In 1969 Norwegian poet Jan Erik Vold teamed up with compatriot and a young tenor saxophonist Jan Garbarek who would provide the musical backdrop to his debut poetry record Briskeby Blues. A fantastic record in its own right, but notable here for laying the groundwork for its successor – Hav, in 1971. By this point Jan Garbarek had also released his own debut album in The Esoteric Circle and had just recorded his masterpiece Afric Pepperbird towards the end of 1970.
Author: Justin Gage
John Coltrane :: A Love Supreme (60th Anniversary Edition)
In 1966, an interviewer in Japan asked John Coltrane what he hoped to be in five years, to which he replied, ‘a saint.'” Whether you’re an audiophile, record collector, or Coltrane-fanatic (or all of the above), the sixtieth-anniversary edition of A Love Supreme is a welcomed addition to any vinyl library. One small recording session for jazz musicians, one giant leap for all music.
Roy Haynes :: Hip Ensemble
A long overdue LP reissue captures drummer Roy Haynes adapting to the disruptions of the ‘70s with his usual alacrity and aplomb. Hip Ensemble finds Haynes dipping into fusion, free jazz and funk, all with his characteristic confidence and vibrant unpredictability. It’s both a snapshot of a particular era and a testament to a classic sound.
Ichiko Aoba :: Luminescent Creatures
The Disneysical indie folk Ichiko Aoba composes, centered on classical guitar arpeggios and whispered vocals, calls to mind both the halfway-to-classical minimalisms of the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, who she has collaborated with, but also the ambient music boxes of Masakatsu Takagi and the idyllic soundtracks to Zelda games and Studio Ghibli films.
Radiohead :: Jonny, Thom & a CR78
Tarzana, California, August 2016. Several months after the release of A Moon Shaped Pool, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood went minimal with a Roland CR-78 drum machine in the hills of the San Fernando Valley. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the field recording finds the pair stripping things back as day turns to night, working up renditions of Pool’s “The Numbers” and “Present Tense.” All vibe. Campfire glow aplenty.
Videodrome :: The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean (1966)
At times, Juleen Compton’s The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean feels like a French New Wave version of A Hard Day’s Night or the lesser-known Arch Hall Jr. vehicle, Wild Guitar, refracted through the lens of an episode of The Twilight Zone. The strange blend of Merseybeat pop music, Americana naturalism, and La Nouvelle Vague aesthetics gives the film a surreal undercurrent. Coupled with a storyline that dabbles in mysticism and folk prophecies, The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean is nothing if not an oddity of 1960s American independent films, made all the odder by the fact that Compton had full carte blanche to make the film however she wanted.
The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PST, Channel 35)
Steal my body home. Via satellite, transmitting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W
Fela Kuti :: First European Tour (1981)
Check out a fantastic documentary that follows Fela Anikulapo Kuti and his huge band/entourage (70+ people!) on their first trip across the European continent in 1981. Things look gray and grimy outside, but once Africa 80 is onstage the world snaps into full, vibrant color, a radical sight/sound the likes of which most of the world had never seen nor heard before.
Yves Jarvis :: All Cylinders
For All Cylinders, Montreal-based Yves Jarvis (fka Un Blonde) placed bedroom auteurism behind him and went for simpler tunes. The result is a multi-genre odyssey. Where once was a loose attempt at art gospel or chopped-up soul, now there is a conscious, sincere engagement with the classics Jarvis clearly adores—Paul McCartney, Love, Stevie Wonder, and Prince.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Ezra Feinberg
Since Ezra Feinberg’s return to making and releasing music at the close of the last decade, he’s been on an unbelievable run. Feinberg’s contributions to our ongoing series of Lagniappe Sessions square the circle of his sound, offering up covers of the shimmering folk-pop vocal group The Roches, on the one hand, and minimalist composer and Philip Glass Ensemble stalwart Jon Gibson, on the other. Feinberg’s gift has always been to endow minimalist process and ambient expansion with a real emotional weight, so the balance here between lovelorn romanticism and new music abstraction seems particularly on point. Feinberg’s covers are alternately heartbreaking and harrowing.
Eric Dolphy :: Last Date (Documentary, 1991)
The documentary’s title Last Date is lifted from an album of posthumous live recordings from a Netherlands radio session in the summer of 1964 (the Dutch trio from the session feature prominently in the film). Just a few weeks later, Eric Dolphy tragically passed after slipping into a diabetic coma during a performance in Berlin.
Harold Budd :: Abandoned Cities
Composer Harold Budd always resented the term “ambient,” with which his music had been saddled since his pioneering collaborations in late 70s and early 80s with Brian Eno. One can imagine the thoughtful, genial Budd being positively exasperated with the even more niche tag “dark ambient.” And yet, Budd’s haunting and uncharacteristically bleak 1984 album Abandoned Cities was dark ambient before the term existed. One of the lesser-known works in Budd’s discography, its synthesizer drones and blighted landscapes seem to speak prophetically to the crisis of our present moment.
Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: February 2025
Freeform transmissions from Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab. Airing every third Sunday of the month, RFAD on dublab features the pairing of Tyler Wilcox’s Doom and Gloom from the Tomb and Chad DePasquale’s New Happy Gathering. This month, Chad kicks it off with an hour of broken valentines, with Tyler following it up with some melancholy psych-folk situations. Sunday, 4-6pm PT.
Ron Geesin :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
In the creative act, is the interaction with others or solitude in a private space more important? While in the past, genius was often described as a solitary artist, distant from society, today more importance is placed on the “creative ecosystem” from which they emerge. The story of Ron Geesin might help to rebalance the issue, highlighting both the collaborative phase and the more secluded one. But could his choice to follow his own path, away from the well-trodden routes, have worked against him in terms of critical reception?
Horsegirl :: Phoenetics On And On
Horsegirl’s three members were hardly out of high school when they emerged from Chicago’s raucous post-punk scene, a boisterous but cerebral gaggle of youth and precocity unafraid to play with amp feedback and dual guitar tone. Now college age, the trio of Nora Cheng (guitar/voice), Penelope Lowenstein (guitar/voice) and Gigi Reece (drums) whip a bit of air and lightness into their sophomore LP, tapping indie phenom producer Cate LeBon’s way with tipsy agitated sweetness.