Eden Ahbez & John Harris - "Monterey" (feat Paul Horn) (2:45)
Eden Ahbez & John Harris - "Overcomers Of The World" (4:17)
Eden Ahbez - "The Clam Man" (2:27)
Review: In the late 1950s and early 1960s, George Alexander Aberle renamed himself Eden Ahbez, a name that was to be influential both in the exotica music sound and the hippie movement as a whole. His lifestyle, which apparently included living underneath the iconic sign of Hollywood hill, gave birth to a new way of living and this transpired to the music he made, a loose and magical sort of bop jazz with a humorous tone. This wonderful compilation by Bear Family actually features all unreleased material from that era, which is a surprise to us because we thought the only music made by Ahbez had already been released and reissued in full. Here, there are quirky, chimerical moments of every kind: from the supremely loose whistling of "Anna Was Mine", to the more percussive collaboration alongside The Talbot Brothers, or Eartha Kit's glorious little "Hey Jacque". This is special, and it's one for the serious collectors. Recommended.
Review: Hamza El Din's Al Oud gets its first ever American reissue here courtesy of Real Gone Music. In much the same way that Ravi Shankar popularised the sitar, El Din took the oud onto the world stage. The short-necked Arabian lute has a uniquely mellifluous sound that he introduced to the West with everybody from the Grateful Dead to the Kronos Quartet to his one-time roommate Sandy Bull. He was also a fine singer and composer who dropped this seminal album on Vanguard in 1965 soon after his star-making appearance at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. It is a historic record and immersive listen full of emotion.
Review: Ammar El Sherei's intoxicating instrumental album Oriental Music was written in 1976 and has remained a cult classic for all the deep diggers, world music lovers and curio obsessives. For this record, the iconic Egyptian artist, composer and producer actually served up his own take on six classic compositions by another Egyptian legend, Mohamed Abdel Wahab. The results are utterly hypnotic and majestic melodic affairs with organic drums and percussion and North African melodies that worm their way deep into your brain and transport you to the hustle and bustle of a dusty open air market or street side coffee spot.
Review: Ensamble Acustico was conceived in the early 1980s by Billy Pereyra and Eduardo Roland in Blancarena, a resort on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, east of Colonia, Uruguay. In 1989, after only a few performances, the duo released their first and only album: a cassette of eight songs titled Un Exceso De Luz (An Excess Of Light), co-released by independent labels Perro Andaluz (Uruguay) and Circe (Argentina). The album was critically acclaimed and lauded as the first 'new age' project to come out of Uruguay. Yet lumping Un Exceso De Luz into that most vast and heterogenous confluence of musical genres, akin to 'world music', dismisses the alchemical breakdown of minimalism with gestures of contemporary jazz, exemplified by the shifting harmonic figures of 'En Los Campos de Colonia' ('In the Fields of Colonia'). Pereyra and Roland sound strings in tandem, forming harmonic compositions that generate unexpected resonances. Together they build a climatic character that gives the sound of Ensamble Acustico its most distinctive seal, sharing more with the aesthetics of contemporary jazz than the nebulous new age label.
Review: Eska Mtungwazi has long been one of British soul's most underrated vocalists. Since 1988, she's leant her wonderfully soulful tones to tracks from the likes of New Sector Movements, the Matthew Herbert Big Band, Nithin Sawhney and the Unabombers' Elektrons project. Here, she finally gets a chance to take centre stage with a debut solo album largely produced by old pal Matthew Herbert. Predictably, he's done a fine job, largely opting for a folksy, soft touch neo-soul sound that allows Eska the maximum room to do her thing. Given the quality of her voice, and the emotive nature of her delivery, it's a smart move.
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