Daniel Berkman is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who innovates with the kora, a harp/lute from West Africa. He uses loops and electronics to transform his playing into a full musical experience. Calabashmoon is a collection of poignant kora melodies and atmospheres.

Because Magnatune only provides links for streaming their MP3s (128kbps) via M3U playlists, I’ve provided direct file links below to all 13 MP3 files. If you like this music, please support the artist and buy the album in higher-quality files (including FLAC) or on CD.

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Here’s a biggie for ya. Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is a collection of four season-themed violin concertos that are among the most popular of their kind in all of classical music. The texture and mood of each reflects its titular season. Personally, I think Vivaldi’s music, in particular this opus from 1723, is the earliest precursor to Philip Glass‘ particular brand of minimalism/”theater music”, and is just as listenable and exciting.

This album is performed by American Baroque, a San Francisco-based baroque performance and recording group.

Because Magnatune only provides links for streaming their MP3s (128kbps) via M3U playlists, I’ve provided direct file links below to all 12 MP3 files. If you like this music, please support the artist and buy the album in higher-quality files (including FLAC) or on CD.

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Nagoski himself can explain his music better than I can: “I make recordings of single sounds, over and over again. Each track is slightly different but each is part of a set of that single sound. Then, rerecording that tape down a bunch of times in various mixes and at various speeds with the idea of tuning them to each other in mind onto multiple CDs, I play the CDs back together - sequentially and simultaneously - along with the source tape through a mixer, which then becomes the performance instrument. Controlling the tape speed and EQ of like sounds as I project them back into a room, I play the entire sound with equal attention to the interferences as to their related source-elements.”

Uh, yeah… whatever. I’d just say it’s gradual, buzzing, dark ambient music, and curiously, it’s a thrill to listen to.

The 4 tracks (46 minutes) are available as 160kbps MP3s.

No longer available

It feels funny to call a band that recycles Helloween “progressive”, but hey; that’s labels for ya. Acid Rain throw enough Dream Theater into the mix to keep things interesting - in fact, I discovered them because some doofus posted one of their instrumental tracks as a pre-release track from Dream Theater’s then-upcoming studio album Octavarium. The music sounds exactly as you’d expect it to from the band name and album title. Highlights include “Impulse” and “Saint Vitus’ Dance”.

The album is available as 192kbps MP3 files or as a 76MB RAR archive with cover art included.

No longer available

The very enjoyable soundtracks for the legendary Monkey Island games were never released, but fans have ripped them from the game files and offered them for download. There’s quite a variety, from tiny musical cues (”Choose Your Weapon”) to short themes (”Cutthroat Bill”) to fun melodies (”Edward Van Helgen”) to ambient (”Goodsoup Family Crypt”) to sing along comedy bits (”A Pirate I Was Meant To Be”, my favorite track). And that’s just from one of the albums. All four soundtracks are available: The Secret of Monkey Island, LeChuck’s Revenge, Curse of Monkey Island, and Escape from Monkey Island. Five hours of piratey goodness to be heard!

The MP3s are available in varying bitrates.

No longer available

The Monks and Metropolitan Choirs of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra have compiled a fantastic CD of Russian Orthodox chants, including traditional carols and religious pieces written by major Russian composers like Rachmaninov. This is even better than Songs of Russian Proletariat. The production is top-notch.

Because Magnatune only provides links for streaming their MP3s (128kbps) via M3U playlists, I’ve provided direct file links below to all 26 MP3 files. If you like this music, please support the artist and buy the album in higher-quality files (including FLAC) or on CD.

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With Violence, Joy, and Discipline, Symptoms has created three “album applications” that display images while music is playing. It’s an interesting multimedia technique, but I prefer just the music, so I deleted the applications and kept the MP3 files. Each album is a single, 32- to 45-minute track of wandering musical friction. The unnamed artist behind the “Symptoms” mask is as familiar with Nine Inch Nails as with Morton Subotnick as with the Akira soundtrack, and it shows in the music. Violence reminds of an electronic noise version of Godspeed! You Black Emperor. Joy begins peacefully, becomes pounding and energetic, then moves to sections that defy description. Discipline segues between quiet but restless interludes and noisy, building climaxes. The unease never lets up. Some the finest indie avant-garde I’m likely to link to on this blog, and if you like the mixed-media presentation… bonus!

To see a short film that works on a similar concept (avant-garde music accompanying a progression of images), watch _grau (yes, that’s how the title is written), a freely downloadable masterpiece of modern abstract cinema. Trust me. Do it.

The Symptoms download page offers each album for Windows or Mac in a zipped package of the 192kbps MP3 and the multimedia program. The Windows files are linked below.

Download
Symptoms - Violence
Symptoms - Joy
Symptoms - Discipline

Several readers have asked why I don’t post every day, as I claim in my welcome message. I post one album per day, not one post per day. Check the count at the album directory and you’ll see that I posted 31 albums in July and am on course to hit 31 in August.

Those of you who’ve just discovered this blog, you may browse the archives or search by musical genre from the sidebar, or see my own list of personal favorites.

I listen to a dozen free, legal albums per week and like about 10% of them. And I do have a huge (50+) backlog of albums I like that I can write up for this blog. So don’t worry about me not having great free albums to post about, but I always appreciate recommendations.

Wikimedia may begin hosting student performances of classical works (via, article), which would be awesome and make my job here even easier.

Do you have suggestions about how I can improve Free Albums Galore? Lay ‘em on me!

David Hoffman and Paul Adams, aka The Neurons, have produced a stunning, gorgeous, inventive, highly listenable fusion of alternative rock, world, electronica, jazz, and even hip-hop (they like to call it “World Jazz Hop”) in Dance. They use a variety of popular and exotic instruments, some of them created by The Neurons themselves! Each track is in its own world. Strangely, the title track is the weakest. This is one of my favorite albums that I’ve posted about so far.

The files are available as 128kbps MP3. If you like the album (trust me, you will), please support the artist by buying the album on CD.

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The Paulus-Orchester Stuttgart hosts many of its recordings for free downloading, including significant, complete works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, and more.

Mendelssohn is considered the greatest child prodigy after Mozart, and his “Scottish” symphony (finished in 1842) is regarded as one of his most important works. Unlike most composers of his day writing a Scottish work, he wrote the piece not based on traditional Scottish folk songs, but on how his time in Scotland made him feel. His 5th Symphony (”Reformation”) honors the 300th anniversary of the Reformation, and concludes with Luther’s own “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” Like Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s St. Paul (1836) is an oratorio, an ensemble work for orchestra, vocal soloists, and chorus - an opera without acting or scenery. Like Mendelssohn’s more famous oratorio, Elijah (1846), St. Paul is heavily influenced by Bach but is much larger and fuller than anything Bach could conceive in his day.

Mozart’s 10th Piano Concerto is here adapted for orchestra and is a typically cheerful, melodic Mozart work.

Poulenc’s Gloria is his religious choral work in the vein of his predecessors but perhaps more lighthearted, and is a summary of all his techniques gained up to that time. Unfortunately, this recording suffers from some distortion during the louder parts.

Reger’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart is an embodiment of his “absolute” music in the tradition of Bach through Beethoven.

Tchaikovsky’s Suite #4 in A Major certainly less memorable than the melodies of The Nutcracker, but still a catchy, quick-moving piece.

The files (MP3s of varying bitrates) are messily presented for download on hidden pages at the performer’s German website, but I’ve linked directly to them below.

Update:: The web site for the Paulus-Orchester Stuttgart has been redesigned. The above mentioned music MP3 are No longer available

Ah, my first user-recommended free album! Today’s entry is Shir Zar (”Stranger Song“), a tribute to Leonard Cohen by Israeli alternative artists, sung mostly in Hebrew and spanning a wide variety of musical styles. It was produced by David Peretz and Guy Hagag (who told me about the album) for an Israeli music site called The Blind Janitor. The cover art (back) is a clever portrait of Cohen done with Hebrew letters, by Shany Kedar and Jonathan Vassermann. The album is well-produced and carries Cohen’s personal blessing, so don’t miss it!

The album is available as a ZIP of 160kbps MP3s. If you ask me, the most interesting covers are of “Waiting for the Miracle,” “Who By Fire,” and “Joan of Arc.”

No longer available

I’ll admit it; my first extended exposure to the genre came from bluegrass tribute albums to Metallica and AC/DC. But The Belvederes play real bluegrass: nothing primitive, progressive, or fused, but straight-up fun bluegrass. When it comes to bluegrass, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Highly listenable. Highly.

Both albums are available from the Internet Archive in 128kbps MP3 or OGG.

Download
Big City Waltz
Tin Pan Western Folk

There’s good chaos and bad chaos. Sometimes improv works, sometimes it doesn’t. Though I can’t articulate why, Teleopsis Belbebuth works. It’s noisy, unpredictable, exciting, and unedited. The title track is especially fascinating: I love the tortured, processed voices primitively reacting to the fearsomely chaotic music growing around them (it’s an idea repeated elsewhere on the album). It calls to mind a small group of frightened Neanderthals surrounded by giant bug-like aliens in shaky, legged transports. Or, you know, that early scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey where the apes start freaking out over the first monolith and there’s that eerie, droning music.

The album is available from the Internet Archive in 192kbps MP3 as individual tracks or a zipped package.

Download

Beethoven’s 9th symphony is regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of music. Leif Inge loves it so much he wanted to listen to it for an entire day, so he stretched the piece out to 24 times its usual length. It sounds gimmicky, and the resulting music is closer to ambient than classical, but 9 Beet Stretch is both soothing and revealing. But don’t take my word for it; read what Kyle Gann, Ben Sisario, and others have to say about it.

The 24-hour piece is broken into 19 very long 96kbps MP3 files. It will be released on DVD in September.

Update: The MP3 download is no longer available. However you can still hear a 24 hour stream of the complete work here.

Solace (Jeremiah M. Soto) combines Middle Eastern dance music and several forms of electronica for an exciting, exotic sound.

Ahsas actually sounds like Mohammed El-Bakkar gradually flooded with textural electronics. Several of the songs are primarily beat-driven, and the beats are given in the song titles - for example, “Circle (5-8, 6-8, 7-8)”. On Iman, the textural electronics are given more precedence, and on Rhythm of the Dance they are stripped away, as are most of the non-percussive instruments.

Satya nearly transforms the Middle Eastern dance music into modern European dance music, and achieves a fuller sound than his previous albums. ShaWaza is a very typical Solace album, but probably his best. The Gathering Season is less interesting than all other Solace albums, but still a good listen. Vadalna is an electronica album of thumpin’ remixes from Solace’s previous albums.

Because Magnatune only provides links for streaming their MP3s (128kbps) via M3U playlists, I’ve provided direct file links below to all the MP3 files. If you like this music, please support the artist and buy his albums in higher-quality files (including FLAC) or on CD.

Download
Ahsas: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Iman: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Rhythm of the Dance: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Satya: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (no longer available)
ShaWaza: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
The Gathering Season: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Vadalna: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8