Robert Ffrench
I Am Wondering / Dance In A Skate Land

** Not available for Italy & UK **Edizioni Ishtar and Schema Records proudly celebrate the 15th anniversary of one of their most successful releases and artists (more than 30 million streams and 300 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify) with the first ever vinyl edition of Toco’s Outro Lugar. Produced by S-Tone Inc., this record includes fan-favourite tracks “Outro Lugar”, “Samba Noir” and most of all “Guarapiranga”, which was chosen for the soundtrack of “Silver Linings Playbook”, a film that awarded Jennifer Lawrence an Academy Award prize as best actress in a leading role in 2013. The strings at the beginning of the title-track have also been sampled by PinkPantheress for her song “Nineteen”, out of her latest album “To Hell With It”. Outro Lugar hasn’t aged a bit during all these years, for various reasons; first of all it benefits from the outstanding contribution of bossa nova pioneer and inspiration source Roberto Menescal, who played guitar in every track. Most of the album was recorded in Rio De Janeiro at Menescal’s studio, with the participation of some of the best ‘carioca’ musicians, especially double-bass player Adriano Giffoni and pianist Adriano Souza. All these elements gave the album exactly the taste requested by the artist and the producer: inspired from the past yet, through thorough attention, aimed at a sound at the same time fresh and modern, slightly electronic, filled with grooves perfectly blending into acoustic instruments. The second part of the recording was carried out in Milan, with some of the best musicians in the Milanese jazz scene.The album also sees the contribution of Rosalia De Souza, singing in several tracks and standing out in “Bom Motivo” especially. French chanteuse Coralie Clément appears in “Contradição”, her own piece here re-interpreted by Toco.Outro Lugar is an album for any kinds of Brazilian music lovers that showed the world what Toco was capable of: a refined and cultured musician, a gifted performer of a warm and smooth voice able to awaken the emotions of the most sensitive listeners.

Official reissue of one of the hardest to find albums by the Afro Soul maestro, a pure Afro Funk spiritual grail from 1978!Born in 1943 in Ikole-Ekiti in Ondo State, Nigeria, Orlando Julius Ekemode (“Orlando was really a nickname, taken from the Nigerian actor, Orlando Martins“) had started in music from an early age, becoming the school drummer and learning flute, bugle and other instruments at St Peters Anglican School in Ikole-Ekiti. Nigerian musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he is credited as one of the first musicians to fuse US R&B into traditional highlife music, creating his own influential Afrobeat sound during the mid-‘60s.From his time playing in the USA during the 1970s onwards, he is credited with bringing African music to a broader audience and famously co-composed the song “Going Back To My Roots” with Lamont Dozier. In 1978, Orlando Julius Ekemode decided to produce himself this amazing session, originally recorded between Maryland and West Virginia (USA) and released in limited quantity in Nigeria by the obscure label Jungle Records. 6 stunning Afro-Funk monster tracks, recorded by 8 musicians based in Oakland. Fully licensed with the artist and remastered by The Carvery. Essential!

Louis Xavier is a talented and sincere all-round artist. He is at once a musician, a writer, a composer, an arranger, a bandleader and a radio show producer. All this has made him a prolific element of the Parisian Jazz scene since the 1970’s.With his band, The Synchro Rhythmic Eclectic Language, he performed in most jazz clubs and venues in Paris. They also became regulars at José Arthur’s Pop Club, a legendary show on national French Radio France Inter. There, he met the French and famous producer Pierre Lattes. It was the start of a great long-lasting friendship.Pierre Lattes produced Chodo, with Louis Xavier & Georges Edouard Nouel, (1975, reissued on our label in 2017) and Ladja. This was a direct to disc recording at Translab Studio (Paris), it was done in live conditions with the precious help of Jo Maka.During his career, Louis Xavier has recorded many tracks, some of which are unreleased to date, and something tells us that we have not finished hearing about his work.

A revival, a resumption, a revelation… call it as you wish, Ray Stephen Oche is now delivering his musical message: fire, fun, fury, talent and magic. This is music from the African heartland, dense, intense, a genuine fermentation of black African experience in sound, a translation of Ray Stephen’s essence into a soothing, meaningful balm for your eager auditory faculties. Such is this album of “dedications”.

Nine unreleased and rare tracks from the amazing Roger Damawuzan also known as the “James Brown from Lomé”, backed by the tremendous “Les As du Benin” orchestra, and recorded between 1972 and 1981.Born in 1952 in Aneho (Togo), “The king of Gazo” (a traditional rhythm) is one of the most popular singer of his native country. He started his career in 1968 with the “Ricker’s” but his first record was released in 1972 with his now classic hit “Wait For Me”.From 1972 to the early 80s alongside “Les As du Benin”, they worked more than 5 days a week at the Hotel Tropicana in front of the sea with many tourists around and it was a very good exercise to work and create a perfect Afro-Soul sound. During this period they also recorded many tracks, sometime in Ghana at the famous Philips studio, sometime during live session for big events in the “Palais des Congres de Lomé” and studio Otodi in Lomé, always live and analog.Today Roger Damawuzan lives in Lomé; in 2014 he was the featuring singer on the smash hit “Pas Contente” by Vaudou Game and performed with the band in different European big festivals.Roger Damawuzan & Les As Du Benin can be considered as one of the biggest figure of the African Funk scene from the 70s: A must have record!

Favorite Recordings proudly presents an exclusive eponymous LP by Brazilian singer and composer George Sauma Jr., originally produced in 1985. Imagine a never-marketed release on which you’d hear not only the beautiful and genuine George’s songs but also the work from two figures of the Brazilian Music Golden Age: Arthur Verocai and Junior Mendes! A much-needed album for all Brazilian connoisseurs. Back in the days, George Sauma Jr. was a young artist from Rio de Janeiro, learning on his side how to play chords and compose songs since he was 10. Still at the university, he’s influenced by Brazilian artists like Cassiano or Tim Maia, deeply fascinated by the arrangements and the “levada” (the groove) of all these new Brazilian songs. Simple and romantic music that resonated to his soul and creativity.Around 1985, the story took an unexpected turn. George tells: “Dna Deyse Lucidy, the mother of Junior Mendes was a candidate for deputy and went to my father’s company to advertise. When I saw her, I shouted, “I’m a big fan of your son!” ” Of course, she could not praise more the work of her son. On her advises, George went to his studio on Rua Siqueria Campos at Copacabana. Junior loved the project and sent him to Arthur Verocai to improve the arrangements. Without money, the decision was taken to record everything at Junior Mendes’ studio on an 8-channel mixer. It was a small set-up but the emotions were there! George surely had other plans for some of his songs but without the budget, they ended up doing everything the best they could. And they did very fine with a top-notch team of musicians: Paulo Black on Drums, Arthur Verocai on Guitar, Ricardo Do Canto on Bass and Helvius Vilela on Keyboards.Leaving the studio with the tapes, George tried to knock doors of international labels, but none did even dare to give him an answer. With less than 1000 copies pressed back in the days and without any distributor or label behind him, he went with proud to record stores, but received nothing than a strong reality check regarding the difficulties for a young Brazilian artist to achieve something on the saturated market of the 80s. Even for free, record stores didn’t want it. In the end, he ended up giving copies to friends and families, knowing deep inside that the songs were good! George tells: “I decided to leave, calm and conscious. I’ve still made three more albums, however on tapes, as it was more affordable. This time, just for my pleasure…”. Thirty-five years after, it’s with great emotion that this first album by George Sauma Jr. is now made available as Vinyl LP with its original offset printed innersleeve & CD.