Northern Spy Records

Jan 30 2020

Best of 2019 #20: Maurice Louca – “Elephantine”

 

Sometimes putting words to things drains them of their magic.  Laboriously describing every detail of a kaleidoscopic display will never impart the beauty of its unfolding and rejoin.  A vivid dream of whole new mythological lands is likely to lose some of its majesty when the dream is scribbled down upon waking.  The dwindling glow of a sunset on gently rippled waves is only useful as a written device if the imagination of the person reading the words amplifies it sufficiently.  Maurice Louca’s 2019 release Elephantine falls into this category.  The guitarist’s heady mix of cosmic jazz, Egyptian, African, and Yemeni musics, modal and psychedelic jazz is magical, dreamlike, majestic, and imaginative, and it sounds like nothing else that came out in 2019.  Words just won’t do it justice, however.  Clarity is gained from within the experience.

Your album personnel:  Maurice Louca (guitar, piano), Tommaso Cappellato (drums, percussions), Ozun Usta (drums, percussions), Elsa Bergman (bass), Pasquale Mirra (vibraphone), Piero Bittolo Bon (baritone & alto saxophones, bass flute), Anna Högberg (alto sax), Rasmus Kjærgård Lund (tuba), Isak Hedtjärn (clarinet, bass clarinet), Nadah El Shazly (vocals), Natik Awayez (oud), and Ayman Asfour (violin).

Released on Northern Spy Records.

Music from Cairo, Egypt.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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Jan 28 2020

Best of 2019 #29: Nate Wooley – “Columbia Icefield”

 

The idea of being one with nature has an ubiquitous presence in society, ranging from philosophical reveries by sharp thinkers to superficial representations in pop culture.  But it is often expressed as some idealistic state of being, a plateau of achievement reflecting a rightness in the way of life.  It almost always overlooks the reality that nature is fearsome, and that it can kill, and it does so with a perspective entirely alien to collective society’s norms and systems.  Nature is as imposing and dangerous as it is majestic.  It is as alien as it is symbiotic.  On his February 2019 release, Nate Wooley captures these conflicting dimensions of our relationship with nature through his own contemplation on his relationship with the Columbia Icefield.  And with the help of guitarist Mary Halvorson, pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, and drummer Ryan Sawyer, the trumpeter has released one of the more compelling, epic works of 2019.

Your album personnel:  Nate Wooley (trumpet), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Susan Alcorn (pedal steel), and Ryan Sawyer (drums).

Released on Northern Spy Records.

Music from Brooklyn, NY.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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