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KAU is an instrumental project based in Brussels consisting of André Breidlid (drums), Matteo Genovese (bass) & Jan Janzen (keys). Representing various European backgrounds, their coming-together is in the spirit of the city they grew up in.

Taking inspiration from jazz, they create a head-bobbing atmosphere using bassy beats and catchy melodies. By implementing acoustic instruments, the trio stays true to an organic and rich sound, granting themselves the liberty for improvisation & spontaneous happenings. Influenced by artists like BADBADNOTGOOD & Christian Scott, their music is contemporary, powerful, and audacious.

The EP "III" is the collaboration between the three core members of the band and Maxime Dereux, talented French saxophonist already guested on "II". Having built strong musical ties over the course of the last years, the idea to make more music together arose naturally without a shadow of a doubt.

The result is a 4 track EP with a high concentration of powerful riffs and sharp themes. The title song 'Mad Max' perfectly represents madness incarnated. On "Moonwalker" they go to new places with ever-changing melodies and sax lines. 4 minutes of holding on to your seat in anticipation of the next measure.

This EP also features Brussels born and bred rapper "Jay MNG" who has made a name for himself around many concert halls & festivals in Belgium. Having collaborated notably with Commander Spoon and Kuna Maze, the polylinguistic rhymes of Jay MNG left a mark on this emerging music scene. Enraged, banging in whatever language that may be, Dutch, French or English, he manages to make a massive impact on the atmosphere of the tracks and add his own flavour.

KAU is an instrumental project based in Brussels consisting of André Breidlid (drums), Matteo Genovese (bass) & Jan Janzen (keys). Representing various European backgrounds, their coming-together is in the spirit of the city they grew up in.

Taking inspiration from jazz, they create a head-bobbing atmosphere using bassy beats and catchy melodies. By implementing acoustic instruments, the trio stays true to an organic and rich sound, granting themselves the liberty for improvisation & spontaneous happenings. Influenced by artists like BADBADNOTGOOD & Christian Scott, their music is contemporary, powerful, and audacious.


"II" is the second EP released by KAU. After experimenting with beats and live instruments, this second opus marks the evolution towards a more hybrid and powerful sound defined by their willingness to create extended compositions. The trio adds a unique flavor to each track by inviting guest artists to take part in the production. The bobbing and gritting atmosphere reigning in this EP is in the continuum of their first release, keeping in touch with their identity.

Since the release of the highly acclaimed album Mamari (2021), the Muito Kaballa project has continued to develop.


The new album Little Child (2022) starts with a cracker called Inside Outside. The song addresses the hypocrisy and double standards of the European Union when it comes to refugee policy. The group works together with the renowned German/Nigerian musician Ade Bantu and the Angolan guitarist Juresse Amie Tieti Ndombasi and picks up their listeners where they were parked with Mamari. Fat grooves with clearly recognizable Afrobeat influences.


However, the musical journey leads step by step away from the usual sounds of the band. Already the second track Dansez! Dansez! shows that. The sound leads to Angola, Congo and a bit of Mali. The band stacks so many rhythms on top of each other that the word poly appears in a whole new light. It becomes clear that the nine deal intensively with the music that is the source of their inspiration. The gifted guitarist Juresse Amie Tieti Ndombasi puts the icing on the cake with his sound.


Let's continue with No = No. Here at last it becomes clear: Muito Kaballa has escaped from his drawer and is now in free flight, somewhere between jazz, fusion, afrobeat and whatever. But who cares? The sound is convincing, the feet shake to the beat and cannot be calmed down even with great effort and the message "Don't protect your daughter, educate your son" can't be said often enough.


The next song, Memories, reveals completely different sides of the band. While the sound is suddenly much more relaxed and, let's call it jazzy, the lyrics also become much more intimate and poetic. "Keep in mind, it makes you blind, starring in the sun". We don't find out what memories Niklas Mündemann, composer of the song, has in mind here but that shouldn't bother us. We just put on our sunglasses and let ourselves be carried away by the almost epic track, which with its ten minutes of playing time leaves nothing to be desired in terms of diversity. Sophisticated listeners will wonder if Niklas Mündemann listened to a bit of Kamasi Washington while composing. Maybe even a lot? Be that as it may - a special treat in the piece: the trombonist Saskia-Marleen Dahms, who makes a guest appearance on this song, rounds off the sound of the brass section again.


Last but not least, we come to the namesake of the album: the song Little Child builds on the mood of the previous track and rounds off the musical odyssey with a good portion of goosebumps. But the song doesn't just leave its mark on the surface, no, it also gets under your skin. While the melody has considerable catchy tune potential, it is above all the lyrics and the message that grab you here. Niklas Mündemann wrote the song during a phase of mental depression. Above all, psychotherapy helped him to think more positively again and to comfort his own inner child. We've all heard about that child in us. But when was the last time we hugged it? The song Little Child is the perfect accompaniment for this, because when you hear it, you immediately feel hugged, pressed and safe. Another highlight are the incredibly beautiful solos, played by Benjamin Schneider on guitar and Saskia-Marleen Dahms on trombone.


That's the end of the album and, to be perfectly honest, you don't feel left out in the rain, but you do feel left out in a (warm) shower. Time flies when you hear Muito Kaballa's new album and in the end you want more. 4 remixes for the dancefloor are delivered by French producer Kuna Maze, Polish/Angolan duo Lua Preta, French producer La Dame and Brazilian producer Badsista, tipping the remix balance into more female input.

Futuristic electronics by Niels Luinenburg (Delta Funktionen) under his new guise Immediate Proximity - in collab with Diana Napirelly. Ambient, Bass, Electro and Techno are the main identifiers for their output. Deep and emotive is the mood, but at the same time the music is playful and has a robust and confident character. This distinct direction, which was laid-out on the pair's debut LP '2334', has now led to the start of their own label: IMPROX - on which they'll release a series of EPs. On IMPROX, the duo experiments vivaciously with color, rhythm, space and tempo. Hi-tech, yet tribalistic rhythms are interlaced with elusive sci-fi themes. Big stage anthems are comfortably combined with cinematic ambient excursions. And through self engineered audio-gen modules, backed by a stark focus on sound design, the IMPROX series marks a powerful upgrade to Luinenburg's production capabilities.

A lost MPB gem from rural Finland! We Jazz presents the first ever reissue of this rare 1990 local release by Brazilian duo Rosanna & Zelia. 7" EP with inside out 3mm spine sleeve. RIYL: Gilberto Gil, Joyce, Musica Popular Brasileira, bossa nova, bossa jazz

Liner notes by Mikko Mattlar:

"Rosanna & Zélia were a Brazilian duo of singers and musicians Rosanna Guimarães Tavares and Zélia Nogueira da Fonseca. They moved from Minas Gerais, Brazil to Europe in 1988, released five albums in Germany between 1993–2004 and featured vocals on an Ian Pooley house track Coração Tambor before Rosanna died of cancer in 2006. Zélia still continues her career in Germany, touring actively and releasing new music.

The duo's journey from Brazil to Germany also included two brief visits to Finland. In the years 1989–1990, they spent time in the small town of Seinäjoki in Ostrobothnia. Rosanna & Zélia performed Brazilian music in Finnish clubs and festivals and recorded a 7" EP for local label Maumau Music. The record was distributed mostly in the Seinäjoki area, but the three songs are well-performed and authentic Brazilian MPB, so the largely unknown record now gets its first reissue for a wider audience on We Jazz Records.

But how did two Brazilian women find their way to a small Finnish town to record an EP? The main reason for this was music journalist and promoter Risto Vuorinen, who was on a holiday in Albufeira, Portugal, where a friend of his lived. The streets were almost empty that evening, but Vuorinen and his friend heard fine guitar playing and singing from a bar. There were Rosanna and Zélia performing on a small stage, and the two Finnish men happened to be the only customers. When the artists ended their performance, Vuorinen's friend, who spoke Portuguese, went to talk to them. Rosanna and Zélia told him they had recently come from Brazil and are trying to gain ground in Europe with their music.

Because Rosanna and Zélia didn't know where they would head next, and because Vuorinen liked their music, he thought of bringing the duo to his hometown, Seinäjoki. They immediately liked the idea, and in the autumn of 1989 they arrived in Finland. The national Finnish jazz festival was held in Seinäjoki, and Vuorinen thought Rosanna & Zélia's Brazilian music would fit right in. They performed at the festival and in November 1989, also made recordings in a local studio with backing musicians from Seinäjoki.

Music enthusiast Pertti Hakala had a record shop and label Maumau Music in Seinäjoki releasing music from local artists. He released a three-track EP from the sessions. with two tracks written by Rosanna & Zelia themselves and their cover version of Extra (Brazilian Reggae), written and originally performed by Gilberto Gil in 1983. A small pressing was made for the Finnish market, and Hakala also sent a box of records to Brazil, but for some reason it was sent back.

After their first visit to Finland, Rosanna & Zélia headed back to central Europe, but Vuorinen decided to organize more performances for them for the next summer. Maybe he also wanted to show them the beautiful Finnish summer, as Rosanna and Zélia had so far seen the country only during the darkest autumn. The duo came back to Finland for the summer of 1990 and performed at the Womad world music festival organized as a part of local Provinssirock. They also played in Nummirock and Puistoblues, both respected music festivals, and performed on TV in Helsinki.

Rosanna and Zélia lived in a small apartment in Seinäjoki and played two to three gigs per week all summer. Because there were only two of them, even small pubs could afford to book them, and in 1990 the economic situation in Finland was good. It was before a major economic depression hit the country. The duo travelled by bus or train, and because they were an acoustic duo, they could easily carry their instruments in public transport. Vuorinen got excellent feedback from organizers. Rosanna and Zélia were good performers, but also really nice people.

With the income from their summer gigs, Rosanna and Zélia could buy a PA mixer and other musical equipment. When the summer 1990 turned to autumn, they continued their journey from Seinäjoki to Germany where they settled down."

One of the greatest soul voices working in the US today, Billy Valentine's latest release, first plotted out in the summer of 2020, sees the artist responding to the chaos of a global pandemic and the seismic impact of George Floyd's murder via legendary works from Curtis Mayfield, Gil Scot Heron and Pharaoh Sanders. In collaboration with acclaimed producer and songwriter, Bob Thiele Jr. (son of Flying Dutchman founder, Bob Thiele), Valentine's rich, velvety vocals breathe new life into these already-powerful tracks, bringing them into the contemporary political context with renewed urgency. Released on Acid Jazz in partnership with renowned US label Flying Dutchman, Valentine's latest output marks the first new music from the label since the '70s - a momentous return for a keystone tastemaker of the American jazz world.

Two years after their previous effort, regular as clockwork, Swiss throbbing synth pop duo Veil Of Light is back with a new album and what can we say? These guys keep on getting better and better.

If you have followed the Zurich-based outfit over the past few years, you must have noticed the constant moving towards 80’s FM new wave and synthpop tones – without losing their electro/body music outline – that have marked the band’s parable, especially since their latest Landslide LP.

Sundancing is their sixth full-length and it stays the course, bringing what we’ve just said to the next step. Nine new dancy and bright tunes with emotional depth that blend lush instrumentation and robust rhythms, guided by funky and rubbery basslines. Syncopated rhythm sections match suburban cool synths in the lead single Apricot Kiss and Hypersleep, while Raindancing and Tonight summon a sinuosity long gone since the mid Eighties. The musical backdrop here serves as the fundament for emotional vocals delivering lyrics dealing with the fragility of love, joy and loneliness.

There’s some subtle addictiveness to these songs, one that will gently grab you by the collar of your coat and stick the refrains from Sundancing inside your head for good.
Veil Of Light might make it look easy to keep it neat without being minimalist, intimate without being depressing, romantic in the most true sense of the word, but we know that’s possibly the hardest thing to do.

Get ready to embark on an ethereal journey with Jannis Carbotta's long-awaited debut solo EP. Jannis' artistic focus on the tension between analog and digital spaces is evident throughout the entire release, as he employs classic band instrumentation as well as processed field recordings and electronic experimentation to craft a unique and captivating sound. "A Magic Spin" was co-produced and mixed by the drumming wizard Jan Philipp, with whom Jannis also collaborates in the experimental indie band Infant Finches and forms the duo Aeol. This fusion of ambient, electronica, alt pop, and shoegaze effortlessly creates a soundscape that is both otherworldly and intimately personal. The record features 5 original tracks plus an exclusive bonus track, an exclusive reinterpretation of Slowdives ”Rutti", which will only be available digitally via Bandcamp. Mark your calendars, as "A Magic Spin" will be released via Kame House Records in February 2023.

Finally back on tape, officially reissued. Must have! 3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by hip hop trio De La Soul and was released on March 3, 1989 It marked the first of three full- length collaborations with producer Prince Paul, which would become the critical and commercial peak of both parties. Critically, as well as commercially, the album was a success. It contains the singles, "Me Myself and I", "The Magic Number", "Buddy", and "Eye Know". The album title came from the Johnny Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising". It is listed on Rolling Stone's 200 Essential Rock Records and The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. When Village Voice held its annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1989, 3 Feet High and Rising was ranked #1. It was also listed on the Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Released amid the 1989 boom in gangsta rap, which gravitated towards hardcore, confrontational, violent lyrics, De La Soul's uniquely positive style made them an oddity beginning with the first single, "Me, Myself and I". Their positivity meant many observers labeled them a 'hippie' group, based on their declaration of the 'D.A.I.S.Y. Age' (Da. Inner. Soul. Yall). Sampling artists as diverse as Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and The Turtles, 3 Feet High and Rising is often viewed as the stylistic beginning of 1990s alternative hip hop (and especially jazz rap).

In 1975, under the oppressive air of military dictatorship in Brazil, brothers Lelo and Zé Eduardo Nazario invited bassist Zeca Assumpção to join their musical experiments in a basement under Sao Paulo’s Teodoro Sampaio Street. As teenagers, the trio had already been playing together in Hermeto Pascoal’s Grupo, alongside guitarist Toninho Horta and saxophonist Nivaldo Ornelas, and it was while working together under Hermeto’s direction that the Paulista rhythm section (as they were then known) began to realise their own potential.

With many nightclubs and venues closed in the mid-70s and government censors dictating the output of radio, TV and art galleries, many Brazilian artists fled during the years of dictatorship. But underground, Grupo Um were fusing avant garde ideals with contemporary jazz and Afro Brazilian rhythm; making phenomenally free and expressive music - in stark contrast to the sterile, conservative conditions being imposed above ground.

Just like Hermeto Pascoal’s Viajando Com O Som from the following year, Starting Point was recorded over two days at Vice-Versa Studios, by revered engineer Renato Viola. The studio was one of the best in Sao Paulo and musicians communicated with engineers through cameras and a monitor, allowing the group complete immersion in the process. They also made use of the studio’s hemispherical tiled room, which served as an acoustic reverberation chamber.

The album begins with Zé Eduardo Nazario’s thunderous drum solo on “Porão da Teodoro”, before clearing the clouds with the lone Berimbau which opens “Onze Por Oito”. Built around a hypnotic electric bass line, heady Fender Rhodes improvisations, and more rip-roaring drums, it’s a rapturous, electrifying freak-jam in 11/8.

Like some invertebrate deep-sea curiosity, the free-form “Organica” is made up of Lelo Nazario’s playfully eerie prepared piano, with Zé Eduardo’s percussion flurries darting around Assumpçao’s double bass. The equally non-conformist, percussion-only piece “Jardim Candida” features many of Zé Eduardo’s home-made instruments, including a long saw blade played with vibraphone sticks and violin bow. While working with Hermeto, Zé Eduardo famously built his own all-in-one percussion set-up known as the “Barraca de Percussão” (Percussion Tent) - the first of its kind in Brazil, which he would also use on Hermeto Pascoal’s Viajando Com O Som and throughout his career.

“Suite Orquidea Negra'' (Black Orchid Suite) was written by Lelo Nazario as the score for an imaginary movie - the story of a rare, black orchid which produced a substance meant to cure all diseases, but which had mysteriously disappeared from the laboratory… “As a screenplay it’s not very good” reflects Lelo in jest, “but the music ended up being very interesting, the way its parts are chained to one another carries a little of the mystery I imagined for the movie.”

The album closes with the triumphant “Cortejo dos Reis Negros” (Procession of Black Kings) - a groovy variation on the Maracatu rhythm, with a two-note bassline underpinning piano improvisations, exultant wordless vocals, cuicas, slide-whistles and a very special guest appearance from Zé’s dog Bolinha.

Starting Point was to mark the inception of one of Brazil’s most daring instrumental groups. Their debut now sits in the lofty echelon of otherworldly 70s Brazilian music, alongside the likes of Marcos Resende & Index’s self-titled debut, Cesar Mariano & Cia’s Sao Paulo Brasil, Azymuth’s debut and indeed Hermeto Pascoal’s Viajando Com O Som. But just like all of those titles, which were either shelved or largely ignored at the time, Grupo Um - so radically ahead of their time - struggled to find a label to release their debut album. So Lelo kept the tapes safe in his archives, which is where they sat for almost half a century. Finally, almost fifty years later, this mesmerising piece of history is here, and it was only the beginning...

Grupo Um’s Starting Point will be released by Far Out Recordings, on vinyl LP, with an insert featuring unseen photos and liner notes by the Nazario brothers, as well as a CD on 17th February 2023.