* Edition of 70 * Clive Bell’s roots in British experimental music run deep. Many will know him for his frequent contributions as a writer for The Wire magazine, while others will know him for his sonic explorations that date back into the 1970s, both solo as well as in collaboration with New Jazz Syndicate, Peter Cusack, Jac Berrocal, Steve Beresford, Jah Wobble, David Ross, David Toop, Mike Cooper, and countless others.

Bell is an accomplished player of the shakuhachi (Japanese flute), khene (Thai mouth organ) and other East Asian wind instruments, having been a student of the shakuhachi master Kohachiro Miyata. Not including his many collaborations and jointly billed outings, Shakuhachi for Latin Lovers is his seventh solo outing, and ventures far from the deeply mediative and experimental explorations of his most recent solo release, 2017’s Asakusa Follies, and the daringly playful waters of pop.

Shakuhachi for Latin Lovers comprises 8 joyously playful bedroomy song-based explorations, fed by the experimental temperaments and energy that has defined the entirety of Bell’s career, falling somewhere between '80s synth-pop, Japanese kitsch, and the freewheeling mindsets of Robert Wyatt or Gong. A visionary and absolutely thrilling listen that is filled with endless surprises, Bell’s Shakuhachi for Latin Lovers is an absolute must.