Ozella Music

InfoPoint

Contact:
Ozella Music, Schloss Hamborn 20, D-33178, Borchen, Germany.

Website:
www.ozellamusic.com

Email:
info@ozellamusic.com

Sales:
http://www.imusicstage.com/
or
http://www.imusicstage.co.uk/

Jake Playmo - My Favourite Toys
(OZL22004CD)

Jake Playmo is a modern musician using all the technological tools available in the recording studio to make his music. Ozella Music describe this album as being "jazz/electronic/experimental" and that seems about right. Imagine if Kraftwerk had turned towards funky jazz instead of clinical dance beats and you have some idea of what My Favourite Toys sounds like - then again, Herbie Hancock during his Rockit period is also a fair description, I think. Oh, and the Bonzo Dog Band during their 'Jazz Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold' period. Backed by his band, Das Bose Ding, and other guest musicians, Jake Playmo does take some tracks to the extreme that may deter some listeners - this isn't easy listening music. The music and production does have a playful aspect, the track titles include Matel, Lego, Barbie, + Ken and Revell, all brand names found in your local Toys'R'Us. I have to be honest and say that a little of this album at a time is about all I can listen to, it can become a bit to extreme, but it is invigorating if you like music that pushes the envelope.

The thirteen tracks here share a common high standard, from Hello to Mist On The Moor they pretty much all share a low key acoustic backing provided by the largish group of musicians. Mind you, their support is so restrained that you'd be hard pressed to count all nine musicians here. The songs themselves are very spacious and almost all seem to have an underlying wistfulness and chronicle the fragility of relationships. The songwriter as craftsman has been relegated by popular taste to the backwaters in recent years, to be replaced by manufactured boy/girl bands and soloists spewing out the third rate product of profit-concious producers. Thankfully there are still craftsmen like Paul Joses out there plying their trade and [hopefully] surviving. Buy this and you're listening to quality music.

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Sometimes an album and an artist come right out of nowhere and knock your socks off with their sheer musicality and musical invention - and that is the case with Trio Bravo+ and their latest album, Menschen Am Sonntag. This album is actually a new soundtrack for a 1929 German silent movie [the English title is People On A Sunday] that featured the production talents of many names that would soon become the backbone of Hollywood's golden era: Robert & Curt Siodmak, Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann and Edgar G Ulmer.

Trio Bravo+ were asked to create a new soundtrack for the first public performance of the newly restored movie and this album is the result. Now, it would be easy to pastiche the 'flapper' jazz of the 1920s and leave it at that, but the musicians here have taken that and added contemporary classical and cabaret music influences of the time and mixed everything together into a music that is lively and tuneful.

Trio Bravo+ arse Mark Chaet - violin, Sergej Sweschinskij - bass, Svetoslav Karparov - piano, hammond organ, and Adam Tomaszewski - marimba and percussion. With their roots in the Ukraine, Bulgaria and Poland, the feel for the music of their homelands also comes through on this lovely album.

Of course, listening to this album divorced from the visuals of the movie itself one can only guess how the music fitted the images on the screen, and the live performance itself. But on its own merits this is an album that is very 'up' emotionally, with jaunty and jazzy tunes, enhanced by the spritely and rolling marimba and piano playing here. But the music is also highly emotional and it resonates with the optimism of a 1920's Germany before it fell into the nightmare of the Nazi era. This is also an album to test that new hi-fi system - the sound is crisp and crystal clear, with a warmth you rarely find on most 'pop' albums. An adventurous album well worth seeking out from your local import dealer or order direct from Ozella Music.

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Guido Ponzini - Twilight Town
[Ozella OZ 013 CD]

For more information, audio samples and ordering information please go to www.arvmusic.org or www.ozellamusic.com 

Karl Seglem - New North (OZ 006 CD)

The title of Karl Seglem's album is rather apt as he is a Norwegian sax player carving out a distinctly unique form of 'cool' jazz that certainly reflects the isolated beauty of Scandinavia. I have called it jazz [there is a very definite Miles Davis vibe on many of the tracks], but it is fused with elements of Norwegian traditional music and instruments [goat horns, hardinger fiddle, the plaintive but ethereal vocals of Berit Opheim], and the sensibility of new age and world music. Above all else it is a stark music, casting up visions of lonely fjords, glaciers and the midnight sun. In other words, this isn't easy listening! It is challenging music and it won't appeal to everyone, but this album has its moments and conjures up the arctic magic of the Northern Lights.

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Shunsuke Mizuno - Slow Time (OZ 007 CD)

Slow Time features the music and musical philosophy of Japanese bassist Shunsuke Mizuno, which as far as I understand it is simply to take the time out to relax and recharge one's spirit. A simple idea which in our high-charged lifestyles we tend to neglect. So Mr Mizuno has created an album of evocative and restful melodies based around his double bass and a twenty-two string koto played by Miwa Inaba - along with a few other instruments such as the harmonica, the shakuhachi, guitar and tabla. The results are indeed relaxing - with titles such as Rain in the Distance, A Starry Night in Shanghai, Beech Forest and Midnight Sarasvati we are in exotic locales, listening to world music or new age type music. But this is very sophisticated music, it evokes moods and feelings that most modern music barely touches on - there are hidden depths to the music of Shunsuke Mizuno, layers hat only unfold if you take the time to listen properly. Highly recommended.

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Natural Frequencies aka Andreas Leifield - Tranquility in Motion
(OZL22008CD)

Ozella Music always seem to come up with interesting musicians and albums that defy commercial requirements and end up on my regular playlist simply on their playability value alone. And here we are again with another album that caresses the ears and soothes stressed sensibilities. Andreas Leifield is another new name to me but impresses with his apparent musical talents on this self-produced and self-performed album of dreamy electronica music. Utilising a range of instruments - acoustic and electronic - he has created seven lengthy soundscapes that drift and soar, evoking tantalising flavours of the Far East, India in particular, amongst the atmospheric synth and looped sampled backdrops. The result is a collection of effortless and wonderfully restful tracks that nudge you just far enough to listen intently, rather than drift into sleep like most new age recordings do to me. This is an album that allows you to invoke your own imagination and create mind pictures [old holidays, perhaps], and with titles such as Dreaming, Inside, Time Waves, Zephyr etc., it would be so easy to use this album to soundtrack your own happy experiences as a traveller. Sadly, Andreas Leifield died in 2006, which is a great shame as I would love to hear more of this musician's music - it has a heart and a soul sadly missing from much of the current commercial music. 

Streif - Nordic Winter
(OZ 015CD)

I think this is quite possibly one of the most striking albums I have ever heard. The album title may give the game away descriptively, but the musicianship on this instrumental album just has to be heard to be believed. Streif are a Norwegian four piece band and their music straddles many musical genres - world music, folk, jazz, gypsy, rock. Streif are Georg Reiss, Tom Karlsrud, Torbjørn Økland and Birger Mistereggen and between them they play the following instruments: clarinet, sax, accordion, euphonium, guitar, bouzouki, mandolin, trumpet, marimba and percussion. Instrumentation which is far removed from that of a standard rock band but this rich mix of sounds have created nine highly emotive and evocative soundscapes. Nordic Winter obviously brings to mind the stark openness of the arctic wastes and the craggy coastline of a fjord-etched Norway, but there are strong lyrical hints of nearby neighbour Russia and even Jewish Kletzmer music, and yes, even flashes of humour. This is the band's fourth album and on the evidence of Nordic Winter I wish I had the others in my collection too! 

Various Artists - The Sound
(OZL22005CD)

This is another one of Ozella Music's series of excellent compilation albums showcasing a wide range of European musicians mostly unknown here in the UK. Subtitled "pure downtempo magic" on the cover and paraphrased by a sticker "Downtempo lounge tracks in the style of Air, Zero 7 and Portishead", it is safe to say that the music on this CD is for chilling to - aka relaxing, easy listening instrumentals with an edge. The artists include Stardelay, Reinmar Henschke, a very Pete Alderton, Gerold Kukulenz, Natural Frequencies, Henschkeschlott, Shan Qi, and Ozella's own Dagobert Bohm. Style moves from electronica to smooth jazz, world music to light rock. There is really no downside to this album, virtually every track is excellent and I can't think of any tracks that I would skip on future playing. All the tracks are taken from the artist's albums on Ozella so if you like what you hear you can easily order the full albums in the future.

Pete Alderton - Living On Love
[Ozella Songways SW 502 CD]

Pete Alderton is a new name to me but he is well known across Europe as an acoustic folk/blues singer. His new album is a delightful mix of personal blues and Americana rootsy sounds - some of them quite funky. The overall performance is reminiscent of a musician in the corner of a bar, entertaining those who want to listen while the rest get blattered. There are seventeen tracks, several of which include spoken word interludes, reminding me of some of the Band’s Robbie Robertson’s solo albums. It makes for some very atmospheric moments. Opening dialogue and song It Seems Strange.../Evil Was Her Name is a good example of this, a swampy-feeling blues, oozing a Mississippi swamp vibe, with a film noir-style prologue. In fact, these film noir dialogue extracts give the album a sense of being a musical diary, which is intriguing. Allied to Mr Alderton’s rough hewn voice, this is one very atmospheric album and one that I am returning to again and again.

For more information, audio samples and ordering information please go to www.pete-anthony-alderton.com or www.ozellamusic.com

Roger Matura - The Return of the Caveman /
Auf Wiedersehen Zukunft!?
[Ozella Songways SW 503 CD]

The Return Of The Caveman is quite an imposing album to take in on a first hearing. It is, after all, a triple album with lyrics sung in both German and English, and performed in such a variety of styles that finding some sort of cohesive description is something of a problem. At heart Mr Matura is a folk/blues singer and songwriter with a taste for doom-laden harmonium-clad songs of extreme wistfulness. He also has a voice that comes from the same deep vault as Tom Waits, Jonathan Richman and other left-field musicians - where gruff emotion and ‘heart’ means more than note perfect harmonisation. In other words, his hoarse and raspy voice is a very acquired taste. On CD1 most of the songs are sung in German, CD2 is all English language and both CDs contain a liberal selection of the best of his previous albums plus some unreleased tracks. CD3 is a bonus album called Give My Regards To Waterloo Station, seventeen cover versions of songs such as Don’t Be Cruel, A Whiter Shade Of Pale, Not Fade Away, Sunny Afternoon and many other classic pop songs of the 60s - all given the unique Matura treatment. And quite affecting that can be on some of the tracks. Amongst the 56 tracks here there is also a handful of instrumentals that prove that Mr Matura is also an excellent musician. As always, the Ozella design team have done a lovely job with the lyric booklet and CD packaging, this is quite an impressive looking package, impressively good audio engineering throughout. You are really going to need to be a musical explorer to find the rich rewards in this triple CD set, but they are there and they are well worth finding.

Ozella Music - Spring 2006 New Releases

As always with the new releases from Germany's Ozella Music the sheer eclectic variety of the music they issue is always interesting - and very appealing.

Of the four albums reviewed here, Gerold Kukulenz - Miles High [OZL22003CD] is probably the most immediately enjoyable - a collection of sixteen instrumentals performed in the 'lounge' style, with every instrument played by Kukulenz. The music is mostly upbeat and bouncy, uplifting music with a resolute beat and most definitely not new age. If you like the early albums by Air then you should like this a lot, it has the same multi-textured and multi-layered sound - gentle drum and bass percussion rhythms allied to slinky and supple electric piano figures, all wrapped in a sympathetic layer of electronica. If there's a theme to these tracks then I think must be travel, titles such as Space Walk, On The Night Train, Arrival, Rollin', Walk On The Cool Side etc., all evoke a sense of movement or moving on either physically or mentally. None of these tracks outstays its welcome, short or long, they don't ultimately bore, and all contain a sense of detached coolness and sophistication. This album is on heavy rotation at the Borderland CD deck and it will be on yours too! Highly recommended.

The second album from Ozella Music is Offroad by Hands On Strings [OZL012CD], which is a collection of acoustic guitar (and ocassional electric guitar) duets by Stephan Bormann and Thomas Fellow. The style is jazz/World with latin American influences, mostly upbeat, happy music and but the slower numbers have loads of atmosphere. The playing by these guys is exceptionally fine and I recommend anyone learning to play the guitar to hear this album to see just what is possible. While Hands On Strings have composed half of the eleven tracks, the rest are composed by South Americans, including the great Argentinian tango master Astor Piazolla. If you've bought albums by the lat lamented Acoustic Alchemy then I really think you will find Hands On Strings very much to your taste - this is a very pleasant, relaxing and invigorating album to enjoy.

Michel Sajrawy - Yathrib [OZ010 CD] is an album of hybrid Arabic fusion jazz - as the pr sheet describes it, and it works for me. Yathrib is another name for the city of Medina, a melting pot of arabs, jews and christians, and if the musical description on this album is anything to go by then it is a hectic, chaotic place to be! Michel Sajrawy's band come from all over the middle east, bringing their musical traditions together into something hugely evocative of the region. Sajrawy himself is a very nimble fingered guitarist who plays furious one moment and slowly melodic the next. The music brings to mind a curious almalgam of Django Rheinhardt's Hot Club de France and Robert Fripp and King Crimson. I enjoyed this album but I don't think it will appeal to all - if you like jazz rock with the exotic spiciness of the arabic middle east then you'll love it.

The final album is Roadstories by Paul Joses [SW501CD], a collection of songs and instrumentals drawn from Joses touring across Europe over the last thirty years. These fifteen tracks cover most emotional benchmarks in their melodic honesty. Joses fits into that now much maligned [by the music press] genre of singer/songwriter for the folk-rock-tinged bedroom sect that would suck up everything that Cat Stevens and Nick Drake would produce. And after years of larger than life music the more reflective and insular song is becoming popular again, which means that Joses deserves to be heard and considered. Thirty years on the road means a hell of a lot of life experiences to filter through to make up a decent album, and it works well here.

There are some albums that grab your attention from the first second after you press the play button - that happened with this album, and especially the opening track Marrakesh Sunrise, a jaunty mix of worldbeats, samples, Arabic chants and guitar, sitar and sax. Great track and a good introduction to the music and musicianship of Dagobert 'Dago' Böhm. Track two is simply called Ozella and is a lovely melodic homage to his record label. Stay Awake follows and this smooth ballad with vocals by Angua Crash is one of those songs that has 'late night smooch' written all over it. Next is Cafe Au Lait, a sax-led tune that reminds me mightily of the late lamented Spyra Gyra, another band who could spin magic from their instruments.

So four tracks in and the album is already appearing to be a classic. I don't really care how you classifiy it: world music, rock, jazz - this is an album that is NOT going to be removed from the player easily. Dago has put together a bewitching mix of world music influences, acoustic instruments [with a dash of electricity here and there] and real honest to God tunes that you end up humming. And believe you me, when you've heard as many albums as I have that is a rarity! The musicianship of Dago and his band is impressive, to say the least, and the overriding feeling is of smoothness and confidence. This is an album you'll never regret buying - it just gets better with each play!

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Dagobert Böhm is a German guitarist of rare skill and sensitivity, mixing many styles of fingerpicking to create his own unique one. Morning Flight is a beautiful collection of instrumentals that could be taken as folk or jazz, or in our wider appreciation of things now, world music. But on an intimate scale this is music that sounds as if it is being performed exclusively for you in your lounge. If you want points of reference then I suggest the mellower side of Weather Report and more consistently, Pat Metheny. One thing it isn't is bland 'new world' pap. The album begins with what seems to be Dagobert's signature tune, Morning Flight - a lovely piece that draws all the elements into nearly four minutes of perfection. And if you want to overdose there is also a six minute version... With tracks such as One Day I'll Follow The Birds, Pacific Sundown, and Novemberland one is presented with music that is highly visual and I can't help wonder why some of this excellent music hasn't been picked up for enhancing tv programmes such as wildlife documentaries. With a soundscape utilising acoustic instruments such as saxes, cellos, drums and guitars mixed with muted electric fretless bass and keyboards this album works on so many levels - a source of relaxation, spirit rejuvinator and of course, the sheer exhileration of fine music.

Circle Around is the debut album on Dagobert's own record label, Ozella Music. I'm happy to say that it follows very much in the musical steps of Morning Flight - thirteen more scintillating instrumental tracks that carefully and entertainingly showcase the guitarist's ample skills. Unlike the previous album Circle Around is a true solo album, only two tracks feature other musicians, so much of the accompaniment is multitrack magic. The album opens with Open Air, a jaunty number that aptly offers a spacious sound for the acoustic guitar to fill - a lovely tune that should have guitar fans straining for every note. Opus 71 follows, a denser, more lyrical piece, both folky and jazzy at the same time. Other highlight tracks on the album include Jorien, the bluesy Bigfoot, the Spanish-style Cadenza, and the haunting From Up Above - with its subtly uplifting fretless bass by Manfred Zepf. In reality though there are no sub-standard tracks on this album, one can confidently pop this cd into the player and be relaxed and stimulated at the same time.

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Guitarist Dagobert Böhm teams up with Markus Reuter on touch guitar and ambient guitar loops and Zoltan Lantos on violin to form String Unit, a more cutting edge and experimental outlet for acoustic music. The opening track, Indiaspara, incorporates an eastern ethnic feel and swing to a very atmospheric piece. Indeed there's a strong ethnic feel to almost all the music on this ten track album, whether from Eastern Europe, Asia or the Far East. Tau carried the feel on with tabla and violin over guitars drones - yet still retains a jazzy feel to the structure. Circle has a, you guessed it, circular guitar riff over which the violin swoops and drones in something of a cross between Indian and Japanese styles - very atmospheric. The River literally flows, a fast rivulet of rich notes. Most of the remaining tracks use a similar template. This album is beautifully recorded, the sound is spacious and alive, each instrument clearly positioned and crystal clear. It also occurs to me that this is an album for chilling out to - it isn't soporific but it is clearly not for dancing either - its resolute slow-to-mid tempo format stimulates the brain rather than the feet. This is an ideal album if the noise of the world is too loud in your head.

The album Acoustic Unit features Dagobert Böhm on guitars, Tony Lakatos on flute and sax, Bela Lattmann on bass and Kornel Horvath on percussion. Unsurprisingly this album continues Dagobert's explorations into acoustic music and weaves together elements of ethnic, jazz and folk music into something new. Unlike the other albums reviewed here this album is a band collaboration and the addition of sax, flute, bass and percussion opens out the sound into new avenues of musical adventure. It's also fair to say that this album is also more uptempo than most of the previous material, with the bass and percussion pushing things along into something far more rhythmic. The album opens with La Via, a spritely latin/gypsy riff led by Tony Lakatos' soprano sax. Big Moon - Small Town follows, a slightly Django-esque jazz number, followed by You Do, a faster-paced sax-led workout. Spirits And Butterflies is a more latin influenced number with some nice mixing of flute and guitar. The rest of the tracks on this album also follow this latin/jazz theme, with very cool [and ultra-tight!] playing by all four members of the band. Again, this is the sort of album to give you that mellow mood. The musicianship is very high and the melodies of most of the self-composed tracks stay in the head for some time. Another great album from Dagobert!

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There are times when you need some music in your life that is solely there to rest and restore your energy levels. Well, I think I just might have the albums here that will do that for you. These four compilation CDs from Ozella Music bring together an amazing collection of virtuosic musicians from across Europe, but mostly Germany, I think. But the bottom line is that each album captures the mood of a time of day with a wide range of styles and instrumentation. Mostly acoustic and with just the merest hint of electricity at times, these musicians conjure up some extremely relaxing moods spread across the four albums.

The musicians on these CDs include Dagobert Böhm, String Unit, Trio Bravo, Angua Crash Trio, Acoustic Unit, Paul Joses and a whole raft of names unknown to me but who are all equally as good. The music by these people doesn't strike me as being what you would call 'New Age', it isn't that bland, it is rooted in jazz, folk and some artists draw on their ethnic roots to impressive effect. The term 'Easy Listening' has almost become an insult in some music circles and yet this is the nearest that I can come to describing the music here - it is extremely easy on the ear, and yet it has definite roots in the real people making playing on these CDs. Each of these albums has an average of twenty tracks or more, so picking out favourites is pretty impossible - I can honestly say that there is nothing on any of the CDs that forced me to use the skip control on... And much that demanded to be replayed again immediately. I haven't come across many compilations CDs that have made me do that - so all four albums are highly recommended.