Ambient
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Despite its proud political and intellectual history, its moderate climate and breathtaking landscape, Greece is a difficult place to call home. A debt crisis near the end of the last decade transformed the country from a tourist mecca that delivered its citizens a comfortable lifestyle into an economic pariah. Ten years later, the national unemployment…
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Balmorhea fans were delighted to see a new release from the Austin, Texas-based band last year. Clear Language was the first we’d heard from Rob Lowe and Michael Muller in five years. The warm reception earned by the duo’s sixth album was epitomized by NPR’s Bob Boilen, host of All Songs Considered, confessing: “I’m madly…
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To perform even competently at more than one instrument is a tremendous achievement. It is another thing altogether to produce equally engaging music in two separate genres. Hanoi’s Nhung Nguyen is one of those rare talents who can do exactly that. She produces compelling new classical works at her piano under her own name. She…
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Haiku poetry is more often associated with its simplicity than its beauty. A five-syllable line, followed by a seven-syllable line, followed by another five-syllable line. Poetry so easy anyone can write it. The Japanese form dates back centuries. And it probably won’t surprise you to learn that there’s more to it than a beat count.…
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Vancouver’s Adrian Dziewanski describes his Desire Paths of the Sun & Moon as a mining exercise. We Canadians are pretty good at turning natural resources into marketable products, which is precisely what he’s done with this five-track disc. He’s taken a series of dusty old recordings and transformed them into a uniquely listenable series of…
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Nobody goes to a metal show wearing earth tones. Not on purpose. Presumably there have been unwitting hippies who’ve wandered into the wrong bar on the wrong night, etc. etc. But we can safely assume that Seth Chrisman and Nathan McLaughlin have chosen a universal truth as their new album’s name. And like all respectable…
The Moderns 