Nehoryn: Memory's Garden

Tripping down memory lane

A composer of prodigious talent and impressive musical inventiveness, Nehoryn offers a "retrospective" of his earlier compositions in a 12-track collection by the eloquent title of Memory's Garden. It is always exciting to observe how an artist's work has evolved with time, what elements and influences determined its development, which of them were left behind for good and which were the crucial ones to remain and mature into something even richer and more accomplished.

Fanfan l'elephant: Toi

Luminous elation in pastel tones

An appetising single of ambient electro, inviting us to a voyage of the heart and the spirit; the melodic lines, percussions/drums and sound effects form a universe of stark beauty, soothing for the ear and purifying for the soul.

Oscar Fantoche: Fantoche Orchestra

First and last waltz

An odd, haunted waltz suspended in mid-air through the mist. A slow oriental melody snaking its way along a lazy counterpoint of percussions and bassline. A fragmented, intoxicated march flirting with languorous violins.

Aufklarung: My mistress eyes

In the end is the beginning

Five "cornerstone" poems by authors whose work marked Europe's (and the whole world's) literary history - the famous Shakespeare sonnet My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun, Wordsworth's The Solitary Reaper and She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways, Home Is Where One Starts From by T. S. Eliot (from the Four Quartets) and When You Are Old by W. B. Yeats - set to music in an ambitious yet unpretentious album, merging past and modern resonances in a peculiarly attractive mix.

John Peter B.: Origami

Modular, multifold elegance

Symphonic arrangements and experimental researches in an album featuring unexpected piano harmonies, quasi-minimalistic stings and winds and an almost outworldly choral part, as well as a couple of more rhythmic tracks where the tendency of stylistic exploration is significantly prominent.

Disciples of Bob: New Roman Tragedy

Decline and fall of the New Roman empire(s)

It was the band name that first caught my eye: intrigued, I ran a search for "Disciples of Bob" - which yielded a few unrelated and inconclusive results, seemingly having nothing to do with the little musical pearl I was listening to; or, on second thoughts, maybe they were all connected with it in some way. Whatever the case, New Roman Tragedy remained a gripping collection of songs worthy of an attentive listen, or many.

Arne Pahlke: Heimweh

Subterranean homesick blues

Each album by Arne Pahlke is a new adventure in style and a personal auto da fe. In Heimweh he embarks on a journey of return to his own sources by making direct and indirect references to his first albums, Dunkel and Abgrundtiefen, whose publication marked him as a powerful and singular poetic voice.

Nehoryn: Golden Hyphen

The hyphenation of attracted opposites

Golden Hyphen is the latest album by Nehoryn, accompanied by a lovely printable booklet that contains the song lyrics and images eloquently illustrating the artist's universe, from the deft confrontation of colour with black & white to the touches of light bursting through the dominant darkness.

The Gloomster: 13 moments of death

On the pathway of doomed souls

13 moments of death by The Gloomster (yet another project by the poet Arne Pahlke) is described by the author himself as the "soundtrack" to a "film" depicting the many different ways to die. Death by accident, recklessness or illness, by law (execution), by the hand of a murderer or by one's own hand. Being killed in a war is a serious possibility as well, but that would be an entirely different story and what mostly interests Arne here is, I believe, the view of death as a private, individual experience - a more or less unpredicted occurrence in the routine of an otherwise peaceful, or at least ordinary life (with the obvious exception of Long way to the electric chair) - though "ordinary" is actually a term too generalised to apply to the vicissitudes of each particular person's way of living.

Project System 12: Blood and Roses for Lady McBeth

The Dark Lady, the blood and the roses

A beautiful and gripping title and an alternation between darker and luminous, tender and energetic themes, with the eponymous track being one of the highlights of the album. The reference to a "canonically" sinister literary character such as Lady Macbeth could not be better accompanied than by blood and roses, both symbols of femininity and metaphors for the dangerous facets of the human soul.

Nehoryn: Cyberfire Inside

Fiery the angels fall

There is no "immaculate conception" in art any more, but on the other hand there is an abyssal gap between this undeniable fact and the currently dominant mentality in the music industry, according to which everything new that is created has to be an almost identical copy of something already known and "officially recognised", so that it "has the right" to fit into a strictly defined category or genre. But genuine music (and art in general) is, and should be, what defines, redefines and/or defies the existing genres and categories; totally indifferent to the established "rules", it forms its own if necessary, only to do away with them when they are no longer needed.

Melchiades - Kouki: 3908

Acid post-apocalypse

3908 is the fruit of an unexpected, if not improbable, collaboration between two artists whose diametrically opposite musical temperaments promise an intriguing (at least) auditory experience. The extremely minimalistic cover and laconic, enigmatic title do a really good job at disguising the tumultuous richness hidden within. This is an album that should by all means be seen - and most importantly, listened to - in conjunction with the personal view of art expressed by each one of its contributors.

MADFEET: Si l'amour etait de ce monde

To go where?

Okay... I found this album while searching for Celtic rock music for a friend, and I must admit that it attracted my curiosity, given the fact that in spite of the impressive introductions on the group's main page, the one and only review it has got so far is negative to the extreme and without any explanations. I must also admit that I usually write about the music I find interesting and which I hope other people might also like to discover; I have infinite respect for everyone's creative endeavours and their (our) agony of artistic expression, so when I don't like something, I just don't write anything. And I have to confess that this time, I find myself in a difficult position.

Arne Pahlke: flugUNtauglich

Walking on wings

And just when one might have thought that the variability and perfection of form in Suchen would not be easily surpassed, or even equalled, this new album comes to subvert this idea and give an even more intriguing dimension to Arne's already multifaceted work...

Der tollwuetige Kasper: Manchmal kommen sie wieder

God lives nowhere

The new album by Der Tollwuetige Kasper (Arne Pahlke's side project) "welcomes us into our lives" - in a life that we shouldn't feel too happy or privileged to be living... I will not refer to the technicalities concerning this particular musical style - others have done that much better than I ever could - but I will approach this work subjectively and emotionally, based on my impressions after repeated listens of Manchmal kommen sie wieder.

Arne Pahlke: Suchen

Another face of Arne Pahlke

First of all, the cover is wonderful - both the composition and the colours set perfectly the mood for what is about to ensue... And what ensues is one more panorama of Arne Pahlke's familiar themes and stylistic explorations - this time with more emphasis on the voice and the acoustic arrangements, relying on guitars and the discreet presence of virtual instruments for the most part.

Hektor Thillet: Egocentric Youth

The bearable lightness of being

Well, in fact this is a single that doesn't take itself too seriously, and for me at least, the cover is a clear indication of that. It's sensual in an ironical, self-deprecating way, and all that pink (strawberry and stuff) gives a note of exaggeration which I dare say was intentional.

DJ Authush: Psychedelic Trance

Energetic, but also relaxing

This isn't usually the kind of music I listen to, but I was attracted by the black humor of the cover. The 1-hour track begins with a rhythm and female vocals that have a kind of dreamy quality, only for the rhythm to become gradually more energetic and invite the listeners to dance, or simply get immersed in the ambience and enjoy.

Jamick: Seasons

Electronic Gebrauchsmusik?

A very sweet and original album, conveying the alternating ambiences for the four seasons of love in a descriptive and at the same time pleasantly abstract and figurative way.

Kray Van Kirk: Seven Years Light, Seven Years Dark.

Wonderful songs, a stunning voice

This is one of the very first albums I discovered on Jamendo, and one of those that are seldom made any more. Each song is a jewel of rare beauty, combining splendid melodies and a voice of crystalline perfection with lyrics that tell sensitive, nostalgic stories from the distant or more recent past, from the dreamlike world of maritime legends and fairy tales.