Goodbye
I am sad to say that Free Albums Galore will be closing. Of course, what is here will stay here to allow others to find all these great free albums and as a historical archive of, for me at least a golden era of unusual and exciting music.
Thanks to all who have frequented these pages and thanks to those who expressed their concerns for myself and my family. I want to assure everyone that we are well and happy. The reasons have more to do with changing priorities as I get older.
Have a wonderful life.
Sibirskaya Vechora is a 10 member folk ensemble consisting of students and alumni of the Krasnoyarsk College of Arts and the Krasnoyarsk Academy of Music and Theatre. They play the traditional music of Siberia and Russia. The CD titled Muziki, Viryazukhi Moi featured 13 tracks of music recording on tour by this fascinating ensemble. It is an excellent collection of Russian traditional music.
One of the more interesting use of music on the internet is the creation of soundtracks for various silent films in the public domain. Free Albums Galore has featured a few in the past, noticeably The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Mabuse. However Apskaft Presents Battleship Potemkin, a new soundtrack for Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, a 1925 masterpiece of cinema, may be one of the best. Using various musicians, the predominantly electronic pieces fits each scene almost telepathically, embellishing the action nicely. As a standalone project, the online album is quite atmospheric. You can download the album on its own through the link below. However, for full effect I suggest you watch or download the 
The Belgian 
East of Borneo’s Larkspur Sessions will be appreciated by fans of 
This is a trip! Art Boys Collection is a Austrian psych-prog-rock group from the 70s whose album Stoned Wall has been resurrected from the junk yard by Golden Pavilion records. It is a blast from the psychedelic past with its Pink Floyd influences and a San Francisco hippie stance via It’s a Beautiful Day. Yes it sounds more than a bit dated but it is actually very enjoyable. I give it a nostalgic recommendation.
Nothing excites me more than a new 
Ga’an plays what can be called progressive dark rock. It sounds like a soundtrack for one of those old Italian horror flicks. The music is reminiscent of 
Bahnhof Zum Bahnhof was recorded on a train ride between York and Newcastle. It is best described as a sound collage and what an interesting collage it is. I am amazed what a few recording devices and looping software can accomplish but it is best to put that aside and simply marvel at the sounds which are meant to be enjoyed in one listening. We owe this experiment sound journey to Virginia Pipe and the releasing netlabel Kakutopia.
I’ve said many silly things in the past few years while running Free Albums Galore and saying Death Grip is the Rage Against the Machine version of hip-hop may be one of them. But that’s exactly what I hear. The San Francisco based Death Grips is a one man hip hop project that uses lots of props from alternative and metal yet comes across with sort of an industrial hip-hop sound of his own. Powerful and very angry, there is no denying the intensity of this music. Whatever happened to the City of Love? 
Austrian composer Fabio Keiner appears to owe more to the post-modern classicism of 
Philadelphia’s The Mural and the Mint has two free and legal recordings on their web site. As The Eye of the Seahorse and Private Pockets are excellent examples of indie pop as its best. Both album soffer delicately arranged music sliding between pop, folk, and art. Non-commercial yet irresistibly melodic , these two albums should please the most particular of listeners.
Jani Hirvonen is one of the most active musicians in the Finnish underground scene. He records under a number of projects including the past featured 
Texture is a member of the Scottish spoken word/hip-hop ensemble The Chemical Poets. He has three relatively short but intense EPs off of the 
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is model and songwriter Hollis Smith singing very sparse lyrics over simple folk-styled guitar chords. Yet there is something hypnotic about this music. A Collector’s Guidebook is an album of original music that is haunting to the extreme. Droning with cryptic lyrics, Mr. and Mrs. Smith will keep you mesmerized.
Michael S. Waller makes drone-filled ambient music under the name of Seconds Before Awakening. It also happens to be my favorite name for an ambient project. He releases his music under his own netlabel, Completely Gone Recordings. Unfortunately it appears that music project and netlabel are…completely gone. But as is the nature of the internet, Waller’s eight online ambient albums still hang out at The Internet Archive where listeners can bask in the drones. They are simply labeled Zero through Seven. This is very good ambient; simple but effective. At time the looped drones and motifs can become a bit repetitious but such is the nature of ambient. It makes for good relaxing and meditation material which is what it is intended for. 
For Tomorrow is an excellent example of high quality indie pop coming from an independent netlabel. Originally released by 
It isn’t necessarily the music of 
The New Mysktical Troubadours is a psych-folk duo consisting of Dave Gibson & Matt Perzinski. They have two creative commons licensed albums which are quite exotic and folksy at the same time. Eastern drones and traditional folk instrument along with interesting vocals make this a different but very enjoyable session of music. The two albums, The New Mystikal Troubadours and Second Spring can be downloaded at the 
Field Recordings From India & Nepal is exactly that; an album of on-location sounds recorded by Finnish musician Jani Hirvonan . The almost 2 hour album has a variety of field recordings ranging from street music to temple bells to nature sounds. These tracks include both the exotic and the mundane in a way that makes them immensely listenable. Originally released on a small label in 2007, the album is now available through a creative commons license at the Free Music Archive through the link below.
