"I've played a lot of Sam Gendel over the last year or so after first discovering a collection of songs he made in his living room during the pandemic with his girlfriend's 11 year old sister, Antonia Cyntrynowicz. Pandemic lock-in conditions. He's a terrific collaborator -- sometimes setting up on stools in coffee shops or taverns in LA -- and this gives his music an expansive and wonderous sensibility. Curiosity & freshness born of spontaneity. "

"The Magnetic Fields (named after the Andre Breton/Philippe Soupault novel Les Champs Magnetiques) are an American band founded and led by Stephin Merritt. Merritt is the group's primary songwriter, producer, and vocalist, as well as frequent multi-instrumentalist."

"Obomsawin was born in Stratford, New Hampshire. She is an enrolled member of Abenaki First Nation at Odanak in Quebec, and of Sephardic Jewish Descent on her mother's side. She is the granddaughter of writer/activist Paul Goodman, and cousin of renowned Abenaki musician, filmmaker and activist Alanis Obomsawin. Pedegwajois: is told by Theophile Panadis is story from ancient times before colonization. In the field recording (by Gordon Day), Panadis of Odanak recounts the tale of a young man receiving a teaching from a metawelinno, which brings him to the middle of Betobagw (Lake Champlain) during a thunderstorm.. Obomsawin grew up in Farmington, Maine, and began playing double bass at age ten. She was introduced to roots music early on through mentorship from traditional fiddler Steve Muise and attendance at Maine Fiddle Camp. She toured the Canadian Maritimes in high school with the Franklin County Fiddlers. She attended Berklee for a time beginning in 2013 where she helped form the trio Lula Wiles, which was picked up by Smithsonian Folkways.. - wiki"

Frolund is 27 years old and Danish. He sits as principal clarinet of the Danish Chamber Orchestra. For this album, Frølund plays soprano clarinets in B-flat and A, a basset clarinet in A, and bass clarinet in B-flat. This selection is a world premiere recording.

"I learned of Holland via Samantha Crain (Choctaw)'s Instagram. Tom Waits is also a fan of her's. Growing up in Houston, Texas, Jolie left in 1994, moving to Austin, New Orleans, and San Francisco before ending up in Vancouver, Canada, where she was one of the founding members of The Be Good Tanyas. - wiki"

"Getatchew Mekurya is probably the most revered veteran of Ethiopian saxophone. A real giant, both physically and musically. Not only is he at the very top level of Ethiopian saxophonists, but he is the 'inventor' of an extremely distinctive musical 'style. - Youtube"

"Chicana girl-group from East L.A., composed of sisters Rosella, Ersi & Mary Arvizu. Ersi was only 14 at the time of the recordings. It did say they always wore matching outfits and they used _Motown's Supremes as their main source of inspiration_. It also mentions 2 members of the rock group Love (Arthur Lee and Johnny Echols) were musicians on these tracks. Ersi went on to record later with El Chicano. - youtube Another sister group, The Thorntons, recorded the song that same year. "

Recorded c1960, this is taken from a collection of recordings culled from more than 150 aging cassettes stored at the Asian Branch of the Oakland CA Public Library. No info is available about this specific group, but its one among 42 dynamic Cambodian music recordings dating between the 1960s and the 1990s from both in Cambodia and in the United States. Bandcamp notes say - These recordings showcase a pre and post holocaust Cambodian musical lineage that can't be ignored. These recordings showcase a pre and post holocaust Cambodian musical lineage that can't be ignored. A truly Khmer blend of folk and pop stylings - Cha-Cha Psychedelia, Phase-shifting Rock, sultry circle dance standards, pulsing Cambodian new wave, haunted ballads, musical comedy sketches, Easy-Listening numbers and raw instrumental grooves presented in an eclectic variety of production techniques. Male and female vocalists share the spotlight, embellished by roller rink organ solos, raunchy guitar leads and MIDI defying synthesizers.

Continuing the dive into Ethiopian Jazz, this awhile back recommendation from Ilhan and the Album Club. See link for more on artist.

See above (click link for more)

This Japanese punk band formed in 1981 was a favorite of Kurt Cobain. They went dormant for awhile and are reportedly back on tour this year. Drums – Atsuko Yamano; Bass – Michie Nakatanil; Guitar – Naoko Yamano

"Alain Croubalian- Lead Vocals, Gitarre, Piano, Banjo Croubalian died in 2021. Swiss band based in Geneva. They describe their style as __Funeral Orchestra Mission__. They helpfully suggest that it is a mixture of Gypsy music, Django Gypsy jazz, rock 'n' roll and country. "

Corrugarou at first resembles a slightly surreal guard tower, its perforated metal sides slashed by large fan blades. Upon entering the structure, however, visitors find themselves within a two-story a playable musical instrument. By turning the cranks in the structure’s base, visitors can set the fans in motion. Changing the speed at which the cranks are turned in turn alters the pitch and volume of the harmonic tones that the instrument produces, as wind hums through the ridged tubes attached to the fans’ blades. The two artists met through New Orleans Airlift, an artist-driven initiative founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2008. Airlift encourages collaboration between international and local artists and the community, often pairing artists and encouraging them to generate new public work. - Youtube

Bob Dylan called her his favorite folk singer. Christy Moore says she still inspires him. Norma Waterson likens her to Edith Piaf and Bessie Smith. Sir David Attenborough put her on live TV. And even Van Morrison stops being grumpy to talk animatedly of “a great soul singer” when her name is mentioned. Born in Cork in 1917, she was a street busker. Alan Lomax's assistant Robin Roberts heard her singing her on a street corner and he went to investigate. There are great stories in a 2017 Guardian story (see link).

"Sibelius (1865-1957) -- considered Finland's greatest composer -- originally wrote this as incidental music for his brother-in-law Arvid Jarnefelt's 1903 play Kuolema (Death). Excerpt from the original program notes: It is night. The son, who has been watching beside the bedside of his sick mother, has fallen asleep from sheer weariness, Gradually a ruddy light is diffused through the room: there is a sound of distant music: the glow and the music steal nearer until the strains of a valse melody float distantly to our ears. The sleeping mother awakens, rises from her bed and, in her long white garment, which takes the semblance of a ball dress, begins to move silently and slowly to and fro. She waves her hands and beckons in time to the music, as though she were summoning a crowd of invisible guests. "

"Best known as a member of Genesis, whom he joined in 1970 as a drummer, then becoming the lead vocalist in 1975 after the departure of Peter Gabriel. Many of the songs were inspired by Collins' first divorce. Collins has stated that he never intended to make a solo record; he was simply attempting to deal with the grief after his wife left him for another man. - discogs"

"Obomsawin was born in Stratford, New Hampshire. She is an enrolled member of Abenaki First Nation at Odanak in Quebec, and of Sephardic Jewish Descent on her mother's side. She is the granddaughter of writer/activist Paul Goodman, and cousin of renowned Abenaki musician, filmmaker and activist Alanis Obomsawin. She learned this ballad from her cousin, and says it is likely as old as the early 1700s -- an homage to the Abenaki reservation in Quebec, Odanak, which was founded by her Sokoki and Abenaki ancestors in 1660. Obomsawin grew up in Farmington, Maine, and began playing double bass at age ten. She was introduced to roots music early on through mentorship from traditional fiddler Steve Muise and attendance at Maine Fiddle Camp. She toured the Canadian Maritimes in high school with the Franklin County Fiddlers. She attended Berklee for a time beginning in 2013 where she helped form the trio Lula Wiles, which was picked up by Smithsonian Folkways.. - wiki"

"The band began as Merritt's studio project under the name Buffalo Rome.[3] With the help of friend Claudia Gonson, who had played in Merritt's band the Zinnias during high school, a live band was assembled in Boston, where Merritt and Gonson lived, to play Merritt's compositions. The band's first live performance was in 1991 at T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they were mistakenly billed as Magnetophone,"

"He is a Siberian sound shaman and plays the old instrument known as khomus (a lamellophone, or commonly known as Jaw Harp). Yakutia, known today as the Republic of Sakha, is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean. Yakutsk, which is the world's coldest major city, is its capital and largest city. The republic has a reputation for an extreme and severe climate, with the lowest temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere being recorded in Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon, and regular winter averages commonly dipping below _35 (see link for more)

"Kuhmunen was born in 1979. He is a musician and reindeer breeder from Rensjon in Kiruna, a small town in the territory of Swedish Lapland (also known as Samiland). Lapland is the region inhabited by the Sami, geographically distributed throughout northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. He specializes in yoik, the traditional vocal style of the Sami. In 2006 Kuhmunen released his debut album titled Birrasis, which won a national award that same year for best folk album. Birrasis includes a booklet with lyrics in the Sami language and Swedish as well as a comprehensive explanation in English of each song. - Worldmusiccentral.org" (link for more)

"Alto, Paul Desmond (1924-1977); Bass, Eugene Wright; Drums, Connie Kay; Electric Guitar, Jim Hall. II aspired to the Desmond/Wst Coast sound as a kid learning to play reeds in Syracuse, NY. Desmond was born in San Francisco, his father played piano, organ, and was a composer/arranger working in the silent film industry and live theater. His mother is described in wiki as _emotionally unstable_, which led to Paul being sent for 5 years to live with relatives in New Rochelle, NY. He started playing clarinet at 12, wanted to switch to violin. His father discouraged him, saying that violin players were _a dime a dozen....with the violin, you'll starve._. Click link for full wikii entry"