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Since Interstellar Space, John Coltrane's posthumously released duo album with Rashied Ali, the combination of sax and drums has received an aura of sublime spiritual ambition. It is where tireless truth seekers come together to aim for something transcendental. Something too big for words. Of course, a lot has happened in the meantime.

The available options - philosophically, stylistically, temperamentally - are endless. Musicians are aware of those historical turning points, yet they also try to add their own twists and interpretations. Some of them succeed. One of reed player Mattias De Craene's many projects - MDC III - is a project involving drums and saxophone. A striking difference: De Craene invited two drummers (Simon Segers, Lennert Jacobs), that have been active in the worlds of jazz, pop, free improvisation and experimental music. They are the ideal foil for De Craene's vision, which seems to exclude no opposites. While the use of a recorder, electronics and percussion steers the music beyond the classic acoustic limitations, the result becomes strikingly rich with contrasts. What is abstract and introspective the first moment can switch - gradually or abruptly - to moments of fierce ecstasy the next.

The music feels free (free from limitations, free to choose its own logic), but also invites. Shifting moods and textures are combined with intricate rhythmical patterns, as the drummers lock together in dense, complex and/or ritualistic grooves. A minimal pulse, accompanied by murmuring hisses of brushes and a serenading sax is contrasted with moments of exuberance. The result is many things at once, but despite these wildly varying colors, sounds, textures, rhythms and moods, they are all linked, part of a generous, iridescent whole.

The trance-inducing trio MDCIII is back. And that equals yet another delicious load of modular drums, wildly processed saxophone sounds, improvisation & pulsating grooves.

After their first EP, MDCIII ft. Sylvie Kreusch, and their subsequent first (internationally) acclaimed album 'Dreamhatcher', the 'double drums' saxophone trio with Mattias De Craene, Simon Segers & Lennert Jacobs is all set to show what angle rock 'n roll can really come from. On their new album 'Drawn In Dusk' (release: end of September via W.E.R.F records) the trio delivers a whole new palette of sounds that are just as mystical, energetic and wild as 'Dreamhatcher'.

*MILKY CLEAR VINYL - 300 COPIES ONLY FOR WORLD!!* Technology + Teamwork’s fizzling synths, interweaving textures and punchy rhythms are beguiling on their long-awaited debut album We Used To Be Friends. However, at the heart of it all it’s the connection between the group’s two members, Anthony Silvester and Sarah Jones, the friendship the much-travelled duo have managed to maintain for nearly 15 years and a showcase of the slow-burning construction of the electronic world that they’ve surrounded themselves with. We Used To Be Friends is ultimately the tale of two storied artists in their own right, holding onto each other through personal and career twists and turns, relocations and broader movements through respective phases of their lives. Silvester and Jones first met and then collaborated as part of biting post-punk five-piece XX Teens in 2008, eventually breaking off to forge their own path together even as the latter’s demand as a drummer grew. Performing with everyone from Hot Chip, Harry Styles and Bloc Party among many others, Jones has been a constant percussive presence across the sphere of alternative UK pop music – she’s also found time for her own solo project Pillow Person and played on records by the likes of Puscifer and Kurt Vile. Silvester meanwhile has performed in art galleries across Europe including: Fridericianum in Kassel, Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne, and Vleeshal in Middelburg, as well as providing sound design and composing work for several art films. Technology + Teamwork is the constant throughout all of that though. “Technology + Teamwork's name perfectly describes how we work” Silvester explains. “Sometimes the teamwork is between each other and sometimes it’s between us and the technology.” Although going by the name Technology + Teamwork as far back as 2014, two events conspired that pulled the project into focus for the pair of them: firstly, Silvester spent a year constructing a soundproof studio shed on the border of London and Essex where he lives. Secondly, inevitably, the pandemic brought the globe-trotting Jones back home to just seven miles away from her long-time collaborator and friend. “We probably hung out more than we had for a few years” says Silvester. “Also, after all her Pillow Person releases Sarah had gotten really good with recording vocals and knowing what did and didn’t work and had a really good home studio set up. We still worked separately though, exchanging ideas via email and WhatsApp.” As with many artists through 2020 and early 2021, working separately was a new necessity that they were forced to adapt to. However, it became clear that there were creative benefits to it. “It really changed our sound and our sounds became a lot more focused as a result” Jones says. “I wanted to use the same ideas of improvisation that I might use while playing the drums for myself and apply that to melodies and lyrics.” The album bristles with hyperpop modernity. You can hear it in the manipulated vocals most prominently on Big Blue’s disco strut and on Moving Too’s heady mix of pitched up voice and burrowing sub bass. However, the pair also looked to San Francisco and the West Coast synthesis movement of the 60s, Silvester inspired by the likes of Suzanne Ciani and Don Buchla. The plaintive lo-fi and melancholy of Amsterdam incorporates Mutable Instrument’s Marbles by Émilie Gillet which – inspired by Buchla’s own synthesis work – outputs random voltages to give the track an air of unpredictability. It’s something that occurs throughout the album, the duo revelling in the happy accidents that disrupt the flow of their hook-laden pop. “The ‘Buchlian’ ideas of music having randomness and uncertainty, completely freed us up” Silvester explains. “It felt a bit like having more members in the band, machines that didn't do what you expected or intended.” Perhaps more subtly, is the influence of 17th and 18th century Baroque music, with Silvester drawing a line between it and the 90’s R’n’B he and Jones both love – exemplified perhaps best on K+B’s percussive claps and sultry grooves. The portentous juddering synthpop of the title track, meanwhile, alludes specifically to Handel’s Sarabande. It’s typical of an album that only needs a scratch of its seemingly glossy surface to unearth a myriad of contorted touchstones and reference points that’ve fermented beneath it. Thematically there’s an anxious sense to the record, with tracks often balancing above a quiet sense of unerring tension even at their most bombastic. Moving Too is the result of an existential doubt that hit Silvester while out cycling, with the outro refrain "it's not enough to die you also have to be forgotten" a take on something Samuel Beckett once said. These worries are echoed on the album’s closing track What A Year, which borrows a lot of lines from the late drag performer and fashion designer Dorian Corey including the grimly defiant "you're gonna leave your mark somewhere in this world just by getting through it”. Those clouds offer a counter point to We Used To Be Friends, but then isn’t that what great pop albums do? Technology + Teamwork undoubtedly love the craft of the hook and the song, but they always position themselves left of centre, prepared to scuff things up, pull something out of shape or manipulate something to leave it sounding warped. Much like their friendship, nothing here is particularly linear – and it’s all the better for it. Bio: Anthony Silvester & Sarah Jones first collaborated as part of biting post-punk five piece XX Teens in 2008, eventually breaking off to forge their own path together even as the latter's demand as a drummer grew. Performing with everyone from Hot Chip, Bat for Lashes, Harry Styles and Bloc Party (among many others), Jones has been a constant percussive presence across the sphere of alternative UK pop music - she's also found time for her own solo project Pillow Person and played on records by the likes of Puscifer and Kurt Vile. Silvester meanwhile has performed in art galleries across Europe including Fridericianum in Kassel, Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne, and Wleeshal in Middelburg, as well as providing sound design and composing work for several art films. Technology & Teamwork is the constant throughout all of that though. "We Used To Be Friends" proves that Technology & Teamwork undoubtedly love the craft of the hook and the song, but they always position themselves left of centre, prepared to scuff things up, pull something out of shape or manipulate something to leave it sounding warped. Much like their friendship, nothing hear is particularly linear - and it's all the better for it.

On May 12th 2023, Helsinki-based duo Ya Tosiba will release their second album, ASAP Inşallah. The album will be led by two singles, ‘Mənəm’ and ‘Pul’, due for release on March 2nd and April 13th respectively.

A collaboration between Finnish electro producer Tatu Metsätähti (also known as Mesak and Mr Velcro Fastener, and of the Scandinavian skweee scene) and Azerbaijani musician and vocalist Zuzu Zakaria, Ya Tosiba absorbs electronics, live instrumentation and folkloric poetry of Caucasus into a spirited, groovy sound.

The follow up to their 2017 debut album Love Party, Ya Tosiba’s ASAP Inşallah plays with tension of living in a world of contradictions.

Across the 10 tracks musical and lyrical collaboration takes the listener on a global trek. Sonically, features come from Norway’s Center of the Universe, France’s Poborsk, Ukraine’s Zavoloka, Sweden’s Pavan and Daniel Savio, Azerbaijan’s Rahman Memmedli, plus Patric Catani and Debmaster from Berlin. As Zuzu sings in Azerbaijani, the storytelling of ASAP Inşallah comes alive. All of the album’s lyrics are taken directly from poetry and texts: with tales of romance and war, sex and gender, nature and machine, politics and society. Though the stories are varied, and some are historical, they all tap into that tension; it’s the weight of history versus the promise of tomorrow. After collecting myriad stories during her field studies, some of which are over 100 years old, Zuzu was stunned by their contemporary relevance.

When Ya Tosiba wrote ASAP Inşallah, it started with these texts-as-lyrics; melodies and music were built out from their internal rhythms and vocalpossibilities. With a range of electronic hardware and software, Zuzu and Tatu went back-and-forth, creating taut loops and clips out of Zuzu’s vocals, drums and keyboards, with samples of their collaborators instruments and Tatu’s productions.

In chopping up recordings of the live players into their electronic beats, Ya Tosiba creates an effect of tradition and modernity “being samples from the same record, taking it apart and looping it to sound like one machine.” The patchwork nature of their process, alongside the ambitious and danceable sonics, invites the listener into Ya Tosiba’s unique perspective.

The eccentric beat ambassador Alexander Skancke showcases his sound once more on his Quirk label, diving into spring with his debut LP, “Kingdom Couch”. The Norwegian has crafted a versatile yet cohesive body of work between 2020 and 2023, parallel to when he began attending sessions with a therapist. The 10 track double 12” traverses between meticulously arranged minimal moods, shuffling jazz rhythms and ethereal experimental textures. In its few years of existence Quirk has become a safe haven for a freedom of expression as Skancke and his affiliates share their wild side on the label, but the LP marks a milestone on the imprint and for Alexander himself whose lifelong dedication to sound has built towards this moment, utilising the vast influences has absorbed over the years.

“Therapy Session I” teases you into the LP, shimmering blissfully as it grows, blossoming into a dream-like world, tuning your ears for the trip you are about to encounter. Constructed upon slick jazzy drums is “Lost In Time” loosening your senses as the pulsating bass swallows up your train of thought. “Dumbo Move” blurs the lines perfectly between the atmospheres the Berlin based producer has captured within the album. Dark, mysterious and mind bending material in “Purple Lucy” a chugging sub heavy bass driving the track forward as precise beeps and bleeps whirr throughout. On a more playful note is the B2, “Extravagance” animated drum patterns converse with the elastic groove perfectly. Closing off the first vinyl is “Therapy Session II”, another extended exploration of otherworldly ambience, drifting deeper in the world of Quirk.

“The Magnificent Tree Hut” stirs consistently throughout, crisp percussion combined with the psychedelic vocal samples which continue to flash in and out. Transitioning now into “Therapy Session III” sophisticated sounds, enticed further into the full bodied experience by the storytelling sounds of a female voice. Your eyes begin to close and you wake up in a hazy club setting, immersed in the after hours; that’s the immediate impact of “New Dawn”, pensive and hypnotic as it rumbles quietly in the realms of the underground. At just over ten minutes long Alexander Skancke brings you down for landing with the final “Therapy Sessions IV”, transcending movements crammed full of raw emotion, floating you calmly
out of the seventh outing on the label, and the thriving talents finest work to date.

The “Kingdom Couch” is an amalgamation of Skancke’s undying passion and burning desire to create outside of the norm, this can be heard throughout this masterpiece and will undoubtedly inspire its listeners to search for the bigger picture.

Artwork: Johann 3000
Mastering: Mike Grinser, Manmade Mastering

Nico Motte returns to Antinote with his second album ‘The Missing Person’ after his 2015 introductory EP ‘Rheologia’, 2016’s ‘Life Goes On If You Are Lucky’ LP, and 2017’s ‘18 Rays’ EP collaboration with Zaltan and Raphaël Top-Secret. Truly though, Motte never really left, having been the aesthetic eye for each Antinote artwork since day dot. His visual style would prove pivotal to the labels decade long success in the leftfield music underground. But here Motte shows us once again that his skills don’t solely lie in graphic art.

A bandcamp review of Motte’s first LP reads ‘French late seventies synth-laden electronics of avant garde film soundtracks with a touch of early house, minimalism and Balearic…’
‘The Missing Person’ holds true to that balearic core while adding flavours of lollipop dub, sugary synth and Martin Denny-esque Exotica. Synth-Pop from a tropical island. Perhaps The Missing Person here is the album’s protagonist themself, having sailed away from the trivialities of urban life to lay on a white sand beach somewhere warm, drinking fresh coconut water and not giving a shit. A laissez-faire attitude.

Underneath the cool sonic facade of ‘The Missing Person’ Motte effortlessly meanders through pastel sounds drawn from an extensive collection of vintage synthesisers, drum machines and effects units at Synth City. The result: a smooth textured continuous listen of an ear off to somewhere far… island life perhaps? perhaps urban life in need of reprieve.

Dishwasher_ are the latest disciples of yet another new wave of talent in the fertile Belgian groove and jazz scene. It would, however, be a shame to limit them to the constraints of any given musical style. Ever since their formation in 2019, the Ghent-based trio have been experimenting with all possible genres to create a contemporary sound they can now rightfully call their own. With their self-titled debut album, to be released in April 2023 via Sdban Ultra, they are closing off an impressive first chapter, delivering a unique and diverse yet coherent collection of groove-driven cuts.



While labeling Diswasher_ as a jazz band wouldn’t do them enough justice, it is a fact that improvisation and a certain free approach turn out to be key in the creation and performance process of the album’s tracks. Werend, Louise and Arno specifically aim to capture their live energy and synergy on the album by experimenting with structures and textures, playing with song lengths and implementing influences from various other styles — electronic music in the first place, but as well traces from (Middle-)Eastern and Balkan music, next to dance, hip-hop and even metal.



As a result, the record tends to be a pure and honest representation of Diswasher_’s musical identity and artistic quest over the past years — both as individual musicians and as a band. Saxophones drenched in effects, diverse layers of synthesizers, a bass guitar hopping from fingerpicking licks to deep and drone-like bass tones, drums can sometimes sound like drum computers, and sometimes as subtle rhythmic chords: it’s pretty clear how deep this trio have dived to search and find something totally fresh and new.



Members of the band are Arno Grootaers, Werend Van Den Bossche and Louise van den Heuvel. Their debut album is coming out on Sdban Ultra, the innovative label of Black Flower, ECHT! and Compro Oro (among others). In 2023 they will fully focus on new talent, by signing Dishwasher_, but also KAU (formerly KAU trio) and Schroothoop. Apart from that, you can expect debut albums or EPs by LũpḁGangGang, Bandler Ching, KVR trio and Adja coming out this year. Stay tuned.

Staran Wake is a collaborative project by Andrew Bunsell and Tom Relleen. After several years creating music in various groups together, followed by countless hazy late night recording sessions at each other’s studios and crisper afternoons producing the results, the British duo’s musical vision materialised with this self-titled instrumental album, taking nearly 4 years to complete.

This collection of pieces is composed with a wide range of instruments and combines multiple dark, experimental genres to form a rather lavish and unique proposition. It is imprinted with intense turgid textures, interweaving the hyper-tactile characteristics of analogue sound with field recording elements and sound effects.

Although the project’s name suggests a rather celestial concept (‘an’ means moon in one of the early protolanguages), the music actually explores the intimate feelings of transient space and otherness. It uses subtle build-ups of tension and repetitive progressions to shape an impression of distended time and space. More than a mere treat for the ears, it’s a multi-layered album that invites reflection.

All tracks composed, performed and recorded by Andrew Bunsell and Tom Relleen at Dalston Studios, Space Studios and The Bunker, London, UK

Arranged, produced and mixed by Andrew Bunsell and Tom Relleen at The Bunker, London, UK

Mixed and mastered by Marta Salogni at Studio Zona, London, UK

Artwork and design by Jonas Meier

Beatservice Records are beyond thrilled to announce the arrival of Kohib's hotly anticipated studio album 'Today's Tales Of Tomorrow'.

DJ, producer and club organiser Øivind 'Kohib' Sjøvoll has been in truly dazzling form of late, serving a series of mesmerising singles that served as a tantalising taster to his latest album – the third he's crafted for Beatservice. Actively producing immaculately crafted sounds for over two decades, sonic alchemist Kohib continues his deft aptitude for sculpting genre-defying compositions, with 'Today's Tales Of Tomorrow' playing host to some of his most compelling material to date. From pitch black introspection to rousing dancefloor abandon, the album is every bit as far-reaching as we've come to expect from this singularly talented artist.

The collection bursts into life via the club-focused thrust of 'Golden Skies', featuring the seductive vocals of enigmatic songstress, Lydia Waits, whose stirring performance shines like a beacon as it soars over Kohib's slick four/four groove. Crisp drums drive the hypnotic rhythm over a subaquatic bass line, as icy pads and pitched synth percussion combine to stunning effect, effortlessly building to Waits' rousing chorus section. Subtly shifting the mood, we arrive in the heads-down throb of 'It's Never Late In Neon Signs', where glistening arpeggios and snarling bass caress Lydia Waits' honeyed vocal, the pristine instrumentation undulating over a mesmerising, radio-friendly arrangement.

'Fake Fur' arrives with deliciously brooding intent, with (Kohib's High Heeled Giants bandmate) Helle Larsen's bewitching vocal gliding over immersive instrumentation and otherworldly textures. Evocative harmonics combine with ethereal synth leads and dramatic aural waves, the hypnotic percussion gently driving the groove deep into the half-light of a crisp autumnal haze. Next, 'Hold That Thought' mischievously switches the rhythm, as thick sub bass and searing synth motifs power over broken drums while Helle Larsen's affecting vocal rises from delicate verse into dramatic chorus bursts.

'Sandcastles' once again sees Helle Larsen grace the stage, lacing waves of cinematic pads glide and live bass as scattered percussion forms an alluring rhythm. Sparse and precise, the evolving music ebbs and flows as the tides, gorgeously caressing Larsen's emotion-rich vocal as she weaves her seductive lyrical metaphors. The album's title track 'Today's Tales Of Tomorrow' sees sinister lead synths exploding over deviant bass as the pulsating rhythm drives the cut through distant vocals, the low-slung groove proving magnetic as the nocturnal melody works its magic.

The tempo rises rapidly, with the pounding bass arpeggio of 'This Kitty Got Claws' purposefully marching through cascading synth textures, euphoric chords, and self-assured lead vocals. Expertly displaying his expansive production finesse, the rhythm once again switches as we sashay into the utterly bewitching 'Rhythm Cast A Spell On Me', with Lydia Waits' indelible vocal providing a profoundly atmospheric moment. A sublimely constructed bed of neatly woven keys, xylophone strikes and haunting bass clarinet elegantly embrace the ethereal lead vocal.

The mystical melodies of 'Not Supposed To Be' echo over a misty woodland landscape, with Lydia Waits' unfeigned vocal flowing over jagged synth textures and gently broken rhythms, before Helle Larsen returns with the sensual swansong 'Let's Stay Right Here'. Sumptuous keys shimmer over a steady tempo, with warm bass and sugary melodies supporting the intoxicating lead vocal for a gorgeously heartfelt finale.

Vividly illustrating Kohib's unthinkably vast sonic repertoire, 'Today's Tales Of Tomorrow' looks set to further enhance the Norwegian producer's already glowing reputation, with each exquisitely-formed track combining to create a collection that's at once powerfully memorable and profoundly coherent.

From a research work started in full lockdown three years ago, finally sees the light (or darkness) Echi Senza Fine, a remastered collection of sound material by Tasaday. Inspired by the controversial media story in 1971 of the discovery of a tribe in the Philippines that apparently had technology that had stood still in the Stone Age, the project officially borrows the name Tasaday in 1984 from the evolution of Nulla Perreale, in turn union of Die Form (musical part) & Orgasm Denied (performative part).

To put it in the words of Marcello Ambrosini, the Tasadays find in Die Form the controlled destruction of the form after its careful design and construction, while in Nulla Iperreale the spontaneity free from any possible superstructure. They declare themselves new primitives, not in the perspective of a nostalgic return to a pre-industrial or prehistoric external world, but in the exception of an inner experience in stark contrast to the leviathan of the single utilitarian thought that has dominated the West for centuries.

Their production-action does not allow itself to be tempted by the repetitiveness used by many industrial groups of those years, thus resulting seminal in the evolution of the scene. Their impulse to go further and not remain caged in the format of the new wave is witnessed by their particular sound vocabulary that sees, along with the use of conventional instruments, the use of DIY tools such as Chopper Vox and highly sui generis tools, like the Camolofono, cariole loaded with sheets, stones, tubes, chains and “garbage” of various shapes and sizes.

A discography dotted with primordial electronic experiments that reaches the new millennium through several vinyl records and an endless number of cassettes. From this undefined and mysterious number of tapes that is born Echi Senza Fine: 14 tracks (+ 2 digital bonuses) remastered, collected by Asymmetrical, who also edited the release insert, a collage of visual and textual material from their fanzines. A series of 300 transparent vinyl + Insert.

Nous'klaer audio presents Oceanic's debut album Choral Feeling. A rhythmically diverse electronic album full of sonic explorations and beautiful moments, all bound together by a sense of colour. The album touches on the core of what music can be for: a sense of togetherness, finding meaning in moments, a way to cope with loss and soundtracking dreams about a different future. The music on this album reflects that in the most personal way. Each track consists almost entirely of his friends' voices, recorded and transformed into the sounds you'll hear. No, you can But how Just think of anything How can it just be anything Why does it need to be more Because they're afraid of it. They're not afraid of the words Then what are they afraid of The power behind the words How can words have power If you say something, only you, maybe I can hear it. Perhaps someone sitting over near that tree can hear it too. If we say it together, maybe we can reach past that tree and reach that rock. But if us and a million others say them same thing, all at the same time. Then every tree and every rock everywhere will hear us. Trees and rocks don't have ears. No they don't but they do. Why don't they just cover their ears Because then they need to do that every time we use our voice. And use them we did and use them again we shall. They got tired of covering their ears, so they decided to cover our mouths. Won't they hear us now? We're safe here. For how long will we be safe? For now. Perhaps until later. Just try. Read the words like I've written, but do so like the birds in the trees. You are my sunshine A little louder You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy When skies are grey You'll never know dear How much I love you Please don't take my sunshine away Beautiful. Shall we go teach the others When will we have enough to free ourselves We'll always have more than they do. We only need to not forget I'll never forget Sing it again. Artwork by Bob Verhoeven. Text by Gregory Markus.