minimalist

Hiroki Miyano (宮野弘紀): D / I/ V /E /R /G /E (分岐点) (1988)

2019/09/20

And now some jazz… *Quietly watches all my readers’ eyes glaze over*. For those who can appreciate the bigger “jazz” picture, here’s Hiroki Miyano’s D / I/ V /E /R /G /E. Showcasing Hiroki Miyano’s wonderfully elegant guitar playing, D / I/ V /E /R /G /E takes great pains not to rock the boat…
Yoshitaka Azuma (東祥高): Asian Wind (1981)

2019/06/21

Guest post by Giacomo Lee. The first thing that strikes you about Asian Wind is its sleeve. The striking pink and upside-down triangle on the front cover is the handiwork of design group Sign, a Japanese trio who were responsible for, among other things, the cover of Sakamoto’s Thousand Knives LP )back in the tail…
Gabriel Yacoub: Elementary Level Of Faith (1987)

2019/06/04

If one can remember anything of French-Lebanese musician Gabriel Yacoub, it’s of the time he fronted progressive folk group Malicorne. Under Malicorne, one could hear ideas fomented from prior work with the Alan Stivell band. A mix of forgotten Breton music and experimental folk, Malicorne sounded like little else (closest brethren being Clannad, elsewhere). As…
Koichi Inamoto (稲本耕一): Message From Min-Yō クラリネットでちょっと気どって日本民謡 (1986)

2019/05/31

Coming in clear, not just a message from Min’yō but one of other beautiful Japanese folk traditions from the Muromachi period and others from deep sōkyoku compositions, albeit transformed via newfound ideas (of newer ages), as played through by the late great clarinetist Koichi Inamoto. To put it simply: Well, what’s the Message From Min-Yō…
Rubaja and Hernandez: High Plateaux (1987)

2019/05/21

Here’s another leftfield one from the Windham Hill label. A high mixture of Latin American rhythms, warm digital synthesis, and exploratory brass instruments, High Plateaux by the Argentine-Mexican duo of Bernardo Rubaja and Cesar Hernandez, cement itself as one of the high points and sadly little, further defined areas of little-known Latin American New Age…
Interview: Hiltzik & Greenwald

2019/05/10

Normally, here’s the space where I begin to wax poetically about an album I wish others would take the time to discover. Hiltzik & Greenwald’s Views From A Distance is one of these albums I wished I had copious amounts of history to draw from. It’s one of those albums I hoped someone else had given…
Mix: 24. Sueño Con Mexico

2019/04/19

For this mix for LYL Radio I was feeling more than a tinge of nostalgia. Somehow, one day, hearing the plaintive tones of Pat Metheny’s “Sueño Con Mexico” got me reminiscing about where I come from and how much of the music I love comes from music that triggers memories of things I heard when…
Brian Slawson: Distant Drums (1988)

2019/04/09

It’s not often you encounter the work of a percussionist who is as wildly as inventive as one can be, yet can be prone to veering off where (he should know better) that none should follow, such is Brian Slawson’s Distant Drums which gets an unequivocal recommendation from me. Mr. Slawson is much like your…
Andrea Piazza: Tirtaganga (1989)

2019/01/08

There’s always a lovely melodicism to Italian minimalist music. Lately, I’ve been fascinated by the works of little known Italian record label Stile Librero for that reason. Let me introduce you to a slice of this spirit, through the work of harpist Andrea Piazza who released his gorgeous debut album dubbed Tirtaganga on it.
Ryokyu Endo: Song Of Pure Land (1994)

2018/11/16

So very lovely. Forgive me if some of you are expecting something more experimental, electronic, or whatever else now. Me, I just want something like this. What is this? It’s the beginning of Ryokyu Endo’s sublime form of Japanese New Age music. In 1994, Ryokyu Endo’s Song Of Pure Land, or The Song Of Pure…