ambient
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You know, sometimes you’ve got to step back and realize that there’s only so much thread to pull at. It’s not ideal, but it’s something I keep reminding myself of when I have to write about (or share an album) much like Sha’aban Yahya’s Return To Jogja.
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The more I listen to Yang Xiao-lin’s 禧樂 (I Take You There), the more I’m impressed by how malleable folklore is. In the original liner notes, the words “elegant, pure, psychedelic, lively, remote and modern” are thrown as adjectives to describe this album. Myself, at first, I thought each word seemed to contradict the other…but…
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When I went about curating my latest mix for LYL Radio, a phrase kept guiding me forward: “atmosphere as culture”. If any of you are like me, I imagine one of your passions might be exploring how much music can drive culture and vice versa. Some of that urge to simply “dig deeper” might lead…
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As I start to look ahead, toward future travels, today I’m touching back on an album and an idea that I felt has guided me in some way, recently. It’s hard to pinpoint what Jun Kawabata accomplished on his 1997 release, 『Absolute Elsewhere』 but one doesn’t need to put a stake in the ground to…
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My apologies to all those readers expecting a well-researched entry about Mélange’s Passion To Poison. It appears I might fail in myriad ways today. I say that because just like many of you, I too can get easily sidetracked when exploring certain rabbit holes. And in today’s case, it’s the way we or others feel…
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How does one bridge the span between our past and an uncertain future? If you can put yourself inside the mind of one, Kazuo Uehara, perhaps you can deduce that answer. You see, it was he who had the same question. It was sometime in the ‘60s, while listening to The Beatles’s “Revolution #9”, that…
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It’s not often you recognize “genius” straight away, yet it’s not often you get to hear such precocious brilliance of the likes seen in Yukiyo Nakamura. From her debut in 1989 to her latest work, what could have turned out as a different kind of musician, blossomed into their own kind by finding her true…
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Stand By Satie? It’s pretty hard not to, when a whole slew of musicians – in all styles and genres – have been inspired by the late, great French impressionist composer. But how does one take the next step and actually attempt to interpret the man? It’s a question, I imagine, that was cycling in…
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Fall is something else, isn’t it? As beautiful as the season is – simply one look outside can affirm this – there’s always something in our communal, lived-in experience that’s tinged with a certain longing and/or nostalgia. Perhaps, it’s a certain realization that nothing is permanent and everything pertinent has an end. With this thought…
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I’ll be one of the first to admit this: intriguing album designs draw me in. Even in the age of digital artwork, nothing quite says “listen to me” than a singular, creative, point of view. I mean, what else would explain how I stumbled upon Miguel Braga’s haunting nocturnal ambient jazz album, Ritual?
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental folk-rock fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic