ALBUM DISCOVERIES OF 2024

Jim White and Marisa Anderson, Le Poisson Rouge, New York 2024

From shit times emerges great art, and 2024 was a banner year for both shit times and so many marvelous musical creations. Quick fact for you: more albums were released in one day this year than in the entire year of 1989. That’s a fantastic thing. With the ease of access to music production tools and the consequent exponential growth of musical output, musicians and lovers of music are creating and listening more than ever before. The resultant effect of this is that genre lines are more indistinct than ever. The levels of interesting exploration and experimentation in the pieces I’ve listened to over the past year surpass any period that I can recall since I began this little practice. If nothing else, we have much more beautiful music in store.

I have to concede as well that I have probably listened to more music this year than ever before. Voraciously. New life changes and another transcontinental move have given me a lot of time, for better or for worse, to consume new things, and much of that energy has been channeled into the safety and comfort I find in musical discovery. It is possible that this insatiable consumption and exploration has led me to draw some elevated conclusions about the state of music in general, but I do feel optimistic about the musical boundaries I hear expanding. So, this year’s list is long, and selected from the hundreds of albums I listened to.

As I wrote last year, I hope that you are safe and as content as can be, wherever you are. Despite the fact that this annual piece of writing is about music, it doesn’t feel right to omit mention of the boundless despair that seems to be gathering steam as it bulldozes its way through so many facets of life and planet. Watching these many tragedies unfold day after day has eroded my somehow enduring and perhaps naive sense of optimism and faith in humanity; nevertheless I am in some way able to maintain a hold on a hope for something better to come.

This list is in four parts. (1) Studio Albums, (2) Live Recordings, (3) Reissues, (4) Discoveries Released in Years Past. Because I’ve opted to make this year’s selection so extensive, not every album will have a review per se, but I’ve selected some songs from each to highlight. As always, the below is in no particular order and presents no hierarchy–I find rankings for things like these to be objectively preposterous and it is a peeve of mine at this time of year, especially. I welcome any recommendations or callouts of any glaring oversights I might have made.

Thank you for reading and for listening. I hope that you are able to find some new universes here. Free Palestine.

(1) Studio Albums of 2024:

Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin - Ghosted ii (Drag City)
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I can’t overstate how obsessed with Oren Ambarchi I am. A solid fixture of the Jim O’Rourke cadre, his career as a guitarist and percussionist has spanned everything from harsh noise (w/ Merzbow), drone (w/ Sun O))), to shimmering ambient (one of my favorite pieces of all time) to musique concrète, and to whatever you want to call the funky, thematic project that defies easy categorization, undertaken with his longtime collaborators Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin.

Ghosted ii continues where its predecessor left off. Largely propelled forward by Berthling’s driving and purposeful bass, it is augmented by the exploratory meanderings of Werliin’s drumming and pulled together into cohesive swarming chapters of dub, funk, jazz, and ambient with Ambarchi’s shimmering guitar. The piece lurches forward through time and space–from moments of somber peace to moments of rhapsodic frenzy–with each artist embarking on new excursions here and there before finding themselves united again in the bassy refrain that anchors their collective journey.

I’m thinking of Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchinanda, أحمد [Ahmed], and even Dorothy Ashby. There’s a similar sense of interconnectedness and transcendence, a blend of groove, experimentation, and spirituality that makes Ghosted ii both expansive and deeply grounding. This is music that feels timeless and boundaryless, intricate interplay to lose yourself to in its forward momentum.

Rosali - Bite Down (Merge)
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Alright, so with very good reason, Bite Down was awarded Best New Music from music publications all over the place. I admit it took me a while to see the appeal, but like with ML Buch’s Suntub last year, I finally came around, and, oh GOOD GOLLY! was I bowled over when it clicked for me.

Rosali, the superb North Carolinian talent, has crafted an album that spans so many eras and forms of America folk and anthemic-ballad rock. I have disparate notes for a longer piece I was planning to write about this, but because it’s almost the end of the year and I am under a self-imposed time crunch to publish this, I will spare my enormous audience of slogging through my writing.

On Bite Down, Rosali conjures the work of prolific artists working in the medium of “Americana” without mimicry, succeeding in making it her very own. Tinges of Adrianne Lenker are found in songs like “Hills on Fire;” The Velvet Underground is present in “Is It Too Late;” Stevie Knicks makes a proverbial appearance in “Hopeless”; Jessica Pratt and Cate Le Bon’s influences can be heard in the title track “Bite Down;” Neil Young is at the heart of “Change is in the Form;” even The Rolling Stones (or maybe the Beatles, given the cheesy guitar solo?) feature in “Slow Pain.” Drawing from the best (ok, maybe not if we’re including the Beatles–I hold a contrarian opinion about that band, but I am willing to acknowledge their cultural significance), Rosali has created something wholly new and timeless with Bite Down.

Water Damage - In E (12XU)
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You know what’s a lot of fun? Listening to one hour and twenty minutes of brain-frying, soul pummeling, guitar-driven thump. On In E, the amorphous collective of Austin-based musicians (whose instruments include a violin and a bowed guitar) explore the creation of singular sound, driving powerful riffs that continue into eternity but never tire.

A loose homage to Terry Riley’s In C, in which ten musicians layered short phrases in a minimalistic drone to create a raag-like effect, In E achieves a similar all-consuming quality. Water Damage’s music pushes the boundaries of repetition, pulling you into a strangely all-consuming yet comforting abyss where all time and thought dissolves.

Astrid Sonne - Great Doubt (Escho)
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“You look at me / do you want to have a baby? … Do you want to bring people into this world? … I really don’t know.” The London-based, Danish artist, Sonne, 30, opens Great Doubt with a guarded interrogation, setting a tone of introspection and ambivalence that permeates the album. This opening feels less like a question posed to a partner and more like an internal monologue, a fragmented dialogue with the self.

The album’s sonic landscapes balance vulnerability and strength, often through unexpected contrasts. On “Staying here,” Sonne pairs stabbing, fragmentary synth arpeggios with lyrics that linger in the mind: “everything is unreal but I’m not going anywhere.” The effect is paradoxical—both disarming and comforting, as if refusing to resolve the tension between fragility and determination. The fractured, shimmering synths echo the emotional precariousness of the words, yet there’s an undeniable warmth in their repetition, as if to ground the listener in the present despite the chaos.

Great Doubt probes deeply personal terrain through sonic landscapes that recall the delicate yet emotionally charged works of Sonne’s contemporaries and occasional collaborators ML Buch and Tirzah. On the triphop-heavy “Boost,” Sonne sets down her viola—her primary instrument—and picks up the drums, crafting a rhythmically dense, Tirzah-esque pulse reminiscent of Devotion. The track’s stripped-down yet urgent beat underscores the tension between restraint and release that defines much of the album.

Sonne’s viola, her instrument of training and choice, when it does appear, is anything but ornamental. It winds through tracks like a narrative thread, introducing textures and moods that elevate the sparse electronics. The interplay between acoustic and synthetic elements creates a sense of vulnerability—each sound feels exposed, yet integral to the whole. Great Doubt is an album that resists resolution.

Fabiano da Nascimento & Daniel Santiago - Olhos D’água (Nascimento Music)

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Los Angeles- and Tokyo-based Brazillian guitarist Fabiano da Nascimento has been on a tear this year, releasing three albums in 2024. Olhos D’água, a journey composed with fellow Brazilian guitarist Daniel Santiago, traces a soft, delicate arc across the necks of Nascimento’s 6-, 7-, 8-, and 10-string guitars, guiding the listener through the intricate floral petalwork of bossa nova-esque meanderings.

“Olhos D’água” translates to “Eyes of Water,” and the album is liquid in form. Its music flows like a gentle stream, pausing to reflect on the ripples that form in stillness. Guitar harmonics and suggestions figure heavily in the album, shimmering like a light drizzle, while Nascimento’s restraint and subtlety create a refreshing, meditative breeze.

His other two releases this year lean into collaboration. The Room, co-written with visionary saxophonist Sam Gendel (also on this year’s list), is a decidedly funkier affair, though it too toes the line of the restraint that is so characteristic of Nascimento’s music. His latest album, Harmônicos, was written with the Japanese guitarist Shin Sasakubo, whose work is deeply rooted in the music of northern South America. Nascimento is an artist who is reaching the height of his powers, and I’m so looking forward to what he continues to create.

Still House Plants - If I Don’t Make It, I Love U (Bison Records)
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There’s something magical happening in guitar rock right now, and Still House Plants are undeniably at the forefront, crafting mind-altering new sounds that push the boundaries of what the genre can be. They are part of a fresh generation of musicians who continue the storied British tradition of creating the unheard-of—conjuring radical possibilities out of the gray and dreary skies of the Isles they inhabit.

What can I say that hasn’t already been written by countless others? Perhaps something personal: seeing the former Glasgow art-school trio live in London this fall was revelatory. Without hyperbole, seeing Still House Plants play live was one of the most incredible and profound live music experiences I’ve had. What struck me most was how deeply R&B-infused their sound is. Frontperson Jess Hickie-Kallenbach’s voice—distinctive, soulful, unforgettable—evokes shades of Nina Simone. At times, her vocals act almost like a triggered sample, repeating phrases with unwavering tempo and pitch, layering an eerie, meditative quality over the chaos of Finlay Clark’s glitched-out guitar riffs and David Kennedy’s 1/16-off-tempo drums. It’s a juxtaposition that feels simultaneously deliberate and disorienting.

The resulting sound is singular, yet it gestures toward a lineage of artists like Bill Orcutt and Zach Hill, while drawing loose parallels to movements like No Wave and slowcore. Fans of Moin (whose album, You Never End also earned a spot on this list) might find a similar affinity here, as both bands explore the deconstruction of traditional rock frameworks into something sharper, stranger, and deeply experimental. Yet even with these comparisons, Still House Plants stand apart. They fuse disparate sounds and genres into something entirely new, a foundry furnace forging metallic, otherworldly creations that shimmer and distort.

Myriam Gendron - Mayday (Myriam Gendron)
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I had the absolute pleasure of seeing Myriam Gendron play at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge in May, where she opened for Jim White and Marisa Anderson (who were also fantastic). I had passively listened to the record once or twice before the show, but it wasn’t until I saw her playing the songs on stage that night that the weight of her work, and her significance as a folk artist, began to wash over me. In one of those really special intimate moments that occur on occasion between an artist and their audience, she opened up about the impetus for many of the songs on Mayday. She told of how, after a long and exhausting tour during which she often found herself alone, she returned to her home of Montreal for the first time since the death of her mother and was faced with the immense exhaustion and grief that that carried. In “Long Way Home,” Gendron’s low and tranquil-yet-haunting voice–part Catherine Ribeiro, part Leonard Cohen–carries that emotion so powerfully. We were all in tears.

Myriam Gendron began her professional life as a book dealer and copy editor and is a deep lover of poetry, citing writers like Dorothy Parker and Henry Miller as influences from which she has repurposed stanzas and drawn inspiration for her own lyrics. Gendron, who sings in both English and French, is a folk musician in the traditional sense, carrying on the convention of revisiting canonical songs from the folk artists of yesterday. In many of her songs she takes on these old standards, imbuing them with new layers and the raw emotions, be they sorrowful or rejoicing, that she is so captivatingly able to bring forth. Her sources are wide and sometimes surprising, often plumbed from the likes of Alan Lomax’s archives or Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. Mayday’s opener, the instrumental track, “There is No East or West,” is an homage to the John Fahey tune, “In Christ There is No East or West.” “Dorothy’s Blues” is drawn from Parker’s poetry. The song “Lullay, Lullay” is a reimagining of “The Coventry Carol,” a 16th century English Christmas carol about the Massacre of the Innocents, in which King Herod orders all male infants to be killed. The song originally takes the form of a lullaby from a mother to her condemned child, but Gendron has repurposed it as a sort of goodbye dirge to her own mother. The title of Mayday has moving significance itself. In an interview with B. Arthur from the great Aquarium Drunkard, Gendron explains, “Mayday. It expresses you know, those days that are so sunny and beautiful. But Mayday is also a distress signal. So... there’s all of that. My mother died in May and my daughter was born in May. It’s a month of many contrasts.”

The album is studded with musicians’ musicians: guitarists Bill Nace and Marisa Anderson (absolute shredders), drummer Jim White (prolific, check out his new supergroup project The Hard Quartet with Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, and Emmett Kelly), and out-there saxophonist Zoh Amba (incredible, also a very weird, memorable, and captivating performer) all make appearances across the album’s 10 tracks, with Amba delivering a frenzied and wailing solo at the end of the album’s closer, “Berceuse.” Mayday is an album enchanting, fighting, and full of depth. With it, like the inspirations she mines from, Gendron cements herself into the company of the greatest North American folk singers in history.

Cowboy Sadness - Selected Jambient Works (People Teeth)
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The name alone was enough to sell me on this album. A play on Aphex Twin’s seminal album Selected Ambient Works, Jambient draws similar inspiration to the creation of contemplative, atmospheric landscapes. Only here, we’re not looking inside our heads as much as we are looking out at tumbleweeds rolling across windblown prairies, dusty mesas, and the endless expanse of the American hinterlands. Selected Jambient Works, Vol. 1 is a collaborative work between a trio of musicians with a hefty body of work behind each of them. Peter Silberman of The Antlers (whose 2009 album Hospice is simply incredible–a landmark in emotionally resonant indie of the late aughts), David Moore of Bing & Ruth (who is well-versed in creating musical vistas, albeit with a piano-centered approach), and Nicholas Principe of Port St. Willow. Together, they weave a cozy sonic horse blanket that feels both vast and intimate, evoking the desolate beauty of the frontier while carrying an emotional weight that lingers long after the last note fades.

In last year’s list, I wrote about my discovery of “ambient country” with Daniel Bachman’s When the Roses Come Again, and Jambient Works certainly fits squarely into that categorization. A heady, moving, and transforming album–one that makes me want to saddle up my horse and amble slowly westwards towards the setting sun. And the best part? This is only Volume One…!

Lifted - Trellis (Peak Oil)
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Peak Oil is on an incredible run. With Purelink’s Signs putting ambient on the map for so many, the label continues to expand the boundaries of atmospheric sound with Trellis by Lifted. The former PAN artists, led by Future Times founder Max D and Matt Papich (aka Co La), function as a rotating supergroup of electronic, ambient, and experimental musicians. The group’s members stem from the vibrant DMV/Baltimore-indie scene which spawned acts like Animal Collective and Ponytail. Over the years, contributors have included Beatrice Dillon, Dustin Wong, and Tim Kinsella, among others.

On Trellis, the group ventures into what I can only describe as post-jazz. Is that a thing yet? Blurring the lines between ambient and freeform composition, the album navigates oblique, unmoored soundscapes imbued with live instrumentation and electronic elements that feel spontaneous yet remarkably cohesive. Dustin Wong’s shimmering guitar explorations provide a loose anchor at times, while Jeremy Hyman’s dynamic drumming often steers the compositions, pulling the pieces into unexpected directions.

Reverb and texture are integral here, as seemingly disparate elements collide and coalesce into elegant clouds of improvisation. The result is music that feels free yet intentional, a comforting yet expansive sonic journey that highlights the incredible range of talent at Lifted’s core. Trellis is another triumph for both the band and the label.

Adrianne Lenker - Bright Future (4AD)
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You should know her. You should know Big Thief. You should love them both. Bright Future is another brilliant showcase of how incredibly versatile, profound, vulnerable, moving, haunting, transfixing, and timeless Adrianne Lenker is. She is our generation’s Bob Dylan.

Total Blue - Total Blue (Music From Memory)
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Earlier this year we had a team of movers come into our NYC apartment to pack up all of our belongings in preparation for our move to the UK. They arrived at 8am on a Sunday morning, and these guys were like 22 years old, max. One of them was so hungover that he shut the office door behind him and went to sleep on the floor (I discovered this later when I went in to grab something, and, reader, I assure you, when I saw this I closed that door as softly as I could to make sure he could continue getting the sleep he clearly needed).

I was searching for some music to put on the speakers--something that might be agreeable to everyone as they packed up the physical contents of our lives. Total Blue had come out a week or so before. I’d listened to it once already and figured that, while these kids might find it a little spacey or weird, it would certainly not offend. About 20 minutes into the album, one of the dudes came up to me and asked, “What are we listening to?” Instinctively, I went on the defensive, ready to justify my choice. “Umm… it’s this jazz group Total Blue from LA,” I said, cagily. “This is fucking dope,” he said.

Powers/Rolin Duo - Clearing (Astral Editions)
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Jen Powers plays a hammered dulcimer; Matthew J. Rolin plays a 12-string acoustic guitar. If that doesn’t already sway you, imagine a sonic journey through the cosmos, with interludes in the Appalachian Mountains and a bird’s-eye view of remote, breathtaking islands.

SML - Small Medium Large (International Anthem)
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International Anthem is immaculate. Its roster and curation of music are unblemished, and its prolific output this year only reinforces that fact. Small Medium Large was recorded at the now defunct Los Angeles’ Enfield Tennis Academy—a storied avant-jazz bar and the site of Jeff Parker’s eponymous album. On this release, the group ventures into kosmische tangents, Afrobeat polyrhythms, and beyond, showcasing the label’s commitment to boundary-pushing music.

The ensemble features a powerhouse lineup: saxophonist Josh Johnson, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, guitarist Gregory Uhlmann, bassist Anna Butterss (whose 2024 album, Mighty Vertebrate, is also on this list), and percussionist Booker Stardrum. Butterss and Johnson also contributed to Jeff Parker’s The Way Out of Easy, one of the year’s best albums and a clear standout on this list (see Live Albums, below).

Kali Malone - All Life Long (Ideologic Organ)
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Pipe organs; choir; brass; dirge-drones; microtonal bliss and despair; Terry Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air; Laurie Spiegel

Anna Butterss - Mighty Vertebrate (International Anthem)
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A genre-blurring, bass-driven masterpiece.

Bass explorer; Jeff Parker collaborator; Bill Frissell; Joni Mitchell’s Hejira; tenderness

Moin - You Never End (AD 93)
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Post-punk deconstruction.

Guitar-rock vanguard; angular guitar; post-punk; art-rock replete with vocal samples from contemporary visual artists; sample-heavy; time-bending

Carme López - Quintela (Warm Winters)
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An ambient exploration of the gaita gaillega, or music of the Galician bagpipe; Pauline Oliveros; Meredith Monk; microtonal music

Naima Bock - Below A Massive Land (Sub Pop)
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I listened to “Feed My Release” more than any other song this year because I taught myself to play it on the guitar and even wrote the only tab that exists on Ultimate Guitar (🙃). This album is stirring and understated. I’m so happy to have come across Naima Bock this year.

Fabiano do Nascimento & Sam Gendel - The Room (Nascimento Music)
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Guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento is at his funkiest here, and saxophonist Gendel sets the stage for this impressive collaboration. The result is a quiet yet powerful conversation between two virtuosos, steeped in the warmth of Brazilian tradition and the edge of modern improvisation.

Mach-Hommy - #RICHAXXHAITIAN
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With RICHAXXHAITIAN, Mach-Hommy, the elusive Haitian-American Griselda emcee drops an album for today’s world. Elastically veering between English and Krèyol, Hommy takes on American imperialism in Haiti, the destruction wrought by the powers of capital, and drops venomous bars about Isr*el vis-a-vis Gaza. Name dropping the likes of Pol Pot and Ahmedinijad, Hommy’s globalist critique and acerbic wit bleeds through the album’s 17 tracks. In GUGGENHEIM JEUNE, he raps, “ain’t no peace accord, lord, I got the piece in the Accord squeezing in your door, now you even vegan in your thoughts.” Studded with features from the likes of underground kings Roc Marciano (I loved his recent album with the Alchemist The Elephant Key), Tha God Fahim, Your Old Droog, 03 Greedo, as well as fellow Haitian multihyphenate Kaytranada. Even one of my favorite tireless saxophonists Sam Gendel (see Nascimento/Gendel’s The Room above, or my best-of lists over the last three years) has a feature on “SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON (Reparation #1).”

RICHAXXHAITIAN veers from boombap to the off-kilter flows defining of the Griselda crew. Many of the tracks on RICHAXXHAITIAN are produced by SadhuGold, the equally elusive (and in my opinion underappreciated) guru behind so many blazing Griselda tracks. Run, don’t walk.

Sur le pont d’Avignon (Reparation #1) [feat. Sam Gendel]
Padon [feat. Tha God Fahim]

Shabaka - Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (An Impulse! Records)
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A transcendent journey; a cosmic jazz meditation.

Pharaoh Sanders; Sun Ra; 2023 Andre 3000; Journey in Satchidananda

Julia Holter - Something in the Room She Moves (Domino)
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A lush and haunting dreamscape.

Scott Walker; Talk Talk; Kate Bush

Nala Sinephro - Endlessness (Warp)
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Ethereal, healing avant-jazz from a musician who I expect we’ll be hearing a lot more beauty from in the coming years.

Laraaji; Pharoah Sanders; Brian Eno; celestial.

Not Waving & Romance - Infinite Light (Ecstatic Recordings)
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Infinite Light is a concept album of sorts. The record is a collaboration between Alessio Natalizia (Not Waving) and Romance, who draw their inspiration from Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus.” In it, I can hear a goddess slowly drawing form and emerging from a pearl within a shell.

Wendy Eisenberg - Viewfinder (American Dreams Records)
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Incredibly inventive and, at times, profoundly challenging, Viewfinder reflects Wendy Eisenberg’s journey through struggles with eyesight and vision, transforming their personal experience into a sonic exploration of perception itself. Over its hour and 18 minutes, the album hurls the listener through a kaleidoscope of free jazz improvisation, jagged post-rock textures, and haunting folk stylings, crafting an experience that feels utterly singular. It’s an intense and often exhausting ride, but one that rewards persistence with new layers of depth and discovery each time you return to it.

Itasca - Imitation of War (Paradise of Bachelors)
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Stripped-down and bare, Imitation of War leans into simplicity, letting each note and lyric resonate with quiet intensity. With sparse instrumentation and Itasca’s hauntingly airy vocals, the album feels intimate, like a whispered conversation in a still, sunlit clearing.

Ghost Dubs - Damaged (Pressure)
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(2) Live Albums of 2024

Jeff Parker ETA IVtet - The Way Out of Easy (International Anthem)
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Quite possibly the best album of the year. Jeff Parker’s The Way Out of Easy is a thrilling ride through avant-jazz, with plenty of space for each musician to shine. Josh Johnson’s sax, Anna Butterss’s bass, and Jamire Williams’s drums all take turns driving the music forward, while Parker’s guitar alternates between subtle textures and bold riffs. The album eventually lands in a dub-inspired groove—heavy, hypnotic, and totally unexpected—proving Parker’s ability to push jazz into exciting new territory.

Horse Lords - As it Happened (RVNG Intl.)
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Steve Gunn & David Moore - Live in London
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Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet - Four Guitars Live
Buy it here

(3) Reissues of 2024

Gastr del Sol - We Have Dozens of Titles (Drag City)
Buy it here

Career-spanning set of one of the best bands to ever exist. Jim O’Rourke forever.

Can - Live in Paris 1973 (Spoon Records)
Buy it here

Galaxie 500 - Uncollected Noise New York ’88-’90
Buy it here

Aerial M - The Peel Sessions (Drag City)
Buy it here

Keith Hudson - Playing It Cool (Week-End Records)
Buy it here

(4) Albums Released in Years Past, Discovered in 2024:

Sabreen - Death of the Prophet (PopArabia 1987)
Buy it here

_{Earlier this year, I did something I had never done before, something that would make the skin of most parents crawl: I went to a stranger’s house to meet with people from the internet.

On the site formerly known as Twitter (and now on BlueSky), I follow Gary Sullivan, aka @Bodegapop, a prolific collector and curator of predominantly Arab cassettes and vinyl he picks up from his extensive global travels and, more pertinently to his alias’ namesake, from mom and pop bodegas with music collections around New York City. I’ve been listening to Gary’s fantastic show, Bodega Pop, on WFMU for quite some time, and am regularly sent into new journeys of musical discovery from both his program and recommendations online. When he one day posted “Anyone in the NYC area interested in a listening party focused on Arabic bangers & novelty records from the 1960s-70s? Thinking about pizza, beer, records, for a couple to a few hours in Astoria on March 2, 3, 8, or 9. If 5-10 folks are interested, we'll make it happen,” I raised my proverbial hand immediately.

A couple weeks later, I found myself in the warm and welcoming home of Zora and Peter, Gary’s friends and fellow global music journeyists, sipping esoteric liqueur and slamming pizza while listening to and discussing a wide range of retro jams from across the Arab world. I was pleased to find that I was in the company of kindred spirits from all over the world. It was really a true delight to spend an evening surrounded by people with a deep love of music and traveling the world through sound (all were also prolific global travelers themselves). There were our hosts Zora, a travel writer whose work focuses on exploration in the Arab world, and Peter, a professor of criminal justice at John Jay with some pretty radical ideas for justice reform. Among the guests were Shiloh, a radio show host and Chinatown vinyl purveyor at Paradise of Replica; Tatyana, flautist in a traditional British Isles music trio and owner of the Astoria record store Pancakes; Ariyan, an Iranian-American musician and founder of the Technowruz party and member of the bands Googoosh Dolls and Tar Of; Stephen, another traveler and monthly radio host of Extended Fam Radio; and Jemayel, crypto researcher and guitarist in the LA postrock, jazz-fusion band Charts and Maps. We were all brought together by someone on the internet, so the lesson here is that this is always a safe thing and advisable thing to do.

I discovered Sherifa Fadel that evening, and I’m not sure if it was then or later (also through Bodega Pop) that I found Sabreen, a mesmerizing Palestinian band from Jerusalem who put out this record in 1987, during the onset of the first Intifada. Sabreen, or “those awaiting,” create songs that are at turns mournful but steadfast in their celebration and resistance. The song “Improvisation on Moondance” recalls the enormous amounts of cultural exchange between the Arab world, the Maghreb, and the roots it laid in Spanish music. The instrumental piece takes all sorts of twists and turns, venturing into realms of flamenco and even something I might dare call reminiscent of bluegrass. “Eash Ya Kdeesh” oscillates between lament and determined march, and I can’t help but think of the strength and will of the people who hold on to their ancestral homeland against the brutal and depraved might of empire.}

Sherifa Fadel - Ah Minel Sabr (City Media)