Yann Jankielewicz
Keep It Simple

This is the first stop on Sven Wunder’s musical journey. Wunder takes the listener somewhere around the easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea, around the Levantine Sea, where he paints a colourful portrait and illustrates the regions flora through sound. The fruitage is a vivid bouquet where Wunder fuses colours and pigments by using traditional and modern instruments merged with arrangements and melodies that stretches from popular to folk music by portraying tulips, red roses, hibiscus, hyacinths, chamomile, magnolia, daisies etcetera. With both fine and thick brushes are these flowers being pictured in a both modern and classic idiom. The outcome is prismatic. It stands between Anatolian rock and European jazz-funk with ponderous drum patterns, groovy organs, far-out synthesizers, enchanting Saz and impetuous bass lines. Eastern Flowers sweeps through time and space and points towards the future. It could appeal both psych and prog listeners, folk or jazz aficionados and as well the gourmet hip hop connoisseurs.

One of the greatest enigmas of the music scene in mid to late 1970s Harare was The New Tutenkhamen, a band which played an eclectic brand of Zimbabwean township music combining traditional rhythms and western influences. The band included some luminaries of Zimbabwean township music. Elisha Josamu was an alumnus of the fabulously-named Hallelujah Chicken Run Band (alongside Thomas Mapfumo), and Green Jangano’s long-running Harare Mambos, and would later form Two Plus Two with bassist Christopher “Chex” Tavengwa. Jethro Shasha played the drums, and would arguably become the New Tutenkhamen’s most famous export, making continental waves working with likes of Salif Keita. Paul Sekerani played the rhythm guitar, with Amos Chatyoka on the organ, while the enigmatic Maggie Mbuli provided vocals and F. Manda played the sax. The New Tutenkhamen recorded I Wish You Were Mine at Teal Records, produced by Crispen Matema, a talented jazz drummer in his own right who had played drums on the all-time classic Skokiaan, and had backed Louis Armstrong on his 1960 Rhodesia visit. Combining the heavyweight producing talents of Matema and the writing chops of Josamu, The New Tutenkhamen band created an album showcasing various musical styles popular at the time. From the afro-jazz jam session aesthetics of “Tutenkhamen Theme”, “Big Brother Malcom” and “Forever Together”, to the almost Van Morrison-sounding “Sunday Morning”; from the upbeat rock ballad “True Love”, to the funk-infused dance song “Togetherness”; from the bouncy jazz exhortations to work hard in “Ane Nungo”, to the brassy, raunchy foot-stomper “Me & Dolly”. The title track “I Wish You Were Mine” is a ska-infused ballad that wouldn’t be out of place in post-war Birmingham, while the star of the show is “Joburg Bound”, itself a fast-paced rock piece with Motown undertones and funky guitar lines. As a collective effort, I Wish You Were Mine provides a fascinating insight into a fraught time in Zimbabwe’s history, and the bands plying their trade through the turmoil, making music for young people, by young people.

Transversales Disques proudly presents Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Live in Paris (1970). Gifted multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk at the height of his powers, backed by his Vibration Society, including long-term cohorts pianist Ron Burton, powerhouse percussionist Joe Habao Texidor, Dick Griffin on trombone, drummer Jerome Cooper and Vernon Martin on Double Bass. First ever official reissue of this rare ORTF recording performed live at studio 104, Maison de la Radio Paris, with the full permission and cooperation of the National Audiovisual Institute (INA).Deluxe edition, Classic Tip-On jacket, including exclusive liner notes and pictures. Mastered from the original master tapes.

Born on June 28 1936, in Edikwu Village, Oturkpo, Idoma Division, Benue Plateau State, Nigeria, Ray Stephen Oche comes from a family of musicians, singers and flute players. His ancestors and folks were undisputed celebrities in the many music festivals of his native region, especially in the 30's, and Ray just followed with amazing ease and talent, the path they had so gloriously thread.From the tender age of 8, Ray was already an outstanding flute player in his village school band. Soon after, Ray joined local bands and became a first rate Obinde singer and started travelling extensively, visiting every part of Northern Nigeria, where he entertained Idoma communities.In 1953, Ray arrived in Lagos and quickly found his way into the best musician's circles, joining Stephen Amechi's and, later on, Bobby Benson's groups. Shortly after he found his own band, Ray Stephen Oche & His Orchestra, and quickly performed in Kano, Kaduna, Ilorin, Enugu, Aba, Port Harcourt or Ibadan. Coming back to Lagos, Ray decides to go to Accra (Ghana), where he achieved his musical studies at Ghana Military School of Music and, later, became a favourite of late Kwame N'Krumah. While staying in Accra, Ray met the world famous drummer and percussionist, Guy Warren, who is supposed to have delivered Ray with the secret of the authentic African rhythms.In March 63, Ray returned to Lagos, where he collaborated with Chris Ajilo & His Cubanos, before forming his own new band, Outter Space, with which he toured Sierra Leone. That's also where he ended invited to perform a series of private shows for the prime minister. Ray then visited Gambia, Senegal and then Paris, where he arrived in 1965. He and his band performed all over Europe in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, France, etc…After the memorable "Festival de Montparnasse" in 1970, Ray Stephen Oche joined Alan Silva & His Celestial Communications Orchestra for several shows and festivals. In 1971, he collaborated with Noah Howard Quartet and played for the Copenhagen Radio, the University or the famous "Montpartre Jazz Club". After having worked successfully in Germany and Holland, Ray came back in Paris where he raised his Freedom Suite Orchestra, this time bringing him to Algeria or Tunisia.Famous in many Jazz circles and at the SACEM, Ray is now leading the Ray Stephen Oche & His Matumbo (in Angolese language, Matumbo means: "Gifted with various talents"). This band is composed mainly of African musicians from Congo, Togo, Guinea or Gambia, but also with others from Brazil or French West Indians. The band main purpose was to shed more lights on the diversity of African melodies and rhythms.As a calm, gentle and discrete person, Ray answers very genuinely when questioned about his beliefs: "Of course I believe in God!!" This makes even more sense when you know that his real name, Owoicho Oche, means "God is the King".

After the very well received, both by the audience and critics, debut album Repetitions (Letters to Krzysztof Komeda), focusing on the lesser-known works of the legendary Polish composer, the Wrocław-based EABS decided to further expand this lead and released two more vinyl records, "live" and "on tape", which crowned the "Komeda triptych". The astounding reception of the band's debut whet listeners' appetite for completely new recordings. It took 2 years for the new album to materialise, this time, however, it is filled with 100% original material.This time the EABS band did not directly address the legacy of the Polish school of broadly understood popular music masters. At the same time, the musicians kept in mind that such legacy is, in a sense, the capital of the past which adds up to identity and builds the future. Therefore, in their further musical quest, the band stayed observant of the signs and inspirations from their predecessors from the jazz and big beat era, who paved the way through their willingness to experiment and pursue a unique sound. Thanks to these concepts, the ensemble decided to listen even more intently to their inner voices. This has enabled EABS to avoid the obsession of imitating the Western sound, which conquers the increasingly generic domestic music industry.The conceptual direction and the first sketches of compositions were already prepared shortly after the summer of 2017. However, the fast-paced life on tour and the desire to expand the line-up with a soprano saxophone and flute eventually played by Tenderlonious did not allow for quick studio manoeuvres. Especially that the London guest artist needed to arrive for the sessions in Wrocław. Thankfully, time has only worked in favour of this material. The band was already incredibly harmonious while implementing all the assumptions during the recordings. The compositions have matured and evolved even more.The idea for “The Darkness”, the composition opening the Slavic Spirits LP, was born out of collective improvisation performed before a Komeda-inspired medley of “Free Witch and No Bra Queen / Sult” played in concert. It came as a surprise to us that this new album, devoted to broadly understood Slavism, turned out to have its roots in the combination of compositions about a witch and hunger. Both were present in Central Europe, not only in the Early Middle Ages. During the tour, while travelling together, we talked a lot about Poland’s difficult history. We noticed a number of dreadful episodes and unresolved traumas that have been haunting us until this very day – Marek Pędziwiatr recollects.Inspired by deliberations of many musicians, but also historians, journalists, writers, and even psychotherapists, new compositions began to appear rapidly, pouring out of the band’s spirit and imagination. The material is also an attempt to radically break out of the status quo of national mythology which currently steers the collective imagination of the Polish society. The musicians turned to Slavic mythology and Polish demonology, while pondering upon the contemporary spiritual condition of Poles. The enigmatic “Slavic melancholy” remains the main inspiration for the following album, as the band tried to extract it from their own DNA. Slavic Spirits is an an endeavour to get in touch with the world of a long- and brutally lost culture which, due to lack of sources, will never be thoroughly explored. A piece called “The Darkness” is a metaphor of this obscurity and the blank page in the history of our ancestors. What follows is a trip to the woods and fields where we face two demons ruling those realms, namely “Woodland Spirit” and “The Noon Witch”. In the end, we climb a marshy and foggy holy mountain (“Ślęża”) to eventually practice ritual “Sun Worship”.

Born in 1949 in Recife (Brazil), Roberto De Melo Santos, despite a very light discography, is among the true icons of the Brazilian Soul music under his artist alias, Di Melo. He’s indeed only needed an eponymous album, released in 1975 on Odeon, to assert himself as a star in his native country, but also as a legend for all collectors and connoisseurs of the world. More than 40 years after its release, this famous album sells for several hundred euros in its original version, and even for the few reissues that were offered. Not very active since then, Di Melo however returned in 2016 with the album O Imorrível, released on the Brazilian label Casona Produções.It is then that a year later, came a meeting with the French group Cotonete, that Florian Pellissier, founding member and keyboard within the band tells us about: “On tour in Brazil with Cotonete, we had a few days off in Sao Paulo and I really hoped to make a collaboration with an important artist or band from the Brazilian funk scene. We had thought of Marcos Valle, Meta Meta or Ed Motta... but Rafaela Prestes our Brazilian "sound ingineer/genious" told me she’d worked with Di Melo for his recent comeback and gave me his number. No sooner said than done, as I'm a huge fan of Di Melo. The next day he arrived at our house with Jo, his wife, and Gabi, his daughter. He takes the guitar in front of us and gives us a private show of 3 hours… we cried the tears of joy. He had 400 original songs never recorded, a gold mine. On the same night, we started working the arrangements for 2 days, followed by a rehearsal and two small gigs in Sao Paulo. Immediately after, we recorded in the magical Epsilon B studio. This album is the summary of this moment, of these 5 days of madness spent together between “the best band in the world” and the legend Roberto Di Melo… Simple, beautiful, Brazilian-French, human music…”Today, Atemporal found its final version in collaboration with Favorite Recordings and is proudly presented as what we believe will become the genuine long-awaited follow-up to the classic Di Melo’s LP.