2024: Eleven albums you should listen to
- Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown
- Willie Nelson – Last Leaf On The Tree
- Fabiano do Nascimento & Sam Gendel – The Room
- The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World
- Santi Careta – A Milers De Somnis De Distànsa
- Gunnar Sønstevold/Mai Sønstevold – The Kitchen Counter Experiments And Other Electronic Works (1959-1984)
- Andrea Giordano – Pearlescent Dark
- Erik Honoré – Triage
- Tyla – Tyla
- Charlie XCX – Brat
- Ganavya – Daughter Of A Temple
A personal favorite of mine from 2024 is the duo album entitled The Room, from LA based, Brazilian guitarist Fabiano Nascimento and saxophone player Sam Gendel. The latter has also released an album together with Norwegian fidler Hans Kjorstad. Its sparse arrangements and strong musicianship leans on Brazilian music of bossa, jazz and folk.
Erik Honoré made his best album under his own name in 2024. Triage carries themes that can be found on his previous solo releases Heliographs (2014) and Unrest (2017). Beautifully produced, it ties old recordings with the new ones. A perfectly balanced album, at least in my book.
Perhaps the most surprising release of the year came from Willie Nelson. The Last Leaf On The Tree is a set of (mostly) cover songs by the senior C&W singer. A swan song that is full of beauty, protest songs and advice for young people. Produced and curated by Micah Nelson it features among others Daniel Lanois on pedal steel.
Two dance albums that intrigued me: South African singer Tyla´s self titled debut album, and the Charlie XCX´ Brat long player. Both sounds fresh and daring while still being accessible.
Italian singer Andrea Silvia Giordano, currently based in Oslo released a large ensemble album dedicated to her late Italian mentor. The album carries a set of nine Stansia songs expressing fatigue or perhaps a life ending. Giordano studied with Sidsel Endresen at the Norwegian Academy in Oslo. She has collaborated with among others video artist Kjell Bjørgeengen and Eivind Lønning. The latter also a sometime collaborator with Erik Honoré.
Together with Eivind Aarset I was invited to play at Laboratory of Arts in a small village of Tavertet outside Barcelona. A community of Tibetan Buddhist practitioners. We stayed for a week and listened to performances in between mediation lessons, masterclasses and mountain walks. Indian/US singer Ganavya came with her mom and dad, both appearing on her 2024 album. Celebrating midsummer night, Nik Bartsch, Shai Maestro and EST dummer, Magnus Öström joined us for our performance. A beautiful night. Listening to Ganavya´s masterclass, a lecture on classical Indian raga was both intentional demystifying and inspiring. I was also impressed by Catalonian guitarist Santi Careta and his performance with pianist Clara Peya. Santi Careta´s solo album A Milers de Somnis de Distànsa is a set of songs sung by Careta himself. Worth checking out.
Norwegian electronic pioneers Gunnar and Mai Sønstevold homemade «kitchen» recordings has been carefully collected and restored by the eminent Lasse Marhaug as The Kitchen Counter Experiments And Other Electronic Works (1959-1984). These recordings has been made public on O.Gudmundsen Minde. Available on Bandcamp.
A little nod to Flowworker´s Michael Engelbrecht is the new Cure album. I could pull out a few tracks from their extensive catalogue. I must admit I fell off their releases after a while, but Alone from Songs From A Lost World would be a good start to their extensive catalogue.
From her tenure with Portishead, a band that somehow left me cold, Beth Gibbons´Lives Outgrown is a work of a matured songwriter and performer. What once felt insecure and perhaps therefore had traces of Billy Holiday has gradually turned into something deeply personal.
– Jan Bang
13 Kommentare
Michael Engelbrecht
Some interesting signposts and horizons to look for, thanks.
How the heaven will these The Kitchen Counter Experiments sound – curious!
When Henning put her on the map, ai fell in love with Ganavya’s album, and wouod have loved to join company in Tavertet!
I will give that Cure song ALONE the deep listening treatment!
I often like these minimalistic saxophone inventions by Sam Gendel! Maybe he’s a good choice for my first of my four 2025 KLANGHORIZONTE evenings (March). There is so much great music around that is so easy to miss… so it will be easy to find a thrilling sequence of albums appearing between autumn 2024 and spring 2025.
By the way it was pure excitement to listen to Bro – Arve – Rossy in Dortmund days ago….(see blog diary)…
Jan Bang
Hello Michael,
I noticed that you heard the trio concert with Arve, Bro and Rossy (a new name to me). Sounds intriguing. I spoke with Arve just a short while ago. He suggested a new recording with Eivind, himself and me and perhaps Veslemøy Narvesen on drums on a few pieces in order to creating different colors.
JB
Ingo J. Biermann
Hei Jan,
I didn’t expect anyone else to mention Charli XCX and Tyla on the blog — I was about to mention those in my 2024 retrospective, too, even though I am still not totally sure if they work well enough as a great album or merely as collections of great tracks.
Considering you’re mentioning dance albums, I was wondering if also you heard Nia Archives’ album, Silence is loud? It is among my very favorites, a great combination of past and present when it comes to UK dance music. Like Tyla and Charli XCX, it’s also a great pop album.
Anonym
Hi Ingo,
her name rings a bell. Realizing that I have listened to a bit of this release enjoying the flow of ideas („Forbidden“ intro in particular). Her voice is beautiful. Interesting that d&b never went out of fashion. It just went backstage to return with an encore in full effect.
J
Ingo J. Biermann
Yes, I guess drum&bass still has a few fans, but not too many. I am still quite happy when there are new albums using those stylistic elements well.
I see Andrea Giordano pretty much everytime I am in Oslo, as she’s a close friend of Ingar’s and Alessandra’s, coming from Italy, and they have been talking about this recording for years… but I still haven’t heard it yet – as last time in Oslo I didn’t see her/them.
I still have yet to listen to the other albums you mention, as I still haven’t even heard Songs Of A Lost World, even though we went to see The Cure on their tour, when they came to Berlin, and they played three or four songs of the album already, including „Endsong“ (which opened the shwos) and „Alone“ (which ended the main part, before encores), and those were immensely impressive (as was Robert Smith’s voice for almost three hours and the excellent interplay of the band).
Of course I heard Triage, and it is already in my top albums of 2024.
Michael Engelbrecht
Jan, our foster daughter from Afganistan, Marjan, now 18, came to me when I gave Tyla a listen via her video „Water“, and said: Michael, this is my music. I love Tyla“ 🥁
Jan Bang
Good girl! I guess we need to be open minded, especially to new sounds in whatever shape they come.
🐠
Olaf Westfeld
I had these „Kitchen Counter Experiments“ in my hands when I visited Oslo in October, but bought other Norwegian records I had never seen before instead (Andreas Roysum, Naaljos Ljom)…
Beth Gibbons ftw!
Jan Bang
Hi Olaf,
I must check the recordings you mention. Naaljos Ljom is the band with Anders Hana, son of Alf Terje Hana, the guitarist based in Stavanger. Haven´t heard these recordings though. The Beth Gibbons album is a thing of beauty.
Olaf Westfeld
The store had a logo with a tiger. Inside it felt like an indie shop from the early 90ies.
I bought both albums mainly because of the artwork, but know Roysum from Marthe Lea Band. Nice little records, both of them.
Marjan
Hello, Mr. Bang! Michael showed me your answer about Tyla. Thank you for the kind words! Marjan!
Jan Bang
Dear Marjan,
The world of music is so much fun. Here’s a few tracks that my daughter and I play while we’re driving together:
Chai: action
Pink panthèress: boys a liar (part two)
Benny sings: young hearts
Frank Ocean: pink+white
Kaytranada: you’re the one
Syreeta: keep him like he is
Cleo Sol: reason
Good luck and merry Christmas to you and Michael🙏
Best,
Jan
ijb
From the German weekly DIE ZEIT’s daily newsletter:
_