Orchestra Indigo Releases Album ‘The Small Hours’

January 14, 2024

Our first feature album for 2024

Orchestra Indigo is an ambient music project created by recording artist Rick Randlett. Like many new artistic projects, the impetus for it was the the Covid pandemic, with it’s months of isolation and no live performances. Reaching back to his college studies in composition, orchestration, and electronic music, Rick is creating a unique orchestra electronic hybrid with neoclassical overtones that envelopes the listener in relaxing waves of sound.

A message from Rick…

“The Small Hours is a soundtrack for one sleepless night from midnight to dawn. Sitting alone, in a small dark room with drink in hand, a man contemplates his life, and ponders the decisions that have brought him to this place.”

Track Listing

1. Midnight (4:28)

2. The Small Hours (4:16)

3. Moments Of Uncertainty (5:48)

4. Walking Dark Streets (3:42)

5. After The Rain (6:22)

6. Hour Of The Wolf (4:33)

7. Meditation On Departed Friends (4:28)

8. Sleepless Once More (5:13)

9. 4:44 AM Blues (3:52)

10. Dawn’s Arrival (4:57)

11. Day Spring (5:20)

About

The fascinating story behind the emergence of new age artist Orchestra Indigo and its beautifully melodic and deeply inspiring debut album ‘Farewell to Memories’ has its roots in the lockdown early in the pandemic, when musicians around the world, with their regular gigs suddenly stripped away, were trying to figure out their next creative steps.

Having released his fifth blues rock oriented album ‘Night Songs’ in February 2020, multi-talented singer/songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist Rick Randlett had every intention of hitting the road in support of the project. That had been his m.o. for years, playing up to 125 regional club and festival dates in and around his adopted home state of Florida for nearly a decade and a half after launching his solo career in 1999 with ‘All Alone’. Three of his releases reached the Top Ten on the Roots Music Report charts, and he collaborated on the album ‘Hauntings’ with fellow blues singer Cassie Keenum in 2017.

Turning his anxiety over the sudden work stoppage into a fresh stream of creativity, he began exploring ambient, new age style compositions. Rick embraced the freedom of composing longer pieces combining piano melodies with an array of dynamic colors he created using synthesized strings.

STREAM

Connect

Robin Meloy Goldsby Releases ‘Dearest Things’ EP

December 18, 2023

We are proud to feature this stunning artist new to Soundslikecafe

Robin Meloy Goldsby has sculpted a place for herself as a master of gracefully played ambient music that elevates the elegance of any occasion. With decades of experience in the world’s best piano rooms enlightening her work and sparking creativity, Goldsby’s 2023 recording of beautiful solo piano music — Dearest Things — invites her audience into the musical sphere of European Grand Hotels, castles, and gardens. Robin performs regularly at Excelsior Hotel Ernst in Cologne and maintains a summer artist residency at Brenners Park Hotel & Spa in Baden-Baden. Her recordings are featured daily at Mediterana, an award-winning wellness oasis in Germany.

“Powerful, emotional music . . .” Matt Stuart, Time Magazine

Robin Goldsby is a Steinway Artist with over 200 million streams on Pandora. She has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and NPR’s Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland. Goldsby has performed solo piano music at Buckingham Palace for King Charles, for German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, and for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court installation of Chief Justice Debra Todd. Goldsby serves as a cultural ambassador for organizations dedicated to transatlantic relations and women’s rights.

Stream the EP

Connect with Robin

Fred Grenot – Unearthing

September 2, 2023

Reviewers have compared Grenot’s music to Brian Eno or Liquid Mind.

Now the feature track Unearthing from the new album “Respite, Music for Healing” is added to the soundslikecafe playlist

If you need healing you must listen to Unearthing!

Fred Grenot welcomes the listener with a warm, vast, peaceful, heart-warming aural experience with his ambient music for healing. Unearthing will hug the hearts of listeners and provide a soundscape for rest, relaxation, and reflection. After a long hiatus, Fred experienced healing through music while hospitalized and is back on the ambient music scene. Fred aims to help others heal through music, just as he did, with his new single, Unearthing.

Fred Grenot is deeply committed to empowering people to be physically, emotionally and spiritually well. His new album “Respite, Music for Healing” is the result of that commitment translated into the beautiful ambient music that Fred has created for this latest project. In 2014, Fred released the album “S.W.A.N” and “Beyond the Sun” in 2015 while working full time, being married and being a father to his two children.

“Since releasing my last album, I have done DEEP work on myself and looked at every part of my spiritual self. I have taken responsibility for my path and made peace with everything I have done and not done” says Grenot. The result is music that is filled with beauty, clarity and the kind of simplicity and confidence that only a master would take on in his craft and his self-expression. It is from this clarity that Fred hopes that listeners discover “healing” and a sonic oasis from which to find peace.”

Fellow recording artist and Emmy-Award winning composer Michael Whalen writes: “Fred was kind enough to let me hear ‘Respite’ before anyone else. I was just coming out of the hospital and I found this new album a wonderful way to relax and simply breathe as my body was healing and shedding pain after surgery. I know others will love it too...”

“I cannot help feel at this juncture that surely someone must use Fred Grenot’s work in either television or film, it’s perfect for it, take a listen readers and listeners and see what you think.” – Steve Sheppard – One World Music Radio

Listen

Connect

Monster Taxi Releases Single ‘Reflect’

August 4, 2023

Embark on an extraordinary auditory expedition with “Reflect” by Monster Taxi. This captivating track serves as your musical guide, inviting you to transcend the boundaries of the universe. Through gentle melodies, it creates a mental voyage through deserts, mountains, and beyond, resonating with your soul and sparking introspection. As the music unfolds, you find yourself immersed in a transformative experience, where reflection becomes a mirror to your inner self. Let the enchanting rhythms carry you to unexplored dimensions, as Monster Taxi accompanies you on a captivating journey through the landscapes of your mind.

Monster Taxi is the alter-ego of Miami music producer and keyboardist Jason Klein. Klein has worked on recordings for several major and indie artists including Mariah Carey, Ricky Martin, and Earth Wind & Fire.

From 1998-2001, he was partnered with famed Brazilian DJ Grego doing remixes and dance productions utilizing various Brazilian genres and latin house.

Before taking the moniker of Monster Taxi, Klein partnered with another Miami-based producer, Jason Wilkes, and opera singer, Kelly Alloco, as “Magic Sauce.” Magic Sauce remixed Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria”, which charted on DJ Times and was featured in Billboard Magazine. After Ave Maria, Klein teamed with Manny Perez for the Don Manuel “Figaro” house music opera. His interest in classic music also led to his dance collaboration with Amy Barbera in releasing Amazing Grace.

In 2003, Klein produced the BMG US Latin/RCA Victor album, Beny Moré – The King of Son. The single, “Bonito y Sabrosa”, was a Latin radio and video hit, charting #1 on several stations. It made the Billboard chart on May 17, 2003 on the Tropical/Salsa airplay at #39, Klein’s first Billboard chart position.

He formed Monster Taxi and Toy Robot Records to license his own tracks to major labels. The Monster Taxi tunes, “Boogie Makes a Splash” and “Cosmic Love Juice”, were featured on a dance compilation for Ministry of Sound. He worked with Billboard charting dance singers such as Pepper Mashay (Cosmic Love Juice), Rachel Panay (Repeat Performance and Get Off), Jennifer Carbonell (Memory Wack), and Ray Guell (Love is the Answer).

Monster Taxi teamed up with members of the disco funk band, Foxy and re-recorded “Get Off”. Song featured original talk box guitars, funky bass lines, and Ish Ledesma on vocals. Mixes received heavy dance club and airplay and was even featured at sporting events.

Recent dance mixes from Monster Taxi include Miami Spice, Cluck Old Hen, Do the Hora, Motivate, Tank and the jazz song, Ocean Drive. In 2013, Klein remixed Universal Music Canada artists, Bet.e and Stef. He continues to remix songs including releases by Eddie Amador & Ultra Nate and Jenevieve X.

He currently re-masters compilations for Sony Music and Fania Records, along with doing a voice-over production for the Simpsons cartoon on Fox. Many of these albums have charted in Billboard Magazine during 2013 and 2014.

LISTEN

Connect

Jack Nolan Releases Album ‘Jindabyne’

August 4, 2023

Jack Nolan’s JINDABYNE, released this month was so frustratingly delayed by that virus. This is an album that waited in the wings while lockdowns and rules ran their course. “March 2020 the world was turned on its axis and we all went into lockdown –suddenly there were no certainties in life; this created a sense of urgency in me, so I made a conscious decision not to waste the time and went to work writing JINDABYNE. As soon as I could post lockdown, I was booked and took off back to the US.”

The same band assembled again to record, with no backing tracks, all but live to tape – and why wouldn’t you with personnel like producer guitarist Justin Weaver (The Chicks/Wynonna Judd), drummer Jimmy Paxson (Lindsey Buckingham/The Chicks/Ben Harper) and bassist Chris Autry (Josh Turner/Lee Anne Womack).

The album’s title is lifted from the ever so sweet ‘Solo Sailor’ that lets us in on a journey. Other highlights include, the up-tempo ‘She Knew’ where nothing’s perfect, but she knew he loved her, and her knowing that will have to do for now, and the timeless finger picker, ‘All The Ships In The Ocean’.

Two years of stolen liberties has only hardened Jack’s resolve, to remain forever suspicious of rule makers and even more dedicated to his ongoing contribution to art, to song writing. JINDABYNE is a record for this year, where we are all staggering on after two years of madness, and we have all arrived back to that place we had drifted too far from, the simple things, love and reality, family, and community.

Based in Sydney, Australia, singer songwriter Jack Nolan has been performing and releasing music and albums since the mid 1990’s. Along with a six-album solo catalogue Jack also fronted The Kelly Gang, with Rick Grossman, bassist for The Divinyls and Hoodoo Gurus along with Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst and guitar player Martin Rotsey. Their 2004 album Looking for the Sun is still considered a hidden gem, with an incredible line-up of musicians that delivered passionate and energetic live shows of the time.

Within Nolan’s music, mysterious and shimmering chords unite his sound. Once quaintly described as ‘Darlinghurst Country’ his sound unites elements of folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll and ambient atmospheres fusing Nolan’s passion for intensely charged electric guitar and finger-picked acoustic guitar.

Of recent years, the critically acclaimed 2018 album ‘Our Waverley Star’ was followed by the equally impressive 2020 outing ‘Gabriel’. It was these two outings that cemented Nolan’s love of recording in Nashville, with guitarist/producer Justin Weaver (Dixie Chicks/Wynonna Judd). What started with a one-off phone call, developed into an alliance that Nolan describes as “arriving in town, in the northern winter, when everyone’s off the road, with my swag of songs to greet all the boys again to collaborate”.

Performing in & around the traps Jack’s Australian band includes Travis New (Andrew Farris/Imogen Clark) on guitar, Tim Samson (Christine Anu/Andrew Farris) on bass and long time drummer & Hamish Stuart (Don Walker/Ian Moss et al).

Jindabyne album is OUT NOW
Quay Records

Stream:

Connect with Jack:

Jennifer K. Austin New EP ‘Cards’

May 10, 2023

Checkout this latest addition to our playlist-this time from our New Zealand neighbours.

Jennifer K. Austin is an American born actor, singer and songwriter but now proud to call herself a kiwi. Piggy-backing off her emotionally charged second album Journey, she wanted to show a more playful side to her stories. Her new music has been cooking for 2 years and finally is born on her recent tour of New Zealand in April.

The EP has been written by Jennifer and brought to life (fully produced) by Chris McCollum at The Lab Recording Studio. Chris and Jennifer wanted to create music that was real, authentic and fresh but still holding a vulnerable story in each track.

This EP holds 5 versatile tracks ranging from throwback 90’s pop to upbeat Animal-esque 60’s organ rock. Bringing in a new flavour to reminiscent feels, these tracks create a nostalgic world for the listener. Jennifer has poured her diary into her music and hopes to inspire others to reconnect with their memoire.

Stream

Connect

Monster Taxi Releases Single ‘A Walking Stranger’

March 24, 2023

“A Walking Stranger” captures a musical journey. All one needs to do is sit back and close your eyes and allow the music to take you to a place of bliss. Every scene is heightened with this dream state musical experience. Whatever chaos there is in one’s day, can be escaped by the emotional beauty of “A Walking Stranger”. Monster Taxi brings us musical sophistication that is transforming and allowing us all to step outside of our world, if only for a short time, and experience inner peace and tranquility while providing a path for our own self-discovery.

“From the onset of “A Walking Stranger” by Monster Taxi you get this feeling you are about to take an adventure in time. Its ethereal synths captivate your imagination while its steady percussive rhythm moves you into another dimension. The flute and air like vibes keep you floating steadily through your mind with ever changing thoughts. As I listen to its 3:36 length I feel like I’ve been all around the universe. This is a true gem, and I can’t wait to hear more from this artist. Bravo!”

– Bill Kelly, Co-founder of Winter Music Conference

“Jason Klein and I go back a ways to when I was sharpening my teeth in the dance music world. It’s refreshing to see him now crossing into a genre that’s been a part of my hemisphere for decades with a groovy electronic tune.”

– Nicholas Gunn

About

From 1998-2001, he was partnered with famed Brazilian DJ Grego doing remixes and dance productions utilizing various Brazilian genres and latin house.

Monster Taxi teamed up with members of the disco funk band, Foxy and re-recorded “Get Off”. The song featured original talk box guitars, funky bass lines, and Ish Ledesma on vocals. Mixes received heavy dance club play and airplay and it was even featured at sporting events.

LISTEN

Connect

Jack Nolan Releases Single ‘She Knew’

March 17, 2023

SHE KNEW is the fourth cut from Jack’s next LP set for release mid ’23 and sure to be one of our top feature albums for the year.

What started as a little fingerpicker became one punchy alt folk pop number that grabs you from the top. Featuring Jack’s Gretsch fingerpicking hanging off Justin Weavers powerful electric guitar hooks, this song moves along at the pace of a storyteller running away. Like so much of Jack’s music, regret, joy, love, and redemption all play a part in this poetic soundscape.

Jack Nolan has delivered a true rocker for his new single. Electric guitars start the tune, a fast drum beat and classic arrangement make the tune ear catching and accessible straight away. This one would sit alongside classics Tom Petty, Paul Kelly and Springsteen for sure.

“Driving down to my mining town

I was swerving

I turned the wheel

I was drifting lanes

He’d broken down in traffic

I told her I loved her

She Knew”

And when all is said and done you can only do what’s possible; you can only be responsible for yourself.

About Jack Nolan

Based in Sydney, Australia, singer songwriter Jack Nolan has been performing and releasing music since the mid 1990’s. Along with a five-album solo catalogue Jack also fronted The Kelly Gang, with Rick Grossman, bassist for The Divinyls and Hoodoo Gurus, along with Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst and guitar player Martin Rotsey. Their 2004 album Looking for the Sun was critically adored along with their energetic live shows.

Once quaintly described as ‘Darlinghurst Country’, his sound unites elements of folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll and ambient atmospheres fusing Nolan’s passion for intensely charged electric guitar and finger-picked acoustic guitar.

The critically acclaimed 2018 album ‘Our Waverley Star’ was followed up by the equally impressive ‘Gabriel’. It was these two American outings that cemented Nolan’s love of Nashville and built from a connection with guitarist/producer Justin Weaver that started with a one-off phone call and developed into an alliance that Nolan describes as ‘Team America’. What’s now become a regular jaunt is an opportunity for Nolan to get away from all the distractions of home, and “arrive in town, in the northern winter, when everyone’s off the road, with my swag of songs to greet all the boys again to collaborate”.

Jack’s new album – JINDABYNE – is set for release thus year. This album has waited in the wings while lockdowns and rules meant the guitar took on a whole new meaning. “I arrived home from Nashville in early March 2020 with ‘Gabriel’ ready for mastering. One week later, the world turned on its axis and – lockdown. This created a sense of urgency in me, so I made a conscious decision not to waste the time and went to work writing JINDABYNE. As soon as the plane could fly I was booked and took off back to the US”.

Stream/download

Connect

John Kennedy Releases Album ‘John Kennedy and The New Originals’

March 9, 2023

John Kennedy’s new album project started in late 2020. Kennedy and his band were going to record two albums – one of new originals and a second volume of the Raining Treasure Australian indie covers series. The project started with a bang with Murray Cook having open heart surgery. That was followed by the second round of COVID lockdowns, so the band focussed on the simpler of the two – the Raining Treasure album.

By mid 2022, the band got the ball rolling again on the new originals album. With four songs in the can from the earlier sessions, “all” Kennedy needed to do was write eight new songs and record them before the deadline of Christmas 2022. No pressure.

Eight new originals were needed in six months. It was going to go down to the wire and as they were approaching the deadline, recording engineer Geoff Lee at Zen Studios had a heart attack. This put him out of action for four weeks before he came back to the studio part time.

The band persevered and with the help of Geoff and mix engineer Rusty, working remotely in Tasmania, they managed to get the project over the line.

Kennedy leaves Australia in June 2023 to live for an extended period in Spain. The album is probably the best collection of his original songs he has ever worked on. With band mates Peter Timmerman on drums, guitarist Murray Cook and bassist Phil Hall who has come into his own with arrangement ideas, additional instrumentation and co-production, Kennedy is working with the best band he’s ever played with. He is also singing better than he’s ever done. His talent has shone through, the perseverance has paid off and with this album Kennedy leaves the Australian indie music scene on a high.

About John Kennedy

An enthusiastic young music journalist once described Sydney musician John Kennedy as a humble genius. Kennedy is neither a genius not particularly humble. He is the singer / songwriter of many classic Australian Indie songs that have found a place in the hearts of music lovers of a certain generation.

Kennedy started his music career in Brisbane with his first band JFK and the Cuban Crisis. A move to Sydney brought immediate independent success with his first release on Waterfront Records, the Careless Talk Costs Lives ep. It’s featured song ‘The Texan Thing’ became a JJJ radio hit. The band broke up in the mid-’80’s after the release of the prophetically titled ‘The End Of The Affair’ album and Kennedy went on to pursue a solo career with his band vehicle John Kennedy’s Love Gone Wrong. Numerous indie hits including ‘Miracle (in Marrickville)’, ‘King Street’ and ‘Big Country’ followed but commercial success remained elusive. In 1989, Kennedy chose to travel the world with his guitar living by the mantra: Have Songs, Will Travel.

After ten years of living, performing and recording in LA, Berlin, Hong Kong, Holland and London, Kennedy returned to Sydney in the 2000’s and formed John Kennedy’s 68 Comeback Special. With an ever-changing line up of musicians, he continued to release numerous albums before settling with a stable group of bandmates: original Love Gone Wrong drummer Peter Timmerman, ex-Red Wiggle Murray Cook on guitar and Phil Hall formerly of Sardine v, The Dropbears and The Lime Spiders on bass. With this new release, this line up has now morphed into John Kennedy And The New Originals.

The last five years have seen Kennedy busier than has he ever been with six album releases in six years. The release will be his last for the foreseeable future with Kennedy planning to leave Australia in June 2023 to live in Spain for an extended period.

Song Descriptions

Discover Me
This swinging and rocking single ‘Discover Me’ is full of life, fire and passion. An up-tempo tune that would give you no idea these guys have been recording since the 1990’s. Catchy backing vocals and guitar hooks and riffs – a power pop classic.

Girl Of My Dreams
An acoustic/electric start with some great backing vocals a la Roy Orbison, a very chilled out rhythm section and baking band slowly groove into this ballad. Some really tasteful guitar and vocal work on this one.

It’s Good To Be Here
A more up-tempo radio friendly power pop song that harkens back to his early work; hooks and riffs abound, think Hoodoo Gurus, The Church and Died Pretty. Classic indie rock from those days with a modern edge and production.

John Kennedy and The New Originals is out now 10th March 2023,
on Foghorn Records through MGM.

Stream or Download

Connect with John Kennedy

Darlene Koldenhoven’s new album has reached #1 on instrumental chart

November 27, 2022

GRAMMY® Award Winner and 3 time Nominee Darlene Koldenhoven’s new album ‘Traveling the Blissful Highway’ has been cruising up the Soundslikecafe charts since its release in October and has now hit the number 1 instrumental album spot!!

Not only that but the single ‘Jade Dreams’ is hanging out at number 2 on the overall top 10.

Click below for the chart:

The album also had local Australian articles in Scenestr magazine and Whats My Scene. Darlene was recently interviewed ‘across the pond’ for Aparna Vats Point of View show on Alive 90.5 FM Sydney.

The chart position isn’t surprising considering these great reviews of the album below:

It is some of the most relaxing and
dreamy music you will have the pleasure of enjoying – a slice of heaven.
– Keith “Muzik Man” Hannaleck, New Age Music Reviews, Founder 7/18/22

The music of “Traveling the Blissful Highway” is colored with many colors, as if you are enthusiastically
leafing through a color album of a wonderful photographer who captured the most beautiful landscapes
that he met on his way. And each new page is even more beautiful… There is sophistication and a lot of the
smallest nuances in its perfect sounding music. A wonderful end to a hard day, bringing peace to the soul
and clearing the mind of worries.
– Serge Kozlovsky, Minsk, Belarus skozlovsky.com 7/30/22

“Traveling the Blissful Highway is an album you will want as your musical companion, to help make your life
joumey a more enjoyable and beautiful discovery. Darlene’s experience and exposure to varied cultures,
countries and traditions have contributed positively to her broad and diverse vision of humanity and our
world which comes through in her musical compositions and especially shines on this album.”
-Lizzette Cascante, Aurelscapes 8/3/22

Travel with Darlene Koldenhoven and her musicians on the blissful highway in her new album that features twelve instrumental tracks including four with her angelic, harmonic vocalese, occasionally used as background instrumentation. All of her compositions and arrangements invite us to go out and see the world and have a good rest at the end of an exquisite day. Darlene performs on keyboard synths, creating a culture of calm: half the album has ethnic influences to gently keep you going on the road and half lets you exit to the rest areas. Even when real travel is not in the picture, pack these traveling soundscapes for your inner and outer journey. With this album, the only passport you’ll need for these destination cities – peace, calm, happiness and bliss is your own mindfulness to visit them and the album as your tour guide.

About

GRAMMY® Award Winner and 3 time Nominee, Darlene Koldenhoven is a vocalist, pianist, composer, arranger, lyricist, speaker, and sonic therapist from Studio City, CA, born and raised in Chicago, IL. Her last two albums, “The Grand Piano Spa” and “The Grand Piano Spa: Legacy” debuted on the prestigious Billboard Classical Crossover Charts at #4 and #8, respectively in May & November 2021.

She was inducted to the Indie Music Hall of Fame at the GRAMMY® Museum in 2019 by the Indie Music Channel Awards and the COVR Award hailed her “Chromatones” as Album of the Year a few months later. Several of her albums ranked #1 on the worldwide ZMR Radio Charts and she has 2 Best New Age Vocal Album and Best Holiday Album from ZMR.

Darlene is best known worldwide as the featured soprano in “Yanni, Live at the Acropolis” and for her role as the tambourine-waving choir nun in both “Sister Act” films with Whoopi Goldberg.

STREAM

Connect with Darlene

SoundsLike Cafe

Cafe Music Delivered for Free

SoundsLike Cafe

Cafe Music Delivered for Free

Tag: American Artists

Orchestra Indigo Releases Album ‘The Small Hours’

Robin Meloy Goldsby Releases ‘Dearest Things’ EP

Fred Grenot – Unearthing

Monster Taxi Releases Single ‘Reflect’

Connect

Jack Nolan Releases Album ‘Jindabyne’

Jennifer K. Austin New EP ‘Cards’

Stream

Connect

Monster Taxi Releases Single ‘A Walking Stranger’

About

Connect

Jack Nolan Releases Single ‘She Knew’

About Jack Nolan

Stream/download

Connect

John Kennedy Releases Album ‘John Kennedy and The New Originals’

About John Kennedy

Song Descriptions

Stream or Download

Connect with John Kennedy

Darlene Koldenhoven’s new album has reached #1 on instrumental chart

Click below for the chart:

Listen to Sounds Like Cafe

Facebook

Featured Video