raga – Listen To This

15 Favorite Releases of 2020

In the spirit of the season, I wanted to share my favorite releases of the year. Not exhaustive, just some personal highlights. Happy holidays!

Previously: 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015

	Ali Akbar Khan – Signature Series: Three Ragas, 1990 buy / download
	Angelo Badalamenti – Twin Peaks, 1990 buy / download
	The ARC Gospel Choir – Bound For The Promised Land, 1990 buy / download
	The Art Of Noise – The Ambient Collection, 1990 buy / download
	Cocteau Twins – Heaven or Las Vegas, 1990 buy
	Dead Can Dance – Aion, 1990 buy
	Deee-Lite – World Clique, 1990 buy / download
	Depeche Mode – Violator, 1990 buy
	Mariah Carey – Mariah Carey, 1990 buy
	No Smoke – International Smoke Signal, 1990 buy / download
	Pet Shop Boys – Behaviour, 1990 buy / download
	Pixies – Bossanova, 1990 buy
	Prefab Sprout – Jordan: The Comeback, 1990 buy / download
	Soul II Soul – Vol. II (1990 – A New Decade), 1990 buy / download
	Woo – Into The Heart Of Love, 1990 buy / download

[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 38: Robbie Băsho Special

This month for Getting Warmer on NTS Radio, I made a mix in homage to the great Robbie Băsho, who makes some of my favorite fall listening. I did my best to incorporate both his classics and some of his less known moments, all of which evidence such an incredible range of musicianship and emotion.

Though Băsho’s life was tragically cut short by a freak chiropractic accident, he accomplished so much in his twenty years of making music and left us an impressive catalogue to celebrate. He went to military school, then pre-med. He painted, sang, played trumpet, played lacrosse, lifted weights, wrote poetry, and changed his name to Băsho after the Japanese poet. He went through phases of cultural and musical obsession, including Sufi, Buddhist, Hindu, Japanese, Indian classical, Iranian, Native American, English and Appalachian folk, Western blues, and Western classical “periods.” He “used open C and more exotic tunings and he developed an esoteric doctrine for 12- and 6-string guitar, concerned with color and mood. He spoke of ‘Zen-Buddhist-Cowboy songs’ a long time before Gram Parsons mentioned his vision of Cosmic American music.” He studied under Ali Akbar Khan. He pushed for a broader appreciation of the steel-string guitar as a classical concert instrument. He made 14 studio albums in 19 years. He wrote “a Sufi symphony” and another for piano and orchestra about Spanish and Christian cultures coming to America. He’s considered one of the geniuses of American folk and blues, and yet his name often gets lost in conversations about John Fahey, Leo Kottke, and Sandy Bull.

If you’d like to hear more, you can listen to two of his records here and here. You can download an mp3 of the mix here. Take it for an afternoon walk if you’re able. I hope you enjoy it.

“My philosophy is quite simple: soul first, technique later; or, better to drink wine from the hands than water from a pretty cup. Of course the ultimate is wine from a pretty cup. Amen.”

Tracklist:
1. Robbie Băsho – Redwood Ramble
2. Robbie Băsho – Cathedrals et Fleur de Lis
3. Robbie Băsho – Roses and Snow
4. Robbie Băsho – Twilight Peaks
5. Robbie Băsho – Rocky Mountain Raga
6. Robbie Băsho – Rodeo
7. Robbie Băsho – The White Princess
8. Robbie Băsho – Mehera
9. Robbie Băsho – Variations on Clair de Lune
10. Robbie Băsho – Salangadou
11. Robbie Băsho – Basket Full Of Dragons
12. Robbie Băsho – Sweet Medicine
13. Robbie Băsho – Orphan’s Lament
14. Robbie Băsho – Call on the Wind

Guest Mix: Appel d’Air Vol. 2

Guest post by John Also Bennett (JAB / Seabat / Forma). JAB’s debut solo album Erg Herbe was released on Shelter Press earlier this year.

This mix was compiled as the second volume in my “Appel d’ Air” mix series, the first volume of which is available here. It takes its name from the Michel Redolfi album of the same name. I’m always looking for music that uses flute or wind instruments, open spaces, and environmental sound in tandem, even if these conditions are only met loosely. In this collection I included two pieces of music originally composed as environmental music for video games (“Inside The Deku Tree” from Legend of Zelda and a Resident Evil Save Room theme), both of which were designed to color the atmosphere of a virtual space, and both of which use flute (albeit electronic). Eva-Maria Houben’s “ein schlummer (a slumber)” uses flute and organ and their reverberations inside a large cathedral: the near silences between notes as the reverb tails off are as important as the notes themselves. I also included one of my own compositions, “Chanterai por mon coraige,” recorded in a decrepit mill in the French countryside, pictured above. Like many of the pieces included on this mix, the sound of the space in which the piece was recorded plays a role in the composition; in this case evening crickets and the churning of a nearby creek. You can download an mp3 version here.

Tracklist:

1. Daniel Kobialka – Organic Eternity (Excerpt)

2. Koji Kondo – Inside The Deku Tree (Legend of Zelda – Ocarina Of Time)

3. Mary Jane Leach – Downland’s Tears (Excerpt)

4. Vijay Raghav Rao – Raga Malkauns – Alap and Gat n Jhaptal

5. Jim Fassett – Symphony Of The Birds (Third Movement)

6. Eva-Maria Houben – ein schlummer (a slumber)

7. Steve Roach – Spectre

8. Mamoru Samuragochi – Resident Evil – Save Room (2002 Remake)

9. Harold Budd with Jon Gibson – How Vacantly You Stare At Me

10. Che Chen & Robbie Lee – This Was The Only Place That Was Green

11. JAB – Chanterai por mon coraige

12. Jefre-Cantu Ledesma – Joy

Pandit Ram Narayan – L’Inde Du Nord: L’art Du Sarangi, 1971

Another favorite from the Ocora catalogue. Pandit Ram Narayan was the first internationally successful sarangi player, credited as responsible for the introduction of the sarangi as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music. He’s also responsible for developing simplified sarangi fingering techniques, and elements of his tone and inflection have been widely mimicked and adapted by subsequent generations of sarangi players. There’s lengthier information about the ways in which he pushed the boundaries of both the instrument and the genre here.

The short version of the story is that this record is incredibly beautiful, and serves as a plain reminder of why the sarangi was traditionally treated as a filler instrument during solo vocal performances, meant to imitate the vocals. Ram Narayan’s sarangi is so expressive that it feels human: crying, lilting, taking melismatic nosedives and acrobatic leaps. It’s piercing but never shrill. It’s something you should hear before you die.

Note: I spent awhile wavering between sharing the original recording, which has some room tone, vinyl pops, and a sound that is both richer and muddier; and the remastered version, which is cleaned up and has a sound that is clearer but thinner. I settled on the original, but if anyone feels strongly about hearing the remastered version (which includes an additional râga), let me know and I’ll post it.

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Robbie Băsho – Bonn Ist Supreme, 1980

Hard to know where to begin with Robbie Băsho, as he did so much in his twenty years of making music before his life was cut short by a freak chiropractic accident. He went to military school, then pre-med. He painted, sang, played trumpet, played lacrosse, lifted weights, wrote poetry, and changed his name to Băsho after the Japanese poet. He went through phases of cultural and musical obsession, including Sufi, Buddhist, Hindu, Japanese, Indian classical, Iranian, Native American, English and Appalachian folk, Western blues, and Western classical “periods.” He “used open C and more exotic tunings and he developed an esoteric doctrine for 12- and 6-string guitar, concerned with color and mood. He spoke of ‘Zen-Buddhist-Cowboy songs’ a long time before Gram Parsons mentioned his vision of Cosmic American music.” He studied under Ali Akbar Khan. He pushed for a broader appreciation of the steel-string guitar as a classical concert instrument. He made 14 studio albums in 19 years. He wrote “a Sufi symphony” and another for piano and orchestra about Spanish and Christian cultures coming to America. He’s considered one of the geniuses of American folk and blues, and yet his name often gets lost in conversations about John Fahey, Leo Kottke, and Sandy Bull.

Although several of his studio recordings are among my favorite albums, I wanted to share this live recording because (unsurprisingly) there’s a specific rawness to it that I love. The master files have been lost, so this is a cleaned up version of a second generation tape, and it shows. Băsho lets himself pick up speed at the expense of precision, often bordering on sloppy, and he sings unabashedly in a voice that many have snickered about but that gives me chills. It’s terribly intimate, and the audience is all but inaudible excepting polite bits of applause. You hear Băsho talk a bit about his guitar tunings, about his 115 year old instrument, and banter a little in bad German. More importantly, Bonn Ist Supreme gives an overview of his dizzying range, incorporating his signature guitar raga style, American spirituals, a reworking of Debussy, blues, themes from Wagner’s Parsifal, and Celtic folk melodies. Sprawling and trancelike.

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Sivakumar Sarma – Santur: Inde Du Nord, 197-

Perfection. Pandit Sivakumar Sarma (also Shivkumar Sharma) was the first musician to play Indian classical music on the santur (a hammered dulcimer traditionally used as a folk instrument). Sarma has had a hugely prolific career and has worked with the most legendary classical musicians, but I have yet to hear very much of his catalog because I can’t tear myself away from this. Achingly beautiful work from the master of the instrument.

Note: Nobody seems to know exactly when this record was released, but based on a few hints I would guess mid-70s. This never made it to CD and to the best of my knowledge, has never been reissued (cough).

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