Archives

Experimental Folk

Honest Thoughts on the Past that had Lead to Now and Never.

by A.J. Kaufmann



My first solo cassette was recorded in 1998. It was awful. I had some good ideas for a kid, but no talent at all, maybe except a knack for lyrics, and a bit of a gift for classical guitar and bass, definitely not for singing. I was also interested in much different music than most people my age in Poland back then. That’s why it took 4 years to form my first band in 2002. To take the shortcut, it took 9 more years to release my studio debut album “Second Hand Man”. In 2012, I started Sauer Adler, my second real band. And to take the shortcut again, in 2022, I formed Psychedelic Mayhem, and in 2024, I formed Bezkwit. Along the way, I also jammed, recorded, played, composed, and improvised whenever and wherever possible, with whoever was available at the time. That, through many shortcuts, takes us directly into the once-very-futuristic year 2026 (certainly around 1998).

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30 Years’ Worth Of Music Making… And Beyond

by Jamie Hutchings

Jamie Hutchings
Photo by Jared Harrison


Hi, my name’s Jamie Hutchings; I’m a singer, songwriter, guitarist, percussionist, and sometime improviser and producer. I’m based in Sydney, Australia.

Music was a given in my family household as my dad was a woodwind session cat. He’s 83 now, but he still gigs here and there, but as kids, it was his bread and butter. So all of us inherited his musicality in some form, but still (particularly with my brother and I), we found ourselves gravitating more and more towards rawness and originality over professionalism and technique. I was looking through my mum and dad’s record collection the other night, and it’s almost exclusively Frank Sinatra records. Sinatra is amazing, but the overexposure to music in a show-biz format perhaps contributed to us going in a different direction!

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A New Normal

by John Zonn

A New Normal by John Zonn


As Ralph Waldo Emerson – the great American Individualist and Transcendentalist – once said: “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better”. And so, the new Zonn mini-album “Songs Of Truth And Freedom” started off, as many experiments do, with the inventor watching the world around and perceiving that something needed to be done. This approach, coupled with my fondness for re-writing old tunes, led to the interpretation of a 1980s new-socialist stalwart into a novel anthem for the 2020s.

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„93-105”, my new album, my old story.

by Adam Majdecki-Janicki

93-105, my new album, my old story. by Adam Majdecki-Janicki

The album costs 3 euro, but took 18 years to make, of course, not continuous 18 years, but I wouldn’t record such music without living my life as I did since 2002 when I started recording cassette tapes with my friend in a high rise block in Poznań, Poland. The block’s address was 93-105. So, now you all know what „planet 93-105” means. And high rise blocks are really like separate planets, at least in Poland…

And cassettes are beautiful items, surviving years and owners, and „93-105” is now not only my block’s address, an imaginary planet, and album title, but also a beautiful cassette released with Illuminated Paths, USA, and this full circle of space and tapes, and my life April-July 2020 is what this story is all about a sound story. A sound story best experienced on cassette.

So go grab a copy of „93-105”, and feel like it’s 2002 in a Poznań, Poland high rise block, or elsewhere in the galaxy, wherever imagination takes you… this cassette is yours, not mine, now. And 18 years are gone, but it feels like light years…

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A Grave Made Road

by Kevin David Marin Quiñonez (KDMQ)

A Grave Made Road by Kevin David Marin Quiñonez (KDMQ)

Well, this is my 3rd time writing this, my second try at writing this on a computer. I have to put a disclaimer out; this might get dark and depressing. Don’t know, but, yeah, I just wanted to put that out here.

I write this not coming from a place of hate, but from a place of time, and exhaustion. Also, I do this so I can try to explain the songs I have released thus far as part of an upcoming album I’m working at the moment.

Now…

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How We Forgot To Plan Ahead and Got Stuck With This Band Name

by The Brothers Of Depression

How We Became Known As “The Brothers Of Depression”

Hello friends. We are from the prairies of southern Alberta where it is sparse and dry, kind of like us. We don’t know what we’re doing or what we want, but we think we will continue. Join us as we try not to suck, but also don’t worry too much about being great. We’re just trying to be ok.

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Hide and​/​or Seek

by Queen Cabbage

Hide and​/​or Seek by Queen Cabbage
My second album is somewhat of a time capsule. These are the songs I wrote between realizing I needed to get better and doing something about it.

My alcoholism and dependence on other addictive behaviors (weed, sex, etc.) had progressed to a point where they had begun destroying every semblance of a good life I’d managed to build despite them. To preserve any chance I had at living well, I needed to change the way I spent each and every moment of my time. In order to honestly document these in musical form, I stripped away every instrument other than my voice, guitar, laptop, and tape recorder.

If there is anything for you in these songs, you will most likely find it outside of what I have to say about them. All I really have to say is thank you so, so much for listening. So much.
That said, in case it might inform your listening, here’s what I have to say:

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What Do You Want To Do Today? Make Music, or Start a Revolution?

by Cassie Norton

What Do You Want To Do Today? Make Music, or Start a Revolution? by Cassie Norton

I’m a musician. I used to just make and teach music, but lately I have been consumed by climate activism because I love people and nature. I can’t continue living without doing something to prevent it all from disappearing.

E. E. Cummings wrote:

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. That makes it very hard to plan the day.”

This describes pretty much every day of my life now.

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The Secret History

by Bleakhaus

The Secret History by Bleakhaus
I can always pinpoint the moment when an art form grabs me. Whether it has been music, film, or literature, I have always had that clear, definitive moment that made me fall in love. My love for each of these art forms came together when I created Bleakhaus.

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