin
Trina Basu - violin
Samarth Nagarkar - vocal
Neel Murgai - rhythm sitar, overtone singing
Sameer Gupta - tabla
David Ellenbogen - electric rhythm guitar
Abhik Mukherjee - sitar
Bala Skandan - mridangam
Mari Tanaka - tampura

Kaoru Watanabe - c flute, fue, noh kan
Michel Gentile - c flute
Sylvain Leroux - chromatic tambin, tambin, c flute
Ze Luis - c and alto flute
Mariano Gil - bass flute

Avram Fefer - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
Sean Sonderegger - bass and contrabass clarinet, soprano saxophone
Sara Schoenbeck - bassoon
Ivan Barenboim - b flat clarinet

Charles Burnham - violin
Julianne Carney-Chung - violin
Sana Nagano - violin
Gwen Laster - violin
Richard Carr - violin
Stephanie Griffin - viola
Leco Reis - contrabass

Graham Haynes - cornet, flugelhorn, kudu horn, bamboo vaccine
Stephen Haynes - cornet, flugelhorn, solo alto, pocket trumpet, didgeridoo, conch, kudu horn
Peter Zummo - trombone, didgeridoo, conch, kudu horn
Libby Schwartz - french horn

Mia Theodoratus - harp
Marco Cappelli - electric and acoustic guitars
Alexis Marcelo - keyboards
Damon Banks - electric bass

Harris Eisenstadt - bata (iya, itotele, okonkolo)
Rogerio Boccato - caxixi, mineiro, temple blocks, bells, wood box surdo
Hamid Drake - drum kit, okonkolo
Adam Rudolph - iya, itotele

Special Guests
Hassan Hakmoun - sintir, vocal
Abderahim Hakmoun - qarqaba, vocal

Music composed and improvisationally conducted by Adam Rudolph (Migration Music BMI)
Mousa Azure and Chakawali by Hassan Hakmoun and Adam Rudolph (Hakmoun Music BMI, Migration Music BMI)
Signal Rhythms arranged for Bata ensemble by Adam Rudolph and Harris Eisenstadt.
All music organically arranged and orchestrated by Adam Rudolph.
Recorded December 2018 at Orange Music Studio, New Jersey.
Recording, mix and mastering by James Dellatacoma.
Studio assistant - Mas Yamagata
Design by Sylvain Leroux.
Paintings by Nancy Jackson.
Cosmogram score materials by Adam Rudolph.
Sanskrit calligraphy by Subrata Basu.
Produced by Adam Rudolph, Mas Yamagata and David Ellenbogen.
Special thanks to Bill Laswell, C. Daniel Dawson, Michael Lucio Sternbach, Tim, Dawn and Elke at The Rubin Museum of Art and Gabe, Justin and the team at Pioneer Works.
Dedicated to our families: Those here, those gone, and those still to come.
We are grateful to Yusef Lateef and Don Cherry who opened the doors to the world for us all.


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26/11/2019 0 Comments

El Khat القات  - Saadia Jefferson سعديا  جيفيرسون (Batov Records)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:
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WHAT WE SAY:

El Khat deconstruct& repurpose Yemeni folk for Batov Records using new, old & upcycled junk instruments & give it a spaghetti funk, horn licked, Pan-Arabic trance inducing makeover that's perfect for multi-cultural dancefloors & open minded shape throwers.
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WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

Saadia Jefferson is a glorious act of vandalism on Yemeni traditions led by inventor, carpenter, musician and composer Eyal El Wahab.

Dismantling lyrics, melodies and compositions from Yemeni folk songs, El Khat delve into uncharted sonic territory updating Yemen's ancient culture. Using an orchestra of instruments old and new, many repurposed from junk objects and turned into instruments that sound similar to traditional Arabic and North African lutes and percussion, Tel Aviv based El Khat have imagined an indelible stamp of polyphonic, harmony soaked, pan-Arabic braindance.

Hover over the tracks and you can pick out certain influences such as Omar Souleyman and dabkefolk characterised by trance-inducing chants (Wahed Mozawej), the searing Ethiopique organ of Mulatu Astatke (Ala Jina Nuhayiykum), and the unashamedly sing-along choruses of Bowie or McCartney (Balagh Al Achbaab), but the over-arching concept within Saadia Jefferson is Eyal's sense of identity, or lack of it, as a Yemeni Jew living in Tel Aviv.

The album is the rewards of a self-imposed mission to discover Eyal El Wahab's Yemeni roots.
 


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25/11/2019 0 Comments

Francois N'Gwa - Ogooué (Into The Deep)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:
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WHAT WE SAY:

In the increasingly patchy African reissue frenzy the sounds of Gabon have been largely overlooked so it's good to see new label Into the deep taking a look at the pioneering, percussion rich, synth & electronic fused Afro vocal sounds of Paris emigre François N'GWA & his hitherto buried chest of Balearic nuggets.
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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

Since the early 80's, Gabonese musician François N'Gwa has been jamming with instruments, synthesizers and, later on, production software exploring multiple music aesthetics from his Paris based home studio.
Over the years, N'Gwa has written and produced incredible and timeless music, melting together his African music heritage with his favourite influences.
New French label Into The Deep Treasury is delighted to present Ogooué as a tribute to N'Gwa's homeland, compiling some of his finest pieces, carefully restored and remastered, pressed on 180g vinyl in a hand painted cover artwork for the most enjoyable listening experience possible..


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24/11/2019 0 Comments

Lankum - The Livelong Day (Rough Trade)

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WHAT WE SAY:

I usually get fiddle fatigued by Irish folk music but the low lit, respect & ripping up of tradition, dark ambient nodding bygone drones, no shirking of hard truths, start to finish quality, welcome experimentation & unforced originality of Lankum's recent Lp for Rough Trade Records is a future classic.
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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

Lankum honour the sacredness of traditional Irish tunes, but allow them to metamorphose, to grow and breathe like the heavy, ancient breath of the Uilleann pipes which seethe beneath the tracks of their third studio album (and second with Rough Trade). “Drone is a big part of traditional music because the Uilleann pipes are indigenous to Ireland, so we’re ramping up that history and taking it as far as we can.”

This is the idea found at the core of the universe created in The Livelong Day; expanding and emboldening that which is already playing out in history. Alongside the traditional songs on the record, there are two originals, the haunting ‘Young People’ and the tragic beauty of ‘Hunting The Wren’.


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23/11/2019 0 Comments

Anne Muller - Heliopause (Erased tapes)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:
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WHAT WE SAY:

A stunning debut LP from pioneer
Anne Müller for Erased Tapes. Guided approvingly by the ghosts of tradition, she boldly composes her own trail into the wide open expanses of modern classical & aided by an open mind, virtuoso cello playing, deviant piano treatment & embrace of technology she ends up sounding like a well honed ensemble. A stirring Saturday soundtrack.
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A solo record in every sense of the word, Müller wrote, recorded, arranged and produced Heliopause. The album is named after the boundary where the sun's wind ceases to have influence. It is ultimately, the border of our solar system. The name struck a chord with Müller since the two voyagers sent on an exploratory mission 42 years ago, recently crossed the Heliopause, entering into interstellar space and losing power from our own sun. Müller recognized herself in this moment, not only approaching the same age, but also breaking new ground; having relied on collaborating with so many other stars and now venturing into the unknown with her first solo statement; "Heliopause marks the end of a long journey but also the start of voyages to explore strange new worlds".

Boldly opening the album with "Being Anne", it sees Müller embrace her new found freedom with the most experimental piece on the record, placing the cello in a completely new context. Playing the strings of a broken down piano with a plectrum and scratching parts of the key mechanism to produce a rhythm, the once lost instrument is given a new lease of life among looped cello drones and drums. 

"I used the sounds of a tiny piano I got from my mother that she bought when she was a student and didn't have any money. Later it stood for years in our little summer garden house, where I practiced on it constantly for my piano lessons. Even though it's old and not in the best shape, I love the way it sounds and call it my little circus piano".

The atmospheric swells of noise on Being Anne are juxtaposed beautifully with the most stripped back and exposed song, Solo? Repeat!. The J.S. Bach and Gaspar Cassadó influenced piece sees Müller go solo in its purest form: unaccompanied cello. Lead single Nummer 2 is so titled as it's the second piece Anne ever wrote. A mixture of old sounds and newer structures, its repeated arpeggio conjures drama and displays Müller's dexterous production abilities. Drifting Circles meanwhile provides the album's climax, amid an orchestra of looped cellos and vocals. Referencing the minimalism of contemporary composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass, it builds to a crescendo of harmonics, allowing the cello to sore as it crosses the border from minor to major.
 
Credits
All music written, performed, recorded and produced by Anne Müller, published by Erased Tapes Music, mixed and mastered by Martyn Heyne, design by FELD.

P & C 2019 Erased Tapes Records Ltd.


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22/11/2019 0 Comments

Kesswa - Soften (Self Release)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:
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WHAT WE SAY:

Astrally project into the weekend with the dream pop edged, Afrofuturistic soul of Kesswa as she twists her hometown, Detroit's rich electronic & soul music heritage into healing vibration infused, meditative new forms.
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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

An ambient, electronic and soulful take on Kesswa's journey through her creative process. Inspired by her own personal use of mantra and affirmation, this project is a musical meditation.

Credits
Artist and songwriter: Kesiena Wanogho
Harpist: Ahya Simone Taylor
Producer, Recording and mixing engineer: Benjamin Hill
Mastering engineer: Olanre Adewole


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21/11/2019 0 Comments

Metcha Quito Vol, 2 (Chill Mountain)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:
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WHAT WE SAY:

It's nice to hear some Latinfuturism for a change, somehow aptly transmitted via Japan's Chill Mountain, as Ground, Juan Diego & Shamanic Catharsis (what were his parents thinking?) breath some ayahuasca fuelled vibrancy, energy & imagination into the largely dull & homogeneous tropical slow house scene.
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Metcha Quito vo..2 Is a music colony that appeared in Quito, Ecuador in February and March 2019

前衛と甘美の交錯。
2019年初旬、エクアドルの首都、キトのスタジオで行われた二人のミュージシャンと一人のDJによるセッションの記録。
Pablo Vicencio a.k.a Shamanic Catharsis(Percussion&drum&flute)、 Juan Diego Illescas(Piano&organ&synthesizer)が奏でる南米の大地に根を降ろすルーツミュージックと Ground の操るエレクトロニクスと発想が高い水準で融解している。
フォルクローレ、JAZZ、テクノ、ハウス、エレクトロニカ、etc…
さまざまな音楽の持つ最もエクスペリメンタルな部分にフォーカスしながら、そのどれにも属さない美しく甘くプリミティブな響き。
新しいもの、古いものという価値観の先にあるとてもスリリングなダンスミュージック。

Juan Diego Illescas (Piano/organ/synthesizer)
www.facebook.com/jdiegoillescas/
Shamanic Catharsis (Percussion/drums/flute)
www.facebook.com/electroshamanicgroove/
Ground(Computer)
www.facebook.com/groundjp/

Special Featuring Artists
Ape Chimba (Acoustic Guitars/Bass/Vocal) ( Track 1)
www.facebook.com/apechimba/
Josefinagandara (Vocal) (Track 6)
Julio Vincencio(Flute/Charango) (Track 7)

Mastered By
Kabamix ( soundcloud.com/kabamix )
Track 1.2.3.4.5.7 Produced & mixed By Ground
Track6 produced & mixed By Juan Diego lllescas



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