The fifth album from Saint Abdullah & Eomac began as a poem and became a record that refuses to stay in one place. The title arrived in a cab in Paris. Mohammad Mehrabani read it aloud from a list of options. Ian McDonnell said: that's interesting, what does that mean? The answer, it turned out, was the album. Their fifth album When The Sandbox Has No Edge is rooted in hip hop, but its cast tells you how far it travels. Abbas Zahedi, Richie Culver, and Armand Hammer contribute vocals and poetry. Lester St. Louis brings cello. Che Chen of 75 Dollar Bill brings guitar. The producer and sound designer Seraphim contributed textures and sound designs throughout. Samples run deep, from records pulled from charity shops to market stalls on road trips across the UK. Raw fragments were shaped into fully formed compositions, structuring the chaos without flattening it. The sandbox, rendered without an edge.
Hallelujah Trial is Tom Roberts (Cranebuilders, Beatowls) and John Canning Yates (Ella Guru): two Liverpool songwriters who knew each other for twenty years before they ever played a note together. Roberts brought a folder of songs to Yates' front room. Yates answered with piano. A weekly ritual of tea and talk became a repertoire, the repertoire became a debut performance at the final La Violette Società, and a few weeks later the songs became an album, recorded in May 2026 in the Gustav Adolf Church, the Scandinavian seamen's church on the edge of Liverpool's Baltic Triangle.
The sound is spacious, stripped back and gloriously melodic: voice, guitar and piano, songs in a room, storytelling that recalls Bill Callahan, Lee Hazlewood and the late Johnny Cash records. Yates' Ella Guru drew a Peel session and 'the best debut album since Marquee Moon' from the Independent on Sunday. Roberts' Cranebuilders recorded two Peel sessions of their own. The pedigree is genuine. The songs are better.
Recorded, mixed and produced by John Canning Yates. Mastered by Jason Mitchell (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding). Sleeve by Pascal Blua, after a rose from William Turner's herbal of 1568. The closing 'Reprise' carries a hallelujah chorus of friends and family, recorded live in the ch
,Beyond the Fleeting Gales" ist das Debütalbum der New Yorker Band Crying und verbindet eingängigen Indie-Rock mit elektronischen Elementen, Prog-Rock-Einflüssen und kraftvollen Gitarren. Die zehn Songs vereinen atmosphärische Synthesizer, starke Melodien und dynamisches Songwriting zu einem energiegeladenen und emotionalen Gesamtwerk.
Swedish visionary Boko Yout is releasing their long-awaited debut album GUSTO, out via Hoopdiggas Recordings.
GUSTO is Boko Yout’s debut album – a kaleidoscopic journey through memory, trauma, humour and healing. Framed as a fictional therapy programme led by the eccentric Dr. Gusto, each track represents a confrontation with a different shadow of the self: unspoken fears, inherited burdens, or unresolved inner conflicts. But GUSTO is not just about darkness – it’s also about hope, longing and the light that makes those shadows visible in the first place.
Boko Yout weaves together raw emotion, spiritual symbolism and bold experimentation. Referencing vodun philosophy, Jungian archetypes and post-genre production, they draws inspiration from artists like Yves Tumor, Odd Future and LCD Soundsystem. The result is a debut that feels more like a sonic manifesto – driven by love, intention and a deep commitment to artistic freedom.
Apex militant late '70s style here, if you think you are into steppers you should have this one firmly in your sights. One of Mr. Smart's hardest records, this originally appeared only as an album track, but also had some fame as a dubplate played at the time by Jah Shaka and others. We've long had that cut in our sights, and while some nice new re-mixes of this tune appeared in the last few years, here is the real thing from '79 steel. The A-side features the raw dubplate cut vocal, no horns or other adornment, HARD to the point stepping drum and bass style. The B-side features the original Gussie Clarke dub mix aptly titled "Hot Steppers", also previously released only on album. This cut as well was run on dubplate back at the time, a killer mix with full horns but no vocal. Leroy Smart is one of our all time favorite artists and we take pride in having re-released a handful of his all time best records, this one now added to that list.
Nicolas Balmer reveals the heavy silence of his soul.
Facing his own mirror.
The soundscape unfolds.
Fire sets the tone.
Kindling of the abyss, driven to go on and on.
Passion in his language contains suffering.
A silver lining, found in delicately layered noise.
A myriad of intertwined sounds paint the melodies of a life.
Holding the memories of those who danced with his shadows and light.
Nicolas releases his album “Leben” on Zürich based Subject To Restrictions Discs. While moving between New Wave, Kraut and Electronics, his intuition for ambient oozes from each composition, fast-paced or slow. As Nicolas Balmer lays bare his most intimate sources of inspiration with Leben. He holds nothing back.
The album is shaped by a sense of optimistic melancholy: restless and contradictory, yet full of hope. The music is not about arriving, but about the journey: loss and finding oneself; despair, love, guilt and forgiveness. This is an album that does not seek to explain life, but rather embraces it in all its contradictions.
Nicolas Balmer is a Zurich-based multi-instrumentalist, producer and synthesizer enthusiast who has been exploring contemporary music for over fifteen years. Working across music, theatre and interdisciplinary projects, he moves between genres and forms. His work includes the electronic project Nico Sun, the experimental duo Gūsū with Xueyan Chen, the collaborative project Konstant with Angelo Repetto and Kenel/Sonne. He also composes and produces music for theatre and performance, as well as working in mixing and production. Across his projects, Balmer is driven by raw textures, emotional authenticity and a search for an independent musical language.
Long Distance Operators (LDO) is a collaboration between the Australian musician Hugo Race and the Belgian violinist Catherine Graindorge. Hugo Race, singer, songwriter, producer and author, has a long and wide-ranging history, from the trans-global Dirtmusic and his groups True Spirit and Fatalists to his origins in the 80's Melbourne post-punk scene with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and The Wreckery. Catherine Graindorge, violinist and composer, is known for her solo work and collaborations with International artists such as Iggy Pop, John Parish, Pascal Humbert (16 Horsepower), Simon Huw Jones (And Also The Trees). She also plays and composes for theater and cinema. The music of LDO is an intensely atmospheric dreamweave of violins, electronics and Hugo's darkly evocative voice. The duo explores metaphysical lyrics, experimental sounds and retro-baroque orchestrations in a romantic, song-based context.
Long Distance Operators (LDO) is a collaboration between the Australian musician Hugo Race and the Belgian violinist Catherine Graindorge. Hugo Race, singer, songwriter, producer and author, has a long and wide-ranging history, from the trans-global Dirtmusic and his groups True Spirit and Fatalists to his origins in the 80's Melbourne post-punk scene with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and The Wreckery. Catherine Graindorge, violinist and composer, is known for her solo work and collaborations with International artists such as Iggy Pop, John Parish, Pascal Humbert (16 Horsepower), Simon Huw Jones (And Also The Trees). She also plays and composes for theater and cinema. The music of LDO is an intensely atmospheric dreamweave of violins, electronics and Hugo's darkly evocative voice. The duo explores metaphysical lyrics, experimental sounds and retro-baroque orchestrations in a romantic, song-based context.
UK experimental multi-instrumentalist Oli Heffernan (aka Ivan The Tolerable) returns to independent label Riot Season Records on October 23rd, 2026, with The Planets, a fierce, tension-fuelled reinterpretation of Gustav Holst’s iconic orchestral suite tailored for the modern age.
Originally composed over a century ago to capture the astrological characters of the cosmos, Holst's masterpiece receives a radical, uneasy update. Where the original composition leaned on grand symphonic sweeps, Ivan The Tolerable strips away the comfort of the orchestra, replacing it with fracturing analog synthesisers, claustrophobic tape loops, and the hypnotic, nervous pulse of modern kosmische music and avant-garde noise.
The Planets is an album forged in the specific dread of 2026—a year defined by geopolitical instability, climate weariness, and pervasive societal tension. Rather than looking up at the stars in awe, Heffernan turns the telescope back toward a fractured Earth. From the staggering, industrial-tinged dread of "Mars" to a hollow, melancholic take on "Jupiter," the album transforms familiar motifs into an immersive exploration of collective psychological fatigue.
Recorded in isolation by Heffernan, the project captures the signature solo vulnerability seen on his recent landmark releases like Psychogeography. It balances moments of deep, meditative stillness with sudden, jarring eruptions of noise, offering listeners a space to both confront and process the overwhelming static of the everyday world.
For their eagerly awaited third album, the Parisian trio Howlin' Jaws have teamed up with Swedish producer Kalle Gustafsson Jerneholm (bassist with The Soundtrack Of Our Lives and producer for Foals, The Hives, Jose Gonzalez and Junip) and have taken a major step forward, affirmingthe universal appeal of their explosive yet elegant psych-rock. This new album, Living The Dream, crystallises just about everything we'd ever dreamt of hearing from Howlin' Jaws. Here, more than ever, their dreams take the form of unifying choruses, transforming grief ("Troubled Mind") or separation ("Do What You Gonna Do", "So Sorry") into genuine bursts of hope. Rich in texture (with the Omnichord and Mellotron featuring on the spellbinding "Miss You" and the twilight-tinged "Up On The Roof" respectively) and in wit (led by the biting "Living The Dream"), the eleven-track album is equally diverse in its range of influences. Disco looms large on "Terminal Buzz", country creeps in on "Sunset Laundromat", whilst the fiery "Maximum Speed" is a joyful reminder of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's trippy flights of fancy. The trio are stunning when they're in full swing, but just as impressive when they slow the tempo down. Behind its layers of cosmic keyboards, "Time Has Come" immediately sets the scene and subtly invites introspection. Like an echo at the end of the journey, "That Kind of Pain" rubs shoulders with the stars of the French Touch (the Air school), letting the strings of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra burst forth amidst its melancholic swells. All in all, whether he simmers his albums like an omelette or a beef bourguignon, Howlin' Jaws proves he's never short of imagination.
For their eagerly awaited third album, the Parisian trio Howlin' Jaws have teamed up with Swedish producer Kalle Gustafsson Jerneholm (bassist with The Soundtrack Of Our Lives and producer for Foals, The Hives, Jose Gonzalez and Junip) and have taken a major step forward, affirmingthe universal appeal of their explosive yet elegant psych-rock. This new album, Living The Dream, crystallises just about everything we'd ever dreamt of hearing from Howlin' Jaws. Here, more than ever, their dreams take the form of unifying choruses, transforming grief ("Troubled Mind") or separation ("Do What You Gonna Do", "So Sorry") into genuine bursts of hope. Rich in texture (with the Omnichord and Mellotron featuring on the spellbinding "Miss You" and the twilight-tinged "Up On The Roof" respectively) and in wit (led by the biting "Living The Dream"), the eleven-track album is equally diverse in its range of influences. Disco looms large on "Terminal Buzz", country creeps in on "Sunset Laundromat", whilst the fiery "Maximum Speed" is a joyful reminder of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's trippy flights of fancy. The trio are stunning when they're in full swing, but just as impressive when they slow the tempo down. Behind its layers of cosmic keyboards, "Time Has Come" immediately sets the scene and subtly invites introspection. Like an echo at the end of the journey, "That Kind of Pain" rubs shoulders with the stars of the French Touch (the Air school), letting the strings of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra burst forth amidst its melancholic swells. All in all, whether he simmers his albums like an omelette or a beef bourguignon, Howlin' Jaws proves he's never short of imagination.
The latest release from the Gladio Operations label showcases a new collaboration between two heavyweights of the European electro scene. This seventeenth release brings us a collaboration between Jauzas The Shining, a regular on the label, and the eagerly awaited debut of Swedish producer Obergman.
This EP, entitled “Continuum Analysis”, opens with “Analysis Of My Ego” and “Untitled”, two powerful tracks by Jauzas The Shining, featuring the classic, forceful and dark basslines, beautifully accompanied by deep vocals, very much to the French producer’s taste. The final track is by the Swedish artist, who treats us to “Kap Flora”, a journey to be savoured amidst consistent basslines and arpeggios, which draws us into a soundscape that flirts with trance sounds.
Side B opens with two tracks by Obergman: the first, “Continuum Bender”, with its intriguing and mysterious passages, gives way to “Closed Surface”, a track that slows the tempo down compared to the previous ones, and in which we hear a gentle line of more synthetic and relaxed sounds. The EP closes with the track “Con Gusto” by the French artist, a rhythmic journey with a fast-paced development, enhanced by cinematic vocals.
Finnish-American guitarist Raoul Björkenheim and Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love join forces on their new album PING, released by We Jazz Records on 30th October on LP, CD and digital formats. Recorded in Helsinki, the album finds the seasoned duo firing on all cylinders and delivering a remarkable set of contemporary free music.
PING brings together nine excursions beyond “guitar + drums” and way beyond “free jazz”. That being said, those are still good touching points for the music that is wild, imaginative, raw, yet also at times delicate and introspective. Friends and collaborators for decades in groups such as the lauded Scorch Trio, Raoul and Paal have the history and the trust to create memorable and original improvised music that stuns and moves the curious listener.
Raoul Björkenheim (b. 1956) is a Finnish-American guitarist and composer who has been creating original music for the past four decades living in New York City and Helsinki, where he is presently based. Describing his on-going work as investigative guitarism, he is best known for an expressionistic and lyrical guitar style. Björkenheim’s eclectic discography numbers 50+ albums, ranging from ambient soundscapes to visceral free jazz, from duo to big band. His large-scale works for symphony orchestra have yet to be recorded, and he has also composed scores for over ten films and dance productions. Björkenheim has collaborated musically with Bill Laswell, Toshinori Kondo, William Parker, Mats Gustafsson, Hamid Drake, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Gerald Cleaver, Henry Kaiser, Lukas Ligeti, Morgan Ågren, Paul Schütze, Edward Vesala and Juhani Aaltonen, for the labels ECM, Rune Grammofon, Cuneiform, Tum Records and Long Song records. Björkenheim has been awarded various prizes including the Emma prize for best jazz recording of the year, and been nominated three times for the Nordic Music Award.
Paal Nilssen-Love (b. 1974) is a Norwegian drummer, composer, bandleader, and producer known for his central role in Scandinavian free jazz and improvised music. Since the mid- 1990s, he has appeared on more than 280 albums, including 70 released through his label, PNL Records. He has performed with influential groups including Atomic, The Thing, Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet, Scorch Trio, and Frode Gjerstad Trio, and collaborates regularly with artists such as, Ken Vandermark, Akira Sakata, Otomo Yoshihide, David Murray, Arto Lindsay and more. Paal Nilssen-Love’s fascination with traditional and experimental music has taken him around the world. Since his first visit to Ethiopia in 2009, he has built strong connections with musicians and artists in Addis Ababa, leading to collaborations, performances, teaching, and artist exchanges with Norway. Since his first trip to Brazil in 2013, he has returned regularly, developing collaborations with artists and musicians across the country. His musical explorations have also brought him to Tsugaru and Aomori in northern Japan, where he has developed an interest in the region’s traditional music. Nilssen-Love is also an active organizer and educator. He started both Oslo’s all-Ears festival, the Blow Out festival and FRAM Kunstfest, and has led workshops internationally and in Norway.
Impossibly rare slab: a capital-C-cult bit of millennial business from perhaps the most enigmatic member of the Gush Collective crew, who in the early 00s not so much redefined, but refined UKG… and then some. Alongside folks like Herb-LF and Lorenzo, Yoshino was a stalwart: releasing and remixing on the legendary but somewhat overlooked German labels Draft Recordings and Gush. It was here these cats smoothed out the UKG sound with a spliffed out vibe that fucked with the raw warm herby sounds of Tyree Cooper and QX-1; Yoshino, more than most though, flirted with sounds you wouldn’t expect to find in the UKG realm: think ethereally stuff man, I’m talking Placid Angels with the pseudo Japanese pop sensibilities of Faye Wong - but when when the cards fall down, his productions equally bang. So: splice in a bit of Serious Danger and Makesome Breaksome, light a phat one or zwei… & welcome to the wheelhouse.
‘Back to Basics' is a celebration of Yoshino as an artist: featuring a repress from our favourite Gush Collective stash (which is now so dear it makes me wish I’d better taken care of my records at after parties); three first time cuts of his on wax that we’ve curated from over the years that feature appearances from Peaky Beats and Miss Angel - and of course, there’s a killer remix from deep digging DJ and producer, Enchanted Rhythms (whose Youtube archive is packed to the veritable rafters with the most overlooked gems and updated with such frequency that it is hard to keep up). Apart from being a head’s head, Rich is also part of the Pace familia, so we're happy to welcome him to the catalogon a terrain he has endlessly kept fresh since day dot - he knows his shit here, and of course, he taps into that Yoshino flava big time.
ORUMA is a trio formed by Ola Rzepka (drums, zither, percussion), Artur Rumiński (electric guitar) and Mat Barski (electric guitar). At its foundation is the musical dialogue previously developed by Rumiński and Barski as a guitar duo and documented on the albums “On the Margin” and “At the Junction”. Their encounter with Ola Rzepka during Kraków’s Kakofonie series opened this music to a new sense of dynamics, pulse and
collective form.
ORUMA’s music exists at the intersection of free improvisation, noise, experimental postrock and post-kraut repetition. It avoids the conventional division between soloist and accompaniment. Instead, two electric guitars and drums gradually abandon their individual roles to form a single, constantly shifting sound organism — moving from silence, open space and isolated gestures towards dense masses of sound.
The trio’s debut album consists of five pieces: “Satellites”, “Stranger”, “This Mountain Is Alive”, “A Rough Plan For Nostalgia” and “Hyperborea”. Together, they form a coherent journey: from distant signals and the first moment of contact, through friction and increasing physical intensity, to an expansive fourteen-minute finale.
Ola Rzepka
Drummer, pianist, composer and performer. She graduated from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where she studied at the Faculty of Composition, Interpretation, Education and Jazz. She was also a scholarship student at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, studying piano and percussion. She teaches piano improvisation at the Wojciech Kilar State Music School Complex in Katowice and runs her own music lessons and workshops. As a composer, she collaborates with acclaimed theatre directors in Poland, Germany and Switzerland. Her musical collaborators have included Raphael Rogiński and Antoni “Ziut” Gralak. She has performed her original music at numerous avant-garde, popular, jazz, improvised and contemporary music festivals across Poland and Europe. In Jazz Forum magazine’s 2024 Jazz Top critics’ poll, she was named among Poland’s leading drummers.
Artur Rumiński
Guitarist and member of bands including Furia, Thaw and ARRM. He also composes and improvises under his own name and performs in the experimental duo Marmur, which he co-founded with Macio Moretti. He has released several solo albums on labels including Antenna Non Grata, Gusstaff Records, Zoharum and Szara Reneta.
Mat Barski
Guitarist associated with the Kraków and Tricity music scenes. His projects include the duo Ekotonika, the Rumiński / Barski duo. He has released albums through Gusstaff Records and Antenna Non Grata. Alongside music, he works in motion design and visual postproduction. He is a member of the Kraków-based Skład Solny Association, where he coorganises concerts and exhibitions.
The 2013 action-adventure game The Last Of Us was originally published in 2013 by Sony Computer Entertainment and was developed by Naughty Dog. The game is played in a third-person perspective and the player controls Joel, a smuggler who is escorting the teenager Ellie across a post-apocalyptic America. The game received critical acclaim, with praise for its narrative, gameplay, visuals, sound design, characterization, depiction of female characters. The Last Of Us became one of the best-selling video games, selling over 1.3 million units in its first week. The game won multiple Game of the Year awards and has been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made.
The Last Of Us also received acclaim for its score, which was made by composer Gustavo Santaolalla. Santaolalla is also known for his work on Brokeback Mountain and Babel, for which he both won the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The Argentinian composer also created the music for the series Jane The Virgin and Netflix’ Making A Murderer. His soundtrack to The Last Of Us was his first in the video game industry. In 2020, he also returned to compose the music to the sequel, The Last Of Us Part II.
The soundtrack of The Last Of Us: Season 1 is available as a limited edition of 4000 individually numbered copies on yellow marble vinyl. This 2LP is packaged in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with linen laminate finish. It includes printed innersleeves and an 8-page booklet with liner notes by writer and creative director Neil Druckmann.
The Mighty Diamonds are one of the most famous vocal groups to come out of the Jamaican Reggae scene.
Their perfect harmonies ride over the wholesome and Garveyite influenced lyrics to such great effect that they will always evoke memories of that time and place, but also like all great music never seems to date.
The Mighty Diamonds consist of Donald ‘Tappy’ Shaw (lead vocals) Fitzroy ‘Bunny’ Simpson and Lloyd ‘Judge’ Ferguson providing those fantastic harmonies.
They began their recording career working with producers Stranger Cole and Rupie Edwards but found their breakthrough success with producer Joseph ‘Joe Joe’ Hookim at the legendary Channel One Studios recording ‘Hey Girl’ and covering two foreign tunes namely ‘Country Living’ (The Stylistics) and ‘Stoned Out of Mind’ (The Chi-lites) which suited their vocal styles perfectly.
The vocal group also cut tracks with other famous producers of the time Joe Gibbs ,Gussie Clarke and Mr.Tappa Zukie of which we focus this release on.On listening, these tunes work perfectly with harmonies weaving together and lifting the songs to another level.
The group also leave some room for a history lesson in the shape of ‘Morgan the Pirate’ and the thought provoking ‘Do You Want to Spend Your Time Wasting Time’.
Well waste no more and enjoy this set by one of Jamaica’s finest vocal groups….
In continuation with the “Untitled” series, it is time to unveil the fifth chapter. 9-tracker with the talented artists which have gathered to make this disc come to life with the broad spectre of dancefloor ready frequencies that it contains. With some familiar faces and some new comers this is ready to be presented to the world of us music lovers that have big lust to non-standard beats. This LP is destined to land in the right persons hands who will treat the speakers rough and loud just how they should be treated with the material presented on it. The “Untitled” series continue thanks to the professional audio trips creators the spaceship sets space sails for the new edition soon.
Odlazak – the third full-length from multidisciplinary artist and musician Ivan Masic as Ex Ponto – takes its name from the Serbian word for departure. It’s a theme that reverberates throughout the release as the motifs of departure, arrival and the journey between the two are woven into an intimate personal narrative from 1980s Yugoslavia to contemporary suburban Coburg and back. Odzalak feels like a bookend to a decade of concerted, illuminating visits to the place of his birth and a countenance to the departure that long defined his youth.
Alongside Ex Ponto’s signature mix of electronic and organic textures, Masic has interspersed moments of exchange from his homeland. The haunting sound of the gusle — a traditional Serbian instrument played by his ancestors — opens the album, alongside 40-year-old VHS recordings of family members reflecting on life and death. The cover was designed by long-time friend Rick Milovanovic (TRiC), whilst photographs from Masic’s visits to Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina by his wife, photographer Sarah Pannell, are featured on the inner sleeve. The release was mastered and partially mixed by Belgrade-based Goran Simonoski (La Plant), a collaboration rooted in shared lineage and a mutual love of the darker edges of the sonic spectrum.
Taking cues from ambient to kosmiche, dub to post punk and everything in between, this is a sonic journey as much as it’s a personal one. Part Balkan Bladerunner soundtrack, part Vini Reilly in wonderland, Odzalak is Ex Ponto’s most pointed and heady release to date, equally at ease in the club and at home.
Still compelled by the space they first opened, Gūsū returns with a second release, “Inhabiting Me”. What began as a shared approach, sprouted from intuition, has grown denser and more defined, holding on to that same fragility and openness. The duo continues to befriend with contrast, friction and proximity, shaping a language that inhabits their uncommon ground.
Vintage drum machines, tape delays and bass guitar widen the sonic ground, adding pulse, grain and instability, while the guzheng holds its place in full clarity. Each sound source becomes each other’s ornament, forming to gesture the next currents.
What emerges is less a fixed composition than a shifting form: precise in detail, impossible to contain. Listeners who have experienced Gūsū’s live performances will recognise this rare quality: a music of great sensitivity that expands with quiet force, drawing them inward rather than confronting them directly. The sound fades, re-enters, and leaves behind the trace of a lighthearted heaviness, echoing back in fragments, reappearing in memory with altered weight and colour.
Time bends inward and tones return altered. Between repetition and resonance, a tensile form begins to emerge. Neither nostalgic nor futuristic, neither static nor loose. Gūsū does not merge its materials into one smooth surface; it lets them stand close enough to sharpen one another.
Gūsū is a transcultural music project born from the confluence of two distinct artistic voices: Xueyan Chen and Nicolas Balmer. Together, they create a complex dialogue of sound that bridges the ancient and the modern, exploring the liminal spaces between tradition and experimentation. Gūsū’s inception was serendipitous, sparked by a shared stage in late 2022. What began as spontaneous improvisations has since evolved into a profound collaboration. The duo has performed under various monikers, finding their ultimate identity in the name Gūsū, a nod to both heritage and transformation.
