With so much good music coming through thick and fast, it’s easy for new music to drop online and go unnoticed. To help prevent this, we’ve picked five releases that may have slipped past your radar. Stream music from Hermeto Pascoal & Grupo Vice Versa, Bahal, Nadah El Shazly, Virginia Wing and Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet. If you like what you hear, support the artists.
Hermeto Pascoal & Grupo Vice Versa – Viajando Com O Som (The Lost ‘ 76 Vice–Versa Studio Session)
Far Out recordings pulled out a big one for their 200th release. An unreleased album by Hermeto Pascoal which has been lost since 1976! If you want to find out more about the man once described by Miles Davis as “the most impressive musician in the world”, head here to read Professor of Ethnomusicology Andy Connell’s (James Madison University, Virginia), essay “Hermeto Pascoal, Universal Musician”, for an in-depth introduction to the life and work of this great artist.
★★★★★
Bahla – Imprints
The debut album from Bahla is a collection of 8 songs inspired by different stories of identity, migration and displacement. The band draw on many different musical influences ranging from Radiohead to Polar Bear and Shai Maestro, but with Jewish folk traditions at its core. Top notch stuff and a fine introduction to an intriguing new band.
★★★☆☆
Nadah El Shazly – Ahwar
Cairo based producer, composer and performer Nadah El Shazly shared her debut solo release at the end of last year. Two years in the making and created between Egypt and Canada the album combines traditional Egyptian music and modern experimentation, effortlessly!
★★★★☆
Virginia Wing – Tomorrow’s Gift
South London based band Virginia Wing and electronic experimentalists XAM Duo hooked up for two cold days in January last year for an improv session. Condensed from 48 hours down to 48 intense minutes the group’s recordings create an all-encompassing new universe of sound with references from the mutated world percussion of Holger Czukay, the transportive saxophone of Pharoah Sanders, and the devotional music of Alice Coltrane. Well worth a listen.
★★★☆☆
Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet – Ladilikan
Together the Kronos Quartet and Trio Da Kali have created an album that is rich in texture, hauntingly melodic and strikingly inventive as violins, viola and cello combine with balafon, ngoni and the powerful female voice of Hawa ‘Kassé Mady’ Diabaté in transcendental style. Absolutely stunning stuff!
★★★★★
