Diffuse Reality presents Rotor Militia - Exit Human A double LP on vinyl, also available in digital format. Eight tracks that will flood your heart, mind, and soul with emotion. Robust and powerful Techno built on off-beats, broken rhythms, and industrial sounds, layered with celestial textures and atmospheres. A constant interplay of immersive drums drives the energy throughout the record. Without a doubt, a very special vinyl, a timeless piece. Prepare yourself for a journey with no return!
In a year which marks the 40th anniversary since the initial formation - under the moniker of Black Death - of what would subsequently grow into influential genre legends, 2026 marks the return of the imperishable Norwegian duo of Fenriz & Nocturno Culto for their new opus of high calibre old metal, under the banner of ‘Pre-Historic Metal’. As Fenriz himself proclaims of the title’s symbolic origin, “Prehistoric is a loose term. I just figure it’s our VIBE, our take on things & it’s more a statement that we use old style to create something new”.
‘Pre-Historic Metal’ contains eight tracks of primal epics & gargantuan riffs with organic sound & the ever-present permeating spirit of the 70’s & 80’s, for a new continuation of the mastery witnessed on 2024’s ‘It Beckons Us All’. This next chapter in Darkthrone’s extensive & ongoing catalogue presents a vast odyssey through the sonic landscapes of Thrash, Black, Heavy & Doom Metal &, adorned with a punishing & “in your face” guitar presence, Darkthrone stirs the cauldron of savage creativity with a nod to the writing methods which were indicative of their earlier works of the late 80’s, but with a more refined craft.
'Pre-Historic Metal' was recorded at Chaka Khan Studios, Oslo, with production work conducted by Ole Øvstedal, Silje Høgevold & Mads Luis. Mastering was carried out by Jack Control at Enormous Door, & Maor Appelbaum Mastering.
This edition of 'Pre-Historic Metal' is presented on black vinyl.
Camera Obscura feiern das 25-jährige Jubiläum ihres Debütalbums ,Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi" mit einer Vinyl-Neuauflage bei Merge Records. Seit der ursprünglichen Veröffentlichung in Großbritannien bei Andmoresound im Jahr 2001 ist das Album in diesem Format vergriffen. Die Jubiläumsausgabe kommt als die definitivste Version von ,Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi", die je auf Vinyl gepresst wurde, und enthält beide B-Seiten der Single ,Eighties Fan" - ,Shine Like a New Pin" und ,Let's Go Bowling" -, die später den erweiterten CD-Neuauflagen des Albums hinzugefügt wurden. ,Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi" wurde nach seinem Erscheinen wiederholt von John Peel in seinen BBC-Radiosendungen gespielt. Das Album ist ein bemerkenswert selbstbewusstes Debüt, ein voll ausgereifter Ausdruck eines Sounds, der die Fans der Band seit ihrem ersten Durchlauf des von Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian) produzierten ,Eighties Fan" bis zum letzten Hören des 2024 erschienenen Studio-Comebacks von Camera Obscura ,Look to the East, Look to the West" in seinen Bann gezogen hat. Diese Fans haben lautstark gefordert, dass ,Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi" die Vinyl-Neuauflage erhält, die es schon lange verdient hat. Wenn man die Nadel auf Tracks wie ,Swimming Pool", ,Pen and Notebook" und ,Happy New Year" setzt, ist leicht zu hören, warum: Jeder der 12 Songs des Albums ist ein perfekt beobachteter Ausschnitt aus dem Leben, der durch opulent detaillierte Arrangements filmisch inszeniert wird. Es ist zeitlose, grundsolide Popmusik, wie sie nur Camera Obscura machen kann, geeignet für die Hi-Fi-Anlagen von 1966 und 2026 gleichermaßen.
Gravity Pleasure welcomes Maude Vôs for their most intimate EP offering to date, Medicinal Properties. Dripping in serenity and grounded in connection, Medicinal Properties is a musical elixir concocted with the healing modalities of the natural world and derived from the intentional planting and nurturing of sapphic seeds. Through minor modes, swimming cinematics and mineral-rich textures, Vôs traverses an ecosystem of sensuality and bonding, a symbiotic journey of long-distance love colored and shaped by their affinity for the earth.
Taking root in California and continuing throughout Ireland, Iceland, and Montreal, the EP translates this cross-continental connection by blurring the lines of timezones, genres, and natural landscapes. Inspired by sea swims, country oyster cottages, diner pancakes, snow flurries, geothermal soaks, mossy mornings, and adventures to igneous formations, Vôs invites you to experience this potent body of work, which forms the harmonious emotional bedrock of both kinship and creation.
Support comes from Yushh (“LOVE, so good!!!”), Jossy Mitsu (“Incredible <3”), Mixtress (“v pretty”), Peder Mannerfelt (“hot”), Batu (“like Maude Vos, downloading”), Vladimir Ivkovic (“Good! Thank you”), and OM UNIT (“Orr kore is lush”), amongst others.
A label compilation can be the first sign of a new cycle. After years shaped by individual trajectories, it brings the focus back to what made scenes powerful in the first place: shared language, mutual influence and a sense of collective movement.
For a label built on deep rhythm, organic textures and emotional drive, this carries an even stronger meaning. These musical spaces hold connection, memory and exchange at their core.
In this light, a compilation becomes more than a format: it becomes a statement of identity, a meeting point where different voices contribute to one evolving vision.
“MoBlack presents: MELODIC NIGHTS” marks the start of this new MoBlack path guided by careful curation and artistic exchange, blending percussive depth with a more melodic approach.
The result is a four-track selection navigating different shades of introspection and release, held together by a strong and recognizable sonic character.
Klement Bonelli – “It’s My Life” sets the tone with a bold, emotionally charged cut that balances melodic lift with a club-focused pulse. it’s jud, MR.FULLTIM€ – “Jackfruit” adds a distinctive twist to the journey, playful in texture yet precise in its impulse, widening the palette with character and movement. Jay’ (CH) – “Our Fire” leans into atmosphere and intensity, building momentum through evocative harmonies and a steady emotional current. Max Zotti, Blaxx – “Release Your Pain” closes the collection with a cathartic, rhythm-led energy, delivering what feels both intimate and dancefloor-ready. More than a one-off release, “MELODIC NIGHTS” introduces a collection designed to highlight converging sensibilities, where each track stands on its own while contributing to a wider narrative.
Artwork by Rachael D’Alessandro. Executive producer Mimmo Falcone. Distribution by Muting The Noise.
A two-tracker rooted in movement and memory.
It’s Girls Night / Long Hair marks a confident next step for the Amsterdam-based, Dutch-Argentinian artist, pushing deeper into darker, more physical territory. Built from warped drum patterns, low-end pressure and distorted, inhuman textures, it leans fully into a percussion-led, club-focused sound.
It’s Girls Night is immediate - fast, raw, and unrelenting.
Long Hair pulls things into a heavier, more ritualistic space - broken rhythms, slower tension, deeper atmosphere.
Shaped by formative nights in places like De School, the EP reflects a direct connection to the dancefloor - where repetition, intensity and immersion take over.
A concise, impactful release and the first in a series with fabric Originals
Cassette[14,50 €]
Aspen is very proud to introduce ‘Non Sonett’ by the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble. This ensemble is a pioneering Norwegian chamber group whose work on ECM and Hubro has redefined the boundaries between jazz, contemporary composition and folk music.Across seven albums, the ensemble has developed a highly distinctive l anguage built on restraint, timbral nuance and collective interplay, placing it among the most influential European ensembles of the 21st century.
Bringing together some of the finest musicians in Norway, the ensemble draws on a rare collective sensitivity, where each player contributes to a deeply integrated and texturally rich sound world.
With Non Sonett, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble opens a new chapter that grows directly out of recent years of work in more solitary and cross-disciplinary contexts. In this period, Wallumrød has developed material for solo performance as well as for dance, allowing ideas to take shape in more fluid and exploratory formats. Some of this material now finds its way into the ensemble, where it is met by the possibilities offered by instrumentation, collective playing, and the distinct voices of the musicians. At the same time, older pieces—originating in entirely different settings— re-emerge here in new forms, reshaped by the ensemble context.
A defining aspect of Non Sonett is the way many of the pieces function less as fully determined compositions and more as open frameworks: starting points, suggestions, or “springboards” for music. These structures invite response rather than prescribe outcome, relying on the ensemble’s inherent sensitivity and capacity to realize and transform the material in performance. The result is music that feels both precise and fluid, shaped in equal measure by composition and by the interpretative presence of the players.
Central to this album is a continued deepening of Wallumrød’s long-standing interest in ambiguity and in dissolving boundaries between different musical elements and expressive worlds. By placing contrasting materials and associations side by side—sometimes subtly, sometimes more overtly—the music opens up spaces where meanings remain fluid and interconnected. On Non Sonett, this approach is taken a step further, allowing these juxtapositions to play an even more active role in shaping the music’s character and flow.
This approach connects closely with the ensemble’s broader artistic trajectory. Over time, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble has developed a language that is immediately recognizable—marked by reduction, clarity and a deep attention to sonic detail. While each release has its own character, the underlying aesthetic remains consistent: a focus on the inner life of sound itself. Rather than foregrounding gesture or virtuosity, the music draws the listener toward the smallest elements, where meaning emerges gradually through texture, spacing and timbre.
The listening experience becomes one of concentration and proximity, where each sound carries weight, and the accumulation of detail forms a larger whole. References may be sensed—to early polyphonic music, Norwegian folk traditions, or more recent experimental practices—but these are absorbed into a singular musical language that resists categorization.
As with the ensemble’s recent work, Non Sonett also continues the integration of electronics as a fundamental part of the sound world. Each musician engages with electronic elements alongside their acoustic instruments, creating a layered and dynamic sonic environment. At times, this leads into extended, exploratory passages reminiscent of analogue musique concrète; at others, electronics operate almost imperceptibly, subtly altering and extending the acoustic textures in real time.
vinyl[21,81 €]
Aspen is very proud to introduce ‘Non Sonett’ by the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble. This ensemble is a pioneering Norwegian chamber group whose work on ECM and Hubro has redefined the boundaries between jazz, contemporary composition and folk music.Across seven albums, the ensemble has developed a highly distinctive l anguage built on restraint, timbral nuance and collective interplay, placing it among the most influential European ensembles of the 21st century.
Bringing together some of the finest musicians in Norway, the ensemble draws on a rare collective sensitivity, where each player contributes to a deeply integrated and texturally rich sound world.
With Non Sonett, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble opens a new chapter that grows directly out of recent years of work in more solitary and cross-disciplinary contexts. In this period, Wallumrød has developed material for solo performance as well as for dance, allowing ideas to take shape in more fluid and exploratory formats. Some of this material now finds its way into the ensemble, where it is met by the possibilities offered by instrumentation, collective playing, and the distinct voices of the musicians. At the same time, older pieces—originating in entirely different settings— re-emerge here in new forms, reshaped by the ensemble context.
A defining aspect of Non Sonett is the way many of the pieces function less as fully determined compositions and more as open frameworks: starting points, suggestions, or “springboards” for music. These structures invite response rather than prescribe outcome, relying on the ensemble’s inherent sensitivity and capacity to realize and transform the material in performance. The result is music that feels both precise and fluid, shaped in equal measure by composition and by the interpretative presence of the players.
Central to this album is a continued deepening of Wallumrød’s long-standing interest in ambiguity and in dissolving boundaries between different musical elements and expressive worlds. By placing contrasting materials and associations side by side—sometimes subtly, sometimes more overtly—the music opens up spaces where meanings remain fluid and interconnected. On Non Sonett, this approach is taken a step further, allowing these juxtapositions to play an even more active role in shaping the music’s character and flow.
This approach connects closely with the ensemble’s broader artistic trajectory. Over time, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble has developed a language that is immediately recognizable—marked by reduction, clarity and a deep attention to sonic detail. While each release has its own character, the underlying aesthetic remains consistent: a focus on the inner life of sound itself. Rather than foregrounding gesture or virtuosity, the music draws the listener toward the smallest elements, where meaning emerges gradually through texture, spacing and timbre.
The listening experience becomes one of concentration and proximity, where each sound carries weight, and the accumulation of detail forms a larger whole. References may be sensed—to early polyphonic music, Norwegian folk traditions, or more recent experimental practices—but these are absorbed into a singular musical language that resists categorization.
As with the ensemble’s recent work, Non Sonett also continues the integration of electronics as a fundamental part of the sound world. Each musician engages with electronic elements alongside their acoustic instruments, creating a layered and dynamic sonic environment. At times, this leads into extended, exploratory passages reminiscent of analogue musique concrète; at others, electronics operate almost imperceptibly, subtly altering and extending the acoustic textures in real time.
A groundbreaking collision of Atlantic psychedelia and cosmic dub!
A collaboration set to leave a lasting mark: Sensible Soccers join forces with dub master Mad Professor for an EP that redefines the boundaries of this year's electronic music.
Available in both physical and digital formats, this release captures a rare and powerful meeting of two distinct yet deeply connected sonic worlds. The result is a fully immersive experience—a new form of post-dub psychedelia, blending hypnotic grooves, expansive textures, and deep sound system vibrations.
The opening tracks, “Dub de Saia Travada” and “Berlaitada Dub”, are pure dancefloor catalysts: magnetic rhythms, heavy basslines, and a lysergic energy primed to ignite clubs and festivals throughout the summer. Music designed for movement, for the body and the mind—an invitation to lose yourself in collective, hallucinatory dance rituals.
Closing the EP is “Dub Discreto”, a cosmic and visionary journey that pushes the project even further. Here, dub meets the synthetic waves and abstract explorations of cosmic sound pioneers like Cluster and Klaus Schulze—reimagined through the warmth and depth of Jamaica. A timeless experience, suspended between deep space and earthly vibrations.
This EP is more than a collaboration—it’s a bridge between cultures, eras, and states of consciousness. An essential release for record stores, distributors, and listeners seeking something truly forward-thinking.
On his fourth solo album, and debut work for Nick Klein's Psychic Liberation imprint, Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø presents »Faint Light Blackens«, a negotiation between the atomized instrumentation of the solo trombone is pushed towards a full range wall of sound over the concise sprawl of seven distinct acts on two sides of a vinyl record.
The seven acts that make up the album were developed specifically for recording within Emanuel Vigeland’s »Tomba Emmanuelle«. The fresco within the mausoleum anchors themes of existential weight, ripe with weighted imagery of love, birth, and death. The solemn space is a cavernous acoustic terrain wherein reverberant reverie makes it almost impossible to speak aloud, let alone sing through horn and electronics. This chamber's expanse is baked into the compositional directions employed on »Faint Light Blackens«.
Experientially, the record was produced in a long form performance gesture, with no overdubs. While edited to fit the record format, no additional post production coloring took place. Here Nørstebø shines as an instrumentalist, wherein the symbiosis of the site specific architecture and his sound sources are synced. At once musing and brooding, the gamut of emotive sonic landscapes is at play for a fully dynamic listening experience. The territory in Nørstebø’s vocabulary through interplay with the mausoleum is not vaulted , unlike Vigeland’s urn’ed ashes. On »Faint Light Blackens«, the spirit takes bound beyond the cavern and reanimates the listeners stereo alters for a holistic listening experience of perfectly challenging electroacoustic endeavors.
Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø – acoustic & amplified trombone, monotron, feedback, sound files.
Recorded by Espen Reinertsen October 10. and 11. 2023 in Tomba Emmanuelle, Oslo Norway.
Cover Photos and mix by Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø
Mastered by Helge Sten (Deathprod) at Audio Virus Lab
Redux, an ambient-folk album from Portland, Oregon musician, poet, and multimedia artist Dao Strom, is a collection of nine resurrected pieces. Reimagining songs she initially composed as a member of the Austin, Texas alt-country and singer-songwriter scenes of the early 2000s, Strom reworks these lost songs into ambient-folk mini-epics—part grounded and earthly, part ethereal and otherworldly. Drawing on an intimate yet spacious palette of folk, ambient, and experimental textures, woven through with a poetics of vulnerability and quiet emotion, Redux explores song as gently reverberant fields of layered vocals over finger-picked guitars with touches of electronics and sampling. Strom’s musical journey initially began in a roots and acoustic vein, simultaneously with her career as a fiction writer. In the years since, she has moved from Austin, Texas to Juneau, Alaska to Portland, Oregon; her work too has expanded across genres into more experimental formats of poetry, music, and multidisciplinary art. In returning to these earlier songs, Strom reclaims and revives them, exploring her relationships to time, voice, and the continuances of emotion and memory. The word redux means “brought back; revived”; a sense of something restored—earlier renditions of some of the Redux songs were recorded with Austin-based collaborators and producers; some songs were written in that time period but never recorded. Produced, performed, and recorded by Strom alone in her home studio, Redux is a return and reemergence of the artist to her own most personal, intuitive structures and atmospheres of voice, sound, and song. Released on cassette by Antiquated Future Records, and reissued on vinyl in 2026 by Disasters By Choice.
Dao Strom is an artist who works with three “voices”—written, sung, visual—to explore hybridity and contemplate the intersection of personal and collective histories. Her music releases move between “song-poem” cycles and ambient-folk albums. She is the author/composer of several hybrid projects that blend poetry, music, and visual art into unique multimodal experiences, including Tender Revolutions/Yellow Songs, a song-cycle with set of four chapbooks, jointly released by Beacon Sound, Antiquated Future Records, and The 3rd Thing Press (2025), and Instrument/Traveler’s Ode, a poetry-art collection and song-cycle released by Fonograf Editions and Antiquated Future Records (2020). Born in Vietnam and based in Portland, Oregon, Strom began her musical journey in the early 2000s, when she first began infusing into the context of “Americana” folk/roots music her own diasporic Vietnamese experience and stories. Her music has since moved in more experimental directions, resisting easy categorization, yet still maintaining tendrils of folk ethos. She also writes songs about the ineffable nuances of emotion, memory, and connection, as captured on the album, Redux, which gathers songs from across her songwriting years into an ambient-folk setting, self-produced and recorded by Strom, released on cassette in 2022 by Antiquated Future Records, and reissued on vinyl in 2026 by Disasters By Choice. As a multidisciplinary artist, Strom has presented performance and installations at venues such as the Time Based Art Festival (Portland Institute for Contemporary Art) and Moving Poets Novilla in Berlin, Germany, and has received awards from the Creative Capital Foundation, Spark Artist Award, and others. Strom is also a founding member of She Who Has No Master(s), a collective of Vietnamese women writers and artists making polyvocal poetry-art works as a means of reaching across borders.
Das Remix Paket für Charles Petersohn’s Children Of Zu Zu EP glänzt durch seine Vielfalt zwischen jazzy Broken Beats und Afro/Deep House, mit Re-Works von Mary Olivetti, Moodorama, als420, Viktor Marek, The Greater Manchester Housing Authority und Charles Petersohn selbst.
“Der gemeinsame Wunsch, dass die Tracks der EP an die Idee anknüpfen sollen, dass ein Remix ein eigenes Kunstwerk sein kann, ist voll aufgegangen. Alle Mixe haben eine persönliche Handschrift, nutzen die Originals als Material, mit dem nach Herzenslust gespielt wurde. Ich bin sehr glücklich!” Charles Petersohn
Format: Vinyl 12“ Full Cover mit schwarzer Innenhülle und rundem Sticker
RAINY DAY ED.[24,79 €]
Pete Lambrou, the visionary composer and multi-instrumentalist behind VLMV (pronounced "Alma"), is one of the most singular voices emerging from the ambient, post-rock, and experimental scenes in the UK. With a career that spans atmospheric solo work, film and television scoring, and evocative live performance, Lambrou has carved out a distinctive sonic universe he describes as "ambient-ish post-something" (Pete Lambrou) a playful yet accurate summation of a sound that is at once genre-fluid and deeply immersive. The album takes its title from Sara Teasdale's 1918 poem and Ray Bradbury's later short story, both of which imagine a world continuing quietly after humanity's disappearance. This idea became the gravitational centre around which the record formed. Written during a period of deep engagement with climate fiction and ecological thought, `There Will Come Soft Rains` reflects on humanity's legacy, its technological ambition, and its uneasy relationship with the natural world. A century on from Teasdale's poem, the balance of power feels less certain, and Lambrou's music inhabits that tension with remarkable subtlety. "The initial ideas stem mostly from chaos, randomness or sound exploration and then get shaped as I go. Typically, and certainly for this album. It's evolved since album 1, which was more song / chord based. It's a fun process of finding the sound and then working out whether it's speaking to me - or merely just a cool noise. That's fun, but it sometimes can't evolve or progress, so then begins the long journey of shaping it into some sort of song format - which doesn't have to be a-typica,l but whatever feels right to me. The subject matter and overall theme is important too - it's got to all make sense within itself. There's no point having a slowly creeping theme and then rush the music." (Pete Lambrou) VLMV embody an emotional honesty that works with patience and nuance. Whether you're encountering his music for the first time or returning to its quiet depths, VLMV offers an aural space that resonates long after the final note fades. Lambrou's singular sonic language sits at the intersection of ambient, post-rock, modern classical, and experimental electronic music, while remaining unmistakably human at its core. "Instrumentally it's far more synth based - as soon as I had the concept, I wanted to make sure technology clash and marry with traditional instruments (at different times) in a sort of slow-moving dance I suppose. One is nature, one is human development and technology. Sometimes working together and sometimes in opposition. On my previous albums I'd say that at least half of the tracks started life as songs, whereas with `There Will Come Soft Rains` I think the majority (if not all) started as experiments in sound." (Pete Lambrou) Sonically, the album is VLMV at its most cinematic and textural. Warm, intimate piano figures and elegiac string arrangements are set against unstable modular synthesis, fractured rhythms, and evolving sound design. The organic and the artificial are locked in a slow, shifting dialogue, mirroring the album's central themes. At times the music feels tender and nostalgic, at others unpredictable and mournful, yet it never tips into despair. Instead, a quiet resilience runs throughout the record. "The album is slightly unusual in that it was mixed in Dolby Atmos before being mixed down to stereo. Most, if not all, do it the other way round. That's because I got to work with a superb mix engineer who just happens to live opposite. It was extremely random and lucky, moving to a tiny hamlet in the South of England and there being a Dolby Atmos studio opposite with a genius of an engineer. We had in mind that we would do it this way round and enjoy the mix process and give everything its own space - it still had issues when folding down to stereo, but overall a more pleasurable mix!" (Pete Lambrou) There Will Come Soft Rains has a geological sense of time: themes creep, expand, erode, and reform, resisting conventional structures in favour of something more patient and immersive. Each sound exists because it needs to; they move, recede, and emerge with a three-dimensional clarity that enhances the music's cinematic quality, giving each element room to breathe while maintaining an enveloping sense of cohesion. Lambrou's unique voice is Intimate and fragile, his vocals hover above the instrumentation, a guiding thread through the expansive soundscapes, drawing listeners closer into the emotional core of each piece. "Long time vocal collaborator Anja Madhvani did lots of harmonies on the album - I wanted to include her voice as much as possible on this album. In terms of string players - 3/4 have been long term collaborators with me. Marie Schreer actually recorded all strings on my first album ALMA, and Fraser & Clodagh have worked on every album (and occasional live shows) since Stranded Not Lost. In terms of art - Joel Cammarata designed the cover, and accompanying art - he designed Sing With Abandon and I absolutely adore his work, but also - he's so great at understanding and developing and capturing the concept." (Pete Lambrou) Layered harmonies drift through the music like distant signals or half-remembered voices. Madhvani's presence adds a human fragility to the album's vast soundscapes, reinforcing the sense of memory and longing that runs beneath the surface. The strings, performed by a close circle of trusted collaborators, further ground the record in warmth and physicality, acting as a counterweight to the synthetic elements that threaten to unravel it. "Despite the heavy subject matter, I wanted to create an album that imparts hope and optimism, marrying traditional instrumentation as nostalgia, with technological innovation through the randomness of modular synths." (Pete Lambrou) The partnership with Pelagic Records feels both organic and significant. Known for championing artists who value emotional weight, sonic ambition, and artistic integrity, the label provides a natural home for VLMV's work. Lambrou's music shares Pelagic's ethos: immersive, patient, and unafraid of scale whether intimate or vast. With There Will Come Soft Rains, Pete Lambrou has crafted a work that feels timely without being didactic, expansive without being overwhelming. It stands as a quiet, but powerful statement that lingers long after the final notes fade. FOR FANS OF Sigur Ros * Olafur Arnalds * Radiohead * Keaton Henson * This Will Destroy You
Pete Lambrou, the visionary composer and multi-instrumentalist behind VLMV (pronounced "Alma"), is one of the most singular voices emerging from the ambient, post-rock, and experimental scenes in the UK. With a career that spans atmospheric solo work, film and television scoring, and evocative live performance, Lambrou has carved out a distinctive sonic universe he describes as "ambient-ish post-something" (Pete Lambrou) a playful yet accurate summation of a sound that is at once genre-fluid and deeply immersive. The album takes its title from Sara Teasdale's 1918 poem and Ray Bradbury's later short story, both of which imagine a world continuing quietly after humanity's disappearance. This idea became the gravitational centre around which the record formed. Written during a period of deep engagement with climate fiction and ecological thought, `There Will Come Soft Rains` reflects on humanity's legacy, its technological ambition, and its uneasy relationship with the natural world. A century on from Teasdale's poem, the balance of power feels less certain, and Lambrou's music inhabits that tension with remarkable subtlety. "The initial ideas stem mostly from chaos, randomness or sound exploration and then get shaped as I go. Typically, and certainly for this album. It's evolved since album 1, which was more song / chord based. It's a fun process of finding the sound and then working out whether it's speaking to me - or merely just a cool noise. That's fun, but it sometimes can't evolve or progress, so then begins the long journey of shaping it into some sort of song format - which doesn't have to be a-typica,l but whatever feels right to me. The subject matter and overall theme is important too - it's got to all make sense within itself. There's no point having a slowly creeping theme and then rush the music." (Pete Lambrou) VLMV embody an emotional honesty that works with patience and nuance. Whether you're encountering his music for the first time or returning to its quiet depths, VLMV offers an aural space that resonates long after the final note fades. Lambrou's singular sonic language sits at the intersection of ambient, post-rock, modern classical, and experimental electronic music, while remaining unmistakably human at its core. "Instrumentally it's far more synth based - as soon as I had the concept, I wanted to make sure technology clash and marry with traditional instruments (at different times) in a sort of slow-moving dance I suppose. One is nature, one is human development and technology. Sometimes working together and sometimes in opposition. On my previous albums I'd say that at least half of the tracks started life as songs, whereas with `There Will Come Soft Rains` I think the majority (if not all) started as experiments in sound." (Pete Lambrou) Sonically, the album is VLMV at its most cinematic and textural. Warm, intimate piano figures and elegiac string arrangements are set against unstable modular synthesis, fractured rhythms, and evolving sound design. The organic and the artificial are locked in a slow, shifting dialogue, mirroring the album's central themes. At times the music feels tender and nostalgic, at others unpredictable and mournful, yet it never tips into despair. Instead, a quiet resilience runs throughout the record. "The album is slightly unusual in that it was mixed in Dolby Atmos before being mixed down to stereo. Most, if not all, do it the other way round. That's because I got to work with a superb mix engineer who just happens to live opposite. It was extremely random and lucky, moving to a tiny hamlet in the South of England and there being a Dolby Atmos studio opposite with a genius of an engineer. We had in mind that we would do it this way round and enjoy the mix process and give everything its own space - it still had issues when folding down to stereo, but overall a more pleasurable mix!" (Pete Lambrou) There Will Come Soft Rains has a geological sense of time: themes creep, expand, erode, and reform, resisting conventional structures in favour of something more patient and immersive. Each sound exists because it needs to; they move, recede, and emerge with a three-dimensional clarity that enhances the music's cinematic quality, giving each element room to breathe while maintaining an enveloping sense of cohesion. Lambrou's unique voice is Intimate and fragile, his vocals hover above the instrumentation, a guiding thread through the expansive soundscapes, drawing listeners closer into the emotional core of each piece. "Long time vocal collaborator Anja Madhvani did lots of harmonies on the album - I wanted to include her voice as much as possible on this album. In terms of string players - 3/4 have been long term collaborators with me. Marie Schreer actually recorded all strings on my first album ALMA, and Fraser & Clodagh have worked on every album (and occasional live shows) since Stranded Not Lost. In terms of art - Joel Cammarata designed the cover, and accompanying art - he designed Sing With Abandon and I absolutely adore his work, but also - he's so great at understanding and developing and capturing the concept." (Pete Lambrou) Layered harmonies drift through the music like distant signals or half-remembered voices. Madhvani's presence adds a human fragility to the album's vast soundscapes, reinforcing the sense of memory and longing that runs beneath the surface. The strings, performed by a close circle of trusted collaborators, further ground the record in warmth and physicality, acting as a counterweight to the synthetic elements that threaten to unravel it. "Despite the heavy subject matter, I wanted to create an album that imparts hope and optimism, marrying traditional instrumentation as nostalgia, with technological innovation through the randomness of modular synths." (Pete Lambrou) The partnership with Pelagic Records feels both organic and significant. Known for championing artists who value emotional weight, sonic ambition, and artistic integrity, the label provides a natural home for VLMV's work. Lambrou's music shares Pelagic's ethos: immersive, patient, and unafraid of scale whether intimate or vast. With There Will Come Soft Rains, Pete Lambrou has crafted a work that feels timely without being didactic, expansive without being overwhelming. It stands as a quiet, but powerful statement that lingers long after the final notes fade. FOR FANS OF Sigur Ros * Olafur Arnalds * Radiohead * Keaton Henson * This Will Destroy You
Contemplating the role of the album format in an attention-deficient society, Speedy J presents Walkman -- a constantly shifting, 90-minute soundtrack to a journey of your choice. Jochem Paap's first solo album in over 20 years is a freewheeling, 20-track testament to his decades-deep studio skill and sonic versatility, running from skewed rhythmic rabbit holes to exploratory tonal abandon. For Paap, the traditional idea of the album had become obscured by listening habits and the non-stop information barrage of our digital lives. Having moved on from his breakthrough years releasing LPs and touring off the back of them, he was more inspired to develop his many-sided STOOR project and feed into a bigger artistic body of work than the temporary shelf-life of a single release. As is natural for any artist, his perspective shifted over time and he found himself drawn back to the idea of an album, realising he connected best with longer releases while he was on a walk, out for a run or generally in transit one way or another. With an endearing call back to the humble Walkman, he selected an hour and a half of material created during studio sessions at the beginning of 2025, perfectly sized to fit on two 45-minute sides of a cassette tape. As has long been the case for his studio practice, there were no fixed intentions when sitting down in the STOOR lab to start making noise -- just a wealth of experience and an expansive set of tools to start exploring with. From hours of jams Paap pulled together standout moments and moulded them into a mixtape-like narrative ranging from two-minute beat nuggets to full-tilt techno workouts and immersive ambient drops. Every sound is intentional, but the overall delivery is instinctive and curious, showing multiple new dimensions to Paap's sound and offering unpredictability at every turn. 'Arp Amp Chasm' opens the album up in a thick blanket of humming, harmonic waves with an electric emotional charge, while 'Ctrssalms17 (Cold Render)' journeys through evocative blooms of melancholic, gritty pads and rugged, half-submerged tech funk. 'Modern Birds (Origin Edit)' reaches skywards with grand sweeps of dynamic, brilliantly rendered synthesis. From the dexterous drum science of 'Drift Vector' to 'Osc Hop (Slow Collapse)'s lurching, beatless swamp of synths, on Walkman even the briefest snapshots leave an impression that lasts beyond the quick-scan cycle of the modern music experience. With his return to the album format, Paap's message is clear --put your headphones on, get outside and lose yourself in the sound of an artist constantly committed to moving forwards.
Death Is Not The End collaborate with Uzbek label Maqom Soul to deliver an LP counterpart to last year's mixtape of the same title, compiling specially picked & fully licensed individual belters from the ex-soviet studios of Central Asian republics between 1978 and 1989 - incl. Uzbek, Tajik, Kurdish & Uyghur artists pulling traditional folk motifs together with pop & rock and psych elements.
"These recordings do not form a smooth or coherent history. They feel more like a sequence of discoveries made at different moments and in different circumstances. Songs and instrumental pieces that once lived inside specific contexts radio broadcasts, philharmonic programs, touring routes now sit side by side, revealing hidden connections as well as clear fractures between them.
Nasiba Abdullaeva appears here as a voice from the end of an era. Trained within a conservatory system, she worked inside the format of the Soviet pop song while filling it with melodic logic that did not come from Moscow or Leningrad. Her voice is soft and sustained, shaped by Eastern melisma, and it never functions as decoration. Even in tightly structured songs there is a sense of resistance, an effort to preserve a musical language rooted in Uzbek tradition rather than fully adapted to an all Union standard.
The ensemble Sintez, later renamed Navo, represents a different path. Beginning as a student rock group, the band was gradually absorbed into the official VIA system with all its limitations and compromises. Yet it was precisely within those boundaries that Sintez and Navo developed a recognizable sound. Electric guitars and jazz rock harmonies do not overpower the folk material but remain in tension with it. Their recordings feel like negotiations between what the musicians wanted to play and what they were allowed to perform.
The Tajik ensemble Gulshan reflects an institutional approach carried to a high professional level. Formed under television and radio structures, the group treated folk material almost as a written score. Carefully constructed arrangements, close attention to orchestration, and restrained use of pop techniques define their sound. There is less spontaneity here, but a strong sense of discipline and structure, where national melody becomes part of a carefully controlled sonic framework.
Koma Wetan occupies a very different space. Formed in the 1970s, this Kurdish rock group approached poetry and folklore as tools of cultural assertion. Their psychedelic rock never feels like a stylistic borrowing. Instead it functions as a contemporary vessel for language and themes that might otherwise have remained unheard. Even today these recordings sound fragile and stubborn at the same time.
The Uyghur ensemble Yashlik, closely connected to a musical drama theatre, operated somewhere between stage performance and popular music. Their songs are built on folk melodies but shaped for wide audiences. What emerges is a constant attempt to preserve the recognizability of Uyghur musical identity without freezing it in a folkloric frame. Yashlik's music exists in a state of balance between representation and development.
Digging Central Asia does not attempt to establish hierarchies or offer a single wayof listening. Names and dates matter less than the sound itself. Tape noise, abrupt transitions, and unexpected timbres remain part of the material rather than flaws to be corrected. This music existed at the crossroads of multiple routes geographic, cultural, and ideological. Heard today in a new context, it no longer feels peripheral. Instead it stands as a reminder that the history of popular music is far more fragmented, layered, and polyphonic than it is usually allowed to be."
KITCHEN. LABEL is proud to present AGATE, the latest album by Japanese artist MEITEI, marking a deepening of the world he first shaped through his Kofū trilogy released between 2020 - 2023.
Named after the mineral agate, a stone formed through slow accumulation, pressure, and time, the album reflects MEITEI’s patient approach to sound. AGATE brings together extended and newly rearranged works from across the Kofū cycle alongside new compositions and passages, refining material developed through years of performance and sustained practice.
The album presents seven tracks:
HAŌ (Previously unreleased track)
SHIN-OIRAN (Remodeled from Oiran I, Kofū 2020)
SHIN-SADAYAKKO (Remodeled from Sadayakko, Kofū 2020)
SHIN-WAROSOKU (Remodeled from Wa-rōsoku, Kofū III 2023)
KYŪGEKI (Remodeled from Shinobi and Akira Kurosawa, Kofū II 2021)
SHIN-OIRAN II (Remodeled from Oiran II, Kofū 2020)
SHIN-EDOGAWARANPO (Remodeled from Edogawa Ranpo, Kofū III 2023)
Across these works, MEITEI expands the musical vocabulary first introduced in Kofū, a sound he once described as “lost Japanese mood.” While Kofū drew from fragments of folklore, theatre, ghost stories, and forgotten urban memory, it was never an act of historical reconstruction. Rather, it reflected a sensibility of the past observed from the present. With AGATE, this worldview is clarified as Shinpu, a process of discovery in which historical awareness becomes a foundation for contemporary creation rather than a constraint.
During five years of Kofū tours across Japan, Europe, and Asia, MEITEI performed this material in a wide range of spaces, from underground live houses and listening rooms to culturally significant sites. These environments influenced pacing, dynamics, and structure, shaping how the material evolved over time. AGATE is therefore not only a studio album, but the result of material refined through repeated performance.
If the Kofū albums were windows into forgotten eras, AGATE explores what lies beneath, sediment and strata formed through time and pressure. MEITEI’s approach to sound mirrors the nature of agate itself. Grains become texture. Texture becomes narrative. Voices drift through decaying layers of sound, while ancient instruments are used in non-traditional ways, forming distinctive percussive rhythms and melodies that appear and vanish without fixed resolution.
The album’s visual materials were developed under MEITEI’s direction through physical art-making processes. The cover artwork originates from a letterpress print created by Kamisoe, a Karakami atelier in Nishijin, Kyoto, using Kyo-karakami paper. The original artwork, produced through traditional woodblock techniques on handmade washi, was subsequently reproduced on print for the album edition. Kamisoe continues to reinterpret this historical Kyoto craft with a contemporary sensibility.
The title calligraphy was created by Bio Xie, whom MEITEI personally invited to participate in the project. During his performances abroad, MEITEI encountered in Taiwan a lingering atmosphere reminiscent of “Shitsunihon” — a sense of old Japanese memory that quietly endures beyond time. He was deeply drawn to Bio Xie’s distinctive use of Chinese characters, which resonated with this experience, and asked him to contribute to the visual expression of AGATE.
In parallel, MEITEI continues to reinterpret Japanese sensibility through his concept of “Shitsunihon,” presenting it as a contemporary musical language. The refined Kyoto motifs envisioned by Kamisoe and the distinctive calligraphic expression by Bio Xie intersect with MEITEI’s singular artistic direction, weaving together a newly articulated worldview.
The accompanying visual imagery, including the liner photographs, was created by photographer Hiroshi Okamoto, who was also responsible for the visual direction of MEITEI’s previous work, “Sen'nyū.” It draws from MEITEI’s lived experiences of winter seas, solitary cliffs, and breaking waves. These scenes symbolize the inner conflicts of the ten years he spent living in Hiroshima, and his confrontation with solitude and the sounds he creates.
AGATE will be released on 17 April 2025 via KITCHEN. LABEL on 180g vinyl, CD, and digital formats. The album is mastered by Kelly Hibbert, known for his work with Flying Lotus, Madlib, and J Dilla.
With AGATE, MEITEI returns to the material of Kofū with greater focus and discipline, continuing an ongoing process of working forward with inherited material.
LA underground hubs DISCOS XXX aka DX3 and Elbow Grease join forces to proudly present Point Winona Sound Library Vol 1 — featuring 20 distinct artists from the inspired local dance music scene, working under one unified studio roof in various collaborative
formation at the mighty Los Feliz hilltop palace Point Winona, overseeing the city they collectively represent. These timeless warehouse-wrecking tracks all stand on their own, but the compilation as a whole offers a solid geographic sonic statement with shared rhythmic DNA and bold rooted-futurist production blueprints, guided by the champion efforts of studio executive producers/curators Tavish DJ and Dave Aju.
The BPS stage-setting opener evokes crispy A.M. hours with lush Detroit-meets-Cali feels on “Within Reason” — then studio dream team 5 ATMs bring the dubwise floor vibes up a notch on “A Dub Called Mondo” and Chitown-to-LA legend Scott K lays down an FM bass-laced acid house heater with “Tighter & Tighter”. Nashville-born producer Gryph funks things up on the live space boogie bump of “Winona at Sunset” while SSRI, comprised of Underground Resistance’s DJ Dex/Nomadico, Aju, and Black Lodge’s fearless leader Kosmik, drop fierce robo-Italo bliss on “Omnicallora”. Things take a further psychedelic twist with the PW edit of Scotty Coats’ sublime midtempo tripper “Be Work Zone Alert”, then Omakase’s own Gold Code alongside longtime rave brother Aju drop the nasty J Saul-salute “Yolo Jungle”, and Warehouse Preservation Society aka Tavish DJ & TK fully detonate floors inna raucous Wicked Crew stylee with “Data Bliss”. Undisputed LA scene queen Stacy Christine arrives with her shining debut “Smart Move”, where she and Aju trade sly vox lines of party advice over a bouncing tech banger for the ages, before the “Obsesion Romantica (Free Winona Dub)” sees Sisters Of Sound aka Maddy Maia and Tottie's, OG track getting stripped back and fired up to acidic peak time form. Then Dave Aju and SF homies Moniker aka EO & Kenneth Scott unleash wild uptempo melodic bruk heaven on “Chuy Luis”, and Vastir sends us home with the stratospheric drum n bass closer "Turnpike"
Celestial Echo returns with a proper UK soul classic — The Cool-Notes “I Forgot How To Love You”, back on 12” and cut loud for the dancefloor.
Hailing from South London, The Cool-Notes were one of the UK’s most consistent soul outfits through the late ’70s and ’80s. While many know them for their chart successes later in the decade, this early period shows the band in a formative state — warm basslines, tight rhythm section, rich harmonies and that unmistakable Britfunk feel.
“I Forgot How To Love You” is one of those records that’s quietly done the rounds for years. A favourite of Frederika’s back in the day, it’s about time it has it’s first ever reissue.
Presented on 12” in a clean company sleeve, this edition gives the record a new lease of life.
Celestial Echo is here to put proper soul records back into circulation — Buy or Cry
