#07 in my 'Year of Music' series was something that I'd long considered doing, and I already dipped into it with #36. I have a lot of favourite artists and labels, I can never narrow down my favourites to tracks or albums, it's too narrow a selection. Labels and artists gives me something more to work with and talk about if the question ever comes up, and I often thought about doing mixes / selections based entirely around an artist or label but I was just never sure how best to approach it. So, during this series that I put together in 2022, I opted to dip my toes in the water.
Whether you want to call this a mix or a selection is up to you. I go with selection, there's not much in the way of traditional mixing, there's plenty of that on my pages though if that's your thing. I've opted to go with ' - Tributes - ' as a title because I may choose to use that for other labels or artists in the future, we'll see, but Gondwana is one of, if not the favourite label of mine at the moment, and it has been for a few years now.
The name Gondwana stems from a mountainous and hilly region in India and it was also the
name given to a massive landmass (or super-continent) around 500,000,000
years ago. The label was set up in Manchester in 2008 by one of my
favourite artists, Matthew Halsall. I could extol the qualities of this
label and many of the artists that feature on it but that's kind of what
the mix / selection is about. I've pulled together a small sample of some of their
wonderful music but really it could have been hours longer with more
artists, but trying to keep these selections around an hour or so, it's
just a sampling of what is on offer. I would encourage you to dig deeper
yourself, visit Bandcamp and Spotify (Matthew Halsall has an excellent
spiritual jazz playlist he curates himself), start with Matthew
Halsall's work and also look out for Hania Rani (and check this video
and this one). Anyway, I hope this gives a nice taste and perhaps pulls
one or two listeners to the label. As always, I will link to where you
can buy the music featured below the player and will add some additional
links for the label too.
This weeks cover picture is an
edited photo I took in Grindelwald, Switzerland which is nestled in the
heart of the alps and surrounded by the mountains of Faulhorn,
Schwarzhorn, Wellhorn, Wetterhorn, Mettenberg, Schreckhorn,
Lauteraarhorn, Agassizhorn, Fiescherhorn, Mönch, Eiger, Lauberhorn and
Männlichen. Nearby Lauterbrunnen is said to have been inspiration for
Tolkein's Rivendell in The Hobbit / Lord Of The Rings.
If you want to know what that 'Year of Music' series I mentioned earlier is about, then there's a short description about that [HERE]. If you prefer to use a Soundcloud player, then you can find this mix over [HERE].
Links to Gondwana - Website // Bandcamp // Spotify // Instagram // Facebook // Youtube // Twitter (F.U Musk)
Tracklist
01. Forgiveness - Ocean Floor
02. Dwight Trible ft. Matthew Halsall - Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Hair
03. Matthew Halsall - Reflections
04. Phi-Psonics - Like Glass
05. Vega Trails - Train To Kyoto
06. Caoilfhionn Rose - Truly
07. Hania Rani - Come Back Home
08. GoGo Penguin - One Percent
09. Portico Quartet - With, Beside, Against
10. Matthew Halsall - The Temple Within
11. Paradise Cinema - Possible Futures
12. Jasmine Myra - Words Left Unspoken
13. Chip Wickham - Sais (Egypt)
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