I don’t believe I’ve mentioned Lost Tribe Sound yet in the newsletter, so I’d like to introduce another one of my favourite labels for you to explore. Those with darker listening tendencies in particular will feel right at home, although don’t sweat it if not, there are plenty of slightly less shadowy albums as well, which is where I tend to lurk - life is dark enough as it is.
MastroKristo is a “naive multimedia artist, woodworker, tea & herb shop owner and recently a father”, no wonder he only releases an LP every few years. He’s also a new artist discovery, I’m not quite sure how I overlooked his previous release for the label, although I’ve now bookmarked it after just a cursory listen this morning.
He’s also quite the composer, adopting a rich, layered approach to his genre ambiguous thoughts on life’s grey areas, which the populists have conveniently swept under the rug with their black or white approach. Unsurprisingly he’s enlisted the trio who did such a good job on Departures. Sadly they don’t seem to be name checked although I feel I should, but I presume they’re handling tuba, strings and bassoon, whilst mastroKristo concentrates on the keys and tape manipulation.
Perhaps due to time stress and to make this recording more substantial, he’s also enlisted four like minded artists to rework a track each from his debut LP which he’s seamlessly woven into the new album. They’re also something of a Lost Tribe/TSMM dream team - Claire Deak, Aaron Martin, Federico Mosconi and The Phonometrician no less - if you're having a lazy day and are fed up of social scrolling then hit play on these four. Unsurprisingly they’ve more than delivered, respecting the original vibes but not too shy to have their say. If you overlooked the track listing or credits then you’d never know they were there.
So what of the album? Rather like our world it’s a bitter sweet place. It’s a borderless melting pot where tape degradation scuffs the grand cinematic constructs as strings and wind instruments gesture at humanity’s achievements whilst shedding a tear at our greed. Melodic light celebrate humdrum family or single life and those undocumented moments of laughter and kindness. It’s tender, epic, warm and dispassionate. It’s folk, classical, ambient and cinematic. It’s affecting.
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