Attempting to recreate the golden yesterdays of Jose Padilla’s White Isle sunsets with the tunes of today…

Ambala – End Of The Day – Music For Dreams

Phil Mison’s Ambala alias unveils another new track, confirming that an album for Music For Dreams is on the way. This tune, titled End Of The Day, finds Phil again working with the Copenhagen-based production team of Walther  Bager (son of label founder, Kenneth) and Oliver “Olio” Lindblad Orssten. Chillout is only a genre because Phil helped to create it, both with his Cantoma releases, and his Cafe del Mar DJ residency. This certainly shows in the careful, unhurried, uncluttered arrangement, which is lifted way out of the ordinary by the trumpet virtuosity of self-proclaimed “jazz nutcase” Kasper Tranberg.  

Another teaser / taster on Music For Dreams is Mikkel Nordso & Ole Theill’s Beam Me Up. Released ahead of what will be the virtuoso – guitar and tabla, respectively – duo’s fourth album for  Mr. Bager’s label, titled Sea View, this track features the vocals of Caroline Franceska. Honestly, as far as I’m concerned, musically, these guys can do no wrong. Back in the early 1990s, as part of the jazz trio, Bombay Hotel, they helped to define the Cafe del Mar sunset soundtrack with tunes such as Between Leaves. 

Music For Dreams family member Emil Breum, aka The Swan & The Lake is also readying a release, his first new music since 2021’s Voices. Primavera Gelato finds him serenading a springtime ice cream to the sound of chilled chimes and sighing keys. Crooning, while in the background a ringing and rattling resembles the singing of a rice field full of frogs at midnight. His fifth album is due soon.

 

Bochum Welt – Extra Life – BGM

Gianluigi Di Costanzo aka Bochum Welt released his debut LP, Module 2, on Rephlex in 1996. The computer game obsessed collection was reissued this year, somewhere around Record Store Day, with a few bonus tracks, including a tune called Extra Life. This is a bit of busy, but beautiful and bucolic electronica. Recalling X-Tal era Aphex Twin, its delicate details dart about, in and around one another, dynamically dovetailing in bionic Brownian motion. 

Coco, Steel & Lovebomb – Im Garten – DSPPR

Promo-ing a new album, titled After Hours (it’s been a decade since the last one) Coco, Steel & Lovebomb treat us to the single, Im Garten. According to its press, the piece was inspired by a trip to Berlin’s Berghain, and a deliberate nod to their 1990s output, such as the smash hit, Feel It. However, over 30 years have passed, and it’s not quite as banging as that. Instead, party whistles mix with birdsong over a gently bumping house beat. Circuits squeak like South American cuica and playful percussive patterns dance like Plaid-esque IDM. The bass, though, is undeniably a deep hypnotic drone / LFO. 

Dozzy Donato & Tin Man – Test 3 – Acid Test

Back in 2014, Italian electronica / techno icon “Dozzy” Donato Scaramuzzi and the equally revered Johannes “Tin Man” Auvinen joined forces for Oliver Barstow’s Acid Test. Their E.P., 09, contains 3 tracks of essential, magical, TB-303-generated minimalism. It was Mancunian Balearic guru Moonboots who insisted that I invest in a copy, based on the sublime sunset / sunrise genius of Test 3.This starts with simple tones similar to those used to communicate with aliens in Steven Speilberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (“If everything’s ready here on on the dark side of the moon…”), but each echoes, disintegrating, stretching into infinite delay and decay. Serene, and soothing, on the surface nothing seems to change, but over the course of 7 minutes, the music sucks you in. Switching you on, and then switching you off, erasing worry and stress. Acidic deep listening, a lysergic sonic salt water float, it’s best imbibed in quiet moments. You may get lost if high. Acid Test have put out a 10th anniversary edition, which now includes a vocal mix. At the time of the record’s initial release I attempted to interview Donato and Ivan. Sadly, both declined. 

Roberta Flack – Lost Takes – Arc Records

This is collection of songs from the Atlantic Records sessions that led to Roberta Flack’s 1968 debut LP, First Take. It’s a selection of 12 soul and jazz standards that perhaps define the term “timeless”. Performed by a tender trio – of Roberta on vocals and piano, Ron Carter on bass, Ray Lucas on drums – both the playing, and the warm, intimate recording are flawless. Soul / jazz experts will no doubt have banged on at length in the press about this album, but for those of a “Balearic” bent I’ll tell you that this slots right alongside old Cafe del Mar seaside sunset favourites by Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughn.  Personal standouts are the beautiful, beatific blues of Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out, a joyful, jumping take on Ashford & Simpson’s Ain’t No Mountain… , and a soaring The Song Is Love. Her haunting rendition of the traditional lullaby Hush-A-Bye wraps you in promises, a cradling comfort. Like reassuring whispers of “It’ll be alright”, even though you know it won’t. Hope like a dream, passing, but taking pleasure in it for a moment.