Palace Brothers - There is No-One What Will Take Care of You

1993; 12 tracks

There is No-One What Will Take Care of You is the debut solo album of the (amazing) multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Charlie), in this case going under the name Palace Brothers. Playing on this album are also a few members of the band Slint.

A fragile, warbling voice rises above a field of disconsolate folky/lo-fi/post-rock textures, and century-old sadness washes in the refreshing light of dawn breaking over a high snow-tipped mountain. I found it very glorious to witness, the unfurling of this infinitely intimate album.

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Huun Huur Tu & Carmen Rizzo - Eternal

2009; 8 tracks

Eternal is the collaborative work of Huun Huur Tu, a Tuvan throat singing group, and Carmen Rizzo, a producer, engineer, and electronic artist. This is an incredibly powerful and beautiful album of traditional folk and throat singing stretched against a canvas of ambient and electronic music.

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Troy von Balthazar - How to Live on Nothing

2010; 14 tracks

Exquisitely sad folk-inspired rock and electronic music by multi-instrumentalist Troy von Balthazar (Chokebore). There are some really powerful songs on here, and some equally enjoyable and beautiful ones, too. It is fine music to listen to in an abandoned train station.

the body is a universe of feeling

Philemon Arthur and the Dung - Musikens Historia Del 1 Och 2

1992 (1972); 35 tracks

Amazing acoustic lo-fi music from Sweden... I absolutely love the track "Det Femte Hjulet" but there is a melancholy folkiness about their sound I have yet to find in music elsewhere. This is re-released material that was recorded in both 1972 and 1987.

I. LOVE. THIS.

Download.

Madredeus - Um Amor Infinito

2004; 13 tracks

Madredeus is a Portugese band who combines traditional Portugese music with modern folk and neo-classical. They have been making music since the late 80s, but this is one of their newer albums. Un Amor Infinito actually reminds me a lot of neo-folk music I used to be really into, like Empyrium, Vàli, Forseti, etc. The primary instruments used are the classical guitar, cello, and keyboard synthesizer. I've had this album for a while, but I thought I'd share it because I love it.

suave tristeza

Mark Eitzel - Caught In a Trap and I Can't Back Out 'Cause I Love You Too Much, Baby

1998; 11 tracks

Mark Eitzel has a great voice. This isn't the greatest or most entertaining album of all time, but there is something to be said for it... Perhaps the hazy, faded, windy feel of it, or the collage of soft shapes. Highlights: "Queen of No One" (definitely my favorite) and "Go Away."

Download.

Azalia Snail - Burnt Sienna

1992; 13 tracks

Azalia Snail is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Or at least, that's what Wikipedia says. She has quite an assortment of albums and other releases, but Burnt Sienna is her second full-length. It's really folky and dreamy and nostalgic, like stepping through time into your childhood bedroom to watch yourself sleep. Dream-catchers on the wall, a jar full of bugs on the dresser, drawings on the wall, your favorite blanket and stuffed animals cluttered around your bed. This is, for lack of better words, a very pleasant album.

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Donovan - Sunshine Superman

1966; 10 tracks

Donovan is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist whose groundbreaking sounds gained him much popularity in the UK, and eventually the world. Here is his third album. I just love "Celeste" so so much...

"Sunshine Superman blended his original folk style with American folk-rock, jazz and psychedelia, also managing to bring in eastern and medieval flavours into the mix. Whilst his earlier albums had been mostly performed solo, his new material had his voice and guitar augmented by electric guitars, drums, strings, percussion, sitar and more. Donovan was one of the first artists to make extensive use of the sitar, and on Sunshine Superman it is played by Texan singer-songwriter Shawn Phillips, who he had met in '65 and become close friends with.

Sunshine Superman kick-started a new period in Donovan's career, both in terms of chart success and recognition as well as musical exploration. It is widely considered a landmark psychedelia album."

my songs are merely dreams visiting my mind

二階堂和美 (Nikaido Kazumi) - また おとしましたよ

2003; 13 tracks
Nikaido Kazumi is a lovely young Japanese singer of mellow pop/folk music. With just her and her guitar, these lovely waves of tracks turn simple melodies into gorgeous songs, as warm and beautiful as a day by the ocean. Nikaido's music is a precious blend of cute, heartbreaking, and ethereal. I realllllyy recommend this!

"また　おとしましたよ (Mata oto shimashita yo), or You Dropped Something Again, Didn't You?, is a foray into beautiful and simplistic pop album that focuses on Kazumi Nikaido's beautiful voice as the instrument of choice. Fragmented melodies that feel so innocent and playful in the most childish manner ever. What we have here is mostly just soft acoustic strumming that manages not to sound like every other singer/songwriter who uses an acoustic guitar. It's even slightly experimental, and Nikaido uses her voice to great effect, whether it's sounding more intimate or more screechy (like in "Even Though the Time Passes"). Nikaido can make eight minute songs seem like nothing; you really do just drift along with her music."

Download.

Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter - Reckless Burning

2002; 9 tracks

Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter is Jesse Sykes, a Seattle-based singer-songwriter, and Phil Wandscher on guitar.

Reckless Burning is an exquisite mix of acoustic ballads, and country-like tunes. It is really the most beautiful thing I've heard in so long, her voice... I cannot recommend this album enough, to anyone.

Download.

Loitsu - Suohengen Sija

2006; 4 tracks

Loitsu (The Spell) is a Finnish neofolk project started by R. Kurkijávri. The project is highly nature-based, the music very intimate with earth. I'm not exactly sure if Suohengen Sija is an album or demo, but it contains the first three tracks of the demo Aamujen Auer and a bonus track.

"Loitsu is a painting, where shamanistic lonely grim and shimmering brightness of the northern lights are combined with the ecstasy of sounds that acoustic instruments are creating. Mysticism of nature and it's wonderful ambiences play together with the beauty of guitars, piano, violin, flute and depths of a shaman drum."

Download.

Lisa Germano - Geek the Girl

1994; 12 tracks

I have yet to come across an album so full of (wonderful) surprises as this one. Lisa Germano is an American singer-songwriter who used to play as a session musician for artists such as Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp. Listening to this, I was struck by the notion that a voice very much like Germano's had once (or still) spoken in and through me about the same issues and decisions a young girl has to face. It feels as though the quirks and complexities of this album are infinitely enlightening, if you listen closely enough.

"Geek the Girl was both a self-portrait and an allegoric concept. It was both an epic diaries of insecurity and a Dantesque journey into the psyche of a girl."

In the words of Lisa Germano:

"hi, this is the story of geek the girl, a girl who is confused about how to be cool and sexual in the world but finds out she isn't as cool and gets taken advantage of sexually alot, gets kind of sick and enjoys giving up but in the end tries to believe in dreams and still hopes of loving a man that he might save her from her shit life... ha ha what a geek!"

sexy little girl princess

Elysian Fields - Bleed Your Cedar

1996; 11 tracks

Bleed Your Cedar may be one of the most seductive albums ever... to use a phrase my friend often uses, it is "sexy in my ears" :3

This charm is not only due to the magnificently attractive voice of Jennifer Charles, but the variety of music presented in this, the band's first full-length... It is guaranteed you will love it from the first track alone, "Lady in the Lake," which is a catchy (and infinitely beautiful) shoegaze-y/grunge track. The album winds down a tiny bit later on with jazzier tracks like "Star" and "Parachute," but the electric and romantic pulse of Elysian Fields is thoroughly enjoyable to the end.

i'm on the wrong side of the water

友川かずき (Kazuki Tomokawa) - やっと一枚目 (Yatto Ichimaime)

1975; 14 tracks

"Poet, singer, artist, bicycle race commentator, essayist, actor, drinker.
An artist who miraculously embodies the romance of the vagabond poet, a rarity in an age where our very freedom means we have forgotten how to live."

This is one of the rawest albums I've ever heard in my life. Tomokawa is like... a slightly more folky/melodic (and Japanese) Jandek. This is his first album, and what a debut it is. Here is the tracklisting.

I recently found a series of 3 videos from Vincent Moon called "The Take Away Shows #98" focusing on Kazuki Tomokawa. Here is my favorite, one that shows the attitude of Tomokawa's music quite nicely (you might wanna skip along to 2:05):

Kazuki Tomokawa - A Take Away Show #98 - Part II from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Download.

Opeth - Watershed

2008; 7 tracks

Opeth is one of the most popular metal acts around today, their sound being one of great diversity and richness. They play a distinct style of progressive metal mixed with doom, and their lead singer, Mikael Åkerfeldt, is notable for his ability to sing with clean and death metal vocals, often side by side.

I was a big fan a few years ago, but my interest in doom metal waned after hearing the same thing over and over again. I bought Watershed on a whim and it really has grown on me, the instrumentation becoming all the more impressive and the atmosphere, which often takes on a life of it's own, more gorgeous. The truth is, Watershed is an incredibly beautiful album. Having listened to it on rainy days countless times, I've yet to find anything monotonous or even boring about it. There is a perfect transposition one experiences from track to track, storylines weaving in and out in flawless synchronicity. The passion that rages in one instant gives way to gentle, heart-stopping elegance... much like the actions of the sea.


Just listen.

Morita Douji (森田童子) Discography

Instead of re-doing everything, have a look at this post from the infamous Flying Teapot.

A Boy is one of my favorite albums ever now.

ゑでぃまぁこん (Eddie Marcon) - 綿の煙の招待状

2009; 10 tracks

Absolutely delightful folk/ambient album from Japanese group ゑでぃまぁこん (Eddie Marcon). The title translates as "Cotton Smoke Invitations." Childish innocence and the purity of summer fuse in this beautiful music that is sunny even in the rain.

Download.

Carmen Maki - 真夜中詩集 ーろうそくの消えるまでー

1969; 11 tracks

This is a nice folk album by Japanese singer Carmen Maki, or カルメン・マキ.

Download.

Bluedawn (푸른새벽) - Vol. 3, 보옴이 오면

2006; 11 tracks

I've always loved Korean indie/folk music, particularly Adultchild (어른아이), but this album, 보옴이 오면 ("Boomyi Comes"), is really touching to me.

Bluedawn is a Korean folk duo consisting of Dawn and Sorrow. Their sound isn't exclusively melancholic and gentle, as there are more cheerful songs too. 보옴이 오면 is the group's third album, and my favorite. The other two are beautiful as well, but this album's beauty reaches a much deeper level. Bluedawn was a part of the Pastel Music label, which has released some really incredible music... I highly recommend both them and this album.

Download.

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Illuminations

1969; 12 tracks

Illuminations is the sixth album by Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter. Sainte-Marie's bold, wavering voice both haunts and warms Illuminations, providing a picture of a wild-hearted individual with "a heart driven by nature, and a mind by the universe." This incredible album needs no words to introduce it.

Download.