Buscar:acoustic space jazz

Aspen is very proud to introduce ‘Non Sonett’ by the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble. This ensemble is a pioneering Norwegian chamber group whose work on ECM and Hubro has redefined the boundaries between jazz, contemporary composition and folk music.Across seven albums, the ensemble has developed a highly distinctive l anguage built on restraint, timbral nuance and collective interplay, placing it among the most influential European ensembles of the 21st century.

Bringing together some of the finest musicians in Norway, the ensemble draws on a rare collective sensitivity, where each player contributes to a deeply integrated and texturally rich sound world.

With Non Sonett, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble opens a new chapter that grows directly out of recent years of work in more solitary and cross-disciplinary contexts. In this period, Wallumrød has developed material for solo performance as well as for dance, allowing ideas to take shape in more fluid and exploratory formats. Some of this material now finds its way into the ensemble, where it is met by the possibilities offered by instrumentation, collective playing, and the distinct voices of the musicians. At the same time, older pieces—originating in entirely different settings— re-emerge here in new forms, reshaped by the ensemble context.

A defining aspect of Non Sonett is the way many of the pieces function less as fully determined compositions and more as open frameworks: starting points, suggestions, or “springboards” for music. These structures invite response rather than prescribe outcome, relying on the ensemble’s inherent sensitivity and capacity to realize and transform the material in performance. The result is music that feels both precise and fluid, shaped in equal measure by composition and by the interpretative presence of the players.

Central to this album is a continued deepening of Wallumrød’s long-standing interest in ambiguity and in dissolving boundaries between different musical elements and expressive worlds. By placing contrasting materials and associations side by side—sometimes subtly, sometimes more overtly—the music opens up spaces where meanings remain fluid and interconnected. On Non Sonett, this approach is taken a step further, allowing these juxtapositions to play an even more active role in shaping the music’s character and flow.

This approach connects closely with the ensemble’s broader artistic trajectory. Over time, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble has developed a language that is immediately recognizable—marked by reduction, clarity and a deep attention to sonic detail. While each release has its own character, the underlying aesthetic remains consistent: a focus on the inner life of sound itself. Rather than foregrounding gesture or virtuosity, the music draws the listener toward the smallest elements, where meaning emerges gradually through texture, spacing and timbre.

The listening experience becomes one of concentration and proximity, where each sound carries weight, and the accumulation of detail forms a larger whole. References may be sensed—to early polyphonic music, Norwegian folk traditions, or more recent experimental practices—but these are absorbed into a singular musical language that resists categorization.

As with the ensemble’s recent work, Non Sonett also continues the integration of electronics as a fundamental part of the sound world. Each musician engages with electronic elements alongside their acoustic instruments, creating a layered and dynamic sonic environment. At times, this leads into extended, exploratory passages reminiscent of analogue musique concrète; at others, electronics operate almost imperceptibly, subtly altering and extending the acoustic textures in real time.

Aspen is very proud to introduce ‘Non Sonett’ by the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble. This ensemble is a pioneering Norwegian chamber group whose work on ECM and Hubro has redefined the boundaries between jazz, contemporary composition and folk music.Across seven albums, the ensemble has developed a highly distinctive l anguage built on restraint, timbral nuance and collective interplay, placing it among the most influential European ensembles of the 21st century.

Bringing together some of the finest musicians in Norway, the ensemble draws on a rare collective sensitivity, where each player contributes to a deeply integrated and texturally rich sound world.

With Non Sonett, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble opens a new chapter that grows directly out of recent years of work in more solitary and cross-disciplinary contexts. In this period, Wallumrød has developed material for solo performance as well as for dance, allowing ideas to take shape in more fluid and exploratory formats. Some of this material now finds its way into the ensemble, where it is met by the possibilities offered by instrumentation, collective playing, and the distinct voices of the musicians. At the same time, older pieces—originating in entirely different settings— re-emerge here in new forms, reshaped by the ensemble context.

A defining aspect of Non Sonett is the way many of the pieces function less as fully determined compositions and more as open frameworks: starting points, suggestions, or “springboards” for music. These structures invite response rather than prescribe outcome, relying on the ensemble’s inherent sensitivity and capacity to realize and transform the material in performance. The result is music that feels both precise and fluid, shaped in equal measure by composition and by the interpretative presence of the players.

Central to this album is a continued deepening of Wallumrød’s long-standing interest in ambiguity and in dissolving boundaries between different musical elements and expressive worlds. By placing contrasting materials and associations side by side—sometimes subtly, sometimes more overtly—the music opens up spaces where meanings remain fluid and interconnected. On Non Sonett, this approach is taken a step further, allowing these juxtapositions to play an even more active role in shaping the music’s character and flow.

This approach connects closely with the ensemble’s broader artistic trajectory. Over time, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble has developed a language that is immediately recognizable—marked by reduction, clarity and a deep attention to sonic detail. While each release has its own character, the underlying aesthetic remains consistent: a focus on the inner life of sound itself. Rather than foregrounding gesture or virtuosity, the music draws the listener toward the smallest elements, where meaning emerges gradually through texture, spacing and timbre.

The listening experience becomes one of concentration and proximity, where each sound carries weight, and the accumulation of detail forms a larger whole. References may be sensed—to early polyphonic music, Norwegian folk traditions, or more recent experimental practices—but these are absorbed into a singular musical language that resists categorization.

As with the ensemble’s recent work, Non Sonett also continues the integration of electronics as a fundamental part of the sound world. Each musician engages with electronic elements alongside their acoustic instruments, creating a layered and dynamic sonic environment. At times, this leads into extended, exploratory passages reminiscent of analogue musique concrète; at others, electronics operate almost imperceptibly, subtly altering and extending the acoustic textures in real time.

Elations Recordings presents "Terra Ignota", the long-awaited new full length album from elusive Melbourne-based fusion ensemble Krakatau. "Terra Ignota" marks a return and an epochal shift for the group, a deep exploration of possible sonic spaces and a portent of things to come.

In the years since 2016's cosmic jazz funk-prog-spiritual 12" "Tharsis Montes/Apogean Tide" Krakatau have worked on refining their craft as instrumentalists and writers, expanding further into the world of jazz and fusing influences from world folk musics, contemporary jazz and the European post-minimalist music of the 1980s and early 90s. "Terra Ignota", literally translated as "Unknown Land", takes its name from the cartographer's notation for uncharted territory, the blank spaces on maps where knowledge gives way to imagination and speculation, gesturing towards the group's studio explorations and search for new sonic worlds in the years spent developing the record.

The results are a diverse yet unified combination of sounds and influences across five tracks that see Krakatau drawing closer to the independent underground "world" jazz scene of the 1980s than anything contemporary. The album opens with the digi-minimalism and fourth world atmospherics of title track "Terra ignota", a percussion heavy latin fusion sound in "Birds of Passage", and melancholic ambient saxophone and synthesiser duo "In Memory". Three-part epic "Cosmetic Surgery" journeys through a long, complex post-minimalist arrangement into latin fusion and contemporary jazz, followed by the contemplative ECM-styled acoustic quartet closer "Trial in Absentia".

The album features significant contributions from saxophonist Rob Vincs, former Victorian College of the Arts head of Jazz and Improvisation and a collaborator with Australian musician Brian Brown; layered percussion and wordless vocals from Brazilian percussionist and esteemed songwriter Alcides Neto; and a guest performance from trumpet player Reuben Lewis on the title track.

Swedish composer and multi-instrumentalist Gustaf Ljunggren invites listeners into the quiet, reflective world of Along the Low Road , an ambitious solo album that balances delicacy with depth. Following the success of Ljunggren s 2022 release Floreana , this new release offers a gentle, dream dream-like musical journey, shaped by two of the Nordic scene s most imaginative and intuitive musicians. Balancing sparse acoustic instrumentation with sprawling affected soundscapes, the album moves with patience and clarity. Ljunggren s compositions provide a foundation for subtle interplay, where every note and gesture is attentive to the music s unfolding. Featured guest Icelandic bassist Skúli Sverrisson s bass provides warmth and grounding, supporting Ljunggren s guitar, ukulele, and multi multi-instrumental textures. The result is a sound that is at once intimate and expansive, inviting reflection and connection. The tracks draw inspiration from nature, landscapes, and personal experience. Lille Skotland " evokes the rocky coast of Bornholm with gentle, melancholic flow, while Stevelen " captures the quiet power of cliffs and open skies. The title track, Along the Low Road," traces a contemplative path, its cyclical melodies and ambient layers offering perspective and calm. Letters Melting " twists a classical chord progression into a reflective polska, while Summer Passing Letting Go " balances warmth and transition. Brief, hymn hymn-like pieces such as Tillfrisknandet " provide moments of repose, and playful minimalism in Nine Again " captures the wonder of childhood at the cusp of youth. The album closes with Here And Not Here," a meditative reflection on perception and presence, leaving the listener in a quiet, suspended space. Ljunggren and Sverrisson have long been celebrated for their generosity, sensitivity, and courage as collaborators. Their work together on Along the Low Road continues this partnership, offering music that listens as much as it plays. Drawing from jazz, minimalism, Nordic folk, and early music, the duo s sound combines melodic clarity with a sense of freedom, revealing subtle emotional depths in each composition. In concert, Ljunggren and Sverrisson reimagine these pieces in the moment, allowing the music to unfold with a sense of shared discovery. Whether recorded or live, the album is a testament to the duo s enduring musical dialogue and the quiet, immersive beauty of their Nordic sensibility.

Nitai Hershkovits and Daniel Dor return with Found & Found, their second collaborative album and a natural continuation of the musical dialogue initiated with The Garden Suite.

Born out of pure curiosity - "there was more to say, more to explore," explains Dor - the album expands the duo's sonic language beyond the synth-only framework of their previous work. While the Moog remains central, Found & Found introduces clarinet and acoustic guitar, gently dissolving the boundaries between electronic and acoustic sound.

Each composition unfolds through interlocking, mantra-like patterns. Repetition becomes a space for transformation: melodies circle, textures shift, and subtle harmonic movements invite the listener inward. The music is structured with care, yet it feels open and fluid. intimate, spacious and quietly immersive. If their previous record explored orchestral depth through synthesizers, this new chapter embraces air and clarity. Acoustic gestures emerge within electronic landscapes, creating a sound world that is both grounded and weightless.

Nitai Hershkovits brings with his fellow partner Daniel Dor a refined harmonic sensitivity shaped by both jazz and classical traditions. Together they continue to refine a shared language that moves between structure and freedom, precision and emotion.

Back in 2022, Is It Balearic? Recordings founders Coyote (AKA long-serving producers Richard Hampson aka Ampo and Timm Sure) took time out from releasing music on their own labels to deliver a near perfect mini-album on Phil Cooper’s similarly mind-ed NuNorthern Soul imprint, Everything Moves, Nothing Rests.

A superb exploration of their trademark sound, where gentle downtempo rhythms and nods to dub came cloaked in colourful ambient chords, sun-bright melodic motifs, organic instrumenta-tion and quirky spoken word samples, Everything Moves, Nothing Rests deserved a sequel. So, three and a half years on, the duo has delivered just that: a fine six-track EP that offers an even deeper and more atmospheric exploration of their signature sound.

It is a sonic approach that should now be familiar to Balearic en-thusiasts the world over. Aside from delivering a steady stream of singles, albums and remixes on their own imprint, Hampson and Sure have also showcased their skills and loved-up musical mis-sives on International Feel, Music For Dreams, Needwant, MM Discos and Citizens of Vice.

The Higher The Sky, The Deeper The Ocean, their hotly anticipated NuNorthern Soul return, is named in honour of a quote from Ped-ro Alonso’s documentary series On the Ship of Enchantment, an extended voyage in which the Money Heist movie star meets healers and masters of ancestral medicine across his native Mexi-co.

There’s naturally a meditative and slightly psychedelic sound to much of The Higher The Sky, The Deeper The Ocean, which offers a subtly varied exploration of Coyote’s style and influence. Yearning, soft-focus opener ‘Muted Beauty’ – the kind of immersive, effects-laden and sample-sporting ambient bliss found nestling on Fila Brazillia albums of the mid 1990s – is followed by the similarly gentle ‘Go All The Way’, where delay-laden acoustic guitars, spo-ken word snippets and gaseous chords stretch out atop a languid, slow-motion groove.

‘A Drop in the Ocean’ picks up the pace a little via a glorious hat-tip to turn of the 90s ambient house – all dub-wise bass, heady deep house sonics, spaced-out chords and half-buried references to sunrise-ready Balearic synth-pop records of the late 1980s. Late psychedelic guru Terrence McKenna appears in sampled form on ‘Dolce Far Niente’, a tabla-driven drift and musical hallucination which conjures mental images of lying in the Mexican desert, gazing intently at a starry sky.

In contrast, ‘Riviera Sound’ is a chunkier, brighter and more sun-splashed affair – all deep, dubby bass, sustained piano parts, punchy downtempo breaks and the duo’s trademark ambient pads – while superb closing cut ‘No Coincidences’ fixes jazzy double bass samples, twinkling keyboard motifs, subtle acid lines and Latin-laced percussion to a street soul-adjacent beat.

Heady, impeccably crafted and thoroughly enveloping, The Higher The Sky, The Deeper The Ocean is Coyote at their dazzling best. It marks another significant chapter in their ever-evolving musical journey.

Shaped from fragile, emotionally charged piano motifs that distort, disappear and transform into dense, cinematic textures, 'CANALS' is a debut that's finely matured, the result of years of friendship and growth. Italian artist Vanja Sturno and Montréal-based Belgian-Spanish composer Pablo Geeraert (aka Sanea Ima) have worked together extensively on various projects up until now, but 'CANALS' is their first official release as a duo. Having both studied music academically, the pair were eager to work more intuitively, so applied their well-honed set of skills to sound that, instead of fitting into a conceptual box, reflected more personal experiences.

Back in 2023, Geeraert travelled to Rome to support his friend at a difficult time and, during the trip, received some bad news of his own. The complicated feelings unconsciously surged through a series of delicate Ryuichi Sakamoto-inspired piano improvisations and a new project began to coalesce. They didn't realize it at the time, but once the record was finished, Sturno and Geeraert began to understand that the entire process had been a form a joint catharsis - a release of pressure. They were able to function so effortlessly and swiftly because they had already provided the space for each other to resonate emotionally and the music flowed from that point.

So the album's title, while remaining ambiguous, suggests its formation: a sequence of eight interconnected channels that feed a creative whole. On the first segment, Sturno and Geeraert's initial recordings can be perceived most nakedly, the melancholy, Satie-like phrases floating peacefully for a moment before the tranquility is agitated by stormy distortions and swelled into thick waves of harmony. The piano provides the record with its emotional anchor, offering focus and clarity as multi-dimensional noise wells up around it before inevitably dissipating, leaving gentle, unadorned sounds once again.

And the familiar instrument is reshaped into a wheezing artificial organ on the animated 'CANALS III', punctuated by percussive, tape-warped pitch fluctuations that seem to bite into its very essence. Gauzy acoustic granulations snowball into a powerful, bass-heavy crescendo on the fourth part, setting the tenor for the album's second half. But after the crushing 'CANALS VI', possibly Sturno and Geeraert's heaviest track, a brief tremolo-heavy vignette that ripples through experimental rock and ambient music's braided history, the duo clear the air with a jazzy diversion, introducing soft woodwind blasts as a palate cleanser before an epic, widescreen finale.

It's an album that's best absorbed as a whole, a vortex of ritualistic, rhythmic repetitions that Sturno and Geeraert appropriately refer to as "spiral listening".

Is planet Earth weighing you down? 12 Tribes are ready to take you away. Mars is the destination and their music is the spaceship. Drop your past to join them in a future where humans from all walks of life build new traditions, and music is the language we all speak.

12 Tribes of Mars takes the basic elements of the Reggae, Ska, and Dub traditions and blasts them into outer space. A closer listen reveals that what might seem familiar at first has a truly unique and eclectic sound. Heavily influenced by the spirit of free improvisation, the music is as sexy and danceable as it is uncompromisingly gritty.

On stage 12 Tribes Of Mars really cast their spell: time and time again trance inducing acoustic grooves are torn apart by wild improvisations and electronics, before the musicians return to the rhythm as if nothing had ever happened. Concerts are both an intense, trippy listening experience as well as a high energy dance party, ultimately leaving the audience sweaty and wanting for more.

All members of 12 Tribes are trained jazz musicians that are most comfortable in the borderland between musical genres. In the past years, the band toured the festival circuit and alternative venues of Amsterdam. Now they are celebrating the release of their first full album, Hidden Sun, on a beautiful 12 inch limited edition vinyl and on digital.

If – in some parallel universe (or perhaps a not-so-distant-future version of the one we’re already sentenced to living in) – the evil overloads of artificial intelligence were actually successful in their attempts to create convincingly enjoyable “original music,” more specifically tasked with wholly encapsulating my own personal tastes by data-chugging some cocktail of – oh, I don’t know – the posters on my wall, the records in my “most listened to” pile, the mixtapes I made for others, intensive physical scans of my auditory cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, heart strings, whatever else they have splayed out on their autopsy table with the intention of generating one all-encompassing “perfect band” based on the fruitful sum of their findings – that band, for me, would be (or would at least sound exactly like) the Tara Clerkin Trio. It is, quite simply, without exception, the music I wish to hear.

Formed in Bristol UK (where none of them are from yet all of whom are deeply engrained) in 2020, the Tara Clerkin Trio – as it somewhat democratically exists today, despite the singular authority implied by its name – consists of the titular Tara Clerkin, her partner Sunny Joe Paradisos, and Sunny’s brother, Patrick Benjamin. I’ll confess, I don’t know what their respective roles are within the operation and there’s only a very small part of me that cares to learn, as one of my favorite qualities in an objective listening experience is the mystery of who is playing what, which sounds are “authentic” versus synthesized, which chunks are performed “live” in a room together versus meticulously Frankenstein’ed from measure to measure, or how exactly the overall sound is so (seemingly) effortlessly achieved. Though, I suspect, if and when I do witness a live performance by this band at any point, my enjoyment of the music will not be lost in my better understanding of it.

With two extraordinary mini-albums – In Spring (2021) and On The Turning Ground (2023) – making a splash on London’s formidable World of Echo label in wake of their self-titled 2020 debut, this upcoming Somewhere Good LP is, in many ways, the band’s most realised work. In running their usual gauntlet of idiosyncratic (*an overused adjective for which here there is regrettably no sufficient alternative) approaches, Clerkin & co. colour in and outside of compositional lines over the course of 40+ celebratory minutes - never wallowing, despite inherently somber subject matters of self-defeat, disease, displacement, restlessness, gentrification - allowing their arrangements and improvisations ample space and time to situate, stretch out, breathe, cross-pollinate, and ultimately take deeper hold on the listener’s imagination – all while somehow sounding more like themselves than ever before.

Of course, there are traceable influences herein, if one felt that such comparisons were necessary to properly examine and enjoy this music (they aren’t)… Being the big dumb American from the small boring town that I am, cornfed on ‘90s alternative radio with the enchantingly exotic sounds of Maxinquaye and Mezzanine emanating from my chunky tube television, I can’t help but to make a blatantly obvious reference to a “Bristol sound”, ie the whole trip-hop trip, the pastoral crooning over the suggestive urban grime of cracked electro/piano treatments, the digitally-yet-primitively reconstructed James Bond soundtrack string-beats, etc.. But the Tara Clerkin Trio is so infinitely much more than that. There are elements of avant-pop, modern classical, kraut-folk, audio verité, dare I say indie rock (and not of the beer guzzling, masturbatory fuzz-flex variety but perhaps more like a Trish Keenan-fronted Faust, Adrian Sherwood at the mixing desk of If You’re Feeling Sinister, or – in expanding on our alternate reality – a world in which High Llamas cut a full-length for Warp Records with Andrew Weatherall on coffee duty).

The hazy, unmappable skyline-mirage of droning harmonium, upright bass, peculiarly accentuated wind instruments, acoustic guitar, hushed yet literally mighty keys combine to hypnotizing effect. The band may make underlying nods to jazz, sure, but it’s not appropriation, it’s that they have the actual chops to build it out. Beneath the janky samples and oddball percussive embellishment lies actually great drumming. Beyond the manipulated vocal witchery and woefully reflective plain-spoke moments are Tara’s subtly inspired melodies, sung with what might honestly be the glue to the whole crazy equation. A calming consistency throughout the otherwise unpredictably dynamic, boldly intuitive, uniquely British exploration of this (their own) universe in song. – Ryan Davis (Chicago, February 2026)

2026 Repress

since his first ep tips' on luciano's label cadenza in 2007 producer and dj petre inspirescu emerged into one of the key figures of the romanian electronic music scene.

so far he released music on labels such as vinyl club, lick my deck or amphia. together with his buddies rhadoo and raresh he also launched in 2007 the label (a:rpia:r) -  a platform where he, his two friends and many producers from romania and abroad released detailed grooving house and techno, that stands out with delicate structures and one-of-a-kind grooves.

both of his more dance floor oriented solo albums intr-o seara organica...' and gradina onirica for (a:rpia:r) are enlarged with melodies, sounds and harmonies that go beyond the usual characteristics of a dance album.

furthermore his love for classic musicians like mily alexejewitsch balakirev, alexander porfiryevich borodin or or nicolai andrejewitsch rimsky-korsakow can be felt in the album padurea de aur (opus 2 in re major) and two more eps that he released under the alias pensemble on the romanian label yojik concon in order to unite classical spheres with analogue electronic music production.

in february 2013 he also released his highly acclaimed fabric mix cd that only features dance floor leaning music produced by himself. with talking waters' he published in late 2014 his first 12inch on mule musiq that is now followed by the full-length album vin ploile' which he produced without the intention to entertain with easy to hook up rhythms, melodies and harmonies.

even tough he established himself as a internationally playing house dj that regularly performs at all major clubs, festivals and other party destinations around the globe: as a musician petre inspirescu always tries to enter new territories to explore with a heartfelt human touch the infinite space of sound.

for his latest album the man that originally comes from the eastern romanian town braila stepped away from his former experiments of melting classical spheres with electronic music. instead the 36-years old man from bucharest only used some piano, string and wind instrument elements and analogue electronics to arrange a gracefully deep ocean of sound.

all slow grooving tracks spread the atmosphere of live improvised sessions that are edited, tweaked and mixed to perfection. in-the-moment moods of strange and unusual analogue synth sounds groove in a fluid quality with subliminal bass shapes, latinate percussions, jazz rhythms and acoustic melodies.

together they create a gaseous kinetic atmosphere full of tangible rhythm patterns, delicate chords and ghostly modular synth pads - all mixed subtle to create space for the tones between the tones.

you can call it a hypnotic after hour album for after hours that are dedicated to a deep listening experience. you can tag his arrangements as brilliantly textured and musically super-charged ambient, which goes beyond the usual definition of the genre.

all nine suspenseful compositions seduce with a deep melodic sensibility, harmonic adventures and an overall rhythmic ambiance of freshness and laidback enthusiasm. together they represent a challenging auditory experience that will resonate in your mind long after the music has finished. 

Dreamweavers II sees Mark de Clive-Lowe reunited with Italian rhythm masters Andrea Lombardini and Tommaso Cappellato for the next chapter in their electro-acoustic trio journey.
Recorded at Sotto il Mare Recording Studios in Verona, Italy in summer 2024, the album builds on the cosmic, hypnotic language established on Dreamweavers (2020) while pushing deeper into groove-driven terrain, dancefloor jazz and textural improvisation. Across eight tracks, the trio explore the elastic space between jazz tradition, beat culture, and club-influenced momentum – without samples or looping – relying purely on live interaction, feel and shared intuition.Opening with the Azymuth-inspired “Terra de Luz,” the album immediately signals its global outlook. “Kaze no Michi” follows with late-night Tokyo energy – dancefloor jazz that feels equally at home in jazz clubs or after-hours rooms. Two intentional reinterpretations bridge jazz and beat culture: J Dilla’s “Raise It Up” (from Slum Village – Fantastic Vol. 2) is reimagined with its original groove and bass line as the launch pad, while “The Bass That Don’t Stop” becomes a lush house-jazz tribute to the late Phil Asher, originally co-created by Asher and de Clive-Lowe in 2002 under the moniker musiclovelife.Bassist Andrea Lombardini’s “Pam” brings the album inward – introspective, spacious, and deeply melodic; while “Lucid Dreams” draws on the trio’s shared love of jungle, drum’n’bass and the exploratory spirit of greats like Chick Corea, amplifying the journey with forward motion and harmonic curiosity.Dreamweavers II is a concisely intentional sound narrative: a trio record rooted in jazz lineage, shaped by beat culture and guided by a collective curiosity for texture, rhythm, and movement.

A stunning 7" release from Jazzamor featuring a speedy bossa cover of Jamiroquai's breakthrough hit!

This 7-inch couples two carefully selected tracks from the archives of veteran German music unit Jazzamor.

Side A is a speedy bossa cover of "Space Cowboy," the 1994 breakthrough global hit by Jamiroquai, originally featured on Jazzamor's 2004 album A Piece Of My Heart. Side B includes an uptempo bossa track from their 2002 debut album Lazy Sunday Afternoon. The arrangement features the charmingly delicate vocals of Bettina Mischke, combined with Roland Grosch's acoustic guitar and percussion, layered into a Brazilian-inspired electronic sound with an elegant touch.

‘Açid Blüüs Räägs Vol.2’ is the latest evolution of the sound of last year’s Volume 1. The debut album was described by Joe Banks for Shindig! Magazine as; “Shivering slabs of drone blues transcendentalism…a burning junkyard of sheet metal blues… Hot stuff.” Volume 2 builds on the skronk blues guitar, sax and electronic drones of it’s predecessor, to explore cosmic free jazz, concrete exotica and dub, channelling influences of Moondog, Terry Riley, 75 Dollar Bill and Wolf Eyes. Playing like the imagined film soundtracks to a dystopian, re-wilded, post eco crash world in the style of Tarkovsky's ‘Stalker’ and ’Solaris’, Jodorowsky's surreal desert western ‘El Topo’, or the early novels of JG Ballard. This new collection sees the addition of minimal analogue drum machine loops as well as live instrumental contributions from the new players of the ever evolving Invocation band, plus some superstar guest contributors.
Featuring five brand new tracks, including the forthcoming single; ‘Cosmic Fanfare’, has already picked up BBC 6 Music support from Gideon Coe. The new album was mixed by Alex McGowan (aka Captain Future) of Space Eko Studios and features Invocation band regulars Rick Jensen of Apocalypse Jazz Unit, Skronk and Oneirologist on sax and bass clarinet, Will Emms aka Tiki Eerie on melodica, horns and claviola, plus special guest appearances from Duke Garwood on clarinet and Mikey 'Moondog' Chestnut of Snapped Ankles on bass synth. “….Acid fried kosmiche blues meets drone raag transcendentalism”. Jonny Halifax is a primitivist free blues outsider, sonic shaman of the acid fuzzed lap steel guitar, demented blower of the howling harmonica of doom. His new band project now combines avant swamp blues heaviosity with kosmic free jazz experimentalism in a fluid collective of godless raag brut improvisations - sonic visions of an hallucinatory apocalyptic near future. Inspired by Henry Flynt’s avant bluegrass experiments fusing country blues with eastern acoustic musical stylings, Spacemen 3’s contemporary sitar music, and the monolithic drone doom immersion of Sunn 0))), THE JONNY HALIFAX INVOCATION build hypnotic instrumental soundscapes using lap steel and homemade slide guitars, harmonica and alto sax. Underpinned by layers of acoustic and electronic drone instruments and fed through an arsenal of pedalboard electronics that would make Kevin Shields weep, the blues are transmogrified, unhinged, reduced and re-imagined as intoxicating, trance-inducing, feedback-drenched noise paintings. THE JONNY HALIFAX INVOCATION follows Jonny’s junkshop skronk blues one man band Honkeyfinger, and the Julian Cope endorsed gospel fuzz psychedelia of Jonny Halifax & The Howling Truth, whilst not forgetting his ambient drone metal side project; Deathenteredinerror. His musical CV also includes studio contributions to tracks by Andrew Weatherall’s Two Lone Swordsmen, UK metal behemoths Orange Goblin, Heck and Melting Hand.

London duo Babeheaven — vocalist Nancy Andersen and producer/multi- instrumentalist Jamie Travis — return after four years with their highly anticipated 5-track EP ‘Slower Than Sound’, released via Scenic Route on October 24.

Following their singles ‘Beloved’ and the 6 Music-premiered track ‘Picture This’, ‘Slower Than Sound’ marks a deeply personal and intimate turn for Babeheaven. Written and recorded largely in Nancy’s home studio, the EP embraces minimal instrumentation, acoustic textures, and spacious arrangements, capturing the emotional vulnerability and euphoria the duo describe as “Post Rave” — the music you listen to on the ride home from a
party.

“It feels like a rebirth in a lot of ways,” says Nancy. “Writing at home gave me space to experiment, make mistakes, and rebuild confidence. Once I brought the songs to Jamie, we shaped them together into what you hear now.”

The EP explores love, reflection, and personal growth. Beloved conjures a comforting, almost mythic presence, while Lost For Words reflects the struggle to connect with the world and oneself. Picture This offers snapshots of a relationship, looking back while imagining its future. The cover Tiny Demons by Todd Rundgren blends seamlessly with the EP’s introspective mood, and Loud Thoughts, featuring Samba Jean-Baptiste, captures heartbreak, burnout, and creative pressure. “I hope people can find their own meaning in these songs,” Nancy says. “I’m writing for myself, but music is for each listener to interpret.”

Since debuting with Friday Sky in 2016, Babeheaven have steadily built a loyal following through their acclaimed albums Home For Now and Sink Into Me, amassing over 65 million Spotify streams and earning support from BBC Radio 1, 6 Music, and KCRW. Their live shows have sold out Village Underground,

Bush Hall, and Jazz Cafe, and they’ve shared stages with Cigarettes After Sex, Loyle Carner, and Nilüfer Yanya. Visually, Babeheaven’s world has been shaped alongside creatives including Margot Bowman, Frank Lebon, Tegen Williams, Sacha Beeley, and Joyce Ng, cementing their reputation as one of the UK’s most distinctive acts.

After facing cancelled tours, industry pressures, and a period of creative doubt, Slower Than Sound represents a return to the core of their artistry: intimate, honest, and self-produced. Jamie reflects: “Not putting out music for so long was hard, so we hope this is the start of a more prolific period for us, reconnecting with the London music community and beyond.”

Despite immense challenges, SOYUZ have delivered a career-defining album in KROK.
“Krok” means “step” in Belarusian - and for Alex Chumak and his band this word comes with a lot of meaning. It’s the title and theme that ran throughout СОЮЗ (SOYUZ)'s fourth album, reflecting the journeys the band has navigated in recent years, having moved to Warsaw due to political unrest in their homeland of Belarus and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Embracing the uncertainty became both the inspiration and main lyrical theme for Alex Chumak, SOYUZ’ composer and arranger, who also decided to go a step further and change the language in which he writes songs from Russian, which is used as lingua franca in many post-Soviet countries, to his native Belarusian. The result is nine songs about dreams and outer space, ordinary miracles, things very close and very distant at the same time.

In early 2022, Chumak and original members, Mikita Arlou and Anton Nemahai, joined tens of thousands of Belarusians seeking safety abroad. Resettling in Warsaw, the band released Force of the Wind in October 2022, garnering widespread acclaim, a string of major European gigs, and led to Polish musicians Albert Karch and Igor Wiśniewski joining the band.

Deeper and more melancholic than previous works, KROK is quintessentially SOYUZ, laced with hope, dreams and a celebration of life. Given the difficulties with finding rehearsal and recording spaces in Warsaw and the departure of the drummer Anton Nemahai from the band, Chumak explored alternative options. He reached out to friend and fellow musical collaborator, Sessa, about the possibility of recording the new album in his recently finished studio in São Paulo, with Sessa and Biel Basile coming onboard as recording engineers.

At the tail end of 2024, Chumak and SOYUZ’ new drummer, Albert Karch, made the trip to São Paulo to record the first sessions for KROK. Laid down directly to tape, these sessions featured prominent Brazilian musicians Sessa, Biel Basile, and Marcelo Cabral, with a guest vocal feature by Tim Bernardes recorded at a later date. The final touches were then added back in Europe. Lush string and woodwind arrangements written by Chumak and Karch were recorded at the Polish Radio studio in Warsaw, and Rhodes parts were added by Chumak at Sven Wunder’s studio in Stockholm.

Though primarily recorded in Brazil, KROK is not a Brazilian or MPB album. It blends the band’s Eastern European roots with jazz, folk and global influences. The genre of the music is hardly identifiable: there are folk ballads and jazz-driven pop compositions covered in lush and often dissonant string and woodwind arrangements where each note is placed with care and meaning behind it.

The title track was the first song Chumak wrote in Belarusian as an adult, making for a fitting opener and one of the band’s finest tracks. Darker than most of SOYUZ’ songs, the tensions lift and lighten as the track progresses. The cinematic library jazz of 'Voo Livre', with ghostly vocals sung by Ciça Góes and Ina, feels like a modern twist on the Italian library composer Alessandro Alessandroni through its sublime choir and woodwind orchestration. Elsewhere, the heartfelt 'Lingua Do Mundo', composed, written, and sung by Chumak and the incredible Tim Bernardes, features one of the standout string arrangements from Chumak and Karch. 'Cichi Karahod' is an instant SOYUZ classic, almost Pat Metheny-esque as it opens, with the acoustic guitar and bass riff transitioning into jazzy AOR / pop-folk territory. The record closes with 'Smak žyćcia', a gentle, dreamy spoken-word poetry piece in Japanese by singer-songwriter Manami Kakudo.

It began with a cassette tape entitled 'Pleased To Meet You' gifted to us at Sessa's Fasching, Stockholm show by Yann Dardenne, the multi-tasking tour manager/sound engineer/producer/merch stall worker and co-owner of Seloki Records. On first listen, the selection of underground Brazilian artists from the Seloki's roster was superb, however, one song stopped us in our tracks. The hauntingly captivating ' GOSTO MEIO DOCE' by Nina Maia and Francisca Barreto, gave us a taste of Nina's ethereal, addictive voice and we knew we needed to hear more. Born in Minas Gerais but now based in Sao Paulo, the 22-year-old has already packed a lot into a relatively short space of time. The singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and producer, has already collaborated on the soundtracks for six Brazilian feature films, including a track with the vocalists Maria Gadu, Iza, and Liniker. But things enter a new exciting era with this, her remarkable debut album entitled 'INTEIRA', which translates to English as 'whole'.

As much inspired by Billie Eilish and Rosalia, as Milton Nascimento and Toninho Horta and not sounding like other records coming out of Brazil, 'INTEIRA' is unique. Though rich in its Brazilian heritage, inspired by samba cancao, MPB, and the Clube da Esquina movement, it also channels influence from bands such as Portishead and Massive Attack, mixed with jazz, contemporary leftfield and electronic pop artists. Musically, it is not easily pigeonholed, with beautiful, well-crafted songs, sophisticated arrangements, eloquent vocals and intimate lyrics. Each track reflects different moments and stories from Nina's youth but with dialogues, feelings, and questions that span generations and resonate with all. This ambitious debut album is Nina's vision and sound, expressing herself without constraints and making music with her friends. Featuring a lineup of Thalin (drums), Valentim Frateschi (bass), Francisca Barreto (cello and vocals), Thales Hashiguti (viola and violin), Yann Dardenne (acoustic guitar and co-producer) and Nina on piano, Rhodes, guitar and production. The album led to a nomination in Paulista Association of Art Critics (APCA) award's 'Breakthrough Artist' category, who also listed 'INTEIRA' as one of the 50 best albums of 2024.

It also received support from Bandcamp Weekly and Jamz Supernova on BBC 6 Music. Released digitally by Seloki Records in Brazil in 2024, Mr Bongo in partnership with Seloki Records now present this new, deluxe worldwide edition that includes four additional songs. These comprise the brand-new exquisite 'MANHA', as well as an original twist on Vinicius de Moraes' classic 'Serenata Do Adeus'. Elsewhere you'll find a live recording showcasing Nina's remarkable energy on stage courtesy of 'DE DENTRO' and 'GOSTO MEIO DOCE' with the amazing musician/vocalist Francisca Barreto, where our whole story began. Here at Mr Bongo, we are honoured to release music by such a remarkable new talent - one whose musical trajectory is most certainly about to soar.

As rRoxymore, Hermione Frank has been exploring the outer edges of the dance floor and producing music that goes beyond traditional genre boundaries for more than a decade. In that time she has covered plenty of ground from caustic and abrasive techno to long-form and immersive grooves, always with a focus on contrasting tempo, texture and tone. On previous albums she intertwined the electronic and the acoustic with elements of psychedelia and jazz. With Juggling Dualities, Frank takes a sideways look at New Age and Wellness culture.

Writing the album came about after many months of being unable to create during a complicated personal time which left her lacking inspiration, feeling creatively stuck yet emotionally uprooted. What helped was distance - taking time and space to disconnect from the struggle. That brought a different rhythm to life and a fresh perspective that allowed exploration without any expectations. A six-week surge of intense creativity followed in which the majority of the album was written. As she explains, "The record represents a journey of reconnection that conveys an underlying message of hope and healing at its core. I think it is my most honest
work to date."

Initially conceived as a New Age project but with a signature personal twist and some subtle humour, there is a familiarity to Juggling Dualities. It is warm and comforting with a sound palette that is refined but familiar - there are soothing signifiers and organic designs that nod to the motifs of New Age but passed through a more contemporary lens.

Juggling Dualities is an invitation to reconnect with yourself. It's music that encourages you to take a pause, be in the moment and reflect on the fact that no matter what challenges come your way, they shall eventually pass.

LP vinyl only release + 4 page liner notes (comes with hype sticker)

The percussive new age soundtracks of '80s and early '90s Japanese TV, anime and manga built alternative worlds and pushed boundaries in the process.

When Japanese composer Yas-Kaz left Tokyo for Bali in the mid 1970s he had little idea of how influential his trip would become. In studying the storied art of gamelan, the jazz and avant-garde percussionist opened a door to a world of sound and rhythm left behind by the West. The music he and his contemporaries made would become known as new age. It also happened to soundtrack the golden era of anime.

Awash with money and with the prerogative to entertain the burgeoning middle classes, anime in the 1980s experienced a creative and commercial boom. Not constricted by generic expectations, production houses such as the now renowned Studio Ghibli were able to experiment liberally with both form and content. And with it came the space for composers to be similarly adventurous.

TV, Anime & Manga New Age Soundtracks 1984-1993 charts this moment across eight tracks spanning classics of the genre and previously unknown rarities. The collection brings together music that found kinship in electronic and acoustic instrumentation, often combining spiritual or environmental themes with percussive, varied and highly refined syncopations of non-Western musical traditions.

Among them is ‘Kaneda’ by Geinoh Yamashirogumi, the shape-shifting group of self-styled musicians, anthropologists and computer scientists that masterminded the soundtrack to game-changing dystopian anime Akira - and with whom the sound, tuning and breakneck speed of Balinese gamelan has become indelibly entwined.

Reflecting the desires of the era to reach beyond Japan’s borders, many of the soundtracks featured were commissioned for narratives set in distant lands or alternative worlds. There’s violinist and composer Norihiro Tsuru’s ‘Farsighted Person’, written for The Heroic Legend of Arslān, set in ancient Persia; Yas-Kaz’s own ‘Hei (Theme of Shikioni)’, for period sci-fi manga & anime series Peacock King - Spirit Warrior; and two tracks - Tassili N’Ajjer and Fiesta Del Fuego - from Yoichiro Yoshikawa’s soundtrack to NHK’s proto-Planet Earth series The Miracle Planet.

Such was the variety and quality of the music produced, if there is a guiding principle to the tracks collected here it is a sense of escapism and adventure that came with the confluence of modern electronic instruments and a fascination with percussive traditions.

Elsewhere, pioneering children’s TV composer Chumei Watanabe’s ‘Fushigi Song’ (performed by a vocal group Korogi ‘72) offers a trippy and infectious groove with sonic similarities to Don Cherry’s ‘Brown Rice’; little-known jazz-funk library group Columbia Orchestra showcase the best of Tokyo’s session musicians on ‘Hearts Beats - Theme for Andrew Glasgow’; before lawyer-turned-composer Kan Ogasawara closes out the compilation with a dramatic flourish on ‘Gishin Anki’.

Following on from Time Capsule’s acclaimed deep-dive into the world of manga & anime synth-pop in 2022, this vinyl only collection is set to broaden and diversify an understanding of how soundtracks shaped the sound of new age music in Japan for a generation.

Curators: Kay Suzuki, Rintaro Sekizuka (Vinyl Delivery Service)
Artwork: Tu-yang

Limited 2025 Repress
Black Truffle is pleased to announce the release of Ichida, the first release from the duo of two important yet often underappreciated musicians, Eiko Ishibashi and Darin Gray. Ishibashi is a singer-songwriter, keyboardist, drummer, and multi-instrumentalist, known in Japan both for her own elaborately conceptual solo albums and for her frequent collaborations with figures such as Jim O'Rourke, Merzbow, and Phew. Darin Gray is a bassist and multi-instrumentalist known for a multitude of collaborations (with O'Rourke and Loren Connors, among many others), for On Fillmore, his cinematic post-exotica project with Glenn Kotche, and as one half of Chikamorachi with Chris Corsano, one of the finest free-jazz rhythm sections around. Presenting the entirely of a live set performed at Tokyo's Super Deluxe in March 2013, the set begins as a duet for Ishibashi's flute and Gray's upright bass. Calmly melodic yet harmonically inventive, with shades of 'spiritual jazz', the pair's acoustic ruminations are gradually joined by Ishibashi's lush electronics, which randomly flicker between chords in a manner recalling the classic work of David Behrman. As the electronics build into a gloomy fog of slowly cycling loops, Gray lays his bass aside and turns to making strangely mournful interjections on a mouthpiece. Eventually Ishibashi moves to the piano, enveloping the audience in rippling pools of sustained, octave-doubled melody, provided by Gray's bass with a fluid and dynamic foundation. For much of the second side, both Ishibashi and Gray turn to electronics, ultimately arriving in a bizarre space of melancholic arpeggios and random sputter and sizzle, oddly reminiscent of 70s outsider prog acts like Wapassou. An uneasy coda of rich piano chords ends the set. Captured in warm room ambience and beautifully mixed by Jim O'Rourke, Ichida is a rare combination of improvisational acumen and emotional directness, both adventurous and immediately accessible.

Following a fallow 2023, a rejuvenated Growing Bin return to your turntable with this sublime collaborative LP from Gosha Martynov & Natasha Sinyakova. On their first foray into the physical, the duo expand the spectral ambience and medicated breaks of their earlier work with lithe touches of organic jazz and Cafe Del Mar cool, creating a complex assemblage of dreamy downbeat and emotive electronica that's entirely easy on the ears.

Opener "Pozhaluysta" seduces with smart syncopation and beguiling melody, its flute and fretwork finding ample space to slip around Natasha's voice, equal parts Cocteau operatics and jazz-club coquette, in an expression of a want beyond words. The mood shifting "Osvobodi Menia" sees the solemn, snaking sound of a sampled duduk drift into an optimism of airy pads and escapist mantra, suspended in reverb until the end of time. "Ya Tebia Zhdala" began life as a break-led experiment, gradually evolving into a romantic and naive sketch rich with splashes of piano and dynamic chorus pads. Naturalist hymn "O Dereve" weaves a dark and intimate tale from the point of view of a veteran tree as its buzzsaw guitar loops blossom into multilayered vocals full of emotion.

Awash with sonar sweeps, sumptuous pads and rolling subs, the titular "Imena Rek" channels post-rave bliss into the hypnagogic anthem the contemporary IDM-ographic have been searching for. Infectious hooks and spaced out pads ride the breakbeat rhythm for a dreamy experimental pop banger from another planet. The sombre sway of "Rany", filtered through the fog of a broken cassette recorder, trance djembe and unpredictable bass tones rivals the finest Motion Ward or In:dex releases for crepuscular charm, while "Smeshno" sees serrated drones sink into a slinking rhythm, playing counterpoint to the tender chords and yearning vocals.

"Iskra" closes out the chiasmus with a return to the organic experience of the opener, the flute and acoustic guitar augmented with nuanced hand percussion and a music box refrain. Listening to this album is like a midnight walk through an ancient forest - an experience which both scares and tempts you at the same time. From touching damp moss to feeling the thick fog with your body and watching mushrooms glow in the dark, 'Imena Rek' guides you through the terrain.

Flawlessly arranged and executed, this LP alludes to a long lineage of innovative downbeat, feels absolutely essential in the present and pushes the trip hop revivalists towards a fascinating future - Gosha Martynov & Natasha Sinyakova have created a timeless piece of music,
but what else do you expect from the Bin?