Nostalgia 77 features the production work of
Benedic Lamdin, who shifts between relying upon samples and musicians as raw material for his processed tracks. After some singles for the 7Sevens label, he released his first album,
Songs for My Funeral, in 2004, and followed that with 2005's
The Garden, issued on Ubiquity; Borderlands and Sevens & Eights: Recorded Live at the Jazz Cafe in 2006, and then
Everything Under the Sun the next year. In 2008, the album
Weapons of Jazz Destruction was released by
Tru Thoughts under the Nostalgia 77 Octet moniker. Landin (who played guitar) expanded his concept group to include drums, upright bass, brass, reeds, and winds. After a collection entitled
Nostalgia 77's One Offs, Remixes & B-Sides, in 2009 Landin enlisted British jazz and improv legends pianist
Keith Tippett and vocalist
Julie Tippetts for
Nostalgia 77 Sessions, Vol. 1, another full-ensemble recording that featured upright bass, saxophones, guitar, and drums in addition to piano and vocals. Landin also acted as producer and engineer for the date. Throughout the latter half of the 21st century's first decade, Landin concerned himself with a lot of production work on albums by
Jeb Loy Nichols,
Elizabeth Parks,
Larry Stabbins,
Alice Russell,
Sara Mitra, Fringe Magnetic, and
Golden Age of Steam. In the early spring of 2011,
Nostalgia 77 released the most eclectic and far-reaching album to date with
Sleepwalking Society featuring German vocalist Josa Peit; the set walked the line between classic
Ellingtonian jazz, British folk, and even blues. In 2012,
Lamdin, his regular band, and other U.K. jazzers issued The Taxidermist under the moniker
Nostalgia 77 & the Monster.
Returning to the
Nostalgia 77 moniker proper,
Lamdin furthered his collaboration with Peit on 2014's
A Journey Too Far. The remix album Kingdom of Dub appeared that same year, with
Lamdin's back catalog getting the dub treatment from producer
Prince Fatty. A second collaboration with the Monster, Measures, was issued in December. ~ Andy Kellman & Thom Jurek