Welcome to your latest Between The Cracks round-up bringing new music to your Friday! No lengthy write-ups as who reads those anyway? We keep it short and to the point because you’re here to listen to the music! Check out our weekly mini-guide below and if you like what you hear, click the links and support the artists.
Albums
Nala Sinephro – Live at Real World Studios with Edward Wakili​-​Hick & Dwayne Kilvington
We’ve had our ears on ‘Space 1.8’, the debut album from London-based composer and producer Nala Sinephro ever since we stumbled upon her a few weeks ago. Further digging revealed that we missed her debut vinyl release, and upon playing, once again, we’re drawn into the depths of her music. The unnamed piece features Sinephro on harp and modular synths, Edward Wakili-Hick on drums, and Dwayne Kilvington on synth bass. Transcendent spiritual music reminiscent of the great Alice Coltrane.
Barney McAll – Transitive Cycles
The legendary Melbourne jazz pianist and composer Barney McAll unveils Transitive Cycles, a captivating ensemble album for Rhodes, synths, horns, bulbul tarang, double bass, Moog guitar, analogue electronics, and percussion. This album was recorded live at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and features the city’s spectacular public sound sculpture: the Federation Bells. McAll masterfully leads the interplay over the Yarra River to create an entirely ethereal mood.
Li Yillei – 之 / OF
Li Yillei presents a thoughtful and affecting album, influenced by the Lockdown chaos and the need to get home to Shanghai. Despite the turmoil, anxiety, and paranoia that is present, the listener is transported to moments of tranquillity, inner peace, and thought through modular synths, voice samples, field recordings, and stringed instruments. Highly recommended.
Pauline Anna Strom – Angel Tears In Sunlight
For the first time in three decades, electronic music composer Pauline Anna Strom releases a new album. Strom’s ‘Angel Tears In Sunlight‘ is a class act that equals the past work that has gained her a cult following. Heal your soul with her timeless, fluid, organic meditations. Fans of Anna Roxanne and Sarah Davachi will enjoy this album! R.I.P.
Jana Rush – Painful Enlightenment
Since the age of ten and cutting her teeth in Chicago’s Dance Mania scene in the mid-Nineties, Jana Rush makes another highly idiosyncratic statement in electronic music with her album for Planet Mu. Twisting samples, electronics and beats into complex new shapes, ‘Painful Enlightenment’ is a dense and richly textured vision of footwork and beyond.
Sofie Birch & Johan Carøe – Repair Techniques
An intriguing collaboration between sound artist Sofie Birch and musician and film score composer Johan Carøe. The eleven tracks on Repair Techniques are edited and shaped from two improvised sessions the duo recorded in Copenhagen in 2019, with additional acoustic sounds from a residency in Sweden the following year. The pair command your attention from start to finish.
Greta Lindholm – Rhythm Voice
Black Sweat Records presents this enchanting spiritual album recorded in 2003 by Swedish dancer Greta Lindholm. Using clapping, foot drumming, and vocal rhythm as instruments, Greta creates her own unique sound, one that bridges traditional songs with gestural rhythm improvisation.
Angela Winter – Lightness
North Carolina singer-instrumentalist Angela Winter reflects on the “story of lightness” in nine minimalistic spiritual pieces with a deliberately less-is-more style. With Winter’s otherworldly vocals lapping gently over the ambient electronic sounds, you are seduced from start to finish. Headphones recommended.
Reissues
Arthur Lyman – Island Vibes
The latest release from Roger Bong’s Honolulu imprint Aloha Got Soul is a lost gem from exotica pioneer Arthur Lyman. Combining natural sounds with his resonant vibraphone, he and producer Gordon Broad created Island Vibes. Lyman’s ambient/jazz/field recordings are a perfect example of his music’s weightlessness. This soothing audio head massage is much needed in these stressful times.
Makoto Kubota – Machiboke
Excellent reissue of Japanese musician Makoto Kubota’s sought-after dreamy acid-folk / stoner rock album from 1973 remastered by the man himself. If you need more music from Kubota, check out Wewantsounds Bandcamp page as they delve into the work of Makoto Kubota & The Sunset Gang, reissuing their Hawaii Champroo, Dixie Fever, and Sunset Gang albums.
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