Tribute To @Brighternow: Great Albums That He Introduced Us To

peterfrederics

Following the many posts mentioning @Brighternow, I did a search and was amazed to see how many outstanding albums I have experienced solely as a result of his recommendations

I thought that a great way to honour and remember him would be for us to show these albums under a new Discussion topic dedicated to him.

I would like to start things off with one of my favourite artists that I would never have come across if it wasn't for @Brighternow.

"Sousoume Tamachek" by Mdou Moctar

I now have four of Mdou Moctar's albums and my personal favourite is "Ilana: The Creator".

I see that @rostasi and @Bad Thoughts are also fans.

AMG says "A Tuareg singer/songwriter and guitarist known for his innovative and intense playing style, Mdou Moctar rose from a small village in Niger to earn viral success among West Africa's cell phone-trading network.... Moctar had little to no exposure to Western rock music, although his fiery playing style and the fact that he performs left-handed on a Fender Stratocaster has often led to comparisons with Jimi Hendrix."

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mdou-moctar-mn0002840753/biography

https://mdoumoctar.bandcamp.com

Lowlife

Indeed was introduced to the Sahel Sounds label my him, so much great music uncovered

Germanprof

Memory and a certain logic tells me that it was Brighternow who introduced me to Nicolas Bernier, though I can't quite find the smoking gun (there are a lot of posts with broken emusic links once the search gets back a decade or so). I've been collecting Bernier's releases since at least this one (I think still my favorite), often prompted by Brighternow (and occasionally vice versa):

Courant.air

peterfrederics

1960s Swedish group Hansson and Karlsson. Through @Brighternow's recommendation back in early 2018, I downloaded their album “For People In Love” from eMusic.

@Brighternow said at the time "Swedish late 1960s instrumental jazzrock / psychedelia duo, they licensed the track Tax Free to Jimi Hendrix."

AMG says "playing together in the '60s, they were among the most important Swedish progressive bands, and possibly the band reaching the most fame abroad in the '60s".

Bo Hansson ended up being the composer of the progressive fantasy album "Lord of the Rings".

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hansson-karlsson-mn0001561484

 

And here's the excellent 11 minute live track that @Brighternow brought to our attention in the same post.

jonahpwll

I'm with Germanprof as far as struggling to piece together who originally recommended me certain music, but there is one in particular that came to mind.  Brighternow was the one who posted about Chris Schlarb's "Twilight & Ghost Stories."

https://emusers.net/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/1090#Item_5

That album is still one of the most powerful things I've heard, though some of that has a lot to do with my own personal associations to the music and those assumptions we make about the musicians and the events surrounding a certain piece of art- personalizing it in a way that mirrors something about us and what we've been through.  But even without that context, it's an album that I adore beyond measure.

And that led to Schlarb's inaugural Psychic Temple recording, which is one of my desert island albums, right up there with Frisell, Bowie, Coltrane, and Monk.

I've been lucky to catch Schlarb perform in a few different cities, and I've enjoyed much of the music that's followed.  I interviewed him for my site back in the day.

But it's difficult to put to words how much richer my life has been for this music.  This is the kind of positive impact we can have on others, with doing nothing more than the fond ritual of searching through music and casually telling others about it.

Twilight & Ghost Stories on BC:  https://schlarb.bandcamp.com/album/twilight-ghost-stories

Psychic Temple on BC:  https://schlarb.bandcamp.com/album/psychic-temple

Germanprof

@jonahpwll this is also a good examples of how things swirl here - if I had to guess where I learned about Psychic Temple I would have guessed from you.

peterfrederics

The Young Flowers first album "Blomsterpistolen".

Blomsterpistolen 1968

Young Flowers was:

Peter Ingemann - bass, vocals 

Ken Gudman - drums

Peer Frost - guitar

Niels Skousen - guitar, vocals 

Steen Claesson - violin, guitar

@Brighternow introduced me to the rich vein of late 1960s and early 1970s Scandinavian Psychedelic and Progressive Rock. The Young Flowers was one of the first examples. Try "April '68" to my mind the best track on this album.

AMG says "Often cited as one of the first genuine psychedelic rock bands to emerge in Denmark during the 1960s, Young Flowers were a blues-based power trio whose music was heavily influenced by Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience".

djh

@Brighternow 's last post on the New & Notable thread. He'd spotted the album within a couple of weeks of the release date which was typical of him.

peterfrederics

Another bit of strange, obscure but excellent Danish Prog Rock that @Brighternow introduced me to was Culpeper's Orchard s/t 1971 album.

AMG says "A Danish group formed by a Brit this debut by the band is a potpourri of Hard Rock with Prog and Folk elements tacked in the mix."

https://www.allmusic.com/album/culpepers-orchard-mw0000841420

ProgArchives says about this album "The debut was particularly successful both commercially and artistically, a very entertaining and professional effort, somewhere stuck between ZEPPELIN, TULL and BEATLES." 

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=7929

confused

Well, I couldn't begin to say how many albums @Brighternow introduced me to but one of artists were The Legendary Pink Dots. I really wasn't that keen on first listen but they certainly grew on me. I never got a chance to thank him for the heads up for these.
 
 
They also include Edward Ka-Spel's Songs of Solitude - one of Ib's final posts.
See Emusers Exclusive Legendary Pink Dots And Related Thread

djh

^^^ Thumbs up for the LPD reminder^^^  @confused

peterfrederics

"Archivos Inéditos Redux" a 2007 Heavy/Stoner/Psychedelicic Rock album by La Orquesta de Animales an obscure group from Mexico City. Do try the first track "Bailando con Johnny Laboriel".

The album is NYOP on Bandcamp or at least it was when I downloaded it four months ago.

Just goes to demonstrate @Brighternow's eclectic taste!

https://lsdr.bandcamp.com/album/archivos-in-ditos-redux-2007

ScissorMan

I just recently "discovered" Noveller, aka Sarah Lipstate, or at least I thought I had... It turns out that BN had already posted about her here as far back as 11 years ago. That was several months before I joined, but that wasn't the only time he mentioned her, and he was clearly a fan (though I guess he was a fan of about a million different bands and musicians).

If I had been more attentive back then, maybe I'd be a bona fide aficionado in all things "effectronica" by now. Oh well... clearly I have some catching up to do. (Luckily it's not a particularly big genre!)

peterfrederics

@ScissorMan I checked back and I likewise downloaded a Noveller album from FMA as a result of a @Brighternow post in November 2018.

luddite

Bandcamp Goodies (post from October 2010)

Emusers' Guide to Makunouchi Bento (est. January 2011)

<clink>

djh

luddite said:

Bandcamp Goodies (post from October 2010)

Emusers' Guide to Makunouchi Bento (est. January 2011)

<clink>

Looking at that wonderful album cover I was convinced that I'd followed BN's suggestion and bought this. Well it isn't in my collection or WL so what happened? Maybe I picked it up outside BC. In any event its still NYOP at BC and I can confirm that it does indeed sound great over headphones. Some cash headed Romania way.

peterfrederics

"Live in Camden Town" by London based Jazz Fusion band Ill Considered.

Excellent album at NYOP on Bandcamp.

Ill Considered was recommended by @Brighternow last December. His quote was "Ill Considered are a band comprising of musicians interacting with each other to create freely improvised music, based loosely around simple pre-written themes or composed on the spot. Deep grooves and plaintive melodies ranging from whispered chants to monstrous climaxes, the group react to the mood of the audience and the sonics of the room to create music that is unique to the moment........A band with a tremendous drive . . ."

confused

djh said:

luddite said:

Bandcamp Goodies (post from October 2010)

Emusers' Guide to Makunouchi Bento (est. January 2011)

<clink>

Looking at that wonderful album cover I was convinced that I'd followed BN's suggestion and bought this. Well it isn't in my collection or WL so what happened? Maybe I picked it up outside BC. In any event its still NYOP at BC and I can confirm that it does indeed sound great over headphones. Some cash headed Romania way.

I couldn't agree more. Another artist I'm grateful he introduced me to.
 
Drowned in Bodrog                                                         Post-Muzica 34

peterfrederics

Alrune Rod was another great Scandinavian Prog Rock group that @Brighternow introduced us to. I have included his whole post below. Natskyggevej is my favourite track.

"Great !

Oh yes! . . . My sleeves are litteraly packed . . .   

Alrune Rod is really special to me. They weren't really that good musicians but they had an abundance of that "spirit of the sixties"

Here's the most important tracks from their selftitled first album from 1969:

Natskyggevej

Bjergsangen

Rejsen Hjem

Alrune Rod

Some translations:

Alrune Rod: Mandrake root.

Natskyggevej: Nightshade road

Bjergsangen: The mountain song

Rejsen hjem: The journey home."

peterfrederics

And he liked "Rainbow Chaser", one of my early favourites by the original 1960s Nirvana.

"The "real" Nirvana with the Rainbow Chaser megahit:"

confused

The Overtone Ensemble
               
Overtone Ensemble                                                          Longitudes

Thanks to...
Brighternow  

October 2016  edited October 2016

 

- "Tim Catlin formed the Overtone Ensemble in 2012 in order to perform works using his self-made "Vibrissa" instruments. Each instrument consists of twelve vertically mounted aluminium rods that are longitudinally stroked by hand to produce ethereal "singing" tones. The long sustaining nature of the rods sound and microtonal tunings allow players a sonic palette of complex textures and harmonic complexity. Other instruments used include massed hand-bells, quarter-tone bells, e-bowed acoustic guitars, re-tuned glockenspiels, wineglasses and long wire instruments.

The ensemble's compositions utilise acoustic phenomena arising from microtonal tuning such as phasing, combination tones and sympathetic vibrations, as well the effects of room resonance. All sounds are acoustic in origin without effects or sound processing. The results are works of shimmering intensity and pulsating beauty.

The Overtone Ensemble are: Tim Catlin, Atticus Bastow, Philip Brophy and David Brown.

Since forming in 2012 the group have been well received at festivals such as Slow Music, NOW now, Sound Out, Light in Winter and Liquid Architecture as well as various galleries and clubs within Australia. Group members have a long history of involvement in the experimental music, sound art and improvised music both within Australia and internationally."

- Important Records

 

rostasi

Are we still going with "What Are You Listening to (B)right(er) Now?" starting tomorrow?     

djh

I'm certainly fine with that.

confused

Through the many threads that @Brighternow started he introduced me to a wide variety
of interesting artists. This was one of those threads - Philippe Petit : a musical travel-agent
 
(Reciprocess: +/VS.) - Documenting The Process Of Musical Reciprocality Between Philippe Petit & Friends
archive.org

peterfrederics

The great Danish band Ache and their album “De Homine Urbanu”

• Brighternow 

  April 2021  edited April 2021

  Danish prog rock masterpiece from 1970:

  
  - One of the Danish albums I can listen to again and again and again . . .
  

confused

Thanks again for the introduction. I've recently added the last 2 free ones so it's a great time to revisit his other terrific albums I have in my library.
Brighternow  

July 2013  edited July 2013

@ Archive.org:

Rainier Lericolais - Adagio Ma Non Tanto
(Tripostal - trip 4. 25 th june 2007)

On “Adagio Ma Non Tanto” the french sound-designer and contemporary artist Rainier Lericolais offers to us five electro-acoustic and minimal compositions. Around piano, processed sounds and fieldrecordings, Rainier Lericolais invites the japonese poetess Ryoko Sekiguchi to declaim some texts in her native language and also in a lovely french. Geoffroy Montel from Minizza is part of those pieces doing some drones. Last but not least, Pierre-Yves Macé did the master work."
http://modisti.com/releases/?m=200710


"Rainier Lericolais is a visual artist and musician, record collector and music connoisseur, born in Châteauroux, France in 1970. He manipulates with ease forms, sounds, images, and turn them into objects, sculptures, paper works, improvisations, concerts, fanzines or records. His work is at once meticulous, sophisticated, humble, popular and erudite."
http://www.brocoli.org

Rainier Lericolais
     
Adagio Ma Non Tanto                                           Rainier Lericolais & Sylvain Chauveau
archive.org                                                           The Absence (Sometimes Repeated)
   
End Print   nyp                                                      Die Bühne im Bauhaus  Free
   
EL TUTOR   Free                                                   RAY    nyp
   
Frozen Voices   Free                                            Mité cassette magazine : Aronson/Lericolais  Free

confused

From the New & Notable Classical Albums thread
 Brighternow   June 2018  edited June 2018

   
“Dream” is a musical journey through the sound of the electric guitar in American concert music, based on sonic research and on the simplicity and beauty of the electric guitar timbre and colors.

Sorrentino’s transcription of Dream by John Cage opens the program. This version demonstrates the pure beauty of the electric guitar’s clean sound with only the addition of light reverb. This is the first CD release for the lost electric guitar composition by Morton Feldman, The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar. Originally composed for Christian Wolff, it was reconstructed by guitarist Seth Josel.

"I'm glad to announce that it will be released soon my new album on the important american label Mode Records (many important musicians have recorded for this label, among others, John Cage, Steve Lacy, Arditti Quartet, and important directors like Martin Scorsese chose Mode music for their movies).

My CD is called "Dream" - American Music for Electric Guitar (Mode 301). The album contains works for electric guitar by John Cage (my adaptation of "Dream"), David Lang, Jack Vees, Elliott Sharp, Alvin Curran, Morton Feldman (world premiere recording on physical CD of "The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar"), Christian Wolff (complete works for solo electric guitar and the premiere of "Going West"), Larry Polansky, Van Stiefel."

- Sergio Sorrentino

Thanks again!
 
Sergio Sorrentino - Guitar Improvisation Project   archive.org (missing 2 tracks)
 
Behind The Window (Electric Guitar Improvisations About The Rain)   nyop
 
Dream - American Music for Electric Guitar

djh

Nice spot @confused and Mode is on Bandcamp despite not showing up on initial searches. @Brighternow was so prolific in his great recommendations that I for one couldn't keep up.

confused

• From the New & Notable Classical Albums
  Brighternow   March 2014  edited October 2015
  
  Stefan Wesolowski - Liebestod
  Stefan Wesolowski - violin, viola, piano, electronics (all tracks)
  Jacek Balka - trombone (1, 2, 3, 5, 6)
  Krzysztof Pawlowski - cello (1, 2, 4, 6)
  Krzysztof Jakub Szwarc - viola (1, 2, 4, 6)
  Lukasz Gruba - tuba (2, 4)
  Tomasz Wesolowski - baroque bassoon (3)
  Michal Krezlewski - piano (3)
  Sandra Geisler - voice (4)
  Dex - dog barking (1)
  
  All tracks composed & arranged by Stefan Wesolowski
  Background soundscapes by Tom Bednarczyk (3) and Michal Jacaszek
  
  - "The album Liebestod by Polish composer Stefan Wesolowski consists of repetitive compositions written for piano, brass instruments, strings and electronics. The title itself is derived from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde which says a lot about Wesolowski's primary inspirations. Liebestod shows a tremendous amount of respect for classical music but Wesolowski is far from making literal references to it. Wesolowski shows his own unique musical language; rough and radical at some points, yet full of intense nostalgia and beauty. This album includes a contribution from Michael Jacaszek. Realised with the financial support of The Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Mayor of Gdansk, Marshal of Pomorskie Voivodeship and City Culture Institute. "
  
  
  Recommended if you like: Arvo Part, Steve Reich, William Basinski, Jacaszek
  
  Recorded in Old Town Hall, Academy of Music in Gdansk & on the baltic coast and at home in Sopot, 2011/2012.
  
  Realised with the financial support of The Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Mayor of Gdansk, Marshal of Pomorskie Voivodeship and City Culture Institute."
  - Important Records
  
  €music - http://soundcloud.com/stefanwesolowskimusic

Stefan Wesołowski
   
Kompleta                                                             Liebestod
 
Rite Of The End
Emusic, Bandcamp

confused

Brighternow 

          December 2017

    

The Rust Belt refers to a largely-deindustrialized portion of the United States surrounding the Great Lakes. Once a powerhouse of manufacturing, the region is now known for being a poster child of economic decline, and perhaps swinging a presidential election. Thet Liturgiske Owäsende are Swedish experimentalists Linus Schrab and Johan Fotmeijer, and their Wisconsin Mining State release sonically explores the sparseness and melancholy of small towns in this region. In fact, four of the six tracks are titled after mining towns with populations of less than 2000 each.  

Using synths, guitars, and field recordings, Schrab and Fotmeijer provide drones with mechanical rhythms and pulsing bass, evoking post-industrial soundscapes – a place where the machines have largely shut down, but occasionally fire up for a few minutes at a time.   Platteville begins with a slowly repeating drone melody that grows and ebbs with lightly-distorted walls. Hazel Green offers dark ambient atmospherics interspersed with ominous crescendos. Iron Ridge consists of oscillating drones and a sparse, repeating bass line. Klar Piquett features throbbing, distorted walls. Mineral Point, perhaps my favorite track, is dominated by a start/stop mechanical cadence overlaid with varied percussive patterns. Rajah is a more traditional spacious, ambient drone, and somewhat out of place compared to its companion tracks.  

In a world where ambient music is easy to come by (and much of it is quite good), it can be hard for a release such as this one to stand out. And yet, Wisconsin Mining State somehow does. Through a layering of simple elements and a juxtaposition of melody and distortion, Schrab and Fotmeijer’s dark offering characterizes a set of uneasy emotions that are felt not only in the Rust Belt, but anywhere that industry is in decline.'  
- Mike Borella - Avant Music News

- Forwind - Emusic

Thet Liturgiske Owäsendet

- are Linus Schrab and Johan Fotmeijer. Armed with guitars, field recordings and modular synths they've evolved their own brand of improvised soundscaping over a number of previous releases.While much of their output has tended to be long form, drone based textural explorations, this release opts for shorter running times and a greater variety in approach to both form and texture.

Just another reminder of all the great artists that @Brighternow introduced me to. I've also really enjoyed their other albums and I was delighted to find this 10 hour sleep study at Bandcamp as a Name Your Own Price release.
 
Thet Liturgiske Owäsendet - Sleep Studies (prj. Theta Prism)  NYOP

'Sleep Studies' was a creative process spanning over 100 days from August 13th to November 21st, 2020. Inspired by themes like sleep, dreams and nightmares, one track per day was produced and uploaded to YouTube with an accompanying video. 

"Working on this project we strived to find our way back to a means of production based on spontaneity and also allowed us to distance ourselves from the final product by removing afterthought and overproduction anxiety." 

confused

https://emusers.net/forum/discussion/comment/84754#Comment_84754
Włodzimierz Kotoński
   
Electronic & Instrumental Music                            Polish Modern Music
UbuWeb Wolf Fifth Archive                                    UbuWeb Wolf Fifth Archive
 and
From Ubuweb - I couldn't find any other info so I chose to use this as the Album cover for now.
40 Years of Polish Experimental Radio from Studio Warsaw 

Krzysztof Penderecki and Eugeniusz Rudnik at the Experimental Studio, second half of the 1960s. 
Photo: Andrzej Zborski. Image courtesy of author
https://post.at.moma.org/content_items/335-spatial-music-design-and-the-polish-radio-experimental-studio