Özel Türkbaş (1938 - 2012) was a Turkish-born
actress, model, singer and belly dancer, who helped popularize belly
dancing in the US
and recorded traditional music aimed at a western audience.
03/02/2023
02/02/2023
Memories from the land of epics
Marika Papagika (Μαρίκα Παπαγκίκα, 1890 - 1943) was a
popular Greek singer in the early 20th century and one of the first
female Greek singers to be heard on sound recordings.
She was born on the island of Kos on September 1, 1890. In late 1913
or early 1914, she recorded for the Gramophone Company in Alexandria,
Egypt. Only one of these recordings has been found so far.
She emigrated to USA through Ellis Island in 1915 with her husband, Constantinos Papagika, a cymbalom player who was also her accompanist. In December 1918, she made her first recording in the States for Victor Records. In July 1919, she also began recording for Columbia
Records. By the mid-20s, Marika and her husband Kostas opened a café
aman called "Marika's" on W. 34th St near 8th Ave. in New York, likely
the first café aman established in the States. Over the next ten years,
she recorded more than two hundred performances of café-aman styled
songs, including kleftiko demotikο (Greek traditional songs about
Klephts, heroic brigands), rebetiko, and light classical pieces, many of
them overlapping with her chief rival in Greek music sales in the
United States, Koula Antonopoulos (known on her recordings as "Κα Κούλα" or Mme. Coula).
At her club and at recording sessions during the 1920's, Marika was
often accompanied by her husband Kostas "Gus" Papagika, cellist Markos Sifnios, violinist Athanasiou Makedonas, and the Epirot violinist Alexis Zoumbas.
Marika was a noted exponent of the Smyrnaic style of the rebetiko
tragoudi, including old songs about hashish, prison, and street-life.
Located on 8th Avenue, "Marika's" wasn't just a café aman, but a
speakeasy for Greek people as well as for other Mediterranean
immigrants. Marika Papagika recorded her first commercial song,
"Smirneiko Minore" for Victor. Along with her rival Κα Κούλα,
she introduced Greek music to the Western community. Her early
recordings have constantly appeared on compilations and been revived by
contemporary singers.
Poems for enchanted forests
Galwad Y Mynydd (The Call of the Mountain) was a Welsh group formed by Alwyn Daniels, Eifion Daniels, Derek Brown and Mike Harries; great vocal harmonies,
totally perfect home-recorded vibe on the drums and jangly psychedelic
guitars make for a really engaging listen.
Conjunction between past and future
Dariush Dolat-Shahi (1947, Tehran) is an Iranian-American composer and
instrumentalist on the Tar, the traditional Persian lute. His
compositions include electronic and instrumental music as well as music
for traditional Persian instruments.
Rhythms to live forever
Serge Gainsbourg (born Lucien Ginsburg 2 April 1928 - 2 March
1991) was a French singer, songwriter, pianist, film composer, poet,
painter, screenwriter, writer, actor and director. Regarded as the most
important figure in French pop whilst alive, he was renowned for often
provocative and scandalous releases which caused uproar in France,
dividing its public opinion; as well as his diverse artistic output,
which ranged from his early work in jazz, chanson, and yé-yé to later
efforts in rock, funk, reggae, and electronica. Gainsbourg's varied
musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize,
although his legacy has been firmly established and he is often regarded
as one of the world's most influential popular musicians.
His lyrical works incorporated wordplay, with humorous, bizarre,
provocative, sexual, satirical or subversive overtones, including
sophisticated rhymes, mondegreen, onomatopoeia, spoonerism, dysphemism,
paraprosdokian and pun. Gainsbourg wrote over 550 songs, which have been
covered more than 1,000 times by a range of artists.
Since his death from a second heart attack in 1991, Gainsbourg's music
has reached legendary stature in France, and he is regarded as France's
greatest ever musician and one of the country's most popular and
endeared public figures.
Dancing under hot sun
Da'asa - The Haunting Sounds of Yemenite-Israeli Funk 1973-1984 is a Mizrahi/Yemenite Jewish,/Funk/World compilation made by Israeli label Fortuna Records.
18/12/2022
A kiss of death
Bruno Nicolai (1926, Rome - 1991, Rome) was an Italian composer, conductor and keyboardist (organ, piano). Notably the
composer and director of numerous film and television scores. He also
served as musical director for other composers' film scores, prevalently
those of Ennio Morricone, Carlo Rustichelli and Luis Enriquez Bacalov.
Nicolai studied piano, organ and composition at Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, studying piano under Aldo Mantia, and composition and organ under Goffredo Petrassi. Whilst at the conservatory, he met fellow student Ennio Morricone who also studied under Petrassi. A friendship began that would last many years
Throughout the 60's and 70's, Nicolai scored a number of films, working several times with directors such as Jess Franco, Tinto Brass and Alberto De Martino for their giallo and exploitation films. During this time, he also composed library music, primarily for his own labels Gemelli and Edi-Pan, but also for other labels like RCA. His big break came in 1965, when he was musical supervisor for the Sergio Leone film "For a Few Dollars More", scored by Ennio Morricone. In 1966, he reprised this role for "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". Nicolai's last score was for the 1988 TV series "La coscienza di Zeno", directed by Sandro Bolchi.
Bruno Nicolai - Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the KeyA castle for souls
Simon Boswell is a British musician and producer from London, England. He's specialized in
composing music for movies, where he is well known for combining electronic elements with orchestral instruments and his music has ranged vastly in style and tone since the mid 1980s.
His work for horror and fantasy cinema is key, especially the Italian Giallo films, where he unusually combined acoustic, slide guitar with resonant, doomy synths to create a hugely popular, apocalyptic score for which he was nominated for BAFTA’s prestigious Anthony Asquith Award.
Along the way he has garnered many international awards and nominations including 2 BAFTAs and 1 Classical Brit. In the last years he toured extensively worldwide with his band, The And, performing his music live with an immersive, video backdrop.
Friction light flashes
Remi Gassmann is an american classical avant-garde composer, best known for his work in pioneering early electronics. He studied with Paul Hindemith at Berlin’s Musik
Hochschule, where he met fellow student Oskar Sala. Along with Oskar
Sala he conceived the score for George Balanchine’s ballet "Electronics"
in 1961, he also assisted Oskar Sala with the sound effects for Alfred
Hitchcock’s "The Birds" in 1963.
Oskar Sala (1910 - 2002)
was one of the most innovative German composers in the history of electronic
music. His unique instrument, the Mixtur-Trautonium, was first
introduced to the public in 1952 and soon received international
licenses. Its massive architecture remains so unique that no one can
reproduce the instrument nor interpret any of his compositions. Sala had been a pupil of Friedrich Trautwein, the inventor of
the Trautonium. But physicist Sala studied music with Paul Hindemith in
1930 at the Berlin conservatory and played his compositions for
Trautonium. Early on with Trautwein, he composed pieces for Trautonium
and performed them with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Carl
Schuricht in 1940.
From the 1940s, Sala dedicated himself to film scoring and refined numerous classics. In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock was unsuccessfully searching for an acoustic environment for eerie scenes in The Birds (1963) until Sala convinced him to use his Trautonium-generated sound-effects.
From the 1940s, Sala dedicated himself to film scoring and refined numerous classics. In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock was unsuccessfully searching for an acoustic environment for eerie scenes in The Birds (1963) until Sala convinced him to use his Trautonium-generated sound-effects.
Dancing on milky way
Bernard Fèvre is a self-taught french composer, now over 60 years old. In his early life, his day job was in precision mechanics; on
saturday nights he played piano in a R' n B' band, Frankie Presle and
the G.men. He then spent ten years as part of Les Francs Garçons, a
singing group in the "Don Camillo" night-club in Paris. He now works for
a French radio station, providing its 'sound environment'.
His first solo record is "The Strange World of Bernard Fèvre", followed some months after by "Black Devil Disco Club 78" which had a new and pioneering electronic sound. The records met with limited success and Bernard Fèvre remained in obscurity for more than twenty years. He released at least 3 albums of electronic library music during the 70s.
In 2006, Bernard Fèvre returned to recording, writing and releasing music as Black Devil Disco Club.
Bernard Fevre - Cosmos 204317/12/2022
Diving into the maelström
William Sheller (1946) is a French classical composer and singer-songwriter. A prominent artist of French popular music since the 1970s, William Sheller has the particularity of being one of the few singers of French chanson
who has benefited from a solid background in classical music. This has
influenced his repertoire with a sophisticated musical style, combining
elements of classical music with chanson and symphonic rock.
A shiny bright over Siberia
Босса Нова: Самая Красивая Музыка В СССР is a Russian Bossa Nova Tribute compilation made by Мелодия Label.
Killing into athmospheric LSD
Gianni Ferrio (1924 - 2013) was an Italian composer, arranger, and conductor; co-composer of the famous
song "Parole, Parole".
As an experienced television conductor; he was the musical director of the 1959
and 1962 editions of the San Remo Song Festival as well as the 1965
Eurovision Song Contest, held in Naples.
28/11/2022
Living in future times to come
Barış Manço (1943 - 1999) was a Turkish rock singer, song writer and tv host. Living in Paris during the 60s, he started a
band Les Mistigris. Considered one of the most influential pop artists of Turkey. Founder member of the band Kurtalan Ekspres, died suddenly of a heart attack in 1999.
Embracing the deepest roots
Piero Umiliani (July 17, 1926 Florence - February 14, 2001 Rome)
was an Italian composer of film scores and library music who was also behind the Omicron label and the Sound Work Shop label & Sound Work-Shop Studio, and cofounder of Liuto Edizioni Musicali. In his long career he composed and recorded 190 soundtracks, 40 library albums and 35 TV title themes.
He became most famous for his song "Mah Nà Mah Nà" of 1968, that was
originally used for a Mondo documentary about Sweden (Svezia, Inferno e
Paradiso) and became world-famous in 1977 when performed for The Muppet
Show. Like many of his Italian colleagues at that time, he composed the
scores for many exploitation films in the 1960s and 1970s, covering
genres such as spaghetti western, Eurospy, Giallo, and soft sex films.
Although not as widely regarded as, for example, Ennio Morricone or Riz
Ortolani, he helped form the style of the typical European '60s/'70s
jazz-influenced film soundtrack that later experienced a revival in
films like Kill Bill and Ocean's Twelve.
Making love outside the earth
Janko Nilović (1941) is a pianist, arranger and composer of Montenegrin and Greek descent who was born in Turkey and has lived in France since 1960; he has published many works, most of them on library labels not available for sale to the public. His oeuvre stretches from Classical, Jazz, and Funk to Pop, Psychedelia, and Easy Listening.
Traveling through eternal suns
Босса Нова: Всё Ещё Самая Красивая Музыка В СССР (Bossa Nova: Vsyo Yeshchyo Samaya Krasivaya Muzyka V SSSR) is a Russian Bossa Nova Tribute compilation made by Мелодия Label.
Uniting worlds separated by time
Merit Hemmingson (born August 30, 1940) is a Swedish organist,
composer and singer; she became famous in the late 1960's for her modern
pop arrangements of Swedish folk music.
Surrendering life for a justice's dream
Nico Fidenco (Real name: Domenico Colarossi, 1933 - 2022) was an Italian singer and songwriter with a long and prestigious career who gained considerable
popularity from 1960 onwards, after the release of the song What A Sky (Italian Su Nel Cielo), included in the soundtrack of the movie by Francesco Maselli I Delfini and composed by Giovanni Fusco.
With his angelic voice he made millions of lovers dream not only in
Italy, but all over the world, singing dozens of songs in English as
well.
Enjoying the whispers of the desert
Omar Khorshid (1945
- 1981) was an Egyptian guitarist, musician, composer, accompanist, and
actor. Born in Cairo, Khorshid was a well-known guitarist who
accompanied many singers, including Farid Al Atrash, Umm Kulthum, Mohamed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez.
Khorshid's
musicality in orchestra performances, original songs, and film scores
was considered revolutionary at the time in the Middle East. His
extensive theoretical knowledge, fusion of Western and Eastern music,
and incorporation of different, more modern instruments (e.g. the
electric guitar, electric keyboard, synthesizer) in Arabic music was
previously unheard of. Khorshid's unique style sparked inspiration from
many aspiring musicians not only in the Middle East, but in Europe and
the Americas as well. His mixing of "modern" western electric
instruments with older Eastern tunes spawned a new, more modern sound of
electric music that many use for discos today.
Travelling across shiny dots
Gruff Rhys (Gruffudd Maredudd Bowen Rhys) born 18 July 1970 is a Welsh musician, composer, producer, filmmaker and author. He performs solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals.
In 2014, Rhys composed the film score for Set Fire to the Stars about Dylan Thomas and starring Celyn Jones and Elijah Wood. The jazz group he formed to record the music features drummer Chris Walmsley, double-bassist Jim Barr (Portishead), Gavin Fitzjohn on trumpet and pianist Osian Gwynedd (formerly of Big Leaves and Sybridion) on piano, with strings arranged by Gruff Ab Arwel (Y Niwl). Additional string music was recorded by the Elysian Quartet. In September 2015, Rhys won the 2015 BAFTA Cymru award for Original Music for the score.
He is considered a figurehead of the era known as Cool Cymru (Welsh: Cŵl Cymru).
Gruff Rhys - Set Fire to the Stars04/11/2022
Songs for a jilted warrior
Yoru No Bangaichi - Tokyo Hostess Jingi Konketsuji Rika is a Japanese Psychedelic/Funk compilation made by Japanese reissue label Solid Records.
Falling into a deep trance through the soul
Sufi Soul (Échos Du Paradis) is a World compilation of Sufi sounds, made by Network Medien label, a German label with focus on world music, set up in 1979 and run by Christian Scholze.
This is a culturally and geographically diverse compilation of music taken from all corners of the Islamic world. There are songs on this compilation from West and North Africa, Turkey, across the Middle East, Iran, and Central Asia to Pakistan.
Sufism is the mystical (but not monastic) branch of Islam; for hundreds of years, Sufis have used music in religious ritual (Sama) for ecstatic dance to achieve a state of trance. This is really some of the first trance music in history.
Sufi Soul (Echos Du Paradis)Living within biogeochemical cycles
La Natura E L'Uomo is an Italian Easy Listening/Jazz compilation reissued by Italian Milan-based label Intervallo.
A walk through the inner clock
George Antheil (1900 - 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist,
author and inventor.
In 1923 Antheil moved to Paris, where he had the support of many influential friends, among them his idol Igor Stravinsky, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway and Man Ray.
His inventions included a patented torpedo guidance system and a
broad-spectrum signal transmission system which then was called
frequency skipping, co-authored with actress Hedy Lamarr.
He wrote his autobiography Bad Boy of Music in 1944.
Lowell Percussion Ensemble - Ballet Mécanique Strange drops on the abandoned body
Bruno Nicolai (1926, Rome - 1991, Rome) was an Italian composer, conductor and keyboardist (organ, piano). Notably the
composer and director of numerous film and television scores. He also
served as musical director for other composers' film scores, prevalently
those of Ennio Morricone, Carlo Rustichelli and Luis Enriquez Bacalov.
Nicolai studied piano, organ and composition at Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, studying piano under Aldo Mantia, and composition and organ under Goffredo Petrassi. Whilst at the conservatory, he met fellow student Ennio Morricone who also studied under Petrassi. A friendship began that would last many years.
Throughout the 60's and 70's, Nicolai scored a number of films, working several times with directors such as Jess Franco, Tinto Brass and Alberto De Martino for their giallo and exploitation films. During this time, he also composed library music, primarily for his own labels Gemelli and Edi-Pan, but also for other labels like RCA. His big break came in 1965, when he was musical supervisor for the Sergio Leone film "For a Few Dollars More", scored by Ennio Morricone. In 1966, he reprised this role for "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". Nicolai's last score was for the 1988 TV series "La coscienza di Zeno", directed by Sandro Bolchi.
Sunny afternoons in Siberia
Ленивый Шейк (Lenivyy Sheyk) is a Easy Listening/Bossa/Jazz Russian compilation made by Мелодия Label.
Go forward until total freedom
Selda Bağcan is
a Turkish female folk singer and guitarist; born in 1948 in Muğla,
Turkey. Her career as a professional musician started in 1971, during
her final
year at the university The six singles she released that year, in which
she interpreted
traditional Turkish folk songs in a strong, emotional voice, accompanied
by a simple acoustic guitar or bağlama, carried her to national fame.
Many of her songs carried strong social criticism and solidarity with the poor and the working class, which made her especially popular among the left-wing activists and sympathisers during the politically polarized 1970s.
She experimented with rock and roll and with synthetic and electronic sounds in her LPs, although her musical style remained firmly rooted in the folk tradition. After the 1980 Turkish Coup d'État, she was persecuted by the military rulers due to her political songs, and was imprisoned three times between 1981 and 1984. Her passport was confiscated and held by the authorities until 1987, which, among other things, prevented her from attending the first WOMAD Reading festival in 1986. Partly thanks to pressure from WOMAD, her passport was returned in 1987 and she immediately started a European tour, giving concerts in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in the same year.
Since then, she has produced several albums and given concerts in many cities in Turkey and all over the world, and remains active in the Turkish musical scene. Bağcan currently lives in Istanbul and runs the music production company Majör Müzik Yapım.
Resting in a blue flowers field
Charlotte Walters is a French singer from 60's; on this 1969 album (the only one officially known), she sings two songs composed by her sister Chloe Walters.
The cadence of bloody nights
The B-Music Of Jean Rollin Volume One: 1968-1973 is a Psychedelic/OST compilation from French movie director Jean Rollin soundtracks, made by Finder Keepers Label.
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