Gummi - Stafrænn Hákon

Artist:Stafrænn Hákon
Album: Gummi
Year: 2007
Genre:Post Rock
Country:Iceland

Once described as “frequently mesmerizing, seamlessly interwoven combination of electronica and ambient guitar…” by the legendary Wire magazine. Stafrænn Hákon has indeed through the last 6 years been described as a mix of post-rock, lo-fi, ambient guitar & electronica. The Icelandic born Ólafur Josephsson has been recording music since 1999 under the name Stafrænn Hákon (sometimes stafraenn hakon, stafrann hakon) which has often confused the media, due to the confusing Icelandic origin. Stafrænn has self released 3 albums in Iceland. Later 2 of the albums were re-released on Resonant in the UK and the debut on Secret Eye in the U.S. Stafrænn did release his 4th record on Resonant in 2004. The new album "Gummi" came out in june 2007.

"As beautiful as this is - and it is beautiful - there's just nothing really striking about it. There's nothing in here to make it stand out from the pack, and it's instantly forgettable. It's all very Sigur Ros, unsurprisingly, but most songs lack the intensity. It makes up for this weakness with the sheer quality of it. There's no way I can slight the musicians, this is expertly put together. As I've said, it is thoroughly beautiful, as well as calming, and a pleasure to listen to."(rainshine87)

Pg.Lost - Yes I Am

Artist:Pg.Lost
Album: Yes I Am
Year: 2007
Genre:Post Rock
Country:Sweden

Pg.Lost is a swedish four-piece post-rock band formed in Norrköping in 2004. Though inspired by, and often compared to, other post-rock bands such as Explosions in the Sky, Sigur Rós, Mogwai and Mono the band has created its own signature sound, both powerful and nostalgic at the same time without ever losing the chain of the epic atmosphere.

Floating guitars, devastating rhythms and airy harmonies are mixed into a cascade of emotions that alternately whip and alternately caress the listener.

Godspeed You Black Emperor - F#A#∞

Artist:Godspeed You Black Emperor
Album: F#A#∞
Year: 1998
Genre:Post Rock
Country:Canada

Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a Canadian post-rock band based in Montreal, Quebec.F# A#∞(Infinity) is the debut album.Almost 64 minutes for just 3 experimental rock songs. Maybe songs isn't the right word: compositions might be better. Each composition on F# (Infinity) is at least 14 minutes long, consisting of a number of sections which are gently woven into each other. The arrangements move slowly, building from peaceful but dark musical landscapes to breathtaking and powerful pieces of music.

F# A# (Infinity) is a creaking, majestic tribute to the end of days, the tyranny of market forces, and the power of loosely scripted, collectively imagined music.Despite the heavy presence of reverb and electromagnetic vibrations of steel of strings, Godspeed You Black Emperor!'s first album sounded ancient, like a thought that had existed for centuries but was just now being articulated. Real life samples-- the rumble of a distance locomotive, the shouting of a street preacher, airwave static-- added an unsettling layer to the brooding instrumental textures woven by the violins, cellos, and alien guitars, and the music somehow felt undeniably political, even if a direct message was nowhere to be found. If F# A# Infinity taught us anything, it's this: the Apocalypse will be beautiful.

just a perfect gem of post-rock!

"We are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death." Few albums begin with such promise and foreboding, but this first full-length from Canadian genius collective Godspeed You Black Emperor! succeeds in the first few moments. F# A# (Infinity) contains three compositions that run the gamut from grotesque to sublime. The term "composition" seems an appropriate one to use as this band does not write songs. Each piece is at least 14 minutes in length, consisting of three to four sections. The band, a nine-member unit consisting of guitar, drums, bass, strings, keyboard, marimbas, and woodwinds, intersperses voice-over narrative with sprawling instrumental melodies. The arrangements move slowly, building from hushed silence to cathartic crescendo and back again. The narratives that accompany the music meditate on the corruption of the American government and the seeming emptiness of the postmodern era. At times, it seems that the music might offer hope, but alternatively, the haunting melodies can serve to emphasize the confusion encountered in these stories. As "Dead Flag Blues," the album's first track, unfolds, the speaker's voice is undercut by a poignant string melody and the piece builds to a beautiful peak. "Dead Flag Blues" is a four-part arrangement in an apparently symphonic pattern. A theme is stated, followed by a quiet interlude out of which the tension builds to disaster/epiphany and finally a quiet reprise of the initial melody is given. The albums second piece, "East Hastings," follows a similar pattern, producing brilliant results. "Providence" is the album's final piece, a bit longer than the others, but lacking the consistency and unity of its counterparts. The music on this album is unique and powerful. One would be hard-pressed to find any imitators of this revolutionary musical form created by GYBE! Its origins are as much avant-classical as they are rock & roll, and the band has achieved a true synthesis of the two forms, expanding them to new boundaries. This music is inherently inexplicable, and this is its beauty.(allmusic.com)


Official site

Nils Petter Molvaer -Er

Year: 2006
Genre:Electronica, Ambient, Jazz
Country:Norway

Nils Petter Molvær (born 1960) is a Norwegian jazz trumpeter, composer and producer. He is considered a pioneer in the fusion of jazz and electronic music.
There are voices on two of the songs of the album. The voice of Sidsel Endresen!

Yo-Yo Ma - Soul of the Tango, The Music of Astor Piazzolla

Artist:Yo-Yo Ma
Album: Soul of the Tango,
The Music of Astor Piazzolla
Year: 1997
Genre:Classical,Tango
Country:United States,China

Yo-Yo Ma is a world-famous Chinese-American cellist. He is considered one of the best cellists in the world and has over 50 albums.Inspired by a general love of the tango and more specifically the tango of Astor Piazzolla on the part of Yo-Yo Ma the Soul of the Tango album is a masterful work of the nuevo tango played by Ma's cello and many of Piazzolla's former associates.

the passion of Piazzola's tango music with the heart of the cello

"Soul of the Tango" presents the music of Astor Piazzolla with all of the passion and excitement that one could imagine. The blending of the melancholy strains of Yo Yo Ma's cello with the spectacular instrumentation of the other players, makes the listener's heart beat in time with the senuousity of the music. The collaboration of the musicians exposes the very essence of a type of music that had previously been trivialized. This recording is as spectacular in its substance as it is in the beauty and amazing clarity of the recording. "Soul of the Tango" is a winner that should be included in every afficiandos collection."

The Five Sacred Trees - John Williams

Album: The Five Sacred Trees
Composers: Alan Hovhaness, Tobias Picker,
Toru Takemitsu,John Williams
Bassoonist:Judith LeClair
Conductor: John Towner Williams
Year: 1997
Genre:Classical
Country:United States

For those moments of reverie, escape form the frenetic pace of the world in which we live and run, for those times when space form all that is needed this stunning album of music is a must. John Williams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in his own work as well as works by Takemitsu, Hovhaness, and Picker that at first ground us to the memory of what truly counts in life and proceeds to lift the soul out of the state of pixelation and return it to the realm of nature, the place where all things relate.

Track Listing

JOHN WILLIAMS (*1932)
THE FIVE SACRED TREES
(Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra)
1. I. Eo Mugna (6:54)
2. II. Tortan (3:53)
3. III. Eo Rossa (4:06)
4. IV. Craeb Uisig (2:53)
5. V. Dathi (8:01)
JUDITH LeCLAIR, BASSOON

TOTU TAKEMITSU (1939-1996)
6. TREE LINE (9:52)

ALAN HOVHANESS (*1911)
SYMPHONY NO. 2 OP. 132
"MYSTERIOUS MOUNTAIN"
7. Andante con moto (5:12)
8. Double Fugue (Moderato maestoso, allegro vivo) (6:04)
9. Andante espressivo (5:20)

TOBIAS PICKER (*1954)
10. OLD AND LOST RIVERS (4:44)



This disc contains great performances of some of the finest examples of sheer beauty in 20th century music that I've heard in some time - in a recording of exceptional quality. It's a wonderful opportunity for those who equate `20th century music' with `cacophony' and `discord' to experience how incredibly beautiful it can be. I discovered it while browsing - the Ansel Adams cover photography caught my eye, which then widened when I saw the bassoon reference prominently displayed (one of my favorite instruments).

The title piece, a concerto for bassoon and orchestra by John Williams, takes up roughly half the disc. The five-movement composition is an homage to the majestic and sacred qualities of trees. Williams says he wrote the concerto with the bassoon in mind, believing it to be `haunted' by `the spirit of the tree from which it is made'. Utilizing Celtic imagery and titles, each of the five movements evokes one of the legendary trees featured in the mythology of that ancient culture. The mood and tone of each section reflects the characteristics attributed to those trees: the sturdiness of the oak; Tortan, the mythical tree associated with witchcraft; the yew, symbol of destruction and creation; the ash, symbolic of strife; and Dathi, the tree-muse of poets and the last tree to fall in the mythological Celtic forest, appropriately placed at the end of the program. Williams translates his reverence for the forest into his music skillfully and with great feeling, and the performance by Judith LeClair and the LSO complement his vision perfectly, bringing the `personality' of each of the movements to life with sensitivity and passion.

Toru Takemitsu has long been one of my favourite modern composers - I discovered his work back in the 1970s, and I soon learned that I could count on the intelligence and quality his music. It has never failed to both challenge and reward me. Listening to the work included here, `Tree line', I'm amazed at the complexity and delicacy represented in this short (under ten minutes) example of his work - I've often compared his compositions to the work of traditional Japanese brush artists, whose works achieve so much with apparently so few strokes. The beauty of the haiku form of poetry also comes to mind. Takemitsu was a master at combining the ancient spirituality and traditions of Japan with modern classical music.

I haven't heard much by Alan Hovhaness - an oversight I plan to correct. The piece which represents this composer here, his Symphony no. 2 (`Mysterious mountain') is, I'm told by a friend who is well-schooled in classical music, one of his most widely appreciated. An American composer who pioneered the `fusion' of western and eastern ideas and traditions, his writing as showcased here is breathtakingly beautiful - I was especially taken with the layers-upon-layers sound of the strings. The notes here indicate that this piece was intended to pay homage to the great American landscape painters of the 19th century Hudson River School - and it evokes the images they captured on canvas beautifully.

The last piece on the CD is `Old and lost rivers' by Tobias Picker - another composer with whose work I am sadly unfamiliar. The shortest work on the album (under five minutes), it's a masterful exercise in tranquility and beauty. It certainly makes me want to seek out more compositions by Picker.. It's a wonderful package for multiple senses. (Larry L. Looney)

Biosphere - Substrata

Artist:Biosphere
Album: Substrata
Year:1997
Genre:Ambient
Country:Norway

Biosphere is the main recording name of Geir Jenssen (born 1962), a Norwegian musician who has released a notable catalogue of ambient electronic music.He is well known for his "ambient techno" and "arctic ambient" styles, his use of music loops, and peculiar samples from sci-fi sources.Geir Jenssen successfully delves deep into forgotten places, and creates a new reality with his soundscapes. The lush textures and lucid pads mixed expertlly with natural atmospherics stream out, encompassing your mind and sends you to another place.

Never a record had been so intimate with nature, so close to the sounds, colours and smells of its environment. Jenssen emphasises the intensity of these elements by bringing them into his beat-less compositions, allowing them to take control of this new organic world. From time to time, more urban sounds come into the spectrum, when voice samples – from Twin Peaks f.e.- telling abstract stories (remember the vision of Dale Cooper?), or a melancholic guitar offering support to an unlikely song emerge, but always, these components get swallowed in by the magma-like ambience. The listener becomes a helpless witness of the beauty and cruelty of this CD. Perhaps the most essential ambient album of all times…"(discogs.com)

Röyksopp - Melody A.M.

Artist:Röyksopp
Album: Melody A.M.
Year: 2002
Genre:Electronica,
Downtempo
Country:Norway

Röyksopp is an electronic music duo from Norway composed of Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge. The group formed officially in 1998 and released their debut album

Melody A.M. in 2001.Songs from this album have been used in television adverts and computer games, Remind Me is currently featured in an advertisement for GEICO Insurance in one of their popular 'Caveman' ads, Eple was licensed by Apple and used as the introduction music for the Mac OS X v10.3 Setup Assistant. A remix of Poor Leno was featured in the SSX 3 soundtrack.The word Röyksopp is a stylized version of the Norwegian word for the puffball mushroom, "røyksopp" or literally, "smoke mushroom". This same word can also be used to describe the mushroom clouds that come from atomic bombs, so this imagery is also inherent in their name.

An eclectic fusion of ice cool Norwegian beats.

"Chilled-out or downbeat acts swept through the electronic scene during 2001 and 2002, prompting dozens of identikit compilations, all conjuring up images of exhausted clubbers returning home early in the morning and enjoying a cup of tea or a smoke after a hectic night out. And although downtempo electronica had always been largely album-based, most of these trackmasters didn't do much on the full-length front. The Norwegian duo Röyksopp, however, displayed a careful hand with the boards on their 2001 debut Melody A.M.. Röyksopp balances the haunted atmospheres of Boards of Canada with the more traditional "songwriting" sensibility of downbeat specialists like Groove Armada or Koop. The opener is proof enough, with a chunky bassline undergirding the spooky, ethereal refrain from Bobby Vinton's "Blue on Blue" recorded by some long-forgotten vocal chorus. There's much of beauty on Melody A.M., very textured and imaginatively produced to sound like few of their contemporaries; it's saying much to even admit that Röyksopp is occasionally the equal of such otherworldly acts as Boards of Canada or Goldfrapp. They seem a bit too indebted to the gauzy synths of '70s soundtracks, but there are a few good exceptions, like the distinctly '80s sense of artificial ethereality to the closer, "40 Years Back/Come." Picking up the ball right about where Air dropped it after Moon Safari, Röyksopp produced one of the most intriguing downbeat albums of the year."(allmusic.com)

Windy & Carl - Depths

Artist:Windy & Carl
Album: Depths
Year: 1998
Genre:Post Rock,Minimal,Ambient
Country:United States

Windy & Carl is the ambient music project of musicians Windy Weber and Carl Hultgren. They began collaborating on music in the early 1990s in Dearborn, Michigan. Windy sings and plays bass, Carl plays the guitar and both play the odd keyboard.Their sound is very drony, slow and dreamy. Using guitar, bass, and some keyboards and electronic effects as well as Windy’s singing on some tracks they create long delicate washes of sound. Not only does their music have a strong ambient influence, their sound could also be described as a blend of post rock, shoegaze, and dream pop.

Autechre - Incunabula

Artist:Autechre
Album: Incunabula
Year: 1993
Genre:Electronica,Ambient,
IDM
Country:United Kingdom

A stellar first performance from arguably the greatest electronica group ever.Incunabula, released by Warp Records in 1993, is the debut album by the electronic music group Autechre, and the seventh album in the Artificial Intelligence series. The album's title is a Latin word, the plural of incunabulum, the term used for printed books published prior to 1501, or more generally for something in its infancy or early stages or development.It's moody, shimmering, and beautiful and quite possibly one of the best intelligent electronic music albums ever made!!

Magnificent blend of ambient and electronica

*****Reviews*****

Each time I listen to this album, I can't believe it was conceived in 1993--nearly a decade ago! It is still very fresh and inspiring, and if I had heard it back then, I would have stopped collecting Aphex Twin records and jumped on the Autechre train. This is very emotive electronic music, with beautiful textures and subtle melodies that aren't going to make you want to dance, but will certainly pique your imagination. The two songs "Eggshell" and "WindWind" are masterpieces, and each holds clues to what Autechre would soon progess to: a colder, more metallic sound. Here, however, that vision is tempered by airy, organic keyboard effects. A perfect album for rainy nights, or anytime, really. This is a must for ambient-techno fanatics.(eRqO)


This album is absolutely incredible for concentration during the finer details of a software engineering project at work, or during any of a multitude of other situations in which you may need mental focus. After listening to 1980s-era Wax Trax! artists, and becoming a bit disappointed with their later releases, Autechre brought me back by introducing me to intelligent dance music with this album. Track 5, "Basscadet", and track 6, "Eggshell", are the gems on this album - and track 8, "Maetl", and track 11, "444", are my other favorites. The only drawback in my mind to this album's version of intelligent dance music, or whatever the genre is being called these days, is that listening to it for extended periods of time, especially at low volumes, can cause drowsiness or a type of self-hypnosis. So if you have a work deadline, are driving a vehicle, or are hosting a party, do yourself a favor and play this album loud and with limited repetition, or not at all.(Erik Gfesser)


*Incunabula* is perhaps Autechre's most shallow album; but `shallow' is a deceptive term, for the depths of even this birth-record cannot be fully grasped in the first, or even tenth, listen. Tiny, pivotal details surface with constant re-examination, and it blows my mind that this was made by two guys in their early twenties. I also find *Incunabula* to be Ae's most ~fluid~ record: each song flows into the next, there is virtually no filler, and the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. The sonic palate is consistent throughout - chattering breakbeat percussion, supplemented by deep bass currents, are gradually overlaid with Eno-ish synth tones and garnished with precise effects; hooks appear, anchoring the ear, then either attain climatic denouement (as in `Eggshell') or else morph/contort/ and/or drift away in the stormfront haze. Most effectively, the overall soothing consistency of the album is punctured at strategic points, giving a whiplash snap to the ambient flow, such as the opening snarl of `Doctrine' after the aforementioned glide of `Eggshell', or the smarmy hip-hop parody of `Lowride' on the whispering tail of `Windwind's' devastating death-fugue. Other highlights include the almost-giddy `Bike', its shimmering melodies augmented by melancholic growls; the meticulous drive of `Basscadet', its harsh effects-rhythms and moody ambience giving us a brief taste of Autechre's future releases; and finally `444', the closing epic, wherein the evanescence and subtle brutality that has preceded find culmination - truly, a paean to the lonely, disconnected nature of cyberspace and its plugged-in denizens.(Ian Vance)

Brian Eno & J.Peter Schwalm - Drawn From Life

Year: 2001
Genre:ambient,electronica
Country:England,Germany















'
Drawn from Life' sees Brian Eno collaborating with German DJ J. Peter Schwalm. This collaboration produced soundscapes of jazzy, shuffling rhythms and strings that sway from cutting to sighing lay the foundation of most of the tracks. Laurie Anderson lends her voice, on 'Like Pictures Part #2,' (Amazon.com)

Nina Simone - folksy nina

Year: 1964
Genre:Jazz,Blues,R&B,
Country:United States

A
lthough she disliked being categorized, Simone is generally classified as a jazz musician. Simone originally aspired to become a classical pianist, but her work covers an eclectic variety of musical styles besides her classical basis, such as jazz, soul, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop music. Her vocal style is characterized by intense passion, a loose vibrato, and a slightly androgynous timbre, in part due to her unusually low vocal range which veered between the alto and tenor ranges (occasionally even reaching baritone lows). Sometimes known as the High Priestess of Soul, she paid great attention to the musical expression of emotions. Within one album or concert she could fluctuate between exuberant happiness or tragic melancholy

Ludovico Einaudi & Ballake Sissoko - Diario Mali

Artists:Ludovico Einaudi & Ballake Sissoko
Album:Diario Mali
Year: 2005
Genre:Piano,World
Country:Italy,Mali

Mali Diary (Diario Mali) is a studio recording of duets between the highly successful Italian classical-crossover pianist, Ludovico Einaudi, and Mali musician Ballake Sissoko - one of the most gifted ‘kora’ players in Africa.

Diario Mali: a journey
Two friends who speak different languages, from different worlds; they meet in the desert and make each other a gift of their music in the shade of a henna tree. They create a free-flowing dialogue, they improvise.... the string of the kora and the piano keys-weave a story beyond time.
With traditional Mali music in the background they melt echoes of blues, renaissance harmonies and carribean beats.