Music for Watermelons

Sirkis Bialas IQ – Our New Earth [MoonJune, 2019]

2020 Asaf Sirkis Frank Harrison Kevin Glasgow Moonjune Sylwia Bialas

By Marcello Nardi Mar 29, 2020 0

Moving between soft-spoken jazz ballads to European folk and then coming back to Indian classical music, take the pinnacle of the tension in the closing Picture from a Polish Wood, Our New Earth keeps its promise to drive us in a journey through the world with highly crafted compositions, a cohesive intimacy between the musicians and catchy harmonic progressions. Soothing and meditative at same time, never self-indulgent, this recording is a portrait of a new Earth.

Raffaele Matta Trio – Sounds of Human Activities [2020]

2020 Andrea Parodo fusion jazz Nicola Vacca Raffaele Matta Sanjay Kansa Banik

By Marcello Nardi Mar 19, 2020 0

Raffaele Matta crafts a world of multiple influences, like jazz, fusion, Indian classical music, in Sounds of Human Activities, where his vision of a collective creation is still predominant. His style is clear, refined and his voice is very undistinguishable. Yet he always strives for playing music for the others and with the band in mind. The listener benefits from that, no matter the travel is fourteen or two minutes long. Still the music retains a ritual aspect, subly combined with the intensity of the moment, that catches the attention

Katrine Amsler – Laslafaria (BoogiePost, 2020)

2020 BoogiePost experimental Katrine Amsler Samuel Hällkvist

By Marcello Nardi Mar 13, 2020 0

There’s not much of the pompous, almost outgrageously Dionisyan, spirit of this folk music, made of riotous brasses and dancing heels here. Quoting the words by Amsler “the term ‘Guggenmusig’ is a reference to an ensemble that includes a group of people playing simple folk tunes, pop and children’s songs on a variety of percussion and brass instruments”. Lasfaria is, instead, a revisitation of the guggenmusig, filtered through the lens of dadaism, industrial, electronic, metal and ambient music.

Ivo Neame and Jim Hart – Multiverse [Edition Records, 2020]

2020 Edition Records fusion Ivo Neame jazz Jim Hart Matt Calvert

By Marcello Nardi Mar 2, 2020 0

Even if Multiverse is the kind of work that offers a different side of two renowed musicians like Ivo Neame and Jim Hart, still is not to be considered minor at any reason. Potentially it sheds a light on another side that would be desirable to listen again from the two (or better three). No matter how much time it takes to develop a new chapter that has the same degree of innovation.

Uros Spasojevic – Winter Tales [2020]

2020 jazz Uros Spasojevic

By Marcello Nardi Feb 27, 2020 0

Winter Tales is a reflective, pensive and insightful travel through sonic possibilities that strive for an unusual use of basic means. Through a set of smart pedals, sparse notes and few themes Spasojevic is capable of creating a world of dreamy mirrors and haunting landscapes.

Markus Reuter – Truce (MoonJune, 2020)

2020 Asaf Sirkis Fabio Trentini Markus Reuter Moonjune prog prog metal

By Marcello Nardi Feb 23, 2020 0

Harnessing the immense skills of three montser musicians at ease in improvisation like few others, MoonJune’s 100th landmark recording could be no different than taking no-compromises and daring a leap forward. Once again Markus Reuter brings more open minded thinking about where to go next in music.

Ghost Rhythms – Live At Yoshiwara [Cuneiform Records 2019]

2019 Camille Petit Cuneiform fusion Ghost Rhythms jazz prog Xavier Gelard

By Marcello Nardi Dec 29, 2019 0

Live at Yoshiwara is like a kaleidoscope: simple, yet complicated; intuitive, yet brainy; rejoycing, yet haunting. Classical cadences, jazz brass energy, proggish breaks, afro and folk influences all cooperate around catchy melodies. The audience discovers new feats under the surface of every bar turning into another. A manifesto of non-existent places of music in the fictionary universe of Ghost Rhythms

Samuel Hällkvist Dekorum – Live [Boogiepost 2019]

2019 americana prog Samuel Hällkvist

By Marcello Nardi Dec 6, 2019 0

Conscious I am liable of that concise flattery typical of many magazines reviews, I can’t escape calling Samuel Hällkvist Dekorum live album as the perfect example of what would happen if “Bill Frisell played King Crimson’s Frame by Frame“. Boldly mixing americana flavors with flamboyant interlocking guitars within the framework of a raw and aggressive energy, the Swedish guitarist and his quartet Dekorum craft a piece of music that is way more intricate than it seems

Mark Wingfield and Gary Husband – Tor & Vale [MoonJune 2019]

2019 fusion Gary Husband jazz Mark Wingfield Moonjune

By Marcello Nardi Nov 25, 2019 0

Guitarist Mark Wingfield and pianist Gary Husband put our perception of time on hold, and start navigating a free form land, embarking in an innermost quest into Time itself. Evoking the refined dialogues between John Abercrombie and Richie Beirach in Abercrombie‘s first quartet, or the intimate interchanges between Ralph Towner and John Taylor in Azimuth’s Depart, the two write a chapter of incredible beauty in their Tor & Vale. Feeling no constraint to go deeper and deeper, they make music for people who listen to time, by people who listen to time

Sonar with David Torn – Tranceportation Vol.1 [RareNoise 2019]

2019 David Torn Manuel Pasquinelli postminimal RareNoise SONAR Stephan Thelen

By Marcello Nardi Nov 17, 2019 0

What initially started as a follow-up of Vortex, eventually sprawled to more than 80 minutes of music and became a double album, whose second volume will be released in May 2020. In a move equal parts bold and conservative, Tranceportation Vol. 1 is moving the music of Sonar and their collaboration with David Torn ahead. Staying faithful to one of the rules that lies underneath the music of many Swiss postmininal musicians, that which says that minimal structures do not cage the music, instead unleash a new world of possibilities, Sonar and David Torn are now delving into new depths

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