Folk /
Bahriye Ciftetellisi
In Istanbul, close to the city center, lies a district not often visited by tourists. It’s called Dolapdere, and it is populated by the Roma of the city, many of whom are originally from Thrace. They supply the music for the city’s weddings, circumcisions, parades and parties. Dolapdere is the home of clarinet virtuoso Cüneyt Sepetçi and the Orchestra Dolapdere—some of the greatest musicians of Istanbul. They specialize in a modern take on classic Turkish Roma (gypsy) music, as well as fol…
Bali 1928, Vol. V: Vocal Music In Dances Drama
Vol. V of the Bali 1928 recordings contains various emergent theatrical dance and dance-opera forms with translations of the dramas' texts. We hear the first recordings of women participating in dance dramas, making this disc a major cultural repatriation of primary Balinese art forms that had been lost for nearly a century. An extensive essay is included as a PDF (accessed by computer) with links to 1930s silent films and a photo library are hosted online by World Arbiter. Some of these …
A Study into 21st Century Drone Acoustics
Much of the discussion around unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) is directed toward its capabilities of surveillance and attack. However for those living in areas of conflict, it is the engine sound of the drones that has devastating psychological effects. Military drones fly at high altitudes and are more easily heard than seen. Even the origin of the word "drone" is rooted in sound, and comes from the sound of the male honeybee. The sound of drones in areas of conflict creates soundscapes of te…
For Letha
Four tracks of instrumental acoustic guitar from the master songwriter. Starting out in London as a devotee of various blues and old time country musicians (Skip James, Dock Boggs, Robert Wilkins, etc) Dan Melchior soon found that slavish impersonation wasn’t the right route for him. After a period of mainly re interpreting traditional material, Melchior found a way to express his own concerns and ideas lyrically, and set about melding them to a backdrop of over driven, buzzsaw rock, with variou…
Bob Frank
Originally released in 1972 on Vanguard Records, Bob Frank’s self titled debut album took elements of Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Ian Tyson and filtered it through a pot-smoked haze infused with Frank’s long-time friend, Memphis guru Jim Dickinson. Dickinson and Frank shared a mutual admiration that ran so deep that on Dickinson’s own 1972 debut album Dixie Fried (released on Atlantic Records) he recorded one of Bob’s songs, ‘Wild Bill Jones.’ Despite the Dickinson/Memphis connection, Bob Frank’s on…
Hexadic II
Several years ago, after tiring of the predictable patterns he sensed himself settling into as a guitar player, Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance decided to design a theoretical framework that would force his hands into different positions. Chasny distributed a deck of poker cards in a circular array of sets of six, corresponding to the notes of the guitar. The relative positions of the cards gave Chasny a "tonal field" in which to operate, as well as a set of notes from which to pick, some…
Morning Meditation
Transcendental acoustic guitar mysticism from the VDSQ shaman of Western MA. Anthony Pasquarosa is an artist and musician whose need to create is like a never ending search. He shouts at the audience in HC/Punk bands, pays tribute to early eighties electro punk and late sixties psych, plays old time music and is an excellent player of all stringed instruments.
Currents
Minimal acoustic melodicism from this NYC mainstay. Over the past two decades, guitarist Alan Licht has worked with a veritable who's who of the experimental world, from free jazz legends (Rashied Ali, Derek Bailey) and electronica wizards (Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke) to turntable masters (DJ Spooky, Christian Marclay) and veteran Downtown New York composers (John Zorn, Rhys Chatham). Licht is also renown in the indie rock scene as a bandleader (Run On, Love Child) and supporting player to cult legen…
FAT and the Masters of Haha
FAT and the Masters of Haha is a 73-minute release of FAT's recording with the southern Moroccan Berber group Aouad Mia, master rebab player Rais Lahcen Benlamouden, and other Berber singers and percussionists. It was recorded in Agadir, Morocco, in 1991 after development during FAT's numerous visits to Morocco over the previous three years. Aouad Mia's music is improvised but extremely tight and crisp, and combined with FAT, the music ranges from ferocious looped attacks through complex me…
Loneliness, Desire and Revenge
This 8 track acoustic guitar album is a big change for the experimental musician Maurizio Abate. After many years of psychedelic albums in which improvisation was combined with a creative recording process, he composed an entire album based on a more traditional method: acoustic guitar solo.During winter 2014 he organized a series of italian screenings preview of the documentary “ In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey” and that occasion encouraged Maurizio to experience the guitar…
In Quest Of Tense
"Back in '94 there was little sense that a new scene was on the horizon, but there was. Indeed, things were beginning to break out all over. All they needed was a little push. In Quest of Tense was released on CD in '94 (FE 038) and was just what a lot of people needed, even if they didn't know it yet, or didn't quite realize what it was when they heard it. Dredd Foole(aka Dan Ireton) had been roving through the Boston music underground since the early '80s, with a series of bands using the name…
The Complete Recordings
"While Jackson C. Frank's eponymous 1965 album and other material has enjoyed numerous official and unofficial reissues, Jackson C Frank: The Complete Recordings is the first to compile his entire recording career. Released in conjunction with Jim Abbott's book,Jackson C. Frank: The Clear Hard Light of Genius, The Complete Recordings contains a total of 67 tracks, 24 of which have never appeared before. Every song has been mastered or remastered, a number of them straight from the original, brit…
Bali 1928, Vol. II Tembang Kuna: Songs from an Earlier Time
Vol. II in a five-disc series of 1928 Balinese recordings features Balinese vocal music, the first release of these recordings since they were first pressed to 78 rpm discs in 1929, the only commercially released recordings of music made in Bali before World War II. Originally recorded by a team from the German labels Odeon and Beka on a 1928-29 expedition to Bali and intended for a Balinese public that lacked any discs of its own music, many of these records have been reduced to single r…
Bali 1928, Vol. IV: Music for Temple Festivals and Death Rituals
Vol. IV of the Bali 1928 recordings includes kebyar with sung poetry, gambuh dance-drama, ancient ritual angklung, and solo flute. All lyrics receive English translations in the liner notes, with an extensive text by Edward Herbst included as a PDF (accessed by computer) and hosted online by World Arbiter. Performances by Gamelan Gong Kebyar Belaluan, Denpasar; Gambuh of Sésétan, Denpasar; Gamelan Angklung Kléntangan of Sidan, Gianyar; Gamelan Angklung of Pemogan, Denpasar; Gamelan Angklung o…
Bali 1928, Vol. III: Lotring and the Sources of Gamelan Traditio
Vol. III of the complete 1928 Balinese recordings, the first republication since 1928 of lost shellac recordings, opens with the only known recordings of a lost gamelan. Heard in three tracks, Gamelan Semar Pagulingan, an ensemble known as "Gamelan of Love in the Bedchamber," played instruments that no longer exist, originally performed just outside the private residence of a raja during meals, times of leisure, and when the raja was otherwise engaged in pleasure with one of his wives. The…
Bali 1928: Gamelan Gong Kebyar
Subtitled: Belaluan, Pangkung, Busungbiu. World Arbiter presents historic gamelan recordings made in 1928 as part of a collection of the first and only commercially-released recordings of music made in Bali prior to World War II, the first ever to document pre-War genres. The compositions heard on volume 1 are untraditional, avant-garde experiments that later evolved into familiar forms, new music captured close to the time of its inception. After five years of research and field work, Ed…
Abba Gargando
Low-fi Tuareg guitar from renowned Timbouctou musician Abba Gargando. Original compositions and folklore classics from hypnotic electrified weddings to quiet fireside recordings in the refugee camps. Collected and recorded on cellphones, sparse recordings in the medium where he is best known. Limited edition of 500 with handmade covers.
Uchronia: Field Recordings from Alternate Realities
Uchronia : The Unequivocal Interpretation of Reality, is a multi-dimensional project realized in Bamako by photographer Maciek Pozoga and musicologist Christopher Kirkley. This body of work juggling between folklorism, science fiction and social documentary is presented at Galerie 12 Mail from September 4th to October 16th 2015 and it will be accompanied by Uchronia, field recordings from alternate realities, a vinyl edition to be released on the American label Sahel Sounds and by a publication …
The Jail's A Fine School
First ever vinyl collection of the legendary 'Kostis,' the most enigmatic of all Greek rebetika artists of the early 1930s. Truly unique guitar duets and black-humor prose chronicling the hash dens, prison culture and pickpockets of old Athens. Virtuosic fingerpicking of Near-Eastern modes at the dawn of rebetika, when the bouzouki was yet to become supreme. Recorded under a pseudonym for export to the Greeks living in America, it stands as an enduring mystery and the high standard for a …
Hat
Reissued by Fledg'ling in 2005, originally released in 1969 on Decca Records, Hat. The album is a rounded portrait of Davy Graham's remarkable guitar style -- drawing together Willie Dixon, Charles Mingus, The Beatles, Henry Purcell and Indian raga on one splendid record. Fledg'ling have carefully remastered this album from the original master tapes, adding new sleeve-notes and previously unpublished photographs.