This Week’s Theme: Best of 2023 (Music From Around The World)

I listened to a lot of new music in 2023. I listened to hundreds of complete albums and clicked through at least a few tracks on hundreds more. I’ve listened to new music every day this year. I listen to more new music than most people, but this year saw an extreme amount of new music listening in the Faux household, even for me. For that reason, I’ve ended up with enough knowledge of new music to create several Best Of The Year shows to close out 2023. I’ll build toward my Top 20 albums of the year by starting with a Top 10 list of my favorite albums from around the world.

I love to listen to music by artists from all of the continents, especially from non-English speaking nations. The difficulty with finding good music of this type in 2023 is that so many international forms of music have had popular American music seep into their sound over the last couple of decades. Now that the entire world can easily listen to the music of any nation with a few Google clicks, genres have started to meld together into a post-global sound. Most obviously, hip hop has taken over the world, and if you aren’t into the sounds of modern hip hop then you may not enjoy reggaeton or K-pop or many other international styles popular today. To be fair, most of the international music I enjoy is extremely influenced by Western music, but more often that is rock and jazz then 21st century hip hop and R&B.

The list I’ve created includes mostly new artists but a couple of these records are by artists who have been around since the ’70s and ’80s. The styles are varied and showcase how much a post-global sound has evolved around the world. South Korean artist Parannoul and Chilean artist Chini.png only sound Korean and Chilean because of the lyrics. Swedish group Fire! Orchestra could be from anywhere. Chinese avant-garde artist Yikii may not even be from this dimensional plain. The playlist is only ten songs but it clocks in at over an hour due to three relatively long pieces.

Amazon Prime Playlist

Spotify Playlist

I haven’t ranked these ten albums because they are too diverse to try to compare in that way. I’ll present them in the order they appear on the playlist and provide some background information. There is a lot of interesting music being made around the world. Hopefully you’ll hear something new that you like and investigate further.

Zango by Witch (Zambia)

Witch are a Zambian band who spearheaded the zamrock movement in the the early ’70s. Their debut was released in 1972 and they were the most popular band in their country throughout the decade. Their name is an acronym for we intend to cause havoc, and they were formed during their nation’s post-independence heyday. By the late ’70s, Zambia’s economy had collapsed and authoritarian rule slammed a lid on the entire zamrock movement. After changing some members, including their lead singer Jagari leaving to become a teacher, and releasing some disco and Zambian kalindula albums in the early ’80s, the group disbanded. The surprise ending to the story is that 30 years later Jagari was invited to the U.S. to reform the group, and after 10 years of live shows they have finally released a new album. The sound of the album is traditional zamrock. It has been 45 years since their last zamrock album was recorded but you can’t tell from this new record. This is the most wonderful kind of album – a dive into the past that introduces a lost style of music to a new generation of fans.

Our Best Place by Shonen Knife (Japan)

Shonen Knife have released 22 albums in 41 years and original member Naoko Yamano has been the guitarist/vocalist for all of them. Her sister Atsuko was an original member at the age of 17, and has returned to the band after a brief hiatus in the early 2000s. If you don’t know Shonen Knife then you should take some time to listen to any albums you can find. I am lucky enough to have originally learned about them in the late ’80s and was smart enough to purchase a wonderful compilation of Shonen Knife covers called Everybody Has A Shonen Knife Who Loves Them when it was released in 1991. That album included cover songs of Shonen Knife material performed by some of the indie rock bands who Shonen Knife had either covered or written songs about during the early part of their career, such as Redd Kross and Sonic Youth. Loving Shonen Knife is a lifelong affair for any of us who have known about them for the last 30 or 40 years. They have progressed musically over the years, but not much. They are a punk rock band who sing songs about stuff in their life. They have opened for Sonic Youth and Nirvana, among many others. Their new album is simply the latest in a long line of catchy punk rock albums that sound like Shonen Knife and not like any other band. God bless Shonen Knife.

El dia libre de Polux by Chini.png (Chile)

Chilean musician María José Ayarza is a member of the indie folk band Chini and The Technicians and El día libre de Polux is her debut solo album. Going by the name Chini.png, the album is a mix of electronic indie rock and shoegaze. It doesn’t do anything groundbreaking, but every song is well-crafted. Ayarza’s sonic spectrum is wide, and anyone who listened to alt rock in the early ’90s should find something to like.

After the Magic by Parannoul (South Korea)

Parannoul is the pseudonym for a South Korean artist who is currently spearheading the shoegaze movement of indie rock in his homeland. After the Magic is his third album in four years and should be adored by anyone who loves the genre. It is shoegaze of the highest level. If not for the lyrics, no one would know this is a South Korean artist, which makes it a prime example of post-global music in the 2020s. In fact, his popularity has grown through Bandcamp as much as any other source, showing that there are other ways to become popular in South Korea than just being manufactured by the K-Pop machine.

Echoes by Fire! Orchestra (Sweden)

Fire! are a Scandinavian avant-garde trio who have been recording experimental music since 2009. They combine free jazz, noise, psychedelia, and avant-garde composition into a wholly unique sound. Ten years ago, they expanded their sound into Fire! Orchestra, a collective of dozens of musicians from the jazz and avant-garde scenes of Scandinavia who meld their individual sounds around the core trio. The results are always interesting. Sometimes, as with the 2023 album Echoes, the results are amazing. This incredible album has stayed on my heavy rotation list since it was released early this year. It is a 2-hour experience that showcases all of the groups range, shifting from gorgeous melodies to dissonant interludes to free jazz to bombastic explosions of noise to mesmerizing meditative moments. If I was ranking this list, this album would be in the top 3.

Archora/Aion by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Eva Ollikainen, and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (Iceland)

Anna Thorvaldsdottir is one of Iceland’s most important 21st century composers, focusing her work on nature and the beautiful landscapes of her homeland. Eva Ollikainen is the chief conductor and artistic director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. This wonderful recording of Thorvaldsdottir’s compositions Archora (2022) and Aeon (2018) is as good as classical music gets in the 21st century.

Love In Exile by Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily (Pakistan)

Vulture Prince by Arooj Aftab was my pick for second best album of 2021. It is still a favorite listen, showcasing the beautiful songwriting of Aftab. This 2023 album is a perfect follow-up to her 2021 release. This trio first performed together five years ago, and this album, their first recording, is collaborative perfection. The minimalist nature of the compositions is perfect for Aftab’s vocals to shine, while also showcasing the musicianship of pianist Vijay Iyer and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily. If I was ranking this list, this album would be in the top 3.

Joao by Bebel Gilberto (Brazil)

Bebel Gilberto’s 2023 album is one of her best. While her 2000 album Tanto Tempo has been a Faux household favorite for over 20 years, I often find her records to be too focused on modern songwriting instead of the traditional bossa nova music that her family made famous. That all changes with Joao, a collection of songs composed, and originally performed, decades ago by her father. The arrangements are traditional bossa nova and her voice is in perfect form. If you like this music, this is one of the best releases of this style in the last 40 years.

Blomi by Susanne Sundfor (Norway)

I had never heard of Susanne Sundfor before discovering her 2023 album Blomi last summer. I was immediately pulled into the album by the first track, an experimental spoken-word piece with esoteric lyrics about the physical nature of love in relation to physics, gravity, and other stuff which I’m sure I don’t understand. If the entire album was similar to that first track, I may have enjoyed it well enough. However, one must move past the first track to discover that this is an album by an amazing songwriter and vocalist. Sundfor combines traditional Norwegian folk music with modern songwriting to produce a collection of gorgeous songs that continue to move me with every listen. This is a beautiful album and deserves to be heard by a lot more people than are going to hear it. If I was ranking this list, this album would be in the top 3.

The Crow-Cyan Lake by Yikii

I don’t know much about Yikii. She is an avant-garde/experimental electronic songwriter/composer from China. She has been creating music at a ridiculously prolific rate for the last ten years. I am not sure how many albums she has released, but there are many. This is a kind of music that I love to listen to – difficult, adventurous, beautiful, complex, confusing, unclassifiable, and highly intriguing. Not everyone will enjoy entering the musical world that Yikii has created, but if you are up for the challenge it is well worth the voyage.

That completes this 2023 trip around the world. The next Faux Show will present some best of the year dance music. Until then, as always, thanks for listening, and reading!

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