2014 newsEsthema on WMBR 88.1 FMDecember 2014You can now hear Esthema on WMBR 88.1FM (Boston area) or www.wmbr.org on Tuesdays between 2:00 and 4:00PM. The show, The New Edge is devoted to creative and innovative instrumental music and is hosted by long time Esthema supporter, Ken Fields. The show is repeated on Fridays @ 1-3am & 2-4pm, Sundays @ 7-9pm, Tuesdays @ 2-4am, & Wednesdays @ 8-10am on http://taintradio.org/. A sincere THANK YOU to Ken Field for his continued support and for making instrumental music that doesn't fall into a specific radio-friendly category available for all to be heard. Happy New Year!!!! Dream Farm Radio Season 3 Great Moments"December 2014This week (starting December 14), along with many great artists, Esthema is part of Dream Farm Radio's Season 3 More Great Moment's. If you have a chance, please listen in for some incredible music from Season 3 of Dream Farm Radio. A sincere thanks to Julie Lavendar, Don Richardson, and everyone over at Dream Farm for their continued support! Esthema on The Prog Magazine ShowDecember 2014Unbeknownst to Esthema, on October 11, 2014 we were part of The Prog Magazine Show. Prog Magazine is an internationally selling magazine that features Progressive music artists. If you recall in our PROG Magazine review, Grant Moon said: "Their beautifully produced third album Long Goodbye is a relentlessly classy and high-minded affair but with a knowing rock vibe." Well, Prog Magazine also have a show and check out the playlist from the show below: Genesis - Dance On A Volcano
The fact that Esthema has made it onto a program that is playing the like of Genesis, King's X, Peter Gabriel, Opeth, and the others listed above is truly a humbling experience. Check them out...great music (and not just because they are playing Esthema)!!!! Esthema Hits the Weekly Top 20 @ Latch Music Radio!December 2014For the week of December 5, 2014 Esthema's "Three Sides To Every Story, Part II" from our latest release, Long Goodbye was voted #5 by the listeners of Latch Music Radio, a Weekly Jazz Rock World Fusion Streaming Radio Station. Weekly Jazz Rock World Fusion Streaming Latch Music Radio Top 20 ending 12-05-14. Voted on by the people who listen to Latch Music Radio. #20. Scott Kinsey - Quartet - Kinesthetics
Latch Music Radio is an on-line radio station showcasing Jazz Rock World Fusion music. You can catch listen 24 / 7 @ Live365. A sincere thanks to Dave Latchaw, everyone over at Latch Music Radio, and the listeners for the continued support! Much love! Esthema hits Cyprus' AirwavesNovember 2014Today (November 18, 2014)! Starting at 4PM EST (11PM Local Time), the national radio station of Cyprus will dedicate one hour to Esthema, playing Long Goodbye in its entirety and acquainting its audience with Esthema. The program will be hosted by Akis Pharmakalides. You can listen here. Listen live and get ready for this week's CD release party of Esthema's Long Goodbye! Esthema Hits the Weekly Top 20 @ Latch Music Radio!November 2014For the week of November 14, 2014 Esthema's "Three Sides To Every Story, Part II" from our latest release, Long Goodbye was voted #18 by the listeners of Latch Music Radio, a Weekly Jazz Rock World Fusion Streaming Radio Station. Weekly Jazz Rock World Fusion Streaming Latch Music Radio Top 20 ending 11-14-14. Voted on by the people who listen to Latch Music Radio. #20. ProjeKct Four - Ghost, Pt. 1 - West Coast Live
You can catch Latch Music Radio 24 / 7 @ Live365. Very Good Fun. A sincere thanks to Dave Latchaw for his continued support over the years! Much love! Esthema's Long Goodbye CD Release Party AnnouncedOctober 2014
SOUNDTRACK TO OUR LIVES. | ESTHEMA AT THE MIDDLE EAST CORNER.October 2014Read The Quiet Lunch review by Pete Salomone of Esthema's September 10 show at the Middle East right here or below:
Music has changed, or at least the way we consume it. People have stopped listening to music; it’s simply become the background to our lives. The hifi systems are gone, the headphones have been reduced to mere travelling companions. Even once-ubiquitous rock music has been pushed out from the center, and it takes something like Apple & U2’s recent stunt to make it anything other than greatest-hits-tour fodder. In a world increasingly overridden by the pop-bubble and EDM, is there still a place for thoughtful, skillfully-made instrumental music?
Even if that place is getting smaller Esthema seem to think there is, and their outer-rim influences: world music, blended with prog and metal, only serve to improve the depth of their output. Progressive music is gone from the mainstream, but it wasn’t too long ago that Rush was filling stadiums, even less time since Dream Theater played hockey arenas, while more recent prog groups like Between the Buried and Me or Coheed and Cambria toured similar venues. The rock music that makes headlines is inherently simple, usually old style blues-based acts like The Black Keys or anything with Jack White. Esthema’s development is more complicated, its roots much older.
Fans of more recent progressive and metal groups, the musicians who make up Esthema are deeply versed in traditional Greek and Turkish music. Traditional stringed instruments make up a portion of Esthema’s sound in a fascinating and transformative, an unfortunately uncommon manner. Their recorded music is rife with drastic changes in tone, tempo, and time, and it would make sense that it would sound disjointed when played live. Nothing could be further from the truth. Where I was expecting a constant sea of improvised pieces, which may or may not fill a possible whole, I was met with cohesion from top to bottom. There were no extended sections which relied on visual or musical cues to bring the band back to the same page, nobody floated out to their own world, everyone played as one.
With players this skilled, jazz-influenced composition may veer towards self-indulgent tedium, but I was delighted by the attention to detail of their compositions. Esthema is a musician’s band. It takes an experienced ear to discern frequent time, key, and instrument changes from free-form madness. Every sound felt like the band had been over it more times than I care to think about, making sure nothing was being felt out on the spot, which made the organic feel of such intricate material all the more impressive. Esthema’s music deftly glided past pretension and found itself in a sea of riches instead. I couldn’t help but follow the tones and moods being pulled in a wonderful evocation.
This is the point, dear reader, where the story gets murky. The gentlemen of Esthema are some of the finest musicians I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, yet for all of them this band is one of several ongoing gigs. These are career musicians, fluent in more styles than I can probably spell, and capable of producing engrossing music with the same requisite effort I require to amble to the bathroom in the morning. For all of the obvious ability and its flavorful fruits, there lies an air of inaccessibility, earned or not. Music is simply a group of sounds intended to produce a desired emotional or visceral effect, nothing more. A listener does not have to be able to properly notate the polyrhythmic time signatures or, hell, even know what that phrase means: if it transports you somewhere, does anything else matter?
If Yes and Bill Withers can successfully coexist in 1972, what’s to stop Esthema from achieving their own success in 2014? The sheer number of options available at your fingertips (you are reading this on the internet… aren’t you?) paints a bleak picture for many specialized artists these days, from house music, to reggae-influenced hip-hop, to heavy metal, to alt-country, the infamous record contracts are dying along with the labels that would have printed them, as music has become all but fully democratized. Sure, Beyonce or the Foo Fighters aren’t about to go the way of the dinosaur (we’ll always need a few collective experiences to call ourselves a society), but the good news is that there is so much good music being thrust upon the world that the act of finding it can be as daunting as a sheer cliff face. I can only hope each subgenre has something like Esthema in its ranks, producing such intricate, lush music as to make you forget how difficult it must truly be. Esthema would like to sincerely thank Peter, Matia Guardabascio, and everyone over at The Quiet Lunch for not only the kind words but for their support and for taking the time to come out to the show. Esthema's Long Goodbye, a Featured Story at Progressive Rock CentralSeptember 2014This month we are humbled to be one of the Featured Stories at Progressive Rock Central.
"Esthema is a Boston-based ensemble composed of virtuoso musicians that defy musical boundaries." - Angel Romero
Read the complete story at "Esthema’s Multilayered Progressive-World Fusion." A sincere THANK YOU to Angel and everyone over at Progressive Rock Central for their support and kind review of Esthema's Long Goodbye. Esthema's Long Goodbye Reviewed in PROG MagazineSeptember 2014Check out the latest review of Esthema's Long Goodbye in the international selling UK based magazine, PROG. "Their beautifully produced third album Long Goodbye (esthema.com) is a relentlessly classy and high-minded affair but with a knowing rock vibe."
The review in its entirety is posted on our reviews page. A sincere thanks to Grant Moon and everyone over at PROG Magazine. Being a part of the same publication as bands like Opeth, Genesis, Rush, Dream Theater, and so many other Progressive music icons from yesterday and today is an absolute humbling experience. We'll let you know when the magazine hits the stands here in the US. House of ProgAugust 2014Esthema can now be heard on the House of Prog. Make sure to listen in on Friday nights, starting next Friday, August 15 to The Waiting Room hosted by The Prog Doctor.
Esthema will also be part of the 24/7 streaming Progressive Music offered by the House of Prog so make sure to listen any time any where. Esthema @ WaterFire ProvidenceJuly 2014For those that have been following Esthema since the beginning you may remember that our composition "Distance" from our first CD, Apart From The Rest (2007) was selected for WaterFire Providence. Well, just last Saturday, July 12th at 11:03PM, right after Puccini and before Vivaldi, "Distance" was once again heard throughout the streets of Providence. To be coupled with the likes of Puccini and Vivaldi, as well as Django Reinhardt, Arvo Part, and many other is an absolute honor and an extremely humbling experience. f you haven't been to WaterFire Providence it is an unforgettable experience that you don't want to miss (with or without Esthema contributing to the soundtrack). Don't miss out - you won't regret it! Esthema Live @ the Armory in SomervilleJuly 2014Esthema had the pleasure of performing at one of Somerville, MA landmarks in July - the Armory. A sincere thanks to all that came out and showed their love and support.
And for those that couldn't join us, the show was recorded and is available for download via SoundCloud at soundcloud.com/esthema. Esthema hits Chicagoland airwavesJune 2014Esthema is now on rotation on Chicagoland's WVLP 98.3 FM between 5:00PM and 7:00PM. The program is called Progression, a long-standing Chicagoland FM radio show entering its tenth year of existence and is hosted by Gregg Kovach.
NPR's DJ Sessions: American Jazz With A European TwistJune 2014Julie Lavendar, Producer and Host of Dreamfarm Radio in New Hampshire, joins NPR's Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson to talk music from a number of Greek, Turkish, Balkan and Roma-influenced groups and its fusion into American Jazz. Esthema made it into the conversation. You can listen to it right here. Long Goodbye ReleasedJune 2014Esthema's Long Goodbye released June 3, 2014.
CDs and mp3 downloads are available on-line at CDBaby, iTunes, Spotify, Rhapsody, and more. Esthema wants to express a sincere thanks to those that made this recording possible: Peter Kontrimas of PBS Studios, Mac Ritchey of Possum Hall, and Randy Roos of Squam Sound. Also, a sincere thanks to Artistic Director and Designer, Rebecca Fagan of Fagan Design for her work on the visually stunning CD and esthema.com. Additional thanks also go out to Robin Weiss for photography and Korinne Mac and the Middlesex Community College THE103 class for lending their voices to Three Sides. Long GoodbyeApril 2014Esthema has been quiet as of late putting the finishing touches on Long Goodbye. The original tracking of the CD was completed with engineer Peter Kontrimas at PBS Studio. Additional tracking, edits and mixing was recently completed at Possum Hall with engineer, Mac Ritchey and on Sunday, April 13 Long Goodbye was mastered by Randy Roos at Squam Sound. Esthema would like to thank Peter, Mac, and Randy for leaving their indelible mark on our music and this recording. Over the next few weeks (before the official CD release) as we finish up the design with long time friend, supporter, and collaborator Rebecca Fagan of Fagan Design be on the lookout for tidbits of each composition as well as the release of Without A Moment’s Notice in its entirety. Each of the compositions on this record has a story behind it. Without A Moment’s Notice is a composition inspired by the life event, the moment that changes every other moment thereafter. We’ll let you know when and where! In the meantime, check out the face (below) of Long Goodbye courtesy of Rebecca Fagan of Fagan Design. Thanks Rebecca!
Esthema Reviewed in France's Highlands MagazineeFebruary 2014In Issue 064 of Bruges, France's Highlands Magazine, check out the review of our first 2 CDs, Apart From The Rest and the Hereness and Nowness of Things.
We are truly humbled by the support Esthema has recently gotten. A sincere THANKS to Didier Gonzalez, editor of Highlands Magazine for and his team. Esthema Reviewed in Belgium's Prog-RésisteJanuary 2014Check out the review of Esthema's first 2 CDs, Apart From The Rest and the Hereness and Nowness of Things in the January 2014 edition of Belgium's Prog-Résiste.
An enormous THANK YOU to Olivier Delooz and everyone Prog-Résiste for their kind words and support! Esthema LIVE on Dream Farm RadioJanuary 2014Just released! Listen to esthema's the Hereness and Nowness of Things show on Dream Farm Radio with producer/host Julie Lavendar. We had the pleasure of performing some of our favorites live with Julie and getting a chance to chat about all things esthema! Visit DreamFarmRadio.org to listen to this week's episode. Esthema on Davis, California radio (and streaming around the world)January 2014To all our friends in the Davis, California area, you can now hear esthema on KDVS.org 90.3FM. The program is called "Crossing Continents" with Gil Medovoy and it is on every other Saturday between 4:00 & 7:00PM; next scheduled program is 01/25/2014.
Long Goodbye Song ListJanuary 2014And so here it is... The much anticipated song list from esthema's soon to be released CD, Long Goodbye... |
