LA TORRE IBIZA - VOLUMEN QUATRO

TRACKLISTING


1 Golden Girls - Kinetic (David Morley Re mix)
2 NO ZU - Ui Yia UIa
3 Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba feat. Zoumana Tere ta - Bala
4 Rare Silk - Storm
5 Synergetic Voice Orchestra - Zebra
6 Sp ecial Request - Family Doggo
7 Margaret Wakeley - Hard To Leave The Island
8 Pauline Anna Strom - Equatorial Sunrise
9 The Vendetta Suite - Warehouse R ock (Timmy Stewart's Six Minutes to Sunrise Mix)
10 Mark Barrott - Travelling Music (La Torre Reprise)
11 Lola Perrin - Cloud Sky Fade
12 Suzanne Ciani - The Eighth Wave
13 JIM - Phoenix
14 Geoffrey O'Connor - Her Name on Eve ry Tongue
15 John Foxx & Robin Guthrie - Estrellita





INFO


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

On this occasion, the ceremony starts with a gift from the Go lden Girls - a side project of Phil Hartnoll, of Orbital fame. In its original f orm 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 l abel R&S` ambient off-shoot, Apollo. Practically beatless, but boasting a big, u ndulating, bottom-end, it now resembles something from Tangerine Dream`s back ca talogue. A slightly kosmische, serene wall of sonically shining sound. The room- shaking riffs are reduced to echoes, while pitter-pattering percussion races. Wh en the familiar hook finally surfaces, it`s accompanied by spirit-stirring, symp honic strings - inducing fierce flashbacks to quality highs, and newly expanded minds and horizons. Man, I can remember the wonder, before it all went pear-shap ed.

Next up are NO ZU, a sadly seemingly defunct 8-membered musical m onster from Melbourne, Australia, who were absolutely amazing live. Banging out a percussive concoction that they called Heat Beat, their funk was / is most de finitely post-punk - channelling `80s no wave New York, the Mudd Club, and in pa rticular the band, Liquid Liquid. Slapping basses, car horns, electronic keys, b uttons, cowbells, and anything else that came to hand and seemed to fit, while l ifting beats and piano parts from Chicago house. The party-starting call and res ponse repartee of Ui Yia UIa finds them shouting out their star signs of criss-c rossing compatibility over a muscular slo-mo stomp. Daphne Camf Rest In Peace.
Bassekou Kouyate is a Malian maestro on the 6-stringed ngoni. A goat-s kin covered "hunters harp", that via slave traders evolved into the North Americ an banjo. With his group, named after this traditional griot instrument, and Zou mana Tereta on lead vocals, he delivers a dizzying display of dexterity on Bala. Generating a super mellow, spiritual groove, his playing countered by equal vir tuosity on balafon and bolon. The voices switching between the sweet and the raw , and the song showering you in savannah sunshine, no matter where you happen to be hanging.

American trio, Rare Silk, share their jazz vocal take on Stanley Turrentine`s Storm, where wildlife whistles and chirrups surround soft Synclavier sighs. Slick, smooth, imagine Manhattan Transfer meets Wally Badarou. A marimba doing the mambo, the reeds winding like wafts of smoke carried on war m Caribbean winds. The rhythm that of a gently lapping tide.

The Syne rgetic 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, R esonance, the album, MIOS, was a far more ambitious affair, that brought togethe r a collective of 6 musicians and 3 vocalists. The results moving away from new age and modern classical toward pop. The track, Zebra, is a Jon Hassell-esque fu sion heat haze / fog. Riding a slowly rumbling thunder-thumbed bass-line. A snak e-charming woodwind cutting through the synthetic shimmer, weaving its seductive spell.

Family Doggo first appeared as the b-side of Paul Woolford ak a Special Request`s balls-out 2020 drum and bass single, Spectral Frequency. "Do ggo" in comparison is an oasis of calm, albeit packing some serious sub-woofer w orrying boom. Stripped back, speaker-rattling, electro-edged introspection, emot ive and euphoric without recourse to arms-in-the-air tropes, it`s bleep`s more s ensitive, more thoughtful sibling. The awakening of the morning after the night before`s rush.

Margaret Wakeley`s magical Hard To Leave The Island wa s initially rediscovered and dusted down by the people 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 soft / yacht rock, it`s a cool cocktail-hour summer holiday serenade. A sophisticated arrangement of brass, jaz zy keys, and acoustic strum, topped off by a smart sax solo.

Equatori al Sunrise was / is one of the standouts contained on Pauline Anna Strom`s sadly posthumous album, Angel Tears In Sunlight. Describing herself as a Trans Millen nium Consort, the San Francisco-based synth pioneer attempted to blur, blend, pa st, present, and future, with her novel new age music. The song in question sees wind-chimes, marimba, and talking drum conversing in counterpoint - conjuring t he Cafe del Mar classic, Richard Wahnfried`s Grandmas Clockwork. Its calming, ti me-melting timbres creating a comforting analog bubblebath. Aching with synthesi zed ethereal emissions, while pinpoints of sound echo into infinity, like signal s from distant stars.

The Vendetta Suite is the pseudonym of Gary Irw in, the former in-house engineer at David Holmes` Belfast-based Exploding Inevit able 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 hou se and techno scene. Some 30 years later Timmy remixed Gary`s track, Warehouse R ock, into a highly strung - think Malcolm McLaren`s Deep In Vogue - soundclash o f reggae and rave. A four-to-the-floor mediation subjected to devastating washes of delay, where bionic bass, Mikey Dread samples and dub sound-effects are soft ened by bucolic birdsong.

Mark Barrott's Travelling Music (La Torre R eprise) - an exclusive version of the titular track from his recent E.P. - is al l tumbling tones - playful sequences and programmed patterns "blowing" busily, l ike colourful streamers caught on a tropical breeze. Like the compilation`s open ing number, its another ambient, beatless, trance-dancer - suffused with sustain ed swells and chords that feel like sunrise itself.

Composer / pianis t Lola Perrin`s Cloud Sky Fade is an unadorned, unadulterated - save a little re verb - rippling river of cascading classical keys. Her piano rolling, reaching c rescendos like crashing surf. Licensed from Lola's 2006 CD, Fragile Light, its w orthy of comparison with Keith Jarrett`s ECM output, and Wim Mertens` beloved Th e Belly Of An Architect score.

If you look on Wikipedia, you'll see t hat Suzanne Ciani has the affectionate moniker of "Diva of the Diode" - reflecti ng her huge importance in the history of electronic music. While studying at Ber kley University in the `70s Suzanne became firm friends with Don Buchla, and sub sequently spearheaded the use of his then ground-breaking modular synthesizer. M oving to New York, where she camped out on Philip Glass` studio floor, Suzanne s et up her own company employing Don`s marvelous machine to produce advertising j ingles. The success of this business eventually led to Suzanne becoming Hollywoo d's first female soundtrack composer. In the `80s, Suzanne then started releasin g 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 staple. The beautiful Eighth W ave surely should have been the blissed-out musical backdrop to some `80s art ho use love scene - summoning as it does silhouettes of cinematic protagonists pass ionately disrobing though a Vaseline-smeared lens. Their hot clinches politely c utting to close-ups of isolated, moonlit beaches, and untamable, tempestuous tid es.

JIM is Jim Baron, Crazy P`s Ron Basejam, but in folky, singer / s ongwriter mode. Coming on like Crosby, Stills & Nash, he covers the Ian Astbury / Billy Duffy penned Phoenix in an ultra-laidback fashion. Turning the gothic ro ck into a Laurel Canyon-esque lullaby. Singing of love in terms of fire, and fla mes of desire, backed by acrobatic acoustic picking and sweeping orchestral stri ngs.

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

These righteous solar-worshiping rituals draw to a close with John Foxx & Robin Guthrie`s exceptional Estrellita - 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 womb-like bass vibrations, wh ile 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 )