Playlist in times of isolation №1
Katherine Zyabluk
author, musician
There are so many unpredictable challenges in times of isolation — mainly when we try to deal with ourself. All the things are done, there is nothing special to do, an instinctive-emotional randomizer is extremely prepared, so it would be easy to look for good healing music due to it.
Philip Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble
Philip Cohran spent the brightest days of his musical career playing with the outstanding Sun Ra Arkestra, however his own recordings are remarkable as well. At some point he started a band called Artistic Heritage Ensemble, which consisted of the musicians of a varied musical background. They played with Pharoah Sanders as well as with Earth, Wind and Fire, Donny Hathaway and Quincey Jones. By the way, the guitarist from the band frequently appeared in Miles Davis’ albums of 70ths.
Such mixture incarnates an image of an experimental big-band, that’s jamming at the home studio to honour the music they were growing with. Sometimes it sounds wildly, unrestrained and unexpected as for such kind of music: there’s nothing unusual about the soul-ish guitar or smooth voices in a jazz-cafe style, that you can hear there. It is nice to listen to while laying on the bed under the sun and staring on the ceiling for a long time — 10-15-minute pieces are easily flying by.
DakhaBrakha – Alambari
That’s what you should have in your playlist, when you are enveloped in an itchy desire to set off. Actually that’s how entire music by DakhaBrakha works. They have recorded their new album Alambari in Brazil, but it’s barely audible on the record. However, it’s noticeably based on songs which the members have found by themselves, also on pieces by William Shakespeare and Heinrich Heine.
Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood, and the Rajasthan Express — Junun
After Jonny Greenwood noticed the music Shye Ben Tzur, he decided to record an album with him. So, it may associate with India and the self-titled documentary by Paul Anderson — Junun.
It’s something that can be truly recognised as a “world music”, including a lot of hints of different styles (a huge ensemble of reeds, electronic stuff, guitars with low strings, slight flirting with a Bollywood melodies). As soon as you notice this peculiar details, you would rather define it as “non/all genre”.
Lyrics are in Hindi, Hebrew and Urdu. In addition — an image of Greenwood involuntarily reminds of George Harrison and his experiments with Indian classical music. It’s all about bold mixtures of traditional music and unique musical background of many styles.
Ane Brun — Spending Time with Morgan
A Norwegian singer Ane Brun always sounds warm and cozy. An album Spending Time With Morgan can be called the essence of these traits.
Morgan is the name of her guitar. When you listen to this record, it is possible to imagine, how simply and unobtrusively it was created. It doesn’t look like an album, though. It sounds more like a mild singing near the bonfire that you hear while you are thinking about what kind of equipment you should take in your travel van.