OMT005 : El Gueye / You & Me

Cover art by A.L.

OMT005 : El Gueye / You & Me

El Gueye has already recorded 3 albums and is recognised as one of the best singer and composer in Senegal. 

The title of the album and the first song 'You & Me' is a discret allusion to the fact that both El and Youssoun N Dour voice and physical ressemblance are often an amusing private joke make to El while walking in the streets of Dakar from his friends and unknown people.

The album is talking about love, friendship, facts of life, success, misfortunes..etc. All the songs are sing in Wolof.
The music is what they call Mbalax (meaning "rhythm" in Wolof), it derives from accompanying rhythms used in sabar music of the Serer people of the Kingdom of Sine and spread to the Kingdom of Saloum whence Wolof migrants brought it to the Wolof kingdoms. The Nder (lead drum), Sabar (rhythm drum), and Tama (talking drum) percussion section traces some of its technique to the ritual music of Njuup.

The Senegalese musical heritage is better known than that of most African countries, thanks to the popularity of this mbalax style and Sabar drumming is particularly popular.

Senegalese music as well as other music in Africa has its origins in the songs of griots who sang to the glory of kings and princes. Upon the arrival of Islam, Muslims became master lyricists and developed the art of sung prayers.

El is preparing a new album that will include lots of new different elements going further away from Mbalax.

Takku Suf video:



Digital release on the 1st of June 2019.

Track listing:

1: You & Me
2: Namo Dara
3: Yaye
4: Succès
5: Massata
6: Teen Bi (Feat. Red Black)
7: Takku Suf

and on Bandcamp:

 

ODG104 : Silsila / Silsila

Cover art by Tereza Veselkova

ODG104 : Silsila / Silsila

Silsila is a music making collective based in an independent studio at the side of the Jeseníky Mountains, in the Czech Republic, close to the Polish border.

The project draws in a diverse group of Czech musicians, each active in the Czech indie scene in their own way, to contribute to songs written by UK born artist, Darren Eve.
The project started when the studio was set up, with people just being around at the right time when something was being recorded. After a few months it had bloomed into a project just itching to arrange itself into an album.

Darren

"Silsila is a very rewarding and interesting project for the listener. Where else could you find slavic experimental jazz influences popping up above the surface of soulful English balladry in the form of compact, poetic pop vignettes?
Presented here is a delicate creature of an album with elements of soul, jazz, pop and electro, suffused with a diy ethos and a moody isolation. There is a rhythmic swagger throughout, happy to veer off the beat and bubble away but the overall mood is contemplative, yearning and emotionally complex. Thouroughly enjoyed it." - Jack Wawrzyn 

A video for 'Allumettes' :



and a live version of 'To the Harbour's End and Back Again' :



Line up

Darren Eve - writing, vocals, guitars, flute, keys, percussion
Jiří Křesina - saxophone
David Patera - guitars, keys, arrangements
Vendula Pukyšová - bass guitar
Miloš Rais  - drum kit
Nikos Mistakidis - drum kit
Andrew Wooten - arrangement assistance
Jiří Sládek  - sound design
Simon Kaye - mastering

Digital release on the 24th of May 2019.

Track listing:

1. Lie to Me
2. Mint Tea
3. A Winter Sun
4. Crusher
5. The Key
6. 8 dotted I's
7. Allumettes
8. Adrian
9. Just the Way
10. To the Harbour's End and Back Again



And on Bandcamp:

OMT004 : Dolicia Keta / Bouwele - Africa

OMT004 : Dolicia Keta / Bouwele - Africa

Dolicia Keta is a 30 years old Congolese from RDC, born in the oriental Kasai. 

She is into music since her youth and has collaborated with various musicians including the first all women band in Congo RDC called Elefio Music. 
She is now a solo act, playing with 4 other musicians. 
When not performing or recording, she does also film soundtracks.

Her songs combine elements of folk, acoustic guitars and a more rhythmic tempo than the popular rumba . 
'Bouwele' is typically the sort of songs she usually play live while 'Africa' is a very soft ballad which sees her adding some jazz vocalise touches at the end of the song.

Her videos are a pleasure to watch and she certainly has a bright future in front of her seeing the number of followers she has when playing live!

Bouwele video:

A nice review in Jazzhalo here.

Digitally released on the 17th of May 2019.

Track listing:

1: Bouwele
2: Africa

OUC019 - OUW006 : Phoebe Tsang / Button Music

Cover art by Sullivan Hismans

OUC019 - OUW006 : Phoebe Tsang / Button Music

When things go missing, we can get lost in the spaces they leave behind.  

Button Music blurs the line between poetry and song. 
It’s an album of linked pieces for voice and violin, where one word can say as much as a cascade of echoing chords. It’s a manual for everyday magic, the magpie’s almanac. 

Minimalist songwriting meets rhapsodic improvisation. Acoustic violin and vocals lead you on a flaneur’s pilgrimage through a Brueghelian underworld of lost buttons. Lush string textures and quirky melodies conjure buttons and buttonholes, presence and absence, the things we let go of and the things we can’t live without. 
This is music from the cabaret where Duchamp plays card tricks while Breton reads your tarot cards.

All the lyrics of Button Music are HERE!

Phoebe Tsang (website here) is a Hong-Kong born British-Canadian writer and violinist. She writes with a Lamy Safari and composes on a 1907 violin by Paulus Pilat of Budapest. Her poetry and fiction has been published in the US, Canada, England and Hong Kong. Her songwriting blends classical contemporary with experimental folk.

Phoebe

Violin, vocals, text and composition: Phoebe Tsang
Recording and sound editing: Tom Stiles
Sound editing, mastering and album cover: Sullivan Hismans
Recording and production made possible through the Artist Residency Programs at Jack Straw Cultural Center (Seattle, WA). 

A nice review in The Whole note page 78 (white pages) here. 

Digital release on the 10th of May 2019.

Track listing :

A: Unbutton

1. No. 1  |  4:27

2. No. 2  |  3:23

3. No. 3  |  1:43

4. No. 4  |  3:34

5. No. 5  |  2:19

6. No. 6  |  4:46

B: Cards from the Tarot de Marseille

7. King of Cups  |  4:35

8. The Hermit  |  3:56

9. Le Pape  |  4:57

And on Bandcamp: 

 

ODG098 : Ben Sluijs Quartet / Somewhere in Between - Live

ODG098 : Ben Sluijs Quartet / Somewhere in Between -  Live

Another reissue from the Ben Sluijs Quartet (see also OCD039, ODG086, ODG095 and ODG096) originally released in 2006 on the W.E.R.F. label, Somewhere in Between was recorded live at De Meent and Vooruit, JazzLab Series tour, September-October 2005. 
"A Set of Intervals" is inspired by and dedicated to David Liebman. 

Alto Saxophone, compositions: Ben Sluijs
Double Bass:  Manolo Cabras
Drums: Marek Patrman
Tenor Saxophone: Jeroen Van Herzeele

David Liebman wrote on the 8/11/2006:
'GREAT CD: he whole band--you are burning-the tenor is burning-and the tunes are fantastic -I have to listen again -and it gave me some inspiration for the band I have with Ellery Eskelin-same instrumentation.'

Originally released as W.E.R.F. 056.

Digital release on the 3rdd of May 2019.

Track listing:

Schooled Mind:

1: Schooled Mind part.1

2: Schooled Mind part.2

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3: Whistling

4:Earth

5: Somewhere in Between

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A Set of Intervals:

6: Wide

7: Perfect

8: Close

And on Bandcamp: