We start with pure improvisation set in ultimate structural harmony. Miles Davis’ legendary Kind of Blue is the biggest-selling jazz album of all time, and ‘Flamenco Sketches’ its closing song. There are no words to describe the beauty of this masterpiece. Its open-form composition is based on the succession of five modal scales, on which each musician is free to improvise for as long as he wishes. It’s gentle and meditatively sparse yet reassuringly intimate.
With a musical career that kicked off in the 1930s as a contemporary of Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton is regarded as the first vibraphonist and one of those early giants of jazz music. This song is taken from his 1964 album You Better Know It!!!, and its pacing is everything. Patient rhythm that wraps around you like a warm embrace.
In the late 1970s, Paul McCartney recorded songs and narration for a planned full-length Rupert the Bear animated film to be shot by Oscar Grillo. The film never saw the light of day, but test pressings of an album containing his music were made. 'When The Wind Is Blowing' is soft, soothing and mesmerizing.
Hollywood Visit is the byproduct of a collaboration between Dave Harrington (Apr 2022 / Aug 2022 mixtapes) and ambient musician Tim Mislock. Last year, they linked up to record an album over three days at a studio in Joshua Tree. Filled with vast spaces and sparse instrumentation, the relaxed and contemplative opening track ‘La Contenta’ washes over you with its melodic sensibility.
Passages combines Shankar's traditional Hindustani music with Glass's distinct Avant-guard classical style. Both of them have separately long taken intellectual approaches to music, and this joint effort is an exquisite meeting of their minds — a spellbinding fusion of modernity and tradition.
During the 1960s, the guitar-based instrumental group The Ventures helped popularize the electric guitar, first in the United States, then worldwide. With a bold caption on its back cover (“All of these unusual & other-worldly sounds have been created with musical instruments rather than electronic gimmicks.”), their 4th album, The Ventures in Space, emanates a pre-psychedelic embrace of experimentation that is a bit unusual for its time. You’ll hear ‘The Fourth Dimension’, a waking dream of tiny, intricately woven keyboard guitar patterns that hover around descending guitar progressions.
When Tito Puente’s Dance Mania was released in 1958, hipsters had long known of the Puerto Rican-American’s danceable synthesis of Afro-Cuban rhythms, jazz principles, and the musical traditions of his ancestry. Now the rest of the world was beginning to catch up. His best-selling record is his first devoted wholly to dance music, and the instrumental ‘Hong Kong Mambo’ has his slick marimba playing at its fun.
Next is the slithering, effortless and dangerously funky ‘Nile Waves’ by Sundanese jazz band The Scorpions & Saif Abu Bakr. It’s taken from Jazz, Jazz, Jazz, an album originally released in 1980 and reissued in 2018 as the ninth installment of Habibi Funk’s brilliant excavation of Arabic music.
On their second album, Worship The Sun, Allah-Las' hone their fusion of West Coast garage rock and roll, Latin percussion and electric folk. 'No Werewolf' (cover of a 1960 song by the Frantics) is a warm slice of instrumental cool that is highly evocative of Los Angeles' hedonistic past. Think beatniks, artists, surfers, nomads, golden tans and cosmic sunsets.
We continue with a meandering piece of steel guitar music by Will Van Horn, taken from his 2018 debut album Pedal Steel Guitar. Originally invented in Hawaii in the 1800s, the instrument dominating the LP is now used primarily in country music but Van Horn combines it with electronics to great appeal.
Very few people paint emotions with their songs like The Doors do and that's in part attributed to Jim Morrison, a true poet who transcended his thoughts, pain and turmoil through sublime music. 'The Crystal Ship' is one of those haunting, beautifully dark pieces that are able to trigger antagonistic feelings while remaining light and enjoyable. A slow rocker that was composed as a love song to his first serious girlfriend shortly after their relationship ended.
The Norwegian band Madrugada build their dark sonic landscape on a blues rock foundation. Their second album, The Nightly Disease, which may well be depression caught on tape, is a raw, gloomy and bleak record to down your liquor to. Featuring Sivert Hoyem’s mesmerizing and alluring baritone, 'Step into This Room and Dance for Me' strikes a deep blue note. It’s sensual, somber and addictive.
We end with pristine sound design that fosters deep immersion. On his 2022 3-hour+ album Music For Animal, Nils Frahm (Sept 21 / Nov 21 / Dec 21 / Jun 22 mixtapes) doesn’t burden his tracks with the limits of time. Instead, each is given full reign to last as long as it pleases in an ocean of soft synths. His patience is most palpable on ‘Stepping Stone’ where airy drones are layered with jagged washes of glass harmonica. The 27-min song takes the form of a two-chord sequence: one chord building tension, the other resolving.
