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.: contact Colin Bass at: mail@colinbass.com
update 27.04.12
It's been a busy 2012 so far with much mixing going on at the newly relocated in London Kartini Studios. First it was the debut album of the Krar Collective, the fabulous London-based Ethiopian power trio which was recorded last November for Riverboat Rececords. Production story here. Album to be released this summer and the Krar Collective will be undertaking a Making Tracks UK tour in October. Also gtting the mixing treatment has been the debut solo album from Alhouisseini Anivolla, the guitarist and singer with Niger's Touareg/Wodaabe soul ambassadors, Etran Finatawa, to be released on World Music Network. And I've been greatly enjoying putting the finishing touches to a new album from the redoubtable Lord Mouse & the Kalypso Katz, the great multinational euro-calypso band from Berlin. More info soon...
update 05.01.12
Happy New Year to all. And it's started with the release of the Sambasunda Quintet album, "Java", on the World Music Network label, a wonderfully fresh interpretation of the sensual sounds of traditional West Javanese music. The band will be doing a UK tour for the Making Tracks organisation in February 2012. See full tour dates at the Making Tracks website. In December 2011 I went to Bandung in West Java with Making Tracks director, Katerina Pavlakis and we made this video to promote the tour. Please enjoy and come along to a concert. I will be there showing them around Britain, explaining local customs, introducing them on stage and generally making the sandwiches and selling the CDs and what ever else. Drop by and say hello!
update 16.08.11
Further developments on the prize-winning front: The German Record Critics Association have now announced that the "Lost Causes" album by Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird, produced by Colin Bass gets the award for the Best Folk/Folklore album of the year July 2010 - June 2011. Hooray! See full list of prize-winners here.
update 16.06.11
Nice to see a fresh mention of the Sambasunda album Rahwana's Cry, which I produced for Network Medien in 2005, in the list of the 75 top albums reviewed over 75 issues in Songlines magazine. They say: "An 18-piece gamelan (gong) ensemble from the musically rich Sunda region of West Java. This breakthrough international album, blending various gamelan styles with reggae, jazz and Latin music, was the only one from South-East Asia to make it into the WMCE (European World Music Charts) in a decade". My account of the recording sessions in Java can be read here. Hear some sound samples on the Network Medien website.
Available through Amazon internationally.
update 24.03.11
I'm pleased to announce that the below-mentioned album, "Lost Causes" by Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird, produced by yours truly, received a German Record Critics Award in February (Folk/Folklore section). Hurrah!
And here's a video clip of one of the tracks, "March of the Jobless Corps":
March of the Jobless Corps from Aviv Kosloff on Vimeo.
update 10.01.11
Welcome, and I wish all who pass by here a positive and productive New Year. I was lucky to be involved in some wonderful musical projects in 2010, including four new album releases bearing the credit, “Produced by Colin Bass”:
Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird - “Lost Causes” - Oriente label, Germany
Brilliant collage of influences from Klezmer-Punk Cabaret to Yiddish Laments via Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Berthold Brecht from multi-talented international combo fronted by the charismatic Daniel Kahn. Buy here at Oriente label website!
Etran Finatawa - “Tarkat Tajje / Let’s go!” - World Music Network, UK
The hypnotic groove of Niger’s Etran Finatawa evokes the breathless heat and shimmering horizon of the Sahara. With laid back guitars, driving rhythms and compelling voices, Tarkat Tajje/Let’s Go! invites you to accompany this dynamic band of Wodaabe and Touareg nomads on their evolving musical journey.
'driving, gloriously repetitive, traditional music mixed with some of the slickest and most beautiful electric guitar imaginable... they combine to present a sublime sound' - Sydney Morning Herald, 4stars
Buy here at WMN website!
Jenny Weisgerber - “Ambitious Love” - Soulmaid Records, Germany
CD EP from the German chanteuse presenting six new songs of love, lust, loss and longing. The mighty Bild newspaper of Germany has tipped her as one of the names to watch in 2011.
Buy here at www.jennyweisgerber.de or at www.kartini-music.com
Sambasunda Quintet - “Java” - World Music Network, UK
The mellifluous cascading sounds of the kacapi harps, sinuous suling (bamboo flute), slippery Sundanese violin, the melodic throb of the khendang drums and the light as a butterfly singing of Dini Adrianti combine in a set of fresh interpretations of traditional West Javanese ballads and original compositions. Meltingly mesmerising.
This album will be released by World Music Network in Spring 2011.
For previous news archives click here
Latest updates: stories - last update 15.09.06
Java Journal Part 1The Making of "Rahwana's Cry", the new album from the Javanese urban gamelan ensemble Sambasunda, produced by Colin Bass.
Part 1: A journey to Bandung, West Java: Jet-lag, rehearsals, amazing music. Part 2 :Recording method, a trip to the market. read more...
For full index of Stories click here
Latest updates: music - last update 03.03.08
New (almost) complete DiscographyDetails of all published recordings plus links to lyrics
Latest updates: poems - last update 21.10.08
Poetry CornerPoems, Blank Verse and Blatant Doggerel - only available here
