Highlife World Music

Just in, Cal Koat from World Beat International has reviewed “The Captive Road”:

…The Captive Road remains an extremely personal and intimate album. Finseth delivers the tales up front in a fragile voice teetering on collapse, held in play by his piano-based accompaniment. The ladies complement these tender moments with delicate, ethereal harmonies of their own. The Captive Road is an incomparable offering which, for someone who has made a career out of filing new sounds in old bins, must have been extremely challenging even for Kevin to describe. The moniker that seems to have stuck is “Ambient folk hymns … opium noir” which, I guess, is as good a place as any to start your journey down The Captive Road. Standout tracks include the opening air, Fall Away, The Reader, the exotic grooviness of Cairo April 1983 and some tasty guitar dueling on The Passenger…

Read the full review here (with a live music video).

A heads-up on some very cool sounds from  ”Systema Solar“.

From  World Music Network:

Colombia is fast becoming a musical powerhouse of South America, bubbling under with new talent. One group to watch out for among this creative frenzy is Systema Solar from the Caribbean coast who played WOMEX. A cooperative of musicians equally at home in traditional forms such as cumbia, porro and champeta as they are in techno, house and break beat, Systema Solar are a force of nature. Look out for them at the summer festivals in 2012.

For our musician / producer friends, indeed anyone interested in DIY and the new music business. Here’s a lecture from Gabriel Roth – head of Daptone Records discussing their great releases and how they do it. He keeps it simple and real.

Beautiful.

From the Guardian:

Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara visits the Guardian studio to enchant us with an exclusive live version of the song Clandestin from her album Fatou on World Circuit records. Her music blends the Wassalou tradition of southern Mali with external influences to create a warm, friendly and sensual sound whether performing solo or in a group.

Here it is!

Download your copy here. (2mb)

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Seven years after his last solo record ‘The Return’, the path is now open for Highlife Records co-owner Kevin Finseth’s new album, ‘The Captive Road’.

Ambient hymns, alt-gospel, opium soul – call it what you like, ‘The Captive Road’ is the distillation of a life lived following the road less traveled.

Kevin’s songs show many influences – from Leonard Cohen to Bon Iver, Nino Rota to the Coen Brothers, Ethio-jazz to desert blues – these whispering short stories draw the listener into a world of beautiful sorrow.

The Captive Road features a who’s who of Vancouver musicians – Peggy Lee, Frazey Ford, Alpha Yaya Diallo, Joseph Pepe Danza, Lisa Pham, Mallory Temple, The Bedouins, Forbes MacKay and Andrew Smith.

Kevin Finseth plays acoustic piano, bass balalaika, accordion, marimba and sings. On the captive road the lyrics are spare, the notes are few, the rhythms reluctant, the melodies redemptive.

Recorded at Andrew Smith’s Vancouver Live Sound Studio over the course of a year, Kevin returns to it’s warm and intimate environment for the CD release Party.  525 Seymour St. (near Pender) – www.kevinfinseth.highlifeworld.com  

Joining Kevin on Nov. 11th will be:

Peggy Lee – Cello
Paul Pigat – Bass Balalaika and Electric Guitar
Mallory Temple – Drums
Greg Shea – Accordion, Marimba and Piano
Lisa Pham – Backing Vocals
Andrew Smith – Electric Guitar

Tickets for this limited capacity event are only $15.  Doors @ 8pm.
Available exclusively at Highlife Records.
Get yours today!

Vancouver Live Sound – 525 Seymour St. (near Pender) – The Seymour Building