Accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier has long been a creative presence on ECM recordings, heard with the groups of Anouar Brahem (on Le pas du chat noir and Le voyage de Sahar), Louis Sclavis (Dans la nuit) and François Couturier (Nostalghia, Tarkovsky Quartet), as well as in duo with Marco Ambrosini (Inventio). Now comes the first documentation of a new endeavour, with guitarist Kevin Seddiki, whose far-reaching musical imagination matches Matinier’s own. Sedikki, who makes his ECM debut here, studied classical guitar with Pablo Márquez and has also worked with many improvisers across the idioms, from jazz to transcultural projects. The range of music addressed on Rivages runs from the traditional “Greensleeves” to Gabriel Fauré’s “Les Berceaux” to compositions and improvisations by both of the protagonists. Rivages was recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo Studio in April 2018, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

DEVA, the new release from Deva Premal, is a calling – beyond the chattering mind, the heaviness of the heart and the numerous distractions of life, into a place of refuge and conscious relaxation.

"Jon Hassell’s 1980 album Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics, produced alongside Brian Eno, is perhaps the most common entry point in the trumpeter’s catalog, arriving during the latter’s ascendance as a pop theorist and alchemist. But Hassell’s 1977 debut contains many of the same ideas in a more muted and subtle form. Inspired by raga music, particularly the work of the vocalist Pandit Pran Nath, Hassell processes his trumpet sound and focuses on notes that change in tiny increments, giving his melodies a slippery quality where you’re never quite sure where they are coming from or where they might go next. The background is filled with quiet twitches of rattles and bells, gurgling talking drum, and snippets of bird songs, creating a bed of sound that is hard to pin down but easy to absorb as a whole. Sources stretch in all directions, from the “Shhh/Peaceful” jazz of Miles Davis to Indian classical music to twinkling New Age, but the music’s refusal to be any one thing makes each listen feel like the first one." - Mark Richardson

The Rough Guide to the Music of Kenya and Tanzania is a world music compilation album originally released in 1996. Part of the World Music Network Rough Guides series, it focuses on the music of Kenya and Tanzania, two countries which share Swahili as a common language. The release was compiled by Phil Stanton, co-founder of the World Music Network. Artwork was designed by Impetus.

From the guitar artistry of jazz-fusion legend John McLaughlin to Skandi-jazz innovators the Karl Strømme Quintet, this Rough Guide showcases some of today’s pioneering artists who share the same goal of pushing the boundaries of jazz with truly remarkable results.

From the avant-garde folk/jazz of Poland’s Chłopcy Kontra Basia to Serbia’s ‘King of Apocalyptical Cabaret’ Boris Kovač, the music of Eastern Europe is as diverse as the geography it represents. This Rough Guide showcases today’s artists who preserve valuable traditions whilst enabling the music to evolve in new and unexpected ways.

“I want it to feel like the past, the present and the future, all at the same time” Erlend Apneseth. Hardanger-fiddler, composer and bandleader Erlend Apneseth follows up the acclaimed 2019 Hubro release, ‘Salika, Molika’ – a game-changing folk-meets-experimental-sound project where Apneseth’s regular trio was augmented by the addition of star accordionist Frode Haltli – with the richly collaborative ‘Fragmentarium.

Axel Manrico Heilhecker is the essential component of Sunya Beat. The German multi-instrumentalist is accompanied by the Gambian Samson Gassama. The latter is a world famous specialist in African drums and percussions from Boogaraboo. Recorded in 1999, "Wandyah" reveals ethnic influences from one, and flamenco inclinations from the other. Music of album is soft African influenced new age.

Artists’ greatest inspiration often comes from sources that once surrounded them in their native communities. Pianist Lucian Ban, violist Mat Maneri and woodwind master John Surman come from different backgrounds but are connected by their focus on improvised music along with their appreciation of folkloric and classical styles.

Cadiz-based sextet, La Banda Morisca merge oriental and occidental influences, exploring the heritage of al-Andalus and the southern Mediterranean, inspired by Mahgrebi chaabi, the flamenco of Sevilla and Andalucian rock.

The project was formed in early 2016, leading to their debut album later that year Wisdom of Elders; a document of sessions combining Hutchings with a group of South African jazz musicians he’d long admired. His connection to the group was Mandla Mlangeni (bandleader of the Amandla Freedom Ensemble), whom he’d flown there to play with over the past few years. We Are Sent Here by History is a meditation on the fact of our coming extinction as a species. It is a reflection from the ruins, from the burning. A questioning of the steps to be taken in preparation for our transition individually and societally if the end is to be seen as anything but a tragic defeat. For those lives lost and cultures dismantled by centuries of western expansionism, capitalist thought and white supremist structural hegemony the end days have long been heralded as present with this world experienced as an embodiment of a living purgatory.

Robbie Basho was one of the big three American acoustic guitar innovators, John Fahey and Leo Kottke being the other two. Basho was the least commercially successful of the three, but his influence and reputation has steadily grown since his untimely death in 1986 at the age of 45. And with good reason; for Basho's deeply spiritual approach, intellectual rigor, and formal explorations (among his goals was the creation of a raga system for American music), present a deeply compelling, multi-faceted artist. Basho was actually a college friend of John Fahey, and his early recordings (like Kottke's) were for Fahey's Takoma label. Following Fahey 's move to Vanguard, Basho followed suit, and released Voice of the Eagle and Zarthus for the label in 1972 and 1974, respectively (his most commercially successful records were made for the Windham Hill label later in the decade)./quote]

Aural Float compiled the soundtracks for the german cult TV-series "Space Night", that has been broadcasted every night at TV-station BR.
The Orb, David Sylvian, Brian Eno & David Byrne, The Future Sound Of London, Anthony Rother, Move D. & Pete Namlook, Sounds From The Ground, Lemongrass, Jens Buchert and many more.
With it`s futuristic visuals Space Night pretty soon reached "cult status" among the young night watchers. A futuristic show that accompanied the afterwork and afterparty life of young people and electronic music fans. Coming home from the club at night and chilling to the sounds of the cult show, Aural Float created a bridge to chill out and come down. Space Night had certainly left its marks to a whole generation of electronic music enthusiasts.