Real World Vinyl & CDs

Review: It's remarkable to think that for all the technological leaps that have taken place throughout time, for every instance in which someone has picked up something and starting making a noise with it, then turned said object into a formalised instrument, the human voice remains the most startlingly powerful tool in the musical box. Those who don't agree clearly have never met Sheila Chandra.
The pioneering Asian singer is rightly considered one of the most important artists of her generation. The work she crates is highly accomplished, and can stop anyone dead in their tracks. Then there's the whole glass ceiling thing, with the England she was born into a very different place for people of Indian heritage than today. Weaving My Ancestor's Voice makes it clear just how incredible a talent she was (now retired due to medical issues), with this vocal-focused collection nothing short of mesmerising.

Review: Brazilian guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento and American saxophonist Sam Gendel join forces for The Room: ten tracks of broken jazzdance instrumentals conjoined by an almost telepathic synergy between artists. Springboarding from an initial collaborative gig at a restaurant owned by Gendel's cousin, the duo was thus born as a before-you-know-it gestalt; and in so coming together as a studio project, the artists realised their mutually jazz-laden upbringings, discovering even that both saxophonists had first picked up the brass at exactly the same age; both shared a fascination with environmentalism and ecology; both were superfans of experimental musician Hermeto Pascoal; et cetera. A serendipitous match, then, the album is synchronous to match, balancing five tracks per side in a sublime homeo-ecstatic equilibrium. Recorded in two days in a basement studio in Pacific Palisades, each track its own dive into the rhythms and regions of a South America without borders.

Review: .While Brazilian guitarist Fabiano Do Nascimento and American saxophonist Sam Gendel first met and played together at the dawn of the last decade - at a Los Angeles cafe both used to frequent, fact fans - it was only last year that they decided to collaborate on a release. The Room, the resultant album, was reportedly recorded in two days in a studio in the Californian countryside. It's an undeniably magical and sun-soaked affair, with Gendel teasing fluttering, flute-esque improvisations from his soprano saxophone while Do Nascimento delivers impeccable, finger-picking meditations on his seven-string acoustic guitar. The latter is undoubtedly a virtuoso with his own distinct style - a Brazilian take on classical guitar, incorporating nods to lesser-known regional music - but instinctively knows when to step back and allow Gendel the limelight. Impressive stuff all told.

Review: Composer and arranger to the likes of U2 and Coldplay and Durutti Column, viola-playing master John Metcalfe decided before embarking on this new album that he wanted "to write at scale". As such Tree is an album of deeply immersive sounds over eight tracks that take listeners on a trip through 24 hours in the life of a Tree. They have been a big part of his life over the years from time in his native New Zealand where he saw the T?ne Mahuta, which is the largest known living kauri tree in the world. The epic nature and grandeur of that inspiration more than carries over in the majesty of the music.