Pearl & The Oysters - Coast 2 Coast Remixes

Pearl & The Oysters‘ Stones Throw debut Coast 2 Coast released back in April and now Juju and Jojo are calling upon some of their favorite musicians and collaborators to remix tracks from the record for their upcoming Coast 2 Coast Remixes EP, out now.

For the first song, the duo reached out to Los Angeles artist Vicky Farewell for a bubble pop version of “Fireflies”. Where Coast 2 Coast sees the morning sun rise over swamps of Florida and sandy L.A. beaches, Coast 2 Coast Remixes captures the duo at night, sipping colorful cocktails while watching rockets land on the moon.

Next up: Salami Rose Joe Louis’ remix of “Loading Screen”, a track about “screen addiction and over-stimulation in the www age.” Using her studies in planetary sciences as inspiration, Louis explores ideas of multiverses and climate change in her music. She shares this concern with Pearl & The Oysters, who express anxiety about the state of the planet throughout Coast 2 Coast.

Friend and labelmate Jerry Paper shared their remix of “Konami”, a song which was originally inspired by Juliette’s white noise machine used to overcome restless nights. Pearl & The Oysters have been friends with Jerry Paper since they moved to L.A., and supported them on tour in the US which is where Paper first heard the song.

Tracklist:
1. Fireflies (Vicky Farewell Remix)
2. Moon Canyon Park (The High Llamas Remix)
3. Konami (Jerry Paper Remix)
4. Pacific Ave (Brijean Remix)
5. Loading Screen (Salami Rose Joe Louis Remix)
6. Paraiso (Maylee Todd Remix)
7. Joyful Science (Peanut Butter Wolf Remi)

Kamaal Williams - Stings (Deluxe)

The South London artist helped flip UK jazz on its head, with Yussef Kamaal”s ‘Black Focus’ proving to be a seminal moment in club culture and free music more generally. Since then, Kamaal Williams has released a string of records under his own name, alongside his club-focussed moniker Henry Wu.

New album ‘Stings’ was conceptualised during the pandemic, with the musicality rooted in long solo sessions at an upright piano. Sessions took place in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, with arrangements from Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.

Stings is the latest album from the one and only Kamaal Williams, marking another groundbreaking chapter in his genre-blurring musical journey. Widely recognized for his pivotal role in reshaping the landscape of UK jazz with the game-changing Yussef Kamaal’s Black Focus (2016) with Yussef Dayes, which started a journey in the artist’s output then developed in two amazing projects: The Return (2018) and Wu Hen (2020). Kamaal Williams has continued to push boundaries under his own name and his club-oriented alias, Henry Wu - marking a generation of electronic jazz aficionados.

Comprised by 13 tracks, Stings was born during the tumultuous period of the pandemic, with Kamaal Williams crafting its musicality through extensive solo sessions at an upright piano. These creative voyages unfolded across iconic American cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, enriched by the masterful arrangements of Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. Released via his own Black Focus Records, the record expands with its sublime musicianship - from the strings in “The Last Symphony” or “City Of God”, passing by the undeniable coolness and groove of “Stings”, “Dogtown” and “Repercussions”, ending with the enchanting melodies of “Taiwan”, “Ronan” and “Magnolia”. The album's lead single, “PKKNO,” is another highlight, as a powerful testament to Kamaal’s unceasing journey into uncharted musical realms, promising yet another captivating evolution in his ever-evolving and ground-breaking discography.

Tracklist:
1. The Last Symphony
2. The Guvna (ft. Sharay Reed & Brian Hargrove)
3. Stings
4. Little River
5. Dogtown
6. Repercussions
7. City Of God
8. Taiwan (ft. Stephanie Yu)
9. Ronan
10. Magnolia
11. The Last Symphony / Magnolia
12. Magnolia II (ft. Theo Croker)
13. PKKNO
14. Al Haq (ft. Sir Don Rattray)
15. Crumar

Greg Foat & Ayo Salawu - Interstellar Fantasy

A concept album of Analogue Electronic Sci Fi Library Grooves for Synthesisers and Percussion. Commissioned by Sonoton and inspired by the 70's & 80's Sonoton music Library Catalogue. Featuring Ayo Salawu on Drums (Kokoroko) and Greg Foat with his impressive collection of vintage Synthesisers. File under Library Music.

Tracklist:
1. Interstellar Fantasy
2. Journey to Arcturus
3. Solar Pirates
4. Mines of Andromeda
5. Stasis Loop
6. The Lonely Robot
7. Cruising Home

R.I.P. Marlena Shaw (22/9/1942 - 19/1/2024)

Mario Luciano & Lauren Santi - MILS008: Shades Of Mauve

Entry #8: Composer, producer & arranger Mario Luciano and vocalist Lauren Santi of Polyphonic Music Library delve into Psychedlic Jazz, Experimental Soul & Cosmic Fusion.

Tracklist:
1. Aquarius Rising
2. Inner Search
3. When It’s Real
4. Psych Impression
5. Peace of Time
6. Blue Miles
7. Lauren’s Astral Vision
8. Expressions From “The Ear”
9. The Yellow Field
10. Donte’s French Excursion
11. Solar Journey
12. Transitions
13. Shades of Mauve
14. Cosmic Portals
15. A Piece for Reflection

Surya Botofasina, Nate Mercereau, Carlos Niño - Subtle Movements

This Trio is very Californian, even though Surya is based on the East Coast . . .We swim together in the Pacific Ocean, Vibing, bonding, talking, listening, riding the Waves . . .as often as we can.
- Carlos Niño

Together these three adventurously creative Musical Artists have played in Portland, Oregon, Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York, London, England, Amsterdam and Zaandam, NL, Köln, Germany, San Diego and Ojai, California, and many times throughout Los Angeles County, since February 2022. They first came together in July 2021 at the Glendale, California Home Recording Studio of Jesse Peterson and Mia Doi Todd.

Nate was invited by Carlos to meet Surya and to possibly play. No specific plans were set other than to explore with Surya. (Multi-Reedsman Randal Fisher was also there.) That Session turned out to be Day 1 of what became Surya's debut album Everyone's Children released by Spiritmuse Records on November 4, 2022. Suyra and Nate were both featured extensively on the Carlos Niño & Friends album (I'm just) Chillin', on Fire released by International Anthem on September 15, 2023, though not together on any of the same pieces.

The first in-depth representation of the Trio was in collaboration with André 3000 on his album New Blue Sun released by Epic Records on November 17, 2023, where they are featured as co-writers and co-creators of 5 of the 8 album pieces. Niño also Produced that album in collaboration with André. Nate enthusiastically took it upon himself to be the Trio's Archivist and would get to Mixing and playlisting the group's recordings as soon as he received them from Live and Studio recordists. He took the lead on Producing and Mixing this album, Subtle Movements.

His unique perspectives, thoughts, feelings and intense heart energy went into telling the story of how these pieces, recorded in different settings, with a wide range of gear, by an array of characters, all flow together. "It is a blessed opportunity and Cosmic Gift to be at the keyboards with Nate and Carlos," Surya gleams. "In appearance, I play a few keyboards at a time: a MIDI controller that I use in tandem with music studio software, my absolute FAVORITE analog sensibility synth Roland SH-201 (although it is digital), and typically another 88key board (the Roland SV-1).

If there is a piano available, I will also use that with us for a total of 4 keyboards at my station, (that my cousin Georgia Anne Muldrow has forever deemed “Praise Console no.3”), Surya enthuses. "My instruments and sound are the last thing I consider about this Trio. For me, it is about us as human beings first; as members of our respective families and soul tribes before anything else. I think whatever sound that comes forth is a result of that inner connected soul conversation. That, at least in my view, is the Sound."

"I play guitar, guitar synthesizer, and midi-guitar sampler," writes Nate Mercereau of his Instruments on Subtle Movements. "In addition to my main GR300 guitar synthesizer sound, I am sampling the band live as we perform and using the sound . . .It takes many different shapes, but I am often playing something like the sound of Carlos's percussion from 30 seconds earlier in a new key and tempo, or as a chord — or a quick slice of a pad from Surya’s keyboard pitched down into sub frequencies, anything can happen," Nate details.

"I live-sample and expand, magnify, permutate, repeat, live-remix, live-edit, and reframe moments of our sound within our sound while it's happening. Worlds Within Worlds and Worlds Upon Worlds, Currents Within Currents. I also use previously recorded and created samples from my library in this context, allowing my guitar to be anything." Nate also offers: "I consider what I do in this trio to be a part of and extension of the greater sound of this group, which is often oceanic (which represents everything to me), waves, it's full communication. Love and support in sonic form. Going beyond together in all ways."

Carlos Niño plays everything that you hear in the Aerophone, Drum, Percussion and Plant realms . . .
He was the group's "Connector" and its first advocate. Depending on who received and accepted the opportunity to present the Trio their names have appeared in different orders. Hear, on Subtle Movements the order is Alphabetical by last name:
Botofasina, Mercereau, Niño 

Tracklist:
1. Inner-connectednesses . . .
2. So Much Love (Live)
3. Subtle Movements
4. We are Moving now
5. Exploration (Sincerely)
6. A Band That Swims Together
7. Hearing (with Keshava at Zuma)

Tara Clerkin Trio - On The Turning Ground

Not far off two years from the day, Bristol's Tara Clerkin Trio return to World of Echo and the EP format for a five song collection of quixotic, emotional redolence. But do not mistake their absence for inertia. If their musical output has been a little sparse during those in-between years, limited to a few solo ventures and an astonishing ten minute long piece as a trio, their time has otherwise been richly spent: continuous writing and recording, extensive live performances across Europe and Japan, a cultivation of local and more far-flung artistic connections (musical and otherwise), and a monthly NTS show that, through the voice of others, speaks most obviously to their own unorthodox interests. It's the conflux of that winding activity that leads indirectly to On The Turning Ground, 26 minutes of probing, thoughtful composition that draws from no one specific source.

Their inspirations might be centreless, but the trio still possess a very obvious anchor in the form of their hometown. Bristol stands as a city of multitudes, heterogenous and vibrant in such a way as to allow it to renew and remake time and again. Tara Clerkin Trio drink from that same well, duly reflecting a rich musical heritage built on fwd-facing electronic subcultures and experimental urges. As such, On The Turning Ground finds them subject to their own subtle internal evolution, the pervasive sense that you've caught them mid-bloom, on their way to becoming but never anything but themselves.

The two instrumental pieces that bookend the EP stand as a perfect case in point, displaying an increasing mastery of compositional space. Pensive and restrained, 'Brigstow' and 'Once Around' both emanate an interstitial quality that's not so much after- as in-between-hours, miniature dub-folk symphonies held together by the kind of tacit understanding that remains the preserve of only the closest of family units. If those two tracks are shaped by a sense of shifting temporality, then the three vocal-led pieces that comprise the record's core feel like a gentle ossifying of aesthetic into something approaching their own unique form of avant-pop. 'Pop' is, of course, a broadly subjective concept, but there's no avoiding the overt sparkling melodicism of songs like 'Marble Walls' and 'The Turning Ground', undeniable re-directions of that late 90s impulse to bend pop sensibilities into off-centre terrain, to render the familiar new again. This is what Tara Clerkin Trio do, gently pulling the ground from under your feet, turning you to face something you'd not quite seen before. To view the world as they do: sideways, sometimes, all of the time. 

Tracklist:
1. Brigstow
2. World in Delay
3. Marble Walls
4. The Turning Ground
5. Once Around

Webley Edwards - Hawaii Calls Exotics Essentials

Both as the longtime host of the weekly radio series Hawaii Calls and through his many albums, broadcasting pioneer Webley Edwards played a pivotal role in exporting the music of the islands to the continental U.S. Born November 11, 1902, in Corvallis, OR, he later attended Oregon State University, becoming the first student manager of campus radio station KOAC; relocating to Hawaii in 1928 to work as an auto salesman, Edwards was so fascinated by the native musical traditions that in 1935 he sealed a deal to produce a radio show spotlighting authentic island performances. Broadcast from Waikiki's Moana Hotel, Hawaii Calls made its debut that July 3; though carried on over 400 stateside stations, the show struggled financially during its early years, often relying on state funding from the Hawaii Tourist Bureau to stay afloat. The first radio announcer to broadcast news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Edwards also worked as a reporter for CBS Radio during the war years, where he landed exclusives including an interview with Colonel Paul Tibbetts, the pilot who dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima; he was also the lone broadcaster allowed on board the USS Missouri to report on the surrender ceremony that brought the conflict to its close. Throughout the 1950s, Edwards compiled and produced a series of Hawaiian music collections for Capitol Records; though issued under his name, the albums (among them Fire Goddess, Hula Island Favorites, and Exotic Instrumentals) actually featured performances by the likes of Alfred Apaka, George Kainapau, Haleloke, and Simeon and Andy Bright. In all, Hawaii Calls ran for 37 years, along the way popularizing tunes including "Sweet Leilani," "Lovely Hula Hands," "Beyond the Reef," "Little Brown Gal," and "The Hawaiian Wedding Song." The series ended in 1972 after Edwards (who also served as a member of the state legislature) suffered a heart attack; he died in Honolulu on October 5, 1977.

Trcklist:
1. Some Enchanted Evening (from "South Pacific")
2. Bamboo Shadows (Japanese)
3. Whispering Reef (Hawaiian)
4. Alika (Hawaiian)
5. Narcissus Queen (Chinese)
6. Forbidden Waters (Polynesian)
7. Geisha (Japanese)
8. Dahil Sayo (Filipino)
9. Beyond the Rainbow (Hawaiian)
10. Tangi Tahiti (Tahitian)
11. Maui Girls (Hawaiian)
12. The Hands I Love (Oriental Hawaiian)

Anni Kiviniemi Trio - Eir

US based Finnish pianist Anni Kiviniemi debuts her trio featuring bassist Eero Tikkanen and drummer Hans Hulbaekmo (from Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra and Moskus). The new album "Eir", out on We Jazz Records 12 Jan 2024, is an introspective, moody, yet swinging trio set comprising of 8 Kiviniemi originals. Modeled for a classic jazz piano trio, Kiviniemi's music reaches far beyond, bringing together influences from classical music, Norwegian musical tradition and North African music.

Of her compositional process, Kiviniemi says:

"I always gravitate towards the unknown in music and, I suppose, in life. If I hear an unusual melody or a bizarre chord that I don’t immediately recognise, I need to jump on the piano and figure out what it is. Then I play around with it a bit, making sure I understand it and that I’m able to use it in a different context in the future. I always set strict limitations on myself as a composer, but give my fellow musicians the complete freedom to interpret my music in their own way. If they want to change something, they’re free to do so. I love being surprised as a bandleader. It teaches me a lot, which is always fun. I’d say the album is 95% improvised but when we play live, we edge towards 99%."

Named after Kiviniemi's daughter, who was born after the recording of the album, but before its release. This also highlights the nature of the record, which is highly intimate, pulling the listener in for the finer details, while flowing along with the overall sound. 

Tracklist:
1. Tiu Dropar
2. Gwendolyn
3. Judy
4. Arguably
5. Atoms
6. Mére
7. Mengi
8. Chora