quête:libre

2024 Repress.

Chicha Libre’s debut album, Sonido Amazonico is finally available on vinyl in Europe. The double album contains all original tracks first published as a CD back in 2008. The vinyl edition is comprised of 3 sides of music, and a fourth side with an etching of iconic Venezuelan saint Jose Gregorio.

Chicha, Peruvian psychedelic cumbia, was first popularized outside of Peru by a compilation released by Chicha Libre's own Olivier Conan and entitled "The Roots of Chicha." The music proved popular around the world, being championed by people such as Elijah Wood, Matt Groening, Alex Kapranos and director Almadovar.

The Brooklyn band Chicha Libre started out as a tribute to Peruvian pioneers but quickly evolved into an original project which MTV has called “one of the world's preeminent Tropical Psychedelic band”. Indeed, while they remain true to their Chicha roots, Chicha Libre's quickly took a more psychedelic turn drawing from its members' alternative background.

Made up of Mexican, Venezuelan, French and American the band used surf guitar, organ sounds and Latin percussion to play a mixture of borrowed and homegrown sounds – but its music remains a freeform reinvention, not an exercise in nostalgic duplication.

The re-release coincides with the release of a new EP “Tequila y Aguardiente”, in collaboration with Son Rompe Pera and La Sonora Mazuren.

2024 Repress.

Chicha Libre’s debut album, Sonido Amazonico is finally available on vinyl in Europe. The double album contains all original tracks first published as a CD back in 2008. The vinyl edition is comprised of 3 sides of music, and a fourth side with an etching of iconic Venezuelan saint Jose Gregorio.

Chicha, Peruvian psychedelic cumbia, was first popularized outside of Peru by a compilation released by Chicha Libre's own Olivier Conan and entitled "The Roots of Chicha." The music proved popular around the world, being championed by people such as Elijah Wood, Matt Groening, Alex Kapranos and director Almadovar.

The Brooklyn band Chicha Libre started out as a tribute to Peruvian pioneers but quickly evolved into an original project which MTV has called “one of the world's preeminent Tropical Psychedelic band”. Indeed, while they remain true to their Chicha roots, Chicha Libre's quickly took a more psychedelic turn drawing from its members' alternative background.

Made up of Mexican, Venezuelan, French and American the band used surf guitar, organ sounds and Latin percussion to play a mixture of borrowed and homegrown sounds – but its music remains a freeform reinvention, not an exercise in nostalgic duplication.

The re-release coincides with the release of a new EP “Tequila y Aguardiente”, in collaboration with Son Rompe Pera and La Sonora Mazuren.

Pshychedelic progressive breakcore/hardtek-Core tunes, rare kind of music ina style which often format tunes to make them more dancefloor... This record will please all Converter or Vromb (-core) loverz ! ENJOY !

Label boss Bruno brings us a love story on the dancefloor with the HL002.

Who hasn’t fallen in love one night? Side A is perfect for the club, while Side B is made for those endless afterhours when all we want is to lose ourselves completely with that special someone.

Brooklyn Sounds legendary second album from 1972, full of heavy Nuyorican underground salsa dura propelled by raw trombones, off-kilter piano and in-your-face percussion. A perfect blend of barrio attitude and Caribbean swing, the album proves Brooklyn has sabor y salsa! Pressed on 180 g vinyl, our reissue includes liner notes featuring never-before seen photos. “Libre – Free” is the now legendary second album by the short-lived Brooklyn Sounds and is arguably even better than their self-titled debut, displaying a more mature and practiced sound, no doubt honed by their experiences playing more gigs in support of their first record. Brooklyn Sounds were one of a handful of garage salsa bands from the independent scene that was gathering steam in the early 1970s in the New York boroughs, despite little support or exposure in the mainstream Latin music industry from more dominant labels like Fania, Mericana, Cotique and Alegre. As with many others, Brooklyn Sounds briefly fluoresced in a burst of creativity and defiance, yet flamed out shortly thereafter, dying like a flower among the ruins of burned-out apartment blocks in the barrios of its home city. Though the band only cut two LPs and a couple singles in their brief half-decade of existence, and never really broke out of the cuchifrito circuit in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, their music gradually spread far and wide, eventually becoming a sought-after global commodity by the late 1990s. In contrast to the first album “Libre – Free” is uptempo and ebullient, with fewer slow songs and more confident, creative arrangements, full of heavy Nuyorican underground salsa dura propelled by raw trombones, off-kilter piano and in-your-face percussion. Standout tracks include the uplifting, anthemic ‘Libre soy’, and ‘Ha llegado el momento’, with its minor key ‘Moliendo café’ quote at the
beginning—both of which have become dance floor anthems over the years. Another mid-tempo killer is ‘Guaguancó tropical’, a favorite in Colombia since the 1970s. A perfect blend of barrio attitude and Caribbean swing, the album proves Brooklyn has sabor y salsa!

Sweep pumpin tribe on the A side, cool and bassy. pumpin.
B side runs tribe and pumpin as well, less bassy and more funky :)

Sweep pumpin tribe on the A side, cool and bassy. pumpin.
B side runs tribe and pumpin as well, less bassy and more funky :)

Chicha Libre' first release in 10 years is an EP recorded in Mexico City and Bogotá with special guests Mexican sensation Son Rompe Pera and Colombian retro-futurist tropical band La Sonora Mazuren. The EP include covers of the classic Tequila! and Caminito de mi Tierra, first recorded by Ecuadorian cult composer Polibio Mayorga The B side consists of remixes of both those tunes in Rebajada and Rustico mode. The title of the release refers to Mexico’s Colombia’s national drinks. Both songs were remixed by Olivier Conan with Bryce Goggin.

While Chicha Libre's second album, Canibalismo was inspired by the Peruvian Chicha explosion of the 70's, it also looked back to the cultural Cannibalism dear to Os Mutantes and other Brazilian tropicalists, as well as the production values of late 1960’s rock bands.

The group still pays homage to amazonian legends Los Wembler's de Iquitos, Los Mirlos and Manzanita, but mixes it up even more by combining mellotron and vintage synths with West African guitars, treated percussion, fuzztone and some R.D Burman-inspired arrangements. Originally released in 2012, this the first european re-release on vinyl.

Oldschool Tribe !

With their 2013 debut single "Vintage Voudou," Conjunto Papa Upa cemented themselves as the torchbearers of a rare breed of Afro-Caribbean psychedelic soul, a clear delineation from the wonderful world of Venezuelan poly rhythms. That original song, named after the short lived but heavily influential Amsterdam brick and mortar record shop that band leader Alex Figueira founded, was a perfect clue into the deep exploration that Papa Upa would begin to take on their musical journey.

Like the store itself, known for it's solid connection to the musical footprints put down in relatively undiscovered places like Suriname, Curacao, Cabo Verde, Portugal and of course Figueira's native Venezuela, Papa Upa has captured a sound that is entirely unique, a new concoction of influences that at once sound strange, yet totally familiar (...) Perhaps because Venezuela shared such a rich & diverse mix of sounds from the Atlantic, Caribbean & US, a kindred spirit to their neighboring country, Colombia, an equal in terms of their industry output from the 60's & 70's, yet not nearly as publicized and compiled in recent years. Like many places in the greater Afro-Caribbean nexus, they were musically ahead of their time.

This futuristic mélange of sounds is reflective of Papa Upa itself, made up of musicians from Venezuela, Uruguay, Cuba & The Netherlands, all living, practicing & recording at Figueira's
Amsterdam studio, Barracão Sound. With such a wide range of tropical influences, in a cosmopolitan and diverse city like Amsterdam, it's no wonder that Papa Upa's first extended project would find kinship in a collaboration with New York's Names You Can Trust.

Cult, obscure 1976 proto-electronics masterpiece 'Viaje' is a purely brain frying avant garde flipout from the electroacoustic musicians Eduardo Polonio and Horacio Vaggione (probably most known for his album on Cramps). Together, they deploy synths, electric guitars, organs and bass and squash them all up together in sundry sense befouling ways. On the A side, they're tangled into an overpowering threshing machine of spitting electronic mayhem, while the B side moves the proceedings into overtly acidy territory, everything ratcheting down and expanding outward into a delirious psychedelic electronic whirlpool. Beautiful gatefold vinyl reproducing the original artwork.

Finally the Classics on Vinyl, Must have!

Must Have 3x12" with all da Hits !

As the legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago celebrates its 50th anniversary, Soul Jazz Records are releasing a new fully re-mastered edition of the group's seminal album 'Les Stances à Sophie' (1970), which features the great singer Fontella Bass on the opening track 'Theme de Yoyo', a stunning 9-min opus that continues to startle and compel new audiences today.
Drawing upon the mutual soul and funk background of Bass and her then husband Lester Bowie with all the power of the Art Ensemble of Chicago's collective musicianship on board, 'Theme de Yoyo' is powerfully funky, soulful and free at the same time, a classic fusion of black music styles.

For those who like pop music and French music it is getting hard not to know about Olivier Marguerit aka 'Ô'. He played he countless acts from the new French pop scene, from Syd Matters to Mina Tindle, Thousand and Chelvarex. He's also highly praised by his peers and iconic French singers such as Etienne Daho and his first album 'Un Torrent La Boue' has been critically acclaimed by press, radio and web journalists upon its release. With this new album, in which is imagine himself falling down only to bounce back stronger, Olivier Marguerit's once again demonstrates his talent to craft exhilarating pop melodies, confirming his status as one the keystones of the rising scene of the genre in France.

Virtuoso compositions, subtle synthetic atmospheres, voices oscillating between pure intentions and dreamlike fantasy, a confusion of feelings and desires, time and space...Garden of Love, the 3rd album by electro duo Scratch Massive makes an impression from the first moments that you hear its enigmatic beauty. Like a ghost train moving along a tightrope - between shadow and light, failure and redemption, violence and melancholy - this fourth studio album reaffirms the Parisian DJ/Producer duo style/vibe with their hybrid sounds and sensory experiences. For 15 years, Maud Geffray and Sebastien Chenut have maintained artistic and aesthetic control as they participated in the 'revolution of the dancefloors'. In the early 2000s, 'Made in France' electro became known for its hedonism and as the savior of an entire techno generation ready to fight (or at least on the dancefloor!) for a future that was increasingly frustrating and hypothetical.


On first glance, Garden of Love, appears to be an invitation to love and peace, however, nothing is ever that simple, as the album cover evokes a multitude of interpretations. The lyrics speak to the depths of the soul, covering a range of emotion from love, emotions, and fears ... Garden of Love is for our hearts and bodies to become receptive again: the disenchanted poetry of the Last Dance, the sumptuous opening track set against a backdrop of electro-pop murmured in the light and shadows as painful caress; the psychedelic scent of Sunken (a duet recorded with the complicit and poisonous voice of Léonie Pernet); and the dark-tech shores of "Fantome X" with the evanescent and hypnotic pop clarity of Feel The Void (both magnified by the vocals of Romain Thominot of the Reims pop band Grindi Manberg). Scratch Massive draws the outline of an electronic music in search of redemption - reinventing their icy grooves and confronting it with a naive elegance and a disillusioned romanticism that embodies our time.

For A Long Time, Electronic Music Has Been Understood In Terms Of Sounds Rooted In Particular Places: The Styles Of House And Techno Inextricably Wedded To Detroit, Or The Early '90s Jungle Sound Which Carries Echoes Of London. But That's Something Which Is Changing - In Latin America More Than Anywhere Else. A New Project, Led By Gilles Peterson And Rum Maker Havana Club (that Created The Havana Cultura Platform In 2007 To Promote The Island's Contemporary Culture), Shines A Light On Cuba's Fast-mutating, Rhythmically-adventurous Underground. It's A Scene Where Old Ideas Are Transplanted Into New Contexts, And Like-minded Scenes Are Brought Together In New Dialogues.

Havana Cultura: ¡su´belo, Cuba! Showcases An Extended Network Of Like-minded, Forward-thinking Musicians Driving Cuba's Music Forward. Following Repeated Trips To Connect With Venues, Collectives And Djs, Peterson And Will Lv - One Half Of Lv, Who've Released On Hyperdub And Keysound Amongst Others - Linked Up With Dj Jigu¨e, A Much-respected Producer And Dj, Whose Guampara Label Has Charted New Directions For Cuban Music. He's Been Profiled By The Fader And Vice, And The Album Features His Extended Network Of Collaborators, Connecting Afro-cuban Traditions With Contemporary Movements And Ideas.

The Album Provides A Snapshot Of A Unique Club Culture That's Fast Evolving. On The One Hand, It's Indebted To Cuba's Unique Characteristics, Where Regularly-practised Traditions Are Coloured By Intermittently-experienced Cultures From Outside. On The Other, It's Part Of A Global Shift Toward De-centred Club Music, With Homegrown, Influence-grabbing Dance Cultures Tilting Attention From Club Culture's Traditional Epicentres. It Offers A New Side To Havana That's Firmly Rooted In Its Past.

This is RRR01 :)
Record open on a 160 BPM cruiser... kind of tribe electro techno with a cool suspense melody. Then comes a Banging acidfucker... Finished comes with GIS from LPR : banging dancefloor Hardtek !

This Rough Guide features deeply cool cumbia influenced by 1960s Western rock and the hippy movement, spanning the spectrum of psychedelic cumbia from the 1960s pioneers to today's innovators. A classic selection ranging from the vintage Peruvian recordings to classic contemporary bands from Colombia, Chile, Mexico and beyond highlighting how cumbia was reborn in the 1960s to make it relevant to the younger generation.

Includes a FREE download card allowing you to download the full album

Peru has had its share of great electric guitarists bending strings to the rolling beats of cumbia - from Enrique Delgado to José Luis Carballo - who came from its own important domestic tradition of criollo guitar music as much as rock). So it's not an exaggeration to say cumbia peruana (and regional variants at times referred to as cumbia andina, cumbia selvática, and more recently chicha) has had the lion's share of Carlos Santana influences evident in the mix.

Interestingly the Peruvian psych sound so prevalent in the early 1970s had a profound effect on the originators of cumbia; hence we offer the two fine examples from 1970s Colombia that follow. We round out the mix with a gaggle of contemporary artists from Chile, Mexico, USA, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, and Germany, bringing the psychedelic tropical vibe up to date while still retaining the trippy trappings of yesteryear.

Belgium, not the first place you'd think of when it comes to Latin or Afro funk. Yet one of the greatest records to blend both styles came from the small northern European country, masterminded by Nico Gomez and his Afro Percussion Inc.

Ritual was originally released in 1971 on the Dutch label Omega International (Gomez was born in Holland before moving to Belgium in the late 40s) and is being reissued by Mr Bongo in 2013, bringing its blazing funk grooves to both new ears and those already tuned in to this masterpiece's legacy.

Across its 11 tracks Ritual delivers the kind of production, arrangement and musicianship that rightfully belong in a dictionary next to the definition of professional. Gomez' band was tight and they knew it, showing it off on their covers of Perez Prado's 'Caballo Negro' and 'Lupita' by injecting the originals with a deep funk that blends both Afro and Latin influences. On 'Samba De Una Nota So' and 'El Condor Pasa', another pair of covers, they switch to soulful downtempo with mesmerising ease. The title cut remains one of the album's highlights, a devastating dancefloor groove with horns to match that has aged beautifully and was heavily sampled by Liquid People for 'The Dragon'. 'Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!' adds touches of rock with fuzzy guitars for one of the album's headier experiences.

Concert at Prades-le-Lez marks the origins of the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra. In 1974, François Tusques and his companions (Michel Marre, Jo Maka, Adolf Winkler and Guem), in the spirit of Don Cherry or Chris McGregor, playfully dismantle all borders and all styles of creative music.

On this second volume, the Intercommunal builds unprecedented soundscapes around a song of revolt, a dance tune, or a burst of dissonance. The journey is unforgettable, no question about it. On repeat listening, it even becomes… lunar!

“The music that we make is primarily meant to be listened to live,” warned a leaflet from the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra. This is precisely why the (restored!) reissue of the two volumes of Concert at Prades-le-Lez, recorded on January 25 and 26, 1974 by François Tusques and his comrades, is such an important event.

In 1971, after recording a series of albums that would leave a lasting mark on French jazz (Free Jazz, of course, with Michel Portal, François Jeanneau, Bernard Vitet, Beb Guérin and Charles Saudrais, but also Le Nouveau Jazz with Barney Wilen, or the solo Piano Dazibao), François Tusques founded the Intercommunal—a grouping whose very name called for the fraternization of the various communities making up the country: Our music will help, we hope, to resolve the contradictions that exist between workers be longing to different communities, by breaking down various forms of national chauvinism, and more particularly the chauvinism of certain French people toward the cultures of Third World countries… Long live the friendship between the peoples of the whole world!

Among the great records made by the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra, the two volumes of Concert at Prades-le-Lez come first, before L’Inter Communal, Vol. 4, Le Musichien, and Après la marée noire (four titles already reissued by Souffle Continu). François Tusques and his companions (Michel Marre and Jo Maka on saxophones, Adolf Winkler on trombone, and Guem on percussion) performed on January 25 and 26, 1974 at the Moulin de Prades-le-Lez, a few kilometers from Montpellier. It was thus in the southern region of Occitanie that the first echoes of this musical vision of a borderless brotherhood were recorded.

“We’re not among the Colonels,” the Intercommunal reassures us right away, performing a stride piano tune carried by African winds that the audience cannot resist for long. The energy is already striking and it never lets up throughout these two recordings, from start to finish: jazz, blues, traditional music, minimalism, even funk… The musicians of the Intercommunal have heard a lot of great music and now delight in reinventing it by mixing it all together.

“We want the song form to take its place as a weapon in the struggle against capitalist exploitation and all those who oppress us morally and materially,” declared an Intercommunal leaflet, quoting Jean-Baptiste Clément, author of the lyrics to “Le Temps des cerises.” The struggle was therefore serious—but it did not prevent François Tusques and his group from waging it in a festive spirit: each piece on Concert at Prades-le- Lez sends out a call for love and fraternity. Fifty years later, the message remains as relevant as ever—and once again, it is François Tusques who makes it heard.

Certain paths necessitate and call for one singular long sequence in order to arrive at a fully formed conversation or reasoning. Nothing seems to broadcast it more clearly than the trajectory Brussels based Italo-Vietnamese artist Nguyễn Zen Mỹ embarked on during the last decade as Radio Hito.

After a string of highly cherished and sought out tape releases, Radio Hito’s new album ‘L’uso e gli attributi del cuore’, co-released by Maple Death & Meakusma, unfolds with devastating
clarity, a profound balance of depth, minimalism and emotional grounding. A ten-sequence song cycle for voice and MIDI soundfonts adapted from the 2021 book by French poet Claude
Royet-Journoud.

Written and recorded between January 2023 and August 2025, the cycle evolved through nearly 80 live performances from Galicia to Kazakhstan before arriving at its recorded form. Set to an Italian libretto adapted from Royet-Journoud’s text ‘L'usage et les attributs du cœur’ (POL, 2021), the work revisits the tradition of the 19th-century Lied — art song built on existing poetry— transposed into a radically economical contemporary setting: voice and Casio CTK workstations.

"I was interested by this incompleteness CRJ mentions - by the ‘suspension’ of meaning questioning readability and intelligibility. I ‘resisted’ to CRJ’s texts since I met him and got to know his work. … It seems to me that when playing the songs, I submit an object to be completed by the audience."

Radio Hito’s distinctive approach to setting poetry to music — spare arrangements, strophic repetition, and a voice suspended between recital, fm transmission and canzone — creates a language of its own, reaching new heights on ‘L’uso e gli attributi del cuore’, songs that are formally rigorous, emotionally restrained, and shaped by the discipline of sustained live performance, interlocking into a coherent cycle.

Rather than illustrating the poem, Radio Hito approaches it as a space of suspension. Royet-Journoud described poetry as a “profession of ignorance” where meaning remains incomplete; these songs extend that trembling state, allowing repetition, digital timbre, and restraint to hold the text open.

Often misread as minimal synth or romantic chanson, Radio Hito’s practice is rooted instead in the lineage of the art song and song cycle: open structures, close attention to language, and a live performance economy that pushes the voice at the heart of the stage. The choice of accessible keyboard workstations — light, portable, and embedded in contemporary popular culture — replaces the historical piano.

Radio Hito creates fantastical, mirage-like songs, intimate yet elusive. Her music is forlorn chanson for the digital age; bringing her haunting and beautiful vocalisations into conversation with MIDI soundfonts and humble-yet-deep casio compositions. Music that strides for simplicity, yet lands miraculously within an entire new universe, a uniqueness achieved from like-minded spirits such as Ghedalia Tazartès, Savina Yannatou & Lena Platonos, Dorothy Carter, cycles that trickle down into estuaries.

“Radio Hito's set is superb. Sitting on the altar steps with a synth, her fabulously expressive vocals colour sparse, pensive compositions.” The Wire

The borderless, tropical band “of Tropique,” whose core sound blends funk and rock-infused exotica, releases a 12-track full-length album on vinyl LP!!
This work maximizes their core lineup as a guitar-less trio, featuring a diverse array of 14 guest musicians to construct a rich sonic landscape.
This landmark release in the history of domestic exotica and tropical music features Mutsumi Kobayashi of the Minyo Crusaders, Rockin' Enocky of Jackie
& The Cedrics, to global talents like Joshua Camp of CHICHA LIBRE and MIRAMAR, the standard-bearer of US new wave Latin bands, and more!
It's a masterpiece that delivers the full thrill, excitement, and pleasure of encountering unknown music.

La Sonora Mazuren is the latest addition to the already rich indie-tropical scene out of Bogotá, Colombia. Deeply rooted in the popular sounds and rhythms of South America, the group draws from cumbia, chicha, guaracha, champeta and other styles mostly from Ecuador, Colombia and Peru.

Far from being folklorists or revivalists, La Sonora Mazuren combines synthesizers and electric guitars with accordion and percussion to create a futuristic style indebted to early pioneers such as Polibio Mayorga or Bogota’s own Eblis Alvarez, of Meridian Brothers fame, who also produced their debut album.

The result is a psychedelic feast reminiscent of the golden years of Tropicalia.

Their first album, Bailando con Extraños, got them many accolades in Europe, in France in particular where the band toured in the fall of 23 and again in the summer of 24.

Their follow up album, Magnetismo Animal, was mostly tracked in rural Normandy, during one of their European tours, and completed in Bogotá. Barbès Records (Roots of Chicha, Chicha Libre, Chico Trujillo) will be releasing it in the fall.

Franz Mesmer and his theory of animal magnetism provide the running theme for their new album. A collection of songs linked by the idea of a shared trance-inducing energy, channeled through rhythms and sound experiments. Musical inspiration for the album come from Colombian gaita, vallenato and cumbia, Peruvian huayno and chicha, Ecuadorian Sanjuanitos - a panoply of Afro-Andean traditions filtered through a futuristic vision of dance music that melds percussion-heavy polyrhythms and psychedelic sounds.

Band members are all active on the new tropical Bogotá scene. Keyboardist and accordionist Ivan Medellin and bassist Nicolas Eckardt are members of cult band Romperayo. Percussionists and singers Giovanna Mogollón and Diana

Sanmiguel are also 2/3 of popular trio LA PERLA.

Chamber music masterpiece with electronics

Albert Alan Owen was born in Wales in 1948 to parents of Welsh and Latvian heritage. His family later moved to Zimbabwe, where his father took up a teaching position. There, Owen was deeply influenced by local music and culture, while also exploring American RnB and jazz. It was during this period that he became acutely aware of the harsh inequalities under British colonial rule, which instilled in him a lifelong aversion to discrimination and racism.
In 1967, Owen returned to Europe to pursue his studies and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He went on to spend time in Paris, studying composition with the eminent Nadia Boulanger and piano under Jacques Février, a favorite pianist of Ravel’s and Poulenc’s. Owen's focus shifted almost entirely to composition, and the acquisition of a Fender Rhodes electric piano marked the beginning of a divorce from his classical Western training. This transition allowed him to merge his passion for African and African-American music with the impressionistic styles of Ravel and Debussy while exploring the innovative realm of electroacoustic composition.
These formative experiences framed Owen’s career as a composer and educator at the Royal Academy of Music and London’s Working Men’s College. He eventually returned to Wales, where he continues to reside.

In 1979, 29-year-old Albert Alan Owen released Keyboards & Strings, a light magical chamber music masterpiece.
Transcending the formal conventions of its era, Keyboard & Strings is an acoustic and electric piano piece, where the violin is met by synths and electronics.
As is often the case in Albert Alan Owen’s most intimate works, there is a sense of ethereal beauty that emerges from the music, akin to the emotional state one might experience while contemplating a Félix Vallotton landscape or the unfathomable mystery of dawn’s first light.
Quiet, profound, and immersive, Keyboard & Strings stands out as an electronic-age tone poem, a rare gem that transcends time and place.

The Nug-Net Vinyl Winner’s Circle is here. These are 4 of the top 8 tracks we received out of 400+ submissions. These have been played and tested by Gene and are certified for the dancefloor. Nug-Net will continue to shine a light on up and coming producers now and in the future.

Tiella Sound is a project born in 2019 from the mind of Italian DJ Luca Bigote that started as a radio show currently airing on French LYL Radio, and now debuting in the record label ecosystem with its first official release, pressed in a limited edition of only 200 copies.

The vision and mission of the entire project are quite clear and based on the principle of musical eclecticism. Luca Bigote, in fact, from the very beginning has never wanted to set boundaries to his creature, which, following an open-minded approach, flirts with the most disparate sounds, not exclusively club-oriented ones, focusing on the quality and research that have always distinguished his path.

For its first release, Tiella Sound has chosen Perugia-born DJ and producer Daniele Tomassini, already known for his records under the Feel Fly moniker, who presents us with the first LP from his alter ego VAISA.
This work consists of unreleased tracks composed between 2014 and 2016, during the intense creative period that saw him involved in more experimental and alternative projects such as Palenque Pacal trio and Wunder Camera duo. This material finally sees the light, a few years after the inspiring live performance during the second edition of Esperimenti (January 2017), the music festival curated by Luca himself together with his friend and colleague Matteo Lieto in Gaeta, Italy.

“VAISA is a dense, raw, evocative project. A lo-fi maelstrom of field recordings, sound collage, mysterious vocal samples from ancient cultures, obscure rhythms and layered tribal percussions, ambient clouds, dub echoes, with the martial tolling of the kick drum beating out the slow electronic ritual” (Caveargento): a deep and timeless journey, ready to drive all the lovers of the most abstract and primitive sounds into ecstasy.

Microclimat is a free party project organized in collaboration with its participants in parks, forests, ice rinks, wharfs, underground, wasteland and boats of the Paris region since 2012. The artists on this record have all performed live in our parties.

Microclimat est un projet de fête libre organisé en collaboration avec ses participants dans des parcs, forêts, patinoires, quais, souterrains, friches et bateaux de la région parisienne depuis 2012. Les artistes de ce disque se sont tous produit en live chez nous.

The compositions of Colleen, aka multi-instrumentalist CeIücile Schott, are as richly varied as they are precise. Each of Colleen"s albums are shaped by her predetermined distinct instrumentation and parameters, including works composed entirely of music boxes, pocket synthesizers, and antiquated stringed instruments. The connective essence of Schott"s music is in her ability to create pieces within this transcendent specificity that are both expansive and imbued with profound emotions. Libres antes del final is an album that reaches for the hope and desire to be truly freed from unnecessary suffering and harmful thoughts before reaching the end of one"s life cycle. Schott composed and performed Libres on the Moog Matriarch, centering the record on a pulse-driven, bubbling energy with constant momentum. She then reamped the music in one of her favorite spaces in Barcelona, Casa Montjuic, accentuating the album"s sense of movement. The reamping process adds a literal physicality to the album, as carefully chosen and placed microphones (including the famous Neumann KU100 binaural head) capture both the venue"s PA sound itself and the venue"s acoustics. Colleen"s music translates snapshots of Schott"s life into singular pieces, often instrumentally transmuting a dense web of sensations into wondrous sonic terrain. Schott"s deft manipulation of the Moog Matriarch makes each subtle adjustment feel monumental.

The compositions of Colleen, aka multi-instrumentalist CeIücile Schott, are as richly varied as they are precise. Each of Colleen"s albums are shaped by her predetermined distinct instrumentation and parameters, including works composed entirely of music boxes, pocket synthesizers, and antiquated stringed instruments. The connective essence of Schott"s music is in her ability to create pieces within this transcendent specificity that are both expansive and imbued with profound emotions. Libres antes del final is an album that reaches for the hope and desire to be truly freed from unnecessary suffering and harmful thoughts before reaching the end of one"s life cycle. Schott composed and performed Libres on the Moog Matriarch, centering the record on a pulse-driven, bubbling energy with constant momentum. She then reamped the music in one of her favorite spaces in Barcelona, Casa Montjuic, accentuating the album"s sense of movement. The reamping process adds a literal physicality to the album, as carefully chosen and placed microphones (including the famous Neumann KU100 binaural head) capture both the venue"s PA sound itself and the venue"s acoustics. Colleen"s music translates snapshots of Schott"s life into singular pieces, often instrumentally transmuting a dense web of sensations into wondrous sonic terrain. Schott"s deft manipulation of the Moog Matriarch makes each subtle adjustment feel monumental.

‘Moonlight Concessions’ goes back to basics, a return for Throwing Muses to their esoteric off-kilter best courtesy of Kristin’s pin-sharp sketches and their suitably abrasive musical arrangements. The album follows their acclaimed ‘Sun Racket’ from 2020, a heady set filled with tough and tender tales spiked with surreal imagery. Produced by Kristin Hersh at Steve Rizzo's Stable Sound Studio in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, ‘Moonlight Concessions’ is a collection of snippets from everyday life writ large - think Raymond Carver Short Cuts, overheard conversations, recounted happenings and telling one-liners, all sewed together to illustrate the times as they slowly mature, fully peppered with original Muses’ vim and vigour. ‘Drugstore Drastic’ is a kerbside soliloquy caught en route to a more alluring rendezvous. Built on a brisk acoustic strum with a guitar sub-melody underpinning proceedings, it’s an unfolding tale of social awareness from a blurred sub-conscious. ‘Summer Of Love’ began as a bet with a guy for a dollar that revolved around the idea that the seasons don’t change us. The album opener, it’s a haunting baroque overture, bowed and brooding. ‘Libretto’s strings offset the acoustic ambience, the hot and cold of longing at the very heart of it, a thematic driver filed with warmth in a safe haven lubricated by tequila. Written in the differing South Coast environs of The Gulf Of Mexico and Southern California, ‘Moonlight Concessions’ pulls from the star clusters that light both, generating optimism and hope in varying degrees. Hersh explains, “In New Orleans the stars look greenish-blue, as it’s below sea level and swamp-lit. But on Moonlight Beach, they glow icy white. All these songs were written in these two glowy places, which helped our sonic technique find itself.”

After “Comme Jean Reno”, Flora Fishbach unveils a new extract from “Val Synth”, due for release on Sept. 12. On “Des bêtises (pt. I)”, she continues her 80s vein with a Europop / FM sound inspired by Niagara. On a production by M. Declerck (Justice, Kavinsky), the singer reveals her radiant and popular side: she sings “Tout ce que je fais, c’est vraiment pour te plaire” like an acid candy.



La Machine (Sept 18) sold out in just a few days, Zénith and tour all over France starting in 2026!

"Ray Fernández is a name that cannot be forgotten when we talk about the new generation of Cuban singer-songwriters.
"The current moments the world is going through are reflected in his lyrics. What better for this artist than to be accompanied by the Zanja All Stars! Ray Fernández, accompanied by the Zanja All Stars under the direction of Julio Padrón, make a formidable combination. This allows us to see new shades by blending his lyrics with a selection of the best musicians in Cuba today.
"The social and political issues shaking the world right now are perfectly reflected in his work, which, like all songs, can be interpreted in different ways. Ray’s lyrics become a bridge that should foster understanding between different sides of thinking, where the most important bridges are formed by art.
"The largest of the Antilles, Cuba, is one of the few places in the world where such revolutionary music can emerge. His lyrics deserve to be heard at a time when the world needs people unafraid to express ideas and willing to give everything."

Mona Steinwidder (Museum of No Art) and Mitko Mitkov have spent years exchanging sounds and words across Hamburg's creative landscape - Swimming Pool Reflections is where those exchanges accumulated in Steinwidder's studio beneath the slanted roof of a former barracks. Premiered in November 2024 for Gesa Troch's exhibition "you say water is sweet", the work intertwines Mitkov’s texts (originally composed as emails to members of a swimming club, as imaginary as they are real) with Steinwidder’s clarinet and synthesizer, full of dubby resonance.

Swimming Pool Reflections isn't about swimming. It's about standing at the edge and watching - the way light fractures through water, how shadows play across tile, everything that forms and dissolves in the viewer's eye. The libretto moves through straits where bodies of water collide, small lakes with white slides, pools suspended in generic landscapes generated from uploaded photographs. Binary gods and transparent shadows. Sediment and cosmic hands weaving existence on overdimensional looms.

Across two uninterrupted sides, words float like those oil spots Mitkov describes: "swallowing light, drifting between the waves, forming a strange pattern". The music holds space for these reflections without trying to contain them. Everything stays permeable. Everything keeps moving.