Folk 305 Items

Confusion is good sometimes. It’s a way to start thinking about whatever you are confused about. This is what Ilhan Ersahin’s Istanbul Sessions do since 2008. They managed to fire the stages all across the world: from New York to Istanbul, from Paris to Sao Paolo, from London to Skopje... Questions they spread all these years where like: are they really turkish? is this really jazz? doesn’t it sound like a rock band? how come a jazz ensemble can really be like a band? How can they be so able to jam with any musician they meet on stage? And so on... It’s a simple fact Ilhan Ersahin, being one of the rare moguls of New York City underground scene via his club and record label (nublu), is traveling all around the world. It’s possible to see him jamming with Red Hot Chili Peppers in Sao Paolo, featuring Bugge Wesseltoft in Blue Note Tokyo and/or playing a beautiful oriental set with turkish gypsies in an elegant concert hall somewhere in Europe. His newyorker energy is with him all the time. How about Istanbul Sessions then? It’s a summary of all you read above. Master level musicianship meets a high eclecticism where the cliche of “east-to-west crossover” finds its true sense and power. A session is a meeting of a deliberative body to conduct its business. In this case, the business is music, and the music is another heavyweight long player from Ilhan Ersahin & crew. Upon listening to the record for the first time, one word overrides every other emotion and devours the mind: Cinema. More specifically, “cinematic.” Ersahin’s sax sounds like it was recorded in the fucking Alps. Or in the sweeping sand dunes and Oasis’s of the Middle East. It’s just that W I D E. On “Falling,” Ersahin’s sax is practically 3-dimensional. Double tracked and bathed in a healthy dose of reverb, the saxophone and rhythm of the band evoke a story-like narrative. From the mad-man trills strewn throughout the track, to the soaring, almost stadium anthem chorus. Clearly, it’s all about the (s)axe, and Ilhan Ersahin is YOUR axeman. History has a tendency to repeat itself, and for the third time ‘round, East meets West once again. And the results are more satisfying than that mammoth inter-racial orgy you’re always fantasizing of. Through Ersahin’s playing, you can hear the ghostly echoes of dead, pre-war jazz greats behind his frenzy-inducing saxophone playing. You can also hear the Siren’s call, the brooding beauty of the shrouded mystery that is the Desert. Devilishly hot and bothered, the dry night air caresses your face, stirring a primal urge that excites as you step out into the glow of the Turkish metropolis. An Istanbul session, awaits.

Howe Gelb does not stand still. His next solo album 'Future
Standards' sees him fulfil a long time aspiration to play jazz
standards. Inspired by the classics, his piano songs have found a
clearer shape as “future standards” but have always been a
central element to his creativity. Sitting neatly against his huge
back catalogue of solo records, these compelling and timeless
songs are alluringly melancholic and reflective.

Listening to this album feels like sitting in a lovely meadow in the shadow of a dam taht's gonna heave-ho any minute. Featuring MEG BAIRD on vocals backed by members of COMETS ON FIRE, SIC ALPS, SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE, HOWLIN' RAIN, ASSEMBLE HEAD IN SUNBURST SOUND, WATERY LOVE among many other acclaimed bands

Fifty years before this release, Harry Taussig and Max Ochs were featured on the sampler LP 'Contemporary Guitar - Spring '67', alongside John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Bukka White. Both guitarists were "rediscovered" by Tompkins Square in 2005, and have since released new recordings for the label. 'The Music of Harry Taussig & Max Ochs' features newly recorded material, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Takoma sampler they first appeared on.

Hans Albers was a German actor and singer.
He was the biggest male movie star in
Germany between 1930 and 1945 and one
of the most popular German actors of the
twentieth century. Today his music is still
widely known in modern Germany, even
among young people. His most famous
song by far is “Auf der Reeperbahn nachts
um halb eins”, (“On the Reeperbahn at
Half Past Midnight”) which has become
one of the best known songs about
Hamburg and an unofficial anthem of the
colourful neighbourhood of St. Pauli. The
Hans-Albers-Platz, one block south of the
Reeperbahn, has a statue of Hans Albers.
The LP contains 2 bonus tracks.

Limited edition for Schwarzer Freitag Record Store Day 2018! Only 1 per customer!

Another friday dedicated to the black gold!

Unreleased recordings of future members of Aktuala and I.P.Son Group.
The history takes us back in the alternative Milan of the early 70’s, to the flavour of the first jam-blues of that era when musicians from different parts of the world (India, Africa or South-America), of disparate background and culture were used to gather to experiment just with an authentic sense of stay together. In these four tracks seem to retrace the path of that spirit with which great pioneers such as John Mayall and Alexis Corner ferried from overseas the essence of the Afro-American music masters. Here, the devotion to the blues roots remains strong but leaks in the compositions an aerial and wandering component that is coloured as if by magic of exotic and spiritual accents. Hypnotic patterns of guitars flowing almost like raga-grooves slowed, free-jazz horns blowing winds of the ancient seas of the south, while voices and percussions span distant horizons now Latinos or Africans. Gruppo Afro Mediterraneo throws his eye on a cultural dimension more extensive and composite and therefore constitutes a fundamental historical document for a crucial period of Italian underground.

Not long after recording her 10th album, Ruins, Liz Harris traveled to Wyoming to work on art and record music. She found herself drawn towards the pairing of skeletal piano phrasing with spare, rich bursts of vocal harmony. From Liz Harris: Grid Of Points is a set of songs for piano and voice. I wrote these songs over a week and a half; they stopped abruptly when I was interrupted by a high fever. Though brief, it is complete. The intimacy and abbreviation of this music allude to an essence that the songs lyrics speak more directly of. The space left after matter has departed, a stage after the characters have gone, the hollow of some central column, missing.

Black Friday Record Store Day 2022 First Release. Color: Turquoise. Limitation: 1350.

"History and legend have often found their way into my songs," reflects Grant-Lee Phillips. "But sometimes, I don't have to look quite so far to find inspiration." The ten songs on Grant-Lee Phillips' Walking in the Green Corn are drawn from Phillips intensive investigations into his native lineage. Phillips, who is Muskogee (Creek), elliptically explores the intersection of past and present, personal and political. While the songs delve deeply into the subconscious mystery of his own backstory, they simultaneously reveal the resonance and insight of ancient myth in parallel to contemporary man's emotions, actions, and errors. With the exception of violin and vocals by Sara Watkins (formerly of Nickel Creek) and an understated vibraphone part by Alexander Burke, everything on Walking in the Green Corn was performed, sung, and engineered by Phillips. For the album's 10th anniversary, Walking in the Green Corn is getting its first-ever vinyl reissue on turquoise color vinyl. This edition also includes a bonus 45 single (also on turquoise color vinyl) of two totally unreleased tracks: "Billy Bowlegs" and "Red River." This is the first time the album has ever been available on color vinyl. The 10th anniversary edition of Walking in the Green Corn is available exclusively at independent record stores for Record Store Day Black Friday 2022.

Back IN Print!!! An almost mythical giant of African guitar, whose reinvention of acoustic fingerstyle quickly spread from western Kenya throughout East Africa, before his tragic death in 1963. Spellbinding guitar lines, sweet harmony vocals, every melody an instant classic, and a life story steeped in legend. Co-released by Raw Music International and Olvido Records. 12-song LP comes packaged in a deluxe spot-color jacket, with a 12-page full color booklet featuring an oral history by George MUKABI's family and peers, and lyrics in English and Swahili.

France is the trio of Jeremie Sauvage on electric bass, Mathieu Tilly on drums and Yann Gourdon on amplified hurdy-gurdy. They play one note / one rhythm producing energetic performances reminiscent of the early collaborations between Faust and Tony Conrad. Creativly recycled influences result in intense shows with pounding overtones and repetitive pulsing rhythms. Loud straight and trance-inducing.

The pertinency of the recordings only slowly appear On “Occitanie" in the mass of sound, the rhythmic repetition and the elongated drones. The hurdy-gurdy forces you deeper, highlighting points of microtonal flux, cracking open the single note, the nodding rhythm, to imply the presence of every note, every sound, inside it. The insensible evolution, lurks in a corner of noise and finally imposes itself slowly on careful listening.

The band members of France perform in various other projects: Tanz Mein Herz, Toad and Jérico, all are member of the collective La Novià, an organisation based in Haute-Loire which brings together professional musicians and is a place for reflection and experimentation around traditional and / or experimental music.

Resurgam– meaning “I shall rise again” – is the hotly-anticipated sixth studio album from Fink: UK-born, Berlin-based founding singer-songwriter musician Fin Greenall, alongside long-time bandmates Tim Thornton (drums, guitar) and Guy Whittaker (bass). It continues an acclaimed and distinctly adventurous catalogue, from the sample-splicing debut Fresh Produce (2000), through to the beautifully heady expressions of their last album, Hard Believer (2014). Greenall has also earned global props as a film music composer, songwriting collaborator (including works with John Legend and Amy Winehouse) and solo innovator, with recent side-projects spanning the electronic Horizontalism (2015) to Fink’s Sunday Night Blues Club Vol.1 (2017). Fink have never been afraid to experiment; on Resurgam, they arguably sound more fearless than ever.

Resurgam derives its title from a Latin inscription in a 900-year-old church in Greenall’s native Cornwall. Its vital, insistent spirit pulses through the entire album, which was recorded with ground-breaking producer Flood (PJ Harvey, U2, Foals, Warpaint, The Killers) at his Assault & Battery studios in North London. Its ten new tracks were created over two months, a relatively luxurious stretch of time compared to previous Fink albums, resulting in a collection that is both assertive and richly immersive.

Ex vivian is the musical project of actress and rising international star, Krysten Ritter. Krysten enlisted the help of WT Records to record and release this group of honest songs. Drum machine Americana, comes beautifully packaged with insert.

Praised on first release as a 'wonderfully romantic piece of folk-pop' (The Times), possessing 'a startling and sublime new sound' (The Quietus, 5 stars), St Peter features guest appearances from folk legend Judy Collins alongside indie icons Howe Gelb, Jason Victor and Steve Shelley.

Purple Vinyl.Celestial piano composition and performance by a classically-trained Ethiopian nun. Erik Satie, Debussy, liturgical music of the Coptic Church, the Ethiopian five-note scale, and a touch of the divine. It is some of the most moving piano music you will ever hear!