Brides Abroad From Issue 18, 2016

As a unit, this must be one of the best piano trios ever, and certainly as instantly recognisable as any of its great predecessors. Charlap’s touch on the keyboard is light, almost stealthy, even when playing full chords, but always firm, clear and beautifully articulated. With the spirited support of bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington (famously unrelated), the total effect is just perfect. As always, Charlap’s playing provides convincing proof that it is still possible to create fresh but pertinent treatments of well-known standard songs. The son of a songwriter and a singer, he has an instinctive feel for the idiom. His versions here of I’ll Remember April and A Sleepin’ Bee are masterly.

Bamako-based producer/educator Paul Chandler has been documenting the sonic and cultural complexities of Malian traditional music for more than a decade and “Every Song Has Its End” is an out-of-time, visceral collection of sounds from Chandler’s unparalleled archive.

James Arthur is the 2012 X factor winner, with his debut single ‘Impossible’ becoming the biggest X factor winner’s song of all time. The single kept the #1 chart spot for 3 weeks, won platinum in the UK and was nominated for a Brit Award. His self-titled first album, featuring the No.2 single “You’re Nobody Until Somebody Loves You” and collaborations with Naughty Boy and Emeli Sande, was certified Gold in the UK after worldwide sales of over 400,000. However, months after his debut single and album was finally usurped from the top spot, the struggles of the limelight became too much for the singer and in his own words, he “cracked”. Fast forward 2 years, James is a very different animal in 2016 and managed to process his experiences on his new album BACK FROM THE EDGE, which will be released 28th October. BACK FROM THE EDGE’s first single SAY YOU WON’T LET GO, released September 9, is the sound board for what has been a turbulent career, still very much in its infancy. Apart from the deeply emotional ballad, the album presents many songs with a personal experience.

Even though they started out on Musea, EGOBAND is another Mellow Records Italian obscurity. What does that mean? It means it's hard to find band information. But there is enough to paint a picture. The first album's lineup consisted of Alessandro Accordino on vocals and keyboards,
Fabio Cioni on drums,
Massimo Fava on guitars, and Alfonso Capasso on bass. However, only Accordino and Capasso would be consistent with the group over its four-album career. This, along with the fact that there were no live efforts, leads to speculation that EGOBAND may have been more of a project than a band (a la Steely Dan). They went through interesting changes over their career. Starting out purely Neo, with heavy AOR tendencies, and ending up almost in Canterbury territory by the time they got to "Earth"…

Instrumental 4-piece Tides From Nebula are back with their new studio album Safehaven. Contrary to their former work with Zbigniew Preisner (Earthshine) and Christer Cederberg (Eternal Movement) the album is completely self-produced this time. "This is going to be our 4th release and we are extremely happy to share it with our fans", states the band. "In the past we have worked with acclaimed producers who taught us so much that this time we felt we were ready to take that task upon ourselves. The creative process was smooth and spontaneous similarly to when we were writing our debut album Aura. We are sure that you will be able to hear it all: honesty, darkness, experience and energy…"