What’s New in Electronics September October 2016

Seven-and-a-half thousand kilometres of cold ocean separate West Africa from Haiti. But music can cover that distance in a heartbeat, crossing the Atlantic to reunite the rhythms and religion of people torn from their homes to be sold into slavery on the Caribbean island. And on its self-titled album, the Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra honours those ghosts of the past even as it walks steadfastly and hopefully into the future.

Coinciding with his fiftieth birthday, The View From Halfway Down signals a brand new chapter for Andy Bell thirty odd years into his career. The product of a gradual, four-year process and finished during lockdown, the album was entirely written and recorded by Andy, engineered by Gem Archer and mastered by Heba Kadry.

“I think I am the same as an artist and as a person. Music is my way of communication and I see the art, the music as a whole thing, with no borders, divisions, or even genres.”

Mahobin (Satoko Fujii, Lotte Anker, Tamura Natsuki, Ikue Mori) - Live at Big Apple in Kobe (2018) {Libra Records 204-050}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 272 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 122 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 139 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2018 Libra Records | 204-050
Jazz / Free Improvisation / Abstract

Live at Big Apple in Kobe captures a riveting, wildly unpredictable live performance by Mahobin, a formidable quartet of improvisers gathered together for the first time by pianist-composer Satoko Fujii. The recording is the eighth of Fujii’s yearlong birthday celebration which has her releasing a new CD every month. Joining her on this recording are trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, Danish saxophonist Lotte Anker, and laptop musician Ikue Mori. Performing without any compositions or pre-arranged plan, the quartet improvises a thrilling album of music laced with brilliant colors, compelling rhythms, and melodic beauty balanced with otherworldly abstraction.

On Deadly Ground suffers without the orchestral firepower customary to Basil Poledouris' most memorable action scores, but its quirks – most notably the addition of Inuit throat singers Qaunaq Mikkigak and Timangiak Petaulassie – rescue the music from complete forgettability. Because Poledouris' action efforts operate in such bold, grandiose strokes, their impact is dulled in the hands of the smaller-sized orchestra employed here (presumably to compensate for the additional costs of star/director Steven Seagal's hair plugs). Still, the composer excels at evoking the narrative's emphasis on Alaskan ecological hazards and native mysticism, installing vocals and celestial electronics to capture the otherness of life in the Last Frontier.

Lunatic Soul is the solo project of Mariusz Duda, the lead singer and creative force behind the Polish band, Riverside. Duda's fifth and long-awaited album Fractured is an album of catharsis following a challenging year in his personal life.
Mariusz explains that "the main theme of "Fractured" is coming back to life after a personal tragedy. It's inspired by what happened in my life in 2016 and by everything that's happening around us and what's making us turn away from one another and divide into groups, for better and for worse. Musically it's the most original album I have ever made… it will be the most accessible album in the LS discography"…