balearic

  • I imagine, much like me, many of you have a peculiar relationship with Christmas (and winter holidays, in general). Yes, this time of the year can appear to be one marketing blitz blowing past another. Yes, religion can rear its inexplicable head and be injected into places one might not want to experience it. Yes,…

  • God sure does move in mysterious ways. Listening to Phil Keaggy’s The Wind And Wheat is a fitting testament to that. Only in our realm can an autodidact, Christian musician from Youngstown, Ohio, who only has the faculty of nine of his ten fingers, be more than just an unsung guitar hero (perhaps the “greatest”…

  • Once again, I’m just here to add overtones to others’ resonances. In this case, it’s to add something to further describe Carioca guitarist Ulisses Rocha’s Casamata. It’s not lost to me that somehow when I’m writing about this release, we’re all sharing a bit of the same seasonal weather. In the Northern Hemisphere this part…

  • Who says you need a trip out to the country to get into the spirit of Akira Inoue’s Anne: Dreaming an Island (The Light and Wind of Prince Edward Island) 夢みるアンの島 ~プリンス・エドワード島の光と風~? When I speak of road-tripping records, I speak of records just like this one, one that accepts all the conceits of the “road”…

  • ♫♩♩♪♫?…just more of that hammock music. You know me, if you’ve followed this site for a while, you’re probably aware by now how this is the time of the year I dedicate to promoting my favorite easy-going music. Usually instrumental, completely breezy and tropical, it follows a trend I believe in. It’s about thinking of…

  • It’s easy to feel untethered when you’re listening to Chen Guoping’s (aka John Chen) Songs From Within (心意). Oscillating across various styles — jazz, neoclassical, ambient, traditional, and New Age — the album itself never feels anchored to any specific border. The main protagonist in this collection, John Chen’s fingerpicking, acts like a liaison speaking…

  • Yes, it does look like it’s that time of the year again. When the dog days of summer fade into the early turn of fall, I tend to tune into music that falls in between seasons and moods. And I can’t help but to think that it’s actually my favorite kind of music. From Shinsuke…

  • Color me “stumped”. My apologies to Chris, who graciously shared Yon Seok-Won’s 空 (Space & Silence) with me. I did my best to piece together some kind or type of background for this amazing Korean ambient album but ran into an equally large gulf in history. It shouldn’t end this way, of course. Much like…

  • Simply wonderful summer moods abound in this one. What’s the one I’m referencing? None other than Fernando Girão’s Índio, an intriguing release combining deep Brazilian ethnic and indigenous folk music with new wave, experimental electronics. It’s as Fernando hinted at in the name of his record label, fusion etnica or ethnic fusion. Many moons later…

  • Here’s the space where I place profound thoughts on whatever latest mix I’ve done for you. Normally, that’s the case. However, today (and with this latest mix) I felt I had to create something that felt weightless in a distinct way from a prior mix. On my latest Digging Deep mix for LYL Radio, I…

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