‘The groundbreaking debut album by legendary Nigerian percussionist Gasper Lawal, originally released in 1980 on his own label CAP.
‘Lawal meticulously self-produced, composed, and overdubbed the album over four years, assembling an elite group of musicians from both Nigeria and the UK. Several of he instruments used were hand-built, including a powerful one-of-a-kind drum carved deep in the Nigerian bush. “This music is not about trends, about what is commercial or a “sound” of a particular moment,” explains Lawal, “it is about music to be felt, that gives pleasure. It is nurturing and meditative.”
‘Spiritually resonant, rhythmically rich and genre-defying,’
Sacred and secular vocal polyphony.
Introducing the bossa nova in 1959, the original LP plus extras. Appearing effortlessly cultured and crafted, as natural as breath.
‘Verve By Request.’
‘Beautiful, haunting… spiritual reflection is sung with carnal force, songs of romance are rendered like hymns. For a few moments, on these ancient records, Baghdad sounds like paradise’ (Rolling Stone).
Creole poetry, rootical mysticism and heavy-grooving synths illuminate this survey of the Martiniquan’s first four albums, recorded in France in the late seventies and early nineties, but inspired by the ‘smells and colours… subliminal noises… fruity notes, the memories of funeral wakes, the bombastic organ of the cathedral and the gasps of the drums’ of home.
‘Midonet’s musical world is cosmic, mystical and he has created his own idiosyncratic style around it: not plain folk, not bélé, chouval bwa, beguine or gwoka, but rather a transcendental fusion of all these and a true reflection of his personality.’
The Theodore Vassilikos Ensemble powerfully performing Petros Bereketis — extended variations on eight modes — the most important composer of the golden age of Byzantine music, an eastward Bach.
Stirring, beautiful historical recordings of paralogues — deep, traditional melodies — drawn from folklore, everyday life and classical mythology: solo voice, or choral, or with clarinet, ud, lyre, violins.
Ka-boom! The legendary digger re-ignites the Lagos Disco Inferno and kicks off his very own mouth-watering imprint with two sides of boogie-down bliss.