LA TORRE IBIZA - VOLUMEN QUATRO

TRACKLISTING


A1. Golden Girls - Kinetic (David Morley Remix)
A2. NO ZU - Ui Yia UIa
A3. Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba feat. Zouman a Tereta - Bala
B1. Rare Silk - Storm
B2. Synergetic Voice Orchestra - Zeb ra
B3. Special Request - Family Doggo
B4. Margaret Wakeley - Hard To Leave The Island

C1. Pauline Anna Strom - Equatorial Sunrise
C2. The Vendet ta Suite - Warehouse Rock (Timmy Stewart's Six Minutes to Sunrise Mix)
C3. Ma rk Barrott - Travelling Music (La Torre Reprise)
D1. Lola Perrin - Cloud Sky Fade
D2. Suzanne Ciani - The Eighth Wave
D3. JIM - Phoenix
D4. Geoffrey O'Connor - Her Name on Every Tongue
D5. John Foxx & Robin Guthrie - Estrelli ta





INFO


Mark Barrott and Pete Gooding p resent the fourth volume in their series of stellar collections, showcasing the sunset sounds spun at Ibiza`s Hostal La Torre. Sets, sequences, of music designe d to celebrate the passing of another day and welcome the pleasures of night, as the Sun makes way for Sister Moon.

On this occasion, the ceremony st arts with a gift from the Golden Girls - a side project of Phil Hartnoll, of Orb ital fame. In its original form Kinetic was a prime piece of pumping early `90s trance, here, however, it`s been remixed by David Morley into something far more in line with Belgian rave label R&S` ambient off-shoot, Apollo. Practically bea tless, but boasting a big, undulating, bottom-end, it now resembles something fr om Tangerine Dream`s back catalogue. A slightly kosmische, serene wall of sonica lly shining sound. The room-shaking riffs are reduced to echoes, while pitter-pa ttering percussion races. When the familiar hook finally surfaces, it`s accompan ied by spirit-stirring, symphonic strings - inducing fierce flashbacks to qualit y highs, and newly expanded minds and horizons. Man, I can remember the wonder, before it all went pear-shaped.

Next up are NO ZU, a sadly seemingly defunct 8-membered musical monster from Melbourne, Australia, who were absolute ly amazing live. Banging out a percussive concoction that they called Heat Beat, their funk was / is most definitely post-punk - channelling `80s no wave New Yo rk, the Mudd Club, and in particular the band, Liquid Liquid. Slapping basses, c ar horns, electronic keys, buttons, cowbells, and anything else that came to han d and seemed to fit, while lifting beats and piano parts from Chicago house. The party-starting call and response repartee of Ui Yia UIa finds them shouting out their star signs of criss-crossing compatibility over a muscular slo-mo stomp. Daphne Camf Rest In Peace.

Bassekou Kouyate is a Malian maestro on th e 6-stringed ngoni. A goat-skin covered "hunters harp", that via slave traders e volved into the North American banjo. With his group, named after this tradition al griot instrument, and Zoumana Tereta on lead vocals, he delivers a dizzying d isplay of dexterity on Bala. Generating a super mellow, spiritual groove, his pl aying countered by equal virtuosity on balafon and bolon. The voices switching b etween the sweet and the raw, and the song showering you in savannah sunshine, n o matter where you happen to be hanging.

American trio, Rare Silk, sh are their jazz vocal take on Stanley Turrentine`s Storm, where wildlife whistles and chirrups surround soft Synclavier sighs. Slick, smooth, imagine Manhattan T ransfer meets Wally Badarou. A marimba doing the mambo, the reeds winding like w afts of smoke carried on warm Caribbean winds. The rhythm that of a gently lappi ng tide.

The Synergetic Voice Orchestra was a one-off, one-time only outfit led by keyboardist / composer, Yumiko Morioka. A follow-up to her highly respected solo piano work, Resonance, the album, MIOS, was a far more ambitious affair, that brought together a collective of 6 musicians and 3 vocalists. The r esults moving away from new age and modern classical toward pop. The track, Zebr a, is a Jon Hassell-esque fusion heat haze / fog. Riding a slowly rumbling thund er-thumbed bass-line. A snake-charming woodwind cutting through the synthetic sh immer, weaving its seductive spell.

Family Doggo first appeared as th e b-side of Paul Woolford aka Special Request`s balls-out 2020 drum and bass sin gle, Spectral Frequency. "Doggo" in comparison is an oasis of calm, albeit packi ng some serious sub-woofer worrying boom. Stripped back, speaker-rattling, elect ro-edged introspection, emotive and euphoric without recourse to arms-in-the-air tropes, it`s bleep`s more sensitive, more thoughtful sibling. The awakening of the morning after the night before`s rush.

Margaret Wakeley`s magical Hard To Leave The Island was initially rediscovered and dusted down by the peop le that power the respected DJ / artist agency, Warm - who took it from Margaret `s 1976 LP, Better Days, and pressed it on a limited 45. A slice of superior sof t / yacht rock, it`s a cool cocktail-hour summer holiday serenade. A sophisticat ed arrangement of brass, jazzy keys, and acoustic strum, topped off by a smart s ax solo.

Equatorial Sunrise was / is one of the standouts contained o n Pauline Anna Strom`s sadly posthumous album, Angel Tears In Sunlight. Describi ng herself as a Trans Millennium Consort, the San Francisco-based synth pioneer attempted to blur, blend, past, present, and future, with her novel new age musi c. The song in question sees wind-chimes, marimba, and talking drum conversing i n counterpoint - conjuring the Cafe del Mar classic, Richard Wahnfried`s Grandma s Clockwork. Its calming, time-melting timbres creating a comforting analog bubb lebath. Aching with synthesized ethereal emissions, while pinpoints of sound ech o into infinity, like signals from distant stars.

The Vendetta Suite is the pseudonym of Gary Irwin, the former in-house engineer at David Holmes` Be lfast-based Exploding Inevitable Studio - a hive of musical activity where Timmy Stewart was also a frequent visitor. The 3 amigos mentioned were all stalwarts of the city`s early `90s house and techno scene. Some 30 years later Timmy remix ed Gary`s track, Warehouse Rock, into a highly strung - think Malcolm McLaren`s Deep In Vogue - soundclash of reggae and rave. A four-to-the-floor mediation sub jected to devastating washes of delay, where bionic bass, Mikey Dread samples an d dub sound-effects are softened by bucolic birdsong.

Mark Barrott's Travelling Music (La Torre Reprise) - an exclusive version of the titular track from his recent E.P. - is all tumbling tones - playful sequences and programmed patterns "blowing" busily, like colourful streamers caught on a tropical breeze. Like the compilation`s opening number, its another ambient, beatless, trance-da ncer - suffused with sustained swells and chords that feel like sunrise itself.< br />
Composer / pianist Lola Perrin`s Cloud Sky Fade is an unadorned, unad ulterated - save a little reverb - rippling river of cascading classical keys. H er piano rolling, reaching crescendos like crashing surf. Licensed from Lola's 2 006 CD, Fragile Light, its worthy of comparison with Keith Jarrett`s ECM output, and Wim Mertens` beloved The Belly Of An Architect score.

If you loo k on Wikipedia, you'll see that Suzanne Ciani has the affectionate moniker of "D iva of the Diode" - reflecting her huge importance in the history of electronic music. While studying at Berkley University in the `70s Suzanne became firm frie nds with Don Buchla, and subsequently spearheaded the use of his then ground-bre aking modular synthesizer. Moving to New York, where she camped out on Philip Gl ass` studio floor, Suzanne set up her own company employing Don`s marvelous mach ine to produce advertising jingles. The success of this business eventually led to Suzanne becoming Hollywood's first female soundtrack composer. In the `80s, S uzanne then started releasing new age records, one of which, 1986`s The Velocity Of Love, was a favourite of DJ Phil Mison, who made it a Cafe del Mar sunset st aple. The beautiful Eighth Wave surely should have been the blissed-out musical backdrop to some `80s art house love scene - summoning as it does silhouettes of cinematic protagonists passionately disrobing though a Vaseline-smeared lens. T heir hot clinches politely cutting to close-ups of isolated, moonlit beaches, an d untamable, tempestuous tides.

JIM is Jim Baron, Crazy P`s Ron Basej am, but in folky, singer / songwriter mode. Coming on like Crosby, Stills & Nash , he covers the Ian Astbury / Billy Duffy penned Phoenix in an ultra-laidback fa shion. Turning the gothic rock into a Laurel Canyon-esque lullaby. Singing of lo ve in terms of fire, and flames of desire, backed by acrobatic acoustic picking and sweeping orchestral strings.

You could be forgiven for thinking t hat Antipodean audio auteur, Geoffrey O`Connor, is some forgotten `80s idol - so authentic is his soothing, swooning, romantic synth pop. Her Name On Every Tong ue, however, dates from 2014, and can be located on Geoff`s sophomore solo long- player, Fan Fiction. The track`s vocoder harmonies proving perfect for a sing al ong on a top-down, Californian coastal drive.

These righteous solar-w orshiping rituals draw to a close with John Foxx & Robin Guthrie`s exceptional E strellita - a highlight from the pairs 2009 album, Mirrorball - where the former Ultravox! and Cocteau Twins founders collaborate on a sublime shot of shoegaze. Generating a glacial glide of layer upon layer of treated guitar. Grounded by w omb-like bass vibrations, while Foxx`s choirboy croon soars. Lending the song a prayer / hymn-like air. It`s as close as rock comes to something sacred.
Dr. Rob (Ban Ban Ton Ton)