Xango Music local music from all over the world Office: Singelstraat 1, 3513 BL Utrecht, NL www.xmd.nl - [email protected] - +31 6 50 999 123 Warehouse: Berenkoog 53 C, 1822 BN, Alkmaar (NL) e: [email protected] t: +31 (0)72 - 567 3030 NEW RELEASES NR. 4 – 2016 Available 4 March: Aziza Brahim: Abbar el Hamada GBCD 31 / € 10,95 / 4030433603123 / label: Glitterbeat / format: CD / Western Sahara – Popular Aziza Brahim: Abbar el Hamada GBLP 31 / € 13,95 / 4030433603116 / label: Glitterbeat / format: LP / Western Sahara - Popular Western Saharan musician/activist Aziza Brahim’s new album Abbar el Hamada (Across the Hamada), is a commanding and compassionate musical statement about, and for, the tumultuous age in which we live. Raised in a Saharawi refugee camp in the Algerian desert, and living in exile for more than two decades (first in Cuba and currently in Barcelona), Brahim’s life and music embodies both the tragedies and hopes of the present-day migrant and refugee experience. Recorded with Soutak producer Chris Eckman (Bassekou Kouyate, Tamikrest), Abbar el Hamada, is a wholly persuasive example of Brahim’s pan- musical vision and is her most compelling and varied album to date. Listen to a track. Ferhat Tunc: Kobani FXCD 417 / € 12,45 / 7041889641727 / label: Kirkelig Kulturverksted / format: CD / Turkey/Kurdistan - Traditional Ferhat Tunc is a Kurdish singer with a deep concern for all the people living in and around Turkey. In this project he shows solidarity with Kurds, Alevis, Yazidies and Armenians, by writing and performing songs about their stories, their suffering and pain, their hopes and richness they bring to Anatolia and Mesopotamia. The title of the album, ‘Kobani’, has a message about how important it is to defend the precious and often threatened liberty, traditions and culture in the whole area. One of the tracks ia duet between Tunc and famous Sami artist Mari Boine. Her contribution has a symbolic meaning, because she represents a minority in the Scandinavian countries with a history similar to the Kurds in Anatolia. Ferhat himself is paying the price of opposing by standing strong with his music and the stories he keeps alive, singing in Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian languages. This album is a strong inspiration for freedom seekers in and around Turkey. Check out this impressive album teaser. Utz: Todo Mundo e Feio NAFF 10 / € 10,75 / 54199991058584 / label: Naff Rekordz / format: CD / Belgium/Brazil – Jazz/Popular Singer/songwriter Renato Baccarat, the man behind UTZ, is native from Sao Paolo where he spent the early musical years of his life. At the age of nine his family settles in Europe, where Renato grew strongly connected to the Brazilian culture. This results in a bittersweet mix of musical ingredients: a solar sound tinged with influences from Tom Zé, Jeff Buckley, Rodrigo Amarante to The Pixies. ‘Todo Mundo e Feio’ translates as ‘everyone is ugly’. Don’t take it personally, see it as an invitation to break the ice and connect to one another. With a very entertaining video clip. Katerina Tsiridou: Aman Katerina – A Tribute to Panayiotis Toundas PR 11732 / € 8,95 / 5204049117322 / label: Protasis / format: CD / Greece – Rebetika Katerina Tsiridou, frontlady of the Greek rebetika-ensemble Kompania, releases her tribute to Panayiotis Toundas. Toundas, born in 1886 in Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey) was both a musician and artistic director of many world famous labels: the German Odeon in the 1920s, and Columbia and His Master’s Voice in the 1930s. He was the first composer of popular music whose name gets printed on a record label, making his work of 350 songs a valuable source for musicians until nowadays. Tsiridou records this classic repertoire with her classical and earthy voice, with an old-fashioned sound. Listen to a track. Joel Sebunjo: I Speak Luganda MCM 4020 / € 10,50 / 8712618001479 / label: Multicultural Media / format: CD / Uganda – Popular Joel Sebunjo is a rising African star, a multi-instrumentalist, specializing in kora and endongo (lyre of the Baganda people of Uganda), singer/songwriter and musical interpreter of Ugandan and other African traditions. He easily blends the foundations of African and Ugandan music with jazz, funk, rhythm&blues and other modern musical influences and rhythms. Check out one of the tracks. Xango Music Distribution Release #4 – 2016 Pagina | 1 Walther: Landsbydreng GO 1415 / € 11,50 / 5705934003008 / label: Go Danish / format: CD / Denmark - Folk Walther is a Danish guy not fit for the city, as he calls it. So after a while in Copenhagen, he returns to his village, making folk music from the heart. Vocals and guitar on his account, other accompaniments such as organ, piano, melodica by Ronni Hauptmann. Get the feeling of listening to an old-fashioned troubadour who has incorporated a great deal of Americana in his songs. Listen to a song. Denécheau Jase Musette: Amour Java BUDA 4769239 / € 10,95 / 0602547692399 / label: Buda / format: CD / France - Musette Musette is a typically Parisian form of music but its influences are diverse. That’s why Denecheau Jase Musette include musicians from Auvergne, Italy, Spain, and even from America as the Americans brought the jose (drums), banjo and foxtrot to Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. Created in 1994, the Denecheau Jase Musette is unique in playing the earliest musette repertoire with original or replica instruments: dual accordion, jase (predecessor of the drum kit), bigophone, cabrette or musette (Auvergne bagpipes). Expert foragers at garage sales, the ensemble built its repertoire by gathering yellowed sheet music or by listening to 78 rpm records. Get melancholic by this song. Jesus Castilla: La Voz de mi Alma FDLI 3 / € 9,95 / 8435383617064 / label: Flamenco de la Isla / format: CD / Spain – Flamenco Modern interpreter of traditional flamenco, Castilla astonishes with his bulerias, soleas, tangos, sequiriyas, and more. Castilla grew up listening to the music of Camaron, Pansequito and Juanito Villar. Although he started singing at a young age, the economic crisis gave him the last nod to give up his job as a construction worker and dedicate his life to his passion: the flamenco. Receiving many awards in his home country, this is a singer to pay attention to! Watch the video clip. Cinem4tik: Night Session BUDA 860285 / € 10,95 / 3341348602851 / label: Buda / format: CD / France - soundtracks This disc was born from a passion for film music of sixties to eighties. Themes like Blade Runner, Charade, Basic Instinct, Das Boot are performed by Cinem4tik: David Menke on alto sax, flute, synths and voice, Guillaume Bongiraud on cello, percussions and voice, Francois Motty on piano and organ, and Julien Bourdin as sound engineer. Especially Bourdin is a valuable addition to the band as the dialogues from the movies are very beautifully intertwined with the music. Listen to the album on Soundcloud. Elias Nardi Group: Flowers of Fragility VM 3010 / € 9,95 / 8012957991234 / label: Visage Music / format: CD / Italy – Jazz This work is inspired by the idea and the art of Belgian contemporary painter Pol Bonduelle, who introduced this Italian band to the horrors of the First World War in West-Flanders. “Flowers of Fragility” became a dedication to the souls of the very young soldiers from any corner of the world who had lost their childhood before losing their own lives. The ‘flowers’ are evoked by Elias Nardi on oud, Nazanin Piri-Niri on flute, Daniele di Bonaventura on bandoneon, Didier Francois on viola d’amore a chiavi and Carla la Manna on bass. Listen to some tracks. Hélène Labarrière & Hasse Poulsen: Busking INNA 11511 / € 9,95 / 3521383435106 / label: Innacor / format: CD / France – Avant-garde Double bass player Hélène Labarrière and guitarist Hasse Poulsen use free improvisation and association to interpret famous compositions, such as ‘Formidable’ by Stromae, ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ by Lennon&McCartney, ‘Farewell’ by Bob Dylan and many more. Hardly recognizable, but this new interpretations shine a new light on old songs. Check out ‘Formidable’. Erwan Keravec: Vox BUDA 860284 / € 10,95 / 3341348602844 / label: Buda / format: CD / France - Bagpipes Bagpipes and voices with Erwan Keravec: Bagpipes , Donatienne Michel-Dansac: soprano, Vincent Bouchot: baritone and Beñat Achiary: voice. Keravec about this recording: (...) "For this record, as for many concerts, I wanted to work with Beñat Achiary. Beñat is, for me, at the very origin of this idea. His presence also allows me to suggest an improvised form, in parallel to the written form, of the relationship between bagpipes and voice”. Listen to some tracks. Belua: As Good a Time as Any LD 6 / € 9,95 / 0702811531208 / label: Louvana / format: CD / Cyprus – Popular Belua formed a year and a half ago, and after a few live gigs, including performances at Fengaros Festival 2014 and 2015, they went into the studio in the Autumn of 2015. The resulting album called “As Good A Time As Any” contains ten original songs, written by Mikaela Tsangari and Zara Der Arakelian. The album moves around the style of pop-rock, but bearing strong influences from the blues, psychedelic and folk music, which blends with the band’s trademark harmonies between Der Arakelian and Mikaela Tsangari. Their compositions range from complex pieces in οdd time-signatures to simple ballads and acapella songs, but always maintaining a simplicity in the way the songs are arranged not further from the sound from the band’s live performances. Listen to ‘Change’. Xango Music Distribution Release #4 – 2016 Pagina | 2 EXPECTED Expected 1 April: Various: Every Song Has Its End: Sonic Dispatches from Traditional Mali (Hidden Musics 2) GBCD 29 / € 13,95 / 4030433602928 / label: Glitterbeat / format: CD+DVD / Mali – Traditional Various: Every Song Has Its End: Sonic Dispatches from Traditional Mali (Hidden Musics 2) GBLP 29 / € 20,95 / 4030433602911 / label: Glitterbeat / format: 2-LP+DVD / Mali – Traditional Bamako-based producer/educator Paul Chandler has been documenting the sonic and cultural complexities of Malian traditional music for more than a decade and “Every Song Has Its End” is an out-of-time, visceral collection of sounds from Chandler’s unparalleled archive.