THE MAGAZINE FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE

Elsewhere is a concept and a place, and Graham Reid goes there for his wide angle travels, writing, music review and interviews with writers, musicians and artists.

Elsewhere is an on-line magazine for new music (we filter out the mundane and spotlight the more interesting albums), different travel, arts and more. It is dedicated to the diversity and possibilities of Elsewhere. It's an equal opportunity enjoyer. Subscribe here (it's free) for a weekly newsletter.     Welcome . . .

Latest posts

RECOMMENDED REISSUE: Peel Dream Magazine: Modern Meta Physic (digital outlets)

RECOMMENDED REISSUE: Peel Dream Magazine: Modern Meta Physic (digital outlets)

7 Feb 2025  |  <1 min read

Because we accidentally stumbled on this LA band's last album Rose Main Reading Room late last year (“a lovely headphones album which embraces you gently”) we have been immediately drawn to this expanded reissue of their 2018 album which includes new songs and half a dozen demos. Somewhere between Stereolab, ambient German bands (Neu!, Can), minimalism and... > Read more

Deetjens
SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS; THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF SONNY ROLLINS by AIDAN LEVY

SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS; THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF SONNY ROLLINS by AIDAN LEVY

3 Feb 2025  |  2 min read

In 1956, the year he turned 26, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins appeared on 10 albums, among them six as leader which included Tenor Madness and Saxophone Colossus (which gave him a nickname, one of many) and Thelonious Monk's widely acclaimed Brilliant Corners. However just 18 months before he was struggling to put years of heroin addiction behind him and had been... > Read more

FKA Twigs: Eusexua (digital outlets)

FKA Twigs: Eusexua (digital outlets)

3 Feb 2025  |  1 min read

Well, if it's good enough for William Shakespeare to make up words then I guess pop stars can do it too. Charli XCX redefined “brat” for us – although it hasn't caught on as widely as Bill's bedroom, fashionable, scuffle, cold-blooded and about 1700 other words. But here comes FKA Twigs who has coined “eusexua” to mean some kind of... > Read more

Drums of Death
The Veils: Asphodels (digital outlets)

The Veils: Asphodels (digital outlets)

3 Feb 2025  |  1 min read

When we reviewed a 2023 concert at Auckland's Powerstation by Finn Andrews (aka The Veils), we couldn't help but point out the numerous images from Christian and Greek religion he drew on. At time he seemed to also be in an ecstatic state as he came off like a rock'n'roll Pentecostal preacher. As we noted in the review, these images are not uncommon in contemporary... > Read more

The Dream of Life
Callum Allardice: Elementa (Earshift/digital outlets)

Callum Allardice: Elementa (Earshift/digital outlets)

3 Feb 2025  |  1 min read

We'd hope that Wellington-based guitarist Callum Allardice wouldn't need much of an introduction: he won a number of awards for his compositions (three APRA jazz awards) and his group The Jac have been featured at Elsewhere as was he with his previous album Cinematic Light Orchestra. There is a fluidity about his style – more correctly styles, his reach is wide... > Read more

Solitude
Gao Hong and Zhao Xiaoxia: Prelude to the Divine Realm (ARC Music/digital outlets)

Gao Hong and Zhao Xiaoxia: Prelude to the Divine Realm (ARC Music/digital outlets)

2 Feb 2025  |  1 min read

As anyone who has read some of the travel stories at Elsewhere will know, sometimes I undertake journeys or projects which take me away from the usual tourist trails. And that is the purpose of what sometimes seem like pretty silly ideas, like going in search of the birthplace of an Italian saint who apparently flew, going to a grim deserted prison in Scotland, Noah's... > Read more

Farewell at Yang Gang
The Weather Station: Humanhood (digital outlets)

The Weather Station: Humanhood (digital outlets)

2 Feb 2025  |  1 min read

This is a much anticipated album given Canada's Tamara Lindeman (AKA The Weather Station) appeared as one of our best of 2021 albums with the beautifully arranged Ignorance which explored literal and existential loss brought on by the disconnect between Nature and humanity. It won considerable critical acclaim but somewhat overlooked was the introspective... > Read more

Humanhood
POSTCARDS FROM EUROPE # 1: Bucharest, Romania

POSTCARDS FROM EUROPE # 1: Bucharest, Romania

2 Feb 2025  |  3 min read

Over the Christmas-New Year period 2024-2025 we travelled to Scotland for a family reunion then went to London and finally Bristol where my wife Megan has a niece and her family. As I did when we travelled in the time of Covid for three months (see here), I filed a series of weekly columns for the Listener. They don't appear to be online at the Listener so I reproduce... > Read more

Turda, Romania: The salt of the earth

Turda, Romania: The salt of the earth

2 Feb 2025  |  5 min read

Our driver Mihai turns the van down a narrow street, we bump across a broken parking area and he announces we are there. Where we are is a bit harder to be exact about, but we have driven an hour or so south of the city of Cluj-Napoca in northwest Romania to get here. Which is where we want to be to take in a most extraordinary sight. We turn a corner, walk down... > Read more

Bucharest, Romania: The museum of oppression

Bucharest, Romania: The museum of oppression

2 Feb 2025  |  3 min read

If you wanted to create a Museum of Communism somewhere, you could hardly go past Bucharest, the capital of Romania, for the ideal location. This is a country that was bent under the yoke of the ruthless dictatorial communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu for decades until his sudden fall in December 1989. Ceaușescu seemed an unlikely character to rise to a position... > Read more

POSTCARDS FROM EUROPE #2: Braemar, Scotland

POSTCARDS FROM EUROPE #2: Braemar, Scotland

2 Feb 2025  |  3 min read

Voices affect me first: in Edinburgh I hear the soft cadences of my mother and uncle John; further west and north the harder sound of Jock and Alice. Over Christmas we were back in Scotland again. Almost three years ago we were doing something like this: buttoning up for the chill wind and snow flurries. It was the time of Omicron and post-Brexit blues in Britain,... > Read more

Braemar, Scotland: The story of the stone

Braemar, Scotland: The story of the stone

2 Feb 2025  |  1 min read

Scotland has no shortage of ruined castles and churches, ancient sites, graveyards, battlefields and stones marking significant people, places or events. On the way into the historic village of Braemar in central Scotland from the east -- in the Grampian Mountains and a gateway to the Highlands -- there is a marker very easy to miss. It's a white stone and the... > Read more

Cam Ye O'er Frae France (by the Whistlebinkies)
Peterhead Prison, Scotland: The graveyard of hope

Peterhead Prison, Scotland: The graveyard of hope

2 Feb 2025  |  3 min read

“In and out on the same day,” the guy in uniform at Peterhead Prison said to me. “That's rare.” No doubt it's a joke he'd used on visitors before, but it's a good one if you only hear it once. Peterhead Prison on the stormy coast of Scotland north of Aberdeen is a forbidding fortress and was in operation right up to 2013. It's in a cold... > Read more

Dunnottar Castle, Scotland: The stories of the stones

Dunnottar Castle, Scotland: The stories of the stones

2 Feb 2025  |  3 min read

The imposing Dunnottar Castle, about half an hour south of Aberdeen, is one of those picturesque ruins Scotland is famous for. On a precipitous rocky outcrop with the cold North Sea below the sheer walls and cliffs, and linked to the mainland by a narrow bridge of land, Dunnottar would have been easy to defend in medieval times. What we see on this day – with a... > Read more

Land o the Leal, by Grey Dogs w Kathryn Joseph
Elgin Cathedral, Scotland: A photo essay

Elgin Cathedral, Scotland: A photo essay

2 Feb 2025  |  2 min read

In the far north of Scotland about halfway between Fraserburgh and Inverness is the city of Elgin, home to one of the most spectacular ruins in a country renown for them. This was Elgin Cathedral, and at its peak was the second largest cathedral in the land. It was the only cathedral in Scotland with three towers. A church on this site was started in the early part... > Read more

POSTCARDS FROM EUROPE #3: London, England

POSTCARDS FROM EUROPE #3: London, England

2 Feb 2025  |  3 min read

New Year’s Eve never really meant much to me, even as a teenager. All that forced levity. I’m no Grinch and if it’s your thing, then knock yourself out. As many do. But this last one was different: we were in London staying near my oldest son Julian and his wife Natasha, and wanted to put the past couple of years behind us. Two years ago the... > Read more

POSTCARDS FROM EUROPE #4: Bristol, England

POSTCARDS FROM EUROPE #4: Bristol, England

2 Feb 2025  |  3 min read

When Black Lives Matter protestors in Bristol pulled the statue of 17th century philanthropist, merchant, MP and slavery profiteer Sir Edward Colston off its plinth in 2020 and dumped it in the harbour, it might have seemed like the cathartic end of on-going protests about the city commemorating such a divisive figure. But it was just another instalment in the city... > Read more

THE McCARTNEY LEGACY VOL. 2 1974-80 by ALLAN KOZINN and ADRIAN SINCLAIR

THE McCARTNEY LEGACY VOL. 2 1974-80 by ALLAN KOZINN and ADRIAN SINCLAIR

27 Jan 2025  |  3 min read  |  1

Such was the detail in the first volume of this remarkable project – “granular” seems to be the current term – that we privately doubted we'd ever see this second volume. The first took McCartney from being an unemployed musician sitting in his remote Scottish cottage drinking whisky and feeling depressed to a career resurrection with the Band on... > Read more

Old Siam, Sir (Wings, 1979)
Kim Paterson, Alex Ventling: Conversations (Thick/digital outlets)

Kim Paterson, Alex Ventling: Conversations (Thick/digital outlets)

27 Jan 2025  |  1 min read

More than a decade ago when reviewing trumpeter/flugel player Kim Paterson's album The Duende we noted that for someone who has been so important in New Zealand jazz he was sorely under-represented by albums under his own name. In fact back then in 2012 we couldn't think of another, besides the one in hand. Paterson's name may be more familiar to wider audience now... > Read more

Cry Me a River
Sister Lottie Peavey: When I Move to the Sky (1945)

Sister Lottie Peavey: When I Move to the Sky (1945)

27 Jan 2025  |  1 min read

It's always remarkable what you can discover on a cheap album. I bought this Lu Watters/Bunk Johnson record from Rough Trade in Bristol for ₤3 (about $6.50) and what bargain it proved to be. Unbeknownst to me at the time these recordings by cornet player Lu Watters and his band (on one side) and trumpeter Bunk Johnson and his band (on the other) were a goldmine of... > Read more

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