Поиск:cur l

“Incident At a Free Festival” is a tribute to the mid-afternoon slots at Deeply Vale, Bickershaw, Krumlin, Weeley, and Plumpton – early 70s festivals that don’t get the column inches afforded the Isle of Wight or Glastonbury Fayre, but which would have been rites of passage for thousands of kids. Bands lower down the bill would have been charged with waking up the gentle hippies and appealing to both the greasy bikers and the girls in knee-high boots who wanted to wiggle their hips. And the best way to do that was with volume, riffs and percussion.

Compiled by the venerated Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne, this is the heavier side of the early 70s they summarised on the acclaimed “English Weather” collection. There’s an air of menace and illicit thrills among tracks by Andwella, Stack Waddy and Leaf Hound (whose “Growers of Mushroom” album is worth well over £1,000). Bigger names include the rabble-rousing Edgar Broughton Band and kings of the festival freakout, Hawkwind. They are represented by their rare version of ‘Ejection’

For every mystical Tyrannosaurus Rex performance there was something like Atomic Rooster’s Tomorrow Night or Curved Air’s Back Street Luv to capture the spirit of the day and stir the loins of festival goers; the tracks on “Incident At a Free Festival” were inspired by both Chicago’s percussive wig-outs and the Pink Fairies’ anarchic spirit. The sounds were heavy and frequently funky, with a definite scent of danger. Their message was clear and simple: clap your hands, stamp your feet, hold on to your mind.

So, put on your wellies in your living room, drop the needle and enjoy...

ONLY AVAILABLE ON PREORDER!!

The first-ever LP box set gathering the entire 10 albums collection of Obscure Records produced by Brian Eno’s.
Curated by Gavin Bryars

Originally issued between 1975 and 1978, nearly 50 years on the output of Obscure remains radically forward-thinking - offering glimpses of a future yet to be fully seen - and amounts to one of the most important, influential, and creatively accomplished album series ever conceived.
Co-curated by Eno and the composers Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman - issuing the recording debuts of Bryars, Nyman, John Adams, Christopher Hobbs, David Toop, Max Eastley, Jan Steele, Simon Jeffes / The Penguin Café Orchestra, and Harold Budd, in addition to important works by John Cage, Tom Phillips, and John White - Obscure’s collective output is a groundbreaking landmark in the histories of Minimalism, modern composition, and Experimental music, and laid much of the groundwork for the soon to emerge movement of Ambient music.

Illuminating the remarkable, and largely otherwise undocumented, creative ferment within and between the British and American scenes of experimental music during the mid to late 1970s, this collection - made in full collaboration with all of the composers or their estates - contains the entire 10 album output of Obscure, the majority of which have been out of print for years, with a number having never received a CD reissue.

Offering each of Obscure’s albums, completely remastered and housed in faithful replicas of their original covers and liner notes, as well as a 80-page book (LP dimension) for LP-BOX SET, filled with rare photos, archival material and texts by - among others - Gavin Bryars, Bradford Bailey, David Toop, Max Eastley, Richard Bernas, and Tom Recchion, this historic collection marks the first time this seminal series has received a complete LP repress.

Vecchio's Afro-Rock is one big horn-heavy, bass-blasting, Latin groove funk-rock party. Only now, you're all invited because this, ladies and gentleman, is officially...a grail no more. With copies currently starting at 400 Euros for an original, this beautifully presented reissue, part of Be With's fresh campaign with Music De Wolfe, is well overdue. A magnificent and somewhat obscure library set that's just a total, cohesive joy from start to finish, this here is the soundtrack to all your smokin' summer BBQs and communal cookouts.

Afro-Rock is the debut album by Argentine keyboardist Luis Vecchio. Recorded for the sound library label De Wolfe, the album is frequently mentioned in hushed reverence among the beat digger DJ collecting crowd. It features fiery brass charts, funky bass lines, fluttering flute, choppy organ and additional hand tribal percussion. The band let loose too and jam hard; yet there's a certain thread of solidity that runs throughout, the tracks just belong together, not disparate sound and rhythm experiments like some library records; this is just straight up, no messin', consistent funk-rock FIRE! Hips will sway, heads will nod to the steady vibes. It's insanely good.

The humid, building funk of the appropriately titled "Megaton" is a dramatic explosion of swirling, dazzling organ lines, ferocious beats and heavy horns throughout. It just don't stop. The tempo slows slightly for the deep and deeply addictive "Renegade". It's all heavy jazz horn refrains, always triumphant, coupled with devastating percussive breakdowns and killer guitar riffing. It's an insistent organ-led juggernaut. The frenetic "Facade", up next, is no less driving, horns high up in the mix over rattling percussion and brilliant organs lines. Just sensational. The bright "Chabati" is another glorious extension of the optimistic Vecchio sound, the organs wilder than ever before. The moody "Green Hell" is a real highlight and closes out the A-Side with some outrageously funky refrains - be it horns, organ or guitars - and is complimented by gorgeous flute work that galvanises the piece, elevating it to downright heavenly status.

Knowing full well that he's on to a surefire thing, Vecchio opens the flipside in much the same vein. Indeed, "Boss" is yet another uptempo highlight, a sensual orgy of proud horns, hand percussion and melodic flute playing over driving organ and guitars. It's followed by "Nsambei", which is rightly adored for its briefly open drum break, fantastically propulsive percussion breakdowns throughout and the jazzy, loose organ and guitar shreds. The bright "Waboco" ups the tempo and the pressure, hanging on one hell of a guitar hook and infectious horn refrain. Perhaps foreseeing how this album would come to be viewed, the aptly-titled "Cult" is possibly the finest song on the record. Which is saying something, because this record is insanely good. Riding a steady, confident organ groove straight out the gate, the kinda melancholic flute line over the top serves as a beautiful counterpoint which the horns often come in and imitate/riff off. Goddamn this is so so good, it needs to be played everywhere. The overwhelmingly mighty 7-minute jam "Ngoma-ku" rounds out this quite staggering record brilliantly in its heavy, mid-tempo blues with countless extended solos.

The audio for Afro Rock has been meticulously remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

It has become clear that Matthew Shipp is the most interesting and important jazz pianist of his generation, the most continually evolving and pushing forward. (We could also say “best,” even have been known to declare that, but it’s such a loaded term.) Now that he’s in his sixties and something of an elder statesman of the art form, he’s overdue for a retrospective look at his catalog, and to help make that happen, ESP-Disk’ will be reissuing some of his great early work that’s gone out of print:
• The 1990 trio recording Circular Temple (originally self-released on Quinton, then reissued in 1994 by Henry Rollins on his Infinite Zero label) will come out this September;
• His 1994 duo album with William Parker, Zo (originally on Rise, reissued in '97 on Rollins’s 2.13.61 label), will reappear in Spring 2024.

These will both be reissued not only on CD, the format on which they first appeared, but on vinyl as well, since many jazz fans prefer that medium. Additionally, his solo piano album Zero, released by ESP-Disk’ in 2018, will be put out on vinyl for the first time, also in 2024.

Circular Temple has marked many firsts for Matthew Shipp: his first CD release, first piano trio album, first of many times on record with Parker and Dickey, first album to be reissued, and on ESP-Disk’s reissue of it, first CD-only album to finally appear on vinyl and first album to be released by three different labels. And, more trivially, the first Shipp album that current ESP head/reissue producer Steve Holtje acquired, back when the only choices were that and a 1988 LP-only duo by Shipp and saxophonist Rob Brown on the Cadence label.

Released here on vinyl for the first time ever, this collection of rare recordings by Australian rock legends FRATERNITY was unearthed and curated by author and co-manager Victor Marshall from the archives of original band manager Hamish Henry whilst performing research for his book on the band, entitled 'Fraternity: Pub Rock Pioneers' (Brolga Publishing 2021). - Original cover artwork by renown Australian artist Vytas Serelis who also designed the cover artwork for Flaming Galah. - Deluxe package includes gatefold jacket packed with original press clippings and previously unpublished period band photos plus extensive liner notes by original band co-manager Victor Marshall. - Album features legendary AC/DC front man BON SCOTT on lead vocals! His work with FRATERNITY put Scott on the radar of George Young, AC/DC co-producer and older brother of Angus and Malcolm, eventually leading to Scott replacing then-front man Dave Evans in 1974.

Columbarium are a Belgian (the village of Zwevegem) heavy doom metal band, formed in 2021 but comprised of seasoned members from the regional doom scene over the last ten years.

Having played about a hundred gigs in a former incarnation (as Loose License) in Belgium, The Netherlands and France with bands like The Gates Of Slumber, Nekromant, Marche Funebre, Serpent Venom, FAAL, Famyne and King Hiss, they have built a serious reputation as a live act in the last decade.

The addition of an extra guitar / keyboard player some years ago (Koen Biesbrouck, formerly also from the avantgarde / instrumental rock band Locus Control) has taken the music to another horizon and that newfound sound was the cradle for the band’s rebirth, which led to renaming the band Columbarium.

The four guys found that sound with Belgian producer Lander Cluyse from Hearse Studio (Amenra and Aborted) and with Brad Boatright from AudioSiege Mastering Studio (Portland - Monolord and Pig
Destroyer).

Featuring guest vocals from Michelle Nocon (Bathseba / Serpentcult / Of Blood And Mercury).

The LP is pressed on green vinyl.

For fans of Paradise Lost, Winter, Tiamat, Swallow The Sun, My Dying Bride, Opeth, Celtic Frost, Anathema, Cemetary, Katatonia, Autopsy, Candlemass.

‘Just Before The World Starts Burning’ is the debut album from The Sleeping Souls. Known
globally as Frank Turner’s loyal bandmates and fellow road warriors they have played
together for over a decade. But alongside this role, Tarrant Anderson (bass), Matt Nasir
(piano), Callum Green (drums), Ben Lloyd (guitar) and together with Frank’s guitar tech
Cahir O’Doherty (Fighting With Wire, Jetplane Landing and currently New Pagans) on
vocals, they have branched out on their own with an album of driving and at time heavy
rock anthems that are as sharp as a butchers knife with poignant hard hitting lyrics and
crunching guitar riffs.

‘Just Before The World Starts Burning’ is the debut album from The Sleeping Souls. Known
globally as Frank Turner’s loyal bandmates and fellow road warriors they have played
together for over a decade. But alongside this role, Tarrant Anderson (bass), Matt Nasir
(piano), Callum Green (drums), Ben Lloyd (guitar) and together with Frank’s guitar tech
Cahir O’Doherty (Fighting With Wire, Jetplane Landing and currently New Pagans) on
vocals, they have branched out on their own with an album of driving and at time heavy
rock anthems that are as sharp as a butchers knife with poignant hard hitting lyrics and
crunching guitar riffs.

»Arches« is the first collaborative album by brothers Simon and Tobias Lanz. It was written for and performed on self-built prototypes of wind instruments that were inspired by the classic pipe organ, but allowed the two composer-performers to go beyond its limitations in several ways. The music on this 40-minute long album for the Swiss Hallow Ground label was conceived and recorded by the two co-founders of the CRTTR collective and label during an artist residency in May 2022 in their home town of Bern. More than a mere document of a performance however, »Arches« combines the artists’ interest in exploring uncharted new creative and tonal ground inside of and beyond the realm of drone music with their background in visual art and design as a conceptually concise whole.

Simon and Tobias have a combined background in electronic music as well as a shared penchant for drone music. They hence designed these novel instruments in a way that allows for microtonal tuning to be able to overcome the restrictions inherent to the dominance of a twelve tone-based scale in Western music and work with a sonic palette that is much wider and nuanced than that of the conventional pipe organ. Furthermore, the physical design of these instruments widely differs from that of those which inspired them. This allows—or more precisely, forces—the musicians to freely invent and explore entirely novel playing techniques.

These factors, of course, also have an impact on the compositional process, which by design needs to be unconventional. The Lanz brothers worked with a graphic score for the four movements of the piece that forms »Arches« so as to adequately visualise the manifold tonal nuances of their instruments. This graphic score in turn was reinterpreted for the album release by Ramon Keiming, adding another dimension to it. Read from left to right, this remix of the score allows the listeners to follow an interpretation of the evolution of these dronescapes while the record plays, urging them to add their own interpretation.

This retroactive visualisation and thus spatialisation of the music is perfectly in line with its performance, which at all times factored in the acoustic affordances of the Prozess Bar in Bern. In many different ways, the Lanz brothers now invite their audience to join them there and explore the near-infinite possibilities of their curious instruments together with them. Much like Hallow Ground label mates such as Kali Malone or FUJI||||||||||TA, they are dedicated to enriching and expanding upon the musical and sonic qualities of pipe organs, but with widely different aesthetical results. To call »Arches« a unique record with an unheard-of sound is not hyperbole, but only factually correct.

Collecting orders for repress!

Afro Dub Funk & Punk Of Recreational Records '81-‘82

Emotional Rescue returns to what it does best by unearthing musical gems of the British post punk scene with a double pack compilation of Bristol's short lived Recreational Records.

Teaming up with Bristol Archive Records, 10 songs are remastered, reissued and cut loud for DJs and collectors. What is most striking is, although created in the space of just two years, with a disparate collection of artists, musicians and producers coming together, the music holds a considerable cohesive sound.

Set up in 1981 by Bristol based shop, Revolver Records, Recreational was formed as an independent label with its own distribution, as part of the co-operative, Cartel. The label was a natural progression from the shop's punk's DIY aesthetic, acting as a hang out and inspiration for local artists from Mark Stewart to later staff member, Daddy G.

'Get It Right' starts with a one-off project in Scream + Dance, who similarly, alongside local bands Glaxo Babies, Maximum Joy and Rip Rig & Panic, explored post-punk with funk and jazz all underpinned with heavy tribal and dub influenced rhythms. 'In Rhythm', with its infectious groove, acts as a call to arms for the compilation, coming in two parts, the latter dropping away to explore the links with dub.

Next is possibly the label's biggest band in Talisman, going on to be active up to today, their release 'Run Come Girl / Wicked Dem' are both featured in long 12" mixes that explore the classic 'discomix' of vocal and dub in longform.

Animal Magic lead with the pack's title, 'Get It Right' a short-driven punk funk burst that captures the label's sound to perfection. However, much of the compilation is given over to the more experimental side of the bands, with a high percentage the B sides where they headed to the mixing desk for echo chambered dub inspired versions.

X-Certs' 'Untogether; Electric Guitars' 'Don't Wake The Baby' and Animal Magic's 'Trash The Blad' are culled from the flips of various 7" singles and all are a fusion of percussive rhythms, studio trickery and dub inspired techniques, played out against the "Do it Yourself" aesthetic of the time.

To complete is London based, soukous, kwela and afrobeat inspired collective, Ivory Coasters' 'Mungaka Makossa' and two rhythmic curveballs by Scream + Dance in 'Giocometti (Wicked Mix)' and their riotous (and short) closer, 'In Pink & Black'. "Get it right this time, get it right!".

Founded in 2016, Belleville Boogie is a DJ collective inspired by the vibrant energy of Belleville's nightlife. The collective’s soul feeds on bringing people to bounce on an eclectic curation of vinyl. Belleville Boogie’s debut release is the brainchild of Lemon McWright and Jan Decent.

Born from the depths of lockdown, "Le Pacifique" is a balearic slow burner that captures the longing for the dance floor, while "Grateful" takes us on a jazz-infused journey featuring the talents of FredMelosax, Charif Megarbane, and Rafael Powell. For those who remember the early days of the French House scene, "J'aime Danser" is a playful nod to the scene that shaped us, while "Bella Belleville" lures you into a hypnotic, downtempo trance that's perfect for intimate gatherings or solo listening.

Crafted with the same heartiness as our parties, we're excited to spread the Belleville Boogie spirit with this vinyl. Be sure to check out our upcoming events to see when we'll be bringing the dance floor to your city. Let's keep the good times rolling!

Behind the alias GO.SOUL.MAP. hides Salvo 'Dub', one of the most authentic and purest talents with a marked sensitivity,
not only artistic, of the current music scene in Catania, of which, under other guises and names, he has been an indispensable pillar for over a decade.

The debut album of this project is anticipated by two preview tracks that will be released not only digitally, but also in physical format on 7" / 45 rpm.

The launch single is 'Pushing', an explosive track in a Nu-disco key, modern but firmly rooted in the past, with a production that enhances the sound of the keyboards; full of 70s/80s Funk and Soul, it also has a Disco-Pop vein that makes it perfect for radio. The track is excellently performed by Derane Obika of Living Sounds. A Londoner of Nigerian origin, as well as an exceptional singer, Derane is also the author of the song's melodic lines and lyrics, which can be interpreted as a dialogue between an imaginary interlocutor and his spiritual guide journeying through the maze of life.

The 'Pushing' 45 will feature as a B-side an exclusive instrumental version (the one sung by Reiwa Pia will be included on the full-length) of 'Back In The Underwater', a track that combines a Hip-Pop groove with cinematic atmospheres.

GO.SOUL.MAP.'s debut album is titled 'Peaceful Sound for Broken Minds' and is scheduled for release February 28th 2024, a little gem in which pop and soul intersect and the clichés between mainstream and underground leap. A SpaceNu-Disco, Soul and R&B journey in which Derane Obika's fundamental contribution to the lyrics and melodies of no less than nine tracks out of twelve stands out! - This is a greatly anticipated album made for the ears of music lovers performed and produced by musicians with same love for the art of music.
Dont miss it!!!!!!

Over the last years a lot of '90s Italian tiny labels (or sublabels) gained a lot of attention from djs and collectors worldwide, starting a curious lottery of blind-buys and sleepless digging session.

Mammut Records is certainly one of the most persued and elusive, proposing a distinct and recognizable dark sound. A good part of the label's productions are still unknown.

Evasione Digitale is excited to release the first reissue of this great catalogue.

Reissue of the highly sought-after 7” from 1979 by Chicago
reggae outfit Gypsy Fari.
Gypsy Fari was a project born in the south side of Chicago
after a chance meeting between St Kitts expat Leroy Webster
and local music grad Kevin Coleman. The pair set out to blur
the boundaries of genre with their unique brand of music,
spearheaded by Webster’s Caribbean roots and fused with
the soul and blues the midwest is famous for.
A striking stand-out of the band’s repertoire comes via their
debut recording, laid down at Curtis Mayfield’s legendary
Curtom Studios. The EP opens with Chi-Town Reggae - a
super-charged blend of reggae and disco, led by Websters
infectious vocal, steeped in soul and powered by a relentless
rhythm section. Hail Jah follows closely, written on the hilltops
of the outskirts of Kingston, Jamaica, it’s a deadly roots reggae
missile that pays homage to Websters beginnings.
Once dubbed by a local news outlet “Gypsy Fari are to
Chicago reggae what Muddy Water is to Chicago blues” -
now remastered, repackaged and made available again for
the first time since its initial release

Llevamos mucho tiempo trabajando en este proyecto familia, y desde lo más profundo de la estepa manchega… tenemos el orgullo de presentar nuestra primera referencia en formato vinilo, un 12” que se introduce en el amplio espectro del amen breaks , jungle y esos sonidos rotos que tanto nos caracterizan, para ello quisimos contar con artistas que nos han apoyado siempre en el camino.

BELLOTA DUBS serán los encargados de ofreceros un breackcore mas que significativo , serio, elegante y contundente, como ya bien nos tienen acostumbrados.

BOOMBASS BROTHERS no podía faltar nuestros hermanos de alegrias y fatigas que tanto camino hemos recorrido juntos.

Los cordobeses se han encargado frecuencias más undergrounds fundiéndose con un amen breaks que tiene su esencia más que reconocible.

SILLY TANG y su amor por la cumbia, va a caracterizar mucho este track no dejará a nadie indiferente, para ello nos ofrece un tema de los que dejan huella allá donde vayas.

PABLO DREAD consideramos que las producciones de Pablo son “brutales”

En esta ocasión nos deja un track, que nos remonta años atras, en esas raves noventeras con teclados, y con esa finura y elegancia que tanto le caracteriza.

En definitiva un vinilo que engloba uno de los estilos que nos mueve, nos aporta,y nos da una gran amplitud donde todos nos vamos a sentir mas que a gusto, con los distintos enfoques que nos ofrecen estos pedazo de artistas, que han cumplido nuestras expectativas de largo y con en el cual nos sentimos realmente orgullosos de presentar este primer EP.

Increíble currazo que se ha pegado nuestro hermanito @adrian__bd millones de gracias Adri más contentos no podemos estar.

Esperamos que sea de vuestro agrado aunque solo sea una minima parte de lo que de verdad a sido este proyecto para nosotros.

Muy pronto en vuestra tienda de vinilos de confianza.

Jerome Hill returns with his 5th full EP on the label to warm you up for winter and it’s maybe stylistically, his widest offering yet.

A joyous mash of influences collide and Hill spits them out of the blender with some typically unexpected curveballs.

From the strikingly moody break beat acid of The Warning, to the 8 minute long extended Disco workout of ‘Harlseden Shuffle’. Then on the flip side, a reliably gnarly wedge of Technoey Acid House in ‘Combustion Zone’ and the EP culminates with a tip of the hat to mid nineties House with the rumbling bass and catchy percussion of ‘House Thing’.

Its obvious Jerome’s having fun with this EP and hopefully you will too !

Saxophonist Alex Hitchcock continues his mission to seek out new sounds and textures at the forefront of contemporary jazz, and to act as a catalyst to bring together some of the finest musical talents drawn to the fervid internationalism of the contemporary London scene His response to the current challenging climate for artistic endeavour is to go big and go bold: Dream Band: Live in London is a truly groundbreaking project presenting three different 'dream bands' of his favourite musicians, captured live over three nights at London's legendary Vortex club performing music specially composed for each ensemble. The extraordinary line- ups he assembled are testament to the respect he has earned among his peers as a composer, player and bandleader with a uniquely inspiring vision. The band for the first night features the frontline of Mark Kavuma's trumpet and Liselotte Ostblom's vocals blending together over the trio of Rob Luft, Rio Kai, and Jamie Murray: the second features James Copus on trumpet with longtime musical partners Kit Downes on piano and Lewis Wright on vibes, and Conor Chaplin and Marc Michel supplying bass and drums, and the third sets Downes' piano alongside the guitar of Ant Law and Alexandra Ridout's trumpet, with the international all-star rhythm section team of Orlando le Fleming and James Maddren. Part of the album's delight lies in the unexpected combinations of these acclaimed players, and the new levels of creativity that they bring forth; the constant presence of Hitchcock's unmistakeable voice on tenor sax and the strength and consistency of his writing gives the project a compelling unity. Each of the three bands brings their own unique blend of voices to Hitchcock's compositions, taking them in directions unforeseen even by their composer.

Grand River and Sofie Birch are set to unveil their collaborative EP, titled “Our Circadian,” on November 24, through Melantónia.

The two-track release follows Grand River’s final release under the now-discontinued Editions Mego label earlier this year, and Sofie Birch’s two solo albums from 2022. Our Circadian represents the second collaborative release on Melantónia, a platform founded by Hanna Maria & Mattia Onori in 2021, dedicated to music for non-dance environments, featuring early contributions from artists like Polygonia, Plants Army Revolver, and Melantónia co-founders Hanna Maria & Mattia Onori themselves, amongst others.

“Our Circadian” was conceived remotely in 2021 during the lockdown, with the aim of encapsulating two distinct moments of those days – early morning and late afternoon – along with their subtle emotional nuances. The first track of the release – 7PM – conveys dreamy atmospheres that flow into colorful rhythms, recalling the electroacoustic nature of the label’s melancholic sounds. The gloomier 3AM, on the other side of a 7“ record, offers a timeless introspection of a gently intensifying synth sound’s fling.

Grand River, a composer and sound designer, brings her background in linguistics to her work. She draws inspiration from minimalism and ambient music, resulting in atmospheric and rhythmically intricate compositions. Her artistic pursuits traverse the realms of art and electronic music, exploring forms of communication that transcend language, often influenced by nature, scale, and movement. Grand River’s impressive portfolio includes sound installations at 4DSOUND/Monom and Terraforma’s Il Pianeta, as well as performances at prestigious venues like Barbican, Rewire, MUTEK, Le Guess Who?, CTM, Draaimolen, and Atonal’s Kraftwerk. She has also worked on remixes for notable acts like Tangerine Dream. Since 2016, she has curated the label One Instrument, offering a unique creative challenge to artists: creating music using only a single instrument.

Sofie Birch, a celebrated sound artist and producer, is known for her lush ambient releases, art installations, live performances, DJ sets, and her NTS show “Ambient Abracadabra.” Her sonic creations can manipulate space, infuse it with a profound sense of calm, and invite listeners to engage in meditation and introspection through the healing qualities of sound and vibrations. Her music acts as a conduit for understanding the complexities of the mind and body through artistic expression, characterized by a distinct emphasis on stillness, suspension, and sustain. Sofie’s soundscapes open gateways to dream-like states of perception and heightened presence, providing a transcendental journey into an alchemical biosphere. Her extensive repertoire includes performances at renowned events such as Barbican, Roskilde Festival, MUTEK, Unsound, CTM, Rewire, Monom, and Terraforma, as well as award-winning compositions for VR experiences and animated films, in collaboration with artists like Baum & Leahy and animation director Pernille Kjaer.

As Our Circadian takes its final form, it promises a narrative of resilience, creativity, and the indomitable human spirit guided by the artistic mastery of Grand River and Sofie Birch.

‘A Concrete Pasture’ by Coen Oscar Polack is the follow-up to ‘Haarlemmerhout’ (2020), an album named after a park close to his home in Haarlem in the Netherlands. ‘A Concrete Pasture’ brings Polack’s interest in exploring the larger world around him back into his music. Polack is a magician in combining field recordings from all over the world, be it a temple in Bangkok, the Dutch Wadden Islands or a the percussive Gamelan instruments, and electronic processing of these recordings. With all these ingredients he creates a vivid, nostalgic, futuristic but familiar world of sounds and emotions.

At first, the colors of the recordings seem scattered, the sounds unrelated, but there is a deeper train of thought running through the music. It is the persistent impression of a travelogue; of places, family and friends, helping Polack in co-creating his music. In ‘Cuore Nero’, nostalgic powerchords are composed into tapestries of ambient-noise, ‘Unseen Shores’ uses a recomposed recording of Polack’s children on the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog and develops into visceral, almost spiritual music, and a field recording of Wat Po in Bangkok in ‘Phra Buddhasaiyas’ becomes a luminous homage that the incorporated guitar sound burns into your skull.

While listening, it becomes evident that Polack is being reflective in auditive images and memory, giving a meaning to a music that is liberated of its formalities and charged with a poignant imagery by transformation, one that is bright and lucid and respects the process from recording until ornamentation.

The longest piece of the album ‘Kraaiennest’, starts with the recording of a Hong Kong traffic light, later to be cut up and transformed into a technoid Musique Concrète piece, with a slow progression into a warm crescendo-decrescendo themed electroacoustic piece, which takes on a life on its own. The finale is Polack on this tenor saxophone putting a stamp on the completion of his work, a performance reminiscing of the raw expressiveness of Albert Ayler.

‘A Concrete Pasture’ points to a landscape, or to a person’s current situation in life. Coen Oscar Polack did himself justice by writing an elegant, vibrant album, a tribute to his reflection of reality, his aesthetics, and with raw authenticity and skill, leaving a great space for the audience’s imagination.