Les Bantous De La Capitale
Marie Jeanne

The latest offering from 12th Isle collects a variety of recordings from Vasily Stepanov and Vlad Dobrovolski as part of their on-going S A D project (Udacha/Muscut). As part of their process, S A D sample and distort old de-magnetised tapes, constantly adding to and reworking their own sound-world. Layers of kosmiche synthesisers, off-kilter woodblock percussion and lysergic field recordings interplay with dense ambient textures in a true collage-style approach to music making. Across the nine tracks, multiple collaborations and aliases coalesce to present a thorough look at both artists approach to communicating the world around them. Drawing influence from nature and the outdoor concerts of Vladislav’s band Kurvenschreiber as well as late night free jazz shows and a similar ‘hauntological’ approach seen in Dobrovolski’s recent ‘Playbacks for Dreaming’, the pair express a unique genre-traversing attitude. More from the 12th Isle due very soon!

Aziz' Inanga - M' Ayi Popular music of Congo

Matir Gaan is a collaboration between young Bengali migrant, Mohammed After Hussain and Italian electronic artist, Andrea Rusconi (aka Paq). The resulting album delightfully combines the ancient folk songs of Md After's homeland with Paq's cosmic synth exotica.Mohammed After Hussain escaped Bangladesh in 2015 and arrived in Italy in 2017 after a long and dangerous journey across the Mediterranean from the violence he found in Libya. In Italy he found safety and hospitality as an asylum seeker in Rimini's Associazione Ardea, where Andrea is involved with 'Ardea Recordings' - a project aiming to create an archive of songs, stories and sounds by some of the people who spent some time with Ardea's refugee programme.Md After was invited to sing and play the folk and village songs he knew on the harmonium and pakhawaj (two headed drum) while Andrea immersed himself in the songs providing a bed of warm Crumar synth and Veena drones to create a finished album of totally uniquela renditions of the mystic Baul folk songs known so well by people across the Bangla speaking regions of India.The Bauls are a famous group of wandering minstrels from the region of Bengal whose culture is derived from the teachings of the early Sufi mystics and Hindu Fakhirs. The Baul devotees are considered to be mad, or possessed, with the love of God. While transcending religion the Baul compositions celebrate celestial and earthly love and expound the key philosophy of “Deha tatta” or truth in the body, epitomised by the aphorism “whatever is in the universe is in the body”. They reach for divinity here in this world and they seek to access it through music and dance. They seek spirituality in the music, they live fo r the music, wandering from village to village offering ecstatic sound waves in exchange for sustenance. Their presence remains an important part of village life in Bangladesh, and this is why Md After knows the songs despite the fact he would not consider himself part of the Baul ascetic tradition.We hope you'll enjoy this wonderfully psychedelic album, with its unique interpretations of these ancient mystic songs from the earth.Comes with a printed inner sleeve featuring sleeve notes and lyric translations by Brian P. Heilman

Bandé-Gamboa is a project made up of two All-Star bands, created to reinterpret extremely rare or unreleased tracks from Guiné-Bissau and Cabo Verde, a project explicitly dedicated to the living memory of Amílcar Cabral, the intellectual force and strategist behind the independence of both countries, whose dream was to have them forever united.The project was created by Executive Producer/DJ/Digger Francisco “Fininho” Sousa and produced by Guts, with the aim of bringing to light musical compositions that either never had success despite their potential, or were never released at all. The band comprises of only outstanding musicians from both Guiné-Bissau and Cabo Verde, mixing older and younger generations. The tracks from Cabo Verde focus mainly on stretching the possibilities of musical languages within Funaná, and the tracks from Guiné-Bissau are a modern take on traditional rhythm Gumbé, rarely seen in stages worldwide. The album “Horizonte - Revamping Rare Gems From Guiné-Bissau and Cabo Verde” is in-between a compilation and a band recording, joining the knowledge of decade-long research on the music of both countries with the talent and creativity of world-class musicians.