Cerca:different

Powerful works of art have traditionally sprung from some source deep within an artist and, if they strike the right tone, resonate with an audience to leave a lasting mark. But what if that equation were reversed: what if an artist were to draw their inspiration from deep within their audience, and use that to reflect those ideas, emotions, hopes, fears, pains and aspirations back to us?

Over a two year journey, audio-visual artist and electronic innovator Max Cooper has inverted the creative process by collecting hundreds of anonymous quotes, posing deep but open questions such as "What would you like to express which you cannot in everyday life?" and "What is it like to exist inside your head?"

The goal: to understand what it is truly like to be human right now. The result: his new album On Being, to be released in February 2025 with the first single "Sun In A Box" coming this September 4th.

With On Being, Cooper aimed to probe under the synthetic surface of social media to "create a snapshot of our minds these days," as he puts it by asking people to share anonymously what they dare not ever say publicly. The result is an emotionally raw and shockingly honest kaleidoscope of confessions, ranging from suicide contemplations to miserable marriages to simple pure loneliness, contrasting with hundreds of anonymous confessions of love and longing.

"I was interested in the way I interact with people for my writing process, which usually involves a one-way communication of feelings and ideas that I later find out whether they resonate with others or not," says Cooper.

"With this I could start instead with people's thoughts and feelings, what resonates for them, and make my own interpretations of those musically and visually, and then send those back out to everyone. It's more of a collaborative approach to making an album, and more intense."

Grief, hope, regret, joy, hurt and love form the basis for each track, taking Cooper's ever-evolving creative process in a completely new direction - with profoundly intense results.

"Rendering the experience of being is at the core of what I do musically - but I hadn't realised the impact that other people's words on being would have on me until I started reading the database of thoughts," he says.

"It was like finding a secret window into everyone's minds, and discovering amongst the chaos, pleasure and pain, the experiences that we all share at different times of our lives, and overwhelming emotions and connections that call out to be explored."

Despite what we see in the maelstrom of rage in the echo chambers of society ‘On Being’ reveals that humans still have an innate need to trust one another and express communal generosity - more easily done from the safety of an anonymous portal.

"The quotes carried so much weight for me - I interpreted them with my usual musical tools, but as you can hear in the music, everything got more extreme as I dove into the depths of what everyone had to say later in the record," says Cooper.

The result is a unique work of art that demonstrates unequivocally not only the power of using music without words to express emotions, but the power of words to express what seemed to be inexpressible.

On Being will continue to evolve as Cooper gathers more confessions to feed into this ecosystem of emotions and to create a new range of art projects and other accompanying works which hopefully will speak truthfully to humanity today - and of who we are and who we can become.

Free-floating. Inspired. Multi-layered. Al Pagoda’s debut Lucky Veil for Bigamo certainly was many different things, but, above all, a highly impressive sleeper album that offered something new with each and every listening. It also felt a bit dizzy and lonely, but maybe that’s what’s happening when you relocate yourself to Berlin as an artist during the cold season.

Four years later, many of these characteristics still remain intact, but the sonic identity of Al Pagoda has evolved: the feeling of solitude made room for something way bigger, precise, and ambitious sounding. This transformation is shaped by the creative partnership with German producer Berend Intelmann, whose rhythmic expertise has become integral to their shared musical vision.

Our debut single with Senpolya was born out of desire to create some modern Russian pop infused with references to the 80s dance music. While making 80s-inspired tunes is popular nowadays, this decade means different things to different people: be it A-ha and Modern Talking or African boogie and Chicago house. But we ended up making neither one nor the other.

The crowd who contributed to this release is absolutely legendary. Each time I listen to it and think of them, a new dimension opens up in my mind, adding up some deeper layers of context Ive immersed myself in over the past few years.

An italian producer and bass player Marco Boccamazzo created the first remix. By adding bass guitar and strings, he took the track back by another ten years.

DJ Popinjay, an alter ego of a tropical disco master who wishes to remain anonymous, provided the second rework.

The third remix or more like an essentially an entirely new track, comes from Sonestrose, a duo consisting of Andrey Algorithmic, an art director of Moscow Powerhouse, and Alexander Basian, the studio's sound engineer.

Ignat Akimov, also known as DJ Pecan and an art director of Esthetic Joys Embassy, crafted the fourth hallucinogenic remix, which spans from acid house with Indian drums to cool jazz sound.

Lipelis and Scruscru help me in making some key decisions about the tracks structure, arrangement, and mixing.

Ilya Varankin made a photo of us (on film!) and Nikita Demin designed the cover picture inspired by Daptone Records.

At last, I want to thank my wife, Masha Dostoewskaya, without whose love and patience I wouldn't have been able to see this project to an end.

Reaching yet another creative high watermark, piano virtuoso, multiplatinum songwriter, and social media sensation Tony Ann announces the pre-order of his anxiously awaited full-length sophomore album, 360°, on February 21, 2025.

Once again, Tony advances creatively on 360°. Each song functions as a meditation on a different horoscope, encompassing 12 keys at different meters and tempos. It plunges listeners into a living and breathing musical ecosystem punctuated by bliss and catharsis. He employs the full range of the piano to evoke the singularity of these respective astrological signs. The entire suite revolves around his virtuosic chops, melodic empathy, and electrifying energy. Once again, he redefines the neoclassical space.

There are records that come from the soul. No matter how primitive may be the recording techniques the musician has access to, the soul gets its way to the heart and mind of the listener. Samtvogel' is one of those records. Günter Schickert recorded that amazing piece of human greatness in 1974, using the media he had at the time, putting his brain at work to find the best way of taping everything he had to say. When I was recording Samtvogel' in 1974 I had only 2 Taperecorders. I played one track and while listening I added the second one. And so on. Four times. When I mixed all together I borrowed a 3rd taperecorder. And still added the last track to the master. I had a small mixer with 2 stereo and 1 mono but it was possible to pan tracks. No equalization. It all came out of my still living G2000 Dynacord guitar amplifier, of course valve, with no master, even the voice recorded through it. If I made a mistake in 1 track I had to repeat it from the beginning. And if while mixing I was not fast enough in changing the tape I had to start again. So it took me more than 3 months to get ready.'

Thanks to these three months of work, between June and September of 1974, 'Samtvogel' was privately issued that same year. It would later be issued on the Brain label, with a small change in the artwork -titles added to the front cover, which weren't on the original private pressing. Brain also reissued it on the label's Rock On Brain' LP series, this time with a completely different sleeve. The album contained two tracks on side one and just one on side two, and its sound has often been compared to the most explorative works of Syd Barret - however it must be pointed that Schickert did not need any mind spreading substances to allow his sounds float out of his mind & soul, they just came out in the most natural way. It will also appeal to fans of the echoed athmosferic guitar work of other kraut innovators such as Ash Ra Tempel, Manuel Götsching or A.R. & The Machines, and some may find on the vocal passages certain resemblances to Damo Suzuki on Can's 'Tago-Mago' era.

The Wah Wah reissue is housed in a quality sleeve that reproduces that of the original 1974 private pressing and features a 4 page insert with liners and photos - sound remastered at Eastside mastering Berlin. Get this bird now, before it flies away again!

There are records that come from the soul. No matter how primitive may be the recording techniques the musician has access to, the soul gets its way to the heart and mind of the listener. Samtvogel' is one of those records. Günter Schickert recorded that amazing piece of human greatness in 1974, using the media he had at the time, putting his brain at work to find the best way of taping everything he had to say. When I was recording Samtvogel' in 1974 I had only 2 Taperecorders. I played one track and while listening I added the second one. And so on. Four times. When I mixed all together I borrowed a 3rd taperecorder. And still added the last track to the master. I had a small mixer with 2 stereo and 1 mono but it was possible to pan tracks. No equalization. It all came out of my still living G2000 Dynacord guitar amplifier, of course valve, with no master, even the voice recorded through it. If I made a mistake in 1 track I had to repeat it from the beginning. And if while mixing I was not fast enough in changing the tape I had to start again. So it took me more than 3 months to get ready.'

Thanks to these three months of work, between June and September of 1974, 'Samtvogel' was privately issued that same year. It would later be issued on the Brain label, with a small change in the artwork -titles added to the front cover, which weren't on the original private pressing. Brain also reissued it on the label's Rock On Brain' LP series, this time with a completely different sleeve. The album contained two tracks on side one and just one on side two, and its sound has often been compared to the most explorative works of Syd Barret - however it must be pointed that Schickert did not need any mind spreading substances to allow his sounds float out of his mind & soul, they just came out in the most natural way. It will also appeal to fans of the echoed athmosferic guitar work of other kraut innovators such as Ash Ra Tempel, Manuel Götsching or A.R. & The Machines, and some may find on the vocal passages certain resemblances to Damo Suzuki on Can's 'Tago-Mago' era.

The Wah Wah reissue is housed in a quality sleeve that reproduces that of the original 1974 private pressing and features a 4 page insert with liners and photos - sound remastered at Eastside mastering Berlin. Get this bird now, before it flies away again!

There are records that come from the soul. No matter how primitive may be the recording techniques the musician has access to, the soul gets its way to the heart and mind of the listener. Samtvogel' is one of those records. Günter Schickert recorded that amazing piece of human greatness in 1974, using the media he had at the time, putting his brain at work to find the best way of taping everything he had to say. When I was recording Samtvogel' in 1974 I had only 2 Taperecorders. I played one track and while listening I added the second one. And so on. Four times. When I mixed all together I borrowed a 3rd taperecorder. And still added the last track to the master. I had a small mixer with 2 stereo and 1 mono but it was possible to pan tracks. No equalization. It all came out of my still living G2000 Dynacord guitar amplifier, of course valve, with no master, even the voice recorded through it. If I made a mistake in 1 track I had to repeat it from the beginning. And if while mixing I was not fast enough in changing the tape I had to start again. So it took me more than 3 months to get ready.'

Thanks to these three months of work, between June and September of 1974, 'Samtvogel' was privately issued that same year. It would later be issued on the Brain label, with a small change in the artwork -titles added to the front cover, which weren't on the original private pressing. Brain also reissued it on the label's Rock On Brain' LP series, this time with a completely different sleeve. The album contained two tracks on side one and just one on side two, and its sound has often been compared to the most explorative works of Syd Barret - however it must be pointed that Schickert did not need any mind spreading substances to allow his sounds float out of his mind & soul, they just came out in the most natural way. It will also appeal to fans of the echoed athmosferic guitar work of other kraut innovators such as Ash Ra Tempel, Manuel Götsching or A.R. & The Machines, and some may find on the vocal passages certain resemblances to Damo Suzuki on Can's 'Tago-Mago' era.

The Wah Wah reissue is housed in a quality sleeve that reproduces that of the original 1974 private pressing and features a 4 page insert with liners and photos - sound remastered at Eastside mastering Berlin. Get this bird now, before it flies away again!

The new recording of The Book of Sounds is an intimate exploration of the piano by pianist Carlos Cipa - a way of looking into the sound, of listening into the moment when Cipa's fingers press down on the piano keys. The Book of Sounds, composed between 1979 and 1982 by composer and pianist Hans Otte, is a musical pendulum movement of one hour in twelve 'pieces', as the composer himself describes them. Chords and melodies repeat themselves, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly; they follow each other in harmonic cadences and yet never dissolve - a timeless back and forth.
The Book of Sounds is the European-German answer to the concert music of American minimalism. But it is also the essence of many questions about society and the human condition at that time. Inspired by Zen Buddhism, Otte was convinced that a return to simplicity, to the unagitated - a piano, harmonic cadences, a middle register - frees the listener to focus on what is really important in art: the human being. Introspection begins with listening. Seldom have simple chords and melodies been so selectively staged. It is a process of endless reduction - no wild sound dramaturgies, no climaxes, hardly any beginning or end. The interpreting pianist simply prepares a tableaux of perception for the listener. Cipa naturally sets accents; he recorded the 12 pieces on three different pianos - a Steinway grand piano, a Yamaha piano, and a Yamaha CP-70, an early electric piano - to help shape the tonal characteristics.
Carlos Cipa hits the nerve of the times with this new recording. What music can be as art is still up for debate today. The Book of Sounds is not 'art-proof' and in this it is still a provocation today; absolutely unspectacular and practising relaxation. It is a wonderful invitation to feel, experience, and perhaps even find oneself in the confrontation with the work - and for a moment not to fuel the discourse. Cipa, who otherwise appears as a composer himself, here carries out Otte's intended gesture of withdrawal in a double sense and steps into the background as creator but also interpreter, in order to bequeath The Book of Sounds to the loudspeakers and headphones at home in one step forward.

The heyday of American baroque pop – or chamber pop - ran from 1966 to the turn of the seventies. It used string quartets, harpsichords and woodwinds to create a summer-into-autumn melancholy that was quite new, and quite far removed from rock’n’roll as Eddie Cochran would have known it. Baroque pop’s musicians often came from a folk background, with an affinity for acoustic instrumentation. Linda Ronstadt's first band the Stone Poneys had introduced the autoharp to their line-ups in 1965, while the likes of Bonnie Dobson and Nico experimented with a string quartet’s, searching for different, post-electric Dylan directions.

The very first (and long overdue) career-spanning retrospective from Soul music legend P.P. Arnold • A 57 song 3CD set, or 25 song 2LP set featuring singles, album tracks, demos, and previously unreleased songs • A stylishly packaged collection with new sleeve notes by author Jude Rogers • A companion piece to P.P. Arnold's critically acclaimed autobiography Soul Survivor The term "well-established" might be appropriate for some artists but it barely begins to cover the career of the phenomenal P.P. Arnold, whose records and performances are now in their seventh decade.

Her consistently excellent music covers multiple genres, her high-profile admirers and collaborators are plentiful, and yet 'Soul Survivor - A Life In Song' is the first collection dedicated to this extraordinary body of work. Compiled by the artist, 'Soul Survivor - A Life In Song' is being released on a 57 song 3CD set, and 25 song 2LP set, both formats housed in an eye-catching sleeve created by photographer (and close friend) Gered Mankowitz, with extensive new sleeve notes by author Jude Rogers.

Alongside key singles and album tracks it includes previously unreleased recordings, demo versions, live performances, and some rare mixes that are being reissued for the very first time. From her early days at Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label (where she "became one of us", according to Andrew) her allies, associates, and working partners have included the Small Faces, Cat Stevens, Mick Jagger, Barry Gibb, Eric Clapton, Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Blockheads' Chaz Jankel, Roger Waters, Ocean Colour Scene, The Blow Monkeys' Dr. Robert, and Paul Weller. In 2022 P.P. Arnold told her extraordinary life story in her critically acclaimed autobiography Soul Survivor (Mojo magazine called it "a jaw-dropping memoir"); now that book has the soundtrack that it deserves.

Koldbrann's 4th album black vinyl repress. After an almost decade-long period of dwelling in the shadows, Koldbrann returned with a series of select festival appearances in 2022/23, premiering new material and proving that they're still full of cold grimness and misanthropy, and completely void of compromise. After last year's 2-track 7" single "Den 6. Massedod (Manna fra en annen himmel)", their long-awaited 4th album "Ingen Skånsel" is ready to be unleashed - and Koldbrann is sounding rawer, harsher and better than ever. Even though deeply rooted in the True Norwegian Black Metal tradition, Koldbrann has carved out their own sound within the genre confines and it sounds fresh, raw and different. There's a fierce nerve running through the album, and the songs stand out from today's typical black metal sounds. You can feel the aggression throughout the whole album. "Ingen Skånsel" is one of the most interesting, aggressive and fierce Norwegian black metal albums in modern times!

Maud the moth, the solo project of Spanish-born and Scotland-based pianist, singer and songwriter Amaya Lopez-Carromero announces her new album, The Distaff, to be released via The Larvarium (digital +CD) and La Rubia Producciones (vinyl) Amaya has long used the mantle of Maud the moth as an alter-ego, a séance-like conduit to explore themes of rootlessness, identity and trauma. The Distaff in particular refers to the stick or spindle onto which wool or flax is wound for spinning, and an object which has historically been used across multiple cultures as a symbol wielded by the “virtuous woman”, an authoritarian ideal around which much of the trauma surrounding the feminine coalesces. The album takes the form of a sort of self reflective and surreal autobiography. It was in part inspired by the poem of the same name written by the Greek poet Erinna, as she mourns her friend's loss of individuality and agency in exchange for marriage - and therefore safety and acceptance in the eyes of society. The album exists in an ethereal but violent world of aesthetic overlaps where time stands still and fictional and reimagined folk sits at the table with Maud the moth’s usual sonic menagerie. It is the result of a lifetime of obsession with sound and music, where glimpses of musical genre offer insight into Amaya’s artistic interests and her participation in the underground European scene for many years, in bands such as healthyliving. Heavier, darker, and more exposed than any of her previous works it features some highly accomplished artists, such as Seb Rochford (Patti Smith, Polar Bear, Sons of Kemet, Pulled by magnets, etc.) on drums, Alison Chesley (Helen Money) on cello, Fay Guiffo on violin and Scott McLean (Ashenspire, healthyliving, Falloch) on guitar, saxophone and synthesiser. Maud the moth shares the video for "Siphonophores". About the track, Maud the moth says; I wrote "Siphonophores" on guitar, during the first lockdown, a period where I was kind of trapped between an almost empty flat in Edinburgh and Dresden. It was an incredibly harrowing time, but also one of hope and where important new things were being birthed. I felt incredibly sensitive to everything, almost like life was happening in slow motion. I´m not a confident guitarist since I am completely self-taught, but, probably because of this, I feel that this instrument allows me to focus on aspects of the songwriting that I normally overlook when writing on piano, and I think it was a necessary step for this song to exist. Something else which I've been really exploiting lately and features strongly in the album is the percussive capabilities of the piano, and in particular, of the sustain pedal when mic'd up. This can be heard very clearly at the beginning of "Siphonophores". Written and arranged by Amaya, with some contributions in the later role from the aforementioned collaborators, the album presents nine tracks originally written entirely on acoustic piano as accompanied voice pieces, in pure singer-songwriter fashion. The album was co-produced and recorded by Scott and Amaya in different studios across the UK between January and July of 2024, in a process that started shortly after the 2020 pandemic and finished alongside the album recordings in a detailed, organic and at times obsessive process aimed primarily at capturing the natural dynamics and expression of free performance. The Distaff was mixed in its entirety by Scott and mastered at Abbey Road by Alex Wharton (Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, Aurora, Kathryn Joseph etc.) Despite being born of a very personal point of view, the album lacks a specific narrator and was conceived almost as a sonic trousseau, where the needle point, silks and other family heirlooms have been swapped for out-of-the-corner-of-the-eye memories of rural Spain by the vineyards, family disputes, old tales of wartime pains, generational breaches and finally the conflict of migration and estrangement. The songs paint dystopian pastoral scenes which evolve throughout the span of one fictional day outside of time and coherent locations and where imagination (often the only account surviving from traumatic events and gaslighting) has become indistinguishable from fact. The Distaff attempts to acknowledge past trauma, comprehend and process some of the more difficult aspects which have contributed to our darker self and offer closure and solace through creative catharsis.

Maud the moth, the solo project of Spanish-born and Scotland-based pianist, singer and songwriter Amaya Lopez-Carromero announces her new album, The Distaff, to be released via The Larvarium (digital +CD) and La Rubia Producciones (vinyl) Amaya has long used the mantle of Maud the moth as an alter-ego, a séance-like conduit to explore themes of rootlessness, identity and trauma. The Distaff in particular refers to the stick or spindle onto which wool or flax is wound for spinning, and an object which has historically been used across multiple cultures as a symbol wielded by the “virtuous woman”, an authoritarian ideal around which much of the trauma surrounding the feminine coalesces. The album takes the form of a sort of self reflective and surreal autobiography. It was in part inspired by the poem of the same name written by the Greek poet Erinna, as she mourns her friend's loss of individuality and agency in exchange for marriage - and therefore safety and acceptance in the eyes of society. The album exists in an ethereal but violent world of aesthetic overlaps where time stands still and fictional and reimagined folk sits at the table with Maud the moth’s usual sonic menagerie. It is the result of a lifetime of obsession with sound and music, where glimpses of musical genre offer insight into Amaya’s artistic interests and her participation in the underground European scene for many years, in bands such as healthyliving. Heavier, darker, and more exposed than any of her previous works it features some highly accomplished artists, such as Seb Rochford (Patti Smith, Polar Bear, Sons of Kemet, Pulled by magnets, etc.) on drums, Alison Chesley (Helen Money) on cello, Fay Guiffo on violin and Scott McLean (Ashenspire, healthyliving, Falloch) on guitar, saxophone and synthesiser. Maud the moth shares the video for "Siphonophores". About the track, Maud the moth says; I wrote "Siphonophores" on guitar, during the first lockdown, a period where I was kind of trapped between an almost empty flat in Edinburgh and Dresden. It was an incredibly harrowing time, but also one of hope and where important new things were being birthed. I felt incredibly sensitive to everything, almost like life was happening in slow motion. I´m not a confident guitarist since I am completely self-taught, but, probably because of this, I feel that this instrument allows me to focus on aspects of the songwriting that I normally overlook when writing on piano, and I think it was a necessary step for this song to exist. Something else which I've been really exploiting lately and features strongly in the album is the percussive capabilities of the piano, and in particular, of the sustain pedal when mic'd up. This can be heard very clearly at the beginning of "Siphonophores". Written and arranged by Amaya, with some contributions in the later role from the aforementioned collaborators, the album presents nine tracks originally written entirely on acoustic piano as accompanied voice pieces, in pure singer-songwriter fashion. The album was co-produced and recorded by Scott and Amaya in different studios across the UK between January and July of 2024, in a process that started shortly after the 2020 pandemic and finished alongside the album recordings in a detailed, organic and at times obsessive process aimed primarily at capturing the natural dynamics and expression of free performance. The Distaff was mixed in its entirety by Scott and mastered at Abbey Road by Alex Wharton (Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, Aurora, Kathryn Joseph etc.) Despite being born of a very personal point of view, the album lacks a specific narrator and was conceived almost as a sonic trousseau, where the needle point, silks and other family heirlooms have been swapped for out-of-the-corner-of-the-eye memories of rural Spain by the vineyards, family disputes, old tales of wartime pains, generational breaches and finally the conflict of migration and estrangement. The songs paint dystopian pastoral scenes which evolve throughout the span of one fictional day outside of time and coherent locations and where imagination (often the only account surviving from traumatic events and gaslighting) has become indistinguishable from fact. The Distaff attempts to acknowledge past trauma, comprehend and process some of the more difficult aspects which have contributed to our darker self and offer closure and solace through creative catharsis.

Finnish-born producer and pianist Idealism (800K Spotify Monthly Listeners) and French transplant Lucid Green (175k SML) are no strangers to each other’s subtle, yet potent productions. Having worked together on „Untold“ their Sophomore, fully collaborative LP “Unsaid” is a natural journey into the beautiful ambient, downtempo, lo-fi worlds they’ve each created. Through visits to Lucid’s flat in Paris and ideas being exchanged remotely, the duo experimented with different sounds, instruments and aural environments, in the process crafting a natural partnership that sits in a comfortable, melancholic pocket.

With lulling guitar and poignant piano progressions that provide a pillow to rest your ears, and downtempo percussions that keeps you ebbing and flowing along on a subtle current, unsure where one wave ends and the next begins, only the albums progressions dictate the head-nod. The album soars, reminiscent of life’s simple, yet wholly memorable moments.

As with all 823 releases, the project is a visual one as much as it is a musical project. The first singles visualizers are a fusion of Hopes & Dreams Club & 823’s design aesthetics with personal super8 footage captured by Idealism & Lucid Green, beautifully expressed from Hopes & Dreams Club membersi. Each visualizer and single art will easily stand on its own, transporting you to worlds familiar, yet undeniably groovy and sonically comfortable.

823 is a multifaceted Perth-based record label, fashion brand, and artistic community, founded by Australian producer and all-around creative, Ta-ku (630 SML). With an astute attention to detail and an ethos that appreciates the everyday things in life, 823 doesn’t stick to any particular genre. Past 823 releases include “So Far To Go” EP via Cabu (500k SML), Ta-ku and matt mcwaters’s duo project “Black and White,” featuring Masego collaboration “Flight 99” (38mil streams on Spotify), the “All Things Considered” compilations, a curated, collaborative series featuring both budding and well-established artists around the world and have included Idealism, Wun Two, pastels, L.Dre, Flobama, SwuM, Jinsang, Tenderlonious, among a host of others, as well as multiple sold out clothing capsules.

Music is storytelling, and some of the best stories have been told through centuries-old traditional folk songs. On their new album ‘Northern Sky’, The Wellermen have given this rich traditional musical history a new sound, hoping to continue to captivate millions of fans around the world. It helps that The Wellermen’s four members all bring their respective experience and perspectives to the table. The fact that they’re from different corners of the world really adds something to the music - there’s something romantic about the way the members have to go on a voyage to see each other.

The Wellermen’s history is well-known: having been the originators of the sea shanty trend on Tiktok, they’ve since gone from strength to strength, gaining a huge following across social media with new trends linked to their music. Their versions of ‘Misty Mountains’ and Ed Sheeran’s ‘Nancy Mulligan’, along with their spine-tingling rendition of ‘Hoist The Colours’ have racked up billions of views across Tiktok and youtube and over 110m streams of their debut album, and led them to appearances on shows like Ant and Dec, LAst Week Tonight with Jon Oliver, The Colbert Show and more.

The group have now returned with their new album ‘Northern Sky’, where they have gone above and beyond to show they are indeed masters of their craft. Recorded in a cottage in the picturesque hills of Surrey, they poured their considerable knowledge and prowess into the album’s 12 tracks, all of which fit their love of storytelling. On the Scottish folk song ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’, for example, the group’s harmonies and rich vocals capture the nostalgic, wistful nature of the song, which speaks of love and nature’s beauty. The group’s tribute to Johnny Cash on the song ‘Hurt’ is set to be a fan favourite - melding the raw and uninhibited torment of the original with the dignified but heart-rending grief of Cash’s version.

Elsewhere on the record the original song and title track ‘Northern Sky’ is a perfect demonstration of the Wellermen’s gift for creating a real dynamic, steering it gently from the darker, more ominous numbers into something truly uplifting. ‘Tall Tales’, another original, is a wonderful portrayal of humorous one-upmanship - a call-and-response that is likely to get crowds’ feet stomping and hands clapping. Say the Wellermen: “It’s all about connection and storytelling, and we hope the listeners are able to find something meaningful.” One thing is absolutely certain: these talented young men are in it for the long haul.

After four EPs of skeletal kraut-punk and slimmed down post-motorik alienage Milan’s Tv Dust are back with an entirely different beast, their proper debut ‘Transition’, an incredible collection of no-jazz, breakneck rhythms, mutant-wave, trance-funk, shredded sax jags and furious, yet mysterious assaults.

Tv Dust run a tight ship, they jam econo, with the album strongly based around the incredible interplay of drums (Sergio Tringali), bass (Filippo Aloisi) and sax/synth (newest member Gaetano Pappalardo). Shedding the use of vocals has completely freed the band up into a mutating beast, wild horses racing beside a volcano eruption, improv bursts that perfectly soundtrack the ruins of a city facing the inhuman consequences of wild expansion and dumb economics.

Transition is a no-jazz, no-panic, no-border album, born between a small bar and a basement, reworking some ideas from the first Tv Dust sessions with a new mindset, with improvisation becoming an important tool in the trio's new path that already sees releases on Occult Punk Gang, My Own Private Records, Sentiero Futuro and Maple Death.

Transition like the transformation of the group, you still get the original package of furious hypnotic grooves, shortwave radio alien funk, devo-id convulsions, jittery no-wave and Italo post-punk tradition alongside dada-jazz and freeform freakouts.

Briefly available on a 12" Island single in the UK to promote Bunny's 'Black Heart Man' album but this is the first time it has been coupled with the awesome Sylvan Morris and Karl Pitterson mixed dub version that first appeared on Bunny's criminally neglected 'Dub D'sco' album. Here we have a totally different mix demonstrating the strength and ability of this authoritative rhythm to take any amount of interpretations. 'Amagideon' was also versioned by Augustus Pablo for his seven inch Message release 'Pablo's Armageddon'.

In a trajectory full of about-faces, Music for Four Guitars splices the formal innovations of Bill Orcutt's software-based music into the lobe-frying, blown-out Fender hyperdrive of his most frenetic workouts with Corsano or Hoyos. And while the guitar tone here is resolutely treble-kicked—or, as Orcutt puts it, 'a bridge pickup rather than a neck pickup record'—it still wades the same melodic streams as his previous LPs (yet, as Heraclitus taught us, that stream is utterly different the second time around). Although it's a true left-field listen, Music for Four Guitars is bizarrely meditative, a Bill Orcutt Buddha Machine, a glimpse of the world of icy beauty haunting the latitudes high above the Delta (down where the climate suits your clothes)..."—Tom Carter

Prolific Norwegian trumpeter and ECM veteran Arve Henriksen returns with Estonian guitarist/composer Robert Jürjendal in tow, matching his idiosyncratic shakuhachi-style melodic condensations with Jürjendal's glassy electro-acoustic soundscapes and sonorous percussion.

Henriksen releases a lot but is remarkably reliable; his playing is so versatile that hearing it dematerialise into different ensembles and individual methodologies is always a treat. Jürjendal is a veteran guitarist, but doesn't approach his instrument from a purely classical standpoint, taking a Fripp-inspired path towards texture, processing and looping his sounds until they're barely recognisable. The duo share a similar love for Hassell's Fourth World ambience, and here inject new life into that mood.

Jürjendal's percussion is impressive: he offsets cascades of oddly-tuned electronics on 'Tuonela' with booming, ritualistic tom hits that punctuate Henriksen's melancholy phrases; and on the brilliant 'Ancient Bells', plays a set of gongs and gamelan-style instruments, creating swirling hammered tonal clusters that quiver beneath Henriksen's echoed-out, spirited improvisations. It's not always that corporeal, either; on 'A Remarkable Flow', he loops guitar phrases, creating gentle vibrations that rumble in the background while he mirrors Henriksen's pitchy zig-zags with high-pitched oscillator vamps.

Even on the peaceable 'Miraculous Lake', discreet kalimba loops set a celestial tempo that anchors the duo's gaseous soundscapes. And although they veer towards end-credits loveliness on the Göttsching-influenced 'Reunion Hymn', it’s balanced by the album's darker passages, like 'Rebirth' and 'Another Me'. On the latter, Henriksen's trumpet is transformed into a voice-like warble, while Jürjendal replies with glacial E-bowed drones that resonate creepily alongside his lysergic FM pads.

Music is storytelling, and some of the best stories have been told through centuries-old traditional folk songs. On their new album ‘Northern Sky’, The Wellermen have given this rich traditional musical history a new sound, hoping to continue to captivate millions of fans around the world. It helps that The Wellermen’s four members all bring their respective experience and perspectives to the table. The fact that they’re from different corners of the world really adds something to the music - there’s something romantic about the way the members have to go on a voyage to see each other.

The Wellermen’s history is well-known: having been the originators of the sea shanty trend on Tiktok, they’ve since gone from strength to strength, gaining a huge following across social media with new trends linked to their music. Their versions of ‘Misty Mountains’ and Ed Sheeran’s ‘Nancy Mulligan’, along with their spine-tingling rendition of ‘Hoist The Colours’ have racked up billions of views across Tiktok and youtube and over 110m streams of their debut album, and led them to appearances on shows like Ant and Dec, LAst Week Tonight with Jon Oliver, The Colbert Show and more.

The group have now returned with their new album ‘Northern Sky’, where they have gone above and beyond to show they are indeed masters of their craft. Recorded in a cottage in the picturesque hills of Surrey, they poured their considerable knowledge and prowess into the album’s 12 tracks, all of which fit their love of storytelling. On the Scottish folk song ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’, for example, the group’s harmonies and rich vocals capture the nostalgic, wistful nature of the song, which speaks of love and nature’s beauty. The group’s tribute to Johnny Cash on the song ‘Hurt’ is set to be a fan favourite - melding the raw and uninhibited torment of the original with the dignified but heart-rending grief of Cash’s version.

Elsewhere on the record the original song and title track ‘Northern Sky’ is a perfect demonstration of the Wellermen’s gift for creating a real dynamic, steering it gently from the darker, more ominous numbers into something truly uplifting. ‘Tall Tales’, another original, is a wonderful portrayal of humorous one-upmanship - a call-and-response that is likely to get crowds’ feet stomping and hands clapping. Say the Wellermen: “It’s all about connection and storytelling, and we hope the listeners are able to find something meaningful.” One thing is absolutely certain: these talented young men are in it for the long haul.