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A record born of insurmountable joy and simultaneous profound loss; World Maker marks a time of great change for Psychonaut, both personally and musically, as the band burn away the philosophical narrative complexities of previous offerings with a searing, panoramic clarity that implores us to savour the beauty of the now as a means of leaving a legacy for the future. The traditional, three-piece line up of Belgian, psychedelic post-metal collective Psychonaut has long belied the compositional prowess, captivating narrative depth and crushing live presence of a band now operating at the forefront of forward-thinking, contemporary heavy music. Having sent a shockwave through the post-metal and prog scenes with their three times repressed Pelagic Records debut Unfold The God Man in 2020 before following it up with the transformative metaphysical complexities of 2022's Violate Consensus Reality, Psychonaut have played prestigious Belgian open-air festivals like Alcatraz, Rock Herk and Boomtown Festival as well as boutique events such as Soulcrusher, Roadburn Redux and A Colossal Weekend whilst sharing stages across Europe with the likes of Amenra, Brutus and Pelagic labelmates The Ocean and PG.Lost. The seed of World Maker took shape just as the campaign for Violate Consensus Reality came to a close, with the news that guitarist/vocalist Stefan De Graef was to become a father. This tilting of life's axis led De Graef, like most fathers-to-be, to re-assess what was really important. As such, the music he was inspired to write felt free of the band's previous philosophical and spiritual foundations and instead took the form of life lessons for his unborn son, a legacy of love in case something were ever to happen. This hopeful euphoria shines keenly throughout World Maker as an uncharacteristically optimistic warmth; from the reverberating Rhodes organ on the titular opening track and the meandering, free-jazz inspired guitar solo that introduces `Everything Else is Just The Weather' to elements of world music, electronica and the otherworldly voice of Dutch multi-instrumentalist and old friend Anthe Huybrechts (Anthe/Helion Creek) most notably on tracks like `Origins' which also features tabla, a pair of indian hand drums, as its propulsive heartbeat. Whilst Psychonaut's giant riffs, punishing polyrhythms and guttural vocal rage are more resplendent than ever, there is a wider dynamic spectrum to World Maker that sees the band proudly exploring their more delicate, intimate extremes as well as their most aggressive and abrasive. Not long after the birth of De Graef's son came the devastating news that both his own father and Psychonaut bassist/vocalist Thomas Michiels' father had been diagnosed with advanced cancers. Living day-to-day and torn between joy and grief, the band found themselves shedding the grand scope and world-shattering agenda of Violate Consensus Reality to focus on the here and now. Lead single `Endless Currents', the first full track on the album, explodes in a barrage of staccato guitar tapping but mellows to let the powerful, newly pared back lyrics ring out as a call to embrace the flow and follow joy. The song's final few words `Lead the way. / Soar. / Everlong.' double as both a greeting and a goodbye as the trio build their formidable post-metal might to a thunderous breaking point. Similarly, the pulsing, propellant `Stargazer', named so for De Graef's son being born in stargazer position, pairs delicate guitar motifs and folk-inflected optimism with huge and sprawling breakdowns as some of the band's most genre-pushing work to date; asking difficult but important questions of what happens next. It is `And You Came With Searing Light' though that most immediately exemplifies Psychonaut's redirected ambition on World Maker, as euphoria collides with blinding fury. The first track written for the album, `_Searing Light' is easily the most complex and initially wouldn't sound out of place on Violate Consensus Reality. Originally meant to be the new album's opening track; the decision to defer its impact, not to mention its compositional and dynamic gravity, speaks of a fundamental change to the band's very core. The words "Discover the world with wide eyes" recurring throughout speak as much to those having lost a part of their world as they do to those seeing it for the first time. Amidst such turbulent times, the band found strength and support within their Post-Metal community. The album was recorded and produced by the band alongside their longtime collaborator and close friend Chiaran Verheyden (Hippotraktor) with help and advice from Psychonaut's live engineer Victor, who will no doubt make this album sound just as awesome on stage. Even the artwork for World Maker was a family affair, being designed by close friend Sam Coussens of Belgian cosmic sludge metallers Pothamus. In the face of life's soaring highs and desolate lows, World Maker is direct and brave without sacrificing any of Psychonaut's raw power, creative innovation or inimitable musical depth. Where their previous full-length offerings have charted grand introspective courses through time and space, World Maker is breathtaking in its uncompromising clarity: a father singing to his newborn son as a son bids his own father farewell. FOR FANS OF Mastodon, Russian Circles, Tool, Gojira, The Ocean, Pelican, Hypno5e, Cult Of Luna, Amenra

Josi Miller aus Leipzig-Connewitz macht parallel zu ihrem Studium an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar erste DJ-Erfahrungen in der ostdeutschen Subkultur. 2017 zieht sie - längst Protagonistin des Homegirls-Podcasts - nach Berlin. Sie begleitet Trettmann jahrelang als Tour-DJ und ist solo ständig auf Achse - von Kapstadt bis London, vom about:blank bis zum Institut für Zukunft, vom MELT bis zur Fusion. Mit KLAN-Musiker Stefan Heinrich gründet Josi das Elektropop-Duo Import Export, veranstaltet unzählige Workshops für Flinta* und beaufsichtigt Produktionen für befreundete Künstler*innen à la Jolle oder Zugezogen Maskulin. Seit etwa zwei Jahren hostet Josi das ARTE-Format "Chat with a DJ", in dem sie regelmäßig Künstler*innen wie Marlon Hoffstadt, Anja Schneider oder Acid Pauli empfängt. Im Herbst 2023 beschließt Josi während eines Kreativcamps in Frankreich ein Soloalbum in Angriff zu nehmen. Im Kreis vertrauter Musiker*innen wie Fatoni, Aywing, Lambert, Torky Tork und BEACHPEOPLE entstehen die ersten Fragmente. 2024 zieht Josi im Rahmen eines Förderprogramms für mehrere Wochen zu Post-Punk-Ikone Gudrun Gut in die Uckermark, wo sich ihr Vorhaben konkretisiert. Am Ende einer intensiven Auseinandersetzung mit der eigenen Psyche und unzähligen Stunden zwischen Synthesizern und Beat-Software steht "4 Stages Of Sleep" - ein Debütalbum, das Breakbeat, Pop und Electronica miteinander fusioniert.

Modern ambient minimalism with early music/baroque influences. Minimal and nuanced, Diary of a Candle is a consoling, melodic suite from acclaimed experimental composer, musician, and producer Faten Kanaan. On this album Faten uses counterpoint as a narrative tool to create music that is mysterious, smudgy, and deeply melodic. From the repetitive structures of modern minimalism and early music/baroque influences - to more languid textural ebbs and tides, there's a warmth in her use of synthesizers that gives her work a curiously timeless feel. Composing intuitively, her music creates its own world - one that isn't easily categorised. Diary of a Candle is punctuated with tender woodwinds and richly-layered strings, touched by the hazy atmospheres of 1970s/1980s films. Its understated heart-on sleeve romanticism follows the rhythm of nature: it bends in the breeze, drifts through the air, and settles on the ground. The ambiance is not an escapism, but the re-focusing of a lens through which humans are no longer the protagonists. Instead, a landscape's intimate details become the central figures. With the sparseness of Hiroshi Yoshimura's 1982 album 'Music for Nine Post Cards' as a starting-point influence, Faten's music exudes a wistful yet hopeful sentiment, honouring moments of beauty in the world around us. Some of the album titles are inspired by East-Asian rites and folkloric superstitions, often related to nature. All music written performed and mixed by Faten Kanaan. Mastered by Heba Kadry(Björk, Bon Iver, John Cale, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Deerhunter, Cate Le Bon, & many more). For fans of Kali Malone, Steve Reich, William Basinski, Sarah Davachi, Stars Of The Lid, , Mary Lattimore and Oneohtrix Point Never.

Innitial pressing soul out at once, now repress in neon green vinyl colour available! Ride bassist Steve Queralt's debut solo album Swallow is a beautifully brooding nine-track collection that combines the darkly textured soundscapes of early M83 and Sigur Rós with an electronic sheen reminiscent of Boards Of Canada. It also features guest vocals from Sonic Cathedral labelmate Emma Anderson (formerly of Lush and Sing-Sing) and Verity Susman (Electrelane, MEMORIALS).Swallow has been slowly but surely pieced together between Ride albums and tours over the past five years and, perhaps as a result, has a slightly dystopian, Blade Runner feel that reflects the liminal spaces in which it was created. Despite the fact that the majority of the album is instrumental, there is plenty of power and emotion poured into these moody, moonlit soundtracks. When words do appear, an underlying anger and political slant emerges and amplifies the album's dark intensity. This is most notable on the closing track, `Motor Boats', where he overlays words from Julie Sheldon's polemic poem The Same Boat ("We're all in the same boat they say, but I would disagree"). According to Steve, these simple words of rejection "capture the reality of our times perfectly". However, it was the collaborations with the two guest vocalists that tied the whole thing together and paved the way to the finished album. "After a few false starts, I had started to doubt the project altogether. It was going nowhere," says Steve. "Then, out of the darkness, Emma got in touch to tell me that she'd found her voice and could I send her some tracks. A few files back and forth and an afternoon in the studio later and we had `Lonely Town' and `Swiss Air'."In the meantime, Verity from Electrelane had added vocals to the song `Messengers' and transformed the track. Matthew Simms, now her bandmate in MEMORIALS, would go on to mix the finished album."Swallow has turned out so much better than I had hoped," enthuses Steve. "I'd fallen out of love with it so many times I was thinking of calling it Loveless. But then, that wouldn't be the whole story...

PinkPantheress’ debut mixtape to hell with it marked the anti-popstars seismic arrival.

Released in 2021, the project fused bedroom pop, jungle, drum & bass and UKG, introducing these sounds to a new generation through her saccharine vocals and diaristic lyrics about obsession, hopelessness, friendship, and loneliness.

The debut mixtape has received 2.5 billion streams to date with all five singles; Just for me (No. 27), Pain(No. 35), Passion (No. 73), Break it off (No. 74), and I must apologise (No. 85) charting in the UK Top 100.

The following year saw the rising star win BBC Music’s Sound of 2022, grace the cover of The Face whilst catching the attention of British Vogue where she was the only musician featured on the prestigious Vogue 25 list. to hell with it has since received Gold certification and cemented PinkPantheress as one of the most important new voices in British music.

ULURU is a large sandstone rock formation in Australia. It's sacred to the Anangu, the local Indigenous of the area. For many years it had been deprived of its spiritual significance, due to mass tourism, capitalism, as well as greedy and selfishness of people who just want to make money out of it. However, as a result of the Anangu’s resilience, care and staunchness, huge changes took place in the national park around Uluru as well as in the broader public's consciousness, giving again to the Uluru the sacred identity that had been lost.

You might be reading and thinking now: so what's the point? Actually, there's no real point. I would rather say, there’s hope. The hope of seeing humans all around the world following the example of the Anangu. The hope of seeing humans finally stopping to treat the earth and all what’s part of it, what’s on and what’s in it, as a slave without soul. The hope of changing today, and if not today at latest by tomorrow. This system is failing. It's no longer sustainable, and there's no much time left. So everybody, don't sleep, be critical.

ULURU is a large sandstone rock formation in Australia. It's sacred to the Anangu, the local Indigenous of the area. For many years it had been deprived of its spiritual significance, due to mass tourism, capitalism, as well as greedy and selfishness of people who just want to make money out of it. However, as a result of the Anangu’s resilience, care and staunchness, huge changes took place in the national park around Uluru as well as in the broader public's consciousness, giving again to the Uluru the sacred identity that had been lost.

You might be reading and thinking now: so what's the point? Actually, there's no real point. I would rather say, there’s hope. The hope of seeing humans all around the world following the example of the Anangu. The hope of seeing humans finally stopping to treat the earth and all what’s part of it, what’s on and what’s in it, as a slave without soul. The hope of changing today, and if not today at latest by tomorrow. This system is failing. It's no longer sustainable, and there's no much time left. So everybody, don't sleep, be critical.

Uncharted musical terrains beyond jazz standards, precise and beautiful vocal arrangements, pop minimalism, Portuguese folk, R&B and playful loops. This is how we could define the first album “Un a Un”, by the Portuguese musician and singer based in Barcelona, Marta Garrett, which has been produced and multiinstrumented by Leo Aldrey and with the collaborations of guitarist Santi Careta and bassist Ramon Vagué. An album that tells us about the melancholic but hopeful search for a sense of belonging and the impulsive fight against fear and insecurity.

Sincere Engineer is an American punk rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. As of 2025 three full-length albums have been released, this is the second (2021) and first for Hopeless Records. Inspired by Chicago punks like Alkaline Trio and The Lawrence Arms, Sincere Engineer, centered around Deanna Belos,cut its teeth in the windy city's folk-punk scen, eissuing her debut album Rhombithianin 2017 and gaining a cult following over the course of multiple tours across the United States. For her sophomore album and Hopeless debut Bless My Psyche, Deanna is still pulling from the inspiration her adolescent icons brought her but is also expanding her sound by taking cues from artists who she has looked to as of late like Hop Along, Soccer Mommy, and PhoebeBridgers. For Fans Of: Mom Jeans, Hop Along, Remo Drive

Chicago-based indie punks Sincere Engineer started as a solo acoustic punk act playing dive bars and open mics. Singer/guitarist/songwriter, Deanna Belos, decided to forego dental school for punk music, trading in teeth for corn dogs (as referenced in her fan favorite song "Corn Dog Sonnet No. 7"), and touring the world with bands like Hot Mulligan, Alkaline Trio, The Menzingers, and Joyce Manor. In 2020, she released Bless My Psyche, her first sophomore album on independent powerhouse Hopeless Records. Featuring the Sirius XM Faction hit "Trust Me," the album explored themes of insecurity, failure, and coming of age and was built for gut wrenching sing-a-longs. With the upcoming Cheap Grills, Sincere Engineer now takes a massive leap forward with catchy melodies, witty and sharp lyrics, and the sincerity of a person that wants to do the right thing in a world that doesn't always reward that. Working with producer Mike Sapone (Taking Back Sunday, Brand New), Sincere Engineer/Deanna Belos has crafted an album that sees her emerge as a face of the new generation of melodic punk. For Fans Of: The Menzingers, Alkaline Trio, Hot Mulligan, Jeff Rosenstock

Dark Stories Part I: 2020: Homophobie, Liebeskummer, Nazi Terror und die Abhängigkeit von Social Media und KI. Nadine Nevermore, Tommy Cräck und Äxel Äxport schreiben während einer weltweiten Pandemie 4 Songs, nehmen diese im heimischen Äxport Tonstudio, in WG Zimmern und Proberäumen, zwischen Ausgangssperren und Kontaktverboten auf. An Shows ist zu dieser Zeit nicht zu denken. Dark Stories Pt. I war entstanden. Dark Stories Part II: 2024: People Pleasing, Ausbruch aus dem Alltag, TierUNwohl, die dunkle Seite der Gesellschaft und der Kampf gegen das Patriarchat. Nach vier Jahren, einem Album und über 70 Shows später, war die Zeit reif für Part II der Dark Stories. Zusammen mit dem Produzenten Daniel Keller (Studio 411) wurden 5 Songs aufgenommen. Das Schlagzeug wurde im Kulturzentrum Kinett, einem ehemaligen Kleinstadt Kino in Kusel aufgenommen, indem N.T.Ä. ihre allererste Show spielten. Musikalische Gäste bereicherten den zweiten Part der Dark Stories. Lee Hollis in klassischer Hardcore Manier beim Song "Away" und Chris Kotze on 1-2-3-4 beim Song "Combat". Idee und Gestaltung des Artworks stammen aus der Feder von Flöter und Andy Kremp (AK.ink). Dark Stories Pt. II war entstanden. Die LP kommt mit schwerem Inside Out Cover, schönem LP Booklet und Download Link, mit dem ihr euch die Songs als MP3 und WAV herunterladen könnt.

Red/Black marbled Vinyl, limitiert auf 200 Exemplare. Plus LP Booklet und Downloadcode. Dark Stories Part I: 2020: Homophobie, Liebeskummer, Nazi Terror und die Abhängigkeit von Social Media und KI. Nadine Nevermore, Tommy Cräck und Äxel Äxport schreiben während einer weltweiten Pandemie 4 Songs, nehmen diese im heimischen Äxport Tonstudio, in WG Zimmern und Proberäumen, zwischen Ausgangssperren und Kontaktverboten auf. An Shows ist zu dieser Zeit nicht zu denken. Dark Stories Pt. I war entstanden. Dark Stories Part II: 2024: People Pleasing, Ausbruch aus dem Alltag, TierUNwohl, die dunkle Seite der Gesellschaft und der Kampf gegen das Patriarchat. Nach vier Jahren, einem Album und über 70 Shows später, war die Zeit reif für Part II der Dark Stories. Zusammen mit dem Produzenten Daniel Keller (Studio 411) wurden 5 Songs aufgenommen. Das Schlagzeug wurde im Kulturzentrum Kinett, einem ehemaligen Kleinstadt Kino in Kusel aufgenommen, indem N.T.Ä. ihre allererste Show spielten. Musikalische Gäste bereicherten den zweiten Part der Dark Stories. Lee Hollis in klassischer Hardcore Manier beim Song "Away" und Chris Kotze on 1-2-3-4 beim Song "Combat". Idee und Gestaltung des Artworks stammen aus der Feder von Flöter und Andy Kremp (AK.ink). Dark Stories Pt. II war entstanden. Die LP kommt mit schwerem Inside Out Cover, schönem LP Booklet und Download Link, mit dem ihr euch die Songs als MP3 und WAV herunterladen könnt. Das Vinyl kommt in der Farbe red-black marbled tranlucent. Diese Version ist auf 200 Exemplare limitiert.

23 Live-Tracks von der gefeierten Luck and Strange Tour auf 4 LPs in 2 Doppel-Gatefolds und Schuber. Enthält ein 24-seitiges Booklet mit Fotos von der Tour. Produziert von Charlie Andrew und David Gilmour.

Die Tour begleitete Gilmours fünftes Soloalbum Luck And Strange, das #1 in Großbritannien, Deutschland (seine erste #1 dort), Polen, den Niederlanden, Tschechien, der Schweiz, Portugal und Österreich erreichte.

Die Shows begannen mit zwei ausverkauften Warm-up-Shows im Brighton Centre, bevor sie für sechs ausverkaufte Abende in den Circus Maximus in Rom umzogen, gefolgt von der gleichen Anzahl in der Londoner Royal Albert Hall, bevor sie für ausverkaufte Abende im Intuit Dome und der Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in die USA zogen und mit fünf ausverkauften Abenden im Madison Square Garden in New York endeten.

Alle dreiundzwanzig Termine waren ausverkauft, und da keine neuen Shows in Sicht sind, sind »The Luck And Strange Concerts« die beste und einzige Möglichkeit, den Meister seiner Kunst auf der Bühne zu erleben.

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die return October 17 with Dreams of Being Dust, an album that finds the Connecticut-formed collective plumbing the depths of emotional ruin and emerging with their most scorched, unrelenting work yet. Co-produced by guitarist Chris Teti (Fiddlehead, Anxious) and Greg Thomas (END, Misery Signals), the album exchanges the band"s usual sprawl for something more serrated-folding djent-like heft and post-hardcore volatility into their post-everything DNA. Dreams of Being Dust is the band"s fifth studio album, and follows up their well- received 2021 album, Illusory Walls, which arrived as their "heaviest, proggiest, most audacious release to date" according to Stereogum. Tackling complex social and political themes like religion and capitalism, Pitchfork praised its scathing indictments as "fuming with resentment for the ruthless greed and self-interest fueling societal collapse. If Illusory Walls was their grand reckoning, Dreams Of Being Dust is the aftermath: raw, furious, alive. But even amid the chaos, the band"s core remains intact-a belief in community, resistance, and making sense of the world through sheer volume and vulnerability. TWIABP have always blurred the lines between hope and despair, and here, that duality feels sharper than ever. Now a decade in, the band- David F. Bello (vocals), Chris Teti (guitar/ vocals), Joshua Cyr (bass), Katie Dvorak (synth/vocals), Steven K. Buttery (drums), and Anthony Gesa (guitar/ vocals)-deliver a message that sounds less like a eulogy and more like a rallying cry.

Here to dazzle you by the power of the disco ball, Lack of Afro is your friendly neighbourhood ‘Love Dealer’. Two years on from the funk & soul rebirth of ‘Square One’, powered by the ubiquitous ‘Loving Arms’ featuring Greg Blackman, Lack of Afro aka Adam Gibbons is now close to two decades deep in the game with soundtrack credits galore and online streams doing calculator-busting numbers. With extensive touring taking ‘Love Dealer’ up and down the country this Autumn, Gibbons’ ninth studio album is all for "the thrill of seeing people on a dancefloor, all collectively locked into a track that you've produced - there’s nothing like it!”.


‘Love Dealer’ is the authentic modern disco experience, packing a stacked sole’s worth of club beats full of stardusted sing-alongs, style-outs and French touch-style cool. Despite being “written during one of the longest winters in living memory”, ‘Love Dealer’, featuring some co-production from fellow South Coast dancefloor scholar Flevans (and influenced by producer du jour Barry Can’t Swim), exudes warmth and will make you sweat when its highs take effect.


Entering the scene with the radiance of ‘Make It Shine’ featuring Greg Blackman, washing over the airwaves of BBC 6 Music and Radio 2 and taking up a 10-week residency on the Jazz FM playlist, Gibbons and his crack line-up of discotheque players are your go-to team when you can’t wait for the weekend to begin, as subtle as they are straight down to business. ‘Love Dealer’ offers you nothing but the best in sparkling string symphonies, the hippest guitar licks, samples of those invited beyond the velvet rope and struts soaked in night fever.


Double A-side ‘Walls Start Rockin’ and ‘Heart & Soul’ guide the album’s glamour-and-groove, while ‘Love Saves The Day’ and ‘Plain to See’ dramatically take to the podium in a shimmer of pure peak 70s theatre. ‘Keeping Me Strong’ is the synergy of disco chic and the sound of a global advertising tie-in with Dyson, ahead of Gibbons taking a slightly Moroder/Cerrone-ish detour on ‘Idolising People Like Madlib’. “'Love Dealer' is aimed unequivocally at the dancefloor" says Adam. "As an artist, I wanted to push myself in a slightly new direction - more into the land of disco and a four to the floor sound. 'Love Dealer' is quintessentially an upbeat record, full of joy, optimism and hope for the future”. Seek your inner ‘Love Dealer’, kink your ‘fro and let your funk flag fly.
















n B7. 14 Your Love (feat. Jonah Hitchens) BONUS TRACK














n B7. 14 Your Love (feat. Jonah Hitchens) BONUS TRACK














[n] B7. 14 Your Love (feat. Jonah Hitchens) [BONUS TRACK]














[BONUS TRACK]

Emily A. Sprague's Cloud Time traces an audio-spiritual journey through time and place, recorded across a long-awaited debut tour of Japan in the fall of 2024. Compiled from environmental improvisations captured in and for the moment, material at once welcoming, responsive, and inimitable, the album distills a voyage guided by psychic wayfaring, unbound presence, and activating performance for a reciprocal exchange with space, listener, and each fully engaged instant. The Japanese tour documented on Cloud Time held an almost mythic significance for Sprague, taking on properties of her own sonic white whale. After many near-departures and dropped plans to play in the country, "the empty spaces of cancelled trips and forgotten music turned into strange little misty spirits that I felt followed by," she says. "When I began preparing for the tour, I couldn't shake a sense that the invitation to Japan was more about opening myself up to this new place instead of bringing something into it tightly under my control. Improvisation has always been such a pillar in my music practice, and I really wanted to meet the country, spaces and people through that process." To amplify these intuitive whispers on-stage, Sprague reimagined her time-tested live rig, designed to be as free from error as possible, as a looser, more flexible set up that would allow her to interface with what was essentially a blank sonic canvas every night. Each performance became a collaboration between environment and instinct, Sprague processing the events, energies, and emotions informing the evening through her new sound ecosystem, and projecting an entirely present and unique version of herself to each open-eared and hearted crowd. "It was very much more than just an act of playing for me, but a total experience of time and place," she says. The seven long-form pieces that plot the course of Cloud Time, excerpted from over eight hours of recordings archived on the artist's on-stage recorder and generously shared on the album with no additional mixing and only minimal editing, invite listeners to become still in these deep-rooted moments of presence as the album moves from city to city, venue to venue. Cloud Time chronicles material recorded at each tour stop, Sprague selecting and sequencing the album around mood-based storytelling more so than linear chronology. "I tried to make the whole album flow in the way that any one of the complete live performances did," she explains, "while also keeping the spirit of the whole thing as a journey." The result is equal parts travelog, love letter, and impressionistic collage channeled from the potent ferment of a now encased in the glowing amber of memory. Intrinsically inspired by kankyo ongaku, an environmental music philosophy, known both in and widely outside of Japan that tunes into the similarly expansive ethos as Pauline Oliveros' deep listening practice and posits the listener as composer, Cloud Time is ambient music that seems to be listening right back, grounded in heartfelt synthesized frequencies that abundantly hold and heal. Pieces like "Nagoya," "Tokyo 1," and the ten minute "Matsumoto" in particular hum with the atomic resonance of gently tended landscapes, offering space for tuning way in and dropping far out from perspectives that stifle and bind. Cloud Time is an invitation to embrace each moment as both fleeting and eternal, floating by with nothing to grasp onto and absolutely everything to gain. The exercise in acceptance and letting go that Sprague practiced throughout the tour deeply impacted her understanding of self as both a guest and venerable performer. "The process of loving wherever I am, being present and focusing on a clear channel of communication for mind and emotion, rooted so deeply in respect for the space, those within it, and myself, ended up being profoundly healing," she says. "My vision and hope is that this album can be released as a gift back to anyone who either was or wasn't there. A cloud time of life passing by."

INTEMPORARY AND INDETRONABLE FRENCH COLD WAVE CLASSIC in a SPECIAL EDITION to celebrate the 40th anniversary of this mythical album.



This edition includes a 45T with 2 previously unreleased tracks, available nowhere else.



Thierry Müller, who initiated the RUTH project, is not at his first try when the album POLAROÏD/ROMAN/PHOTO including the eponymous track is released in 1985. His older brother Patrick along with one of their cousins make his musical education and he quickly becomes familiar with contemporary and experimental music. He starts quite early to tinker sounds on old tape recorders by himself but it is in 1977 that Thierry launches with some friends his first group, ARCANE, while studying at the School of Applied Arts. Their sound is weird, a mixture of saturated scratches and feedback tapes: there is no discographic or scenic testimony of this experience.



Alongside ARCANE, Thierry is already working solo on his ILITCH project / concept, an experimental and innovative work, whose first album Periodmindtrouble is released in 1978 on the Oxigène label. Despite insubstantial sales, this album brings Thierry recognition and success in the very elitist circles of experimental and underground music.



ILITCH’s musical bias was too narrow for Thierry’s ceaseless experimental curiosity, parallel to these activities, he therefore develops a Punk project called RUTH ELLYERI with the author, actress and photographer Murielle Huster. The title is an anagram of Thierry Müller (the complete name is Ruth M. Ellyeri). The character is meant to impersonate one of his schizophrenic facets and allows him to extend his field of expressions to musical styles differing from those in ILITCH.

From this work, the very cult punk piece Mescalito emerges, song that can be found on the mythical but unfortunately very rare compilation 125g de 33 1/3 tours (1979) of the Oxigène label (first “french punk” sampler). At the end of 1978, he meets Philippe Doray at the Oxigene office. Doray is another big name of French experimental music. Thierry moves to his home near Rouen, a remote farmhouse with a music studio made of odds and ends.



They work on their respective creations but meet from time to time on experimentations in common, including CRASH (a tribute to JG Ballard) As early as 1982, a first version of the track Polaroïd/Roman/Photo is out under the name of the project RUTH. “I wanted to write a piece to make the girls dance and make fun of the boys. I plugged a small handmade clock on my Farfisa organ as a sequencer. I had a small Roland synth-guitar, I put the organ in it and that’s how it started.” Philippe is quite amused by the idea of working on a more Pop project and offers to write the text. Thierry works on other tracks for the future LP and asks some friends to write other texts : Edouard Nono, visual artist, writes the lyrics of Mots, Frédérique Lapierre those of Misty Mouse and Tu m’ennuies . It is her voice you hear on these 2 tracks and on the first version of Polaroïd/Roman/Photo. Later, Thierry settles down in the Anagramme recording studio to carry out acoustic sound recordings. But when the sessions are over, the 2 musicians are not too happy with the results of Polaroïd/Roman/Photo: according to them, they lack “flamboyance”. They decide then to record a new female voice with a professional singer and the sound engeneer Patrick Chevalot offers to mix the track in the Synthesis studio “so that it blows out”.



With his tape ready and the help of Jacques Pasquier (S.C.O.P.A. / Invisible records where Ilitch’s second album, 10 Suicides, is released) he starts to contact record companies. “I visited almost all the major record companies and was thrown out every time. Only at RCA’s I found someone interested in my music. It was Francis Fottorino who had signed Kas Product but when it reached the the big boss, no way! Philippe Constantin from Virgin records raised some hope but in vain.



The album was finally released in 1985 with Paris Album, a small independant label.” The album barely sells 50 copies in 1985, despite the eponymous title as a potential success. « In 2004, 2 DJs Marc Colin and Ivan Smagghe discover the track Polaroïd/Roman/Photo and decide to exhume it from oblvion. They release it on a compilation called So Young but so cold (Tigersushi) and then with Born Bad records on the BIPPP compilation in 2008. Thanks to them, the track and the album start a new life.



Alongside his activity as graphic designer, Thierry Müller carries on producing music under his name, those of ILITCH and RUTH for his own creations and various collaborations.