Howdy folks, we timed February’s Roundup to coincide with this month’s Bandcamp Friday so you can pick up these releases when the artists benefit most! Check em out below:
Ilhan Ersahin, Dave Harrington, Kenny Wollesen – Invite Your Eye
Released today on Nublu Records, Invite Your Eye by Ilhan Ersahin, Dave Harrington and Kenny Wollesen is a stellar example of jazz versatility at its finest.
The dazzling trio of Ersahin (saxophone, Wurlitzer, synth and piano), Harrington (guitar, bass, moog, mellotron, electronics, congas and other percussion) and Wollesen (percussion, drums and vibes) dip their toes into everything from spiritual jazz to discordant fusion and cosmic ambient soundscapes. No matter what sound they happen to lean into on this record, they display a total mastery of that style.
Electric Davis, Hancock and Zorn fans could easily become obsessed with this record. Click here to get yours now!
Buck Curran – Delights and Dangers of Ambiguity (Improvisations 2017 – 2021)
Buck Curran has returned with a record of experimental piano and guitar music that is as deeply enigmatic and as it is atmospheric.
Joined by Jodi Pedrali and Helena Espvall (of Espers) on organ and Leslie drone and cello respectively, Curran conjures dark and ominous realms with EBow, reverberating piano and electric and acoustic guitars. Despite the recordings on this record dating as far back as 2017, there is a tension and stoicism to this music that feels very apt for the anxious and solemn world that we’ve found ourselves in this year.
Despite the somber sound that permeates throughout the album, it’s also very peaceful and oftentimes quite serene. It’s like being wrapped up in the darkness of nightfall, while still being captivated and soothed by whatever moonlight still hangs in the sky.
Click here to get your digital download of this gorgeous album right now.
Greta Ruth – Milk Tooth/Hull
Greta Ruth, a vastly creative singer-songwriter that made one of my favorite records of 2021, is back with a stunning experimental vocal single that’ll send shivers down your spine.
Available today through her Bandcamp page, Milk Tooth/Hull features Ruth truly utilizing her voice as an instrument through the use of countless overdubs. Within each of the two tracks, Ruth sings layers of cryptic lyrics while being backed by her own long sustaining vocal notes that oftentimes ring like a glass harmonica. It’s truly a feat that must be admired.
Sounding somewhere between Appalachian shape note singing and the more experimental works of artists like Sheila Chandra, this is a stirring piece of work that will never lose its originality, even if you listen to this a hundred years from now.
Click here to check it out.
Bobby Lee – Ancient Sunlight
Bobby Lee, another musician that put out one of my favorite records of last year, has dug deep into his archives and released a collection of psychedelic ambient and analogue Kosmische jams from when he operated under the name Ancient Sunlight.
Originally recorded around 2015-2016, these tracks are warm, meditative and deeply transportive. Tracks like “Agave” hover around a motorik beat and feature repetitive synth noodlings that swirl around the stereo spectrum like a vulture circling its lunch.
A major highlight on the album is “History Ends in Green,” which is as sunny and mellow as a Boards of Canada track (but way better).
If you enjoyed the more Krautrock side of Lee’s Origin Myths, then this is an album you need to hear. Click here to get it now.
Folk Horror Sounds:
I’ve been a bit behind on some of the great music that’s been coming out recently that is closely associated with the cinematic sub-genre of folk horror (think The Wicker Man, Midsommar, The Ritual, etc). Seeing that the genre has recently seen a massive resurgence due to the release of the great Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched documentary (now streaming on Shudder), let’s highlight a few of these great new releases:
Meadowsilver – Beneath a Hunter’s Moon
We have a new track from the electro-psych folk supergroup that is Meadowsilver. “Beneath a Hunter’s Moon,”it an absurdly dreamy trip that you won’t soon forget.
Gayle Brogan, Grey Malkin and Stephen Stannard together paint an ethereal and deeply kaleidoscopic tribute to one of the most eye-catching celestial displays we can be treated to every autumn. Download your copy here.
Adam Geoffrey Cole & Grey Malkin – Dwellings
Released originally as a 7″ lathe cut by Future Grave/Reverb Worship, Dwellings is a relaxing single with two gorgeously bucolic folk rock tracks.
The first cut, “Houses on a Hill,” features Adam Geoffrey Cole’s soft vocals and rustic acoustic instrumentation blending beautifully with dreamy sounds, which include a xylophone and a mellotron.
The second track, “The World is a Closed Door” emphasizes the vocals more than the A-side, while also making great use of a spectral siren call-like electric guitar.
A beautifully melancholic release through and through. Get it here.
Embertides – A Thousand Dead Stars/ The House Of The Hidden Light
This one’s fairly different from the rest. Embertides is Daughters of Grief, David Colohan and Grey Malkin (again!) creating dark, gothic-tinged electro-folk.
The first track, “A Thousand Dead Stars,” utilizes cold synths that pulse behind eerie phantom-like vocals that together create an unnerving and almost industrial atmosphere.
The B-side is especially creepy, with ghostly chorus singers morphing together into a disorienting haze. Meanwhile, chilling electronic tones occasionally emerge through the vocal mists like a flashlight piercing through a thick fog bank. If spirits could release their own music, it might sound like this track. Check it out here.
-KH
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