Le Groupe Toro Begle
Le Vaudou Haitien

Vis-A-Vis released a hugely impressive 13 albums between 1975 and 1982. Both talented studio artists and live musicians, the band was led by vocalist Isaac "Superstar" Yeboah with Sammy Cropper on guitar, Slim Manu on bass and Gybson "Shaolin Kung-Fu" Papra on drums. The We Are Busy Bodies label is in the process of rolling out reissues of plenty of those records and this is one fo the best . A real listening joy, it brings with afro grooves and noodling jazz melodies, richly textured organ and bass work that all help take you to warmer, earthier climes in an instant.

French folk experimentalist Ernest Bergez has spent several years bringing his signature, singular sound to life in solo mode. At the same time, and despite this individualist streak, he’s a musician with a deep appreciation for communal exchange and collaboration. It’s with this in mind that L’herbe de détourne, Bergez’s latest album, sees him expand his most prominent project Sourdure from a one-man band into a four-person force, and modify the name. Say hello to Sourdurent…Bergez first released music as Sourdure in 2015, a few years after diving deep into the music and culture which has most influenced the project: traditional folk from the Auvergne region of France, sung in the Occitan language. While touring his last album De Mòrt Viva, he was joined live by Jacques Puech and Élisa Trébouville and then Loup Uberto to expense to Sourdurent. In the spirit of the tavern-backroom folk session L’herbe de détourne often resembles, the vocal harmonies or extra percussion you hear is a group effort.Bergez’s own lyrics are more polemical, addressing topics including patriarchy, autonomy, spirituality and the need to rebuild community. Metaphor and allegory abound; Chamin ne vòl pas spins a yarn that resembles a folk tale of centuries past. By choosing to deliver these thoughts and narratives in Occitan – an unstandardised, pan-European language whose very survival has been in the balance for decades – Sourdurent make a statement as important as any sentiment in the songs themselves.Occitan is part of France’s culture, not just in a historical sense but here in 2023. And if only a fraction of Sourdurent’s audience can understand the words, the band are staunch in their belief that their delivery can topple language barriers – Bergez bases this on live performances outside the Occitan region, indeed outside France itself. As for L’herbe de détourne, the Sourdurent founder hopes the album can play a part in directing curious listeners to traditional music in this language. It’s a release of enough stature to do that – and to be seen as one of the definitive folk recordings of the modern era.

'Headsoup' Is A New Compilation That Deepens The Legend Of Mysterious Swedish Psych Collective Goat Even Further. Collecting Rarities From Across Band's Celebrated Career, Including Standalone Singles, B-Sides, Digital Edits And Two Enormous Brand New Tracks, It's A Globetrotting Acid Trip Of A Record That's Even Bigger In Its Scope Than Their Acclaimed Studio Lps.From The Incendiary Heavy Psych Of Their Earliest Work, Like Debut B-Side 'The Sun And Moon', To The Serene 'Requiem'-Era Alternate Take 'Union Of Mind And Soul', To The Simmering Menace Of Their Latest Material, It's A Record As Multifaceted As Goat Themselves, Packed With Detours In Every Conceivable Direction.Taking In Jazz-Flute Solos, Pounding Afrobeat Rhythms, Ferocious Desert Blues, Drifting Ethio-Jazz, This Is, As The Name Of Goat's First Album Made Clear, 'World Music' In Its Most Complete Form, A Sound Unrestrained By Genre Boundaries. Yet The Band Are Anything But Lazy Appropriators. They Approach Their Forebears With Upmost Reverence, Articulating A Celebratory Cultural Cross-Pollination. And What About These Two New Tracks? 'Fill My Mouth' Is A Scuzzy Psychedelic Funk Knockout, The Sleaziest Thing The Band Have Ever Recorded. 'Queen Of The Underground', Meanwhile, Is Truly Herculean, A Swaggering Psychedelic Powerhouse Of The Very Highest Order.Sometimes Dark And Heavy, At Others Joyous And Beautiful, Like Goat Themselves 'Headsoup' Is Mysterious, And Constantly Shapeshifting, Difficult To Properly Pin Down But Constantly Enthralling. Almost A Decade Since They First Emerged From The Depths Of Scandinavia, There Is Still No Other Band On Earth That Sounds Quite Like Them. Comes In Cyan Blue Vinyl With 7"Single!

Formidable travail réalisé par le globe-trotter Miles Cleret alias Mr Soundway Records. Un territoire atypique, encore peu “exploité musicalement” par ce type de label, une compilation de morceaux très rares, des recherches ethnographiques développées dans un livret de 8 pages, un vinyle 7 pouces en bonus, un très bel artwork… Tous les critères d’une excellente compilation semblent être réunis sur ce nouveau projet de Soundway. Padang Moonrise est l'histoire de la musique indonésienne moderne qui a émergé sous les volcans de Java, l'île la plus peuplée de l’archipel. Plus de 17 000 îles et 1 300 groupes ethniques distincts, sa capitale, Jakarta, était le centre de la plupart de l'identité nationale postcoloniale, de la politique, de l'administration et de la production musicale. Les chansons traditionnelles de Java, Sumatra, Bali et au-delà ont été réinventées par un petit groupe de musiciens parrainés par l'État qui ont également composé et arrangé de nouvelles musiques. Ces chansons visaient à consolider un pays géographiquement disparate avec une nouvelle langue et de nouvelles idées du caractère national. Cette compilation rassemble une poignée de ces enregistrements qui combinent des éléments de musique populaire régionale, Gambus islamique, Gamelan et Kroncong javanais et balinais, avec du jazz, de la musique et de l'instrumentation afro-latine, et des harmonies vocales influencées par le doo-wop américain interdit et le rock & roll. Les résultats sont un mélange unique de styles qui sont restés pour la plupart isolés du monde extérieur à l'Indonésie jusqu'à ce qu'une récente résurgence mondiale de l'intérêt pour la musique enregistrée de toutes formes ait jeté un nouvel éclairage sur ces enregistrements presque oubliés.

Nyssa Musique - Comme au MoulinAfter NEF's album in 2019, Ici Bientôt is happy to present today the reissue of "Comme Au Moulin" by Nyssa Musique. Paris 1985... ‘Extra-European’ Traditions meet Jazz and Minimal Music. An unusual array of instruments turn music into a dialogue. For a unique record ... vivid, full of texture, somewhere between Midori Takada, Don Cherry and Jon Hassell.Beginning of the eighties, 5 musicians rehearse in a contemporary dance class hall, upstairs from the ‘’New Morning", renowned Music venue in Paris. Nyssa Musique is born. Passionate for a long time about traditional music, like those of the Middle East, India and East Asia, but also about African traditions, they throw a bridge between Jazz and ‘Extra-European’ traditions, resulting in what would be called "Spiritual Jazz" today, a little bit in the style of Don Cherry's Organic Music or Pharoah Sanders. With the notable difference, however, that their creations are strongly infused by contemporary classical and repetitive music, notably Steve Reich's work with whom they share a great interest for the traditional cultures of Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and its gamelans.In the original group we have Armand Amar, Ballet Music composer and John Boswell. Both specialists of traditional hand percussion which they had been studying for a long time in India and the Middle East, they are also very fond of synthesizers. Three other talented musicians quickly join them: Jean-François Roger, percussionist, marimba and vibraphone specialist, Henri Tournier, multi-flutist and Renaud Garcia-Fons, double bass player, who has a passion for the Middle East and has developed a virtuosic play of the bow, reminding that of Cecil Mc Bee.Each of them enriches the ensemble with their personality, originality and musical generosity. The rehearsal hall is rapidly invaded by the phenomenal instrumentarium put together by Armand Amar. A great opportunity for the musicians, for the dancers, to have access to an endless choice of instruments, offering infinite possibilities for mixing different colors and timbres. Their sense for being a group and their great capacity for improvising culminates, in 1986, in the composition of their first and only album Comme au Moulin (« As by the windmill"), testimony of years of creating without hidden agenda.Authentic, free and vibrant, still today, this album has no real equivalent. Even though it recalls the Fourth World current by its combination of traditional instruments with a subtle use of synthesizers, Comme au moulin gives more space to improvisation. It may also recall those of Midori Takada, less the New Age esthetics. An album that should delight as well lovers of "Love Supreme" by John Coltrane, of "Vernal Equinox" by Jon Hassell, as those of Moondog, an artist who, like them, invented a music based on the use of untypical percussions, at the confluence of 'Extra-European' traditions, Jazz and Classical, all together complex and hypnotic.