SFJAZZ Collective announce eleventh album, tribute to Joe Henderson

24 February 2015

SFJAZZ Collective - Live: SFJAZZ Center 2014, The Music of Joe Henderson and New Compositions."

It’s only been a minute since the wondrous San Francisco based octet SFJAZZ Collective celebrated their tenth anniversary with the release of SFJAZZ Collective: 10. They are ready to follow it up, and as is usual with the collective, their new offering serves as a tribute to a modern jazz master. Drawing on a vast reservoir of musical influences, the collective’s new album celebrates the music of legendary saxophonist and composer Joe Henderson. Featuring both new arrangements of Henderson’s classic and lesser-known pieces, and original compositions written be each member of the collective, the upcoming Live: SFJAZZ Center 2014, The Music of Joe Henderson and New Compositions was recorded live last October at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco.
“There’s a catchy quality to Joe’s melodies”, said the collective’s pianist Edward Simon, adding that “they’re sing -able, and yet his tunes have very interesting harmonic progressions and sonorities,”.
Live: SFJAZZ Center 2014, The Music of Joe Henderson and New Compositions is due out on March 10th. Ahead of its release, we can get a taste of it with the funky and sterling first single ‘Fire, arranged by drummer Obed Calvaire. Lifted from Joe Henderson’s album Elements, the piece was originally recorded in 1973 featuring Alice Coltrane.

The Weather Station’s third album, Loyalty, arrives in May

23 February 2015

The Weather Station - Loyalty

The Weather Station, the project of Toronto based singer/songwriter, lyricist and multi-instrumentalist Tamara Lindeman, has confirmed the release of her third album, Loyalty. Slated for a May 12th release via Paradise of Bachelors in the US and Europe and via Outside Music in Canada, the album was recorded at La Frette Studios near Paris, with Afie Jurvanen aka Bahamas and Robbie Lackritz (Feist).
On Loyalty, Lindeman played guitar, banjo, keys, and vibes, and as the press release reminds us, she “has always been a songwriter’s songwriter, recognized for her intricate, carefully worded verse, filled with double meanings, ambiguities, and complex metaphors”. It adds that “lyrically, Loyalty inverts and involutes the language of confession, of regret, of our most private and muddled mental feelings, by externalizing those anxieties through exquisite observation of the things and people we accumulate, the modest meanings accreted during even our most ostensibly mundane domestic moments.”

The delicate and intricate ‘Way It Is, Way It Could Be’ is the first single to be lifted from Loyalty and it serves as a magnificent taste.

Lerin / Hystad set to release second album Amaterasu

21 February 2015

Lerin / Hystad - Amaterasu

Amaterasu, the second album from Swedish/Norwegian duo Lerin / Hystad arrives in just a week. The pair released their debut album, Mount Buzhou, last year and its follow up is due out on March 1st via their own imprint Extemporaneous Recordings.
With the upcoming album, the pair drew on a lot of different influences — ambient soundscapes, experimental rock, jazz and electronic music, combined with field-recordings from arcade halls and subway stations in Tokyo and Osaka.

Amaterasu takes its name from the Sun goddess in Japanese mythology. As the press release explains, after Amaterasu’s brother Susanoo destroyed her rice fields and killed her attendants, she hid inside a cave depriving the world of her crucial light. To get her out of the cave, the gods threw a party outside so that the music and noise could lure her out.

Lerin / Hystad are offering the beautiful first single ‘Ebisu’, a track that emphasizes their flair for ambient and drone oriented pieces and improvisation. Listen to it below and straight after check out the video for ‘Harajuku’, a dancier and punchier affair with excellent guitar work. Have a little dance.



Listen to Black Yaya’s ‘Vigilante’ off upcoming eponymous album

20 February 2015

Black Yaya - Vigilante

Black Yaya is the solo project of singer-songwriter David Ivar, who is also known as one half of French duo Herman Dune. Ivar has apparently woke up one morning in November of 2012 feeling like he wanted to give a break to the band and start his very own thing. And so he did. Just over two years later, and after moving to LA, he’s recorded several songs and comes March 2nd, his self-titled debut album will hit the shelves via City Slang.
Black Yaya has shared the catchy and folky harmonica-charged single ‘Vigilante’. Take a listen now.

Black Yaya is embarking on a European tour this April, with several dates in the UK including a London show at The Lexington on April 9th.

Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld announce debut album as a duo

19 February 2015

Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld - Never were the way she was

A match made in heaven: the musical union of sax magician Colin Stetson and extraordinary violinist Sarah Neufeld. The pair have been composing together for a while now whilst carrying on playing with other outfits and keeping busy as soloists. 2015 will bring us the Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld duo‘s debut album. Entitled Never were the way she was, the album was recorded at their farmhouse attic studio in rural Vermont by Hans Bernhard and mixed in Montreal by Mark Lawson (Arcade Fire). As is usual with Stetson and Neufeld, in both recording and live formats, they didn’t use any looping/layering or multi-track/overdubs technologies. You’ve probably already heard us raving about Colin Stetson, and you’ll know of his superhuman powers and how he plays tremendously and uninterruptedly using circular breathing, which allows him to produce multiple sounds simultaneously in real time.

“Never were the way she was is guided by the metaphorical narrative of the life of a girl who ages slow as mountains; excited, exalted, and ultimately exiled in her search for a world that resembles her experience”, explains the press release. “The album’s expansive sonic trajectory and multiplicity of structures and voicings belies the fundamental economy of two acoustic instruments combining in real time. The result is a musical chronicle that powerfully establishes its own spatial and temporal horizon, a soundtrack that requires no images but profoundly compels the imaginative.”.

‘The sun roars into view’ is the first wonderful and staggering track being offered from the album. We can’t wait to hear more.

In other Stetson and Neufeld related news, and coinciding with the album release, the pair are bringing their compositions for horns and violin to Europe in April. Their tour includes a stop in London at the Islington Assembly Hall on April 17th. Head over here to check all their other dates.

Last November, we were delighted to have Colin Stetson curate our monthly mixtape. If you’ve missed it, check out now an incredible selection of tracks that inspire him.