Search:gon

Elevating, uplifting and beautifully arranged. Jasmine Myra's sophomore album Rising builds on the success of her

breakthrough album Horizons to deliver a major statement from one of UK Jazz's rising stars. Produced by Matthew Halsall and mixed by Greg Freeman (Hania Rani, Matthew Halsall, Portico Quartet), Rising delivers a confident and vibrant follow up that joins the musical dots between Myra’s influences Kenny Wheeler, Bonobo and Shabaka Hutchings while delivering something unique, beautiful and profound.

Rising is also the sound of a composer and performer growing in stature and adding extra layers of confidence and poise to both her playing and composing. Aided and abetted by Matthew Halsall who once again lends his production skills, Rising is fuller, richer and deeper as Myra develops her uniquely uplifting sound.



Much like my first album, Rising is a reflection of a period of my life. It is a continuation from Horizons, which was all about my experience during lockdown, and entailed overcoming my struggles with mental health. Following on from that experience, I set out to continue building my self-confidence. This album has an uplifting and spiritual sound, drawing influence from artists such as Makaya McCraven, Bonobo and Shabaka Hutchings.



Rising features the same core of musicians as Myra’s debut album Horizons (Gondwana records GOND052): guitarist Ben Haskins, drummer George Hall pianist Jasper Green, harpist Alice Roberts (who both also perform with Matthew Halsall) and bassist Sam Quintana who collectively bring a deft understating of the subtle textures of Myra’s music and perform with a collective empathy and drive that really pushes the music on a radiant journey. And a string quartet add gently elevating textures to Still Waters, Knowingness, From Embers and How Tall The Mountains.

Mit seinem 1965 erschienenen Album We’re Gonna Make It vereinte Little Milton die emotionale Tiefe des
Blues mit dem modernen Sound des Soul auf beeindruckende Weise. Nachdem der aus Mississippi stammende Sänger, Gitarrist und Songwriter Anfang der 1960er-Jahre über das Chess-Label Checker Records zur
Chess-Familie gestoßen war, verlieh er dem Traditionslabel mit seinem unverwechselbaren Stil neue Impulse.
Der Titelsong „We’re Gonna Make It“, eine eindrucksvolle Hymne, die eng mit der aufstrebenden amerikanischen Bürgerrechtsbewegung verbunden ist, hielt sich drei Wochen in Folge an der Spitze der US-amerikanischen
R&B-Charts. Das Album unterstreicht Little Miltons außergewöhnliche stimmliche Ausdruckskraft, seine
präzise Phrasierung und sein außergewöhnliches Gespür für die Verbindung von Blues und Soul – Qualitäten, die seinen Crossover-Erfolg maßgeblich begründeten. Zu den weiteren Höhepunkten zählen „Who’s
Cheating Who?“, „Blind Man“ und „Stand By Me“.
Erleben Sie den unverwechselbaren Klang eines der bedeutendsten Blues-Labels Amerikas in audiophiler
Qualität – mit der Chess Records Acoustic Sounds Series. Für diese hochwertigen Neuauflagen wurden
klassische Alben und Compilations aus dem Chess-Records-Katalog sorgfältig von den originalen analogen
Masterbändern neu gemastert und auf 180-Gramm-Vinyl bei Quality Record Pressings gefertigt. Jede Ausgabe erscheint in einem hochwertigen Tip-on-Gatefold-Cover aus erstklassigem Karton und erfüllt damit
höchste Ansprüche an Klangqualität und Verarbeitung.

Keith Freund’s music occupies a space where careful musicianship and homebrewed experimentation meet and shake hands. On “Window Left Open,” spacious melodies drift through dense fields of electronic activity: saxophone lines rise above buzzing circuitry, percussion flickers at the edges of the frame, and clustered glitch textures dart through the music like insects in tall summer grass. Every sound feels vividly animated, a charged part of the same mercurial ecosystem.

Freund’s talent lies in balancing warmth and unpredictability with remarkable ease. Patient motifs recall the exploratory spirit of early folktronica, while bit-reduced textures, degraded loops, and idiosyncratic synthesis techniques continually reshape the terrain beneath them. Rather than treating acoustic and electronic elements as opposing forces, Freund allows them to intermingle until distinctions dissolve, creating compositions that reward close listening while retaining immediate warmth. This record finds Freund working with a fully formed vocabulary that is truly his own, transforming glitch, melody, improvisation, and atmosphere into songs that are both fundamentally curious and disarmingly engaging.

offerings is a new project from Bruno Silva (Ondness, Serpente) and Gonçalo F. Cardoso (Lagoss, Prophetas, Hannibal Chew III).

Born from a shared obsession with the peripheral—rain puddles, empty city spaces and the flickering crawl of late-night credits—the album occupies a stalled threshold; a space that refuses to resolve into a clear image. It does not strive for the "new" nor the "old"; it exists in a state of suspension, like end credits that refuse to roll, fixed in a permanent noumenal state.

Composed through a frantic exchange of files during the stormy winter of 2026, End Credits Noumena functions as a document of inner domestic spaces. It captures a floating, jam-like camaraderie between two artists with shared fixations and divergent sound palettes. The result is gritty and acetic — a series of random, eerie transmissions that remain strangely inviting. These are offerings, left over for whoever chooses to claim them.

Blue vinyl. Hailing from Wiltshire, forming in 1982, Tokyo Blade was initially considered part of the NWOBHM scene but quickly outgrew the tag, enduring over the course of 14 studio albums and five EPs. Producing genuine early classics such as their self-titled debut and follow-up 'Night Of The Blade', the band went through multiple line-up changes over the years, yet continued to enjoy the support of the metal community and die-hard fans across the globe.

The Steel Woods - The Lexington Tapes (Live) This was never meant to be a record. This is exactly how the band sounded in 2017. We found the recording digging through old files and brought it back to life. Recorded live in Lexington, KY, The Lexington Tapes captures The Steel Woods raw, loud and locked in. Jason “Rowdy” Cope is at the center of it. This is the band at full force.

Studio Barnhus presents Fold, the first full-length release on the label from Stockholm-born, Berlin-based DJ and producer MOLØ: a patiently unfolding album of club-adjacent lullabies, soft-focus breakbeats and open-window electronics. Following 2024’s Aqua Lull and 2025’s Don’t Change EP with Slackin Beats, MOLØ returns to Barnhusgatan with her most fully realised work yet – an album built like a night slowly finding its shape, starting somewhere quiet and letting the music grow and shift. The result is Fold: eight tracks moving freely between rooms and tempos, held together by MOLØ’s sense of atmosphere, melody and pace. There are pads with endless skies in them, field recordings whispering from the corners, melodies suddenly appearing, having been waiting patiently for the right light.
As often with Studio Barnhus, friends old and new are invited in. Swedish jazz pianist Albin Söderbäck leaves his mark on Cloud and Sväva, bringing a warm, searching musicality that nods gently towards MOLØ’s favourite jazz-fusion records. On Le, Diane Emerita’s fragile voice slips in between the breaks, making the track feel at once human and unreal. Off The Meds frontman Kamohelo keeps it cool as ever on the dynamic stepper Bump.
Then there is Malmö, featuring Norwegian songwriter and vocalist Ane Brun. MOLØ sent Brun the instrumental because she could already hear her voice inside the music – what came back felt so natural, it was as if the whole track had been written around it from the start.
Elsewhere, DJ favourite Fluff captures a different kind of magic: made in MOLØ’s Berlin apartment one spring evening, barely changed since its first draft, then road-tested immediately on a late-night walk through the city with the demo on repeat, strangers moving through the frame.
Fold is a record about trusting the long way round. In a time of shrinking attention spans and growing impatience, MOLØ chooses the scenic route, with curiosity, generosity and enough confidence to let the listener get a little lost

Keyboardist/composer Doug Carn was the
biggest star on the legendary Black Jazz Records
label, with four releases to his credit (all reissued
by us at Real Gone Music), and remains a
touchstone for spiritual jazz fans and musicians
alike. But very, very few folks have heard his
debut record, cut for the venerable Savoy label
back in 1969. In fact, it’s so rare that we couldn’t
even find a copy to use for artwork, so, with
Doug’s help, we enlisted his daughter Eroniffa
Ibrahim to create illustrations for our reissue
based on the original cover photos. But you know
what we did find? That’s right…the original master
tapes! So, not only is this the first LP reissue for
The Doug Carn Trio, but it’s an all-analog edition to
boot, pressed at Gotta Groove Records with their
proprietary GrooveCoated stampers to minimize
high-frequency loss with each successive pressing.
And, we’ve added an insert with liner notes by Aaron
Cohen based on an exclusive interview with the man
himself. As for the music, it’s a tight organ trio set
that starts cooking right from the get-go with a groovin’ cover of Gus Cannon’s “Walk
Right In,” which became a folk hit for The Rooftop Singers. Carn’s fluid, forward-thinking
playing anticipates Larry Young’s future keyboard forays, and originals like “Butter from
the Duck” and “Yna Yna’s Delight” presage the compositional prowess he flashed on the
Black Jazz releases (note: that’s Don Hales on guitar, not Gary Starling as credited on the
original record). The opening salvo from a scintillating career, finally available again!

Freeway was a California outfit that first formed in 1979 and set about fusing jazz, soul and outreach-driven purpose into a sound that sat outside the norms of the contemporary Christian scene at the time. Their sole album, this self-title gem, was cut in 1981 for New Born Records has since become an underground rarity, often changing hands for upwards of £400. Now, 45 years on, Vinyl Kitchen brings Freeway back to vinyl for the first time ever, complete with new liner notes and rare photos. It's a glorious, life-affirming work of bright jazz sounds, celebratory energy, boogie grooves, funky horns and prog licks. Perfect for listening and dancing alike.

A serious private-press rarity gets its long-overdue reissue here for the first time ever. Formed in California in 1979, Freeway blended soulful grooves, jazz melodies and powerful horns into something that stood apart from the era's contemporary Christian scene. The cut just one self-released album in 1981 for New Born Records before disbanding. Originals now regularly fetch upwards of £400 on the resale market and this 45th Anniversary Edition marks a reissue that is going to fly off the shelves, complete with newly written liner notes and rare photographs telling the band's story. From funky jazz to boogie-inspired grooves, this is a previously hidden treasure now getting the light it deserves.

You'd be hard pressed to name a song with the driving, emotional intensity and raw energy of the Hamilton Movement's anthemic ode to heartbreak, "She's Gone." Issued as the B-Side of the band's 1976 single "We're Gonna Party," and distributed in and around Indianapolis, there is no evidence the song garnered significant attention upon release—yet over the past fifty years it has amased a cult of devotees across the globe. But while interest in the group's music remains strong, little information has surfaced about the Hamilton Movement's history, and until now, there have been no official reissues of their work. This collection presents the band's discography, alongside previously unreleased music discovered on tape; it is the Indianapolis soul album that should-have-been.

The keys to the Hamilton Movement's mystery can be found in central Indiana, where promoter Dick Melvin has lived the past few decades, in a rural suburb of Indianapolis, amidst forests and cornfields. Melvin served as the group's manager throughout their entire existence, but his involvement extended far beyond typical managerial duties. He co-wrote and co-arranged the band's music; he produced and released their recordings on his Look Out label. Dick is also the band's archivist. His home is filled with boxes of demo sessions, live tapes, contracts, posters, and promotional photos documenting his work with the Hamilton Movement. He entrusted his archive to Now-Again's care and they've assembled this album under his watch. Dick's story, and the story of his band, are presented in an extensive, oversized booklet with Dick's rarely-seen photos and ephemera and words by Now-Again's Egon and Naptown historian Kylie Long.

After the wild Afro-jazz fusion of Trancedance (reissued as BT118) and the meditative solo Christer Bothén Donso n’goni (BT133), legendary Swedish multi-instrumentalist Christer Bothén returns to Black Truffle as part of a dream quartet completed by the three members of Ghosted: Oren Ambarchi (guitar), Johan Berthling (bass) and Andreas Werliin (drums). Recorded at a rustic studio built by Werliin and Hans Fredriksson in the sylvan surrounds of Hamburgsund, Sweden across a few days in September 2023, Serpentine offers up four generous slices of hypnotic repetition and shimmering resonance, cut through with wild bursts of Bothén’s bass clarinet.

The depth and ease of the quartet’s rapport is evident from the first moments of the opening title-track. Berthling’s resonant upright bass locks into a head-nodding ostinato that makes sensitive use of a prominent end-of-phrase rest, opening spaces through which Werliin’s continually shifting statements of the pulse shine through. Having worked together in various groups for many years, Berthling and Werliin are masters at playing subtle games of difference and repetition, creating a driving rhythmic flow animated by perpetually changing details: here, you can never step in the same groove twice. Weaving through it all is Ambarchi’s now-signature Leslie-cabinet guitar tone, sounding out long chords at times strikingly close to a Hammond, while also creating intricate cross-rhythms through the play of his tremolo modulations against the bass and drums. When Bothén enters five minutes in, the growl of his bass clarinet at first works deep in the collective brew, carving off brief staccato phrases and twisting them into fragmented melodies. As he moves into the instrument’s higher registers, Bothén’s playing becomes wilder, twinning with Ambarchi’s guitar in shimmering arcs like a 21st century update of the Garbarek-Rypdal pairing immortalised on Sart.

Each of the four pieces explore different possibilities of a shared language. On ‘Antigorite’, another hypnotic bass riff emerges gradually from an atmospheric haze, eventually developing into a frenetic rhythmic workout propelled by Werliin’s cowbell. Berthling sits out for ‘Lizardite’, while Bothén moves from bass clarinet to the Donso n’goni, the sacred Wassoulou hunter’s harp he has studied for half a century; the resulting performance streamlines the approach heard on other tracks into pure modal propulsion, sparkling with harp-like arpeggios from Ambarchi’s guitar. On the closing ‘Chrysotile’, the bottom drops out, leaving a swampy, churning mass of wavering organ-like chords, roaming bass runs, and distant toms, over which Bothén floats bass clarinet figures by turns bluesy and abstract, the whole thing landing somewhere between classic ECM and the most blasted freeform moments of early Amon Düül II. Bearing a delicate calligraphic abstraction by Bothén on its cover and beautiful documentation of the recording sessions on its inner sleeve, Serpentine is a powerful reminder of the magic that can happen when inventive musicians just get together and play.

There is something to be said about being both popular and prolific enough to be anthologized—it’s a space that soul music stalwart Kelly Finnigan and his latest release, B-Sides, Singles & Forgotten Gems, occupies with intent and fire. Serving as a mile marker pacing the 15 year collaboration between Finnigan and Colemine Records, B-Sides, Singles & Forgotten Gems is an easter egg moment for new and long-time fans to collect rare takes and flip sides in one spot, while unearthing Finnigan’s evolution as an artist, producer, and vocalist.


From his earliest explorations to one of the first tracks cut at his new studio in Ohio, this travelogue in sound both brings the listener forward to the present while laying out Kelly Finnigan’s road ahead.


“Colemine has grown so much, I've grown so much… I think this collection is a chance to take a little look back and share that with the people, the fans, the music lovers, the Colemine lovers,” says Finnigan.

There is something to be said about being both popular and prolific enough to be anthologized—it’s a space that soul music stalwart Kelly Finnigan and his latest release, B-Sides, Singles & Forgotten Gems, occupies with intent and fire. Serving as a mile marker pacing the 15 year collaboration between Finnigan and Colemine Records, B-Sides, Singles & Forgotten Gems is an easter egg moment for new and long-time fans to collect rare takes and flip sides in one spot, while unearthing Finnigan’s evolution as an artist, producer, and vocalist.


From his earliest explorations to one of the first tracks cut at his new studio in Ohio, this travelogue in sound both brings the listener forward to the present while laying out Kelly Finnigan’s road ahead.


“Colemine has grown so much, I've grown so much… I think this collection is a chance to take a little look back and share that with the people, the fans, the music lovers, the Colemine lovers,” says Finnigan.

There is something to be said about being both popular and prolific enough to be anthologized—it’s a space that soul music stalwart Kelly Finnigan and his latest release, B-Sides, Singles & Forgotten Gems, occupies with intent and fire. Serving as a mile marker pacing the 15 year collaboration between Finnigan and Colemine Records, B-Sides, Singles & Forgotten Gems is an easter egg moment for new and long-time fans to collect rare takes and flip sides in one spot, while unearthing Finnigan’s evolution as an artist, producer, and vocalist.


From his earliest explorations to one of the first tracks cut at his new studio in Ohio, this travelogue in sound both brings the listener forward to the present while laying out Kelly Finnigan’s road ahead.


“Colemine has grown so much, I've grown so much… I think this collection is a chance to take a little look back and share that with the people, the fans, the music lovers, the Colemine lovers,” says Finnigan.

Classic Me First And The Gimme Gimmes reissued: The Gimmes roll into town for a 12-song shootout with Country & Western. These Blue-State bandits are gonna show Kenny Chesney how it's really done. But now the demanding bunch are back, and this time, it's country that gets a kicking. More C&W-styled numbers are easy targets, be it the ever popular "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky," which here gallops straight into hardcore, "Desperado," which will never escape this incendiary melodic punk rock arrangement, and "On the Road Again," which is delivered up in a similar sizzling style. "Jolene," having already suffered the indignities of a goth make-over, is now manhandled by the Gimmes, who storm Dollyland with utter abandon and a barrage of guitars and battering drums, all the better to keep their man -- hmm, shades of Brokeback Mountain. "Annie's Song" is dragged off of John Denver's country roads, and dumped center stage in the middle of a rock concert, which is just where it belongs. Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" gets even more inspired treatment, including a bagpipe! Even a seemingly straightforward punk do-over like "Goodbye Earl" provides some scintillating moments, from the Rancid meets the Clash styling to the bright harmonies and soaring lead guitar licks. The musicianship really shines through on this set, the guitars blaze, the bass becomes assaultive, and the rolling drums sound like the thunder of mortar in the distance, while the production is equally notable. But hey, the Gimmes can play country, too -- well almost -- the first half of "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" boasts some fine fingerpickin' guitar, although the country styling keeps sliding into surf: hey, your roots are showing, guys. Now this is country music everyone can enjoy, gimme more! The 20th anniversary edition comes in a yellowish, more brown Mustard colored vinyl.

„Roots, Rock, Reggae: Live at the Hammersmith Odeon“ ist ein atemberaubendes, bisher unveröffentlichtes
Live-Album von Bob Marley, das im Juni 1976 während der „Rastaman Vibration“-Tournee an mehreren
Abenden im Rahmen der Residency der Wailers im renommierten Londoner Hammersmith Odeon aufgenommen wurde. Die Buchung des Veranstaltungsortes war ein gewagter Schritt, doch Bob hatte durch den
Erfolg von „No Woman, No Cry“ in den britischen Charts neuen Ruhm erlangt, und ein begeistertes Publikum füllte den Saal bis auf den letzten Platz. Zu den Höhepunkten zählen der transzendente Titelsong,
das selten gespielte „Bend Down Low“, eine Extended Version von „Crazy Baldhead“ und eine 30-minütige
Zugabe, die ein 12-minütiges „Get Up, Stand Up“ enthält. Neue Liner Notes von Marleys Weggefährten
Don Letts liefern einen Augenzeugenbericht dieses Erlebnisses, das nun auf schwarzem Vinyl erhältlich ist

Gary Sullivan's Bodega Pop project returns to DINTE with a cassette-only collection of traditional sounds plucked from CDRs found in the night-markets of Savannakhet, Vientiane, and Luang Prabang.

"In Lao PDR, music was seemingly everywhere. Walking through an open field outside Savannakhet to the sound of someone playing a khaen on a distant porch, the bracing rush of electronic molam from of one of Vientiane’s many aging malls, the awkward blending of the blind so u player’s voice with the bustling sounds of Luang Prabang’s night market.

It was in that UNESCO World Heritage Site that I found most of the CDs and CD-Rs from which I’ve ripped the tracks for this compilation. I’m almost certain I picked up a thumb drive at the night market that held many hours of additional music that could have been included, but if so, I’ve misplaced it, lost it for good, or simply misremember purchasing it in the first place. What I do remember is that these discs were literally the last copies in the cafe, museum, bookstore, and night market where I bought them, and not all of them played all the way through without sonic deterioration.

The sounds compiled here play in stark contrast to the more contemporary recordings I found in Laos, most of which featured some form of upbeat digital workstation molam or children’s songs. In addition to the ever-present khaen, this collection includes recordings of the sanai, a single-reed instrument fashioned from a water buffalo horn, the ceremonial khong nyai gong, the pi and similar free-reeds, and at least a dozen more traditional instruments played by Lao and ethnic minority artists. While some of these tracks were laid down in Vientiane or Luang Prabang, most were recorded near where the artists lived, from the legendary Vat Phou in the far south to the former Pathet Lao capital Xam Neua in the northeast.

Unlike Laurent Jeanneau’s more focused Lao collections for Akuphone and Sublime Frequencies, which remain among my favorite albums of all time, the present cassette-only selection is literally all over the PDR map. The sequencing is entirely in response to rhythm and texture and includes recordings from the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and early aughts. This may frustrate those with more of an ethnomusicology bent, but my hope is that the listener experiences something akin to wandering for the first time through this majestic country, encountering the last copies of forgotten recordings one after another, and hearing in these remains fragments of the past and a living musical landscape."

Gondwana Records is pleased to announce ‘Interlude’, the second album from Estonian-born, London-based composer and pianist Hanakiv.

Showcasing an expanded sound, the compositions trace a journey of overcoming the past, unfolding into a seductively unconventional style imbued with hope and a therapeutic quality.

Pressed on high quality black BioVinyl at Optimal in Germany for maximum sound quality.

‘THE GREATEST ROCKSTEADY ALBUM OF THE MILLENNIUM’ NARC - MAY 2022
4/5 REVIEW IN MOJO: “ONE OF THE MOST THRILLING ROCKSTEADY ALBUMS TO HAVE BEEN MADE SINCE THE GENRE EMERGED IN THE LATE 60's”

8/10 REVIEW IN UNCUT + TRACK ON COVERMOUNT: “A STUDIO-ONE INDEBTED, VINTAGE-SOUNDING STUNNER.”

The Frightnrs escort Daptone into the world of long-playing reggae with both the sweetest and the roughest record of the decade. This record will long be treasured by lovers of reggae, lovers of soul and lovers of love...

Crafted under the meticulous eye of black-belt reggae mastermind/producer Victor Axelrod (AKA Ticklah), Nothing More to Say is a rocksteady masterpiece the likes of which has not reared it’s head since the golden era of Studio One. However, you’ll find no imitation here - none of the faux-jamaican cliches of lesser reggae bands. Like all things Daptone, this record is above all soulful and honest.

With the exception of two soul covers (both from the Daptone catalog: Bob & Gene’s "Gotta Find a Way” and Saun and Starr’s “Gonna Make Time”,) the record is populated by original compositions of the highest order.

They are simply great songs, and though their treatment here is masterful, each one of them has the melodic and lyrical substance to hold it’s own in any genre. “Till Then” invokes the coquettish hyper-rhymes of top-form Smokey Robinson, while “Hey Brother” sounds like it fell off the desk of Gamble and Huff, and “Purple” defies any comparison at all.

From the first cracking snares of “All My Tears” through the final pulsing echoes of “Dispute,” the murderous rhythms of Rich Terrana (drums,) and brothers Preet and Chuck Patel (bass and piano, respectively) can be heard chunking mercilessly towards oblivion as Dan Klein pours his endearing poetry over the top like some
otherworldy falsetto potion.

Finishing number 1 and 2 in Australia and UK respectively, Kiss Me Once was Kylie’s twelfth studio album working with the likes of Pharell Williams, MNEK, Sia and more to produce a dancey pop record exploring themes of fun, love, sex and empowerment.

Power Electronics, for the most part, stays within its lanes of transgressive misanthropy, with a blackened explosiveness of tortured psyches and nightmarish reflections for the darkest facets of the human condition. Since Whitehouse introduced the phrase, concept, and framework to Power Electronics, its authorship has been primarily male. But within the past decade or so, a diverse web of voices - female, feminist, non-binary, queer - has thrust the PE aesthetic beyond that of the tortured male artist. As such, the notion that Power Electronics is synonymous with true crime worship, political ugliness, degraded sexual fantasies, and misogynistic perspectives has been somewhat dispelled (though many still pursue such ignoble agendas).

Enter Ester Kärkkäinen. For close to a decade now, she has developed her own voice, tread her own path, and exorcised her own demons in her unique take on Power Electronics, recording as Himukalt. A Power Electronics album based on the collapse of a relationship is probably not as uncommon as one might think. The sexual violence portrayed through Power Electronics may very well have had its origins in the heartbroken, scorned, or otherwise romantically mistreated. Kärkkäinen gives us two very different perspectives on these themes through two rather different sounding records. There is Last Wish from the plague year of 2020, and there is Torn Asunder: The Half Girl, recorded in 2019. Where the 2020 record is a long-form fever dream of the erotic gone horribly wrong and turned morally questionable, Torn Asunder is the more fractured, yet more concise extrapolation of Kärkkäinen's anger, horror, confusion, and depression from the end of a sexless relationship. She nakedly reveals a psyche that has been shattered, scarred, and broken as she alternates between deadpanned proclamations and barked sermons amidst the harrowing articulation of heavy industrial electronics, laced with shrill feedback tones, disjointed rhythms, and harsh noise outbursts. Torn Asunder stands as a significant milestone in Himukalt's catalogue, but remains one her most rarely heard documents given it was originally published as part of Helen Scarsdale's instantly out of print, 10 cassette On Corrosion boxset. With this vinyl reissue, Torn Asunder can get a proper re-evaluation as one of her strongest works.

Hailing from Las Vegas, Himukalt began in 2016 as a vehicle for Kärkkäinen's noise constructs and crude programming that found references to Puce Mary, Anenzephalia, and Atrax Morgue’s Mörder Machine. Since then, she has maintained a manic schedule with releases for Tesco Organisation, Cloister Recordings, Old Europa Cafe and her own EK Verlag. With the release of Torn Asunder, Helen Scarsdale terminates the mission for the On Corrosion reissue campaign.

Black Screen Records once again teams up with composer Chris Christodoulou and Hopoo Games for a vinyl repress of the classic original soundtrack to Risk of Rain 2. At the request of Christodoulou, the new edition of the triple vinyl comes on heavy 180g black wax, the way he enjoys the format the most. The set is housed in a beautiful trifold sleeve with the original artwork illustrated by Italian artist Daniele Giardini. All 20 songs have been carefully remastered by Christian Bethge (Risk of Rain, Deadbolt, Divinity: Original Sin II, A Plague Tale) for the vinyl format. With Risk of Rain 2 the classic multiplayer rogue-like returns with an extra dimension and more challenging action. No run will ever be the same with randomized stages, enemies, bosses, and items. Play solo, or team up with up to four friends to fight your way through hordes of monsters, unlock new loot, and find a way to escape the planet. In his third collaboration with Hopoo Games, Chris Christodoulou returns to the Risk of Rain franchise adding another dimension to the game's music-verse. This two-hour-long genre-bending release spans from foreboding electronica to pounding progressive metal and features all music from the game and then some.

A new collaborative project between Neil Jones (lead singer of Stone Foundation) and Nick Corbin (founder of New Street Adventure), bringing together two of the UK soul scene’s most distinctive voices and songwriters. The project also features legendary keyboardist Mick Talbot (The Style Council) and bassist Ernie McKone (Galliano / The Brand New Heavies), creating a band rooted deeply in British soul tradition while pushing the sound somewhere fresh.

The seeds of the collaboration were sown during the Covid-19 lockdown, when Jones and Corbin joined forces for a marathon live-stream performance that quickly gathered momentum online. The result is Silent Stream — an album steeped in soulful songwriting, rich musicianship and understated groove. The lead single captures that spirit perfectly: warm, reflective and melodic, built around classic soul textures, Hammond organ, and a rhythm section that breathes with the ease of seasoned players. For fans of contemporary British soul with classic influences, the track sits comfortably alongside artists like Paul Weller, Michael Kiwanuka and the wider Acid Jazz / modern soul movement.

It’s a meeting of kindred musical spirits — born in lockdown, but very much built for the long road ahead.

A remarkable mixture of echo, reverb, smoke, and resourcefulness, MERCILESS DUB lives on the edge of danger and adventure. This one's a real DUBWISE SITUATION! Remastered & Pressed on 180-gram vinyl.

Soul Music legend Candi Staton returns to her down-home Alabama roots on her 32nd album, Back to My Roots. The twelve-track Americana set features an array of Staton-penned originals and some well-chosen covers.

"These songs represent my roots," Staton adds as she reflects on her many trials and triumphs. "Even the new songs on some level represent something I've experienced and that's what real soul music is about." Back to My Roots was produced by Staton with her second eldest son, Marcus Williams, a professional drummer who has toured with the likes of Peabo Bryson, Isaac Hayes, and Tyler Perry. They brought in Mark Nevers of Lambchop fame, who produced three of Staton’s prior Americana albums for Honest Jon’s and Thirty Tigers, to sweeten certain tracks. “Some of the first songs I ever heard were songs like `Peace in the Valley’ and `It’s Gonna Rain,’” says Staton. “The new songs or cover songs are tracks that remind me of that era when I was growing up as a child and evolving as a young woman. That’s why I named the album Back to My Roots because I’m going back to the roots that made me who I am.”

Staton received the Americana Music Association UK’s highest honour, the International Lifetime Achievement Award, at the UK Americana Music Awards ceremony at Hackney Church in London last year for her southern soul work that stretches from her 1969 Muscle Shoals hits to her more recent collaborations with the likes of Americana kings Jason Isbell and John Paul White.
The album opens with a mid-tempo Bonnie Raitt-styled contemporary blues “I Missed the Target Again” that finds Harry Connick Jr.’s longtime guitarist Jonathan DuBose Jr. (aka the Prophesying Guitarist) showing off his skills that set the tone for the song and the album.

Staton’s older sister, Maggie Staton Peebles (who alongside Staton was a member of the Jewel Gospel Trio in the 1950s), joins her for two duets. The first, “It’s Gonna Rain,” features just a drum, steel guitar and vocals. “My mother used to sing that song to us all the time when I was a child,” Staton recalls. “It’s a really soulful kind of song I wanted to revisit.” They then take turns leading Thomas Dorsey 1939 gem “There Will Be Peace in the Valley” that Elvis Presley popularized in the 1950s.

“Hang on in There” is a new, mid-tempo song that has an old school gospel flavour and features vocals from veteran bluesman, Larry McCray.
While in Europe in 2023 for her farewell concert tour that took her to the Glastonbury Festival and Love Supreme, Staton and her British band, PUSH, went into a London studio to record a new version of The Rolling Stones’ 1972 gem, “Shine A Light.” “I love the way that came out,” Staton says. “We put a big choir on it and put our own twist on it.”
From there, Staton revives another Thomas Dorsey classic, “The Lord Will Make a Way Somehow,” with a bluesy vibe. When Al Green started recording gospel in the early 1980s, he re-introduced this song into the culture.

“God’s Gonna Use Me Anyway” is a new mid-tempo blues with subtle Caribbean influences.

The mood takes a turn on “1963.” It’s a poignant, spoken-word reflection on September 15, 1963, when four black girls were killed in the Birmingham Church bombing. “I was in the city that day and I remember the chaos and horror after the bombing,” Staton recalls. “Just thinking of how racism and hatred caused those men to kill those girls was so emotional for me that I could only do it in one take.”

It's a perfect segue into "Reach Down and Touch Heaven," a haunting, plea for divine intervention into the affairs of mankind. "That's straight Baptist," she says. "I used to be a church pianist back in the 1960s. I've never played piano on one of my records before so that's a unique song for me because I’m finally playing on one of my records. The message of that song is about the homeless. It came to me when a homeless person on the street asked me for $5. When God touches your heart to help somebody else that’s heaven to God’s hears. So, when we reach into our purse or wallet to help someone, we’re touching heaven."

Staton offers love as an antidote to hate on the bouncy, Motown-styled, “Love Breakthrough.”

Her publicist brought Aaron Frazer & the Flying Stars of Brooklyn NY’s 2017 cut “My God Has a Telephone” to Staton’s attention. She shifts the track from a retro 1960s groove to more of a 1980s Malaco Records arrangement, a subtle but distinct variation. Staton brought in her longtime friend and STAX Records legend, William Bell (“I Forgot to Be Your Lover” and “Trying to Love Two”), to add raspy seasoning to the track.

The album closes with the wistful, “In God’s Hands We Rest Untroubled,” that was originally written and recorded by the late country star, Lari White, who died in 2017 at the age of 52. “Lari sent me that song to consider at least ten years ago and I always loved it,” Staton says. “The record label didn’t want it on the album or something, so I just held it.”
Staton says, “I grew up hearing a lot of these old songs when they were new songs. I toured with the Jewel Gospel Trio in the 1950s and we got to know people like Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke and others who sang these types of songs. So, I’m sort of paying tribute to them and the influence they had on me by refreshing these songs and making new songs in the old style.”’

Als Blackwater Holylight vor drei Jahren ihre Heimatstadt Portland, Oregon, verließen, war es ihr Ziel, der Tristesse des pazifischen Nordwestens und dem beruhigenden Komfort des Vertrauten zu entfliehen. Mit dem Ziel, das sonnigere Klima von Los Angeles zu genießen, fand sich die Band nicht nur in einer wärmeren Umgebung wieder, sondern auch in einer völlig neuen Landschaft - einer ohne Arbeitsplätze, langjährige Freundeskreise und die bequeme Zuflucht alter Gewohnheiten. Und genau hier, unbelastet von der Zufriedenheit der Sicherheit, begann Blackwater Holylight fleißig an ihrem vierten Album ,Not Here Not Gone" zu arbeiten. Wie schon ihre früheren Werke beschäftigt sich ,Not Here Not Gone" mit der Dualität von Licht und Dunkelheit - bedrohliche Riffs bilden das Fundament für betörende Melodien, dichte Wände aus Shoegaze-Gitarren paaren sich mit luftig-leichten Synthesizern, und schwere Themen werden durch sirenenhafte Gesänge vermittelt. Im Laufe des Albums verspürt der Zuhörer mal ein Gefühl der Stärke, mal ein Gefühl der Verletzlichkeit. Wie Schlagzeugerin Eliese Dorsay es beschreibt: ,In einigen Songs sind wir die Raubtiere, in anderen die Beute." Die Gegenüberstellung von Selbstvertrauen und Unsicherheit ist nirgendwo so deutlich zu spüren wie bei einer lebensverändernden Entscheidung, was vielleicht erklärt, warum der Umzug der Band ihr Studium der Kontraste auf ,Not Here Not Gone" zu neuen Höhenflügen intensiviert hat. ,Not Here Not Gone" wurde im Sonic Ranch außerhalb von El Paso, Texas, von Sonny Diperri (Narrow Head, DIIV, Emma Ruth Rundle) aufgenommen, wodurch die Band erneut ihre Komfortzone verlassen und sich an einem Ort isolieren konnte, an dem sie sich ausschließlich auf ihre Kunst konzentrieren konnte. Das Ergebnis ist das Kronjuwel von Blackwater Holylights Diskografie - eine reichhaltige und eindringliche Studie in tonalen Hell-Dunkel-Kontrasten, in der das Licht seinen Weg aus den Schatten findet.

Bruised and bloodied, Knocked Loose opens up the pit with a brutal sound that falls between hardcore, punk and metal. Back in 2014 frontman Bryan Garris, Guitarists Isaac Hale and Cole Crutchfield alongside bassist Kevin Otten and drummer Pac Sun were most likely jamming in a garage or basement somewhere like every other wannabe World touring band. After the release of this, their debut EP, the band have gone from strength to strength with fans among their peers. This EP is where is all began. If you’re looking for a release that delivers heavy, driven riffage, together with vocals that cover subjects ranging from atheism to suppressing personal insecurities then you found it.

"Time's Up"! Die australischen Streetpunker von "The Clinch" kommen endlich über den großen Teich mit ihrem brandneuem, dritten Album und ihrer ersten Europa-Tournee! 2018 erschien ihr Debut "Our Path is gone" und die 5 köpfige Band aus Melbourne avancierte schnell zum Geheimtipp: Schnörkelloser rough'n'tough Aussie-Streetpunk mit dirty RnR-Kante a la Rose Tattoo und einer Prise Brickwall-American Oi! Dazu Texte fernab der üblichen ausgetretenen Pfade und dezent eingesetzte aber stets mitreißende Gang-Vocals. Schnell machten Vergleiche mit Bonecrusher oder Bishops Green die Runde. Mit dem 2 Jahre später erschienenen Nachfolger "Basecamp" zementierte The Clinch ihren Ruf und die weltweiten Kritiken von Maximum RocknRoll bis Ox-Fanzine waren sich einig: Diese Band hat das gewisse Etwas und startet durch! Die erste Tour in Europa wurde geplant um aus dem Schatten des Outbacks heraus zu treten_dann kam die Pandemie und eine Krise folgte der Nächsten_aber aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben: Im Fühjahr 2026 veröffentlichen "The Clinch" mit "Melbourne" und "Journeyman" digital die ersten Single-Auskoppelungen und kündigen mit "Time's up" ihr neues Album auf Sunny Bastards an! Musikstil und Sound als bewährtes Rezept sind gleich geblieben auch wenn The Clinch thematisch noch persönlicher den Finger in die Wunde der Gesellschaft legen_ Streetpunk, authentisch, ergreifend, ehrlich und ungeschönt ohne Pathos: 10 harte Volltreffer, die Spuren hinterlassen! "Man's not fed on good intention. No Safe Spaces left to mention" Songs wie "Stray Dogs" oder "FED" sind unter die Haut gehende Underdog-Anthems über Kampf, Verzweiflung, Zuversicht und sich nicht unterkriegen zu lassen. "Another day, another try"! Das Leben ist halt eine Reise und endet für Alle gleich! Mit Deinen Freunden im Rücken, einem Kämpferherz und "Seelenfutter" wie diese Platte ist es jeden verdammten Tag ertragbar. Also genieß es bevor "Time's Up!"! Oder um es mit "The Clinch zu sagen" It's my chosen way of life"!

"Time's Up"! Die australischen Streetpunker von "The Clinch" kommen endlich über den großen Teich mit ihrem brandneuem, dritten Album und ihrer ersten Europa-Tournee! 2018 erschien ihr Debut "Our Path is gone" und die 5 köpfige Band aus Melbourne avancierte schnell zum Geheimtipp: Schnörkelloser rough'n'tough Aussie-Streetpunk mit dirty RnR-Kante a la Rose Tattoo und einer Prise Brickwall-American Oi! Dazu Texte fernab der üblichen ausgetretenen Pfade und dezent eingesetzte aber stets mitreißende Gang-Vocals. Schnell machten Vergleiche mit Bonecrusher oder Bishops Green die Runde. Mit dem 2 Jahre später erschienenen Nachfolger "Basecamp" zementierte The Clinch ihren Ruf und die weltweiten Kritiken von Maximum RocknRoll bis Ox-Fanzine waren sich einig: Diese Band hat das gewisse Etwas und startet durch! Die erste Tour in Europa wurde geplant um aus dem Schatten des Outbacks heraus zu treten_dann kam die Pandemie und eine Krise folgte der Nächsten_aber aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben: Im Fühjahr 2026 veröffentlichen "The Clinch" mit "Melbourne" und "Journeyman" digital die ersten Single-Auskoppelungen und kündigen mit "Time's up" ihr neues Album auf Sunny Bastards an! Musikstil und Sound als bewährtes Rezept sind gleich geblieben auch wenn The Clinch thematisch noch persönlicher den Finger in die Wunde der Gesellschaft legen_ Streetpunk, authentisch, ergreifend, ehrlich und ungeschönt ohne Pathos: 10 harte Volltreffer, die Spuren hinterlassen! "Man's not fed on good intention. No Safe Spaces left to mention" Songs wie "Stray Dogs" oder "FED" sind unter die Haut gehende Underdog-Anthems über Kampf, Verzweiflung, Zuversicht und sich nicht unterkriegen zu lassen. "Another day, another try"! Das Leben ist halt eine Reise und endet für Alle gleich! Mit Deinen Freunden im Rücken, einem Kämpferherz und "Seelenfutter" wie diese Platte ist es jeden verdammten Tag ertragbar. Also genieß es bevor "Time's Up!"! Oder um es mit "The Clinch zu sagen" It's my chosen way of life"!

To mark its 10th Anniversary,
discover Awa Ly's Album "Five And A Feather" (Including one previously unreleased track) On Vinyl For The First Time !

One night, Awa had a dream.

The atmosphere was enchanted, almost mystical, enveloped in a setting that summoned the moon, the Earth, and the elements. An ancestral blend of Native American and African cultures, a shamanic being was there, speaking in an unknown language, narrating stories both real and imagined. She received these tales from others, made them her own, absorbed them, shared their joy, and soothed their harbored pain or sadness.

Upon waking, the shamanic narrator had vanished, but her presence was still palpable; Awa made her the storyteller of this new album: Five and a Feather.

Five, like all things counted by fives: the senses, the oceans, the lines of a musical staff, the fingers on a hand. And feather, the magical element that connects them-the very one Awa used to write and compose the ten tracks of this new album where, under the brush of SainaSix, she becomes the first Black woman immortalized in Mucha's Art Nouveau aesthetic.

Ballaké Sissoko's kora, Paco Sery's senza, Greg Cohen's double bass, Faada Freddy's vocals, the steel guitar, or the erhu (Chinese violin) are all elements that illuminate the shamanic storyteller's tales.

Produced alongside the duo Jean Lamoot and Pascal Danae (winners of the 2015 Victoires de la Musique in the World Music category with their band Rivière Noire), Five and a Feather faithfully captures the warm atmosphere of live-recorded sessions where instruments answer and interlock with one another, creating the perfect showcase for the album's principal instrument: Awa's voice.
Words that she delicately places or lets fall onto the notes like tears of joy or sadness, flowing from that source called love.

An album written, composed, and recorded like fine lace, starry with details that only reveal themselves to those who know how to seek them out.

Ancient Infinity Orchestra return with their third album, It’s Always About Liberation, a new record that deepens the vision of their acclaimed recent work while moving into darker, more searching emotional territory.

Conceived as a partner to It’s Always About Love, this new body of work shares its predecessor’s generosity and spiritual openness, but carries a different charge. Where the previous album focused on healing and warmth, It’s Always About Liberation is largely animated by struggle, perseverance and the desire for transformation while still offering a path to betterment. It is music made in full awareness of a fractured world, yet unwilling to surrender to it.

Like It’s Always About Love the album title draws inspiration from words spoken by Moor Mother during their 2024 We Out Here festival performance that deeply affected bandleader Ozzy Moysey: “It’s always about love / It’s always about liberation.” Those twin ideas became a framework for the two albums Ancient Infinity Orchestra were creating. If one album explored love as repair, this one explores liberation as movement, continually striving toward freedom, clarity and deeper connection.
The 16-member ensemble is led by double bassist and composer Ozzy, with a distinctive line-up that explains their sound better than any artificial genre divisions: two double basses, harp, saxophones, clarinets, violin, viola, cello, oboe, flutes, mandolin, congas, piano, drum kit, with bells, shakers and other percussion instruments scattered on the floor of live sets and recording sessions, ready for members to use whenever the spirit takes them.

This orchestration, and the overlap between membership and friendship, gives Ancient Infinity Orchestra a sound that is at once expansive and intimate, earthy, and cosmic, constantly shifting yet grounded in shared intention. The attention to intention and the inviting sonic world connects the music to artists ranging from Alabaster dePlume to Gondwana label boss Matthew Halsall.
Gradually, the Orchestra became a grounding force in the emerging jazz scene in Leeds, bringing together individuals from different musical backgrounds co-founding the Café Oto-inspired Limpet Club or co-hosting the monthly Sonic Plunge (‘a platform for adventurous experimentation’) and co-founding the Leeds Improvisers Orchestra. Additionally, the ensemble acted as a bridge between musicians in Brighton and Leeds, after Ozzy spent a stint back on the south coast between 2020 and 2022.

Their debut, River of Light, was a vibrant celebration of togetherness recorded in three days and released on Gondwana in 2023. A Maida Vale session for Jamie Cullum’s BBC Radio 2 show brought them to a broader audience, as did bookings at North Sea Jazz Festival and Gretchen, Berlin. Since then, Ancient Infinity Orchestra has become a by-word for music that could be framed as ‘spiritual jazz’. Whilst Ozzy avoids the phrase when describing his music, he’s crystal clear that his heroes are associated with those words – citing Art Ensemble of Chicago, Pharoah Saunders, Coltrane (Alice and John), and Don Cherry as major influences.

Across trance-like meditations, rising grooves, moments of grief and collective uplift, It’s Always About Liberation speaks to the battle within the mind as much as the inequalities of the wider world. It acknowledges the darkness but lets connection and creativity have the last word Ancient Infinity Orchestra is a gathering of voices, traditions, and energies converging into something timeless. Their music is a journey inward and outward, always reaching toward the universal.

Goo Goo Dolls – Let Love In (20th Anniversary Edition)


Zum 20-jährigen Jubiläum feiert das erfolgreiche Studioalbum der Goo Goo Dolls aus dem Jahr 2006 eine hochwertige Wiederveröffentlichung als limitierte 1LP-Edition. Der Meilenstein, der mit Hits wie „Stay With You“, „Let Love In“ und der Coverversion „Give a Little Bit“ den Status der Band im Bereich des melodischen Alternative-Rock festigte, erscheint in einer edel ausgestatteten Vinyl-Ausgabe. Das remasterte Originalalbum bedient im klassischen 1LP-Format die anhaltend starke Vinyl-Nachfrage sowie die ungebrochene Popularität von 2000er-Nostalgie perfekt.

Songs, interpretiert von Memphis Slim, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Bill Broonzy und anderen. Als United Artists 1959 ,Blues in the Mississippi Night" endlich veröffentlichte - nachdem man das Album jahrelang als ,zu kontrovers" eingestuft hatte -, erhielten die mitwirkenden Künstler Pseudonyme, um ihre Familien zu schützen. Das war der Preis dafür, dass sie die brutale, ungeschönte Wahrheit aussprachen. Heute wissen wir, dass ,Natchez, Sib & Leroy" die legendären Bluesmusiker Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Slim und Sonny Boy Williamson waren. 1947 nahm Alan Lomax die drei Giganten mit einem Presto-Disc-Aufnahmegerät in den Decca Studios in New York City auf, nachdem sie im Rahmen seiner ,Midnight Special"-Konzertreihe in der nahegelegenen Town Hall aufgetreten waren. Lomax bat sie, ein paar Songs zu spielen und über ,den Blues" zu sprechen, und ermutigte sie, offen über die Ungerechtigkeiten des Lebens der Schwarzen in Amerika zu reden. Das Ergebnis war ,Blues in the Mississippi Night", eine bahnbrechende Aufnahme ihrer Songs und Geschichten, die die Ursprünge der Musik in Blut, Schweiß und Tränen der Afroamerikaner aufzeigt, die im Mississippi-Delta unter den Ausbeutungsbedingungen der Jim-Crow-Gesetze lebten. Einfach gesagt: Die Aufnahmen sind atemberaubend in ihrer brutalen Ehrlichkeit und ihrer fesselnden Meisterschaft. Heute hat das Lomax-Archiv die Originalbänder dieser historischen Aufnahme digital remastert, um sie zum ersten Mal seit 1959 wieder auf Vinyl zu veröffentlichen. Im Paket enthalten ist ein 20-seitiges Deluxe-Booklet mit einer vollständigen Transkription der gesamten Aufnahme sowie brandneuen Liner Notes von Anna Lomax Wood und einer Einleitung des renommierten Schlagzeugers und Produzenten Steve Jordan (Rolling Stones, John Mayer). ,Ich fordere jeden, der das Leben und die Wahrheit liebt, auf, sich diese Aufnahme anzuhören", sagt Jordan. Wenn man sich die Texte und die Musik darin anhört, wird das schnell klar. Dies ist eine unverzichtbare Aufnahme - ein Eckpfeiler in der Plattensammlung jedes Blues-Fans und ein unbestreitbarer Teil der amerikanischen Geschichte.

"This album is created over the past years with my brother Alfred. This period has been spiritually transformative for me. it reflects the playfulness and authenticity that comes out of releasing deep traumas and healing wounds. this music comes from a deep place of joy and connection with my brother and with the essense of being a child. being filter free and in contact with the most uncomplicated and loving parts of ourselves, still emphasizing magic and mystery, like childhood does without asking for permission or confirmation.

It took me a while to actually see the music as an interconnected piece. i have been taking in and out material, re mixing, removing, rearranging, re producing and regretting all along the way. but suddenly when we mastered this selection on a cassette tape recorder, the meaning started to reveal itself and drawing threads back in time.

Bivabippalukka is playfulness, intuition, transition and myths. the page of cups. the ideas rising, the energy flowing, flowers, stars and jumping creatures on the verge of dimensions. fortune telling, magic cards, secret caves and things that disappear right in front of you.
many talented guests playing with me and my visions on the album.

Bossa nova is the most comforting genre for me. and we need comfort in these times. we need comfort to heal and feel joy to be able to keep dreaming and manifesting - and transmuting the world.

I am not gonna play this music live in the form it appears. i will still continue playing spiritual ambient music. this work is something else. it is pocket of joy, a cup with a fish. it is a step on the journey, like everything else. "