quête:athens

Modal Analysis returns in 2026 with a new 12'' EP from Greek artist Fragedis. Marking the Athens label's revival, Linear Sequence EP delivers four electro-leaning techno cuts, equally suited to the dance floor and late-night listening. Mastering by Alden Tyrell Artwork by Achileas Gerokostopoulos

Hotel Fiction is an indie rock band from Athens, Georgia comprised of Jade Long (vocals, keys, guitar), Jessica Thompson (vocals, lead guitar), Aaron Daugherty (lead guitar, synth), Aidan Hill (bass), and Gideon Johnston (drums). Their sound has often been described as genre-fluid, with indie, pop, folk, and rock influences. They have become known for their honest lyricism, haunting harmonies, and electric live shows.

Deluxe edition of Hotel Fiction's 2023 release Staring At The Sun. Features two new songs as well as alternate versions of album tracks, including a guest appearance from Hey, Nothing. LP pressed on limited edition coke bottle clear vinyl.

Single Coke Bottle Clear Color LP w/ printed inner sleeve + insert and updated artwork

Athens-based percussionist and sound artist Yorgos Stavridis makes a stark, physical debut for Heat Crimes with »Solo Percussion«, a set of one-take improvisations that approach percussion as a field of friction between body, objects, space, and sound. Working with membranes, metals, found objects, and feedback systems, Stavridis foregrounds timbre, texture, and spatial presence, collapsing distinctions between instrument, environment, and recording apparatus.

Microphones and speakers are treated as unstable instruments in their own right, introducing opaqueness, resistance, and feedback into the performative chain. Scrapes, low-end pressure, brittle metallic chatter, and sudden bursts of resonance emerge through close bodily engagement with surfaces and materials, each piece documenting a specific configuration of objects, gestures, and acoustic conditions. Performed and recorded live, »Solo Percussion« captures sound in its most contingent state; situational, physical, and irreducibly present. Eschewing narrative, pulse, or formal development, the record sits squarely in Heat Crimes’ lineage of process-led, uncompromising sonic research, where listening becomes an active, tactile act and sound itself is the primary event.

Modeight proudly adds another chapter to its vinyl legacy with Fedo - a Ukrainian artist with deep Greek roots, known for his meditative groove architecture, percussive depth, and the raw spirit of live music. On Nuke Hook EP, Fedo delivers four deep and dynamic cuts that strike a perfect balance between minimalistic precision and emotional richness.

Each track feels lived-in - jammed rather than programmed - crafted to resonate both on the dancefloor and in the mind. "Life is Life" opens with a thick, dubby beat and a jagged, growling bassline.
Midrange sequences curl around the low-end like vapor trails, creating a shadowy, hypnotic space built for late hours and strobe-lit intimacy. "Madam from Athens" pays homage to his Hellenic roots - dipping into dreamy chords, textured atmospheres, and modular motifs wrapped in velvety vocals. Warm and transportive, it's a love letter to place and memory.

On the flip, "After Out" hits hard. Sub-heavy, percussive, and driven by acidic synth lines, it's a peak-time weapon that doesn't ask - it commands.
Rounding off the EP is the cerebral yet groovy "Nuke Hook," where crisp percussion dances around mysterious piano phrases and immersive textures. A subtle but magnetic closer that lingers long after the drop.

Fedo joins the Modeight family with a statement of intent - deep, expressive, and forged in the heart of the underground. The journey continues.

In 2017, at Documenta Kassel (but in Athens), I invited José Jiménez Bobote, a remarkable gitano artist from the Tres Mil Viviendas neighbourhood in Seville, to record a series of actions in specific locations in the Greek capital. Ancient Greece and modern Greece. I wanted him to draw sound from the city, to strike it as only a flamenco artist can, with his feet. To hit the ground and make it moan, ring out with noises evoking significant moments in history: from Diogenes the Cynic and the Apostle Paul’s sermon at the Areopagus to Rosa Eskenazi’s resistance to the Nazi-German occupation, and the ups and downs of police Inspector Costas Haritos’s survival at the European Bank during the PIGS crisis. Bobote struck the ground and Athens responded, sending back echoes of the past, in an exceptional anachronistic exercise. In flamenco it is possible for several times to sound simultaneously.

We took seventeen hours of footage, and water from many wells.

I then shut away producer, musician, and friend Raül Refree with this material so that he could take the long titles and use them as scores, turning them into mere songs. It was very important to think in terms of songs. The tracks had to have the capacity to be songs, the kind of thing one whistles while absent-mindedly walking down the street. Generally speaking, the scores—that is, the texts—defended the use and abuse of the loose coins that people carry around in their pockets. Loose change as a kind of everyday fetishism against big financial capital. Pistis! Refree managed to coax that distinctive unity of songs, their bright catchiness, from the amalgamation of sounds that would, in other hands, end up being labelled concrete music. Peter Szendy would be pleased and grateful. Being able to sing under one’s breath something that others consider simply noise.

Seven songs, yes. And if you get the chance, take a stroll through Athens with them: the locations are clearly defined. If not, then let Athens fill your home with all its ancient wisdom, boring into your ears like worms, making holes in history.

Listen, and, as people used to say, turn up the volume!

Pedro G. Romero, Santa Marta, Colombia, November 2025

Comes with booklet with song lyrics written by Pedro G. Romero. Limited edition of 250 vinyl records.

Berlin-based composer and vocalist FRANKIE, also known as Franziska Aigner, and Dominican-American producer Kelman Duran meet at the Twelve Apostles Church, in the Berlin district of Schöneberg, sometime in 2022, at the beginning of the spring season. They were each asked to engage the space’s solemnity, and its reverence, through distinct performances. Their chance encounter, abounding with mutual curiosity towards each other’s practices, smoothened the path for a years-long collaboration, culminating in McArthur, their first joint album. Following a period of exchanging musical fragments and prompts at a distance, Aigner and Duran come together in Athens, and later in Los Angeles, to prepare the stuff and material for the album, slowly developing a body of work informed by shared hauntings, and a commitment towards the disjointed and the residual. Aigner describes her process as writing “into the negative space” of Duran’s beats—filling in, if not invigorating, their thudding and inflections, but without rearranging the integrity of the whole. The result is an album where time and geography are made elastic, and where sonic improvisations become a site for quiet, and cryptic, articulations of intimacy.

Back when the first white labels started floating through the hands of German, British, American and Canadian DJs in late ’84, nobody was ready for what was coming. The official drop hit in early ’85 and the scene was never the same again. This was the moment Mike Mareen broke through the static. Yeah, he’d been working with Chris Evans-Ironside since the ’70s but nothing hinted that together they’d channel something this futuristic. “Dancing In The Dark” sounded like it had slipped through a wormhole: melancholic, hypnotic vocals wrapped in vocoder haze, riding an arrangement so razor-sharp it made most releases of the era feel prehistoric. It didn’t need the pop charts… It owned the clubs. And the clubs listened.

London. Berlin. Madrid. Rome. Paris. Lisbon. Amsterdam. Athens. Toronto. NYC. Tokyo. Mexico City.

One drop of that electro bassline and DJs were hooked. Crowds were hooked. The whole underground was hooked. Soon Europe’s radio charts caved under its pressure, and the track crossed borders on mixtapes, becoming a cult anthem behind the Iron Curtain. It was everywhere, even where it technically wasn’t allowed to be.

Fast-forward four decades and the spell hasn’t faded. “Dancing In The Dark” still shows up in indie dance, italo wave, house and deep house sets. Producers keep re-editing it like it’s sacred material. It’s one of those tracks that DJs treasure, a timeless weapon, one of the top three defining singles of Mareen’s entire career.

And now for the 40th anniversary of its official release, Vintage Pleasure Boutique and Night’n Day Records drop the vinyl every collector and selector has been waiting for: a special reissue loaded with four brand-new remixes spanning the full spectrum of today’s underground indie/disco/italo/house energy.

Tallac – the American Berlin dweller – dives deep into the hypnotic soul of the original, pulling out its buried deep-house DNA and carving out a spacious, emotional roller.

Luksek, Italian producer & DJ, goes raw and dirty: loop-driven, gritty, underground, hypnotic, the kind of edit that eats dancefloors alive.

Flemming Dalum, the Danish Italo grandmaster, finally gets to remix the track he’d always dreamed of touching and of course it’s pure Flemingish electro-italo magic.

And the Polish sparkle: A.P. Mono delivers a shimmering mix of italo disco, glitterbox groove, disco glamour and synthwave glow, all while keeping the spirit of Mareen’s original heartbeat intact.

The wax also features two historical heavy-hitters: the 1985 Jens Lissat’s team remix and Luis Rodriguez’s original arrangement, essential cuts in the Mareen universe.

This release isn’t nostalgia. It’s a resurrection. A celebration. A reminder. “Dancing In The Dark” didn’t survive 40 years by accident, it survived because it still moves bodies, breaks hearts and lights up floors in ways modern tracks can only wish for.

If you’re an indie, italo, wave, house or disco DJ… This record isn’t just worth owning… It’s mandatory.

To mark what would have been Mikis Theodorakis' 100th birthday in 2025, Intuition released a very special album: 'Lost Songs' - fourteen previously unpublished compositions by the world-renowned Greek composer, presented here for the first time in a remarkable solo piano version by German pianist Henning Schmiedt. A remarkable moment took place in 2009 at Mikis Theodorakis' studio in Athens: Henning Schmiedt personally played his piano arrangements of the 'Lost Songs' to Theodorakis himself. Some of the melodies sparked the composer's memory, while others did not - but he listened attentively, offered comments and gave guidance that directly influenced the final versions of the pieces.

As such, 'Lost Songs' can be considered a posthumous release with the composer's blessing. These pieces offer a glimpse into Theodorakis' expressive power and artistic maturity from a very young age - most of the 'Lost Songs' were written in the early 1940s and provide a compelling window into the formative years of one of the most important composers of the 20th century.

'Lost Songs' is available on 180g vinyl and digipak CD editions.

Ston Elaióna is John Also Bennett’s first album for Shelter Press since his 2019 solo debut Erg Herbe. The American born, Athens, Greece, based flautist, synthesist, and composer weaves a strikingly singular electroacoustic excursion for bass flute and Yamaha DX7ii, largely recorded in the golden haze of the early morning hours - bending time at the otherworldly juncture of consciousness and place. Translating from Greek as “in the olive grove”, Ston Elaióna is permeated with the ambiences of the ancient and present world, guided into form by a playfully rigorous approach to sound.
Initially emerging during the mid 2000s as part of Columbus, Ohio’s noise scene, before relocating to NYC around 2010, Bennett’s diverse activities picked up an increasing sense of pace over the following decade - performing and recording as a solo artist (JAB), with the trio Forma and with CV &JAB, his prolific duo with his partner Christina Vantzou, as well as playing in Jon Gibson’s ensemble among many other multifaceted collaborations. However, since 2020 the flautist and electroacoustic composer has existed in a semi nomadic state: drifting between Brooklyn, Brussels, extensive tours, and Greece, where he finally came to rest in Athens last year.

Drawing upon a carefully honed attentiveness to the environments and experiences of everyday life, Ston Elaióna is a suite of nine pieces (with an additional track exclusive to physical formats), many of them composed and played live as the early morning sun touched the Parthenon, in full view from Bennett’s studio window in Athens. Bennett’s refinement and restraint, honed over his years adrift, led him to adopt a limited palette focused on his primary instrument, the bass flute, and a Yamaha DX7ii synthesizer tuned to just intonation scales. Alongside a handful of other keyboards, digital oscillators triggered by his flute, and occasional field recordings, this simple palette is reflected by the deeply emotive sense of minimalism that permeates the album’s two sides. Following two solo albums defined by outward facing temperaments - 2022’s Out there in the middle of nowhere (Poole Music), which used a lap steel guitar and generative oscillators to evoke the surreal landscapes of the South Dakota badlands, and the largely synthetic atmospheres of the 2024 anthology Music For Save Rooms 1 & 2 (Editions Basilic) - the shift in Bennett’s worldly circumstances offered an intuitive return to the calm, inward states of creative exploration that have historically defined JAB’s sound. In parallel, context provided clear sources of inspiration for many of the album’s themes, as well as sources for some of its sounds. The aura of Greece, from the ancient to the present, from its stones and olive groves to its traffic, figures heavily across Ston Elaióna’s two sides. John Also Bennett’s Ston Elaióna forms an elegantly rigorous world of electroacoustic sonority, bridging the expanse of time with the immediacies of environment and happening in the here and now: a profound sonic mediation on the countless dimensions unlocked by life in Greece.

Bilders new album, Neverlasting is a mix of psychic adventures, hard psychedelia and commentary with a bite. Bilders have always sung outliers with a heap of empathy—exploitation of migrants, unmitigated killing and the state of our depleted planet. This album maintains an analog feel with technical finesse as it casts a cold eye on uses and abuses of power in the higher echelons. It is pure Bilders. Surprise collaborations bring in fresh tangents of colour and emotional edge. “We are the Neverlasting renter-squatters of Earth exhausted”. The band is once again the voice/guitar of Bill Direen, bass of Matt Swanson and near everything else by Alex McManus, with guesting by former Bilders. It’s the same lineup as last year’s acclaimed Dustbin of Empathy, released by Grapefruit and Sophomore Lounge, and the first ‘core’ Bilders lineup to remain constant for more than one album. The new compatibility shows. It’s an album that builds on current strengths. Notable guestings include Athens Georgia lights Claire Horne of 1980s BBQ Killers, and Curtiss Pernice, guitarist of heavy vanguard Porn Orchard, with a snook-in from experimental and electronic prince Todd Gerber. Two never-released tunes by vintage Bilders (Stu Page and Greig Bainbridge) sit perfectly with the new material. This is quite simply the strongest Bilders album ever.

múm are returning with a new album on Morr Music. »History of Silence« is the first full body of work by the Icelandic collective since 2013's »Smilewound« and their seventh studio album to date—recorded, deconstructed, put back together again, refined and finished over the course of two years. Vibrantly oscillating around a carefully curated palette of electronic and analogue sounds, the eight new tracks reflect the group's continuous strive to explore sonic spaces through subtle yet gripping songwriting.

For a long time now, múm have been exploring the idea of distance in their music. In the beginning, this was born purely out of necessity. Founded in Iceland in the late 1990s, the members soon began embarking on journeys across the world—collectively while touring, but also individually, exploring new places to live and create. Settling in, moving on, catching up: The concept of distance soon became an integral part of the collective's process. »History of Silence« leans into this idea, with space and time becoming indispensable pillars of the arrangements. While being coherent and structured, they echo their origins from different seasons, cities, and spaces—neatly stitched together with unparalleled craftsmanship. They breathe an overall airy and intimate atmosphere, yet resonate with the structural heft of time.

On »History of Silence« time manifests in unexpected, liberating, and mesmerizing ways. It does not move reliably forward; it drifts, takes twists and turns, even disappears completely. Electronic textures blur into acoustic sounds, voices flicker and dissolve, melodies stumble and repeat. The arrangements often feel like they’re wandering, gently resisting direction. »Our Love is Distorting,« for instance, begins with a subtle piano motif, playing hide and seek with feedback noises, digital artefacts, and lush—yet very quiet—string arrangements, before gradually forming into a distinctive song. It's a perfect illustration of múm's general approach on this album. »Mild at Heart« turns this idea upside-down, flowing freely from start to finish with moments of silence sprinkled in—serving to emphasize the musical elements. The music on »History of Silence« moves like weather: unexpected, intimate, quietly detailed. Contrasted with vivid phrases, rhythmic shifts, and small hooks, the album offers a new angle of compositional clarity and vision.

Work on »History of Silence« began at Sudestudio in southern Italy. Additional recordings were made in Reykjavík, Berlin, Athens, Helsinki, New York, and Prague. The strings were recorded by Sinfonia Nord at the Hof concert hall, Akureyri, arranged and conducted by Ingi Garðar Erlendsson, who has worked with the band for many years. The orchestral elements don’t dominate the record—instead, they surface gently, adding depth and resonance to the songs without disturbing the songs' fragility.

Contrary to what the album title suggests, »History of Silence« is a collection of bold and colorful songs, no matter how muted they might sound at times. They tickle like a feather drifting through the wind, ending up in unexpected places, stimulating long-forgotten thoughts and feelings, intimate moments of introspection. The songs move through the echoes those moments leave behind: the emotional traces of things unsaid, the weight of stillness. Offering closeness by means of distance and much-needed support.

múm are returning with a new album on Morr Music. »History of Silence« is the first full body of work by the Icelandic collective since 2013's »Smilewound« and their seventh studio album to date—recorded, deconstructed, put back together again, refined and finished over the course of two years. Vibrantly oscillating around a carefully curated palette of electronic and analogue sounds, the eight new tracks reflect the group's continuous strive to explore sonic spaces through subtle yet gripping songwriting.

For a long time now, múm have been exploring the idea of distance in their music. In the beginning, this was born purely out of necessity. Founded in Iceland in the late 1990s, the members soon began embarking on journeys across the world—collectively while touring, but also individually, exploring new places to live and create. Settling in, moving on, catching up: The concept of distance soon became an integral part of the collective's process. »History of Silence« leans into this idea, with space and time becoming indispensable pillars of the arrangements. While being coherent and structured, they echo their origins from different seasons, cities, and spaces—neatly stitched together with unparalleled craftsmanship. They breathe an overall airy and intimate atmosphere, yet resonate with the structural heft of time.

On »History of Silence« time manifests in unexpected, liberating, and mesmerizing ways. It does not move reliably forward; it drifts, takes twists and turns, even disappears completely. Electronic textures blur into acoustic sounds, voices flicker and dissolve, melodies stumble and repeat. The arrangements often feel like they’re wandering, gently resisting direction. »Our Love is Distorting,« for instance, begins with a subtle piano motif, playing hide and seek with feedback noises, digital artefacts, and lush—yet very quiet—string arrangements, before gradually forming into a distinctive song. It's a perfect illustration of múm's general approach on this album. »Mild at Heart« turns this idea upside-down, flowing freely from start to finish with moments of silence sprinkled in—serving to emphasize the musical elements. The music on »History of Silence« moves like weather: unexpected, intimate, quietly detailed. Contrasted with vivid phrases, rhythmic shifts, and small hooks, the album offers a new angle of compositional clarity and vision.

Work on »History of Silence« began at Sudestudio in southern Italy. Additional recordings were made in Reykjavík, Berlin, Athens, Helsinki, New York, and Prague. The strings were recorded by Sinfonia Nord at the Hof concert hall, Akureyri, arranged and conducted by Ingi Garðar Erlendsson, who has worked with the band for many years. The orchestral elements don’t dominate the record—instead, they surface gently, adding depth and resonance to the songs without disturbing the songs' fragility.

Contrary to what the album title suggests, »History of Silence« is a collection of bold and colorful songs, no matter how muted they might sound at times. They tickle like a feather drifting through the wind, ending up in unexpected places, stimulating long-forgotten thoughts and feelings, intimate moments of introspection. The songs move through the echoes those moments leave behind: the emotional traces of things unsaid, the weight of stillness. Offering closeness by means of distance and much-needed support.

múm are returning with a new album on Morr Music. »History of Silence« is the first full body of work by the Icelandic collective since 2013's »Smilewound« and their seventh studio album to date—recorded, deconstructed, put back together again, refined and finished over the course of two years. Vibrantly oscillating around a carefully curated palette of electronic and analogue sounds, the eight new tracks reflect the group's continuous strive to explore sonic spaces through subtle yet gripping songwriting.

For a long time now, múm have been exploring the idea of distance in their music. In the beginning, this was born purely out of necessity. Founded in Iceland in the late 1990s, the members soon began embarking on journeys across the world—collectively while touring, but also individually, exploring new places to live and create. Settling in, moving on, catching up: The concept of distance soon became an integral part of the collective's process. »History of Silence« leans into this idea, with space and time becoming indispensable pillars of the arrangements. While being coherent and structured, they echo their origins from different seasons, cities, and spaces—neatly stitched together with unparalleled craftsmanship. They breathe an overall airy and intimate atmosphere, yet resonate with the structural heft of time.

On »History of Silence« time manifests in unexpected, liberating, and mesmerizing ways. It does not move reliably forward; it drifts, takes twists and turns, even disappears completely. Electronic textures blur into acoustic sounds, voices flicker and dissolve, melodies stumble and repeat. The arrangements often feel like they’re wandering, gently resisting direction. »Our Love is Distorting,« for instance, begins with a subtle piano motif, playing hide and seek with feedback noises, digital artefacts, and lush—yet very quiet—string arrangements, before gradually forming into a distinctive song. It's a perfect illustration of múm's general approach on this album. »Mild at Heart« turns this idea upside-down, flowing freely from start to finish with moments of silence sprinkled in—serving to emphasize the musical elements. The music on »History of Silence« moves like weather: unexpected, intimate, quietly detailed. Contrasted with vivid phrases, rhythmic shifts, and small hooks, the album offers a new angle of compositional clarity and vision.

Work on »History of Silence« began at Sudestudio in southern Italy. Additional recordings were made in Reykjavík, Berlin, Athens, Helsinki, New York, and Prague. The strings were recorded by Sinfonia Nord at the Hof concert hall, Akureyri, arranged and conducted by Ingi Garðar Erlendsson, who has worked with the band for many years. The orchestral elements don’t dominate the record—instead, they surface gently, adding depth and resonance to the songs without disturbing the songs' fragility.

Contrary to what the album title suggests, »History of Silence« is a collection of bold and colorful songs, no matter how muted they might sound at times. They tickle like a feather drifting through the wind, ending up in unexpected places, stimulating long-forgotten thoughts and feelings, intimate moments of introspection. The songs move through the echoes those moments leave behind: the emotional traces of things unsaid, the weight of stillness. Offering closeness by means of distance and much-needed support.

Phantasy are delighted to introduce Greek duo Boys' Shorts for their debut EP on the label, ‘Athena’. The project of music obsessives Vangelis and Tareq, the Boys’ Shorts sound has helped redefine timeless strains of disco, house and Italo for Europe’s queer club underground, with similar charisma spilling into their collaborative productions on labels including Live at Robert Johnson, Permanent Vacation and Polari.

Boys' Shorts appearance on Phantasy is coupled with their most ambitious and fulfilling songwriting to date. Featuring a rare vocal performance from beloved selector and cosmic disco expert Budino, appearing alongside Elisa Paradiso, the instantaneous lead cut ‘Summer’s Here and Summer’s Missing’ recounts a sun-drenched romance cut short. The duo’s soft, bittersweet synthesis mingles with Budino’s Italian-language lyrics, gently pulsing to find closure, or at least further pleasure, while up late in a Balearic discoteque.

Under those same hot lights, Boys' Shorts go deeper still with the leading oscillations of ‘Stereo on Acid’, in which classic, wobbly-hearted 808 sounds flirt playfully with a bassline that bumps like downtown traffic on a sweltering Athens afternoon. Reflecting the hidden pleasures and true underground culture of the city after nightfall, title track ‘Athena’ is a sensual and sophisticated groove with an epic yet understated touch, that one can imagine soundtracking a future soiree or centuries of ancient history alike.

"We are Honeypuppy. Your worst nightmare. Sleep tight." Born from the liminal space between the head and pillow of Songwriter Josie Callahan, Athens Georgia's Honeypuppy interrupts your regularly scheduled programming with an exciting and fresh one-time TV offer: a sparkly new album for your listening pleasure. Experience the bliss and despair, anxiety and indifference, and present yet absent-minded glee of this episodic saga in Honeypuppy's glowing new sonic collection, DIRTY TV. A nostalgic and poppy delight complete with twists, turns, and plenty of surprises, don't miss a second of DIRTY TV. Honeypuppy formed in 2020 as Callahan (lead vocals, guitar) recruited friends and roommates Adam Wayton (bass, vocals), and Will Wise (lead guitar) to help bring her songs to life. The group released "Nymphet", their soft and brutal debut EP, in January of 2024.

Seedbed is a new revolving-door collective project helmed by Atlanta songwriter JJ Posway (Sloping, Scooterbabe). After six years of recording what was to be the ambitious final studio album of Posway’s long-running Athens-based band Scooterbabe, most traces of the group’s scrappy indie pop had been burnished off to reveal something entirely new. What emerged from the ashes was Seedbed.

Largely composed of performances and songwriting contributions by Scooterbabe’s final lineup (Anna Staddon vocals, keyboard, Michael Buice [bass], Zach Spires [drums]), the formation of Seedbed marks the calling in of producer Terence Chiyezhan to help mix and arrange years of piecemealed recordings. The result is an intensely imposing stylistic shift for Posway and company, as tense as the apt title of Seedbed’s growing pains-fueled debut album Stalemate implies.

Stalemate stares straight into an all-consuming whirlpool of a million swirling emotions spanning the past seven years; It’s glistening and reflective on “Unit 4” and “C c c c c c c c c c c,” while cacophonously turbulent for “Fingertips Like Ice” and foreboding album opener “Mouse At Your Feet.” But the entirety of Stalemate is nostalgia-soaked and dripping with the painful necessity of change. It brazenly steeps in the tension and grief that accompanies evolution - even at the risk of drowning in it completely.

sychedelic hard-rock Holy Grail, originally released by this Greek band in 1976 but sounding more akin to late 60s / early 70s.
Highly recommended to fans of HEAVY-FUZZ guitars, think DARK, FIRE, OPEN MIND or even SPACEMEN 3 circa “Revolution”!
The 4 Levels Of Existence (Τα 4 Επίπεδα Της Ύπαρξης) formed around 1974 in Athens from the ashes of a band called
Frog’s Eyes. Some of their influences were groups like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Who or Iron Butterfly as well as traditional Greek music.
They recorded their sole album in just 10 hours with no overdubs and it was eventually released (500 copies only) on the small Venus label. The cover artwork was created by guitar player Athanasios Alatas. The band sadly split soon after but they left behind one of the most legendary and sought after albums not only from Greece but also from the worldwide heavy-prog scene.

Als William J. Tsamis, Gründer der Epic-Metal-Heroen Warlord, am 13. Mai 2021 im Alter von nur 60 Jahren viel zu früh für immer von uns gegangen ist, schien dies für viele das Ende einer der kreativsten Metal-Formationen Amerikas zu markieren. Doch überraschender Weise schlugen Warlord zurück, mit neuer Besetzung und einem neuen Studioalbum, "Free Spirit Soar" (auf High Roller Records). Auf besagtes Studioalbum folgte im selben Jahr die limitierte Compilation "From The Ashes To The Archives - The Hot Pursuit Continues", die Appetit machen sollte auf die 2024er Festival-Tour von Warlord mit ihrem neuen Sänger Giles Lavery (der auch bei Jack Starr und Alcatrazz das Mikro schwingt). Auf dem Plan standen: Trveheim (Deutschland), Golden R Festival (Griechenland), Pyrenean Warriors (Frankreich) und Metalitalia (Italien). Für diese Shows hatten sich Warlord etwas ganz Besonderes ausgedacht: Im Vorfeld eines jeden Auftritts wurde exklusiv ein neuer Song im Internet veröffentlicht. Alle vier befinden sich auf "The Lost Archangel" zum ersten Mal in physischer Form. Giles Lavery schwärmt von besagten Auftritten: "Die Reaktionen bei diesen Shows waren unfassbar. Sie haben unsere kühnsten Träume übertroffen. Die Fans sangen jedes Wort mit uns mit - die Energie, die von diesem Festival-Publikum ausging, kannte keine Grenzen." Die vier Songs, um die es sich handelt, sind "Golgotha (Place Of The Skull)", "The Rainbow", "Lost Archangel" und "Stygian Passage". Giles Lavery geht ins Detail: "Es sind alles brandneue Aufnahmen. 'The Rainbow' stammt von einem alten Warlord-Demo aus den ganz frühen achtziger Jahren. Wir haben den Song umgearbeitet. Die anderen drei Stücke sind von Lordian-Guard-Alben. Wir waren der Meinung, dass wir sie sehr gut zu Warlord-Nummern umarrangieren konnten. Also warum sie nicht auch veröffentlichen? Unser Gitarrist Eric und ich haben die vier neuen Nummern produziert, mithilfe digitaler Heimtechnik aber auch in professionellen Studios." Zusätzlich zu den besagten vier neuen Aufnahmen bietet "The Lost Archangel" neben älteren und neuen Live-Mitschnitten auch Neuinterpretationen einiger Warlord-Klassiker. Für Fans und Sammler ein rundum gelungenes Paket.

Als William J. Tsamis, Gründer der Epic-Metal-Heroen Warlord, am 13. Mai 2021 im Alter von nur 60 Jahren viel zu früh für immer von uns gegangen ist, schien dies für viele das Ende einer der kreativsten Metal-Formationen Amerikas zu markieren. Doch überraschender Weise schlugen Warlord zurück, mit neuer Besetzung und einem neuen Studioalbum, "Free Spirit Soar" (auf High Roller Records). Auf besagtes Studioalbum folgte im selben Jahr die limitierte Compilation "From The Ashes To The Archives - The Hot Pursuit Continues", die Appetit machen sollte auf die 2024er Festival-Tour von Warlord mit ihrem neuen Sänger Giles Lavery (der auch bei Jack Starr und Alcatrazz das Mikro schwingt). Auf dem Plan standen: Trveheim (Deutschland), Golden R Festival (Griechenland), Pyrenean Warriors (Frankreich) und Metalitalia (Italien). Für diese Shows hatten sich Warlord etwas ganz Besonderes ausgedacht: Im Vorfeld eines jeden Auftritts wurde exklusiv ein neuer Song im Internet veröffentlicht. Alle vier befinden sich auf "The Lost Archangel" zum ersten Mal in physischer Form. Giles Lavery schwärmt von besagten Auftritten: "Die Reaktionen bei diesen Shows waren unfassbar. Sie haben unsere kühnsten Träume übertroffen. Die Fans sangen jedes Wort mit uns mit - die Energie, die von diesem Festival-Publikum ausging, kannte keine Grenzen." Die vier Songs, um die es sich handelt, sind "Golgotha (Place Of The Skull)", "The Rainbow", "Lost Archangel" und "Stygian Passage". Giles Lavery geht ins Detail: "Es sind alles brandneue Aufnahmen. 'The Rainbow' stammt von einem alten Warlord-Demo aus den ganz frühen achtziger Jahren. Wir haben den Song umgearbeitet. Die anderen drei Stücke sind von Lordian-Guard-Alben. Wir waren der Meinung, dass wir sie sehr gut zu Warlord-Nummern umarrangieren konnten. Also warum sie nicht auch veröffentlichen? Unser Gitarrist Eric und ich haben die vier neuen Nummern produziert, mithilfe digitaler Heimtechnik aber auch in professionellen Studios." Zusätzlich zu den besagten vier neuen Aufnahmen bietet "The Lost Archangel" neben älteren und neuen Live-Mitschnitten auch Neuinterpretationen einiger Warlord-Klassiker. Für Fans und Sammler ein rundum gelungenes Paket.

Panos Alexiadis is a sound artist based in Athens, Greece, active in the field of contemporary electro-acoustic music. He founded and co-curated the tape label Thalamos, a home for exploratory sounds, where some of his own works also found their place. Marking a return after a period of (sonic) reflection, Cestrum Nocturnum is an album of remembrance and renewal. Through a lattice of self-sampled piano, fragmented voices, field recordings, and transient digital traces, Alexiadis composes a space of warmth—an electronic tapestry woven from the ephemeral. Across six pieces, sound unfolds like memory: layered, textured, dissolving at the edges yet leaving an imprint. A meditation on the cyclical nature of being and the often unnoticed beauty that quietly persists, even in the darkest hours. Cestrum Nocturnum is both a shelter and a signal.

--

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one:
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

Francis William Bourdillon, 1899

--

All music composed, recorded & mixed by Panos Alexiadis
Spoken word on 'But One' & ‘Follower' by Fotini Stamatelopoulou
'The Night Has a Thousand Eyes' poem by Francis William Bourdillon
Mastered by Christophe Albertijn

For the quartet led by NIGHTRAGE frontman Konstantinos Togas, 2025 is shaping up to be a stellar year. In February, Greek progressive metallers HERTA toured Eastern Europe. On May 2, 2025, the playful Athens-based group will release their debut album, “Crossing The Illusion” (LIFEFORCE RECORDS). HERTA’s sound is characterized by groove- and rhythm-driven compositions that continually offer surprises and fresh impressions. Despite the complexity and technical prowess of their music, the songs remain accessible and catchy. The band’s keen sense of atmosphere and melody shines through, creating ten eventful tracks that captivate listeners from start to finish. “Crossing The Illusion” immediately enchants with its sophisticated creativity. The band delivers impressively majestic songs that blend heaviness and pathos in a compelling mix. Guest appearances by Sakis Tolis (ROTTING CHRIST) and George Prokopiou (POEM/MOTHER OF MILLIONS) further attest to HERTA’s approach to expanding the variability and complexity of their prog metal continuously. The album was produced and mixed by Fotis Benardo at Devasoundz Studios and mastered by Johann Meyer at Silver Cord Studios. FFO: GOJIRA, LAMB OF GOD, MASTODON and MACHINE HEAD

Manolis Pappas writes: "Coming from Thessaloniki, but currently residing in Athens, Savvas Metaxas presents "Feedback Poetics", a study in ambient, minimal electronics and feedback drone, revealing a work of compelling compositional clarity. "Feedback Poetics" was recorded during a long improvisational night, with most of the piece captured in a single take. Later, a few additional sounds were added. Recorded using the Lyra-8 synthesiser by Soma Electronics and the Lemondrop granular synthesiser, the album weaves intricate sonic patterns into a meticulously crafted soundscape. The idea behind this recording was to create a long, meditative piece, captured entirely through headphone monitoring. The title reflects the experience of listening to these sound frequencies dancing around the listener's head. Metaxas, known for his output on esteemed labels in recent years and co-founder of Dasa Tapes and Granny Records, offers a work that resonates with the intimacy of a private live performance, yet possesses a refined and considered structure befitting a carefully curated cassette documentation." – Manolis Pappas/Coherent States.

Almost as soon as Σtella Chronopoulou began writing Adagio, her fifth album as Σtella, she knew the time had finally come to sing in Greek, her native tongue. It would be a first. She started the record almost by accident in 2019, during an 11-hour boat ride to the island of Anafi. Σtella had recently gone through a patch of personal turmoil and needed a break from home. On the ferry, she pulled out her cell phone as the boat clipped through the Mediterranean and began with a simple melody, steadily piecing together a rough instrumental. As psychedelic keyboards twinkled and swayed above staccato drums, the track suggested some deep exhalation, as if Σtella were letting go of long-unnecessary baggage. For a spell, she set the instrumental aside. She wasn’t ready yet, or in a rush. Σtella, after all, grew up in a slow place. During her youth in a relatively rural suburb of Athens, Greece, she and her friends played unfettered in empty streets, not worried about cars or permission, and living felt easy. But in the last decade life has steadily become busier for Σtella, now based in the heart of Athens. She has become one of modern Greece’s most popular musical exports, with three sophisticated, playful pop albums rendered with international élan. After her Sub Pop debut, Up and Away, in 2022, she catapulted beyond three million monthly Spotify listeners. That success was a blessing, but Σtella sometimes found herself pining for the slower pace of her youth. That longing is the thread that loosely binds together her fifth album, the entrancing Adagio. Borrowing its name from the term for music that’s meant to be played slowly, Adagio is a pop record that feels like a very warm blanket, its nylon-string guitars and featherlight percussion swaddling its listeners for three minutes at a time. Written and recorded over the span of five years, with a consortium of international collaborators including !!!’s Rafael Cohen and British songwriter Gabriel Stebbing, Adagio is a 27-minute meditation on love and desire, rest and time. Though the bulk of it is sung in English, Σtella delivers her first two songs in Greek here—“Omorfo Mou,” the one that began on the boat, and a cover of a 1969 cult classic of the Greek New Wave, Litsa Sakelariou’s “Ta Vimata.” It is a sign of the self-assurance that radiates throughout these tender and smitten little tunes. Start to finish, Σtella sounds more at ease and comfortable than she’s ever been on Adagio. These fetching songs will not slow her career or grant her that title track’s wish. But, for half an hour, Adagio adds a measure of warmth to the world, with time loosening its grip even if it doesn’t slow down.● Athens, Greece-based Σtella’s new album Adagio is a pop record that feels like a very warm blanket, its nylon-string guitars and featherlight percussion swaddling its listeners for three minutes at a time.● Features Rafael Cohen and British songwriter Gabriel Stebbing.• Σtella’s breakout hit “Charmed” from her 2022 album Up and Away has nearly 100 million streams, and was recently featured in the hit Max show Industry.• On Spotify, Σtella has 3.4 million followers, 66k monthly listeners.

CRYO is the first album by the duo of cellist Nikos Veliotis (GR) and pianist Alex Zethson (SE). Veliotis is best known for the pioneering electronic group In Trance 95, MMMD and his collaboration with Giannis Aggelakas of the rock group Tripes. Zethson is a member of groups such as Goran Kajfes’ Tropiques, Martin Küchen's Angles, Fire! Orchestra, Vathres, and more. The duo met in Athens when Tropiques played at the legendary record store, gallery and concert venue Underflow, where Veliotis was invited for an opening solo set. The day after, the duo entered the Athens studio Artracks and created CRYO, consisting of two long pieces in which the duo explores slow forms and waves of sound, with the piano's bass register creating rumbling clouds and sparkling overtones that the cello blends into and transforms. Together, they’ve crafter an organically undulating, intense, heavy and dark drone music. The album was meticulously mastered by Mell Dettmer, who has collaborated with drone metal bands like Earth and Sun O))).

Blend Mishkin & Soul Sugar - Theory of Mind
Cultural Collaboration Sparks New Sound:
Athens and Paris Unite for Soulful Jazz-Reggae Fusion Album.

A collaboration between two creative musical minds, Blend Mishkin from Athens meets Parisian Soul Sugar to co-create a genre-bending album titled “Theory of Mind”
This album features nine compositions which uniquely fuse vibes of jazz, soul, reggae, afro-beat and even some 70’s b-movie soundtrack all brought to life through the warm tones of vintage keyboard instruments such as the Hammond Organ, Clavinet and Fender Rhodes electric piano, played by virtuoso keyboardist Soul Sugar aka Guillaume Metenier paired with flawless orchestration, arrangements and production by Blend Mishkin.

Soul Sugar, a disciple of jazz master Dr. Lonnie Smith on the Hammond organ, known for his
intricate reggae-jazz masterful improvisation, brings a distinctive mellowness and complexity to the album. His use of the Hammond organ, Clavinet and Fender Rhodes electric piano adds a layer of depth and authenticity that transports listeners back to the golden age of soul and reggae. Blend Mishkin, a versatile artist, who has mixed and moved across reggae, dub, soul, as well as world music, introduces elements of funk and reggae rhythms to the mix. His production techniques, combined with the rich, analog sound of the vintage instruments, creates a sonic landscape that is both timeless and inspired.

Guest vocalists are featured in four out of nine tracks. Greek-French funk powerhouse Georges Perin delivers a heavy soul tune called “I Miss Those Days” , Fae Simon from London lays a velvety vocal on an old school steppers groove, Thaliah from Athens brings her smokey jazz flavour with “Moonlit Letter” and Jeffrey Diop from Senegal adds the perfect chant in “Big Boss in a Small Town”.

The recording sessions, split between Athens and Paris, were as much about cultural exchange as they were about musical experimentation. The result is a collection of tracks that resonate with the energy of live performance, while also echoing the rich musical background of both artists.
"We wanted to create something that felt organic and real," says Guillaume. "Using these incredible vintage instruments allowed us to tap into a sound that feels both timeless and brand new."
Blend adds, "This album is about mixing our roots, our sounds, and our experiences. It's a celebrationof music that transcends borders and eras."

“Theory of Mind” it's a cross-cultural journey. The project emerges from the vibrant, sun-soaked melodies of Athens with the sophisticated, urban grooves of Paris, resulting in a sound that is both nostalgic and refreshingly modern.

Red Motorbike maestro Eddie C drops on the ensemble with an anthemic ode to the most sought-after of desires. We’ve been keeping this secret for far too long; it’s time to bring U Be Mine into the light, complete with remixes from Lex, Da Silva and Marcello Giordani aka Italo Deviance.
It was just over a year ago when Eddie sent us his original demo of U Be Mine. I remember plugging i the speakers in my fat, pressing play. A fash from a place of love that wet, grey day. The lyrical bass, euphoric stabs, the iconic delay, the pining vox. There are times where things seem naturally bound, designed to intertwine. An instant essential. We couldn’t wait to throw it down in the disco. Much like the coveted desire of its vocoder-clad protaganist, we needed a club-ready fx. Eddie, getting the message, sent us over a quick master - the Eddie C ‘Cash’ Version. Over the next year, at parties from Lisbon to Ibiza, I saw how those swirling arps locked onto the foor, how dancers cosied up to its decadent groove. It was peak time, warm-up and wind-down at once. In the true spirit of the ensemble, we got to work curating a cast of balearic technicians to write their distinct shade of depth onto Eddie’s golden letter. And that’s where it lands.
Lex from Athens casts an exotic, eclectic spirit with his Plaka Remix, all shufing percussions and wild, breezy strings, rejigged baselines and NYC disco tackle. Label curator Da Silva ups the ante with his 7-minute club-ready fx: tight kicks and searing acid, all the bells and whistles for your peak-time excursions. Finally, Marcello Giordani shifts into hyperdrive with the ITALO DEVIANCE ACID CONTROL version, conjuring creatures of the night in kaleidoscopic confgurations, a trusted party roller for the most decadent dancefoors.
We’re releasing U Be Mine on 150 pristine discs only. Claim it as yours, forevermore.

Terra Utopia returns to Emotional Response with a second long-from EP / mini-LP, 10 more tracks that span the ethereal sounds of ambient, atmospheric beats and liquid drum and bass.

Originally intended as a one-off project from French producer Benoit B, Terra Utopia 1 was recorded in 2 weeks while sojourned in an Athens’ Spring. A personal dedication to a specific sound he loved.

Since the original release, a debut LP under his own name followed, before Benoit embarked on his new club orientated project Blu:sh, releasing a series of acclaimed EPs for the likes of esteemed Kalahari Oyster Club and Roza Terenzi’s Step Ball Chain label.

However, the incredibly positive feedback of the first Terra Utopia recordings led to reappraisal and return to the name and here again, a second set of 10 tracks (8 vinyl and 2 digital bonus).

Once more recorded as short pieces – cut loud for DJ play – they interconnect to feelings of intangible expanses, that embracing summer, the warmth, a latent stillness of the azure sea and sky. This invitation, a narrative forever calling, of long days, calm nights, the infinite astral plain in minds eye.

The ambience has progressed, beats crackle and snap, tracks visualise an individuality, names are anointed, with the collaboration with singer dvdv on Shadows Of Memories, a floating, mesmeric highpoint, a dreaming siren.

No fears, the children of the heat embark.

On their spellbinding sophomore album, "Whispers in the Speech Machine," the young Ohio siblings from The Laughing Chimes fully embrace their Southern Gothic influences, cannily balancing the light of their infectious pop with the shadow of their rust belt environs. While attending an afterschool music program at their local opera house, Evan and his brother Quinn began recording The Laughing Chimes' debut album "In This Town," released in 2020. A string of well-received digital singles and a cassette EP for Slumberland followed, dazzling savvy pop fans with their Paisley Underground-inflected jangle that owes as much to the Flying Nun sound as it does to 80s Athens, GA.

The eight assured songs of "Whispers in the Speech Machine" prove The Laughing Chimes deserve the attention and accolades, while their approaches to songwriting and sonic aesthetics continue to evolve. "Southeast Ohio is the foothills of Appalachia, so it has this indescribable mood and atmosphere to it," guitarist/vocalist Evan Seurkamp told The Big Takeover. "Sometimes there's a haunting weight of decay you want to escape, but at the same time there is some sort of strange romanticism surrounding ghost towns. We've tried to channel those moods to add more regional flavor into our sound."

On their spellbinding sophomore album, "Whispers in the Speech Machine," the young Ohio siblings from The Laughing Chimes fully embrace their Southern Gothic influences, cannily balancing the light of their infectious pop with the shadow of their rust belt environs. While attending an afterschool music program at their local opera house, Evan and his brother Quinn began recording The Laughing Chimes' debut album "In This Town," released in 2020. A string of well-received digital singles and a cassette EP for Slumberland followed, dazzling savvy pop fans with their Paisley Underground-inflected jangle that owes as much to the Flying Nun sound as it does to 80s Athens, GA.

The eight assured songs of "Whispers in the Speech Machine" prove The Laughing Chimes deserve the attention and accolades, while their approaches to songwriting and sonic aesthetics continue to evolve. "Southeast Ohio is the foothills of Appalachia, so it has this indescribable mood and atmosphere to it," guitarist/vocalist Evan Seurkamp told The Big Takeover. "Sometimes there's a haunting weight of decay you want to escape, but at the same time there is some sort of strange romanticism surrounding ghost towns. We've tried to channel those moods to add more regional flavor into our sound."

Maria Callas was born to a Greek family in New York in 1923. Her vocal training took place in Athens, where her teacher was the coloratura soprano Elvira de Hidalgo, who had sung with Enrico Caruso and Feodor Chaliapin. After early performances in Greece, Callas’s international career was launched in 1947 when she performed the title role in Ponchielli’s La Gioconda at the Arena di Verona in Italy.

Her voice defied simple classification and her artistic range was extraordinary. In her early twenties she sang such heavy dramatic roles as Gioconda, Turandot, Brünnhilde and Isolde, but over the course of her career her most famous roles came to be: Bellini’s Norma and Amina (La sonnambula); Verdi’s Violetta (La traviata); Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Anna Bolena, Cherubini’s Medea and Puccini’s Tosca. Though her timbre was not always conventionally beautiful, Callas’s musicianship and phrasing were in a class of their own. She brought characters to vivid life with her skill in colouring her tone and making insightful use of the text.

She is credited with changing the history of opera: by placing a perhaps unprecedented emphasis on musical integrity and dramatic truth, and by transforming perceptions – and reviving the fortunes – of the bel canto repertoire, particularly Bellini and Donizetti.

The 1950s marked the height of Callas’s career. Its base lay in the opera houses of Italy, and she became the prima donna assoluta of Milan’s legendary La Scala – notably in the productions
of Luchino Visconti – but her operatic appearances also encompassed London’s Royal Opera House, the New York Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opéra, the Vienna State Opera, and the opera houses of Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Lisbon, and, in the early 1950s, Mexico City, São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.

From 1959, when she started a life-changing love affair with the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, her performing career slowed down and her voice became more fragile. Her final stage performances came in 1965, when she was only 42.

There were many plans for a return to the stage – and for further complete recordings – but they never reached fruition, though in 1974 she gave a series of concerts in Europe, North America and Japan with the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano; he had partnered her frequently in the opera house and in the studio, not least in the 1953 La Scala Tosca under Victor de Sabata, considered a landmark in recording history. Callas died alone in her Paris apartment in September 1977.

Black Country, New Road is a new seven-piece: Charlie (Drums), Georgia (Violin), Isaac (Guitars/Vocals), Lewis (Saxophone), May (Synthesiser), Luke (Guitar) and Tyler (Bass), due to release their debut album on Ninja Tune. The latest stars from the burgeoning and famed Brixton Windmill scene, which also fostered the rise of contemporaries Black Midi, Squid and more.
‘For The First Time’ features six new songs, including reinterpretations of early tracks ‘Sunglasses’ and ‘Athens, France’.
2019 saw multiple sold-out headline dates across the UK (1700 tickets in London) as well as in Europe, with more highlights including supporting Fat White Family on their UK tour and coheadlines with Black Midi, Squid and Goat Girl.
Festival appearances in 2019 included 6 Music Festival at London’s Roundhouse, Latitude, End of the Road and Visions.
For fans of IDLES, Black Midi, Squid, Fontaines DC, Goat Girl, Phoebe Bridgers, Jockstrap, Nick Cave.
CD in cardboard colour printed wallet with 16-page lyric booklet and sticker.
140g vinyl in 350gsm cardboard colour sleeve with matte finish,
16-page lyric booklet, sticker and digital download code.
“One of the UK’s best new live acts” - The Guardian (Ones To Watch)
“The best band in the world right now” - The Quietus

Next up on Intrepid Skin, MarcelDune readies four heaters direct from the scuzziest corners of the rave, out on Friday 13 December on digital / vinyl.

Based in London but hailing from Athens, they draw upon a lifelong relationship with music spanning jazz studies, opera singing, and the punk DIY scenes of their hometown.


In connecting the dots between these disparate aspects, they've committed to engaging with music that honours resistance and authenticity, and draws inspiration from those seeking liberation from oppression and societal frameworks.

With this new release MarcelDune hones in on the ethos that underpins their aesthetic, with touches of euphoria, huge drums, and quintessentially fun.

Title track 'Buy Success' brandishes raw serrated edges and an industrial core whilst never losing the groove. 'Remedy for evil' moves into bouncier feels with the hardest groove. On 'Tell Me Who They Are', vocal chops ricochet over angular percussion and glitching machines. Closing things off, 'Romantic and Other Fantasies' lays down some weighty percussion driving a madhouse of effects forward.

Lamina is the moniker of multi-disciplinary French artist Clarice Calvo-Pinsolle. 'Olas Curativas' is Calvo-Pinsolle's first vinyl release. Taking influence from the natural world, works of hydrofeminism, and experiences with hypnotism, Calvo-Pinsolle prolifically performs and records her own refreshing take on ambient music alongside working as an established installation artist. She has previously released two full-length albums on Orila Records & Complex Holidays, as well as a joint LP with Kitchen Cynics, and a collaboration project with Bear Bones Lay Low under the moniker XAXI. Her discography is fleshed out by various contributions to compilations, including the opening track 'Soupire' on Twin System's 'Tendrils Lurched Purple In The Slush' tape series. Radio play of Laminas music includes Graham Dunning / NTS, Emil Mirzoev/ Kiosk Radio, Laura de Diaz / CAMPO BASE, xYsse / Radio Vacarme, Melina Despretz / Kiosk Radio, Chris Penty Alvarez / Noods Radio, Leoni Leoni / Radio Alhara, Laura Connant / Ola Radio, Bravo Tounky / Rootradio. Performances of material from 'Olas Curativas' include shows at Cafe Oto / London, Cosmos / Lisboa, TV Control Center / Athens, Iklektic / London, Braille Satellite / Lithuania, Slug Gallery / Leipzig, Spazio X / Treviso, Krut Festival / Ghent, Schiev Festival / Brussels, Woodblocks Festival / Brussels.


'Olas Curativas' was developed and written in 2022, with these pieces first heard as live jams at shows mainly around Brussels and Portugal, before being honed into this mesmeric full-length LP. Calvo-Pinsolle's effective use of manipulated field recordings and tape loops provide a backdrop for harmony that leans towards the mystical, brimming with melodies equal parts haunting and enchanting. Alongside harvesting a sound library over the past several years, Calvo-Pinsolle has developed an approach to composition using field recordings that informs both her musical and sculptural work. These recordings are transformed much like the ceramics seen in the record artwork; shaped, chiseled, and transformed. These ceramics were crafted and painted by Calvo-Pinsolle herself, and hints at this bridge between her two disciplines of music and sculpture. Although an expansive realm, throughout Calvo-Pinsolle's output there are consistent moods and qualities that are absolutely distinctive to this artist's creative worldview, and of which 'Olas Curativas' is a perfect encapsulation.

Hunger Anthem is an indie rock band from Athens, Georgia with an unabashed penchant for distortion drenched, gritty, tightly executed power pop immediacy, deeply rooted in a lo-fi approach and ever-evolving, bearing an evident DIY punk rock work ethic and ethos Started as a solo project of singer/songwriter Brendan Vaganek in Buffalo, NY. Lift was recorded by Mike Albanese (Maserati, Bit Brigade, The Bad Ends, Life In Vacuum) and mastered by Joel Hatstat (Archers of Loaf, Jeff Rosenstock, Worriers). It's borne of love and sweat, and pulls deeply from the well of observation, longing, acceptance, and perseverance.

All music written, arranged and performed by 1000mods
Lyrics by 1000mods
Produced by Matt Bayles & 1000mods
Mixed by Matt Bayles
Engineered by Matt Bayles
Recorded at Sierra Studios, Athens, GR
Studio personnel: Christos Achladiotis and Kostas Spiropoulos
Piano recorded at Electric Highway Studio by John Vulgaris
Mixed at Red Room, Seattle, WA
Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, Portland, OR
Artwork by Eva Mourtzi
Designed by Ouga Booga Crew

Hammond and piano on Love, Grey Green Blues and Bluebird by Jiomy Amaranth
Additional Guitar on Götzen Hammer by John S.
Additional vox on Götzen Hammer by Api
Backing vox on Overthrown by Amie
Chelo οn Bluebird by Nikos Veliotis
Semantron on Götzen Hammer by Panos Z

FERMA third vinyl release lands just before the close of the year and it is a special one. Petros Spatharos leads with a set of bangers distilling perfectly the sound of the label. Athens-based artist is widely known for his dark, immersive industrial sound, so yeah expect nothing less.

Side A starts with ”Datura”, layering heavy drums with dark reeses and syncopations – solid stuff. ”Xorkia” is an eyes-down track which will keep you in the zone with stellar percussion and atmosphere. ”Vultures” closes the first side with higher energy levels and more distinct breakbeat elements.

On Side B, Randstad remixes ”Datura” and pumps up the tempo to create a mind-bending industrial electro track with aggressive synths. Boris Barksdale wrap-ups the physical release by remixing ”Xorkia” and changing the core to techno and reworking percussion to create an industrial heavy-hitter track.

2024 Repress

Next up on Greek label Lower Parts is a fierce EP from the one and only DJ Stingray, who serves up one of his strongest releases in a while and, at the same time, marks his comeback with a bang. Featuring a remix by Athens talent Kon001, who Stingray has been meaning to release for years and who got personally handpicked by him for this assignment, the EP's titles tell us of the Detroit man's interest in science, biology and evolution and covers plenty of musical styles.

Stingray has won plenty of acclaim with serious releases on labels like Naked Lunch, Bleep and Itinerant Dub. He wastes no time here in nailing down a nervy techno groove on 'Acetylcholine', with its hurried kicks, electro synths and slithering bass lines all racing along as you do the same. Dendrite is then a half time, lurching number with serious dub weight and serene synths that manages to be beautiful and brutal at the same time.

On the flip, 'eRbB4' is a slick, journeying bit of electro-techno with real soul and emotion in its bones, before kon001 does Stingray proud with a dynamic, spangled remix that is metallic and reflective, groovy and evocative. This is a killer release from Stingray and is yet another fine offering from Lower Parts.

~~~From Mississippi and Olvido Records~~~~~~ Steel-string guitar and vocals by the great Giorgos Katsaros, a mythic figure of Greek rembetiko. Our obsession with underground Greek music continues with 10 ultra-rare recordings of heartbreak and vice from rembetiko legend Giorgos Katsaros. Katsaros, who by some accounts lived to be over 100 years old, carried the old songs of Greece to the Diaspora in the United States, bridging centuries of music in one storied lifetime. Born in 1901 on the Greek island of Amorgos, Katsaros' was enchanted with the songs he picked up as a kid in the streets of Piraeus and Athens. Encouraged by his grandfather, an amateur singer, Katsaros developed a style that mirrored his upbringing - centuries-old Asia Minor songs, island rhythms of his homeland, well-known Athenian songs of the time, and anonymous `rebetiko' songs. Katsaros' songbook was vast, but he was most drawn to the street life and music of the manges of early 20th-century Greece: outcasts who dealt with the indignities of an unstable economy and an inauspicious future with the old standbys: wine, hash, and dancing. These ten tracks are remastered from Katsaros's 64 surviving early recordings, many rarely heard since their original release. Hypnotic melodies plucked over repeating thumbed basslines back his deep, mournful voice. Katsaros brought this nostalgic late-night music to smoke-filled rooms of Greek exiles in Chicago, Philly, and New York, where he emigrated in 1917. He continued to travel the country and play until his music was supplanted by more modern styles in the 1950s. He retired to the town of Tarpon Springs, FL, famous for its Greek sponge fishers, til a late-in-life revival brought him back to Greece for a few massive concerts and national accolades in the 1990s. Like many great artists, Katsaros carefully curated his own mythic backstory over the decades. He sometimes claimed he was born in 1888, making him 109 on his passing, and conflicting accounts of his birth and travels circulate to this day. Greek researchers Stavros Kourousis and Konstantinos Kopanitsanos, who also compiled these tracks, contribute groundbreaking new historical research on Katsaros' life. Lyrics, poetically translated by Tony Klein, further fill in the picture. Clean and rare 78s were remastered by Stereophonic. Katsaros has never sounded better than on this LP, pressed on heavy black vinyl, with extensive notes and lyrics.

~~~From Mississippi and Olvido Records~~~~~~ Steel-string guitar and vocals by the great Giorgos Katsaros, a mythic figure of Greek rembetiko. Our obsession with underground Greek music continues with 10 ultra-rare recordings of heartbreak and vice from rembetiko legend Giorgos Katsaros. Katsaros, who by some accounts lived to be over 100 years old, carried the old songs of Greece to the Diaspora in the United States, bridging centuries of music in one storied lifetime. Born in 1901 on the Greek island of Amorgos, Katsaros' was enchanted with the songs he picked up as a kid in the streets of Piraeus and Athens. Encouraged by his grandfather, an amateur singer, Katsaros developed a style that mirrored his upbringing - centuries-old Asia Minor songs, island rhythms of his homeland, well-known Athenian songs of the time, and anonymous `rebetiko' songs. Katsaros' songbook was vast, but he was most drawn to the street life and music of the manges of early 20th-century Greece: outcasts who dealt with the indignities of an unstable economy and an inauspicious future with the old standbys: wine, hash, and dancing. These ten tracks are remastered from Katsaros's 64 surviving early recordings, many rarely heard since their original release. Hypnotic melodies plucked over repeating thumbed basslines back his deep, mournful voice. Katsaros brought this nostalgic late-night music to smoke-filled rooms of Greek exiles in Chicago, Philly, and New York, where he emigrated in 1917. He continued to travel the country and play until his music was supplanted by more modern styles in the 1950s. He retired to the town of Tarpon Springs, FL, famous for its Greek sponge fishers, til a late-in-life revival brought him back to Greece for a few massive concerts and national accolades in the 1990s. Like many great artists, Katsaros carefully curated his own mythic backstory over the decades. He sometimes claimed he was born in 1888, making him 109 on his passing, and conflicting accounts of his birth and travels circulate to this day. Greek researchers Stavros Kourousis and Konstantinos Kopanitsanos, who also compiled these tracks, contribute groundbreaking new historical research on Katsaros' life. Lyrics, poetically translated by Tony Klein, further fill in the picture. Clean and rare 78s were remastered by Stereophonic. Katsaros has never sounded better than on this LP, pressed on red vinyl, with extensive notes and lyrics.

KAIZEN Label Boss MADAM X marks her debut into production & the record label's 10 YR reign with her self-released 'Homecoming' EP.

Early support from Hudson Mohawke, Bicep, James Blake, Mella Dee, TEED, Zed Bias, Florentino, and Sally C.

4 club functional bangers, designed for sweaty dark rooms and dingy basements.

The four-track release is a 'back-to-the-roots' call to the underground, with collaborations from DJ JM, Cartridge, Andy Martin & Doctor Jeep inside.

Based between Athens & London, Madam X’s debut EP ‘HOMECOMING’ honours the multi-disciplined artist’s musical roots in the UK, merging Dubstep, wobbly Bass, moody Techno, and playful club-driven aesthetics.

“I’m super pleased to share the product of many late-night studio sessions, Zoom calls, B2B voice memos and football-field recordings,” says Madam X.

"'HOMECOMING' is a back-to-the-roots call to the underground, celebrating everything I know and love about music, honouring my UK heritage and drawing influence from the styles and scenes that shaped my DJ journey. Each track is a collaboration with some of my favourite powerhouse producers. Couldn’t have done it without them.”