Julia Kent - 3 Records - Nomeansno, Loscil & Fatima Al Qadiri
Cellist and Composer of beautiful and hypnotic soundscapes Julia Kent kicks off the Vinyl Vinyl Vinyl '3 Records' blog series.
Julia tells us about 3 Records she loves. One from her early life / formative years, one of her favourites of all time, from anytime, and one of the most recent records that has caught her ear...
Record 1. Mama - Nomeansno
Back at the dawn of time in Vancouver, Canada, I had a copy of local heroes Nomeansno's Mama on cassette. They were a punk band, the Wright brothers, who recorded in their mother's basement before signing to Alternative Tentacles. They sounded smart and loud and rough. I'm not sure how I heard about them: I was raised on classical music, and too young to go to shows. Probably a poster stapled to one of the rain-sodden wooden telephone poles that punctuated Vancouver's streets back then. Nomeansno ended up in the Museum of Canadian Music, and Mama, on vinyl, is a collector's item. I don't know where my cassette is, but just seeing a picture of the cover whips me back to those days of discovery.
Record 2. Monument Builders - Loscil
Keeping with the Vancouver theme, Loscil is an artist I return to again and again. His music, transportive and moving, expansive and profound, creates its own world. It's impossible to choose a single record from his brilliant discography, but I find myself accompanying so many moments in life with Monument Builders. It builds a narrative—transfixing, disturbing, yet somehow consoling—that reveals new layers whenever I listen to it.
Record 3. Medieval Femme - Fatima Al Qadiri
I'm a huge admirer of Fatima Al Qadiri, and the way she shapeshifts stylistically, moving from conceptual club tracks to political musique concrète. Her soundtrack for Mati Diop's film Atlantics is a haunting masterpiece. Her latest record, Medieval Femme, was inspired by female Arabic poets, setting their words to winding, languorous melodies within a dream-like atmosphere, sparse yet powerful, where memory and desire blur.
Words by Julia Kent. Photography From PEPE & Pedro Anguila
We stock a range of Julia Kent's fine records on vinyl in the VVV shop HERE. Titles including Character, Temporal & Green And Grey [Expanded].
