balearic
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No joke, I too sometimes feel puzzled as you might be with what gets shared on this blog. On a regular day, I’d skirt around sharing something like Thomas Diethelm and Santino Famulari’s Diethelm/Famulari. It could be because there’s little to no information about the musicians…a major reason I hold back, often. It could also…
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With Valentine’s Day upon us, I thought I’d share an album that’s one of those perfect mood makers. I’ve often said this: “I love love songs.” Most of my most treasured albums, songs, and mixes hover around that whole idea, “What is love?” And in today’s case, in Yoshiro Nakamura’s Literário it’s when does our…
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Few artists have done quite as much to advance the idea of a “nuevo canción” quite like Argentina’s Silvia Iriondo. Yet, perhaps, her most impressive work, 1990’s Silvia Iriondo remains quite a mystery. In it you hear Silvia – with help from Argentina’s experimental fusion and jazz scene – give voice to the little-admired music…
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The more one explores music, the more one discovers how open borders create the most interesting ideas and those living at the borderline have unique perspectives to share. Proof positive: Bebeto Alves’s forward-thinking “milonga” music. It’s his Danço Só – E Fico Assim Mais Oriental Me Invento Toda Manhã, created at the nexus of Argentina,…
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Sometimes, it feels like all it takes is a blink to miss something important. I say this because just weeks ago, on Dec. 30, in between major holidays, news trickled out of the untimely death of a Japanese enka giant. It was Aki Yashiro – that mainstay of all sake-loving drinkers – who succumbed to…
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Tue, May 10, 2022, 10:46 AM – so many things seem improbable, but looking at this time stamp, this is one of those that will sit with me for a while. You see, it was over two years ago that I mustered up some courage to seek out Noriko Sekiguchi and see if she was interested…
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We all make decisions on what we share with others. Sometimes what we hide might run the gamut of what we feel comfortable expressing. However, in the case of virtuoso violinist Ikuko Kawai’s #2, I can’t understand why this album or the particular moment it was created in, appears as a mere footnote (which it…
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When I wrote about Rie Miyazawa, I knew I’d have to come back to share another interesting side trip she’d take. In this case, it’s Rie’s work with Tadashi Namba and Takeshi Itoh on Tokyo Elevator Girl (東京エレベーターガール), a fascinating coda to her inspiring early ‘90s period, a soundtrack to Japanese TV drama of the…
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Do you know who I don’t envy? Pop stars. Out of all the careers or aspirations one can hold in the music business, none holds a candle to the sheer amount of stress, anxiety, work, and all-encompassing human problems that one will endure to simply make it as a pop artist. Rockers, jazz artists, and…
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Out of all the things I remember about my time in Japan, funny enough, one thing I can’t seem to forget is this: just how “French” so many things are. Walking down the street, shopping around, looking for a bite to eat (or just a place to relax), more often than not, you’re bound to…
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist mpb neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic