Goran Bregović has done it all. A rock star in the former Yugoslavia, he went on write film scores and ride the fashion for brassy Balkan Gypsy music, selling over 6m albums and collaborating with everyone from Iggy Pop to the Gipsy Kings. Now he celebrates the history of his birthplace Sarajevo, a meeting place for Christians, Muslims and Jews before the Balkan war, with a wildly varied set. There are instrumental pieces honouring the three religions, each dominated by a different violinist, and including powerful atmospheric work from Tunisia’s Zied Zouari. They would work well as a documentary soundtrack. And then there are songs, many of which develop into a brassy knees-up. The cast includes the cool and dramatic Spanish singer Bebe, the Israeli folk-rocker Asaf Avidan, and – best of all – the exuberant Algerian rai-punk rocker Rachid Taha. Patchy, maybe, but often enormous fun.
Espiral is instrumental avant-prog/experimental-fusion four-piece band from Santiago de Chile. It was formed in 2016 by experienced musicians with various background: Miguel Angel Rodriguez (keyboards), Jose Luis Cayul (guitar), Ignacio Larrain (bass, saxophone), and Cristian "Joven Billy" Hidalgo (drums). In January 2017, the band presented 4-track self-titled demo EP, which was followed in July by the debut full-length album "Love From Melmac". The band tends to perform thoroughly composed and arranged, complex, tight, variable, and dark instrumental music bringing together elements of avant-garde, progressive rock, jazz-fusion, and space-rock.
Espiral was born with the idea of delivering sounds that evoke different states of consciousness. The result is a work that seeks to transport the listener to an internal journey, taking it through different atmospheres that develop their most intimate sensations.