Wonderful ambient music. João Hasselberg’s first album back in 2013 featured highly sophisticated jazz music with a classic jazz lineup including piano, saxophone and trumpet. Over the years his music became more and more electronical and minimalist.
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Lingua Ignota – Caligula
I don’t know what to say about this album. It’s a demanding listening experience. Both music and lyrics can make you uncomfortable. It’s not a “nice” album, but it’s a well rounded piece of existential art as a whole. It’s an amalgam of noisy avantgarde neo-classical black metalish industrial that takes hold of you and haunts you.
British painter Lucian Freud said: “What do I ask of a painting? I ask it to astonish, disturb, seduce, convince.” I have adopted this quote for art in general. Art is always most effective when it puts you through different stages of emotions and when it makes you question yourself and the way you perceive things. And this album is a great example of that.
Lauren Desberg – Out for Delivery
Out for Delivery is a wonderful album blending traditional jazz with contempory pop and even a little soul. Lauren Desberg’s classy smooth voice is backed by an exceptional band. Don’t just watch the video, listen to the full album. It’s surprisingly diverse. And like all of Lauren’s albums it’s available for free as a name-your-price download.
Russian Circles – Blood Year
The new album by Russian Circles. I think they are still one of the best instrumental post-metal bands around.
Reggie Andrews and The Fellowship – Mystic Beauty
Mad About Records from Portugal is reissuing old very rare albums on limited vinyl. The LPs usually sell out fast, but the label also offers digital downloads of all the albums. Here is one of their newest releases, an interesting album of afro-cuban influenced spiritual jazz with some bits of exotica from the 60s.
Onra – Chinoiseries pt.1, 2 & 3
From a trip to Vietnam, French beatmaker Onra brought back a box full of old vinyls which he used to make a wonderful album trilogy of short tracks blending R ‘n’ B and hip-hop beats with East Asian sounds. This is all three albums as one set. I really like it.
Latitudes – Part Island
Latitudes is a band I have been very much appreciating since their first EP back in 2007. It’s progressive post-metal with complex rhythms. Yet it grooves and flows and packs a lot of emotion which is something many other technical bands lack. They also use moody ambient parts and cool synths to add another layer of depths.
On their previous album, Old Sunlight, they started to experiment with vocals and consequently their new album, Part Island, has vocals on all tracks which gives it a melancholic edge. The sound also has shifted towards a more open and richer approach, yet it’s still a highly complex album and feels painstakingly crafted to the finest detail. This will probably belong to my favorite metal album releases this year.
Listen/purchase: Part Island by LATITUDES
