1976’s Seagulls and Sunflowers is Naomi Lewis’ second album. This is the
result of a young songwriter’s dream. She was involved in all the
process from songwriting to vinyl pressing to be sure that her second
album was exactly as she wanted it to be. And It worked. Acclaimed by
genre fans, Seagulls and Sunflowers is Naomi’s masterwork. Lewis’ songs
are equally inspired by popular music like The Beatles and Joni Mitchell
as psychedelic sounds and her lyrics spill out as small diary entries,
written as gifts for one friend or another. Blending touchstones of soft
rock, pop and dreamy singer-songwriters with Lewis’ cherubic voice, her
albums have been praised as pinnacles of the privately- issued folk
movement of the 1970s.
We're excited to release this stunning Italian soundtrack originally
issued in 1976 which is widely considered a true holy grail of the genre
and Funk Exotica masterpiece. Originally composed by maestro and
orchestra conductor Alberto Baldan Bembo for the movie soundtrack "Ecco
lingua d'argento", starring the sexy Carmen Villani. The album includes
many spellbinding and powerful grooves filled with great basslines, dope
wah wah and killer Funky sounds a countless amount of drum beats with
dancing Fender Rhodes, Disco-Funk arrangements with driving tropical
percussions, dreamy cinematic strings and sexy female chorus harmonize.
Taste :
Alberto Baldan Bembo - Lingua D'Argento (full album)
First of its kind for Funk Embassy Records, the compilers have dug the
archives of Estonian Radio for funk, soul-jazz, disco, instrumentals,
library music and covers. Influences from West made it to Soviet Estrada
musicians on one hand; to rock, jazz, folk and fusion artists on the
other. Recorded between 1974-1988, this is the sound of Estonian artists
as heard at music halls, stadiums, radio, TV shows and cafeterias.
Selection ranges from folk-funk, psychedelic soul, dancefloor certified
disco, Isaac Hayes reminiscent blues-funk, contemplative jazz-funk,
Piero Umiliani-esque library music, funk-rock, in-your-face b-boy break
to a flute-led master piece by Uno Naissoo – one of the founders of the
Estonian jazz scene who organized the notorious Tallinn Jazz Festivals
(1949-1967).
Some of the tracks were unreleased - instrumental versions by the
Estonian TV and Radio Estrada Orchestra "Kesköösamba" (1977); and
"Mälestuste Teel" (1974, trnl. “On The Road of Memories”) carried by a
sentiment that predicts composer Raivo Tammik’s escape to Germany a year
later; a cover of Carita Holmström, "Näed vaid oma silmi" with the
former Soviet child star Tiiu Varik belting her unique-timbred guts out. Inspired by the resurgence of the
spirit of Funk around the globe, the compilers have taken the intention
to give a taste of Estonian music in the bygone Soviet era during which
the government attempted to control the artists and music being made.
Nevertheless, a lot of influences made it through, as Estonia was the
westernmost country in the USSR. By all means, the selection isn't
all-encompassing. It's just resonating with represses coming from all
over the world that exhibit music with an exotically local touch.
Taste :
Valter Ojakäär - Rasked veosed
Eesti tv & Raadio Estraadiorkester - Kesköösamba (instrumentaal) Marju Kuut - Üksi, kuid vabana
Wonderful work by Nina -- the kind of record that once made purists turn
up their noses, but which is now being rediscovered as a unique
jazz/soul crossover album, filled with loads of nice moments! The
instrumentation's pretty darn interesting -- and includes sitar, harp,
Spanish guitar, and other odd percussion instruments.
The two musicians, who had also worked together on the masterpiece
“Feelings” (1974), have often collaborated and delivered some of the
best Italian library music of all time. “Musica per commenti sonori” is
certainly one of the most interesting. On the two equally split sides of
this LP, the first for Torossi and the second for Brugnolini (but it
seems that this partition was exclusively dictated by legal demands),
there are twelve amazing tracks that will excite lovers of the wildest
funk, producers in search of rare breaks, and those with a penchant for
the psycho-beat atmospheres of the sixties.
Among the most heated tracks featured on Torossi’s side, we can’t
pass over the amazing “Sweet-Beat”, “Interrupted” (perhaps the best
track of the album) and “Repetition” while “Polyphony”, “Motuproprio”
and the closing track “Flyer” shine on Brugnolini’s. Virtually
impossible to find, even at astonishing prices, this reissue puts back
into the market one of the best examples of ‘The Italian Art of Library
Music’: a genre worldwide envied and collected.
“Musica per commenti sonori” is a cult series within the diverse world
of Italian library music. In the late sixties and seventies, the small
record label Costanza Records has published several releases precisely focusing on ‘background music’, including works of great composers such as Peppino De Luca, Roberto Pregadio, Franco Micalizzi, Vito Thomas, Giancarlo Thomas, Puccio Roelens, Riccardo Luciani, and by the protagonists of this.
