I’m full of feeling, rich in spreadsheets and short on time. That’s right: I’m back in the business of programming live music. Gainfully employed. More details on that in the coming days, but for now: a palmful of selections from me to you, collected in the off-hours and listened to largely while washing dishes (or performing other domestic activities as specified).
click on the covers to listen or go your own way ~~
Salenta + Topu - Moon Set, Moon Rise (2021)
I’m still combing through the odd year-end list, uncovering new and shimmering gems. The cup floweth over. Case in point: this absolutely spellbinding set of improvised, living room jazz featuring two NYC musicians (pianist Salenta Baisden and cellist Topu Lyo), a charming degree of tape hiss, and a perfectly untuned spinet piano.
Famille Lela de Permet - Polyphonies Vocales et Instrumentals D’Albani (1991)
I came across this seemingly obscure album (the only entry for the group on Discogs) in a Twitter thread from Fieldling Hope, co-curator for Counterflows, a Glaswegian festival I long to visit someday. The album is very much as titled: a group of presumably-related dudes from Albania wearing neckties and performing Balkan folk music on trad instruments with some robust polyphonies. I can’t claim to have a nuanced understanding of the forms of music they're working with, but what I really appreciate is how the music seems guided purely by emotion. The instruments touch down intentionally in and out of time, swelling and rattling, wrenching the melodies taught.
Tobias Hume - Musicall Humors (1605)
I like to imagine this shadowy historical figure as the Dean Blunt of 17th century viola de gamba players. Little is known about his personal life, though based on his cheeky approaches to musical innovation, he’s often labeled as something of a prankster. But, like… listen to this stuff. It’s murky as hell and it moves me.
Li Yilei - 之 / OF (2021)
A little over ten years ago, I started a blog (which shall go unhyperlinked) that included a series of posts under the heading ‘Book Soundtracking’. In these posts, I’d write about book+music pairings. I’m including this mercurial album here as an homage to that series. I’ve cranked it several times recently while reading Elisa Gabbert’s The Unreality Of Memory, a collection of essays that explore ‘disaster culture, climate anxiety, and our mounting collective sense of doom’ with a fascinating sense of openness. On 之 / OF, sound artist Li Yilei creates a series of shifting soundworlds that evolve in quiet, unexpected ways. The pieces feel interconnected, of a set, and yet extensive in mood and texture.
Ranking Ann - A Slice Of English Toast (1982)
How about food+music pairings? Those of us currently living through the depths of pandemic-winter on Turtle Island need heaps of Sundays and pancakes and reggae. And so I present to you the debut collection from uncompromising London emcee Ranking Ann. Exploding out of London’s soundsystem scene of the late 70s, Ann earned a reputation as an outspoken feminist amidst a severly male-dominated culture. English Toast is shot through with the language of resistance: to misogyny, to Colonial Britain, to the suffering of fools. The production, care of the one and only Mad Professor, is deeply zoned.
I’m super interested in feedback / dialogue / suggestions. If you have ideas about the newsletter, want to share music with me, have specific questions / requests, don’t hesitate to get in touch. And please: share this newsletter with a pal if you feel so inspired!
Yrs.,
Andrew P.
andrewdanielpatterson [at] gmail [dot] com