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Repress

The legendary partnership of NYC's Disco godfather Tom Moulton and Philadelphia International Records has long been documented.
A truly explosive collaboration that yielded endless classic tracks for dancers and deep listeners alike, Moulton seemed to be totally in tune with the labels output and the direction it should go in. Luckily we've been enjoying the fruits of this labour for the last 30+ years with a lot of these PIR classics becoming ingrained in the psyche of the modern day music fan as the building blocks of House music.

The names alone hark to the legendary voices of the era, major stars including The O'Jays, The Futures, Jean Carne & The Jones Girls all feature with classic after classic getting the TJM treatment. Moulton's supreme ear on this special PIR reissue 2 x 12" see's some all-time classics from the aforementioned artists in their full, unabridged, unedited Disco glory. The selections on this EP are absolutely top-shelf, flawless in fact. One could argue that these are the 'definitive' versions of these anthems. Pure Disco gold essentials. Anyone with even a passing interest in Disco will most certainly need this record in their possession, the 2012 pressing of this EP is super in demand among those in the know and it can change hands for £100+ second hand, so a repress was desperately needed.

These tracks are fully licensed and reissued in conjunction with Tom Moulton and PIR and all relevant rights holders. Remastered from original source materials to the highest spec and pressed onto top quality vinyl, courtesy of Above Board distribution for 2019.

Editions Mego is proud to release the new album by Australian producer Jasmine Guffond. Developed over a two year period, Microphone Permission is an unsettling musical journey utilising contemporary tools of communication to display Guffond's ongoing research into online surveillance and sound as a method of investigation.

Source material on Microphone Permission are from various projects Guffond has been working on; a commission to sonify the data of the city of Melbourne, a dance performance about the future sounds of an extinct forest, an installation that sonifies Twitter meta data in real time, a job as a composer for a theatre work about music and feminism by five young female identifying performers in Western Sydney and a site specific installation at the Linachtalsperre dam that employed the harmonic frequencies of electric currents.

The results are a stark, brooding, disorientating journey into a paranoid musical field that sits somewhere between ambient club music and a dystopian soundtrack. Elements of techno, classical music and sound art form a dark intriguing masterwork that questions the nature of invasive, algorithmic and computational listening practices.

For example Microphone Permission refers to the consent we routinely give when installing various apps. onto our smart devices. Inspired by a 2018 scandal in which fans of Spain's most popular soccer team were effectively turned into unwitting spies by granting the La Liga application microphone permission. No matter which make or model, all smart devices are built with a microphone that is by default, forever listening. Listening in these situations often takes on an algorithmic form that enables tech developers to bypass public response to what is intuitively considered invasive practice, that is, traditional modes of eavesdropping such as using the microphone to listen and record audio.

Editions Mego presents The Psychologist, the sophomore album by the Istanbul born and raised, Berlin based electronic music composer and sound artist Hüma Utku.

As the title suggests, The Psychologist, is a series of sonic essays based around themes of psychological phenomena and can be read as a musical enquiry into the human condition. With Utku’s background as a graduate of Psychology and her current practice as a conceptual music composer we see the two main threads in her professional career intertwine on this unique and ambitious release.

Including recordings of Buchla 200 from Utku’s Elektronmusikstudion residency in October 2020,The Psychologist is a genre aversive work that embodies elements of synthesiser music, electroacoustic, experimental techno, industrial, modern composition and spoken word. Piano, string compositions and vocals hold weight throughout a number of pieces providing a dramatic acoustic edge to the psychological explorations contained within.

The foreboding mood of much of this release is the product of investigation that lends the unsettling theme of anticipatory grief to the mood of the tracks Light of All Lights and Continuing Bonds. Islands of Consciousness refers to Jungian metaphor for consciousness whilst the unnerving Rüya twists around dream analysis in Gestalt psychology. Fuel For The Flames proceeds as a buzzing and swirling representation of alchemy and psychological symbolism. Dissolution of I is haunted by a strange sensation of dissociation whilst defense mechanisms support the sublime Sublimation. The bright shapes of Chironian Wound represent archetypes and analytical psychology whilst the fried soundscapes and rhythms of Ataxia encapture neurological states.

The results unravel with both the clockwork rhythms of the human body and the unpredictable nature of the psyche, the pieces follow arrhythmic patterns in a harmonious way. It tells the raw and intimate story of the human experience with a new work whereby the predictable operates in parallel with the unexpected and like human experience itself, is dark and complex.

Composed, Written & Produced by Hüma Utku
Piano by Hüma Utku
Vocals by Hüma Utku
Double Bass performed by Adam Pultz Melbye
Cello performed by Florina Speth (aka Schloss Mirabell)
Violin performed by Marta Forsberg
Cover photography & art by Gözde Güngör
Design by Eloise Leigh

‘No Fixed Point In Space’, the third full-length album by Jack Cooper’s Modern Nature, takes the palette of sound and themes that were honed on 2021’s ‘Island Of Noise’ and launches them into an expansive world of openness and vivid technicolour.

It’s a music that hasn’t been heard before; as melodic as anything Cooper has produced but framed by rhythms and instrumentation that reflect the chaos, unpredictability and colour of the natural world.

Certain moorings - woodwind, percussion, strings and Cooper’s lambent voice - are still present and recognisable from No Fixed Point In Space’s predecessor, ‘Island Of Noise’, but the new record marks a shift to utilising musical notation as a point of departure, from which the group explore the space around suggested notes and rhythms to create a semiimprovised, semi-composed ensemble performance.

These explorations of partly organised chance were recorded live and directly to tape.

This approach gives the music a remarkably fresh feel; songs pulse and evolve. The changes between movements, verse and choruses are almost all ambiguous. During the album’s opener, ‘Tonic’, a verse of hushed brevity washes away into a passage of overwhelmingly vibrant orchestration.

CD in four-panel digisleeve with 10-panel booklet with lyrics. LP pressed on 140g black vinyl with printed inner
sleeve and stamped postcard.

Reissue of the 3rd full length by Thomas Bücker aka Bersarin Quartett.

Melancholia. Longing. It is difficult to speak about these moods or states of the mind without invoking stereotypes. In ancient medicine, melancholia was considered to be one of the four temperaments, matching the four humours. In fact, melancholia, meaning "black bile" in Ancient Greek, was thought to be caused by an excess of this very body substance. By contrast, in more modern interpretations, literates and Freudians relate many variations of longing to the one primordial longing, the desire to return to one's mother's womb. In this context, the womb is considered to be the place of absolute comfort and cosiness, of total bliss. Thus it should not be surprising that to many of us melancholia is a mood which we like to invoke and to maintain, we like to envelop ourselves in it like in a warm blanket. Our brain and our sensory systems appear to be made for perceiving and emotionally responding to music in a very immediate fashion. Consequently music is the obvious drug for all of us melancholia-addicts. However, there is a thin line between melancholia and sadness, and music which is meant to be melancholic too often crosses this line by far. Only very few artists succeed in avoiding this crossing, and in creating music which is melancholia in its most pure form. It is safe to say that BERSARIN QUARTETT - the electronic music project of Thomas Bücker - is one of them.

After his debut in 2008 and the sophomore "II" in 2012 - album of the month in many magazines and in numerous "Best of the year" lists - Bücker in 2015 returned with his third BERSARIN QUARTETT album "III". Much like his two predecessors, III is a pure paradox. It is the creation of a perfectionist, an adamant control freak. Every element, be it a note, an ambience layer, a string arrangement, a field recording, a baseline, a vocal (Clara Hill on Track 11) or a beat, is meticulously modified and then assigned its place in Bücker's vast but still minimalistic arrangements. Thus, superficially Bücker's pieces seem to radiate a certain mechanical bleakness. However, there is a unique reduced warmth and liveliness emerging from these stainless compositions and transcending them. This transcendence is precisely the point where Bücker ironically looses control over his creations. In contrast to the first two BERSARIN QUARTETT albums, III offers a few darker shades and succeeds even further in narrowing down the arrangements to the absolute essentials without loosing the characteristic grandeur of Bücker's sound. Whereas BERSARIN QUARTETT's debut was merely a description of melancholia in its most pure form, III maybe even goes as far a defining what melancholia really is. It is the only emotion in the vast spectrum of human states of mind which one can bear forever.

blickwinkel welcomes composer and multi-instrumentalist Francis Plagne to the label with a reissue of Asleep in a beached boat, an album that was initially released on his own Mould/Mouse Museum label in 2021 on cassette. The album was mostly given away to friends but now gets a wider release through a limited vinyl and digital edition.

Gentle melodies set an airy atmosphere and are intertwined with tensive dialogs between rhythms and textures coming from a wide array of acoustic and electronic instruments. Stylistically somewhere in between his Rural Objects (Black Truffle) and Udge (Horn of Plenty), on the eleven tracks on this album we hear Plagne in his most playful way to date.

Francis Plagne is a musician from Melbourne, Australia whose work swings between songwriting and a variety of other approaches, including group improvisation, instrumental abstraction, and domestic musique concrète. He performed live regularly since 2005 and has released recordings on labels such as Black Truffle, Horn of Plenty, Kye Records, Penultimate Press and his own Mould/Mouse Museum micro-label. In addition to performing his own work either solo or with a band, he has performed and recorded in improvised and other arrangements with Tetuzi Akiyama, Oren Ambarchi, Andrew Chalk, Crys Cole, James Rushford, and Joe Talia, among others.

Shadows Lifted from Invisible Hands is an autobiographical record, comprised of four songs that Hoff refers to as ambient media. Each track is composed from sources drawn from his own involuntary aural landscape, specifically musical earworms and tinnitus frequencies.

Neither sound nor a daydream, the earworm (or stuck song) emblematizes music as a commercial form—immediate, ubiquitous, and persistent. Likewise, tinnitus is inaudible and unscrupulous, manifesting across a spectrum of frequencies at will. The cognitive swirling of these phenomena provides an ambivalent, internal soundtrack that scores a person’s movement through the world.

Those suffering from tinnitus or those who have grown accustomed to the “Tinnitus Effect” in movies will likely recognize the buzzing pitches on the record, but will likely not recognize the songs. Distorted and distilled, Shadows Lifted from Invisible Hands features altered versions of four commercial pop songs: Blondie’s “Heart of Glass,” David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” Madonna’s “Into the Groove,” and Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.”

Having been haunted by these songs on and off for years, Hoff tweaks the tracks, transposing and recomposing them for orchestral instrumentation. Speaking back to these involuntary echoes, these tracks go to great lengths to obfuscate their sources; to be sure not to simply re-introduce each earworm, as though they were samples. Otherwise, what’s the point? No one needs another stream.

Besides, earworms are not music, although we perceive them as such. They are non-cochlear and exist as an affective force that is neither subjective nor objective, which is to say they are an invasive—and alien—phenomenon. Like tinnitus, they are aggravated by economic, social, and environmental forces as well as emotional states, mental health, and aging. Hoff doesn’t underplay his own struggles with mental health in discussing the record—noting a long history of depression and its acuteness over the last few years, which serve as the backdrop to the composition of this record.

Scratch any pop song hard enough and you’ll find sadness underneath it. Subdermal, the songs on this record evoke a type of ephemeral weariness and despair. By recasting the original songs through their shadowy doubles, Hoff provides a window into the dark core of pop music. At the center of which lies capitalism’s desperate attempt to replicate itself through a cheap high built on echoing refrains. Just below the surface the listener finds a hangover of shadows dancing through the mind.

Roughly three years after the release of Balts, Schreel Van De Velde’s debut album on Blickwinkel, the guitar and drums improv-centered duo is happy to present their sophomore album A One And A Two.

The Brussels-based musicians sound more decisive than ever: the loud became louder, the quiet became quieter, the weird became weirder and the nostalgic became more nostalgic. The fruit peeled off one of its own shells, getting closer to its heart.

The album came about as a result of 2 separate studio sessions. For a first one, they restricted themself to solely electric guitar and drums, without overdubs, and with most songs ending up as one-takers. A second one took place some months later in a different recording space, using classical guitar with a matching small, cute drum set-up.

On both sessions, the duo played the same compositions, with some additional improvisations. Afterwards they made a blend of both sessions, mixing both energies: A One And A Two. A new language, organic and well-considered, was found.

Throughout the album, touches of minimalism, American primitivism, free-improv, and 90s indie rock can be found, but always within the limits of Schreel Van De Veldes freshly found voice: one that combines sentiment and cerebrality, overview, playfulness and mystery.

Lucas Schreel is a classically trained guitarist based in Brussels. His first solo album We're Never Afraid of Getting Up Every Morning was released through Sentimental Records in 2019 and was well-received both in written-press (Humo, Enola & Indiestyle) and radio (Duyster, Radio 1 & Klara). Besides his solo work, Schreel is also a member of the lo-fi indierockband Kloothommel.
Acclaimed Brussels percussionist Casper Van De Velde made quite a name for himself through his bands like SCHNTZL, Bombataz, Donder among others. His work received prices at International Jazz Contest d’Avignon and Storm! Contest (Jazzlab). Casper is currently also a member of the recently formed An Pierlé Quartet.

Peter Rehberg is known for his pioneering electronic work with computer software which over time evolved into a modular set up alongside running MEGO and then Editions Mego labels.

Rehberg was a prolific collaborator, with other musicians and with contemporary dance and theatre productions, most notably with French artist and choreographer, Gisèle Vienne with whom he created a series of soundtracks from Showroomdummies, released under the name DACM in 2002 (Showroomdummies MEGO 056), to Crowd in 2017. A collection of Rehberg’s solo works for Vienne was released in 2008 (Work for GV 2004-2008 EMEGO 092). The outfit KTL, with Stephen O’Malley, was initiated by Gisèle Vienne for her work Kindertotenlieder and subsequently made a series of soundtracks for Vienne’s works branching off into a prolific series of live shows. The work Rehberg did for theatre and performance teased out aspects of his practice one may not have encountered in his own solo work as PITA or that of collaborations with other musicians.

Editions Mego is proud to present a previously unreleased theatre soundtrack made for Icelandic choreographer Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir, whom Rehberg had a decade long collaboration with until his untimely passing in 2021. The original composition for Liminal States was created by Rehberg for the performance Pervasive Magnetic Stimuli in 2018 and then revisited as a catalyst for the concepts behind Liminal States. This work is based on an ongoing artistic research conducted by the choreographer into altered states of perception through phenomenological embodiment. It is the last in a trilogy dealing with the notion of larger forces that act on us beyond our conscious mind. The trilogy consists of Pervasive Magnetic Stimuli (2018), Boundless Ominous Fields (2024) and now Liminal States (2024).

Rehberg's score for Liminal States is a vast canvas of spectral ambience at once tangible and unfathomable in its constantly shapeshifting lysergic dread. The results are a psychological journey through the mental effects of sound on space and subsequently the mind. The first part presents cascading waves of shimmering electronics laying the groundwork for the second part where the psychological illusion splinters into all manner of sonic effects taking the listener on a deep mental voyage. If references are witnessed the late period long form hallucinatory works of Coil, such as Time Machines and Constant shallowness leads to evil, are amongst a similar mind message delivered here. Unlike any other release in Rehberg’s output Liminal States is a single long form work which, despite the form, retains Rehberg’s idiosyncratic sound vision.

Guðjónsdóttir and Rehberg’s collaboration blurs that relationship into a greater force which truly enables the theme of liminal states to unfold in a brave new fashion. Rich in timbre and sonic invention this is powerful work easily holding its own outside of the intended performance whilst still complimenting the missions statement entirely. This profound collaboration has the cumulative effect where the concept and soundtrack are one and may be one of the strongest works in the entire Rehberg canon.

In spring 2022, Sankt Otten released their album “Symmetrie und Wahnsinn”, and now the next record is ready to enlighten our maltreated minds. “Tote Winkel” (Blind spots) is once again part of an album series with a geometric context, both creatively and musically.

Stephan Otten and Oliver Klemm made productive use of 2021, which has been decelerated to the maximum by Corona. For the first time, an external studio was booked (Mühle der Freundschaft, Bad Iburg) and the pool of analog synthesizers and other sound generators there was dusted off. Sankt Otten came up with the master plan to first free the spirit of 50 years of German electronic music trapped in the antiquated keyboards and oscillator housings, then to dismantle it, turn it inside out and reinterpret it. Echoes of music from Düssel- dorf are joined by sounds familiar from the Weserbergland, or mystical, sublime arcs of sound and, of course, the sequences typical of the Berlin School - whether side by side or interwoven. In a departure from the usual way of working, the majority of the tracks were created in the studio and in part from improvisations, which makes “Tote Winkel “ the most organic material we have heard from Sankt Otten to date.

New York-based Rafael Anton Irisarri mastered “Tote Winkel”, as he has done on productions by Biosphere, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tycho, Terry Riley, Fennesz and many more. As part of the series of graphic covers, this extraordinary die-cut artwork was also designed by Daniel Castrejon. The vinyl version comes in a die-cut cover and colored vinyl, the CD in an elegant cardboard slipcase.

The Osnabrück duo Sankt Otten, founded in 1999, have been releasing on DENOVALI since 2009. “Tote Winkel” is their 14th album of timeless (instrumental) music. The band has dedicated itself to the holy trinity of Krautrock, Ambient and contemporary Elecronics.

"Ensomheden Vi Deler" ("The Loneliness We Share") is the result of a dialogue between the collages and the music of øjeRum, initiated by IIKKI, between December 2024 and July 2025.

øjeRum is Copenhagen based musician and collage artist Paw Grabowski.

With his collages, the distinctive feature of øjeRum's works is their ability to combine different historical and artistic periods, such as ancient sculpture, medieval frescoes, classical painting and photography, and to make them interact with one another. øjeRum is also renowned for his work as a musician, where he stands out for his surreal, mysterious and poetic universe. His music and art are closely linked. These two sides of the artist's work are constantly intertwined.

In his øjeRum guise, he plucks and strums his treated acoustic instruments, sounding at times like church bells, at times like angelic harp, at time like drones, and suspends the listener in the magic of his melodies. With a deep back-catalogue of releases since 2014 - spanning labels such as eilean rec., Room40, Line, Opal Tapes and many more - he continues exploring his minimal, textural and deeply personal style of ambient music.

The collage and music project "Ensomheden Vi Deler" ("The Loneliness We Share") is an exploration of loneliness, closeness and distance. A meditation on the fragile architectures and hidden shapes of human connection. This is his second release on IIKKI.

Fine Art Book, Ltd. to 500 copies:
Hand numbered & hand stamped / first edition and only edition (no re-print) / hardcover book (15 cm x 21 cm) on Wibalin Natural Cotton White / 80 pages, 35 collages printed on Freelife Vellum 120g/m2 / Swiss Binding / Coloured edges with neon green pantone / Neon Green pantone on front and back cover (logo, slot and circle) / Sticker on front cover.

Swan Song

The vinyl LP at the heart of this éthiopiques 31 tracks 2 to 11 was one of the very last vinyl records ever released in Ethiopia. But above all it represents, we felt, the absolute masterpiece of the Ethiopian Groove – the Swan Song of Swinging Addis. The album leaves a clear idea for posterity of the level of sophistication and mastery that modern Ethiopian music had achieved, before being crushed under the Stalino-military heel of the Derg – as the bloody revolution that was unfolding came to be called.

Ethiopia1976.

The Revolution that broke out in February 1974 rolled on in a ruthless march. The whole of Ethiopian society was utterly stunned. The bouquets of flowers handed joyfully to the first tanks of the coup d'état were to wilt very rapidly. From September 1976 to February 1978, 18 months of Red Terror (the name given by the junta itself) spilled blood throughout the country. This fratricidal conflict took its heaviest toll among students and youth. The shift from feudalism to a cruel and primitive Stalinism left the country's citizens deeply traumatised, and snuffed out any pretence of activism, whatever the sector of society. This ice age was to last for seventeen long years.

ሙሉቀን፡መለሰ Mulukèn Mellèssè Muluqän Mälläsä

It was three tracks by Muluken that served as the opener for éthiopiques-1 more than 25 years ago. Seven more tracks appeared on éthiopiques-3 and 13, all accompanied by The Equators, which was soon to become the Dahlak Band.

The first track, Hédètch alu, also the very first piece that Muluken ever recorded, left audiences both unsettled and amazed. Reflecting the singer's extremely young age (he was just 17 at the time), this angelic voice mystified many, who thought they were in fact listening to a feminine voice. He was not yet 22 when he released his last vinyl record in 1976 with Kaifa Records (KF 39LP), one of the very last to be issued in Ethiopia, before the cassette tape became the dominant medium for music distribution – and before the new revolutionary regime put a stop to all independent musical life, via an unspeakable barrage of prohibitions and other persecutions.

Mulu qèn, literally, “A well filled day”. This tender maternal intention wasn't enough to ward off the cruelty of fate. His mother's premature death drove Muluken to leave his native Godjam, in northeast Ethiopia, to live with an uncle in Addis Ababa. Born Muluken Tamer, he took his uncle's last name – Mèllèssè.

The spelling Muluken appeared in his administrative records. Transcription of Amharic to the Latin alphabet, both in Ethiopia and for scholars, gives rise to controversies and quibbles that can never be neatly settled. French allows for a closer approximation of the original pronunciation, thanks to its battery of accent marks, confusing as they may be to anglophones.

Between rather accommodating administrative record-keepers and the various versions that pop up in interviews given by the artist, Muluken's year of birth oscillates between 1953 and 1955…

1954? One thing is certain: the artist's talent made itself known very early indeed, because he got his start in 1966-67, at the age of 13 or 14. Photos from the period attest to his extreme youth. It's a strange sort of initiation for a very young teenager to become a sensation in the heart of Addis's nightlife at the time, Woubé Bèrèha – the Wilds of Woubé. And what's more, in the club of the Queen of the Night, the Godjamé Assègèdètch Alamrèw herself, the very same that was portrayed by Sebhat Guèbrè-Egziabhér in his novel-memoir Les Nuits d’Addis Abeba2… The legendary female club owner who is remembered to this day by the capital's ageing boomers.

Muluken first tried his hand at the drums, before he grabbed the microphone. He emigrated briefly to the Zula Club, across the street from the old Addis Post Office, one of the ground-breaking bars of the burgeoning musical scene, before joining the Second Police Band in 1968, for around three years. He spent a few months with the short-lived Blue Nile Band founded by saxophonist Besrat Tammènè. As the musical scene grew increasingly successful, and pulled slowly but decisively away from its institutional ties, Muluken released his first 45rpm single in February 1972 (Amha Records AE 440). It was included in two LP Ethiopian Hit Parade compilation albums in September of the same year. All in all, Muluken released eight two-track 45s and the same number of original cassette tapes between February 1972 and 1984, the year that he departed for permanent exile in the USA. After converting to Pentecostalism in 1980, Muluken gradually abandoned all secular musical activity. In 1985, at the end of a concert in Philadelphia, he decided to quit concerts and recording for good. Mèlakè Gèbré, the historic bass player from the Walias band who was playing with him that night, recalls that everything appeared so irredeemably diabolical in Muluken's eyes, that it was to be the end of his contribution to Ethiopian Groove.

The end of the story, the beginning of a legend.

Dahlak Band, forgotten by History

Aside from his personal history and vocal talents, it must be remembered that Muluken Mèllèssè was one of the biggest names in the musical innovations that marked the end of the imperial period. These éthiopiques aim to convince those who are just discovering this hidden gem... As for Ethiopians themselves, they are to this day captivated by this singular and atypical figure in the Abyssinian pop landscape – even though he withdrew from public life some 40 years ago. Incorrigible devotees of poetic twists, of more or less hidden meanings, Ethiopians appreciate above all the care Muluken took in choosing his lyrics and the writers who penned them, such as Feqerte Haylou, Alemtsehay Wodajo and, here, Shewalul Mengistu (1944-1977). Love songs, written by women, a far cry from the conventional drivel that pleases sappy sentimentalists.

Muluken is equally acclaimed for his perfectionism when it came to music, the opposite of the overly casual approach that is all too common. He remained a faithful partner of musicians who came from a lineage that borrowed from several inventive and pioneering bands (Venus, Equators, Dahlak). Amongst them were certain artists who began their musical lives with Nersès Nalbandian at the Haile Sellassie Theatre and who come of age in around 1973 – at just the wrong time, you might say. Among them were the pillars Shimèlis Bèyènè (trumpet), Dawit Yifru (keyboards) and Tilayé Gèbrè (sax & flute). Most notably Tilayé Gèbrè, certainly one of the most important musicians, composers and arrangers of his generation, of the end of the imperial era, and of the early years of the Derg.

It was only in 1981 that a miraculous opportunity arose for Tilayé to escape the Stalinist paradise of the dictator Menguistou Haylè-Maryam. Once again it was Amha Eshèté (1946-2021) who provided a solution. The spirited and courageous producer, who had been in exile in Washington since 1975, succeeded, thanks to his incredible perseverence, in bringing the Walias Band to the USA. It was, in fact an extended Walias Band comprising ten musicians3, six of whom chose to slip away after a few concerts and the recording of an LP (The Best of Walias, WRS 100). Tilayé Gèbrè was one of these. He has been living in the USA ever since. There he joined the then-nascent Ethiopian diaspora, which lived largely unto itself, and was making only very modest headway in the American musical market. It seems unfair that Tilayé Gèbrè and the Dahlak Band were not able to benefit earlier from the public recognition that they do deserve.

A similar draining away of the top-rate talents would lead to the reorganization of the major groups of the “Derg Time”. The remaining artists spread themselves around between Ibex Band (renamed Roha Band), Ethio Star Band and a remodeled Walias Band. That spelled the end of the Dahlak Band.

With this record, produced by the essential Ali Abdella Kaifa a.k.a. Ali Tango, we can appreciate everything that the Derg not only destroyed, but also prevented from flourishing. This gem of Ethiopian-style afrobeat came out in 1976 (and, by way of a parenthesis, before the FESTAC 1977 in Lagos, which was attended by an impressive delegation of Ethiopian musicians — although Fela was already personna non grata in his own country). Despite everything that might distinguish this ethio-groove from Fela’s music – no colonial axe to grind, no question of political confrontation with the authorities, no claims to negritude or Africanism for the Ethiopian musicians, and less extrovertion! –, this LP fits beautifully into the saga of intense and electrified soul of the new “African” groove that Fela and Manu Dibango embodied so well from that point onwards.

In restoring this record to its place in the afrobeat epic, it can be seen that, if nothing else, the timeline bestows a legitimate pedigree and a historical primacy to works that had no international impact when they were originally released.

Warning! Masterpiece!

»Hug of Gravity« is the second solo album by Raphael Loher and his first for Hallow Ground. The Swiss pianist and composer uses piano preparations, tape machines, and digital means to forge an aesthetic of playful reduction and rhythmic abstraction. The source material for these four sprawling pieces was culled from recordings of the artist performing the album’s predecessor, 2022’s »Keemuun.« Loher used them in a painstaking two-part working process to create an album that is both a product of and an ode to transformation, exploring themes of alternative temporalities and spatialities. »Hug of Gravity« oscillates between experimental electronic music, ambient, and minimal music and calls to mind the work of artists like William Basinski, Linda Catlin Smith, or label mate Andrius Arutiunian.

Loher laid the foundation for »Hug of Gravity« in 2020 with ten solo performances at his studio, during which he presented the pieces from his debut album. For these intimate concerts, he prepared the piano with modelling clay in order to move beyond the well-tempered tuning that dominates most of Western music. He then used a consecutive three-month residency in the Blenio Valley to refine the recordings. »I cut up and rearranged the material, then transferred the results—around 30 pieces—to a varispeed tape machine and then back to the computer. After that was done, I cut them up and rearranged them again,« he laughs. By radically reworking the material, he created an album that eschews traditional notions of time and space.

Loher points out the influence that his surroundings had on him. »The process created the music—and the place was essential to the process.« he says. He wandered through the mountains for up to nine or ten hours a day, which gave him a sense of what he calls expanded temporality. »Time just felt longer, my experiences seemed more diverse and nuanced, and it was as if I perceived my environment more clearly,« he explains. This shift in Loher’s perception of time and space—the latter also expressed in the album’s title—influenced his work with the varispeed tape machine. It allowed him to change the pitch of different recordings while layering them to let interference patterns emerge and emphasise the emotional qualities of the unconventional tunings he had used.

In this way, Loher constructed numerous interlocking narrative arcs throughout »Hug of Gravity,« an album that is ever-changing; an exercise in calm ecstasy that provides its audience with the feeling of being removed from conventional time and space. This approach is also reflected in the artwork for »Hug of Gravity,« which is based on drawings Loher made during his residency at Blenio Valley. Their fine hand-drawn lines run in parallel and let incidental patterns emerge, an effect that is only multiplied when the six different drawings that accompany each vinyl copy of the album are overlapping, forming ever-new visual constellations.

blickwinkel warmly welcomes Brussels-based composer Roxane Métayer to the label with her new album »Vies Sylvestres«, out on November 21 on vinyl and digital formats. The album was conceived and developed during performances and travels in Japan in 2023, where its sounds and ideas gradually came together.

»Vies Sylvestres« continues the direction of her previous release on Kraak, where Métayer built imagined narratives unfolding in forests or urban spaces inhabited by animal and plant characters. On this new album, however, the presence of these elements becomes more explicit and central. Field recordings are not solely used as backdrops but become compositions, complementing the instrumental works and expanding the album’s narrative into the realm of lived sound and place.

The listener encounters recordings of crickets and birds but we're also witnessing a scenery at a Buddhist temple. As such, combined with violin, electronics, and voice, Métayer explores the relationship between the natural environment and human culture. Her work bridges both worlds, showing how sound can connect different spaces and contexts.

Manny Corchado should be a household name for all boogaloo fans. A true boogaloo gem that blends Manny Corchado's explosive rhythm with the melodic touch of salsa legend Nelson y sus Estrellas. His classic track 'Pow-Wow' is one of the most sought-after singles among collectors and DJs-not just for its A-side, but also for the absolute dance floor bomb hidden on its B-side: 'Chicken and Booze.' This instrumental recording features an irresistible rhythm section that could practically serve as the definition of the boogaloo genre itself. In this case, it plays at a faster tempo than other similar hits, making it even more effective on the dance floor. The horn arrangements create a catchy hook, spiced up with percussion breaks, all while driving its addictive, fast-paced groove. On the B-side of this single, we find another version of the same song-this time re-titled 'Aguardiente y Pollo' in Spanish-performed by Nelson y sus Estrellas. The tropical and salsa orchestra, founded in Venezuela by pianist, composer, and bandleader Nelson González Rojas, keeps the same punch and dance-driven focus as Corchado's version, but adds more melodic and sophisticated arrangements, in the style of the other tracks featured on the band's 1977 album, where this stunning cut was originally included (available here on a 45 for the first time). This Latin vinyl 45er is pure dance floor dynamite!

Vinyl reissue of the most acclaimed album by Brazil's legendary female vocal quartet, this LP captures the group at their creative peak, featuring sophisticated arrangements by Edu Lobo and Luiz Eça (Tamba Trio), A post-bossa gem filled with stunning vocal harmonies. Originally released in 1972 on the Odeon label, Quarteto Em Cy stands as a high-water mark in the group's prolific discography-and a hidden gem for collectors of Brazilian vinyl. Known for their intricate vocal harmonies and deep roots in the bossa nova movement, the quartet ventures into post-bossa territory here, where sophistication meets groove in all the right ways. Arrangements by Edu Lobo and Luiz Eça (of Tamba Trio) lend the album a richly layered sound-elegant, jazzy, and emotionally resonant-while the group's harmonies remain as mesmerizing as ever. It's a masterclass in vocal interplay and tasteful orchestration, with an unmistakable Brazilian soul running through every track. Highlights include their stunning interpretation of Milton Nascimento's 'Tudo Que Você Podia Ser,' along with deep cuts like 'Quando o Carnaval Chegar,' 'Canto de Obá,' and 'Cantoria.' These recordings capture a moment when the group, already respected collaborators of Vinícius de Moraes, Jobim, and Chico Buarque, hit a new creative stride. A MPB landmark and long out of print, often cited as QEC finest work, this self-titled LP has become a sought-after piece among collectors of MPB, bossa, and 70s harmony pop. For those drawn to groups like The Free Design or The Mamas & The Papas-but with a distinctly Brazilian elegance-this album offers a rare and rewarding listen. Reissue on 180g vinyl.

Pt.2 of 2

Gigi Masin's sparkling sonic magic leads us to the light in “Implodendo in una accecante oscurità” (Imploding in a blinding darkness). The mirror reflects nothing but a faint, unfamiliar, mysteriously hostile face, but a glimmer survives, evoked by a painfully solemn romanticism that is salvific, glimmers of light bounce off broad synthetic volutes, a bewitching ambient, airy quiet, they spread, a few veins of darkness shine through, aesthetic beauty equates to clear spirituality, sax and female voices, the elegy that intertwines piano and vocal loops, that omnipresent melancholy, nostalgia, reassuring, which is openness to tomorrow. It is the moment of light, the powerful feeling that nothing is lost, that what awaits to be grasped is more than a remnant, perhaps an overcoming, light that “is not what it shows but what it reveals”, that light that becomes memory that does not need to illuminate to be perceived where it most needs to spread, where darkness has resided for too long

Das Album ,Scrabbling At The Lock" von 1991 war in vielerlei Hinsicht ein Wendepunkt für The Ex. Es war ihre erste Zusammenarbeit mit dem New Yorker Improvisationskünstler Tom Cora, der fast 100 Konzerte mit der Band spielte. Außerdem erweiterte es ihr Spektrum erheblich und machte sie zu einer Kraft, die ihre Balance zwischen Kreativität und Intensität auf ein neues Level hob. Das Album war nicht nur ein kreativer Meilenstein, sondern brachte ihnen auch ein neues Publikum ein, da sie als eine der ersten ,Punk"-Bands den Sprung in die Welt der improvisierten Musik schafften und regelmäßig als Gäste bei Free-Music-Festivals in ganz Europa auftraten. Das Folgealbum ,And The Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders" setzte 1993 diese Erfolgsserie mit einer weiteren Reihe herausragender Songs fort, die glühende Energie mit grenzenlosem Eklektizismus und selbstbewusster, improvisatorischer Freude verbinden. Kunstvoller Punk, orientalische und europäische Folk-Inspirationen, einfallsreiche und leidenschaftliche Texte und ein Händchen für Echtzeit-Kreationen verschmelzen nahtlos zu einem Cocktail, der hochbrennbar und gelegentlich bedrohlich, aber auch durchweg abenteuerlich und auffallend ansteckend ist. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt waren The Ex zu einer der beständigsten, herausforderndsten und zukunftsweisendsten Bands ihrer Generation geworden. Und jetzt ist ,And The Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders" endlich wieder auf Vinyl erhältlich!

Did You Enjoy Your Time Here...? ist das neue Studioalbum von PremRock, einem Künstler von Backwoodz Studioz(vielleicht am besten bekannt als die Hälfte von ShrapKnel; das ernüchternde Yin zu Curly Castros wildem Yang). DYEYTH knüpft da an, wo Prems nachdenkliches Backwoodz-Debütalbum ,Load Bearing Crow's Feet" aus dem Jahr 2021 aufhörte: klar, herzlich und gnadenlos witzig. Das Album wurde von Sebb Bash, Blockhead, YUNGMORPHEUS, Child Actor, Controller 7, ELUCID, Small Professor, Jeff Markey und Fines Double produziert, während Prems langjähriger Kollaborateur Willie Green alles zusammenfügt. Textlich wird Prem von einigen der weltweit besten Künstler unterstützt, darunter Pink Siifu, Billy Woods, Cavalier, Nappy Nina, Illogic, AJ Suede, Mary Esther Carter und natürlich Castro. Jeder Gast holt das Beste aus dem Mix heraus und sorgt für fruchtbare Kollaborationen, die weit über einfache Gastverse hinausgehen. Mit originellen Artworks, die vom Album inspiriert sind, vom Chicagoer Künstler Gabe Karagianis. Die besten Formulierungen sind diejenigen, die mehr als eine Bedeutung haben. Wie beim Betrachten eines abstrakten Gemäldes können Worte für verschiedene Menschen unterschiedliche Bedeutungen haben. Eine Frage oder ein Satz, der entweder zu einer längeren existenziellen Überlegung oder einfach nur zu einem Achselzucken führt. Könnte sich auf das gesamte Leben beziehen, auf 90 Minuten in einer Einrichtung oder auf 5 Jahre in einer romantischen Beziehung. Der kurze, berauschende Rausch einer Designerdroge oder die automatisierte Umfrage am Ende einer Online-Transaktion. Es ist eine einfache, aber heimlich geladene Frage. Nun, hast du es getan?

Artcore, Cybercore, Ambiance. 126 BPM

Our journey through “Música Para Boliche” literally “music for the club” from Argentina’s underground scene doesn’t stop. We dug even deeper, right into the ’90s.
Four tracks plus one, all visionary even at the time of their release. Once again, you can feel the magical touch of the Italian and Argentine DJs who worked on it.
Jack Bulgaro did his part, bringing home an instrumental unreleased version of Podés Seguir Sin Arriesgarte, taken from the album Undermalabia, produced by El Signo, pioneers of electronic music in Latin America.
The version will be officially released for the first time, vinyl only, by Maledetta Discoteca Records.

The Godfather Of Salsa - HAVANNA & NYC RECORDINGS 1946-1962! Grosso! again presents this compilation from "El Ciego Maravilloso", the authentic godfather of salsa. His early Havana & NYC recordings. The tracks have been remastered and restored and some are available on vinyl after many years. Format and selection designed for DJs, collectors and latin lovers. Ignacio de Loyola Rodríguez Scull aka Arsenio Rodríguez (30 August, 1911, Güira de Macurijes, Matanzas, Cuba - 30 December, 1970, Los Angeles, CA, USA) was a Cuban musician, bandleader and prolific composer who developed the son montuno and other Afro-Cuban-based rhythms. Today he is seen as one of the most important figures in Latin music, with his influence reaching beyond the Spanish speaking world to also include African popular music of the 20th Century, though when he died he was not widely known by the public for his contributions and influence. He is also recognized (along with Israel 'Cachao' López and Dámaso Pérez Prado) as one of the creators of mambo, what Rodríguez himself often referred to as "ritmo diablo". Some of his best-known, and most-often covered recordings from the 1950s and early 1960s are included here, among them "Dame un cachito pa' huele'," "Dundunbanza," "El reloj de pastora," "Cambia El Paso," and "Hay Fuego En El 23."

Ancient passages
for golden talismans,
iron converts on illuminated slabs, vapors to the sky and tribal songs
among towers never touched by an eye.
Earthly history wanders
still
on unwritten runes.

2LP, 180gm vinyl, “Impex Style” Heavy Duty Outer Sleeve w/Flap, Sealed with Analogue October Records Sticker, Hype Sticker
Abbey Road Half speed master from the original tapes
380 gsm Invercote G Sleeve 300 gsm 12 page insert
4.5/5 RECOMMENDED / Editors Choice in Jazzwise magazine
‘And much as audiophiles will savour the tech achievement of this re-issue, the point is the Kaleidoscope of Rainbows
remains joyous, optimistic music that embraces difference and divergence. It needs celebrating not as a revived fossil but as a timeless artwork. Enjoy. And enjoy again’
RIYL Ian Carr / Nucleus / Weather Report / Clips and Art: https://we.tl/t-PfY9QXSjlt
NEIL ARDLEY – KALEIDOSCOPE OF RAINBOWS The Definitive 2LP Reissue of a Landmark in British Jazz Fusion
Analogue October Records proudly presents the long-awaited reissue of Kaleidoscope of Rainbows, Neil Ardley’s 1976 masterpiece, originally released on Gull Records. Produced by Neil Ardley and recorded at London’s famed Morgan Studios, the sessions were engineered and mixed by Martin Levan, capturing one of the most ambitious and beloved works in British jazz. Following the acclaimed reissues of Courtney Pine’s Journey to the Urge Within (AOR-001-ST) and Neil Ardley’s Harmony of the Spheres (AOR-002-ST)—both praised by the audiophile press including The Tracking Angle—this third release confirms Analogue October as one of today’s most meticulous and exciting reissue labels.
A Suite of Sound and Colour
Commissioned for the 1975 Camden Jazz Festival, Kaleidoscope of Rainbows is structured as a seven-part suite, each movement reflecting a colour of the spectrum. Ardley’s composition weaves together jazz improvisation, progressive rock energy, and orchestral elegance in one of the most imaginative British jazz recordings of the era. Featuring Ian Carr, Barbara Thompson, Tony Coe, Trevor Tomkins, and Geoff Castle, the album is a who’s who of the UK’s vibrant 1970s jazz scene.
Cut at Abbey Road, Pressed at Record Industry
For this definitive edition, Analogue October worked directly from the original Gull master tapes. Mastering was entrusted to Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, using his renowned half-speed process to extract every detail and dynamic from Ardley’s score. To give the music the headroom it deserves, the reissue has been expanded to a deluxe 2LP set, pressed on the highest-quality vinyl at Record Industry in Haarlem, Netherlands. The result is a presentation that finally does justice to the scope and brilliance of Ardley’s vision.
Deluxe Package – Restored from the Source
The artwork has been meticulously restored from the original film elements, ensuring a sleeve of unmatched vibrancy and fidelity. Inside, a 12-page booklet printed on heavyweight card features an in-depth essay on Neil Ardley and the making of Kaleidoscope of Rainbows, written by Jazzwise magazine editor Mike Flynn, alongside rare photographs from the period.
Curated and Produced by Craig Crane
As with every Analogue October release, Kaleidoscope of Rainbows has been curated and produced by label founder Craig Crane with a collector’s eye for detail and a deep respect for the music’s legacy. This reissue is not only the definitive vinyl edition of one of the great British jazz fusion albums—it also continues the label’s mission to restore and celebrate the most vital recordings of the era.
Neil Ardley’s Kaleidoscope of Rainbows—vivid, expansive, and timeless—returns as the essential edition for audiophiles and jazz lovers alike.
Retail-ready product description (short form):
Produced by Neil Ardley and recorded in 1976 at London’s Morgan Studios, engineered and mixed by Martin Levan, Kaleidoscope of Rainbows is a cornerstone of British jazz fusion. This definitive 2LP reissue, mastered at Abbey Road by Miles Showell from the original Gull master tapes and pressed at Record Industry (NL), finally gives the music the dynamic headroom it deserves. The deluxe edition includes restored artwork and a 12-page booklet featuring an in-depth essay by Jazzwise editor Mike Flynn.

Foundation. Rock Steady version of the much covered classic. A total beauty!!
Back with another great one from the amazing Joy Landis.

A premium series of limited edition Japanese pressed 7"s - featuring unreleased and impossibly hard to find gems from the Duke Reid archives.

A meditative, folk-inflected score rooted in improvisation, ‘Dragon’s return’ echoes the soul of A film long buried behind the Iron Curtain



With Dragon’s Return, Australian composer and multi-instrumentalist Oren Ambarchi and Norwegian guitarist Fredrik Rasten present a new, meditative score to Eduard Grecner’s eponymous 1967 Slovak cult film — a stark, black-and-white parable.



The album captures a unique live performance recorded at the Videodroom Festival during Film Fest Ghent in October 2024, where this new score premiered alongside the film in collaboration with the Slovak Film Institute. What began as a fleeting, improvisational encounter between music and image has since taken on a life of its own — an evocative sound world that retains its power even in the absence of visuals.



The album will be available on vinyl and all digital platforms from September 12 via VIERNULVIER Records. The vinyl edition includes an obi strip, a booklet with film stills, and extensive liner notes on the film.



The label is known for shedding new light on forgotten films through reimagined soundtracks — claire rousay’s acclaimed The Bloody Lady being the most recent example.


“Folklore meets avant-garde in an ancient drama - a ballad about love, hate and finding a way out of loneliness” - Rastislav Steranka (Slovak Film Institute)



Ambarchi and Rasten do not accompany the images so much as speak through them. Their interplay — on guitars, flutes, percussion, and voice — unfolds slowly, without a fixed destination, culminating in subtle, entrancing drones. With few breaks or ruptures, this trippy, folk-inflected continuous composition invites surrender.



Rasten’s 12-string guitar and delicate use of voice create layered textures that shimmer and shift. Ambarchi, known for his electro-acoustic work, here explores a radically softer mode — strumming, bowing and coaxing tones from his instrument as though it were a string section unto itself. He blows into shells, adding breath and texture to the sonic palette, touching on something elemental.


Together, they evoke a sound world that feels both ritualistic and strangely familiar — as if echoing from a forgotten ceremony or dreamed into being after hearing an old folk tale. Rooted in improvisation, the music speaks in tones both intimate and expansive, shaped live in dialogue with the film and with each other, with only minimal overdubs added afterward.

Mit "Convex" öffnet Conrad Schnitzler ein Fenster in seine experimentelle Klangwelt der 1980er Jahre - und bleibt dabei geheimnisvoll. Die LP kommt nahezu ohne Informationen aus, der Titel dominiert das Cover, die Musik spricht für sich. Schnitzler nutzt hier einen Sample-and-Hold-Generator, um zufällige Tonfolgen zu erzeugen - gesteuerter Zufall als künstlerisches Prinzip. Besonders auffällig ist das langsame Tempo der Stücke, das sich deutlich von seinen sonst dynamischeren Arbeiten abhebt. Obwohl Schnitzler nie Ambient im Sinn hatte, erinnert "Convex" in seiner Unaufgeregtheit und Gleichförmigkeit an die "musique d"ameublement" von Satie oder die Ambient-Ideen von Brian Eno. Doch Schnitzler bleibt eigenständig: Die Musik fordert keine Aufmerksamkeit, sondern lädt zur freien Interpretation ein. Ein Album, das Fragen stellt, ohne Antworten zu geben - und gerade deshalb fasziniert.

Black Vinyl, 2nd pressing

Es ist alles überlebensgroß, düsterer als der Tod und das beste Album, das die Horror-Punks von Creeper je aufgenommen haben.

Das Album "SANGUIVORE" hat Creepers ohnehin schon überlebensgroße Ambitionen auf neue Höhen geführt, was zu den positivsten Kritiken ihrer Karriere führte und in ihrem ersten Headliner-Konzert in der OVO Wembley Arena in London gipfelte. Historisch gesehen schließt die Band am Ende einer Creeper-Ära den Sargdeckel, um sich erneut neu zu erfinden. Doch dieses Mal trotzt die fünfköpfige Band den Erwartungen, indem sie das kreative Universum des Vorgängeralbums erweitert und am 31. Oktober mit "Sanguivore II: Mistress Of Death" aufs Neue ins Vampir-Universum eintaucht.

"Sanguivore II: Misstress Of Death" ist eher eine thematische Fortsetzung als eine direkte Weiterführung der ursprünglichen Geschichte. Wie eine klassische Horror-Anthologie spinnt es eine neue Geschichte aus derselben Blutlinie wie das Original, diesmal mit dem blutigen Vampirherz als roter Faden, um eine brandneue Erzählung einzuführen.
Die Geschichte führt uns zurück in die moralische Hysterie der Satanic Panic und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Welt des Hardrock und Heavy Metal der 80er Jahre. Es war eine Zeit, in der der verstorbene Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne und Judas Priest von Gerichtsverfahren verfolgt wurden. Iron Maiden spielte tief im Herzen Amerikas, während W.A.S.P. und Mötley Crüe mit ihrer skandalösen Theatralik und Dekadenz die Gemüter der Konservativen erhitzten.

Wie schon das Original wurde auch "Sanguivore II" von Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Rammstein, Royal Blood) produziert.

Faces' second album, 'Long Player,' gets a much-anticipated vinyl repress on standard black vinyl, showcasing the band at the height of their powers. This ragged, yet cohesive, rock and roll masterpiece captures the band's ferocious energy and collaborative songwriting. Featuring standout tracks like "Bad 'n' Ruin" and a soaring cover of Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed".

Tift Merritt ist seit langem eine Lichtgestalt der Americana-Musik. Anlässlich des 20-jährigen Jubiläums ihres für den Grammy nominierten Albums „Tambourine“ kehrt Merritt mit „Time and Patience“ zurück – einem Begleitwerk mit intimen Neuaufnahmen und neuen Songs aus Merritts „Tambourine“-Ära. Einige der Aufnahmen reduzieren ihre beliebten Klassiker auf ihre ursprüngliche Essenz – aufgenommen zu Hause, nur mit Gesang und akustischen Instrumenten, 20 Jahre nachdem sie damit erstmals von den Kritikern gefeiert wurde. Andere sind noch nie zuvor zu hören gewesen.

Transparentes Vinyl mit gelben Spritzern in Gatefold-Hülle

Mit „Wenn es Liebe ist“ veröffentlichen Die Sterne ihr neues Studioalbum – ein Werk, das die Band einmal mehr als scharfsinnige Chronisten unserer Zeit zeigt. Zwischen Indiepop, Post-Punk und subtiler Elektronik verbinden sich gesellschaftliche Beobachtungen mit persönlicher Reflexion, Humor mit Haltung. Die Songs klingen frisch, direkt und unerwartet vielseitig – mal politisch, mal romantisch, immer mit dieser unverwechselbaren Sterne-Handschrift.

Neben deutschen Texten finden sich erstmals auch englischsprachige Stücke sowie zwei Songs mit Dyan Valdés am Leadgesang. Das Ergebnis ist kein Rückblick, sondern ein mutiger Schritt nach vorn – kompromisslos, lebendig und voller Energie.

Zur Veröffentlichung geht die Band auf große Tournee durch Deutschland, Österreich und die Schweiz – inklusive eines besonderen Konzerts mit dem Filmorchester Babelsberg im Potsdamer Nikolaisaal.

Belgian sitar player Nicolas Mortelmans will release his second album, titled "SPACE". For these recordings, he went into the studio with Roland van Campenhout, Stef Kamil Carlens, Tim Vanhamel and Simon Segers. The result of this encounter is a raw and honest record in which all the music is improvised. With this album, Nicolas returns to his roots and experiments with psychedelic rock, ambient, funk, and jazz. Expect an intense meditative and explosive listening experience.

Hinter dem sorgefrei erscheinenden Titel Dolce Vita verbirgt sich eine dunklere, schmerzhafte Geschichte: es ist die der erzwungenen Flucht von Louis’ Großvater und dessen Familie vor der honduranischen Diktatur. Matute taucht unter dem ironisch gemeinten Motto Dolce Vita in die bewegte Geschichte Lateinamerikas ein, das unter der Herrschaft von Militärregimen und imperialistischen Großkonzernen, wie der United Fruit Company, jahrzehntelang litt.

Zwar nicht sieben auf einen Streich, aber immerhin sieben Alben in einem Jahr, das war die beeindruckende
Bilanz, die Hank Mobley, damals der führende Tenorsaxofonist des Hard-Bop, am Ende des Jahres 1957
vorweisen konnte. Und mehr noch als die Quantität überraschte die ungebrochen hohe Qualität seiner Alben. “Hank” war das letzte Album dieses Aufnahme-Marathons. Wie immer hatte das Gründungsmitglied
der Jazz Messengers es mit einigen der besten Hard-Bop-Musiker jener Zeit eingespielt, unter denen sich
drei weitere Jazz Messengers befanden

Obwohl sie ständig zu arm sind, um abgezockte Biere in den letzten Kaschemmen zu trinken, fällt es HOLGRAMS aus Stockholm so gar nicht schwer, das Gift im Strahl auszukotzen. Ihr saures Aufstoßen geht wohl mehr auf das Unwohlsein zurück, das wohl eher von der Knechtschaft in schwedischen Lagerhäusern resultiert denn aus dem Alkoholmissbrauch, was es auch spannender macht, durch die Reste zu wühlen. Obwohl ihre Instrumente am untersten Rand des Existenzminimums vegetieren (und zusammen vielleicht ein Handvoll Kronen wert sind), strahlt aus HOLOGRAMS eine fast unverschämte Energie. Ihr Sound vermählt die Plackerei des täglichen Lebens mit der Lust auf etwas Besseres und erinnert dabei an die aggressive Katharsis des Punk sowie an den elektronischen Schimmer des New Wave der frühen 80er. Ihr Sound ist viel zu weitläufig für die staubigen Bürgersteige und die leeren Straßen von Stockholm, was doch die perfekte Einladung dazu ist, uns zusammen noch ein wenig mehr zu betrinken.

Das neue Album "The Jacket" von WIDOWSPEAK wurde vor und nach der Veröffentlichung ihres letzten gefeierten Albums "Plum" geschrieben. Für das Duo, das aus der Singer/Songwriterin Molly Hamilton und dem Gitarristen Earl Thomas besteht, fühlt es sich an, als ob sich mit dem neuen Album ein Kreis schließt. Thematisch beschäftigen sie sich weiter mit der eigenen Zeit und Arbeit, und mit dem, was sie umgibt. Dies ist teilweise darauf zurückzuführen, dass das Duo kürzlich wieder zurück nach New York City gezogen ist. Dort wo für sie als Band alles begann, haben sie ihr neues Album zusammen mit Homer Steinweiss von Daptone Records aufgenommen. Doch Wiedervereinigungen führen immer zur Reflexion und Hamilton gibt zu, dass ein Großteil der Themen des Albums mit ihren prägenden Erfahrungen in den frühen Jahren der Band zu tun hat. So behandeln einige Songs den Prozess des Weitermachens ("Unwind", "Salt"), während andere das Bedauern behandeln ("True Blue", "Forget It"). Der namensgebende Track des Albums befasst sich mit den buchstäblichen und bildlichen Verkleidungen. Diese Verkleidungen bekommen mit der Zeit eine große Bedeutung, bis man sich dazu entschließt diese abzulegen. Durch vage Erinnerungen an Arbeit, Musik und Nachtleben formt man eine neue eigene Vergangenheit. Klanglich zeigen sich WIDOWSPEAK auf "The Jacket" in gewohnter und bester Form: Die Dynamik wechselt nahtlos zwischen sanften, treibenden Balladen und energievollen Jams, die aus dichten Gitarren, fokussierten Perkussions und kraftvollen Basslines bestehen. An anderen Stellen hört man skurrile Flöten, chorale Texturen und Heimorgeln. Thomas' Gitarrenspiel ist so ausdrucksstark und gefühlvoll wie eh und je und Hamiltons betörender Gesang ist ohnehin eine Klasse für sich. Diese Dynamik wird im Mix von Chris Coady (YEAH YEAH YEAHS, BEACH HOUSE) noch verstärkt. WIDOWSPEAK vermischen ihren Americana-inspirierten Indie-Folk gekonnt mit Slow-Core und Dream-Pop, der sowohl an die 60er als auch an die 90er Jahre erinnert. Dieser Sinn für klangliche Nostalgie fügt ihren Texten eine weitere Ebene hinzu, die über alte, erfundene und wahre Persönlichkeiten reflektieren.