Soleil Rouge (1971) Red Sun

Samulnori is a traditional Korean folk percussion ensemble who utilizes for percussion instruments: kkaengguari, ching, changgo, and buk. Renowned changgo player Kim Duk Soo with Samulnori has put together a stunning collection of world talents who fuse traditional Korean forms with other genres that span the globe – most notably jazz and funk. The results are impressive. All of the pieces on this release maintain some facets of traditional Korean music that are unique to that culture, be it the pansori singing style on "Rabbit Stori" or the shanawi improvisational technique on "Shinawi".

Midnight Sun were a Progressive Rock group from Denmark, whose style is influenced by such acts as Traffic, Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, and later on, Blood Sweat And Tears. They first started out as Rainbow Band, but soon had to change their name, after it was found that a Canadian group had already taken it. They released four studio albums during their career, the first two or three probably being the more famous. Their albums are also of serious value to collectors and were all designed by the famous Roger Dean.

Strut presents the 4CD edition of Sun Ra's 'Egypt 1971', documenting Sun Ra's first trip to Egypt with his Arkestra in December 1971.

Février 1922. Venu se désintoxiquer de son addiction à l'opium dans un ashram de l'Assam, le capitaine Wyndham est confronté à l'escroc qui, des années auparavant, l'a piégé alors qu'il enquêtait sur un assassinat dans les quartiers populaire de l'est de Londres. Quand un meurtre énigmatique est commis dans le club très fermé de Jatinga, le sergent Banerjee vient lui prêter main-forte. …

A truly undervalued gem, This Is… Gracious! sat on the shelves for two years after completion before being issued; it's a shame that it was to be last anyone heard from the band for the next two decades.
No sophomore jinx here: on their second album, Gracious truly hits its stride. The first half of the album is a four-part suite, "Super Nova." After its Floydian opening instrumental, the band launches into the bleak "Blood Red Sun"; with a dystopic narrative of environmental holocaust and its martial drumbeat, it's an ideal complement to King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man." Strange, then, that this should lead to "Say Goodbye to Love," an effectively weepy guitar ballad of lost romance and tear-jerking harmonies…

The group SamulNori, which takes its name from the selfsame style of Korean folk music and was founded in 1978 by Kim Duk Soo as a means of expanding the music’s compass of awareness, combines its namesake’s balance of ritual and humble beginnings with contemporary leanings. Samul nori is at heart a percussive genre. Its four instruments are the jing (large gong), the kkwaenghwari (small gong), the janggu (hour-glass drum), and the buk (barrel drum). Each is its own element—wind, thunder, rain, and clouds, respectively—and brings a fertile sound to bear upon a range of ecologically minded texts, both recited and sung. SamulNori members have worked with, among others, Bill Laswell and Kodo, but perhaps most notably with Red Sun.

Eighteen months on from his last solo release, Vancouver-based singer/composer Ian William Craig returns with a brilliant and powerfully emotive new album. His first for a long while to be centred around the piano - and also one of his most pared back - the record was made through an intense period of personal loss and environmental catastrophe.