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Valencian producer Pépe's love of iridescent melodies, velvety pads and complex rhythms has seen him skilfully combine house, bass music and breakbeat in recent years. His music is globally reaching, having garnered attention from top artists including Ben UFO, Peggy Gou, Shanti Celeste, Moxie, Mount Kimbie and Disclosure.

His heartfelt, mercurial and emotive sound is ever present on his new album for Lapsus, which also incorporates a lush sonic forest, resplendent in detail and jam packed with influences. The album 'Reclaim' opens the door to experimentation and sound design, while embracing the braindance and hyperpop sphere with surprising maturity. It is an amalgamation of electronic sounds and pulsating structures in which orchestral sounds, folk music, ambient textures and an strong vocal presence, both synthetic and authentic, sparkle.

'Reclaim' imagines a post-human future, where nature once again reclaims lost ground and is free to flourish and take root around manmade structures. Pépe exhibits his personal reverence for the work of Antonio Cortés Ferrando, the architect behind the Espai Verd building, which broke architectural and urban planning norms by using computation to create structures that promote the organic growth of foliage. It is a building designed for the future, where flora cultivates indefinitely.

In Pépe’s own words, "At a time when we have witnessed how nature strives to regain ground, once humans are removed from the streets, it is important to start thinking critically about new techniques in the creation of art and design, and imagining a future where posterity is embodied in the rejuvenation of a greener world".

Space Adventure Cobra is the animated series from the masterpiece of Buichi Terasawa, produced by the prestigious studio TMS Entertainment and broadcasted from 1982. The series was a huge success and remains to this day one of the most appreciated in the world of Japanese animation.
In order to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Space Adventure Cobra, we are pleased to offer this sublime vinyl box set of the OST with its 3 discs gathering a very large selection of music, all the songs (long versions) as well as several covers and rare unused tracks composed at the time, all completed by a 12-page booklet, illustrated with the most beautiful artworks of the master Terasawa!
The legendary soundtrack of Space Adventure Cobra, composed by Kentarô Haneda and YûjiÔno, has greatly contributed to the reputation of the series with notably rhythmic tracks, sublime jazz pieces and unforgettable songs.
Here it is now completely remastered in vinyl format & double CD in this collector's edition!

Critically acclaimed rock group EELS announce
vinyl reissues of earlier records ‘End Times’, ‘Hombre Lobo’ and ‘Tomorrow Morning’, released via E Works / PIAS.
EELS will hit the road this Spring for the longawaited Lockdown Hurricane tour of Europe and North America, starting in March in Nottingham. The reissues follow EELS’ critically acclaimed
2022 record, ‘Extreme Witchcraft’, which found
praise at MOJO, NME, The New York Times,
Stereogum, SPIN and more. EELS have had one of the most consistently acclaimed careers in music. The ever-changing
project of principal singer / songwriter E (Mark Oliver Everett), EELS have released 14 studio albums since their 1996 debut, ‘Beautiful Freak’. In 2008, E published his highly acclaimed book,
‘Things the Grandchildren Should Know’, and starred in the award-winning ‘Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives’ documentary about the search to understand his quantum physicist father, Hugh
Everett III. Single LP on standard weight black vinyl in a
gatefold sleeve with matt machine varnish.

Critically acclaimed rock group EELS announce
vinyl reissues of earlier records ‘Hombre Lobo’,
‘End Times’ and ‘Tomorrow Morning’, released via
E Works / PIAS. EELS will hit the road this Spring for the longawaited Lockdown Hurricane tour of Europe and
North America, starting in March in Nottingham. The reissues follow EELS’ critically acclaimed 2022 record, ‘Extreme Witchcraft’, which found praise at MOJO, NME, The New York Times,
Stereogum, SPIN and more. EELS have had one of the most consistently acclaimed careers in music. The ever-changing
project of principal singer / songwriter E (Mark Oliver Everett), EELS have released 14 studio albums since their 1996 debut, ‘Beautiful Freak’. In 2008, E published his highly acclaimed book,
‘Things the Grandchildren Should Know’, and starred in the award-winning ‘Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives’ documentary about the search to understand his quantum physicist father, Hugh
Everett III. Single LP on standard weight black vinyl in a
gatefold sleeve with matt machine varnish.

Critically acclaimed rock group EELS announce
vinyl reissues of earlier records ‘Tomorrow
Morning’, ‘End Times’ and ‘Hombre Lobo’,
released via E Works / PIAS. EELS will hit the road this Spring for the longawaited Lockdown Hurricane tour of Europe and
North America, starting in March in Nottingham. The reissues follow EELS’ critically acclaimed 2022 record, ‘Extreme Witchcraft’, which found praise at MOJO, NME, The New York Times, Stereogum, SPIN and more. EELS have had one of the most consistently
acclaimed careers in music. The ever-changing
project of principal singer / songwriter E (Mark Oliver Everett), EELS have released 14 studio albums since their 1996 debut, ‘Beautiful Freak’. In 2008, E published his highly acclaimed book,
‘Things the Grandchildren Should Know’, and starred in the award-winning ‘Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives’ documentary about the search to understand his quantum physicist father, Hugh
Everett III. Single LP on standard weight black vinyl in a
reverse board gatefold sleeve.

Die Alben ".neon", "Agape" und "Melting Sun" der Post Black Metaller LANTLÔs nun auf farbigem Vinyl!

Die Kult-Black-Metal-Band NARGAROTH veröffentlicht jetzt 4 ihrer Full-Length-Alben via Season of Mist auf Vinyl!

FFV: Tsjuder, Gorgoroth, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Marduk

Die Kult-Black-Metal-Band NARGAROTH veröffentlicht jetzt 4 ihrer Full-Length-Alben via Season of Mist auf Vinyl!

FFV: Tsjuder, Gorgoroth, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Marduk

Gondwana Records announces 'Goodbyes' the debut album from Estonian pianist and composer, Hanakiv, a deeply beautiful, meditative piano album featuring special guest Alabaster dePlume

"This is an album about healing. It is about saying your goodbyes to everything that doesn't serve you anymore. Each of these songs has a little goodbye in it. So, these are very beautiful and necessary goodbyes".

Hanakiv is a young composer and musician from Estonia (now based in London) who creates meditative piano-based ambient music with elements from classical and electronic music. 'Goodbyes' is her debut recording and draws on influences as diverse as Tim Hecker, Björk "Vespertine", Kara-Lis Coverdale, Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Aphex Twin as well as her own cultural heritage. Music has an important part in Estonian culture, especially choir music and its traditions, but Hanakiv also draws on her love of nature – the beautiful Estonian seaside and forests - and on her time in Iceland. However, it was moving to London that gave her the freedom to make her own music: "London gave me the freedom and courage to really be who I am (as a person and musically)" and her heritage and her new home both offer inspiration to Goodbyes, as Hanakiv moves between these two opposite places, a bustling metropolis and a small country full of nature, drawing inspiration from both as she sculpts her own voice.

Hanakiv had an unconventional music education – she started studying music at a school for handbells when she was nine and was part of a handbell ensemble for eight years. Starting on piano at the same time she went on to study composition at high school, and later at the Estonian Academy of Music. Eventually switching to electroacoustic composition, she studied in Reykjavik, and did internships in Malmö, and again Reykjavik before moving to London. She grew up in a musical family and her grandmother was a piano teacher and choir conductor.

"I would always ask her to take me to her choir rehearsals. I remember sitting under the grand piano, listening to the choir and just being mesmerised by the sounds. She also teaches in a local music school in the south of Estonia with about ten pianos, and I'd spend a lot of time there as well. I believe this was the starting point for me to get to where I am now. The last two pieces on the album (Home II and Home I) are composed in this same music school, so it feels like a full circle.

An early influence was Regina Spektor "the first artist who made me really want to play piano" alongside dream pop and Sigur Rós' as well as Estonian contemporary composers such as Erkki-Sven Tüür and Arvo Pärt. Later her studies took her to Reykjavík: "There is this amazing record shop called 12 Tónar in Reykjavik where you can drink espressos and listen to all their vinyls. I spent quite a lot of time there. There is something about Icelandic music that really excited me (the mixture of contemporary electronic sounds with melancholy, emotionality). This is when I started getting more into electronic music, and experimenting outside of classical music". Following a year long break from studying and inspired by making an electroacoustic soundtrack for a friend's abstract video, she was inspired to complete a masters in electroacoustic composition, diving fully into the worlds of sound recording and mixing and focusing on surround sound and how to position and move sounds in space, eventually doing an internship with composer Kent Olofson in Malmö, who works with multi-speaker systems for theatre productions. "I learnt a lot from him and he introduced me to some of my favourite plugins I've used a lot on this album as well."

Hanakiv moved to London just as the pandemic hit and found herself trapped, in a big new city, without any network or family and so just concentrated on making music. "I stayed in my room with my basic equipment - keyboard, Korg minilogue, SM 58 and Rode nt1-a microphones, laptop and speakers. I was reading about mixing, and trying out different things and listening to a lot of music to get the sense of the mixes and production and finishing a commission piece for 5.1 multi speaker system at that time so I set up four speakers for quadrophonic surround sound in my room!". She also found her way back to piano - my instrument – and started practicing again, playing the pieces she used to play, but also just improvising, and this was the beginning of what would become her debut album, 'Goodbyes'.

"I started appreciating everything about music again (even melody!), and everything just came together naturally, and I arrived to a point where I finally found my voice, and I had something that I wanted to say and share. I composed "Meditation I" first and started with "Goodbye", and all the other pieces are derived from that. Without "Meditation I" there wouldn't be this album. If you listen closely, "Meditation I" starts where "Goodbye" ends; "Meditation II" is born from "Meditation I".

But it was meeting Fi Roberts, a sound engineer based at the legendary Strongrom Studios in Shoreditch, London in December 2020 that really brought the album into focus. The pair bonded over an interest in prepared piano and a similar approach to production ideas (a balance of not overdoing it, and letting the songs speak for themselves, but being open to explore) and Fi became a friend but also a confidant and eventually co-producer

"Fi has a big impact on this record but I don't know how to really explain that properly. Of course, this album is sonically stunning thanks to her amazing mixes and recording skills, but she also believed in this music so much and it created something very special - that's difficult to measure with words. She just works with heart, and I really appreciate that"

This then is 'Goodbyes', the first offering from a major new voice, who offers us a meditative work full of space and tranquillity but also life and friendship and meaning. And we are very proud to welcome her to the Gondwana family.

Algiers haben sich eine Crew zugelegt: Für ihr viertes Album "SHOOK" versammelte die Band eine Schar gleichgesinnter Künstler um sich herum. Der Nachfolger zum gefeierten Album "There Is No Year" (2020) ist ein musikalischer wie inhaltlicher Blitzableiter in bewegten Zeiten und mit seinen 17 eindringlichen Songs schon jetzt eines der aufregendsten Alben aus 2023. Das komplette Album entstand, als Fisher und sein Bandkollege Ryan Mahan für einige Monate in ihre Heimatstadt Atlanta zurückkehrten, wo sie unter dem wachsenden Druck litten, was schließlich in einem Burnout gipfelte. Eine extreme Zeit für die Band und für die Freundschaft der beiden Musiker, in der sie schließlich auch persönlich wieder zueinander fanden. Sie hörten viel alten Hiphop und eine Neuauflage von DJ Grand Wizard Theodores 1970er Punk-beeinflusstem New Yorker Rap-Meisterwerk "Subway Theme" diente als spirituelles und thematisches Moodboard für das Album. Während Gemeinschaft und Zusammenarbeit schon immer ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der Arbeitsweise von Algiers war, kommt dies bei "SHOOK" nun voll zum Tragen. Die Liner Notes lesen sich wie ein Who is Who der zeitgenössischen Underground-Musik, mit Zack de la Rocha, Big Rube (The Dungeon Family), Billy Woods, Samuel T. Herring (Future Islands), Jae Matthews (Boy Harsher), LaToya Kent (Mourning A BLKstar), Backxwash, Nadah El Shazly, DeForrest Brown Jr. (Speaker Music), Patrick Shiroishi, Lee Bains III, und Mark Cisneros (The Make-Up, Kid Congo Powers). Dank ihrer Beiträge wird "Shook" aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln neu geformt und kontextualisiert. "Es vertieft und erweitert die Welt von Algiers", so Schlagzeuger Matt Tong. Atlanta, der Ort, an dem die Platte entstanden ist, steht schließlich im Mittelpunkt. Das Album beginnt mit einer robotergesteuerten Zugdurchsage vom Hartsfield Airport, die vielen Einwohnern von Atlanta ein Begriff ist und Fisher als Kind immer eine Heidenangst gemacht hat. "Wir haben in einer Umgebung gearbeitet, an die wir gewöhnt waren", sagt Gitarrist Lee Tesche. "Es fühlt sich an wie die beste Algiers-Platte, die wir je gemacht haben." Dass diese Platte überhaupt entstanden ist, grenzt an ein kleines Wunder, da die Band immer wieder vor der Auflösung stand. Algiers haben jedoch Reibung in Energie umgewandelt und mit "SHOOK" ein außergewöhnliches und kraftvolles Album produziert, das am Ende von seiner starken Gemeinschaft lebt. "Ich glaube, mit dieser Platte haben wir unser Zuhause gefunden", sagt Mahan, und Fisher fügt hinzu: "Es war eine ganz neue, positive Erfahrung - eine erneuerte Beziehung zu der Stadt, aus der wir kommen, und Stolz dafür zu haben. Mir gefällt der Gedanke, dass diese Platte uns auf eine Reise mitgenommen hat, die aber in Atlanta beginnt und endet."

Bislang gab Blue-Note-Schlagzeuger Kendrick Scott in seiner Band Oracle den Ton an. Jetzt hat er sie zu einem schlagkräftigen Trio geschrumpft!

“Kendrick Scott ist zum Art Blakey, Elvin Jones und Tony Williams seiner Generation geworden”, hat Trompeter Terence Blanchard einmal gesagt, in dessen Band der Schlagzeuger lange spielte. “Er ist ein brillanter Kopf, der nicht nur die Musik erneuert, sondern in seiner Band auch jungen Talenten Gelegenheit gibt, sich zu entwickeln und zu wachsen.”

Mit der Band Oracle hat Kendrick Scott bislang zwei Blue-Note-Alben eingespielt, “We Are The Drum” (2015) und “A Wall Becomes A Bridge” (2019).
Mit dem dritten Werk “Corridors“ geht der in Houston
geborene Schlagzeuger und Komponist einen neuen Weg, indem er erstmals auf die beiden melodieprägenden Instrumente Piano und Gitarre verzichtet und allein auf ein Trio mit Saxofonist Walter Smith III und Bassist Reuben Rogers setzt.

As Deutsche Grammophon celebrates its 125th birthday this year 2023, the Yellow Label marks the occasion by releasing a selection of vinyl LPs for the first time ever.
“Beauty will save the world,” wrote Dostoyevsky, which is the claim that Camille Thomas makes throughout this record. Not beauty for the sake of hedonism, but a beauty that believes there is a burning line to be drawn between pain and hope. Camille Thomas' new album illustrates this, structured like an archipelago surrounding the Cello Concerto composed by Fazil Say. Camille Thomas gave its premiere in 2018, and her album spanning the work of ten composers, allows us to travel the path from pain to hope. On the threshold, we meet three pieces: the heart-rending melody of the Kaddisch by Ravel, a sublimation of the Jewish prayer for the dead; the lamentation from Purcell’s Dido, quasi a lullaby from the queen who awaits her death, in a nakedness without pathos; and between those two works, the tender Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Gluck’s Orfeo, in which we hear the first signals of hope. The album is available today for pre-order and is accompanied by the pre-release track of Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits from his opera Orfeo ed Euridice.

"Under The Influence" wurde ursprünglich 1988
veröffentlicht und war das zweite Album von Overkill das
bei Atlantic Records erschienen ist. Das Album schaffte
es bis auf Platz 142 der Billboard Top 200 und hielt sich
13 Wochen lang in den Charts. Im Zuge der
Albumveröffentlichung gingen Overkill damals auf Tour mit
Motörhead, Slayer und Testament. "Under The Influence"
enthält den legendären Hit "Hello From The Gutter?. Jetzt
erhältlich als limitierte gelbe und schwarze Marble Vinyl.

»Holo« by the US-American three-piece Kiln, first released in 1998, is one of those rare records that managed to carve out a niche of its own while also building bridges to variety of genres like Chicago-style post-rock, the ambient mysticism of projects like Rapoon or the music made at the intersection of shoegaze, and electronic music in the late 1990s. Lush textures, subtle rhythms, jazzy inflections and electronic experimentation seamlessly blend into each other over the course of the eleven tracks. This reissue through the German label Keplar makes the fully revised version, self-released by the group in 2007 under the name »Holo re/lux,« available on vinyl for the very first time. »Twenty-five years later this newly mastered vinyl edition is evidence that the sound of ›Holo‹ continues to attract like-minded listeners,« says member Clark Rehberg III. »Which on many levels means that our mission was successful.«

Rehberg had embarked on this mission together with Kevin Hayes and Kirk Marrison in 1993. They had first worked together under the name Fibreforms as a live trio that used treated guitars, kit drums, and tapes of found sound to explore the balance between band composition and recording experiments, while Marrison made heavy use of the Akai S612 sampler as a fabricating strategy with the project Waterwheel. »Kiln seemed to encapsulate the evolution and melding of those previous approaches to one that insisted on the continual opening up of the compositional process, allowing more of the mystery that can be discovered through studio experiments—and accidents—to become important elements of creating our music,« says Rehberg of the trio that is still going strong after three decades. »The word Kiln implies heat and transformation, an attitude that we apply to every sound we use—we begin with notes and performance and then mosaic with shape and colour.«

»Holo« followed up on the trio’s debut self-titled EP that had been recorded in the summer of 1996. »That same year, during a lull in our collabs, Kirk began building pieces on a low-memory Mac using an early 8-channel DAW,« explains Rehberg. Enchanted by the unprecedented fidelity and energy of those recordings, the three reconvened to build upon them and make more music in that manner. »I’d say our intention was no different than any other time: create something immersive and compelling: dense melodic blasts of uniquely constructed but ultimately accessible audio moments.« The group worked individually and in pairs for about 18 months while being spread across the United States. »We poured everything into it that we had at the time, working dead-end jobs by day and on audio in every other open moment. I remember the struggle of that process, but also the pure joy as we pulled down countless moments of magic while the pieces took shape.«

Rehberg says that he still hears »a time-stamp of those efforts and the belief that we were creating a special audio experience« when listening back to »Holo,« a record the band itself chose to revise almost a decade after its initial release. »Ultimately we just felt those pieces needed more impact and we had the tools and ability to make that happen,« he explains. 16 years after that and a quarter of a century after it first introduced Kiln as a force to be reckoned with, the remastered version feels indeed timeless. It is both a snapshot of the first extensive album project by a group whose bond is still »diamond strong,« as Rehberg puts it, and a record that continues to sound fresh, if not visionary also today.

All tracks composed and recorded by Kevin Hayes, Kirk Marrison, Clark Rehberg III.
Originally released on Thalassa in 1998.
Remaster by Stephan Mathieu. Vinyl cut by LUPO.
Cover art by Kirk Marrison & Clark Rehberg III.
Text by Kristoffer Cornils.

Algiers haben sich eine Crew zugelegt: Für ihr viertes Album "SHOOK" versammelte die Band eine Schar gleichgesinnter Künstler um sich herum. Der Nachfolger zum gefeierten Album "There Is No Year" (2020) ist ein musikalischer wie inhaltlicher Blitzableiter in bewegten Zeiten und mit seinen 17 eindringlichen Songs schon jetzt eines der aufregendsten Alben aus 2023. Das komplette Album entstand, als Fisher und sein Bandkollege Ryan Mahan für einige Monate in ihre Heimatstadt Atlanta zurückkehrten, wo sie unter dem wachsenden Druck litten, was schließlich in einem Burnout gipfelte. Eine extreme Zeit für die Band und für die Freundschaft der beiden Musiker, in der sie schließlich auch persönlich wieder zueinander fanden. Sie hörten viel alten Hiphop und eine Neuauflage von DJ Grand Wizard Theodores 1970er Punk-beeinflusstem New Yorker Rap-Meisterwerk "Subway Theme" diente als spirituelles und thematisches Moodboard für das Album. Während Gemeinschaft und Zusammenarbeit schon immer ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der Arbeitsweise von Algiers war, kommt dies bei "SHOOK" nun voll zum Tragen. Die Liner Notes lesen sich wie ein Who is Who der zeitgenössischen Underground-Musik, mit Zack de la Rocha, Big Rube (The Dungeon Family), Billy Woods, Samuel T. Herring (Future Islands), Jae Matthews (Boy Harsher), LaToya Kent (Mourning A BLKstar), Backxwash, Nadah El Shazly, DeForrest Brown Jr. (Speaker Music), Patrick Shiroishi, Lee Bains III, und Mark Cisneros (The Make-Up, Kid Congo Powers). Dank ihrer Beiträge wird "Shook" aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln neu geformt und kontextualisiert. "Es vertieft und erweitert die Welt von Algiers", so Schlagzeuger Matt Tong. Atlanta, der Ort, an dem die Platte entstanden ist, steht schließlich im Mittelpunkt. Das Album beginnt mit einer robotergesteuerten Zugdurchsage vom Hartsfield Airport, die vielen Einwohnern von Atlanta ein Begriff ist und Fisher als Kind immer eine Heidenangst gemacht hat. "Wir haben in einer Umgebung gearbeitet, an die wir gewöhnt waren", sagt Gitarrist Lee Tesche. "Es fühlt sich an wie die beste Algiers-Platte, die wir je gemacht haben." Dass diese Platte überhaupt entstanden ist, grenzt an ein kleines Wunder, da die Band immer wieder vor der Auflösung stand. Algiers haben jedoch Reibung in Energie umgewandelt und mit "SHOOK" ein außergewöhnliches und kraftvolles Album produziert, das am Ende von seiner starken Gemeinschaft lebt. "Ich glaube, mit dieser Platte haben wir unser Zuhause gefunden", sagt Mahan, und Fisher fügt hinzu: "Es war eine ganz neue, positive Erfahrung - eine erneuerte Beziehung zu der Stadt, aus der wir kommen, und Stolz dafür zu haben. Mir gefällt der Gedanke, dass diese Platte uns auf eine Reise mitgenommen hat, die aber in Atlanta beginnt und endet."

Finnish bassist Antti Lötjönen returns in February 2023 with his second Quintet East album on We Jazz Records. With Verneri Pohjola on trumpet, Mikko Innanen and Jussi Kannaste on saxes, and Joonas Riippa on drums, Quintet East is a hard-hitting ensemble of Helsinki scene A-listers. The new release sees the quintet work with Lötjönen's inspired new music with remarkable spirit, spreading out on a quest for new sounds and ideas, and returning to base with a fresh batch of acoustic creative music, wild to the bone even when sounding completely in control.

Circus/Citadel is essentially a coherent album, rather than a series of loosely connected compositions. There's plenty of diversity within Lötjönen's compositions and the band's dynamics, yet it all flows into one effortlessly, creating a suite of sorts, even outside of the title composition which consists of three parts. During the course of the album, the quintet often gets together in smaller formations: in trios and duos of different combinations of the players. The music breathes and maintains its energy at all times, leaving plenty of headroom for the all-out quintet "attacks" when needed. It all comes together in a shape that feels unified and cyclical, leaving the listener hungry for repeated listens in order to get deeper into the many layers found within.

Antti Lötjönen says:

"These compositions vary in terms of form and density, with each player having enough room to re-invent and expand on the music within the pieces. I wrote this music over a relatively brief time span. This, I think, is something you can also hear on the album, as the temporal closeness of the ideas brings with it a certain kind of unity. The world we live in sometimes feels like and absurd circus, from which you need to get away from to get new ideas and energy. Everyone needs their citadel, whatever it may be. This pairing of the two words Circus/Citadel is inspired by a poem by the Romanian-born German-language poet Paul Celan (1920–1970)."

Circus/Citadel is released by We Jazz Records on 24 February, 2023, as white and black vinyl editions, on CD and digitally. The artwork displays a freeform graphic score of the music by We Jazz artistic director and designer Matti Nives. The vinyl versions are housed in heavy duty tip-on sleeve with silver-embossed lettering, and the CD comes in a matte digisleeve with silver-embossed lettering. Antti Lötjönen Quintet East performs live in Finland in January and February.

Finnish bassist Antti Lötjönen returns in February 2023 with his second Quintet East album on We Jazz Records. With Verneri Pohjola on trumpet, Mikko Innanen and Jussi Kannaste on saxes, and Joonas Riippa on drums, Quintet East is a hard-hitting ensemble of Helsinki scene A-listers. The new release sees the quintet work with Lötjönen's inspired new music with remarkable spirit, spreading out on a quest for new sounds and ideas, and returning to base with a fresh batch of acoustic creative music, wild to the bone even when sounding completely in control.

Circus/Citadel is essentially a coherent album, rather than a series of loosely connected compositions. There's plenty of diversity within Lötjönen's compositions and the band's dynamics, yet it all flows into one effortlessly, creating a suite of sorts, even outside of the title composition which consists of three parts. During the course of the album, the quintet often gets together in smaller formations: in trios and duos of different combinations of the players. The music breathes and maintains its energy at all times, leaving plenty of headroom for the all-out quintet "attacks" when needed. It all comes together in a shape that feels unified and cyclical, leaving the listener hungry for repeated listens in order to get deeper into the many layers found within.

Antti Lötjönen says:

"These compositions vary in terms of form and density, with each player having enough room to re-invent and expand on the music within the pieces. I wrote this music over a relatively brief time span. This, I think, is something you can also hear on the album, as the temporal closeness of the ideas brings with it a certain kind of unity. The world we live in sometimes feels like and absurd circus, from which you need to get away from to get new ideas and energy. Everyone needs their citadel, whatever it may be. This pairing of the two words Circus/Citadel is inspired by a poem by the Romanian-born German-language poet Paul Celan (1920–1970)."

Circus/Citadel is released by We Jazz Records on 24 February, 2023, as white and black vinyl editions, on CD and digitally. The artwork displays a freeform graphic score of the music by We Jazz artistic director and designer Matti Nives. The vinyl versions are housed in heavy duty tip-on sleeve with silver-embossed lettering, and the CD comes in a matte digisleeve with silver-embossed lettering. Antti Lötjönen Quintet East performs live in Finland in January and February.

Algiers haben sich eine Crew zugelegt: Für ihr viertes Album "SHOOK" versammelte die Band eine Schar gleichgesinnter Künstler um sich herum. Der Nachfolger zum gefeierten Album "There Is No Year" (2020) ist ein musikalischer wie inhaltlicher Blitzableiter in bewegten Zeiten und mit seinen 17 eindringlichen Songs schon jetzt eines der aufregendsten Alben aus 2023. Das komplette Album entstand, als Fisher und sein Bandkollege Ryan Mahan für einige Monate in ihre Heimatstadt Atlanta zurückkehrten, wo sie unter dem wachsenden Druck litten, was schließlich in einem Burnout gipfelte. Eine extreme Zeit für die Band und für die Freundschaft der beiden Musiker, in der sie schließlich auch persönlich wieder zueinander fanden. Sie hörten viel alten Hiphop und eine Neuauflage von DJ Grand Wizard Theodores 1970er Punk-beeinflusstem New Yorker Rap-Meisterwerk "Subway Theme" diente als spirituelles und thematisches Moodboard für das Album. Während Gemeinschaft und Zusammenarbeit schon immer ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der Arbeitsweise von Algiers war, kommt dies bei "SHOOK" nun voll zum Tragen. Die Liner Notes lesen sich wie ein Who is Who der zeitgenössischen Underground-Musik, mit Zack de la Rocha, Big Rube (The Dungeon Family), Billy Woods, Samuel T. Herring (Future Islands), Jae Matthews (Boy Harsher), LaToya Kent (Mourning A BLKstar), Backxwash, Nadah El Shazly, DeForrest Brown Jr. (Speaker Music), Patrick Shiroishi, Lee Bains III, und Mark Cisneros (The Make-Up, Kid Congo Powers). Dank ihrer Beiträge wird "Shook" aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln neu geformt und kontextualisiert. "Es vertieft und erweitert die Welt von Algiers", so Schlagzeuger Matt Tong. Atlanta, der Ort, an dem die Platte entstanden ist, steht schließlich im Mittelpunkt. Das Album beginnt mit einer robotergesteuerten Zugdurchsage vom Hartsfield Airport, die vielen Einwohnern von Atlanta ein Begriff ist und Fisher als Kind immer eine Heidenangst gemacht hat. "Wir haben in einer Umgebung gearbeitet, an die wir gewöhnt waren", sagt Gitarrist Lee Tesche. "Es fühlt sich an wie die beste Algiers-Platte, die wir je gemacht haben." Dass diese Platte überhaupt entstanden ist, grenzt an ein kleines Wunder, da die Band immer wieder vor der Auflösung stand. Algiers haben jedoch Reibung in Energie umgewandelt und mit "SHOOK" ein außergewöhnliches und kraftvolles Album produziert, das am Ende von seiner starken Gemeinschaft lebt. "Ich glaube, mit dieser Platte haben wir unser Zuhause gefunden", sagt Mahan, und Fisher fügt hinzu: "Es war eine ganz neue, positive Erfahrung - eine erneuerte Beziehung zu der Stadt, aus der wir kommen, und Stolz dafür zu haben. Mir gefällt der Gedanke, dass diese Platte uns auf eine Reise mitgenommen hat, die aber in Atlanta beginnt und endet."

But when 19 Naughty III was released on February 23, 1993 with the lead single Hip Hop Hooray the group proved that they could recreate that magic. Celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year, the album has been certified platinum and "Hip Hop Hooray" has become a hip hop anthem. The single was #1 on the charts, earning the band their second Top 10 hit, with the video directed by Spike Lee, featuring
appearances from Tupac Shakur, Run-DMC and more. The album also contains the hits "Written on Ya Kitten" and "It's On" and has guest appearances from Heavy D and Queen Latifah. Production was handled entirely by group member KayGee, who has one foot in the clubs and the other one on the street corner, and that's true of the group as a whole.

The lyrics of the tracks of "IV:LETVM" revolve around death, war, forces of nature and superstition as well as rituals. This consistently heavy lyrical content is matched by the instrumental brutality of the nine tracks. The quartet from Giessen in Hesse presents itself on its new album exclusively martial, destructive, and evil. Song titles like 'War Dreams Of Itself', 'Lessons Of Darkness', 'Certain Death', 'Suffering' or 'Sadness' point the way ¬– no coincidence that the band’s official logo consists of an axe and a mace. DEPRAVATION cultivate a resounding style mix of black and death metal with a crust side to it, which is served fiercely and lingers bitterly. Exactly this is what the group is after since their first release "I:PRAEDICTVM" in 2012 succeeded by "II:MALEDICTVM" one year later. Following 2020's "III:ODOR MORTIS", "IV:LETVM" marks the second album for LIFEFORCE RECORDS. After more than ten active years, in which split records with ANCST and SLOWLY WE ROT were released, DEPRAVATION enter the scene without the pretense of following current trends or living up to any particular genre. "IV:LETVM" is the expression of diverse musical influences and above all one thing: relentlessly extreme. "IV:LETVM" was recorded at Red Tape Company by Simeon Lauber in Gießen. Nikita Kamprad (Der Weg Einer Freiheit/Ghost City Recordings) is responsible for mixing and mastering.

Music From Memory is delighted to be turning 50 with a special release: MFM050 - V/A - Virtual Dreams: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, 1993-1997 (3xLP/2xCD). The first in a series of compilations, alongside more in depth artist-focused releases, Virtual Dreams will delve into music produced during the 1990’s that redefined the boundaries of ‘Ambient’. This was music that explored the possibilities of Ambient music within a new setting, created often by House & Techno music producers for a world beyond dance floors but made very much with the pre and post-clubbing listener in mind.

When House and Techno exploded out of America in the mid 1980s a whole generation was redefined not only musically but also culturally and chemically speaking. Peaking, quite literally, with a second ‘Summer of Love’ in 1988, millions of young people across the world would experience the life-changing ups of a brave new world but with it of course came the downs; enter the concept of a ‘Chill-out’ room. Whilst early Chill-out rooms lacked a specific sound and were often soundtracked by music such as reggae and soul, slowly young Techno and House producers themselves would become increasingly interested in developing a futuristic ‘Ambient’ soundtrack to a world beyond the thud of the main room.

‘Ambient’ in this new age now though had sharper teeth than in Brian Eno's key text for ‘Music for Airports’, instead here the sounds were the mode of transport rather than the backdrop. While the melodies were pretty, the soundscape steered away from the pastoral, dreaming of outer-space and technology as opening up exciting new dimensions. Much like in the first Summer Of Love; the musicians were again exploring psychedelic, mind-altering and transcendental possibilities of music. And also much as in the first Summer Of Love, a psychedelic visual language would accompany the music. Though now the tracks could be accompanied by music videos, utilising early CGI techniques, they would look almost entirely to the future: envisioning technology, nature and humanity intertwined in a new Utopian future. Virtual Dreams of a better world.

From Ambient and early Chill-out classics, to lesser known one-off projects, as well as Ambient deviations by some of House and Techno’s leading producers, Volume One of Virtual Dreams features tracks by Bedouin Ascent, LA Synthesis, LFO, Marc Hollander, Mark Pritchard & Kirsty Hawkshaw, Richard H. Kirk and more.

To celebrate our 50th release the first 1000 copies include a holographic 'Virtual Dreams' sticker plus a special insert poster with artwork by Victoria Pacheco and design by Steele Bonus.

PUPPY formed in 2015 when school friends Jock Norton (vocals, guitar) and Billy Howard (drums) met bass player Will Michael while working in a London bar. Later that same year, the band released their eponymous debut EP, that quickly earned comparisons to acts like The Smashing Pumpkins and Dinosaur Jr. A second EP quickly followed in 2016, and “Vol ii” saw the band take their first major steps into the live sphere, with UK festival appearances at Download and 2000 Trees. The Goat, Puppy's debut album, was released in January 2019, while the band were midway through an epic European tour with Monster Magnet. In support of the album, the band recorded a live set at BBC’s iconic Maida Vale studios (their second), and racked up festival appearances everywhere from Glastonbury to Bloodstock Open Air. That year also saw PUPPY travel to the US for the first time, selling out a headline show in Brooklyn’s iconic St Vitus Bar for Revolver Magazine. Without missing a beat, the band saw out the year by releasing a surprise EP, ‘iii’, and is now ready to open a new chapter.

Fabrizio Lapiana is back on his own label with O.B.E. (out-of-body experience), a four bleeping and mental techno cuts EP, including a superb remix from the spanish DJ and producer Orbe.

Aaron Mader, known professionally as Lazerbeak, is a Minneapolis-based artist and producer. Over the past decade he has collaborated with everyone from reigning pop queen Lizzo (producing her entire debut album), Doja Cat, Dessa, bluegrass heavyweights Trampled By Turtles, indie supergroup GAYNGS, and the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra, all while continuing to build and create with life-long comrades from his own Doomtree artist collective and notching production credits on everything from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton Mixtape to the dark electro-pop of Banks’ critically acclaimed III album. Aside from being a founding member of the Doomtree collective, he is also the CEO and General Manager of Doomtree Records, handling the day-to-day operations, management, and inner workings of the crew and label. His latest solo album Lava Bangers II, the second in an on-going instrumental beat tape series, is being released in two-song monthly installments throughout all of 2022, culminating in a 20 song limited edition 2xLP physical release in January 2023.

Ltd Glow In The Dark Vinyl-Version! "Eigenuran" ist ein Adventskalender mit 19 Türchen. (Spoilerwarnung): Hinter 18 Türchen verbirgt sich eine Dose Krawallbrause. Beim 19ten gibt's eine Erleuchtung - allerdings nur für Leute, die alle Türchen am selben Tag öffnen. (Spoilerwarnung Ende). Ein Dosenbier macht noch keinen Frühschoppen - Leute, die dieses Album in einem Stück durchhören, wissen ganz genau, warum sie schon morgens anfangen zu saufen. Deutschpunk braucht einen Reset, diese Platte ist eine Kampfansage an pseudointellektuelle Scheiße. Die Ausnüchterungszelle ist nur der Beginn eines mitreißenden Showdowns, den man in kugelsicherer Inkontinenzwindel noch am ehesten überlebt.

Today, interdisciplinary artist and performer Kilo Kish (Kish Robinson) releases his second critically acclaimed album AMERICAN GURL, featuring Vince Staples, Miguel, Jean Dawson and Jesse Boykins III.
The album is an infectious slice of psychedelic art-pop underpinned by industrial beats, which speaks to moving beyond perceptions of identity, status and race.

Nachdem sie in den letzten beiden Jahren an allen Ecken und Enden der Metal-Community für offene Münder gesorgt haben, kehren die Die deutschen Dark/Nu Metal Shooting Stars OCEANS mit einer weiteren walzenden, treibenden, dennoch melodischen und vor allem melancholischen Hymne zurück und beweisen, dass Blabbermouth richtig lagen, als sie sagten “OCEANS könnten sehr wahrscheinlich das nächste große Ding werden!”

Dieses Album besteht aus 3 EPs. 2 davon wurden bereits veröffentlicht:
„Hell Is Where The Heart Is, Pt. I: Love“ & „Hell Is Where The Heart Is, Pt. II: Longing“. Mit der Veröffentlichung der 3., „Hell Is Where The Heart Is, Pt. III: Clarity“, werden die 3 digitalen EPs zu einem Album („Hell Is Where The Heart Is“) zusammengeführt und auch physisch als ein Album veröffentlicht.

Originally released in 1971, Tales Of The Algonquin, is one of the finest artifacts of the British modal and free jazz scene of the 1960s/1970s. Johns Surman and Warren, like their contemporary Mike Westbrook, take the big band form and flip it on its head by incorporating elements of modal, free, and progressive jazz. The results are powerful and this album is perhaps the greatest example of that quintessentially British jazz style. Long sought after by jazz collectors across the globe, this classic title is finally back in print on LP.

SIDE ONE:
1. With Terry's Help 2. We'll Make It 3. The Dandelion 4. Picture-Tree

SIDE TWO:
TALES OF THE ALGONQUIN I. The Purple Swan II. Shingebis and the North Wind III. The Adventures of Manabush IV. The White Water Lily V. Wihio the Wanderer

An unblinking look at an entertainment-obsessed society, Amused to Death addresses issues that have only grown in complexity and urgency over the past two decades. With Amused to Death, Roger Waters sounded the alarm about a society increasingly — and unthinkingly — in thrall to its television screens. Now in 2022, Amused to Death speaks to our present moment in ways that could scarcely have been anticipated three decades ago. In 2015, television is just one option in an endless array of distractions available to us anytime, anywhere, courtesy of our laptops, tablets and smartphones. With eyes glued to our screens, the dilemmas and injustices of the real world can easily recede from view.

"Even if you have one of the original issue vinyl LPs, the new version of Amused to Death on the Analogue Productions label is an essential upgrade to your listening experience. Like The Division Bell and The Endless River vinyl LPs before it, Analogue Productions has kept their commitment for quality meticulously high with Amused to Death. The record pressing is uniformly excellent..." Paul Powell Jr., Brain Damage U.K. Pink Floyd News, August 2015.

The 2015 2 LP 200-gram vinyl edition of Amused to Death features remastered audio completed by longtime Roger Waters / Pink Floyd collaborator and co-producer, James Guthrie, and has been pressed at Quality Record Pressings. The cover and gatefold art has been updated for 2015 by Sean Evans, the creative director of Waters' 2010-2013 "The Wall Live" tour and movie.

One of the most exciting names in the Bristol Dubstep scene, Bengal Sound returns to K-LONE’s Wych imprint with a pair of fresh 140 Anthems. Following on from his previous records on Bandulu, Innamind, System and Pearly Whites, as well as his own series of meticulously put together mixtapes “Culture Clash Vol I, II & III” - WYCH006 sees his signature sound at its best. Support from Vivek, Commodo, Peverelist, Simo Cell, Coco Bryce and PR from Dawn. Artwork By Annie Foyster. Mastered By Beau at Ten Eight Seven Mastering

‘Runner is a calmly luminous orchestral piece with the pulsating, propulsive
rhythms that animate much of Mr. Reich’s music.’ – New York Times

‘Reich interweaves the two groups to create a dense textural tapestry that sounds like his most native orchestral thinking to date. A beautiful and dramatically charged masterpiece.' – San Francisco Chronicle

Nonesuch Records releases the first recordings of Steve Reich’s Runner (2016) and Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (2018), performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conducted by Susanna Mälkki.

Reich says Runner is written “for a large ensemble of winds, percussion, pianos, and strings. While the tempo remains more or less constant, there are five movements, played without pause, that are based on different note durations. First, even sixteenths, then irregularly accented eighths, then a very slowed-down version of the standard bell pattern from Ghana in quarters, fourth a return to the irregularly accented eighths, and finally a return to the sixteenths but now played as pulses by the winds for as long as a breath will comfortably sustain them. The title was suggested by the rapid opening and my awareness that, like a runner, I would have to pace the piece to reach a successful conclusion.”

“Music for Ensemble and Orchestra is an extension of the Baroque concerto grosso where there is more than one soloist,” the composer continues. “Here there are twenty soloists – all regular members of the orchestra, including the first stand strings and winds, as well as two vibraphones and two pianos. The piece is in five movements, though the tempo never changes, only the note value of the constant pulse in the pianos. Thus, an arch form: sixteenths, eighths, quarters, eighths, sixteenths. Music for Ensemble and Orchestra is modeled on my Runner, which has the same five movement form.”

Nonesuch has recorded every new piece of music by Steve Reich since 1985, beginning with The Desert Music and continuing through 2018’s Pulse/Quartet, resulting in 22 albums and the two box sets Phases in 2006 and Works: 1965-1995 in 1997. Most recently, the label released his Reich/Richter, performed by Ensemble intercontemporain and conducted by George Jackson, in June 2022. The Times said, ‘What a delight to be able to focus on the music, delivered here with a clever mix of pinprick precision and reverberant haze by 14 members of Ensemble Intercontemporain. The more intently you listen, the more subtleties emerge among the shifting, criss-crossing textures and phrases, sometimes coloured with gentle melancholy but decisively upbeat by the end. Reich/Richter is an ear-tickling tonic and a happy companion to Reich’s newly published book, Conversations.’ Nonesuch will put out a collection of Reich’s complete works in 2023.

Reich released a book earlier this year, Conversations, that includes dialogues with past collaborators, fellow composers, musicians, and visual artists who have been influenced by his work, including: David Lang, Brian Eno, Richard Serra, Michael Gordon, Michael Tilson Thomas, Russell Hartenberger, Robert Hurwitz, Stephen Sondheim, Jonny Greenwood, David Harrington, Elizabeth Lim-Dutton, David Robertson, Micaela Haslam, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Julia Wolfe, Nico Muhly, Beryl Korot, Colin Currie, and Brad Lubman. The Wall Street Journal called the book ‘a testament to the influence of an idea – one that triggered a cultural turning point,’ and the New York Times said, ‘The joy of the book is to hear artists from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds rhapsodizing about their relationship to Reich’s music and how it influenced their own creative processes.’

Steve Reich has been called ‘America’s greatest living composer’ (Village Voice), ‘the most original musical thinker of our time’ (New Yorker), and ‘among the great composers of the century’ (New York Times). His music has influenced composers and mainstream musicians all over the world. Music for 18 Musicians and Different Trains have earned him two Grammy Awards, and in 2009, his Double Sextet won the Pulitzer Prize. Reich’s documentary video opera works – The Cave and Three Tales, done in collaboration with video artist Beryl Korot – have been performed on four continents. His recent work Quartet, for percussionist Colin Currie, sold out two consecutive concerts at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London shortly after tens of thousands at the Glastonbury Festival heard Jonny Greenwood (of Radiohead) perform Electric Counterpoint followed by the London Sinfonietta performing his Music for 18 Musicians.

In 2012, Reich was awarded the Gold Medal in Music by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has additionally received the Praemium Imperiale in Tokyo, the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm, the BBVA Award in Madrid, and the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. He has been named Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Royal College of Music in London, The Juilliard School, and the Liszt Academy in Budapest, among others. ‘There’s just a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history and Steve Reich is one of them,’ states the Guardian.

Redefining what an orchestra can be, the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) is as vibrant as Los Angeles, one of the world's most open and dynamic cities. Led by Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, this internationally renowned orchestra harnesses the transformative power of live music to build community, foster intellectual and artistic growth, and nurture the creative spirit. This is the third recent recording by the orchestra on the label; the others were the Louis Andriessen pieces The only one and Theatre of the World. Additionally, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recordings of The Gospel According to the Other Mary and Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?, with Yuja Wang, released on Deutsche Grammophon, are included in this year’s John Adams Collected Works boxed set. Nonesuch also released an LA Phil recording of Adams‘ Naïve and Sentimental Music in 2002.

Susanna Mälkki is sought-after at the highest level by symphony orchestras and opera houses worldwide. About to embark on her final season as Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, she concludes a seven-year tenure with a distinctive dynamism and imaginative flair to her programming. In addition to a full season in Finland, she will lead the Helsinki orchestra on tour to the prestigious Lucerne and Edinburgh festivals, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and Washington’s Kennedy Centre this season.

Six Nine Records Ltd. UK proudly presents the fifth release for Howard Johnson on the label! “You’re My Star” is another winner from the man who, together with Kashif, brought boogie-funk to the forefront of popular soul music in the UK (and probably the rest of the world as well). The track is written by no one less than Leon Sylvers III and on the flip we find the laid back and smooth Yardley Mix. Definitely not to be missed as it is a limited UK press with full colour printed picture cover!

Alga Marghen presents the last chapter from the Feedback Works documentation series, a brand-new LP including "In Memoriam-Ostinato" and "Danse des Dakinis", two previous unreleased tracks by Eliane Radigue. Among the works of fixed duration from the feedback period, "In Memoriam-Ostinato" is the link between "Jouet Electronique" (ALGA 029LP) and "Opus 17" (ALGA 045LP), and allows you to understand the evolution of her approach. "In Memoriam-Ostinato" is a game of mirroring symbols which glide into a non-measured, bent and elastic, temporality. Eliane Radigue's working method and her aesthetic direction are evident in this work from 1969: her very own unique temporal space of sonic experiences. Even though it bears the same name as the third part of "Adnos III", "Danse des Dakinis" is a peculiar work in Eliane's oeuvre. Conceived in a short time, with all kind of tapes from the composer's past work, it fluently shows a kaleidoscopic vision of Radigue's sensibility for sound. In 1998 she put together a curious self-portrait in sound. There is a feedback ostinato conceived around 1969 and which refers to "In Memoriam-Ostinato" and "Opus 17". All through "Danse des Dakinis" you plunge into the sound of a creek recorded at Mills College campus that brings you back to the field-recordings from the beginning of the 1960s, made on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Such elements construct "Elemental1" (ALGA 029LP) as well. There are also some discreet interventions on the ARP 2500 synthesizer. It is indeed a peculiar work, which doesn't have the same features of her other compositions, especially at that time of her compositional path. There is an explanation for the composer producing this kind of sound material in 1998, and not limited to the sound waves of the ARP synthesizer. Invited to a workshop at Mills College in 1998, Eliane Radigue could not load herself down with her bulky instrument on such a trip. So, she left with just a few tapes taken from her own collection, drawn from different periods, and composed "Danse des Dakinis" with those old elements. There is tension in this composition, a certain wildness, an unpredictability of elements, those which are recognized as fundamental elements, which give structure to the universe. "Dance des Dakinis" is an intimate and wild symphony, alive and unpredictable, which is to be the next-to-last gesture of the composer before completely stopping her work with electronics.