Exotic Dance

The rich profusion of musical idioms employed by Pancho Vladigerov, filtered through the prism of his dazzlingly virtuoso piano writing, makes for some exciting listening. Nadejda Vlaeva responds thrillingly to the extreme pianistic challenges.

The rich profusion of musical idioms employed by Pancho Vladigerov, filtered through the prism of his dazzlingly virtuoso piano writing, makes for some exciting listening. Nadejda Vlaeva responds thrillingly to the extreme pianistic challenges.

The follow-up to the pioneering Australian art pop duo's 2012 comeback LP Anastasis, Dionysus dispenses with the more song-oriented approach of its predecessor in favor of an atmosphere-driven bacchanalian oratorio inspired by the Greek god of wine and ecstasy. Split into two tracks with a sum of seven movements, Dionysus unfurls like a guided ayahuasca trip; a curl of aromatic smoke that develops into a roaring, pre-Byzantine bonfire replete with primeval chants and ancient rites. Opener "Sea Borne" tracks the outsider God's arrival via a slow build of tribal beats and a sinewy, unfolding melody that suggests "Misirlou" by way of "Kashmir" – the album continues to eschew the European folk proclivities of the duo's early work in favor a more Mediterranean and North African aesthetic.

By bringing together the traditional instrumentation of exotic countries with a new age-style sense of self-exploration and a broad palette of electronic ambient sounds, producer/multi-instrumentalist Anugama garnered enough of a small cult following to sustain a prolific, long-winded career. Though born in Cologne, Germany, where he first developed his exceptional interest in music, Anugama's curiosity took him to far and distant lands. He spent his teens in Hamburg, where he played drums and worked in a music store, before traveling to Asia in his twenties for a life-changing five-year period. While in Asia, he developed a strong interest in spiritual philosophies and meditation. These interests soon crept into Anugama's music, which had expanded to comprise his multi-cultural interests: the beats of African and Caribbean music, the rhythms of Hawaii, the meditations of India, and so on…