“Many Dimensions To Explore” : The Heady And Cosmic Sounds Of London Odense Ensemble

Photos by Casper Schärfe and Jakob Skøtt Of course if you’re a semi-regular here then you know of my love and adoration for El Paraiso Records. This label prides itself on putting out music you’re meant to plug into and vibe with on a molecular level. Jonas Munk and Jakob Skott, co-label runners and Causa […]

London Odense Ensemble : Jaiyede Sessions Vol. 2

London Odense Ensemble is the music collective consisting of Jonas Munk, Jakob Skott, Tamar Osborn, Martin Rude, and Al McSween. If you’re familiar with their 2022 album Jaiyede Sessions Vol. 1, then you probably already know that. But let me fill you in or remind you of where all these cats come from. Munk, Skott, […]

Birth : Born

There’s something transcendent about the album Born, the debut long player by California’s prog/psych outfit Birth. Southern California has been ground zero for a new wave of prog and psych bands in the last decade and a half, with heavyweights like Astra, Psicomagia, Monarch, Sacri Monti, and Earthless lighting the way to some kind of […]

London Odense Ensemble : Jaiyede Sessions, Vol. 1

El Paraiso Records has made a name for themselves as a label that welcomes freedom of expression and freedom of improvisation in the projects they support and release. From Causa Sui’s Pewt’r Sessions to Mythic Sunship’s Another Shape Of Psychedelic Music to Papir’s Stundum to Chicago Odense Ensemble to Ellis Munk Ensemble, these albums have […]

Dive Into The Deep End With London Odense Ensemble and “Jaiyede Suite, Pt. 2”; Album Out in June

It seems that there’s a new ensemble in town, London Odense Ensemble. Comprised of El Paraiso Records luminaries Jonas Munk, Jakob Skøtt, and Martin Rude, along with London-based jazz artists Tamar Osborn and Al MacSween, London Odense Ensemble came together for some seriously heady jams and it seems they’ve got an album’s worth of early […]

Dive Into The Deep End With London Odense Ensemble and “Jaiyede Suite, Pt. 2”; Album Out in June

“You’ll Know When You Get There” : The Genius Of Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi

It’s not that Herbie Hancock doesn’t get the love and heaps of praise that he deserves, but his trilogy of albums he released for Warner Brothers Records in the early 70s definitely do not. Mwandishi, The Crossing, and Sextant were released concurrently in 1971, 1972, and 1973, and saw Hancock expanding his sonic palate exponentially. […]

Martin Rude & Jakob Skøtt Duo : The Dichotomy Of Control

The collaboration between Danish musicians Martin Rude and Jakob Skøtt has proven to be most fruitful. The mixture of Rude’s open guitar tunings and double bass with Skøtt’s fluid drumming and ethereal synths and electronics gave their debut LP The Discipline of Assent an epic, galactic jazz western feel. A soundtrack to some retro-futuristic Leone film […]

El Paraiso Records Presents Fra Det Onde, Featuring Legendary Emil Nikolaisen

I know, so the first question you may have asked yourself is “Who is Fra Det Onde?”. The second is more than likely “Who is this legendary Emil Nikolaisen?” I try to keep up with all the good stuff musically, but it can be daunting. And when the good stuff originates in Europe it becomes […]

Ellis Munk Ensemble : San Diego Sessions

There’s a mysticism about southern California; from the sun-soaked surfer souls that haunt its coastline, to the teenage loners writing the DNA of what would become modern skateboarding in abandoned backyard swimming pools, to the music scene that blossomed amongst all of it. Southern California was the mecca for true freedom in artistry and rebellion, […]