Reviews:
Comment in Instagram, Sep 19:
vertigomusicgr mentioned you in a comment: Now Playing: Ariel Kalma - An Evolutionary Music (Original Recordings: 1972-1979) 2xLP - A super special one here. A beautiful collection of early recordings from one of the masters of other worldly new-age space dust covered electronic ethno-ambient-jazz, Tape machines, saxophones, early synthesizers and flutes from various cultures are combined to create a zone that is almost felt more than it is heard.
The French new-age composers early work here is sheer genius, and this record is an absolute gem of a collection, housing early cassette recordings of the most private nature kept by the composer himself for 40 years -! Big up @rvngintl for releasing such FIRE. Comes with an incredible 24 page booklet and tons of photos and liner notes. Essential. $22.98 Thank you @arielkalma
factmag.com by Joe Muggs, Oct 2014
" RVNG Intl. have also delivered a nice one-two. As well as the Bing & Ruth, they’ve dug up something very interesting for their Archival Series. An Evolutionary Music (Original Recordings 1972-1979) by Ariel Kalma (who they describe as a “multiversal artist”) is, frankly, a revelation.
Given references to ‘Ecstasy Musical Mind Yoga’, ‘Sunset Inside’, ‘Yogini Breath’ and so forth, you might think that this is just another blissed-out new age kook. And there is plenty of that in here: the 20 minutes of ‘Yogini Breath’ will give you all the zero gravity sinewave glissandi and overtone-singing angelic voices welcoming you through the gates of enlightenment you could ever wish for.
But Parisian-born Kalma is a very hardcore musician, having studied with the electro-acoustic gods of the Group de Recherches Musicales, jammed with Don Cherry and Richard Pinhas and hung with the Arica collective, whose creative philosophies directly inspired Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain.
So yeah: not just some vapidly-beaming hippy, and his music has a lot more to offer than an aural Radox bath. This stuff really is magic, and the collection manages to float alongside the very best of Terry Riley, Cluster, White Noise and a whole lot more, as well as coming uncannily close to the unique world of Arthur Russell in the utterly delightful ‘Sister Echo’."
Pitchfork.com by Andy Beta, Nov 2014
Tracing the trajectory of French-born musician Ariel Kalma does not yield a straight path. Which makes sense for an artist prone to world travels and crafting a strain of music that acts as a peregrination through numerous musical forms of the late 20th century: free jazz, progressive rock, drone, tape-loop based minimalism, electroacoustic composition, field recordings, new age meditations, and more. His name crops up as a sideman for the likes of bossa nova guitarist Baden Powell, Belgian pop crooner Salvatore Adamo, and prog rock guitarist Richard Pinhas, while his own recorded works are ludicrously rare, released in small batches that now fetch astronomical sums online. Saying that Ariel Kalma is underappreciated isn’t quite right in that most of his work remains unheard. More....
The 405 by Nicholas Glover, Nov 2014
The bones and sinew of Kalma's '70s output feel pleasingly familiar today, at least to those raised listening to the more scratchy, sound field-sampling house, hip-hop and ambient electronica. The French-born 'multiversalist' certainly wasn't the first to employ tape looping and drone, but he did originate his own heady mix of Orientalist self-annihilation, combining these elements with Stone Age synthesised drums and live percussion - comfortable touchstones for listeners of Terry Riley, Parmegiani and his ilk. More ....
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