quête:ensemble this

The capstone of Miles Davis’ electric period, Agharta reigns as a funk-rock fireball — a blazing comet streaked energy and elan, a fearless organism feasting on adventure and freedom, a seven-headed Godzilla stomping its way through Osaka, Japan. Recorded on February 1, 1975 at Osaka Festival Hall at the first of a two-show stand, the double album offers an endless abundance of surprises and shifts — as well as a road-proven ensemble whose chemistry and abilities equal that of any of Davis’ celebrated bands. If the true measure of jazz is the capacity to adapt to the moment and challenge perception, Agharta is consummate.

Sourced from the original master tapes, housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g 33RPM 2LP set of this epic live release presents it in audiophile sound on a domestic pressing for the first time. Offering greater degrees of separation, detail, and richness than the compressed CD editions and more clarity, openness, and presence than older vinyl copies, this version of the 1975 release helps bring the concert stage to your home. Just make sure your turntable and speakers are up to the challenge of Davis and Co.’s explosive performances — and producing the decibels they demand.

Teeming with vibrant colors, tones, and pace, Mobile Fidelity’s reissue captures the hear-it-to-believe-it flow, sweep, and moodiness of the music. Though the group honors looseness and freedom with religious verve, the specificity and scale rendered by this remaster allows you to detect methods behind the alleged madness that are often otherwise harder to discern. This insight extends to the understated changes in volume, harmonics, and phrasings. In many ways, you can listen as Davis himself did that early February evening as he helped coordinate the overall direction and decided on whether to blow his wah-wah-wired trumpet or take a turn on the organ.

Tellingly, Agharta would likely never have been made if not for Davis’ ventures overseas and, specifically, to the Land of the Rising Sun. Having for years faced a backlash on his native soil for his choices to experiment and blow past all known borders, Davis was welcomed with open arms in Japan. The concert documented on Agharta — as well as the day’s later show, captured on the equally exciting Pangea — stemmed from a sold-out three-week tour that would ultimately mark Davis’ final public appearances for years, as he soon settled into semi-retirement and nursed the wounds connected to an unprecedented stretch of restless and relentless output.

For all the band-fueled merit of Agharta — and there’s plenty, given the cast of saxophonist Sonny Fortune, bassist Michael Henderson, drummer Al Foster, percussionist James Mtume, and guitarists Reggie Lucas and Pete Cosey seemingly blasts off to outer space and travels distant galaxies by the time this minimally edited record runs its course — Davis’ own playing often remains overlooked. As critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton observed, it is “often fantastically subtle, creating surges and ebbs in a harmonically static line, allowing him to build huge melismatic variations on a single note.” He attacks like a man on a mission, out to prove naysayers wrong and bent on trailblazing another new path forward. Convention and skeptics be damned.

Noisy and furious, dark and discordant, abstract and off-balance, radical and intense, abrasive and atmospheric, strangely beautiful and hypnotically eccentric: Agharta evades simple description, and refuses to be pinned down in any established category — rock, jazz, punk, ambient, prog, avante-garde, or otherwise. Shot through with trench-deep grooves, screaming riffs, scalding solos, and free-improv leads, its cosmic thrust comes on as the equivalent of an animated pointillist painting comprised of millions of textured dots, dashes, and dabs that hold your attention so raptly you want to revisit the ideas again and again.

Always steps ahead of everyone else, Davis knew what he was doing even when Agharta debuted in Japan before later hitting U.S. markets. Though “Maiysha” and “Theme from Jack Johnson” are identified in the track listing, the record contains a number of uncredited references to other Davis works, including a nod to “So What.” This decision to bypass labels only adds to the art of the reveal — the rare black magic in which Agharta expertly deals.

The song titles on Van Halen's aptly titled Fair Warning don't lie. The likes of "Unchained," "Mean Street," "Push Comes to Shove," "One Foot Out the Door," and more indicate the mood the band channels on its double-platinum 1981 record — the nastiest, darkest, and fiercest album of the group's storied career. For the fourth time in four years, Van Halen throws down the gauntlet to all challengers and emerges victorious.


Sourced from the original analog tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl at Fidelity Record Pressing, and strictly limited to 5,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP set plays with unfettered clarity, dynamics, and immediacy. Benefitting from superb groove definition, an ultra-low noise floor, and dead-quiet surfaces, this vinyl edition captures what went down in the studio with tremendous realism and involving presence.

Taking a more controlled approach in the studio and still completing everything in less than two weeks, Van Halen and producer Ted Templeman relied on studio amplifiers to direct the sound. Further diverging from the live-on-the-floor approach of its earlier albums, the ensemble also employed overdubs to great effect. The result: Dense, stacked architecture that underlines the hard-hitting tenor of the songs — and which comes alive like never before on this reference edition that looks as good as it sounds.

The premium packaging and gorgeous presentation befit the reissue's select status. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, it features special foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. Aurally and visually, it is made for listeners who want to immerse themselves in everything involved with the album, including the iconic cover art adopted from William Kurelek's haunting painting, "The Maze."

Isolated frames from Kurelek's childhood-inspired work — including a man bashing his head into a brick wall, a guy pinning down an adversary as he delivers bare-fist blows to his face and others watch with apparent glee, a boy tied down on a conveyer belt and being sent through the equivalent of a meat saw — adorn the front and back covers. The sunnier visual disposition of Van Halen's prior efforts gives way to something sinister and tortured, traits reflective of the music within. The band members, too, are visually depicted not in glamorous shots but in a serious black-and-white portrait in which the quartet is clad in black leather jackets.

Tough, aggressive, stark: Fair Warning comes on like a series of bare-knuckled punches to the solar plexus and boasts lyrical narratives to match. Though not a concept record, the concise album revolves around themes of roughing it on the streets and struggling to survive amid dim prospects. Singer David Lee Roth reportedly penned many of the initial lyrics after traveling to Haiti and observing extreme poverty. The characters and situations populating Fair Warning reflect hardscrabble existence, last-chance desperation, and underlying danger.

Witness the crazies, poor folks, and hunters of “Mean Street”; the former prom queen turned pornographic actress on “Dirty Movies”; the menace and vice of “Sinners Swing!”; the streetwise hustle of “Unchained”; the isolation and alienation of “Push Comes to Shove”; the desire for escape on “One Foot Out the Door”: A carefree California beach party Fair Warning is not.

Having said he felt angry and frustrated during the sessions, guitarist Eddie Van Halen uses the forceful arrangements as a playground for his seemingly unlimited arsenal. Supported by a crack rhythm section and a hyped-up Roth, he performs with an almost impossible combination of punk-like intensity, technical finesse, lyrical fluidity, and unbridled emotion. The virtuoso was increasingly butting heads with Templeton and seeking a freedom in the studio he believed denied him.

No wonder he plays like a bat out of hell. Listen to the rapid-fire manner in which he slaps the high and low E strings on the 12th fret of his instrument on “Mean Street,” instilling the tune with funk flair and metal-spiked sharpness. For the pouty strut of “Dirty Movies,” Eddie Van Halen contributes slide guitar magic made possible after he sawed off the lower portion of a Gibson SG so he could reach further down the fretboard.

Related intensity, urgency, and daredevil momentum punctuate the surging “Sinner’s Swing!” A heavily flanged, delicately melodic introduction frames the attitudinal “Hear About It Later,” among the most creative arrangements of Van Halen’s career. And do riffs come any bigger or magnetic than those on the high-wire kick of “Unchained”? As for the out-of-left-field “Sunday in the Park,” an instrumental composed on an Electro-Harmonix micro-synthesizer: Who but Eddie Van Halen to supply creep factor in such an ingenious way?

Despite selling fewer quantities than Van Halen’s prior efforts, Fair Warning remains for many diehards the record that epitomizes all of the band’s immense strengths —Roth’s manic energy and tongue-wagging humor, Alex Van Halen’s rhythmic heartbeat-in-your-chest bombast, and Michael Anthony’s lucid bass lines included. Arriving when the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and new-wave movements were taking flight, it signaled a shot across the bow from a band determined to stay a step ahead and provide proof nobody could touch what it delivered.

More than four decades later, Fair Warning still sounds that alarm.

James Brown wants to know one thing before he and his band begin Sex Machine. “Can I get into the thing, really?,” he asks. His cohorts enthusiastically respond in the affirmative. And for the next hour and change, Mr. Dynamite gets into it and more, turning in a sweat-soaked, feet-moving, hip-swiveling, emotion-purging, in-the-red, drop-everything-you’re-doing-and-dance performance for the ages. Ranked by Rolling Stone among the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, the sweeping 1970 effort towers as a testament to Brown’s inimitable legacy as well as the peak powers of his voice, vibrancy, and bands.

Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g 33RPM 2LP set presents Sex Machine in audiophile sound for the first time. It explodes with the energy the lightning-strike music demands. Dynamic, immediate, present, airy: Everything from the brassiness and fluidity of the horns to the snap and decay of the snare to the swell and carry of the organ comes across in full-range perspective.

Then there’s Brown’s superhuman singing, which here emerges with a purity, naturalism, and transparency that ensure you feel everything. Screeching, shouting, pleading, moaning, preaching, stinging, commanding, testifying, crooning, humming: The Godfather of Soul contributes one of the finest vocal performances known to man. This definitive 55th anniversary reissue of Brown’s monster funk statement further exhibits a combination of clarity, solidity, separation, and imaging that helps bring to light what he and his crack ensembles committed to tape. Both in the studio and on the stage.

Just how lifelike does this reissue sound? Senior Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab engineer Krieg Wunderlich, who handled the remaster, notes: “There were some artifacts that sounded a bit like mistracking. But they turned out to be breath blasts on the vocal microphone. That is part of history. JB was workin' hard, and breathin' hard. And there was an edit the timing of that was truly strange. Again, a part of history.”

Originally marketed as a live album, Sex Machine contains six songs recorded in the studio and later overdubbed with canned crowd noise and reverberation. Save for “Low Down Popcorn,” the tracks on the latter half stem from a phenomenal performance captured in October 1969 at Bell Auditorium in Brown’s adopted hometown of Augusta, GA. The special relationship between the singer, the audience, and the location is palpable.

As the 1960s gave way to a new decade, Brown experienced immense success and dealt with unexpected change. Soul Brother Number One soon expanded his idea for an official live album captured in Augusta when the ensemble that backed him on that date morphed into the original version of the world-famous J.B.’s just months after the show. The virtuosic abilities, sticky chemistry, and rhythm-forward nature of the J.B.’s prompted him to book a one-off session in Cincinnati, OH, on a late July night.

Anchored by brothers William “Bootsy” Collins and Phelps “Catfish” Collins, the group — as well as two different drummers — laid down a nearly 11-minute rendition of “Get Up I Feel Like Being Like a Sex Machine” and a thrilling medley of “Bewildered,” “I Got the Feeling,” and “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose.” A pair of then-recent studio singles cut in separate locations in 1969, “Brother Rapp” and “Low Down Popcorn,” each featuring his prior group, took care of the second LP worth of material that complements the originally planned live set.

Complicated? Somewhat. Unusual? Definitely. But just as he elevated the expectations for all present and future R&B artists, Brown not only makes it all work. He makes it positively electrifying.

“Get Up I Feel Like Being Like a Sex Machine” is alone deserving of a dissertation on the art of funk music, seeing it moves up and down akin to an oil derrick, witnesses Brown unleashing a trademark series of grunts, squeaks, and “good god” asides, and glides to a hypnotic groove that won’t quit. Or look to the syncopated rhythms of “Brother Rapp (Part I and Part II),” one of multiple pieces here that signify the point where Brown began viewing every instrument as a percussive tool. Brown closes the three-song medley with his new band with a skedaddling “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose,” which provides jolts on the order of sticking your finger into a socket.

Not that the actual live material falls short in any way. Setting an insistent tempo for the vitality that follows, “I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing” positions Brown as a role model, leader, and self-sufficient entrepreneur. All simmer and boil, the short and sweet “Licking Stick” dares you to keep pace. The floating, almost comforting “Spinning Wheel” spotlights the instrumental prowess of Maceo Parker and company, and functions as a seamless segue into the tender, horn-saluted “If I Ruled the World.”

And Brown and his mates still aren’t done. Just try to resist the one-two closing punch of “I Can’t Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)” and “Mother Popcorn.” Mercy.

Ain’t it funky? Sure ‘nuff.

Santa Fiebre return with a new 45 on Acid Jazz’s Fingier Records, with producer Kevin Fingier at the helm. The Argentine Rhythm & Soul outfit turned heads with their label debut last year, double-sider ‘Earthsplosion’ / ‘That’s Where We Go’, and here they offer two new, explosive original sides.

Over the past few years, Kevin Fingier has released a series of hard-hitting, high-selling 7” singles, on his own Acid Jazz-group imprint, along with a compilation LP and an original album. He is known for his authentic 60s R&B sound, with a distinctly Latin touch. ‘Waterfalls’ sees Santa Fiebre move into funkier, late-60s territory, with a percussive beat and driving horns accompanying a wonderful, soulful vocal.

Meanwhile, ‘Pain of Sights’ is a characteristic Soul/R&B crossover smash, guaranteed to hit at a club night. Another modern classic from the man in Buenos Aires and this brilliant ensemble.

Presented in the signature Fingier Records house-bag.

Long regarded as singular architects within European post-rock, EF have built a catalogue defined by dynamic patience, melodic clarity, and widescreen emotional reach. Across two decades of touring, the Gothenburg ensemble have carried that language to clubs and theatres at home and abroad, earning a reputation for meticulous, high-impact live shows and a body of work that has steadily gathered critical regard and a devoted international following. Reimagined and with expanded production including strings and brass, this edition is a considered re-engagement with the material that first crystallised EF's voice. The band returns to thesesongs with the benefit of twenty years' craft, presenting new arrangements that stretch time and deepen narrative, while retaining the quiet-to-catharsis arc that has always set their music apart. "Since it's our precious first born we wanted to give it the love it surely deserves. We felt we didn't want to celebrate its big 20th birthday by just remastering it and we surely didn't want to make the songs too modern and unrecognisable for the old fans. We wanted to give it a tighter, more dramatic and bombastic make over_ a gentle touch of today's EF." (Niklas Åström) Originally released in 2006, `Give Me Beauty_ or Give Me Death!' introduced EF's signature blend of cinematic guitars, patient dynamics and aching melody. For this new edition, along with an incredible cover illustration by Phillip Janta and brand-new bonus track `Noll', the band returned to the material with fresh ears and clear intentions: to open more space in the arrangements and to enrich the melodic lines with orchestral colour. `Give Me Beauty_ or Give Me Death!' (20th-Anniversary Edition) is a document of growth rendered with care: more instrumentation, more time, more consequence. The album is an act of stewardship_ both a homage and a forward-looking manifesto for EF and for discerning listeners everywhere. FOR FANS OF Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, Caspian, Gospeed You! Black Emperor, Yndi Halda, Mono Black or White Double Vinyl, Digisleeve Single CD. Includes bonustrack Noll.

Long regarded as singular architects within European post-rock, EF have built a catalogue defined by dynamic patience, melodic clarity, and widescreen emotional reach. Across two decades of touring, the Gothenburg ensemble have carried that language to clubs and theatres at home and abroad, earning a reputation for meticulous, high-impact live shows and a body of work that has steadily gathered critical regard and a devoted international following. Reimagined and with expanded production including strings and brass, this edition is a considered re-engagement with the material that first crystallised EF's voice. The band returns to these songs with the benefit of twenty years' craft, presenting new arrangements that stretch time and deepen narrative, while retaining the quiet-to-catharsis arc that has always set their music apart. "Since it's our precious first born we wanted to give it the love it surely deserves. We felt we didn't want to celebrate its big 20th birthday by just remastering it and we surely didn't want to make the songs too modern and unrecognisable for the old fans. We wanted to give it a tighter, more dramatic and bombastic make over_ a gentle touch of today's EF." (Niklas Åström) Originally released in 2006, `Give Me Beauty_ or Give Me Death!' introduced EF's signature blend of cinematic guitars, patient dynamics and aching melody. For this new edition, along with an incredible cover illustration by Phillip Janta and brand-new bonus track `Noll', the band returned to the material with fresh ears and clear intentions: to open more space in the arrangements and to enrich the melodic lines with orchestral colour. `Give Me Beauty_ or Give Me Death!' (20th-Anniversary Edition) is a document of growth rendered with care: more instrumentation, more time, more consequence. The album is an act of stewardship_ both a homage and a forward-looking manifesto for EF and for discerning listeners everywhere. FOR FANS OF Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, Caspian, Gospeed You! Black Emperor, Yndi Halda, Mono Black or White Double Vinyl, Digisleeve Single CD. Includes bonustrack Noll.

Vinyl gatefold jacket includes a 12x12 insert reproduction of the original LP jacket art.Recorded in 1956 and released in 1957, Supersonic Jazz is arguably the first long-playing album by Sun Ra and His Arkestra on his Saturn label. However, it was not recorded as a debut. Rather, the album was assembled from tapes recorded during a number of sessions at two Chicago studios (RCA Victor and Balkan), and several tracks had been released as singles before their inclusion on this album. (Sunny's first fully realized commercial album was 1957's Jazz by Sun Ra, produced by Tom Wilson on his short lived/soon to be defunct Transition label.) Prior to these sessions, Sunny was still arranging for the Red Saunders Orchestra and singer Joe Williams, in addition to arranging for and coaching doo-wop ensembles. As Sunny's ambitions achieved liftoff, the Arkestra coalesced, began building a repertoire (mostly of Ra's originals), and making forays into studios. Deciding it was time for commercial releases, Sunny and business partner Alton Abraham launched Saturn (sometimes called El Saturn) as a record company in 1956. As a first offering, Supersonic Jazz is a pinnacle Sun Ra release. While reflecting many prevailing bebop, Latin, and R&B conventions of the mid-1950s, it's evident that Sun Ra's musical voice and vision were starting to propel him away from the jazz mainstream. Biographer John Szwed finds on these recordings "characteristics which seemed alien to swing, bebop, or the new, more soulful and hard-edged music which was coming to be called hard bop."

The Tedeschi Trucks Band is an 11-piece ensemble made up of guitarist-vocalist Susan Tedeschi's and guitarist Derek Trucks' band,
known for their unique mix of rock, blues, gospel, soul, and Americana. Their 2011 debut album won them the 2012 Grammy Award
for Best Blues Album and since then have released four more studio albums and three live albums, of which this is their first.

The songs on this album are compiled from recordings made on three tour dates in October 2011 and feature tunes from their debut
album rearranged, expanded, and extended in true jam band fashion. But, they never seem to resort to clichés; guitar prodigy
Derek Trucks introduces the bands’ hit “Midnight in Harlem” by an Indian raga played as a slide guitar solo, just to give an example.

Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight” furthermore showcases their love for soul and jazz. In short, as one reviewer put it succinctly:
“Everybody's Talkin' is what every live album should be: an accurate, exciting reflection of a hot band playing full-throttle.”
Everybody’s Talkin’ is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on red coloured vinyl.

YES! We are a "BIG BAND"!!
A 20th anniversary original album featuring new members has been released on a two-disc vinyl set.

Formed in 2005 at the invitation of pianist Makoto Ozone, whose work transcends genres and continues to thrive on a global scale, the 15-member big band
"No Name Horses" has grown into a one-of-a-kind big band, thanks to its sophisticated ensemble built on longstanding relationships of trust, the diverse
original compositions of Ozone and the other members, and its boundless creativity and playfulness. The band has performed both in Japan and overseas.

In 2024, the band changed its name from "Makoto Ozone featuring No Name Horse" to "Makoto Ozone No Name Horse," and began activities under a new
lineup with the addition of three new members: Hidetaro Matsui, Yu Riku, and Shinpei Ogawa. This is the first album since the new lineup was released in
November 2024.

Returning to the classic big band sound, this album was created with each member contributing a new song, based on the concept of a superb swing and resonance.

Makoto Ozone "No Name Horses"
Makoto Ozone (p, org) Eric Miyashiro (tp, flh, picc trp) Akira Okumura (tp, flh) Shutaro Matsui (tp, flh) Yoshiaki Okazaki (tp, flh) Eijiro Nakagawa (tb)
Marshall Gilkes (tb) Junko Yamashiro (b-tb) Masanori Okazaki (as, ss, cl) Atsushi Ikeda (as) Toshio Miki (ts) Yu Riku (ts, fl) Yoshihiro Iwamochi (bs, cl)
Shinpei Ogawa (b) Shinnosuke Takahashi (ds)

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

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

A meeting of worlds. A new kind of resonance. GODTET's upcoming release captures the alchemy of their landmark performance with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House.

At once bold and nuanced, this album explores the friction between improvisation and orchestration. Where the orchestra is anchored in fully composed material, GODTET remains free – navigating the work's harmonic architecture with instinct and spontaneity. Structures are fixed, but expression is fluid.

Orchestrated and brought vividly to life by Novak Manojlovic, GODTET's long-time collaborator and musical polymath, the work bridges the worlds of bedroom production and classical tradition. His arrangements offer not just translation but transformation. Amplifying the ensemble's rhythmic language through the rich sonic canvas of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

The result is a deeply textural suite that amplifies the best of both disciplines: GODTET's idiosyncratic groove and live sampling artistry converging with the symphonic weight and colour of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Under the baton of Nicolas Buc,GODTET + The Sydney Symphony Orchestradoesn't just blend genres, it dissolves hierarchies. It's a declaration that music born in warehouses and bedrooms can belong in concert halls, and that authenticity transcends format. This is GODTET in full bloom, expansive, fearless, and profoundly moving.



a 01: New Sun (Live) feat. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra & Novak Manojlovic
b 02: Stepper (Live) feat. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra & Novak Manojlovic
[c] 03: The Fall Line (Live) [feat. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra & Novak Manojlovic]
[d] 04: Dub Angels (Live) [feat. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra & Novak Manojlovic]
[e] 05: Cantus (Live) [feat. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra & Novak Manojlovic]
[f] 06: Bliss Angels (Live) [feat. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra & Novak Manojlovic]
[feat. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra & Novak Manojlovic]

Out Friday 14th June, the renowned jazz and funk trumpeter Sefi Zisling presents his third album ‘The Librarian’, blending classic elements with psychedelic funk, soul, and spiritual jazz. ‘The Librarian’ is dedicated to all things close to Sefi’s heart. The album pays homage to his musical inspirations, his wife, friends, and Eyad, a Palestinian whose story moved Sefi.

"This album was made as an ode to the people I love, and I would like to dedicate this album to them." - Sefi Zisling

Sefi Zisling first started playing the trumpet at the mere age of ten, soon after enrolling in the prestigious art school Thelma Yellin. Performing in an array of bands since his early teens, Sefi has performed and recorded sessions with almost every key player of the jazz world in Israel. His debut album ‘Beyond The Thing I Know’, released on Tel Aviv’s leading collective Raw Tapes, propelled the trumpeter onto the world stage. Sefi then found his home on Tru Thoughts for his sophomore record ‘Expanse’, an album that captured the essence of the classic jazz session and transformed his role from instrumentalist to composer.

The cover art is a painting by the late Walid Abu Shakra, a member of the Abu Shakra family who have collectively played a pivotal role in the Palestinian-Israeli art scene and are respected worldwide. Walid aimed to highlight the expropriation of Palestinian land by the Israeli state and centred his artistic career on safeguarding a disappearing landscape through his monochromatic etchings.

Selling Points
Sefi Zisling's sophomore album "Expanse" sold out on vinyl in the first few months
The cover art is a painting by the late Walid Abu Shakra, a member of the Abu Shakra family who have collectively played a pivotal role in the Palestinian-Israeli art scene
Praise from Jazz FM (Playlisting), FIP, Jamie Cullum (BBC Radio 2), Jazz Times, Jazziz, Tom Ravenscroft, Huey Morgan, Cerys Matthews (BBC 6Music), Musica Macondo, Music Is My Sanctuary, Bandcamp Weekly, Wax Poetics and much more.
Recorded intimately and live with a five-piece ensemble
The LP features a spellbinding version of Mall Waldron's jazz standard 'All Alone'
Mixed by renowned engineer George Atkins (80 Hertz Studios)

Poetry and music in an annually changing Frisian-international ensemble — that’s IT DEEL, a residency project by the Kleefstra brothers. After three previous sessions and releases with Jacaszek, Eivind Lønning & Espen Reinertsen, and Karen Willems, this beautiful project finds its conclusion with a fourth collaboration.
In the summer of 2024, the Kleefstras invited cellist Joana Guerra and violinist Maria do Mar de Brito Lopes for a week-long creative residency at a special location: the Thomas Church in Katlijk.
Like with the previous releases from the IT DEEL collaborations the central theme of for this work is the relationship between humans and nature, in all its beauty and complexity. It’s not a light topic, but one that is universal and deeply connecting. Each year, it’s remarkable to witness what has emerged from the Frisian soil in the dialogue between the Kleefstras and their guest musicians.

DA-Dee-MiX, the hip-hop band that's a fixture on the MC battle scene, offers a bold cover of "Today," the source material for a shining classic in the history
of sampling! The B-side features "INCENSE," a collaboration with rapper Jun Ku, which has garnered much buzz, released for the first time on 7-inch,
making this an incredibly powerful double-sided album!

DA-Dee-MiX, the instrumental hip-hop band that continues to support the MC battle and live music scenes, releases their long-awaited new 7-inch, their first
in seven years. This two-track 7-inch single blends hip-hop's roots with a hands-on spirit.
Side A features guest appearances from 45trio SWING-O, who delivers a bold cover of Tom Scott's "Today" the source material for a shining classic in the
history of hip-hop. DA-Dee-MiX's signature groove, which intertwines jazz, soul, and hip-hop, reconstructs the track, offering more than just a cover; it
offers a new interpretation for today's listeners. SWING-O's electric piano and the ensemble of live performances beautifully elevate the warmth and power
of the original.
Side-B features the long-awaited vinyl release of "INCENSE," a collaboration with Yokohama-based rapper Kujun!
Released in 2020, this track captivated many listeners with its melodic flow and unique musical sense, leading to endless calls for it to be released on vinyl.
DA-Dee-MiX's soft yet powerful track is complemented by Kujun's fragrant words, creating a track that truly lives up to the title: a track that permeates the ears!
This double-sided album is a must-listen for DA-Dee-MiX's "performative hip hop"!

Vanbur – artist duo consisting of composers Jessica Jones & Tim Morrish – are releasing their debut album release this autumn. The album scoops up Earthing and my dove, to sleep, made famous by the Netflix show ONE DAY, alongside previous material from their debut EP ‘Human’ including In Cold Light which had a huge TikTok moment around the show’s release. Written over several years, ‘Of Becoming’ reflects a maturing of Vanbur’s sound as they themselves have gone through major life changes and transitions, which are addressed both lyrically and sonically in this impressive body of work. There’s a dreamlike quality to the album, representing the sometimes disorientating dichotomy found in immense change of wistful nostalgia and strength found in adaptation. Recorded at Church Studios with a 12-piece ensemble, the album weaves between lush orchestral heights such as Of Becoming and Friends of Mine and edgier alt-pop bangers such as Strange Kind Of Creature. Jess’ vocals are at times ethereal and textured, and at times lean further into her song-writing sensibilities with their most personal lyrics yet. With the pair’s range and skillset across production and composition fully explored, the album is a triumph of song-writing. The band have worked with filmmaker and Creative Director Matt Houghton on a strong visual aesthetic, from key artwork to narrative promotional films shot on 35mm. With graphic design by Torsten Posselt, the vinyl will have a tactile and natural quality tying in with the analogue feel of the campaign. Vanbur’s debut EP, Human, was released in 2018 and received press coverage in Clash, Ear Milk, Higher Plain etc and was played across BBC 6Music shows. The had their debut performance at the 100 Club and plan to bring a scaled up version to stages in 2026. The follow up remix EP included remixes by Mogwai and Katie Gately, and their music has been placed in hit-shows including One Day (Netflix), The Rising (Sky), Hanna (Prime) and Queens (Nat Geo).

A new release from Fox & His Friends Records, Chapters (Screen & Stage Dancefloor Jazz from Yugoslavia 1971-1984) by Ozren Depolo brings to light a trove of previously unreleased music spanning more than a decade of his work in film, theater and television. This gatefold audiophile 180g LP, including a 12-page booklet with archival photos and detailed liner notes, offers for the first time a full album composed exclusively of Depolo's own authorship, drawn from master tapes held in private and institutional archives. Mastering and cutting was done by Frank Merritt from The Carvery Ozren Depolo rarely pursued opportunities to record original material, in part due to a general lack of interest among local publishers in jazz discography. Yet he was more than a gifted composer: he was also an accomplished saxophonist, clarinettist, flutist, pianist, arranger and occasionally, a jazz journalist who contributed articles to specialized programs on Radio Zagreb. Depolo also played in international big bands alongside jazz greats such as Clark Terry, Oliver Nelson and Gerry Mulligan, as well as in formations led by Bosko Petrovic, including the Nonconvertible All Stars and the B.P. Convention Big Band. He was a member of ensembles including The Alfi Kabiljo Orchestra, The Dragutin Diklic Ensemble, Jugoslovenska Pop Selekcija, The Stipica Kalogjera Octet, Vaclav Zahradnik & His East All Stars Band and the Zagreb Jazz Quintet. As both composer and arranger, he produced a significant body of work for large jazz orchestras and small ensembles. He was deeply engaged in jazz improvisation and avant-garde classical music, recording numerous chamber pieces for saxophone. A long-standing member of Acezantez, Zagreb's renowned contemporary music ensemble, he also collaborated with international figures such as Ted Curson, John Lewis, Johnny Griffin, Art Farmer, Leo Wright, Art Taylor, Slide Hampton and Lucky Thompson. This selection also includes his collaboration with Igor Savin and jazz vocalist Zdenka Kovacicek who were played on Karl Lagerfeld's fashion shows. The release demonstrates how Depolo was able to shift fluidly between idioms: from driving big-band passages to intimate chamber-like arrangements, from funk-tinged motifs to lyrical, impressionistic soundscapes. This stylistic breadth, always anchored in his deep jazz and funk sensibility, gave his music an adaptability perfectly suited to the hybrid world of stage and screen. The LP highlights that versatility while also presenting the coherence of his artistic voice, one that had gone unrecognized precisely because it was dispersed across so many contexts.

Old-time and traditional music stay exciting for their contrasts. Exacting instrumentation honed through mentorships and late-night jams at fiddler's conventions tangles with a community-sourced inventiveness that influences variants and new sounds. Joseph Decosimo is a master of this genre for this very reason, blending deep technique with an openness and curiosity that keep his music crackling with life. A "marvelous fiddler" (No Depression) and banjo player who braids "exultation and veneration" (INDY Week) into his music, on his third solo album Fiery Gizzard Decosimo gathers a close-knit ensemble of friends from his musical career to infuse his interpretations of fiddle and banjo pieces with a contagious communal joy. As an artist working with traditional music from the South and Appalachia, Decosimo chooses songs based not only on historical significance and lineage but also his own sensory approach. For Fiery Gizzard, his ear was tuned to otherworldly tones and mystery, sourcing from field recordings such as Virginia fiddler Luther Davis' hypnotic version of "Shady Grove" while amping up the music's psychedelic potential. On the middle Tennessee banjo composition "Flowery Girls," a VHS of bluesman Abner Jay inspired Decosimo to rig up a pickup inside a fretless banjo and play it thr ough a tube amp to capture some of Jay's edge and funkiness. But to round out the sound and keep it kinetic meant galvanizing a genre-eschewing crew to jam out - and not in a "spaced-out drooly" kind of way, he laughs, but as a sort of "responsive conversation." Decosimo has always been a community-minded artist. He began playing as a seventh graderin Tennessee, fostering relationships with older players at jams and in homes, a learning mode natural to his inquisitive nature and desire for musical connection. A folklorist by intuition, he later became one by profession, studying with old-time legend Clyde Davenport, teaching in East Tennessee State University's renowned bluegrass program, and receiving his PhD at the University of North Carolina with a dissertation titled "Catching the `Wild Note': Listening, Learning, and Connoisseurship in Old-Time Music." In North Carolina, Decosimo kicked about in the verdant environment of Durham and Chapel Hill's folk and indie scenes, collaborating with artists including Alice Gerrard, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Jake Xerxes Fussell. This community has influenced his own music, including his "sublime and strangely heartening" (Bandcamp Daily) 2022 release While You Were Slumbering and Beehive Cathedral, Decosimo's 2024 "Appalachian mountain music treasury" (New Commute) trio album with Luke Richardson and Cleek Schrey for Dear Life Records. Continuing on this path, Fiery Gizzard is home base for a loose outfit of mostly Tarheel-based musicians from within and beyond traditional music. Inspired by a tour with fiddler Stephanie Coleman (Nora Brown), guitarist Jay Hammond, and synth builder and multi-instrumentalist Matthew O'Connell, Decosimo assembled studiomates based on close friendships and comfort. Coleman, O'Connell, and Hammond contribute to Fiery Gizzard, along with bassist and producer Andy Stack (Helado Negro, Wye Oak), horn player Kelly Pratt (Beirut, David Byrne), Mipso and Fust's Libby Rodenbough, Joseph O'Connell (Elephant Micah), and trad/experimental artist Cleek Schrey. Decosimo's fiddle and banjo work is virtuosic, intricate and simple simultaneously, a testament to his many years of study. On some tracks, his playing or lovely, plain-hearted singing is the centerpiece, such as on his interpretations of Texan street preacher Washington Phillips' 1929 recording "I Had a Good Father and Mother" or the Eastern Kentucky fiddle barn-burner "Glory in the Meetinghouse," famously played by Luther Strong for Alan Lomax. But there's also a trusting open-door policy, like where Southern Appalachian tune "Ida Red" relaxes into Coleman's sweet, confident fiddling and Hammond's loping guitar. As a bandleader, Decosimo's confidence and enthusiasm for the music reveal the heart of traditional music and how it can come to life through community. Fiery Gizzard is Joseph Decosimo as a powerful champion of traditional music - a sponge who soaks up as much as he squeezes out, a responsive artist who makes his genre accessible, and a magnet who can bring musicians of all sorts into his orbit with his same passion.

Belgian violinist and composer Elisabeth Klinck announces the debut album of her ensemble, Klinck Trio, on VIERNULVIER Records. My Hair is Everywhere will be released on November 7, 2025 on vinyl LP and through all digital platforms.

Rooted in improvisation and guided by openness, the Klinck Trio — Adia Vanheerentals (saxophone, voice), Maya Dhondt (piano, voice), and Elisabeth Klinck (violin, voice) —crafts music where sound and silence are equally vital.

Their debut album is an exploration of fragility, unfolding like a delicate conversation in which each note is chosen with intention and every pause carries presence.

Recorded in the summer of 2024 at Studio Ledeberg, My Hair Is Everywhere captures a moment in time: three musicians meeting in sound, each bringing their own timbre, language and natural state of being into dialogue. Klinck offers seeds of material —metaphors, sketches, sonic ideas — that the ensemble shapes into fully formed pieces. The result is an album that stands complete, yet carries within it the openness to unfold further in live performance, where new layers and resonances can emerge.

In the spirit of American composer and pianist Meredith Monk, the trio embraces lightness andvulnerability, crafting soundscapes that feel both childlike in their intimacy and expansive in their emotional reach. My Hair is Everywhere balances melancholy, tenderness, and harmonic interplay with silence, breath, and resonance—the subtle negative space where music continues beyond the notes themselves. By recording in close proximity, every detail emerges: the strike of piano pedals, the clicking of saxophone keys, the intake of breath, and the faint displacement of air. Textures of dragging violin, whispered fragments, and soft humming become almost tangible, drawing the listener fully into this intimate, enveloping present
moment.

Above all, this compelling debut is an invitation to listen differently: to enter a transformative space where three distinct musical voices find each other in fragility.
The artwork, created by French artist Annabelle Guetatra, reflects the album’s sense of lightness through color and playful collage work.

Comes with 4 page insert, English and Japanese liner notes and lyrics.

A contemporary folk wonder from Cornwall (Falmouth), England.

"We at EM Records love to transport our listeners to new worlds, other worlds; “Pantilde”, this magical new album from Cornish avant-folk performance artist The Worm, is indeed an ethereal new world: otherworldly, but somehow rooted; an imaginary oral and musical story of everyday village life in an alternative Celtic landscape. The music here is strange yet familiar, fantastical and enchanting while remaining simultaneously attached to the earth. Amy Lawrence, aka The Worm, plays cello, harp, recorders and percussion, accompanying and framing her rich voice, which is often overdubbed into lovely homespun vocal ensembles; they tell song-stories of mythical and mystical village life, of nature and the human relationship with the natural world. The Worm can be considered part of a lineage which includes The Incredible String Band, Shovel Dance Collective, Bridget St John, Dorothy Carter, Vashti Bunyan, Jessica Pratt, Cathrine Howe, Mary Lattimore, Tristwch Y Fenywod and of course many others. “Pantilde”, a time-trip to a dreamlike, pastoral world that nevertheless feels distinctly realized, is a remarkable avant-folk fantasia, co-released with Prah Recordings.