Mex Klinik

In his music, Xiaoyong Chen likes to strike a constant balancing act between his origins in Beijing and Hamburg, which he has made his home, where he studied with György Ligeti, and where he has been teaching composition and intercultural mediation since 2013. His compositions are, in a manner of speaking, “west- eastern travelling parties”: To the classical inventory of European instruments, he introduces the sounds of Chinese instruments that have several thousands of years of history to them. Among those are the sheng, a mouth organ, the guzheng, a plucked zither, the pipá, the four-stringed “Chinese lute”, and the yangqin (similar to a Western dulcimer). Chen brings the occasionally resulting sharp cultural dif- ferences, the seemingly incongruent musical material, and his understanding of music all together in a melting pot. From all of this, he creates fascinating and ever-new, original, serious concoctions. As part of this process, Chen asks: “Will the art of the future be based on tradition?”, only to add, matter-of-factly: “If so, why?”

Rediscovering a great composer is possible with the new GENUIN album of works by Maria Herz. She was born in Cologne in 1878 and died in New York in 1950. The singer Christiane Oelze, the Asasello-Quartett, and the E-MEX-Ensemble for New Music have partnered up to present a cross-section of the work of the Jewish composer, who used at times the pen name Albert Maria Herz. From arrangements of Bach to lieder as well as string quartets and mixed chamber music, the works span stylistically from the enthusiasm for baroque music of the 1920s to free tonality. All this is excitingly new, well worth hearing, and recorded superbly!

Various Artists - The Devil's Swing: Ballads From The Big Bend Country Of The Tex-Mex Border (2000) {Arhoolie 480}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 465 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 175 Mb
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© 2000 Arhoolie | 480
Latin / Tejano / Corrido / Mexican Traditions / Norteno / Tex-Mex

These 19 performances in traditional Tejano styles were recorded in the mid- to late '90s during the making of the documentary film The Devil's Swing, which examines the region where the Rio Grande and the Rio Conchos meet. At this point on the Texas-Mexico border, around the towns of Ojinaga in Mexico and Presidio in Texas, the isolation from large urban centers has helped preserve the traditional ballad "corrido" styles that are heard on this CD. On the surface this is just another disc of traditional border music: brisk numbers with soulful vocal harmonies, accordion, and pulsing bass, as well as some sax and occasional drums.

Doug Sahm once sang, "You just can't live in Texas if you don't have a lot of soul," and, as a proud son of the Lone Star state, he seemed bent on proving that every time he stepped in front of a microphone. Whether he was playing roots rock, garage punk, blues, country, norteño, or (as was often the case) something that mixed up several of the above-mentioned ingredients, Doug Sahm always sounded like Doug Sahm – a little wild, a little loose, but always good company, and a guy with a whole lot of soul who knew a lot of musicians upon whom the same praise could be bestowed. Pulling together a single disc compilation that would make sense of the length and breadth of the artist's recording career (which spanned five decades) would be just about impossible (the licensing hassles involved with the many labels involved would probably scotch such a project anyway), but this disc, which boasts 22 songs recorded over the course of eight years, is a pretty good starter for anyone wanting to get to know Sahm's music.