Buscar:moon on the water

Powerhouse vocalist Sandra St. Victor returns with Eleven, her eleventh studio
album and first solo release in over a decade. From her years with The Family
Stand to collaborations with Roy Ayers, Curtis Mayfield, Chaka Khan, Prince and
Lalah Hathaway, Sandra has built a remarkable career that has consistently
blurred the lines between soul, funk, jazz and gospel.
Executive produced by Sandra St. Victor and Patrick Gibin for Mother Tongue,
Eleven brings together Sandra's longtime collaborators alongside the Mother
Tongue family, bridging her rich musical legacy with a fresh, forward-looking
sound rooted in soul, jazz, boogie and soulful dance music.
The album combines brand new compositions with inspired reinterpretations,
from Kaidi Tatham's stunning reimagining of Captain Sky's Moonchild and his
masterful reinvention of the Leon Ware/Syreeta underground gem Tiki Tiki
Donga, to a beautifully understated new version of Sandra's own Dizzy,
originally released on Gemini: Both Sides in 2001 featuring Questlove, Roy
Ayers and Donald Byrd, here reimagined by Mark de Clive-Lowe. Along the way,
the lo-fi soul of Black Ice, the timeless duet No More Water featuring Lalah
Hathaway, and the straight-up funk of Makes Me Wanna Fall In Love Again and
What Would Miles Do showcase an artist continuing to evolve while remaining
true to her artistic voice.
Rooted in experience yet driven by curiosity, Eleven bridges Sandra's
remarkable musical legacy with the creative vision of Mother Tongue, resulting
in an album that feels both timeless and unmistakably

"The Whole Of The Moon" is a classic. It's a song about awe and hope and love for the people who show us the best of this often broken world, the blessed few who show the way and introduce us to things and thoughts. Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch of Optimo was one of those people, and this version of the track - electronic, euphoric, open-hearted - was made by some members of the broader Optimo community after his terminal brain cancer diagnosis in 2025. The task of making a version that could've been heard on the dance floor at Planet Peach, Mas, or the Sub Club on a Sunday night or Monday morning brought them together across oceans, an act of joy amidst so much loss. It was never intended to be released, but as it made its way to friends and others, it also felt wrong not to. Its sentiment is universal and applies to so many incredible people in music and beyond that are sadly missed. So here is the Watergirls' first and last track, presented as a limited white label with some particularly lethal mixes from Sean Johnston of Hardway Bros and A Love From Outer Space. We're giving all the profits to charity. It's meant to be played out. It's meant to make two friends hug and sing into each other's faces. It's for Keith and for everyone like him.

Sublime frequencies from the golden era of ambient electronica.

Plumbing hidden depths beneath a deceptively tranquil surface, MLO's mid-90s masterpiece Io is an overlooked gem from a golden era for ambient electronic music. Originally released in 1994, Jon Tye and Pete Smith's collaborative album responded to the growing chill-out movement by leaning into classical and avant-garde influences from Satie, Debussy and Cage through to Soft Machine, Incredible String Band and Eno. Recorded across various studios stacked with classic and rare synths, Io was patiently composed into slowly unfolding suites punctuated with ripples of arrhythmic interference to arrive at a purist vision of true ambient.

The next instalment in Forever Records' ongoing reissue series shines a light back on this landmark piece of UK electronica with the first official reissue since its original edition on Rising High. As well as the original double LP pressing and a new CD digipak version, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased versions of the album's opening cut, 'Wimborne'.

Press response to Io:

"Not so much ambient, more environmental music, Io lets you bring as much (or as little) of your surroundings in as suits your mood. Every listen can be different. Interactive ambient at last.”

IO is pure ambience. Relying on motif as opposed to melody, MLO have produced a truly evocative album.

Peter McIntyre, Mixmag, UK 1994.

"MLO's influences range from the likes of Eric Satie and the intellectual salon music of his era to the more predictable reference point of dubby, modern techno, though they feel, perhaps rather contentiously, that "ambient music can exist in isolation from the rest of the dance music arena". Can it? Take a trip to Io, and find out."
Generator Magazine, UK 1994.

"If you like your ambient deep and moody with long chords that creep along at approximately the speed of drying paint then check out MLO’s Io."
Mixology, UK 1994.

"MLO set the controls for the heart of headspace for their first full album release. Io is top grade ambient brain… Ace album…"
Select, UK 1994.

Sublime frequencies from the golden era of ambient electronica.

Plumbing hidden depths beneath a deceptively tranquil surface, MLO's mid-90s masterpiece Io is an overlooked gem from a golden era for ambient electronic music. Originally released in 1994, Jon Tye and Pete Smith's collaborative album responded to the growing chill-out movement by leaning into classical and avant-garde influences from Satie, Debussy and Cage through to Soft Machine, Incredible String Band and Eno. Recorded across various studios stacked with classic and rare synths, Io was patiently composed into slowly unfolding suites punctuated with ripples of arrhythmic interference to arrive at a purist vision of true ambient.

The next instalment in Forever Records' ongoing reissue series shines a light back on this landmark piece of UK electronica with the first official reissue since its original edition on Rising High. As well as the original double LP pressing and a new CD digipak version, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased versions of the album's opening cut, 'Wimborne'.

Press response to Io:

"Not so much ambient, more environmental music, Io lets you bring as much (or as little) of your surroundings in as suits your mood. Every listen can be different. Interactive ambient at last.”

IO is pure ambience. Relying on motif as opposed to melody, MLO have produced a truly evocative album.

Peter McIntyre, Mixmag, UK 1994.

"MLO's influences range from the likes of Eric Satie and the intellectual salon music of his era to the more predictable reference point of dubby, modern techno, though they feel, perhaps rather contentiously, that "ambient music can exist in isolation from the rest of the dance music arena". Can it? Take a trip to Io, and find out."
Generator Magazine, UK 1994.

"If you like your ambient deep and moody with long chords that creep along at approximately the speed of drying paint then check out MLO’s Io."
Mixology, UK 1994.

"MLO set the controls for the heart of headspace for their first full album release. Io is top grade ambient brain… Ace album…"
Select, UK 1994.

2026 Repress

Prologue: Wearied by our endless travelling under a burning sun, we stopped by the margins of a tiny stream, embraced by a timid vegetation. The scorching heat made our throat parched and weak: yearning to quench our thirst, we immersed ourselves into the waters without any hesitation, drowning our dryness and our exhausted limbs. I pointed my face, revived by water, towards the sky and I lingered on, admiring it: a flock of birds gently floated, drawing in the sky some abstract shapes. I sat beneath a palm tree, motionlessly admiring the show, the shades of the night approaching. 'The true joy of a moonlit night is something we no longer understand. Only the men of old, when there were no lights, could understand the true joy of a moonlit night.' --

2026 Repress

Portugal's Dextro returns for second EP of stylish deep techno on Mutual Rytm with ‘Planets And Stars’. Dextro’s tunes have long been a staple of Mutual Rytm label head SHDW's sets, with the esteemed veteran previously landing on the label with his ‘Covil Dos Abutres’ EP last year. His return with ‘Planets And Stars’ features a selection of his most requested IDs from recent times, with the Portuguese DJ/producers featuring as a longstanding favourite within the European underground since the 90s through his stripped-back, economical sound that is rooted in masterful design and intuitive grooves. He is a true studio craftsman, whether going deep or more destructive, and that range is on show here as he makes a splash for his sophomore outing. SHDW notes, “‘Planets And Stars’ feels like his most refined and focused work to date. It also further strengthens our relationship, rooted in a shared vision and values around music and how it should be presented.” The EP kicks off with the heavyweight ‘1000 Places’, a track that will rattle walls as eerie synth whispers and sonar blips snake through the mix. ‘Industria Acéfala’ is just as hypnotic with a deep blend of rolling bass and rooted kicks, while unsettling tension comes in the one-note synth loops and scratchy texture. ‘Planets and Stars’ provides an intergalactic trip with cosmic dust, conscious spoken words and an infinite horizon that has you gazing off into the distance. The all-consuming ‘Perpendicular’ is shadowy with impish motifs darting about the mix as watery droplets fall into cavernous kicks. ‘Winter Letter’ is the final 12”cut and is perfectly deep, linear techno with gorgeous ambient details that turn your thoughts inwards. Three digital bonuses expand the trip: ‘Torresmos com Pão’ is unsettling and sparse, ‘Historia da Vida’ ramps up the tension with oversized hi-hats and rising synth turbulence and finally ‘Ghost Particles’ has shimmering bell sounds evoking a spooky moon-lit church in the dead of night.

Common Primitives is the second collaborative album between Andy Bell (Ride guitarist, Oasis bassist) and Essex-based harp and synth duo Masal. It’s a stunning, meditative collection which veers from kosmische to astral jazz by way of Turkish folk tunes and all the way back again.


Their first outing, 2023’s acclaimed Tidal Love Numbers, consisted of four lengthy and almost ambient tracks and is included here on vinyl for the first time as part of a two-record set with the new album. By contrast, the seven tracks that make up Common Primitives are almost concise, but also a lot more layered and complex.


“We tend to work from initial, free-jammed ideas, building form and arrangement from there,” explains Masal’s Al Johnson. “Above all, we believe you should go where the vibe takes you.”


For Andy, that vibe was very much jazz legend Pharoah Sanders’ classic 1977 album Pharoah, which was reissued a few years ago.


“It puts me into a hypnotic state,” he explains. “That’s why I worked with more guitar loops on this record. The Tisziji Muñoz part on ‘Harvest Time’ has had me in a vice-like grip for the last three years and it arrives here via the Vini Reilly filter.”


For Özlem Simsek, there is nostalgia, too, and she even adds vocals as well as her heavenly harp to the opening track, ‘After Kâtibim’, based on a traditional Turkish folk song she had sung as a child growing up in Istanbul.


From there, the album takes us on a real journey, with the apt, impressionistic titles added by Andy once it had all been pieced together. There’s the beautiful, elegant ‘I Swear We Are Infinite’; the atmospheric ‘Yuzuki Fighting Spirit’ and the beatific ‘Soap And Water’. ‘Tower Of Babylon’ was named after the novelette by Ted Chiang, its structured creation reflecting that in the story; first single ‘The Morning Of The Trip’ finds Andy playing his guitar “as if it was a waterfall”. The journey ends with ‘Rudi’s Dream – The Third Bardo’, the trio accelerating onto the autobahn for a krautrock crescendo inspired by their studio’s resident cat.

Common Primitives is the second collaborative album between Andy Bell (Ride guitarist, Oasis bassist) and Essex-based harp and synth duo Masal. It’s a stunning, meditative collection which veers from kosmische to astral jazz by way of Turkish folk tunes and all the way back again.


Their first outing, 2023’s acclaimed Tidal Love Numbers, consisted of four lengthy and almost ambient tracks and is included here on vinyl for the first time as part of a two-record set with the new album. By contrast, the seven tracks that make up Common Primitives are almost concise, but also a lot more layered and complex.


“We tend to work from initial, free-jammed ideas, building form and arrangement from there,” explains Masal’s Al Johnson. “Above all, we believe you should go where the vibe takes you.”


For Andy, that vibe was very much jazz legend Pharoah Sanders’ classic 1977 album Pharoah, which was reissued a few years ago.


“It puts me into a hypnotic state,” he explains. “That’s why I worked with more guitar loops on this record. The Tisziji Muñoz part on ‘Harvest Time’ has had me in a vice-like grip for the last three years and it arrives here via the Vini Reilly filter.”


For Özlem Simsek, there is nostalgia, too, and she even adds vocals as well as her heavenly harp to the opening track, ‘After Kâtibim’, based on a traditional Turkish folk song she had sung as a child growing up in Istanbul.


From there, the album takes us on a real journey, with the apt, impressionistic titles added by Andy once it had all been pieced together. There’s the beautiful, elegant ‘I Swear We Are Infinite’; the atmospheric ‘Yuzuki Fighting Spirit’ and the beatific ‘Soap And Water’. ‘Tower Of Babylon’ was named after the novelette by Ted Chiang, its structured creation reflecting that in the story; first single ‘The Morning Of The Trip’ finds Andy playing his guitar “as if it was a waterfall”. The journey ends with ‘Rudi’s Dream – The Third Bardo’, the trio accelerating onto the autobahn for a krautrock crescendo inspired by their studio’s resident cat.

“Simply put, it’s unlikely we’ll encounter a mix that leaves a cultural footprint and defines the sound of a generation quite like Northern Exposure again. Both mixes are absolutely 100% astoundingly brilliant”

DJ Mag

“Their best-loved mix CD is a trippy traipse through the verdant world of progressive house, a genre with one foot in the rave and the other somewhere in the great beyond” Rolling Stone - The 30 Greatest EDM

Albums Of All Time

Originally released on 27th September 1996, ‘Northern Exposure’ is widely regarded as one of the greatest mix compilations ever made. Thirty years on, it sounds as vital as ever - a testament to the fearless vision that went into its creation.

At a time when DJ culture was still writing its own rules, Sasha and John Digweed pushed against the grain. Drawing on sounds discovered during early trips to America - from Rabbit in the Moon to Future Sound of London - they built something that prioritised atmosphere over dancefloor convention. DJ Mag panned it on release. History changed their tune.

Northern Exposure Redux marks the 30th anniversary with a definitive reissue of both original mixes. The CD version also includes a newly created ambient mix. Shaped by the spirit of Bill Laswell and Mad Professor, it explores the deeper, more hypnotic DNA that always ran beneath the surface. Northern Exposure Redux North includes classic tracks by Keiichi Suzuki, The Future Sound Of London, and Banco de Gaia. Northern Exposure Redux South includes classic tracks by Dope On Plastic, Pete Lazonby, and a newly recreated version of ‘Dark And Long (Dark Train)’ by none other than Darren Emerson himself. Both vinyl versions also include a download code for both the North And South mixes, as well as the individual tracks.

Canonical then. Essential now.

Amsterdam-based multidisicplinary arts collective and, in this case, ambient electronica-producing duo Wanderwelle created several of the biggest releases that Silent Season have enjoyed to date, this previously digital-only single being one of the very biggest. The public's been clamouring for a vinyl release of this one for an entire decade now, so the label have finally obliged. Four tracks here catch Alexander Bartels and Phil van Dulm in reflective but lively chilled techno mode and from the gliding depths of 'Leaving Port Logan' to the eerie siren song of 'A Watery Grave' there are shimmering subaquatic atmospherics aplenty but also pulsing, underplayed rhythms too. Liquid gold.

Both Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn had already started promising solo careers in the 1980s, but something special happened when Tim DuBois suggested they record together. Brooks & Dunn was not just a temporary collaboration, but the beginning of one of the most impressive and successful stories in country music.

The men were unstoppable. Their debut album delivered four number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, going seven times platinum in the US (seven million copies sold) and three times platinum in Canada. "Boot Scootin' Boogie" was the album's biggest hit and single-handedly revived line dancing in the 1990s. This undeniably shows the album's cultural significance. Finally, this classic gets the LP treatment it deserves.

Brand New Man is available as a 35th anniversary edition on smokey marbled vinyl and includes an insert with lyrics.

“Everybody wants the map, but the correct one is not coming. This is understood, somewhere below language, by everyone who wants a map anyway. Meanwhile the map dealers, those slick druids and wizards, goddamn sell-outs, will try to seduce you with one. Don't buy from them. Their maps only show burned black fields.

What passes instead between the ones still walking is smaller and does not require a subscription. A sign. Nailed to a fencepost, or to an unexpected streetlight surrounded by darkness. Left by someone who was thirsty on this road back when you were only a rumor. It says one thing: water, this way.

So leave signs. Just mark the water you found and move along. It is one of the oldest customs - strangers keeping each other alive and hydrated on a long road.”

Connecters Vol. 1: Original Recordings, 1992-1999 ist die erste Veröffentlichung von Larrison, dem Pseudonym des bildenden Künstlers und Musikers Larrison Seidle aus dem Mittleren Westen. Larrison komponierte, programmierte und nahm alles komplett auf einem Casio CZ-5000 auf, während der guten alten Zeit der selbstgemachten Experimente und Entdeckungen in den frühen 90ern. Er lebte in einer Traumwelt, die er selbst erfunden hatte, mit Soundtracks aus Space-Age-Pop-Vignetten, gespickt mit hypnotischen, überschwänglichen, vielschichtigen Synthesizer-Melodien. Mit 26 Tracks, die alle neu restauriert und aus den Originalquellen gemastert wurden, erfindet sich Connecters Vol. 1 Song für Song neu, überwindet die Zeit und trotzt der vorbestimmten Vergessenheit dieser brillanten, diskreten Musik, die vor drei Jahrzehnten entstanden ist. Larrison Seidle wuchs in den 70er und 80er Jahren in Greenwood, Indiana, einem Arbeitervorort von Indianapolis, auf. Er stammte nicht aus einer Musikerfamilie, aber aus einem Haushalt, in dem Musikalität gefördert wurde. Sein Vater kaufte eine elektrische Orgel, in der Hoffnung, dass Larrison und sein älterer Bruder das Instrument lernen würden. ,Am Ende saß mein Vater einige Abende an der Orgel, improvisierte und spielte immer wieder dieses eine Lied, von dem ich mich noch an die ersten Takte erinnern kann", erinnert sich Larrison. Möglicherweise war es in diesem Moment, in dem es zwar keine formale Ausbildung gab, aber viel Ermutigung und Entdeckungsfreude, dass der Künstler seine ersten musikalischen Experimente machte. Diese Erlaubnis, sich auszuprobieren, sollte seine kreative Arbeit in den folgenden Jahren deutlich prägen. Während in Larrisons Elternhaus klassische Rockplatten leicht zugänglich waren, lieh sich sein Vater 35-mm-Dokumentarfilme aus der Bibliothek aus, um sie im Wohnzimmer zu zeigen, die alle mit skurrilen Instrumentalstücken unterlegt waren. Als Teenager nahm er John Carpenters und Alan Howarths Endthema aus ,Die Klapperschlange" mit einem kleinen Kassettenrekorder neben dem Fernsehlautsprecher auf und liebte Tangerine Dreams Beiträge zu Ridley Scotts düsterer Fantasy ,Legend". Seine Faszination für diese weitgehend textlosen, synthesizerbasierten Kompositionen führte zu einem eigenwilligen Verständnis davon, wie Musik nicht nur das ergänzt, was wir vor uns sehen, sondern auch das, was wir in den Tiefen unseres Bewusstseins erleben. 1985, als er dreizehn Jahre alt war, überzeugte Larrison seinen Vater, ihm ein Casio CZ-5000-Keyboard zu kaufen. Wie zuvor die Orgel war auch dieses Instrument eine Neuheit im Haushalt der Seidles. Erst nach seinem Highschool-Abschluss 1991 und dem Beginn seines Studiums an der Herron School of Art in Indianapolis entdeckte er den in das Casio integrierten Sequenzer und begann, seine Kompositionen auf Band aufzunehmen. ,Das CZ-5000 und sein 8-Spur-Sequenzer sind die einzigen Musikinstrumente, die ich benutzt habe. Es hat eine fast unbegrenzte Funktion zur Erzeugung neuer Klänge", erklärte Seidle. Während seiner Zeit an der Herron School of Art freundete sich Larrison mit seinem Kommilitonen und Klangkünstler Michael Northam an, den er bei einem Konzert auf dem Campus kennengelernt hatte. Nachdem Northam Larrison für die Musik von Severed Heads, Throbbing Gristle und Roger Doyle begeistert und damit seine Zuneigung und sein Vertrauen gewonnen hatte, überredete er ihn, nach Austin, Texas, zu ziehen, das in den frühen 90er Jahren für seine lebendige Kunst- und Musikszene bekannt war. Die beiden wohnten zunächst bei Northams Freund Daniel Plunkett, dem Herausgeber und Verleger von ND, einem einflussreichen Magazin, das sich von 1982 bis 1999 mit DIY-Musik und Tape-Trading beschäftigte. In seiner Blütezeit hatte ND Tausende von Lesern, und Plunkett verschickte die Ausgaben weltweit. In den letzten Monaten des Jahres 1993 und Anfang 1994 schrieb und nahm Larrison mit begrenzten Mitteln und grenzenloser Intuition eine Reihe von Songs mit seinem CZ-5000 in einer kleinen Wohnung nördlich der Innenstadt von Austin auf, bastelte eine farbenfrohe, illustrierte Beilage, in der einige Songtitel durch Linien oder Pfeile dargestellt waren, und gab sie an Plunkett weiter, damit er sie für ND rezensieren konnte. Diese einzelne Kassette mit dem Titel Connecters sic war eine von 1200, die im Laufe des Bestehens der Publikation bei ND eingereicht wurden und die Jed Bindeman, Mitbegründer von Freedom To Spend, 2020 erworben und fast wie durch ein Wunder entdeckt hat. ,Ich hatte große Schwierigkeiten, mir die Kassetten in dieser Sammlung anzuhören", gibt Bindeman zu. ,Aber dann legte ich Larrisons Connecters ein und dachte sofort: ,Wow! Was höre ich da?' Die Kassette war von Anfang bis Ende einfach fantastisch." Mit Musik von genau dieser Kassette und anderen Aufnahmen aus Larrisons Experimenten in den 90er Jahren ist Connecters eine Übersicht über Instrumentalmusik, die sowohl durch vielfältige konzeptionelle Strategien als auch durch spielerische Neugierde geprägt ist. Seidle arbeitete unter Bedingungen, die viele Musiker als Einschränkung empfinden würden, und entwickelte technisch innovative Ansätze, um die Klänge und integrierten Effekte des CZ-5000 zu modifizieren. Das Gerät ermöglichte es ihm, die Wellenform, die Hüllkurve und die Tonart von Klängen mithilfe der Phasenverzerrungssynthese zu verändern und so im Grunde genommen Instrumente zu schaffen, während er Songs komponierte. Die Tracks zeichnen sich durch eine durchdachte impressionistische Vielfalt aus, die mal lo-fi, mal symphonisch klingt. Inmitten der Zerlegung und Verstärkung der Fähigkeiten des CZ-5000 gibt es auch einen geschmackvollen Rückgriff auf eine kindliche Interaktion und Erfahrung von Klang. Vielleicht ist es diese Erfahrungsqualität, die es so schwierig macht, Larrisons Projekt einfach als Ambient oder Elektronik zu verstehen. Sein Wille, die ihm zur Verfügung stehenden Werkzeuge zu transformieren, hebt die daraus resultierenden Kompositionen auf eine persönliche Ebene und verleiht der Musik einen bezaubernden Sinn für Mystik. Connecters ist ein Beweis für eine künstlerische Vision, die sich nicht durch Grenzen einschränken lässt und keine Angst vor Informalität hat. Diese Aufnahmen, die dreißig Jahre nach ihrer Dokumentation auf magische Weise an die Oberfläche kommen, zeigen, wie personalisierte Produktionsmittel die Zeit ausdehnen und verkürzen können. Larrison lädt die Zuhörer ein, sich auf die Wunder der auditiven Vorstellungskraft einzulassen - eine Brücke zwischen visueller Erinnerung, emotionaler Resonanz und der grenzenlosen Möglichkeit, mit den uns zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln Musik zu machen. Larrison's Connecters Vol. 1: Original Recordings, 1992-1999 wird am 3. April 2026 von Freedom To Spend als Vinyl- und Digitalausgabe veröffentlicht.

Aspetuck has been steadily carving out a name for himself through releases on Never Late and Oslated, garnering a respected following for his DJ mixes and festival performances. Aspetuck’s latest record, Immersion, was sequenced and curated from dozens of ideas spanning a transformative few years in Griff’s life. The album is less a snapshot in time and more of a memory bank - flashes of fatherhood, loss, modular rabbit holes, late-night studio sessions, and long walks by the Hudson River with his daughter.
The emotional undertow of the album is immediate. Opener Hit Me With Your Pet Shark is one of the earliest compositions in the collection, created just months after the loss of Griff’s brother and during the sleepless swirl of new parenthood. Built around a single sound from Spectrasonics Omnisphere, found while rediscovering his brother’s studio gear, the track sets the tone: restrained yet searching, personal without becoming precious.
From there, The Printing Press captures the raw energy of a live jam in Griff’s upstate New York basement, running through a 1980s Tascam mixer like a lo-fi assembly line of synths, pads, and drum machines. REI, named after a spontaneous family mission to find a pink water bottle, encapsulates his knack for imprinting daily minutiae into sound. And title track Immersion- once known simply as Tuesday 303 Jam- emerges from a dinner break and a blender, distilling modular sketches and distorted drums into a powerful, slow-motion march.
Under, Under The Tree hits hardest. Built around a grainy iPhone voice memo of Griff’s daughter singing by the Hudson. And closing the album is Bobik, a collaborative studio session with Moon Patrol channeling the playful chaos of a close friendship and modular exploration. Named after a joke about their golden retriever and filled with alien textures from Griff’s beloved EMU XL7 gifted years ago by his late brother, it’s a fitting send-off to an album that straddles celebration and mourning with grace.
The artwork comes courtesy of Peter Skwiot Smith, whose textured analog/digital aesthetic resonated immediately with Griff’s original vision. Peter’s treatment draws on Griff’s personal photography and leans into motion, blur, and the layered nature of memory, echoing the album's sonic tone without overexplaining it.
Mastered by Sven Weisemann, Immersion is available on blue smoke colored 12”

Drawing from traditions of musique concrète and ambient synthesis, The Vertical Luminous creates a world of textural depth and microscopic wonder. Across its tracks, bubbling tones, processed field recordings, and shifting electronic layers intertwine, evoking the sensation of listening in on the hidden rhythms of atoms, molecules, and micro-organisms.
'While grounded in experimental technique, The Vertical Luminous avoids the academic or austere, instead embracing a mischievous sense of melody and curiosity - a reminder that exploration and joy can coexist in sound.
'The result is a record that is both meditative and playful, equally suited to deep listening or casual drift.'

Lenxi's debut album on Nous'klaer Audio receives a well-deserved remix treatment, breathing new life into its original dream world. Kindred spirits Polygonia, oma totem, Human Space Machine, and Daisy Moon each reimagine the material through their own distinct sound. A powerful and diverse collection of reinterpretations: From intricate, hypnotic textures to driving, dancefloor-ready energy, each remix opens a new pathway towards a vibrant second life primed for club systems and festival stages alike.

Originally released in 1994, MSD - Moonboom is a true cornerstone of Irish dance music and one of the defining dancefloor anthems of the '90s. Fusing Techno, Progressive House and raw 303 energy, it became a staple on floors across Ireland and beyond, a track whose power has only grown with time. Now beautifully remastered and repressed on the newly launched CeltTribe label, Moonboom returns sounding bigger and sharper than ever. Created by Fintan McDonald alongside Dublin DJ Liam Dollard, with Paul Clifford and Peter Coss present during the original mixdown, the track was produced on a Tac Scorpion desk using Akai S1000 and S950 samplers, capturing the raw, hardware-driven spirit of early '90s dance music. Originally released on the Inner Conscience label, this reissue celebrates Ireland's underground dance heritage and is expanded with a strong set of 2026 remixes. The "Love Will Save the Day" Remix delivers a piano-led '90s House groove with nods to New York and Chicago, reflecting the deep Irish house sound loved in Cork and Waterford. The Lanzatech Remix is a tribal, acid-fuelled slammer driven by reworked piano, 303 lines and Detroit-inspired synth pads. Collie's "Midnight" Dub dives deeper into jazzy, hypnotic territory, while Ian's Techno Mix pushes Moonboom into darker, harder underground space with reimagined piano and vocals. A timeless Irish classic, respectfully reimagined!

Seeking out the inspirational intersection between free improvisation, rave and ancient mysticism, Plants Heal deliver an album of kaleidoscopic, organic beatdowns to Quindi.
Plants Heal is a collaborative project between Dan Nicholls on synths, Dave De Rose on drums and Lou Zon (aka Louise Boer) on visuals. The roots of the project are entwined with Dan and Lou's London-based event Free Movements, which began in 2018 to explore how instrumental music could merge with live electronics and DJ sets. Dave and Dan found themselves playing together frequently at the event and as part of Dave's free improv project Agile Experiments, with their accomplished track records as multi-instrumentalists reaching across many layers of music culture. The particular synergy of their partnership taps into the subliminal, surreal and transcendental soundscapes, but they're reliably anchored by instinctive rhythms and driven by a natural flow-state.
From the tentative steps of their first collaborations, Dan and Dave coalesced Plants Heal as a more pronounced project with Lou's live visuals, culminating in a first self-released album in 2021 and since organically fed and watered through continued performances across adventurous festivals and intimate club spaces. Every incremental step along the path of the project yielded new surprises and the deepening sense of a unique, powerful energy. The trio opted to pour this energy into two days of studio sessions at Sonic Playground Studios in Athens, maintaining their unplanned approach and letting the music and visuals unfold in the moment. The end result is Forest Dwellers, a sincere document of truly free music that uses the rhythmic structure of dance and trance music as a springboard into heightened consciousness.
Throughout the album you can hear hints of the familiar - dub techno shimmers, trip hop boom-bap, kosmische momentum, snarling bass modulation, new age ambience and even the odd sizzle of disco. But none of these references are explicit, and they weave in and out of less placeable expressions deeply bedded into Dan and Dave's sonic practices. The end result is a swirling tapestry of unspooling groove, wide open and agile enough to shift gears mid-flow - just as comfortable letting the propulsion melt away as locking into a four-to-the-floor throwdown. From the slippery syncopation of 'Avena Moon' to the angular bait-and-switch of 'Alien Hardware', 'Yarrow's starry-eyed reverie and the rolling, warm-hearted funk of 'Space Ballad', the Plants Heal sound world is expansive and equally enthusiastic for immediate musical motifs as much as wild abstraction.
Lou's visual practice is an intrinsic part of the project. During performances she improvises with analogue footage from her library run through video mixers and synthesisers, focused on medicinal plants such as yarrow, hawthorn, nettle and thistle. All those plants feature in processed form on the cover of the record, which was designed in collaboration with Lou's brother Arthur Boer. Meanwhile, Lou recorded additional footage in Athens during the recording sessions to feed into the continued cycle of the project's live evolution.
Forest Dwellers' meaning honours this cycle and its reflection of the eternal undulations of the natural world. It's also a sincere tribute to the spiritual importance and radical potential of the dancefloor, drawn from the freedom taught by jazz and dedicated to reclaiming lost ideas about community, agency, bodies and the enduring allure of the unknown.

Second Circle is very excited to announce ‘In Dream’, the eight-track debut album from Tokyo-born, Berlin-based producer and DJ Courtney Bailey.

Sonically, 'In Dream' unfolds as a rich, lush soundscape, woven together with expansive digital synth pads, Fairlight-esque stabs, and vibrant acid bass lines. At times the EP leans back horizontally to evoke the balearic spirit of Yello ('Burnt Moon'), at other times it leans more upright towards to dancefloor ('In Heaven'), but what remains throughout is a sense of intimacy, gracefully guided by Bailey’s whisper soft spoken vocals and gentle melodic vocal lines.

Building on an initial spark of inspiration that arose when listening to the work of Japanese artist Dream Dolphin aka Noriko Kodera, ‘In Dream' is Bailey’s direct creative response to new feelings, energy and emotions. Time spent in the outdoors, specifically in the natural landscapes of Australia also had a profound influence on the making of the record; opener ‘Kodou’ was directly inspired by a moment in Melbourne watching rainbow-colored parrots in a pink-flowering tree. Similarly, 'Burnt Moon' captures the essence of watching moonlight shimmer on ocean waters. At its core, 'In Dream' embraces a child-like wonder for the beauty of nature, an act which infuses the music with a radiant, luminous sense of positivity.

Capturing the essence of stepping into the unknown and more importantly, doing it with curiosity and optimism, ‘In Dream’ paints a vibrant, multi-colour vision of life, with Bailey inviting us all to immerse ourselves in it’s wonders.

Sleeve art and design by Michael Willis.

Roberto Musci, born in Milan in 1956, studied guitar, music and electronic instruments. From 1974 to 1985 he traveled the world studying African, Indian, Arabic and Oriental music, recording ethnic music “in the field,” studying and collecting ethnic musical instruments from all over the world. His self-produced debut album, “The Loa of Music,” is a seminal work of staggering originality and extraordinary beauty in which field recordings, musique concrète, electronics, synthesis and instrumentation are interwoven, drawing on the countless musics from around the world that he has recorded. The subsequent “Water messages on desert sand,” composed with Giovanni Venosta, was nominated for a Grammy in the UK in 1987. In the 1980s and 1990s he broadcast ethnic and electronic-experimental music from Rai and Radio Popolare radio stations. He has also composed and played music for videos, commercials, dance, poetry, theater, composed soundtracks and accompanied silent films live. From 1980 to the present, he has played with many Italian and European musicians: Giovanni Venosta, Claudio Gabbiani, Walter Prati, Giorgio Magnanensi, Massimo Cavallaro, Massimo Mariani, Moni Ovadia, Roberto Zorzi, Chris Cutler, Jon Rose David Moss, Steve Piccolo, Elliott Sharp, Keith Tippett and the Third Ear Band.

The theme of travel, ethnicities and mysticism are a pivotal point in this new album of his as well, demonstrating once again how music needs absolutely no sharp lines of demarcation. The music is one.

It goes from the search for deep meanings in a time spent in a Hindu monastery (Ashram) listening to mantras and studying Buddhist philosophy (The Principle Of Things) to space explorations and human settlements on the Moon or Mars wondering how man will live and what he will bring to the new worlds imagining that Sufism, an Islamic mystical religion, will accompany him in the discovery of new worlds (Derviches On Mars). In Goodbye Monsters, harmony and peace are sought. Memories Of A Piano Player is a tribute to Keith Tippett, a great pianist (King Crimson , Centipede, Mujician) with whom he played in several concerts and with whom I spent evenings talking about music, food and Italian wine. Quantum State focuses on how quantum mechanics is creating a revolution in the way of thinking and dividing reality into infinite Parallel Worlds. Panthalassa is the vast ocean that surrounded Pangea and blends South American marimba music and traditional Chinese music. Burn The Shadows is a tribute to the fascinating Indonesian shadow theater, from the stories told and the atmosphere created during the long plays told in the sacred Indian texts of Ramayana or Mahabharata. Shadows are also more or less pleasant memories to which one is attached, and to burn them is still to move on with one's life.

Torajan Funeral Chant: The Toraja are a people living in Sulawesi (Indonesia) who have a special worship of the dead. Funerals are festivals that last several days, the corpses are protected by Tau-Tau (small dolls that watch over cemeteries), and over the years, they exhume the corpses of their relatives and keep them in their homes with them for a time to remember them.

The experimentation goes all the way to modern Artificial Intelligence that 'interrogated' to create something new by inserting conflicting inputs joins them together but nonsensically creating interesting insights; hence A.I. In Confusion. Pangea, named after the continent that contained all the land that emerged between 540 and 200 million years ago, in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic periods, imagined as inhabited by man without divisions created by borders, wars, religions or ethnic groups, is also a tribute to Steve Reich, one of the fathers and a great musician of minimal music. Prophecies, a reading of sacred texts and religious songs from evangelical sects in the United States filtered into granular synthesis with percussion music from South India, closes.

LP + insert with extended liner notes and download code including extra bonus track 'Movements of The Mind'.For his second album on the Belgian leftfield imprint Cortizona, Devin Brahja Waldman gathered a group of insanely gifted and talented musicians to start a new and highly moving musical chapter titled 'Nebulizer'.



From the first moment the pulsating tone of Devin's synth blends with the whispering voices of Earth, Wind and Choir and the menacing bells Naima Karlsson set in motion this record you just know and feel immediately 'Nebulizer' will be a soul-searching journey, soaking you deep into an unknown and very personal musical world.

Devin Brahja Waldman is a New York saxophonist, drummer, synthesizer player and composer who leads the group BRAHJA. He has performed with Patti Smith, William Parker, Nadah El Shazly, Malcolm Mooney, Thurston Moore, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Charles Hayward, Luke Stewart and Yoshiko Chuma. Waldman is also a member of NYC's Heroes Are Gang Leaders (led by poet Thomas Sayers Ellis and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis), of Sam Shalabi's Land of Kush, and of the Norwegian hardcore group MoE.

In 2022 BRAHJA released the critically acclaimed album 'Watermelancholia' on the Belgian leftfield imprint Cortizona. For his second album on the same Cortizona label, Devin Brahja Waldman gathered a group of insanely gifted and talented musicians to start a new and highly moving musical chapter titled 'Nebulizer'.

Together with Adam Kinner, Georgia Wartel Collins, Earth, Wind and Choir, Luke Stewart, Kenichi Iwasa, Naima Karlsson, Alexis Mercelo, Janice Lowe, Watson and Damon Hankoff, Devin forms a slow-burning fireball unity.

A devotional séance channelling unknown powers proving music is a healing force of the universe.

Rejoicing the Holy Jazz Spirit.

Ready to nebulize the world and bring light out from the darkness. Head cleaning the world in 4 musical parts: Geological Drum, Nebulizer, Bushido and Movements of The Mind. Nebulizer is an elevating meditation on our estrangement of nature.

Interstellar sonic stardust from a mindblowing collective that will leave you flabbergasted.

Be prepared and hear it to believe it.

For fans of: Art Ensemble of Chicago, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, John & Alice Coltrane, Kamasi Washington, Shabaka Hutchings, SAULT, Ill Considered, Jamie Branche, Angel Bat Dawid, Mackaya Craven, Matana Roberts, Sun Ra and other good music.

Over 1.5m albums sold in the UK and 3 consecutive no 1 albums for Noel Gallagher’s High
Flying Birds – plus a record breaking 10 consecutive chart-topping studio albums in the UK
for Noel.
- Debut eponymous album released 17th Oct 2011, debuted at no 1 with 122.5k sales and
achieved double Platinum status less than 6 months post release
- International Magic DVD release of the 02 Arena gig Feb 2012 certified Gold on shipment
-2011-2012 live schedule saw NG HFB visit 32 countries across 6 continents, playing 150
shows over a 15 month period. 406k headline tickets and 1.2m festival tickets sold
- Chasing Yesterday, released 2nd March 2015, no 1 album on release with 89.1k sales and
certified Platinum
- 2015-2016 18 month world tour covering 122 shows in 28 countries. Almost 400k headline
tickets and 1.25m festival tickets
- Who Built The Moon?’ released on 24th Nov 2017 - no 1 with 77,853 sales (almost 35k sales
ahead of no 2), Silver album after only 4 days and certified Gold 2 weeks post release
- Tour covering 59 shows in 17 countries with 245k headline tickets and 550k festival tickets
- Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds released a series of 3 multi-genre EP’s over the course
of 2019 and 2020
- 2019 saw a host of headline festival dates covering 150k tickets sold across the summer
plus tours of the USA and Australia with Smashing Pumpkins and U2 respectively

Matching breezy, Bossa nova-tinged sophistication with softly spiralling psychedelia, Testbild! arrive in the Quindi lounge as though they've always been there. On their 12th album, Bed Stilt, the Swedish collective cast their attention back to the earlier days of their 25-year trip through sweetly mysterious pop-not-pop rendered in warm tones and shot through with surrealism. It's tricky to get a precise fix on the story and structure of Testbild! The project was spearheaded by Petter Herbertsson in his hometown of Malmö in the late 90s, although the story on their website credits the inspiration and source material to a chance meeting and unpublished manuscript from a retiring scientist. The collective's evolution since then is a tangled web of facts and fiction spun by a revolving cast of collaborators including Siri af Burén, Katja Ekman, Rikard Heberling, Douglas Holmquist, Mattias Nihlén and Petter Samuelsson. Along the way, their music has touched on chamber pop, post-punk and modern jazz with the elaborate harmonies and catchy songwriting charm of the Canterbury scene. The tracks which make up Bed Stilt were in fact track recorded in Malmö back in the mid- 00s, lying in wait for the right opportunity to be brought to light with some delicate overdubs and finishing flourishes in the here and now. The core musicians working on the record were Herbertsson and Douglas Holmquist on a similarly expansive list of vocals, guitars, bass, synths and keys, Siri af Burén on lead vocals and Mattias Nihlén on synths and additional mixing. Meanwhile Tomas Bodén - better known as Civilistjavel - lent some additional synth work as well as mastering the record. Musically, Testbild! stay true to their idiosyncratic approach on Bed Stilt with six immaculately rendered sojourns through lilting harmonies and brushed rhythms, feeling nostalgic but beguiling in equal measure. Theirs is a luxurious sound, not least on the opening strains of 'The First New Years Eve,' which purrs to life draped in silky Rhodes and chiming vibes. Behind this comfortable veneer the enigmatic lyrical themes unfurl through Herbertsson, Holmquist and af Burén's vocal harmonies like fractalized puzzles waiting to be solved. The finger-picking delicacy and languid harmonica of 'Streams' strike a pastoral mood neatly countered by the elegant slide into dislocated ambience for the track's final stretch. By contrast, 'And Her Eyes Are Red' surges with a big beat urgency which plays beautifully with the mellow jazziness of the chord sequences, boldly toying with song structure to dart down curious tangents without losing the immediate impulse of a great pop record. Somewhere in this tension between clarity and chaos we can understand the addictive charm of Testbild! - a band steeped in the considerable craft of making accomplished and unconventional music so very easy to sink into. If that doesn't make for a perfect addition to the Quindi catalogue, we don't know what does.

Welcome to Aqualaxy, a collaborative project where Warning joins forces with art historian C.C. McKee from Philadelphia and international queer activist dia_shi from Berlin. Accompanying McKee’s book on the debut album by late-90s electronic pop band Aqua, Aqualaxy is a compilation of contemporary queer artists from North America and Europe commissioned to create their own takes on songs from Aqua's debut album. The result is an expansive blossoming variety of music, from sizzling trance pop, to eerie darkwave atmospheres, to cheeky dancefloor weapons.

With Aqualaxy, Warning presents a release that playfully deviates from the label's usual tracks, highlights trans musicians, and offers fresh takes on nostalgic favourites to the community. Embrace Aqualaxy’s endless fluidity, a space where everything becomes possible, where some changes aren’t even a second thought. Did you know that when the kobudai reef fish reaches a certain size she changes her sex from female to male? Did you know that when the largest female in a school of Clownfish dies the male swaps sex to take her place? Protogyny, protandry, it all just seems like fun; not to mention the host of genders and ways of fucking we don’t even have words for as humans! In Aqualaxy, everything is possible under the water. Imagination, life is your creation!

Completing Dsum's latest album, 'Double Distance' emerges as the final quintet of tracks, igniting a celestial voyage for listeners. Opening with the pulsating energy of 'Protons,' the EP traverses the electro/techno spectrum, paying homage to electronic music's nascent era. From introspective ambient tones to pristine explorations of electro soundscapes, each track encapsulates a sonic odyssey of depth and innovation.



Scheduled for release on vinyl and digital platforms in July, 'Double Distance' forms an integral component of the forthcoming album 'Water In The Moon.'

Matthew Halsall announces a limited-edition Vinyl only pressing of Bright Sparkling Light, a luminous three track EP featuring some of his most gorgeous compositions. Originally conceived as a tour only exclusive, Bright Sparkling Light was recorded alongside, last year’s expansive beguiling long-player An Ever Changing View and draws on the same trademark blend of jazz, electronica, global and spiritual jazz influences. The original pressing sold-out on Matthew’s EU and UK tour last October and November and so many people got in touch with us here at Gondwana asking how they could get a copy that we decided to make a further 2000 copies available for retail and online sales. The title track is a hypnotic meditation built on one of the lushest loops Halsall has ever created and featuring stellar work from Halsall and flautist Matt Cliffe. Newborough Forest is a brisk, uplifting composition celebrating one of Halsall’s favourite landscapes and the wonderous Tide and the Moon paints a sonic picture of late-night waters and deep mindfulness and features some of Matt Cliffe’s most beautiful tenor playing. Like An Ever Changing View, Bright Sparkling Light comes in a package as striking as the music, with handmade fonts designed by Ian Anderson and a beautifully realised embossed artwork that offers a perfect compliment to the LP. Strictly limited and featuring a download code, Bright Sparkling Light will not be re-pressed.

After his first album on BLESSYOU "Turquoise", Mogwaa aka Seungyoung Lee from Seoul is back with another stellar contribution this time re-visiting his earlier days of musical appreciation in Reggae music.

This album is another entirely instrumental work with 8 tracks, effortlessly displaying his confidence in the studio when it comes to dreamy dubbed out ambient sounds intertwined with heavy digi/stepper and even dancehall influences.

A refreshing treat to the ear when it comes to contemporary productions as Mogwaa approaches the Jamaican genre with a refined aesthetic of his own. From Korea with much craft and dedication for the music, a pleasure to have him back. Mastered at Manmade mastering.

Celebrating twenty-five years of Aficionado as a place to play away from suffocating mainstream club culture, DJs Jason Boardman and Moonboots have compiled a contemplative set of 16 tracks that holds a deep meaning to both themselves and attendees of their now legendary parties. The compilation includes two new tracks exclusive to the release: J Walk’s ‘Cool Bright Northern Morning’ and Begin’s remix of Canyons ‘Akasha’.
Reflecting on how it all started 25 years ago, Moon considers their no-plan-plan to be a makeshift plateau which evolved organically: “All we did was try to play good records one after the other without any consideration for fashion. And people wanted that”. Alternative approaches were not unknown at the time, but Aficionado, as Jason and Moon’s Sunday sessions became known, pressed the reset button with unique resolve.
Jason elaborates: “It was 1998 when we started. It was our own 'fuck you’ to the Super Club regime - almost everywhere then. The ‘anything goes’ Balearic ethos was in abeyance. It wasn’t cool at the time, but we both just wanted to keep that original spirit alive. ‘Keep it open’ had always been my approach to DJing - even from playing at Youth Clubs as a teenager. No rules or generic constrictions. Play anything that you like from any era, any style from any time. We always encouraged our guests to dig deep and play outside of their comfort zones, their usual styles”.
The lovingly crafted musical mystery tour of this compilation, considering its pleasantly hypnagogic intent, may not reflect the madness of these now distant memories. This is an older and considerably more responsible collection and this is what we need right now - a temporary respite from a world almost capsized. A mood, a meditation created by masters of their craft. Odd socks from disparate global locations making new sense side by side. An assemblage, if you like. A thread through many different kinds of thinking. A new picture pieced together from the lost pieces of many jigsaws.

Detroit artist Julion De’Angelo steps forward into his own with a new musical offering:the inaugural EP from his new imprint, Maybee Hill Music. Named after the street that he grew up on, the label celebrates ancestral guidance and reflecting on the past, so you can move FORWARD!

Can’t Go Askin is an exuberant testament to Black joy, building and shining triumphantly throughout its mesmerising 12-minute runtime.The track centers on a riff that immediately locks you in, as it stretches and expands with a seductive, propulsive groove, with percussion and keys all floating below a soaring and shimmering Juno. This bold and idiosyncratic interplay results in a jam which takes you HIGHER, transcendent in the spirited tradition of Chicago and Detroit.

De’Angelo completely switches gears for the flip side of this musical offering. Reflecting Cancer Moon is an immersive descent into deep dubby waters inspired by a night walk in the woods. A hypnotic, bare-bones meditation with crazy swing, that explodes into a rhythmic swirl of percussion. Dub delay echoes in and out as we journey deeper into the forest with the moon illuminating our way forward. This EP embodies De’Angelo’s restless urge to constantly seek out new sounds and open up new sonic areas for experience and transformation, with two tracks reflecting two sides of the musical spectrum.

Life Creates Itself is the new album by Bill Baird, releasing September 25th, 2026 on Royal Oakie Records. After years of restless wandering that took him from the Bay Area to India to Abbey Road and back again, Baird has returned home to San Antonio, Texas. Inspired by Lone Star legends Doug Sahm and Roky Erickson, the album inhabits a world where outsider country, avant-garde pop, and psychedelic folk dissolve into one.


Produced by longtime collaborator Jasper Leach (Tony Molina, Color Green) and mastered by indie-rock legend KRAMER (Galaxie 500, Daniel Johnston, Will Oldham), Life Creates Itself was recorded at Sear Sound in New York City in a single remarkable day — fitting for an album as indebted to Arthur Russell and Captain Beefheart as it is to Sir Douglas Quintet and Townes Van Zandt. The sessions brought together a constellation of collaborators around Baird and Leach, including Pedrum Siadatian (Allah-Las, PAINT), Phil Carluzzo, Austin Day, Oliver O'Haver, Jordan Johns, Michael Vattuone, Clara Kennedy, and Carluzzo’s dog Ernie.


Lead single "Yanaguana" — the original Payaya name for San Antonio, meaning either "land of many waters" or simply "where I am right now" — serves as a thesis statement for the album, a restless soul reckoning with what it means to finally come home. Meanwhile, "Karma Loan" is a fuzzy, sprawling psych track that spilled out of Baird during a deep immersion in Bach that features cello by Clara Kennedy and closes with a sound collage of spiritual gurus hawking easy paths to enlightenment. Then there's "Horse Moon" — built around pedal steel that shimmers like rays of moonlight, drifting through vignettes from a late night walk across New York City, with Pedrum Siadatian's lead guitar lending the whole thing an unhurried, dreaming quality. The night they tracked it, Baird climbed to the roof of Sear Sound and watched a full moon wash the city in a warm glow.


Baird has never sounded more at home, and Life Creates Itself may be his most cohesive record yet – a songwriter record through and through that stands apart from the rest of his discography. Royal Oakie Records is proud to release Life Creates Itself on September 25th, 2026, available on vinyl LP, CD, and digital download/streaming worldwide.

Bruno Silva returns under his Ondness moniker for his most personal album yet.

Recorded as an homage, a reference map, and a temporal slippage back to a transformative period of Bruno Silva's life, I Can Only Put So Much Into a Song conjures the threshold between his shoegaze-leaning teen years and a young adulthood defined by profound sonic landmarks: Iran’s The Moon Boys (whose cover serves as a key influence), The Microphones’ It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water, Fennesz’s Endless Summer, and the communal, tape- hiss maelstrom of the New Weird America underground—all underscored by a persistent Black Metal tension.

Taking its title from a lyric in Farrah Abraham’s masterpiece My Teenage Dream Ended, this new humble offering from Ondness drifts into the memory of song as half-remembered recollections, as if beamed from a recurring "now" of unfulfilled possibilities.

Awake Children Under the Moon unfolds as a single cinematic arc, drifting through screamo, post-black metal, ambient, and shoegaze with a sense of nocturnal unease. Dedicated to anyone who learned how to endure the night before learning how to sleep, the EP captures moments spent awake beneath a distant moon. Built around a hazy blackgaze core, “water lily” seals unspoken emotions and inner conflict inside a quiet science-fiction narrative. The song introduces another lifeform encountered by a lone protagonist living on Mercury – a meeting suspended between hope and isolation. Whether the story resolves in tenderness or tragedy is left to the listener's interpretation.

Sir Richard Bishop returns for a new sponítaneous six-string meshing of people"s music, recollections and psychic intentions. Are y"all ready for some Hillbilly Erotica? Migration from last album"s Ragas to this new Erotica is another chapter in Bishop"s progress, drifting via songs into the further frontiers of his pappy"s hometown sounds, trancing over and out in their hand-me-down clothes. As with the ragas, the "rotica"s hung round the neck of John Fahey"s infamous dubbing of certain tradiítional American folk sounds as "American Primitive." A perfectly good thought, but Sir Richard picks his own axe and chose a separate path. Rushing through gutters & picking pickled brains in the saucy head waters of the down-low & literal American primitive, his hillbilly music is a mash of brined cultural inheritance, mini-ragas and moonshine-drunk savagery breaking out on the frets. As a conception for Sir Rick"s acoustic guitar music, it"s a dynamite means and frame, centering his improvisations in a place overflown with pagan desire and unbound in deliverance. Here he flies up and down the neck, his manner less pristine, yet more exquisite, a flailing, flowing-on-the-river medley through stubborn whitewater turbulence, post-grass and folk"s classical gas. Anybody who takes a snort of this here Hillbilly Erotica will find a frankly spellbinding richness of intent and execution in their ear-mouths. And may thereafter find brain and blightness. It"s fine!

Sir Richard Bishop returns for a new sponítaneous six-string meshing of people"s music, recollections and psychic intentions. Are y"all ready for some Hillbilly Erotica? Migration from last album"s Ragas to this new Erotica is another chapter in Bishop"s progress, drifting via songs into the further frontiers of his pappy"s hometown sounds, trancing over and out in their hand-me-down clothes. As with the ragas, the "rotica"s hung round the neck of John Fahey"s infamous dubbing of certain tradiítional American folk sounds as "American Primitive." A perfectly good thought, but Sir Richard picks his own axe and chose a separate path. Rushing through gutters & picking pickled brains in the saucy head waters of the down-low & literal American primitive, his hillbilly music is a mash of brined cultural inheritance, mini-ragas and moonshine-drunk savagery breaking out on the frets. As a conception for Sir Rick"s acoustic guitar music, it"s a dynamite means and frame, centering his improvisations in a place overflown with pagan desire and unbound in deliverance. Here he flies up and down the neck, his manner less pristine, yet more exquisite, a flailing, flowing-on-the-river medley through stubborn whitewater turbulence, post-grass and folk"s classical gas. Anybody who takes a snort of this here Hillbilly Erotica will find a frankly spellbinding richness of intent and execution in their ear-mouths. And may thereafter find brain and blightness. It"s fine!

Wie Amerika selbst ist auch die Geschichte von Chess Records eine Geschichte von Chancen in neuen Ländern, in denen Grenzen zwischen Hautfarbe und Kultur überwunden wurden, um Rhythm and Blues-Musik
zu schaffen, die Zuhörer auf der ganzen Welt beeinflusste. Das beeindruckende Künstleraufgebot von Chess
– und seine Gründer – haben den Blues von Volksmusik zu populärem Sound weiterentwickelt und verändert.
Im Jahr 2025 feiert Chess Records sein 75-jähriges Jubiläum. Anlässlich dieses historischen Meilensteins
wird Chess im Oktober dieses Jahres eine umfassende Jubiläumsreihe mit einer kuratierten Auswahl audiophiler Vinyl-Neuauflagen starten, beginnend mit Muddy Waters’ „The Best of Muddy Waters“ und Howlin’
Wolfs „Moanin’ in the Moonlight“.
„I Was Walkin’ Through The Woods“ versammelt Buddy Guys frühe Aufnahmen für Chess Records, die
allesamt in den frühen 1960er-Jahren entstanden. Die Sammlung rückt sein glühendes Gitarrenspiel in den
Mittelpunkt und zeigt eindrucksvoll, warum Guy zu den herausragenden Talenten der neuen Generation
von Bluesmusikern in Chicago zählte. Zu den zentralen Titeln gehören „First Time I Met The Blues“ und
„I Found A True Love“.
Mitte der 1960er-Jahre veröffentlichte Chess Records eine Reihe von Alben unter dem Titel „The Real
Folk Blues“, die Singles aus den Karrieren einiger der bedeutendsten Künstler des Labels bündelten. John
Lee Hookers „The Real Folk Blues“ unterschied sich von vielen dieser Kompilationen, da es eigens für Chess
neu eingespielte Sessions enthielt.
Diese legendären Aufnahmen aus dem Jahr 1966 fangen die Essenz seines unverwechselbaren Sounds und
seines einzigartigen Zugangs zum Blues ein. Zu den herausragenden Titeln zählen „One Bourbon, One
Scotch, One Beer“, „Stella Mae“ und „I’m In The Mood“.

Wie Amerika selbst ist auch die Geschichte von Chess Records eine Geschichte von Chancen in neuen Ländern, in denen Grenzen zwischen Hautfarbe und Kultur überwunden wurden, um Rhythm and Blues-Musik
zu schaffen, die Zuhörer auf der ganzen Welt beeinflusste. Das beeindruckende Künstleraufgebot von Chess
– und seine Gründer – haben den Blues von Volksmusik zu populärem Sound weiterentwickelt und verändert.
Im Jahr 2025 feiert Chess Records sein 75-jähriges Jubiläum. Anlässlich dieses historischen Meilensteins
wird Chess im Oktober dieses Jahres eine umfassende Jubiläumsreihe mit einer kuratierten Auswahl audiophiler Vinyl-Neuauflagen starten, beginnend mit Muddy Waters’ „The Best of Muddy Waters“ und Howlin’
Wolfs „Moanin’ in the Moonlight“.
„I Was Walkin’ Through The Woods“ versammelt Buddy Guys frühe Aufnahmen für Chess Records, die
allesamt in den frühen 1960er-Jahren entstanden. Die Sammlung rückt sein glühendes Gitarrenspiel in den
Mittelpunkt und zeigt eindrucksvoll, warum Guy zu den herausragenden Talenten der neuen Generation
von Bluesmusikern in Chicago zählte. Zu den zentralen Titeln gehören „First Time I Met The Blues“ und
„I Found A True Love“.
Mitte der 1960er-Jahre veröffentlichte Chess Records eine Reihe von Alben unter dem Titel „The Real
Folk Blues“, die Singles aus den Karrieren einiger der bedeutendsten Künstler des Labels bündelten. John
Lee Hookers „The Real Folk Blues“ unterschied sich von vielen dieser Kompilationen, da es eigens für Chess
neu eingespielte Sessions enthielt.
Diese legendären Aufnahmen aus dem Jahr 1966 fangen die Essenz seines unverwechselbaren Sounds und
seines einzigartigen Zugangs zum Blues ein. Zu den herausragenden Titeln zählen „One Bourbon, One
Scotch, One Beer“, „Stella Mae“ und „I’m In The Mood“.

Melodies everywhere. Hidden ones, obvious ones, the kind that stick around long after the magic is gone. The Fulmars, Hagen’s lo-fi experimental indie outsiders, return with 13 haunting songs on their first proper full-length album. It’s filled with warm lo-fi guitar hooks, carried by Teacherface’s stripped-back Roland drum machine pulse and Fabian Dietz’s soft, delicate vocals. Modern castaways’ music, truly seeing the light, somewhere between the hazy spirit of The Velvet Underground, the playful weirdness of early Throw That Beat In The Garbagecan!, the tender shadows of Dead Moon, and the hypnotic austerity of Party of One. There is a lot of tragedy, all covered in positive agility. Hypnotic simple charmers compellingly recorded by the illusionists behind the delicate Hüüpnootsche Platen Un Kassetten cassette label. If you listen in a row, you will fall into a calm flow, time is on the go, and you so, in The Fulmars circle, disappearing in melodies, those hidden, obvious, glorious. You will fall for the voice, their “rollie” grooves carry you out there, browsing on irresistible humble guitar vibes. Be ready to watch the blue birds fly, it’s a real streetside surprise, for your pleasure, please don’t call it leisure.