After hours grooving…
All time favorites of mine picked from the different music ages…
Neil Young – Harvest 1972
I was 10. My first album I listened to on and on. I remember I took it once to a kids-party, but after a few seconds it was taken out from the cassette player. I really tried to explain “But this guy is so cool, playin’ guitar and harmonica at the same time!” So Ace of Base took Neil’s place in the player.
Portishead – Dummy 1994
After surviving the teenage hood with the help of grunge and Robert Smith’s the Cure I remember watching a commercial noticing a sound I’ve never experienced before. I was looking for this track a lot – remember, no super-internet that time – and finally I came across with the song called Numb. This album completely changed my world of music.
Air – Moon Safari 1998
The A-L-B-U-M. Almost as important as Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band for music culture. After listening to them in live, they also became for me the B-A-N-D.
Bonobo – Dial ‘M’ for Monkey 2003
No need to introduce Simon Green’s work. One of the biggest influences you try to get rid of in your own music. =)
Philip Glass – Solo Piano 1989
Perfection. After this masterpiece I decided playing piano could not wait any longer.
Esbjorn Svensson – E.S.T. Live in Hamburg 2007
Unfortunately I got to know his music only the year he died, so no chance to see him in live. The best album on a lonely night at home or just for lazy Sunday.
Jojo Mayer & Nerve – Prohibited Beatz 2007
I know opinions are divided about this album, but it is one of my favorite. When I used to play drums I was impressed by Jojo’s style. This album is a great example on how to humanize electronic beats.
Massive Attack – Heligoland 2010
I have learnt a lot about darkness in music listening to their albums. I really like this album’s sound design.
Atoms for Peace – Amok 2013
Thom Yorke! I could have put a Radiohead on the list, but for me this was a really good example of refreshing yourself.
Kiasmos – Kiasmos 2014
And in the end an album of present time. I really enjoy the way musicians create some kind of techno music. They have put the genre in a different context. I cannot stop listening to this anywhere anytime.
Mïus – Eigengrau (Sonar Kollektiv)
Jazzanova’s acclaimed electronic outlet Sonar Kollektiv is delighted to announce ‘Eigengrau’, a new album from close label associate Mïus. It will be the Budapest artist’s first on the label but third overall in three years, and is a culmination of Gergely Álmos’s enthralling and hugely expressive work to date. So far that music, which is just part of a multi-art project, has come on labels like Tobis & Klang with vocalist Julia Horanyi. Always rich in detail and high in quality, this new album is a first solo work that again showcases all the Hungarian’s multi-instrumental skills. As well as being a mature studio hand, Álmos is also an experienced live performer who creates absorbing electronic soundtracks backed by hypnotic visuals. ‘Eigengrau’, with its gentle electronic lilt, is just as enthralling as one of those shows and finds a perfect home on Berlin’s cultured Sonar Kollektiv label.
Throughout the album a series of talented guests are enlisted to lend their own vocal and musical styles to the LP, and as a result help make it an even richer sonic experience overall. Things kick off with the brooding instrumental ‘Eyes Shut,’ and that lovably melancholic mood is carried on through ‘Broken Words’ with singer Laura Hahn. A sense
of lofty wistfulness is proclaimed even more outspokenly on ‘Delusional’ and ‘The Hunting,’ which are both heartfelt avant pop gems that truly make you swoon thanks to the excellent deliveries of Dori Hegyi. Gergely Almos’ productions never shy away from grand emotions but always shy away from becoming all too kitsch. Helping that be the case is organic, live drumming by Kristóf Gulyás on ‘Haumea’ and ‘RRR’ and the magical bass playing of Tamás Mezey on ‘Before the Rain’ and ‘The Hunting’. Guitars played by Almos himself also set this work of electronic melancholia apart and help make it a truly absorbing and coherent listen that is intimate and honest. On ‘Strobe And Noise,’ Kasia Kowalczyk indulges herself in a weird dream state that permeates much of the album and helps make it such a standout and standalone proposition.
It is not chilly machine aesthetics or alien voices that govern Eigengrau, but instead it is a sense of true-to-life emotional authenticity from the heart of Bucharest that makes it the complete work it is.
Mïus – Eigengrau (Sonar Kollektiv) Release: 1st April 2016 Cat. No. SK321CD
