For the final month of 2023, I was largely housebound. Through a combination of surgery, painkillers, recovery, COVID, colds, edibles, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, turkey, bread, sweets, drinks, and hosting family + friends, I haven’t really left the house much. But I’m not about to go all ‘free recipe preamble’ on you and overload the intro with the minutiae of my personal life. Suffice it to say, I’m feeling soft. Rounded at the edges, sugardumb. On Monday, I’ll return to my day job, so I’m doing my best to luxuriate in that softness. May this month’s selections help you do the same.
click the cover to listen or go your own way ~~
Puangroi Apaiwong - M.L. Puangroi Sanitwong (1939-41)
I discovered this music by screen-grabbing a Fellowship Records IG story and running that through a reverse-image Google search, which led me to a supple scroll through Thai Youtube. Puangroi Apaiwong was purportedly Thailand’s first female composer, whom Google celebrated on what would have been her 105th birthday with a custom doodle. Throughout her lengthy career as a composer for film, stage, royal families and public events, she became a national treasure—though there doesn’t seem to much info readily available online in English. This collection is brimming with elegant piano, wistful violin and romantic vocals, all coated in a good amount of analogue pop and warble. I find its gentle, old-timey sentimentality profoundly comforting.
*** I actually don’t know if this is an official release, or just fan-created for Youtube; or if I’m properly representing the compilation’s name, etc… Again, translating the video description with Google tells me that these compositions are from the timeframe listed above, but I have no idea when they were recorded. If anyone has insights, please be in touch!
Group Listening - Clarinet & Piano: Selected Works Vol. 1 (2018)
I’ve been enjoying this album in an armchair, occasionally with book. There’s a delicate playfulness to the performances and unassuming spaciousness to the recordings. As I understand it, the compositions are all borrowed from a pretty wide range of sources, a few of which I recognize. If I didn’t know better, I’d say (with no shade intended) there’s something almost twee about a few of these pieces. But no one uses that word anymore, and when it was in circulation, no one seemed to like being identified as such. Anyhoo, this music feels touching, hopeful and wonderfully off the cuff. Not nearly as cold and distant as the cover might suggest.
Nagisa Ni Te - Feel (2001)
I’ve been listening to Happy End’s Kazemachi Roman a fair bit. I’m guessing this was a RIYL. When this album was reissued in North America by Jagjaguwar in 2002 , Nagisa Ni Te was described by Boomkat as being ‘on the vanguard of the burgeoning psych-avant-folk movement in Japan’. Though from where and when I’m sitting, Feel doesn’t actually come across as terribly avant or psychy. There’s a languid humility here à la mid-career Low; somehow rich and sure, yet frangible. And yes ok, it is a certain type of psychy—introspective, rather than lysergic or blistering.
Brother Theotis Taylor - Self-Titled (1970s)
This is one of my favorite releases from Mississippi Records, which is really saying something. The songs in this collection were all captured in the same simple way: from a reel-to-reel machine that sat atop the spiritual signer’s piano in his living room in South Georgia. Ruminating on why I like this music so much reminds me of a conversation I had with Dario Lozano-Thornton, a recording engineer who’s work and way of being in the world I really admire. When I asked them about their approach to recording, they said (and I’m paraphrasing here): a lot of people think of recording in terms of ‘how can I capture or enhance this thing’. For me, it’s about ‘how can I destroy as little of this as possible’. These recordings transport me to a room in which I’ve never been. Calls me to a spiritual life I’ve never lived. And it all feels deeply immediate and familiar. Like home.
ICYMI, I started a donations page. All the money I receive will go back towards music (eg. purchasing physical/digital music, merch, concert tickets, supporting other music outlets, etc.). If you’re not able to support the newsletter financially (no presh!), you might also consider liking / sharing / following on Instagram.
ALSO, I started a ~*fun*~ tracking sheet that provides transparency on donations and spending. It also includes links to my Bandcamp + Discogs profiles. This is as much about accountability as it is an experiment in tracking my own financial investments in music over a calendar year.
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
Nothing could have prepared me for how gorgeous Taylor’s falsetto is jfc.
Hola , Interesante Articulo. Sobre La Música Para Flauta , Me Gustaría Compartir Un Álbum , Y Otro Del Sello Que Mencionas: Mississippi Records , Es Un Gran Álbum Recopilatorio Y Su Bajo Precio , Lo Hace Muy Atractivo. Aquí Dejó Los Dos Enlaces. Un Saludo. 1-https://lauracocks.bandcamp.com/album/field-anatomies 2-https://mississippirecords.bandcamp.com/album/fight-on-your-time-aint-long