Rebecca Foon releases brand new track ‘Ocean Song’

05 November 2019

Photo: Brigitte Henry

We love Rebecca Foon, the enchanting and brilliant Montreal based cellist and composer who has been shining in a variety of projects over the years. In addition to her solo project, Saltland, Foon is a founding member of Esmerine and a former member of Thee Silver Mt. Zion and Set Fire To Flames, amongst many other projects and collaborations. There’s new music on the way from her, this time under her own name. And to top the good news off, Foon has unveiled a new track, ‘Ocean Song’, where the piano and vocals take centre stage. She comments:

“Over the last year I have been sitting at the piano writing songs and accessing a part of myself I have never known…composing on an unfamiliar instrument and plunging deeper into singing. As I observe our beautiful world and the overwhelmingly heartbreaking state we collectively find ourselves in, while also going through my own personal roller coaster of life these past couple of years, the precious moments I’ve been so privileged to carve out for music have been more meaningful than ever. I just finished a new album, there’s still cello on it too, but these new songs feel like a new chapter. So I’m setting Saltland aside for now, and I’ll be releasing this new record under my own name. More news about that coming soon. In the meantime I’m excited to share one of these new tracks. It’s called Ocean Song. Hear the whole song via link in bio. So much love to Richard Reed Parry and Mishka Stein for their magic on this song.”

‘Ocean Song’ is a gorgeous and compelling track. Listen to it below.

Le Guess Who?’s Who 2019: HHY & The Macumbas

04 November 2019

There’s only three days to go before Le Guess Who? takes over Utrecht. With over 150 artists set to perform, how do we make sense of such a monumental line-up? We made a list of the artists we’re most excited to see and asked them for their recommendations.

HHY & The Macumbas

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Performing Saturday 9th November at EKKO

Photo: Mariana Vasconcelos

Spearheaded by multidisciplinary artist Jonathan Uliel Saldanha, Porto based ensemble HHY & The Macumbas have been forging a distinctive and transcendent sound over the last decade. Featuring a shifting cast of musicians on percussions, brass and horns, they operate as a rhythm lab, exploring and developing syncretic languages and bridging cultures and genres as diverse as dub, free jazz, Indian classical music and fanfare. Famed for the tribal and exhilarating energy of their shows, impressively live dubbed by Saldanha, we can’t wait to see them perform at Le Guess Who?. And today Saldanha tells us which other artists he is looking forward to seeing.

“Choosing only 3 names to listen in a festival like Le Guess Who? is a hard task, there are allot of amazing artists… But because limit is a tool to organize time I would say that I would try to see:”

Ustad Saami

Performing Saturday 9th November at Jacobikerk

“Ustad Saami because I’m a massive fan of the music forms coming from India and Pakistan, I was even a tabla player during my teenage years, so having the opportunity to see an Ustad like Saami perform is overwhelming. ”

 

Jah Shaka Sound System

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Performing Saturday 9th November at TivoliVredenburg, curated by The Bug

“Jah Shaka is one of my first obsessions in dub sound systems so its a dream to be able to listen to the original pressure from a master. “



Amnesia Scanner

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Performing Saturday 9th November at TivoliVredenburg, curated by Iris van Herpen & Salvador Breed

“Amnesia Scanner are producing very curious sounds and visual ideas, definitely something to keep following.”

 

Le Guess Who? will take place 7-10 November. For the full line-up, tickets and more info visit leguesswho.com. And take a look at other artists we’re excited about picking their own Le Guess Who?’s Who.

Mike Patton and Jean-Claude Vannier premiere video for ‘A Schoolgirl’s Day’

01 November 2019

Mike Patton‘s latest endeavour saw him join forces with French composer Jean-Claude Vannier, and the pair released an album, Corpse Flower, last September though Ipecac Recordings. On the back it, Patton and Vannier have premiered a brilliant and chilling video for ‘A Schoolgirl’s Day’ directed by Nino Del Padre and featuring footage from the 1962 cult horror film, Carnival of Souls. Watch it below.

Delve into Harry Burgess’s tape and essay Live Scraps / Fall Of Troy

29 October 2019

We are huge fans of Adult Jazz and while they haven’t released any new music for a while, the quartet’s lead singer Harry Burgess has been busy with other musical endeavours, including Offer, his experimental electronic duo with Jack Armitage (AKA Lil Data of PC Music) and his solo work under his own name. Last July saw him unleash Live Scraps, a live recording of a performance in south London at the tail end of 2018, accompanied by Fall Of Troy, a print of an essay written by Burgess about his dog, Troy. He explains:

“I was keen to just play with the basics like melody, single guitar notes, and two note chords, but also trying to be dextrous with them. And no strumming!! With Adult Jazz things take a long time to sculpt into what we want them to be, and it was refreshing to do something impulsive, do the work in the feeling of the performance, and not dig too deeply into slick execution, to document something warts (doors slamming, Heineken cans hissing) and all.

The tape comes with a print of an essay I wrote called Fall Of Troy (some of which was published earlier this year in Pilot Press’ Queer Anthology of Sickness) about my dog, Troy (FKA Bonedigger). I knew when giving this performance I was going to travel home the next morning because we had decided to kill him, as he was very old and sick. I’m not into the euphemism putting down, let’s not beat around the bush. So the performance became a kind of swansong by proxy. He was used to me speaking for him. The intensity of emotion around the decision took me by surprise, and the kind of ethical storm of owning a pet reared its head up again in me. He brought me so much joy!”

Live Scraps / Fall Of Troy is available on tape and digitally on bandcamp. To get you enticed take a listen to the sublime ‘Disarm’.