New music round-up (for w/e 12 May 2023)
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 12 May 2023.
The Courettes are an explosive garage rock duo from Denmark/Brazil, highly praised by the world’s coolest music magazines. Since the blasting debut album Here are the Courettes (2015), the band has amassed three albums, multiple singles and European tours. Now Boom! Dynamite! is available via Damaged Goods Records. This is a compilation: an introduction, if you like, to The Courettes.
Variation[s], volume one is the new album from pianist Cédric Tiberghien. This is first set of a complete Beethoven variation cycle, juxtaposed with works illustrating the evolution of the genre, from the Renaissance to the present day. It includes works by Beethoven, Mozart, Robert Schumann and Webern.
Highly anticipated would be an understatement; since their inception Overmono have purposefully cultivated a fanbase that heralds them as one of the UK’s most original contemporary live electronic acts. A run of ground-breaking club EPs between 2020 and 2022 built momentum and culminated in their breakthrough club single, ‘So U Kno’, which encapsulated the hearts of clubbers and went on to become a bona fide phenomenon as dance floors re-opened. Now, Overmono return to present their most ambitious release to date, Good Lies. Across the twelve-track project, Overmono journey through a powerful distillation of their musical career so far; incorporating “So U Kno” alongside new music that propels them beyond the dancefloor. “Good Lies” remoulds and interweaves captivating vocal cuts into a series of multi-genre electronic sounds that flits effortlessly between euphoria and melancholy in the same 4-bar loop.
Now in its 14th year, the unique and constantly evolving Fire! Orchestra is back with their most ambitious work so far as well as their largest line-up, counting a mostly Scandinavian cast of no less than 43 members. While the popular and widely praised Arrival is a highlight in both our and the band´s catalogue, this monumental triple album ups the ante. Echoes is a two hour work of epic proportions; full of beauty, energy, haunting passages and stunning musicianship, embracing progressive rock, contemporary avantgarde, cosmic free jazz, ethnic experimentalism and more. Making all of this flow in such a natural way from beginning to end is a brilliant achievement. The album closes with a guest appearance from the mighty Joe McPhee on tenor sax and vocals on a vigorous and amusing tribute to one of the “late, great finger wigglers” (answers on a postcard…). Recorded at the legendary Atlantis studio in Stockholm and beautifully mixed by Jim O’Rourke, Echoes comes across as a very open, breathing, organic, detailed and dynamic album.
As We Speak is a new project from perception shattering musicians Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, and Rakesh Chaurasia. The album brings together their unique takes on Indian and Western Classical music, Jazz and Bluegrass. Weaving a sonic tapestry of banjo, tabla, double bass, and bansuri, these artists convene to make some of the most soulful, fascinating and undefinable music found in today’s world.
The music of Markus Popp is endlessly curious. Since the early 90s his pioneering albums as Oval have continually excavated new spaces in electronic music, leaving an indelible mark on the landscape. Popp’s playful and singular approach to sound has continually left critics and peers alike confounded by his ability to conjure such lithe, evocative sonics from software. Celebrated collaborations with Jan St. Werner as Microstoria remain foundational texts in underground music, while a rare split record with Liturgy exemplifies Popp’s reach and influence outside electronic spheres. With each release Oval continues to blossom into new digital spaces, combining a wide-eyed sense of wonder with astute technical prowess in his exploration of cutting-edge technologies. His new album Romantiq turns the producer’s inquisitive ear to an omnipresent and yet oft ill-defined, even maligned area of music and art – the romantic. The album foregrounds the emotional drive that has always been present in Oval records, providing a genuine and unabashed interrogation of its subject matter delivered with delectable sophistication.
Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Zalta has shared his debut album Memento Mori, a beautiful collection of genre-spanning songs which showcase Zalta’s prowess for songwriting and world-building. Although Memento Mori is his first full-length release, Zalta has crafted an album of ambitious, lush, evocative soundscapes with memorable verses and choruses that can make the listener feel both at home and connected with deep emotions.
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- New music round-up (for w/e 11 August 2023)
- New music round-up (for w/e 29 September 2023)
- New music round-up (for w/e 5 April 2024)
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television