Samuel Blaser Quartet - As the Sea - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Samuel Blaser Quartet - Boundless [COMPACT DISCS] Spain - Import date 10/05/2011

For San Holo, everything is personal. Every note is a story and each lyric a memory, a hyper-real exploration of purpose and shared experience. This emotion shines through on San Holo's latest album bb u ok?, on bitbird / Counter Records. Spanning an impressive 20 tracks bb u ok? is San Holo's (real name Sander Van Dijck) most accomplished work to date. Recorded in LA's Echo Park, bb u ok? arrives three years after his critically acclaimed debut album1 which pioneered a post-EDM sound, blurring the lines between festival anthems and lo-fi bedroom ballads. On bb u ok?, San further explores this intersection by mixing more analog instruments and equipment into his genre-bending sound. He fleshes out his band with collaborations, from album1 returnees Bipolar Sunshine and The Nicholas, to long-time heroes of San's including Illinois indie rockers American Football and Rivers Cuomo.

With Tarabesque, his powerful new album, Firas Zreik delivers his boldest and most visionary work to date. Fearlessly placing the kanun-the shimmering Mediterranean harp-at the center of a jazz quartet, a hybrid ensemble, and an Arab Takht ensemble, Zreik reimagines the instrument as both a rhythmic engine and melodic force. He builds a world of Maqam-driven melodies woven through rich harmonic and modal landscapes that feel fresh, organic, and defiantly new.Based in New York City, Zreik is a Palestinian composer and kanunist who recently received Grammy recognition as a songwriter and performer on Residente's award-winning album Las Letras Ya No Importan, and composed The Art of Kanun, a film music album commissioned by Universal Music Production France. He is an official showcase artist at WOMEX 2022, a MacDowell Fellow, and has performed at Lincoln Center, Joe's Pub, and The Jazz Gallery.With Tarabesque, Zreik signals the emergence of a new musical language-merging Tarab, the ecstatic listening state central to Arab musical traditions, with global influences to create a sound timeless, urgent, and entirely his own.